Mercedes F1 tyre pressure trick revealed - http://www.thisisf1.com

[Decoded]

Whats your thought on this?:

A trick employed by Mercedes to counter Pirelli’s high mandatory tyre pressures has emerged.

Earlier, it was suspected that some top teams had found a clever way to reduce the high minimum tyre pressures once the car was up and running, thereby boosting laptimes.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport has now published photos of a sophisticated device attached to the four corners of its silver cars prior to the tyres being fitted on the Baku grid.

Reportedly, the device keeps ultra-high heats in the axle and brakes, so that when the Pirelli tyre is fitted, it artificially satisfies the minimum tyre pressure but then rapidly starts to lose that pressure once the car is on track.

Mercedes F1 tyre pressure trick in Pictures
Mercedes F1 tyre pressure trick in Pictures – Images credit AMuS

Mercedes F1 tyre pressure tricks revealed
One might think that is here blown cooling air to the brakes. But the red button has been locked with adhesive on stage. 3 The fan blows the hot air at full strength. Images credit AMuS

The counterpart for the rear wheel. Images credit AMuS
The counterpart for the rear wheel. Images credit AMuS


Force India technical director Andy Green was quoted as saying a ban of such practices “would be a good thing. It just costs a lot of money.”


http://www.thisisf1.com/2016/06/28/m...rick-revealed/

[Fireblade]

Time for me to say "I told you so!"

http://www.thescuderia.net/forums/sh...779#post916779

"This generation of F1 cars already have some very sophisticated systems built into the brakes and wheel hubs to handle the harvesting of energy under breaking. It would not be difficult to include a system which reverses that process and creates heat to warm the tyres to optimal temperature. I suspect that Mercedes may be doing something like this already - it's uncanny the way they almost always are able to run within the very narrow operating window of the Pirellis."

[Aberracus]

This is a shame and so obviuos, this is just cheating, they run with a car thats not legal knowingly, they should lose their point in the championship

[mizf1]

How about if they have a rule that states the tyres have to be off the car between 12:50-12:55 (for 1pm race starts) so they can't be heated, the pressures are checked BEFORE they are bolted onto the car with 5 mins before the start of the race. I can't see anyone getting around that one unless they are bribing the Pirelli guy

[Brembo]

Unfortunately they Merc should get an award for getting away with it. If Briatore was with Ferrari he would have had a spy catch this 1st time they did it, and Ferrari would have did it also !

[FerrariF60]

Unfortunately they Merc should get an award for getting away with it. If Briatore was with Ferrari he would have had a spy catch this 1st time they did it, and Ferrari would have did it also !

if's, and's or but's....the truth is they outsmarted everyone and they are running away with the championship....good for them for having smart and inovative people within their establishment.....on the other hand, Ferrari as always plays second fiddle to them....no innovative stuff, no balls no guts.....NOTHING

[Brembo]

if's, and's or but's....the ....on the other hand, Ferrari as always plays second fiddle to them....no innovative stuff, no balls no guts.....NOTHING

And why I'll never know ! In F1, Honesty is the worst policy.

[Decoded]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mc...e-move-735663/

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Although having tyres running at a lower pressure is not illegal – as the pressures are above the minimum level when measurements are taken – pursuing such technology to deliver it has prompted cost fears from some teams.

In light of this, McLaren wrote to the FIA recently asking for clarification about the legality of certain design components that could help manipulate tyre pressure.

It is understood that it wanted to know clearly what was and was not allowed before it committed funds to developing them for 2017.

If its ideas were approved by the FIA, it would have opened the door to the team developing its own technology for next year.

However, it is understood that in the response from the FIA – which was circulated to all the other teams – the ideas were rejected.

This included the FIA making it clear that any double wheel rim chamber would be in breach of Article 12.8.3 of F1 Technical Regulations.

The rules states: "A complete wheel must contain a single fixed internal gas volume. No valves, bleeds or permeable membranes are permitted other than to inflate or deflate the tyre whilst the car is stationary."

The impact of the FIA ruling is that if any team had been running a double wheel rim solution this year then it would be clear that it is now against the regulations.

[Nova]

So mercs is legal...right? I mean, if it were a tire temp system
the fia would be all over it?...Right?

[IulianFerrari]

So mercs is legal...right? I mean, if it were a tire temp system
the fia would be all over it?...Right?

In theory yes. But you never know...

[stefa]

if's, and's or but's....the truth is they outsmarted everyone and they are running away with the championship....good for them for having smart and inovative people within their establishment.....on the other hand, Ferrari as always plays second fiddle to them....no innovative stuff, no balls no guts.....NOTHING

Sad but true....

[Kyss4k]

So mercs is legal...right? I mean, if it were a tire temp system
the fia would be all over it?...Right?

No. They said systems like this would be with the current rules legal. The rules does not say you have to run with the pressure stated by Pirelli... it just has to be under the threshold WHEN mesured. That's because they have no way yet to mesure it real time during race. So Mercedes is not doing anything wrong sadly... :/

[zike]

No. They said systems like this would be with the current rules legal. The rules does not say you have to run with the pressure stated by Pirelli... it just has to be under the threshold WHEN mesured. That's because they have no way yet to mesure it real time during race. So Mercedes is not doing anything wrong sadly... :/

You can measure the tire pressure before they put it on the car, simple as that, that way they can not cheat

[fmatiasii]

They got away with it but they know it's cheating, so where's the satisfaction in that? Victory is much sweeter if it was hard fought on a fair stance.

[zike]

the real question is will the FIA let them continue

[Kyss4k]

They got away with it but they know it's cheating, so where's the satisfaction in that? Victory is much sweeter if it was hard fought on a fair stance.

moneysss

[From Treviso]

You can measure the tire pressure before they put it on the car, simple as that, that way they can not cheat

Maybe the rims and axles should be at ambient temperature when the pressures are checked - this is getting a little annoying now!

[romitfernandes]

The funny part is our man Jock Clear is not even willing to accept the tyre pressure trick. Is he really an ace engineer par excellence out there to revive Ferrari or a trojan horse ?
https://twitter.com/tgruener/status/738362312684412928

[Ferrari Man]

Does this not call into question the actual point of the trye pressure test when teams can work around it and have lower pressures while racing ??

[zike]

The funny part is our man Jock Clear is not even willing to accept the tyre pressure trick. Is he really an ace engineer par excellence out there to revive Ferrari or a trojan horse ?
https://twitter.com/tgruener/status/738362312684412928

and why did we bring him in the first place?

[Kyss4k]

I have a feeling he is an insider from Mercedes, trying to ***** us over...

[zike]

I have a feeling he is a insider from Mercedes, trying to ***** us over...

me too

[tifosi1993]

and why did we bring him in the first place?

The same can be said about Raikkonen.

[mizf1]

What myself and few others have mentioned already. FIA changing how they measure tyre pressures as it will be done before the wheels are bolted to the cars

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/vi...trick_systems/

[Decoded]

What myself and few others have mentioned already. FIA changing how they measure tyre pressures as it will be done before the wheels are bolted to the cars

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/vi...trick_systems/

Formula 1's system for checking tyre pressures has been changed ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, in a bid to prevent teams using tricks to get around current limits.

Following months of speculation that some outfits had found ways to manipulate pressures once tyres were fitted to the cars, the FIA has acted.

In a note sent to teams on Friday morning, F1 race director Charlie Whiting confirmed that from now on tyre pressures would be checked before wheels were fitted to cars.

This is aimed at preventing teams from potentially raising the pressures through heat when the tyres are first fitted to the car - and then cooling them down to bring the pressures down to a level that will deliver better performance.

It is understood that one of the motives for imposing such a new system was also that if the tyre pressure situation becomes more stable, then Pirelli may agree to lower the limits they have been putting in place.

Pirelli has hinted several times that the current limits are being set so high because they have to factor in that some outfits are bringing the levels down.
Investigation over

Since the Monaco Grand Prix, the FIA has been closely monitoring the tyre pressures of all teams to try to get a better understanding of what they are up to.

The results of that investigation are understood to have prompted the governing body to introduce the new procedures.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery told Motorsport.com recently that his company was eager for action to be taken to avoid the possibility to teams being able to manipulate the pressures after checks had taken place.

"We have found a few areas that we feel are a little bit grey from our point of view," he said.

"This is a key area for the tyre maker. You need to understand what pressures are being operated in real circumstances, and we need to address it this year.

"This will also stop people investing a lot of money they don't have in trying to find ways to optimise the situation. That is not what we want people spending money on."
No releasing air

In the note, a copy of which has been seen by Motorsport.com, Whiting said that both new and used tyres would be checked before being fitted to the cars in practice and qualifying.

Ahead of the race, tyres would be also be checked on the grid before they were fitted to the cars.

Teams will have to ensure that the pressures are above the minimum limits laid down by Pirelli – but will be able to make adjustments if their tyres are well above the mandatory levels.

However, Whiting has made it clear that teams will not be allowed to release air from the tyres after the checks have taken place.

“Once set no air may be released from the tyres but air may be added," he said. "In addition, if a set of tyres is used more than once in any session there will be no requirement to reset the pressures to the minimum starting pressure."

[nani_s23]

i think this should be interesting race, in terms of tyre pressure levels. As FI, RB, Mercs are the teams that are utilizing such kind of thing, need to watch them carefully of what impact it would make after such checking procedure.

[impactX]

This is the system that Mercedes used:

https://www.leister.com/en-hn/proces...E6E1AEB87C-img



By my calculations, if the minimum starting pressure set by Pirelli is 23psi, Mercedes could be running only 18psi during the race (which is probably the ideal pressure for their car setup).

Setting "3" in the following picture denotes that the temperature is set to 215 degrees Celsius:
http://www.thisisf1.com/mercedes-f1-...icks-revealed/
https://static.leister.com/-/media/d...ystem_div1.pdf

while race temperature of the tyre should be "only" around 110 degrees Celsius.

[nani_s23]

This is the system that Mercedes used:

https://www.leister.com/en-hn/proces...E6E1AEB87C-img



By my calculations, if the minimum starting pressure set by Pirelli is 23psi, Mercedes could be running only 18psi during the race (which is probably the ideal pressure for their car setup).

Setting "3" in the following picture denotes that the temperature is set to 215 degrees Celsius:
http://www.thisisf1.com/mercedes-f1-...icks-revealed/
https://static.leister.com/-/media/d...ystem_div1.pdf

while race temperature of the tyre should be "only" around 110 degrees Celsius.

thanks for the info mate..!!

[aroutis]

The same can be said about Raikkonen.

Not really.

[aroutis]

This situation begs for several questions :
a. What are the teams going to do about this? Are they going to contest the situation, or are they going to copy the system?
b. Is the FIA going to interfere in the principal of security?
c. If the FIA interferes , in grounds of security (which I feel they will), are they going to punish Mercedes? I seriously doubt it.

To be continued.