[Fot] F1 Championship - Not over yet?!

[Bill Babcock]

Actually, you're wrong, and that's part of the steward's decision.
The FIA samples the fuel during pits stops. They don't take it from
the car, they take it from the fueling rig.

Article 6.5.5 of the F1 technical rules state that, No fuel on board
the car may be more than 10 degrees centigrade below ambient
temperature. The FIA have now confirmed that the trios fuel
temperatures were outside the permitted temperatures, saying the fuel
was more than 10 degrees below the ambient temperature.

In a statement, it has been revealed that during his first pit-stop,
Heidfelds fuel temperature was 13 degrees lower than the ambient
temperature, and during his second stop, his fuel was 12 degrees lower.

Robert Kubicas pit-stops have revealed that his temperatures were 14
degrees, 13 degrees and 13 degrees out respectively. Nico Rosbergs
fuel temperatures were 13 and 12 degrees out.

It has also been revealed that the second BMW of Kazuki Nakajima also
had fuel temperature irregularities  his fuel was 12 degrees out on
the first stop, however his fuel temperatures were within regulations
on his second stop. The air temperature during the race averaged 37
degrees, while track temperatures topped a record 64 degrees.

The stewards stated in their finding that they have no precise
reading of the fuel on board the car, and that since the only
temperatures they have available are from the fueling rigs, that the
measurements don't fit the requirements of the regulation which
states the "fuel on board can be no more than ten degrees cooler than
ambient." Fuel rig temperature is not a completely accurate
indication of the temperature on board, which is the how the
regulation reads.

This seems to be a pretty clear decision even if it rests on a
technical point that the stewards are not really qualified to make.
But they unfortunately clouded the issue by also saying that the
definition of ambient was only assumed to be the temperature
indicated on the F1 management timing monitors but there was a large
discrepancy between the FOM ambient and the meteorologists that the
teams contract with, and the regulation does not clearly state that
the FOM number is definitive.

The stewards conclusion was that there is sufficient doubt as to both
the temperature of the fuel actually on board and as to the true
ambient temperature to render it inappropriate to impose a penalty


On Oct 21, 2007, at 10:33 PM, David W. Riddle wrote:

> Bill, it was the fuel in the cars and not in the fueling rig.
>
> http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=41157
>
> "...After Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix the stewards analysed fuel
> samples taken from the Williams and BMW cars during their pit stops,
> which appeared to show temperatures outside the permitted range..."
>
> At 08:10 PM 10/21/2007, you wrote:
>> It wasn't the fuel in the car, it was the fuel being delivered by the
>> fueling rig, They are allowed to have cooling, in fact all teams do,
>> but they have to stay within a specific range of ambient. The
>> brouhaha is that they BMW and Williams teams were a few degrees
>> cooler than they were supposed to be. The mitigating circumstance is
>> that the officially measured ambient temperature and the unofficially
>> measured ambient were further apart than at any event this year.  The
>> stewards initially decided not to apply a penalty, but their
>> reasoning had to do with technical issues that they are not qualified
>> to determine. So the potential for a change in the championship still
>> exists--McLaren has filed a protest and it will need to be
>> considered.
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