Formula 1

[Screwdriver]

I am still mystified as to how Bottas is at fault. The car is not perfectly aligned in its box but I can't believe it's not within acceptable limits. Appreciate the pit crew train endlessly to try and hit 2 seconds but unless there was a mechanical irregularity or fault, one assumes the mechanic did not set the wheelgun correctly and machined off the drive splines instead of spinning off the nut.

The car was presented within a reasonable window, there was no preexisting fault or failure in the wheel nut or wheelgun mechanism, it has to be the fault of the mechanic. Blaming Bottas has to be some sort of political decision, perhaps to goad him into leaving.

 

[PhillipM]

Ahh, so the guys that are fixing the issue are too blame as well! Interesting theory!

Nope, not at all.

Even though three wheel gun guys were able to move the huge distance of 150mm and swap wheels perfectly, I've already said it should not be about blaming anyone. However, you seem to be fixated on playing the blame game, especially directed at Bottas ..................Lewis fan boy perhaps?

Rear gun guys didn't move anywhere near as much, car wasn't far off it's marks there because it was twisted in the 'box. It was the front ones, it's also much easier to move your arms forwards than backwards when your body is in the way and your hands are holding the gun.

I wasn't the one that brung Lewis into an unrelated incident, you did, mentioning it he wouldn't get the blame. Reality is he has, did, and held his hands up to it too. So why shouldn't Bottas shoulder some of it as well?
That kind of distance to stop laterally though is well outside what they usually expect, so yes, he does take some of the blame, usually for hitting your marks you're a inch laterally and a couple longitudinally. Not 6 inches laterally.

And yes, the engineers that designed the nut certainly are to blame for some of the issue, pitstops are a game of 'what ifs' - training is often done with a problem, with a faulty gun, with the car a few inches off the marks, with a deliberately stuck nut, etc, to train the team to cope with them. And the design of the nut should take things like that into account too.

 

[Parm]

In a previous life I’ve done a lot of work with the Mercedes team both at Brackley and Brixworth

ive watched the pit stop training practice. They do it literally hundreds of times with every possible permutation you can think of

the bolt guns are something else. Off the shelf items that are then fettled to perfection and stripped and rebuilt after each race weekend.

 

[badabec]

I offered my Jack Russel a seat but he prefers the dash

Is that a bird strike on the screen?

 

[redlig]

I liked the idea muted a few years ago.
If you won that year, you could not take place the following year.
So on the third year you again you had to prove you had the skill to win.
Not just luck, team orders and a better set up car.

I always liked the idea the americans had years ago called , I think a Selling plate. If you won you were made to sell your machine for a fixed price, This was supposed to limit the money spent on improvements etc, Triumph lost a winning triple at Daytona one year and had to do a deal to recover a works bike . Thinking about it now I just realised it obviously didn't work . ( slow learner!!)

 

[redlig]

It is odd how Mercedes who constantly state “we win as a team, and we loose as a team“ right until they loose and then the fingers start pointing.

they say that there is no "I" in team but it looks like there is a "him" .

 

[PhillipM]

The wheels are fitted by hand and then finished with a torque wrench on the grid, not gunned on.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

2 seconds to change four wheels? Pah....

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1311942902337314

 

[PhillipM]

They don't do it with the airgun if they can help it because the nut is only lifed for a few cycles and they don't want the impact loading or the heat in the thread (they're plated and lubed against galling)

If the windy gun was so accurate and they used that instead why would the nut be overtightened, you can turn that one around

It wasn't overtightened, it was a combo of poor parking, mistake from the gunman and some tweaks needed to the engineering side to accomodate outliers. You know it wasn't over tightened and galled on because the guys at the factory wound it off by hand once they dremelled the castelations out.

 

[Bullet2012]

https://www.dinopaoli.com/wp-content/uploads/MOTORSPORT_2020_completo-WEB2.pdf

 

[daleyd]

Mate works for Mclaren in the pit crew .....

What an amazing coincidence

 

[Melvyn Best]

That’ll teach them to go to Kwikfit!

 

[dobbslc]

they say that there is no "I" in team but it looks like there is a "him" .

DUN
DUN
DUNNN!

 

[8ob]

It wasn't overtightened, it was a combo of poor parking, mistake from the gunman and some tweaks needed to the engineering side to accomodate outliers. You know it wasn't over tightened and galled on because the guys at the factory wound it off by hand once they dremelled the castelations out.

Its very doubtful that there was an issue with the nut, hub, wheel or nut gun. A friend that works there when questioned on a failure of any description would invariably say it was down to "fingers". The nuts are titanium and weigh less than a Rizla. I have a reject nut here somewhere, if I can find it I will take a snap of it.

Bob

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

What an amazing coincidence

Are you implying something there?


Does it help, a few years ago I did the fire extinguishers at Honda UK.
They had a classified work area and there they did CAD for new cars, race cars etc.
I didn't see much, but what I did see was interesting.

 

[PhillipM]

Its very doubtful that there was an issue with the nut, hub, wheel or nut gun. A friend that works there when questioned on a failure of any description would invariably say it was down to "fingers". The nuts are titanium and weigh less than a Rizla. I have a reject nut here somewhere, if I can find it I will take a snap of it.

Bob

Bob, there's literally a video of them taking it off by doing exactly that. Two, in fact.
Also the nuts are aluminium and have been for a long time. The stub axle is titanium.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

You can go around the Mclaren factory if you book a visit, when we went all the classified areas were locked and it is a guided tour so you can't go anywhere sensititive.

At Honda I could go every where.
I wasn't allowed to see some computers or items.
But I saw enough.

 

[Bullet2012]

Judging by today’s qually , seems a few of the drivers have solved the stuck wheel thing, just knock them off using the barriers

 

[Morrisman]

I’m pretty sure I have seen the wheels one one car or other released with a pull pin, no nut or windy gun required.

 

[Bullet2012]

^^ possibly, but not current F1, as far as I am aware. ^^