As I miss the days of talking about Suzuker’
Specials when Honda (and others) made special Qualifying lumps’ for the
Japanese Grand Prix…
Although I totally expected MaxiMillions’, nee
Max Verstappen to dominate the Suzuka weekend and win from Pole position again,
Yawn! Since I highly doubted His Brakes would catch on Fire this weekend…
As I really Don’t find myself to interested in
Formula 1 these days. Yet nonetheless, I decided to tune-in to Friday’s and Saturday’s
action from one of my favourite racetracks, ergo Suzuka. Especially since we’re
in the middle of a month’s Hibernation by Indy Cars! And the last time I tried
“watching” an F1 race was over a month ago at Jeddah.
As I’m mostly intrigued by two key issues in F1
right now. The plight of Williams having no spare chassis. And DannyRic’, aka
Daniel Ricciardo’s current performance “slump” in particular. Along with
wondering if any of the other top teams, i.e.;Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren can
ever truly mount a challenge to Red bull and Verstappen? With ‘Ol Frederico
Suave, nee Fernando Alonso making All the right noises about increased
Competizione…
As I’ve heard Williams team principal James
Vowles “TeamSpeak” over why Williams currently doesn’t have a spare chassis,
and has been without one since season’s start. For which I say Poppycocl! Or is
Williams really that far behind on modernizing it’s team’s approach to thee pinnacle
‘O motorsports?
This got me thinking about the days when Der
Terminator’, nee Michael Schumacher routinely, and always had la Scuderia’s
(Ferrari) third car and spare F1 chassis at His disposal for running on
Friday’s. Although my Foggy memory thinks He also would run it during the Sunday morning’s race warm-up?
This sent me down another Wabbit’ Hole, since I
loosely recalled the term T-Cars in my memory, but couldn’t rmember if that was
Formula 1 or IndyCar?
As I was able to discern that the running of
third cars on Friday’s in formula 1 was Banned in 2007, due to the FIA
implementing cost-cutting measure to save F1 Teams money.
Whilst thanks to Geo. Phillips of Oilpressure
Fame. George helped me upon my hazy memory of Indy Cars entering backup chassis
with the designation of X during the CART days, i.e.; #6X for Mario Andretti,
etc. With George explaining that at Mother Speedway’ which was then sanctioned
under USAC Rules. Backup chassis for the Indianapolis 500 were instead designated
as T-Cars, i.e.; #6T for Mario Andretti, etc.
Although today IndyCar T-Cars are basically
“Trailer Queens”. Being stored in team Haulers sans engine. And typically only
“wheeled” out to replace said primary IndyCar chassis due to significant crash
damage. Being a function of today’s IndyCar engine leases, and Arse-sumedly
also to reduce costs…
According to Vowles, Williams has totally
modernized and changed it’s chassis building process, which took longer than
expected to implement. Along with the now de riggour Supply chain excuse…
Since All F1 Teams including Williams, have
needed to build spare F1 racecars for each yearly season’s beginning. Which
implies to Mwah that Team Willy’ is building their carbon fibremonocoque
chassis entirely differently tooling-wise. Which Vowles may have already eluded
to?
But it just seemed really awkward that Williams
had to withdraw Logan Sargeant for the Australian Grand Prix weekend due to my
Numero Uno F1 Driver Alexander Albon destroying His sole chassis!
Which was the totally pragmatic decision due to
Albon having outscored Sargeant 27-1 points-wise during their tenure at
Williams, for which it sounds like Sargeant was a dutiful “team” Player.
While no need to pile on Sargeant for making an
unforced error during Friday’s “(Free Practice) FP1 session – where He crashed
Heavily into a tyre barrier. For which thankfully the chassis monocoque
survived, with Vowles saying the rest of the Bits were a write-off!
Since although Sargeant missed FP2 due to the
team rebuilding His lone racecar, the inclement weather meant that He and the
team really missed very little. While I’m happy to report that Sargeant
qualified 19th, ahead of Sauber’s Guanyu Zhou. Since the Switzerland based team
is enduring it’s own struggles currently.
As Jokes were made about how Sauber had completed a
Pitstop with zero issues during Saturday’s FP3 session. Since the team has been
suffering from slow, poor Pitstops during races…
I also find it fascinating how Williams has
divulged that Albon’s repaired chassis that Sargeant was using at Suzuka, and
presumably a Fortnight at Shanghai, was only 100 grams heavier than when
originally built. As leave it to Formula 1 for such detail!
Whilst I’ll also Arse-sume that this battered,
bruised, as what’s that ‘Ol Timex
saying? Takes a licking but Keeps on Ticking Me Thinks? Will become Williams
spare chassis at Miami, when the team finally has a third racecar’s monocoque built.
And I’d also guess that the newest chassis would go to Albon, with Sargeant
getting the second best chassis, Eh?
Yet to be fair to Williams and Vowles. It was
also divulged over the Japanese Grand Prix weekend that Alpine had no spare
chassis on-hand, but would have one ready for Shanghai…
Whilst Albon’s unfortunate accident on lap-1 at
Suzuka with the forlorned Ricciardo didn’t do the team any favours with it’s
hard impact, bringing out the race’s only Red flag! Before Sargeant added
company to the team’s misery when making another mistake during the race and
also crashing out, Urgh!
Although the week’s break between Suzuka and
Shanghai should allow the team to run both drivers, even if the team’s running
low on spares, i.e.; front and rear wings and other “Bits”…
Epilogue
In the April 10th Racer Mailbag, Chris Medland
covered the Williams dilemma brilliantly. Noting how the carbon fibre monocoque
and suspension mounting points need to be “released” by October of the previous
year. Since it takes up to three months to pass the mandatory FIA Crash
testing.
With Vowles noting it takes approx. eight-ten
weeks to build a full carbon fibre monocoque. With F1 Teams trying to focus
upon getting the first three chassis produced with a fourth in the pipeline,
without needing to divert resources to producing spare parts, i.e.; front and
rear wings, floors, etc.
Alpine has also been without a spare chassis the first three races after continuously failing to pass the crash test. But due to not having wrecked their cars during races, have been able to complete it’s third car, i.e.; spare chassis sooner than Williams has…
