How do F1 cars set a lap record

[rickos]

Take $1 Billon per team with 500+ engineers and wannabes, and a long list of arrogant drivers.......whereas CART can do it on 1/20 the budget and 1/10000000000 the arrogance.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports...gtraining.html

MONTEREY – Sebastien Bourdais showed again Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca that he has a flair for the dramatic.
The three-time defending Champ Car World Series champion turned the fastest lap of the week just moments before former teammate Bruno Junqueira ran off the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course, ending the two-day Spring Training test session.



Advertisement Bourdais blistered the circuit with a lap of 1 minute, 5.880 seconds (122.295 mph), unofficially shattering the track record of 1:06.309 (121.504) set last year in an exhibition run by Ricardo Zonta in a Toyota Formula One car.
Official records can only be set in race conditions, either in qualifying or during a race, but Bourdais' run, which goes into the record book with an asterisk, was still impressive.

“It's great that we were able to get under the track time set by the 2006 F1 car,” said Bourdais, who acknowledged using the Push to Pass button – a feature giving the car an extra boost of horsepower for a limited amount of time – on the fast lap.

“But it's only good for a couple of tenths (of a second) here, so we would have broke it without using it.”

After former series champion Paul Tracy, Bourdais and rookie Neel Jani, all came within about four-tenths of a second of Zonta's unofficial mark Friday, Champ Car posted a $5,000 “bounty” payable to the first driver to eclipse the mark Saturday.

Seven drivers, including Bourdais, turned times of under 1:07 in the morning session Saturday, but only Bourdais approached Zonta's time in the afternoon. The Frenchman flashed across the finish line on the record-setting lap with just under 10 minutes remaining in testing. There wasn't enough time to collect Junqueira and clean the track, so the test session was ended.

It was a strong test for Champ Car's new DP01 chassis, which will be used by all the teams in 2007 and beyond. In all, 11 drivers, including Junqueira, driving for the first time for Dale Coyne Racing, were faster than the official track record of 1:07.722 (118.969), set in 2000 by Helio Castroneves.

“The track has a lot of grip; it's really fun to drive here,” said Bourdais, who drives for Newman Haas Lanigan Racing. “Unfortunately, there is so much grip that I really doubt we can use any of the information we gained at any of the tracks this season. The information might be completely irrelevant.”

The 2007 season begins April 8 on a new downtown street circuit in Las Vegas and the Monterey track is not part of the schedule.

“We were able to work through some issues with the car,” Bourdais added. “Cosworth is really trying to get some issues resolved (with the engines) and have made some progress, and Hewland has improved the gearbox.

“My team has fixed what they could, but now it is in the hands of the suppliers. There aren't any tests left so I really hope they can fix the problems, but we won't know until we get to Las Vegas. You hardly ever win a championship with a good start to the season, but you can lose it if you have a bad start.”

The drivers again practiced standing starts for an hour after Champ Car's last of three open tests during the offseason. Champ Car plans to use standing starts at some races this season.

mokin:

[tinchote]

And the point is?

[rickos]

And the point is?

I don't have to travel the globe and pay through the nose to watch the best of open wheel racing. It's right here in my backyard.

mokin:

[Dave B]

Is there a point to this other than to start a futile "my series is better than yours" debate/arguement?

[hoosierfan]

I think the point is that it is pretty impressive for a car that has a budget of
$500,000 to be faster than a car with a budget of $20,000,000. Thats all. Congrats to Seabass, NHL Racing, and Panoz.

[tinchote]

I don't have to travel the globe and pay through the nose to watch the best of open wheel racing. It's right here in my backyard.

mokin:

I don't travel anyhow. I watch F1 comfortably seated in my couch, checking the lap times with my laptop.

[Dave B]

I think the point is that it is pretty impressive for a car that has a budget of
$500,000 to be faster than a car with a budget of $20,000,000. Thats all.

Not really, they're designed to completely different regulations. You're comparing apples with oranges.

[Robinho]

plus toyota are hardly any good are they. and it was a demo run, i think i read something from Zonta at the time saying that if they had properly sorted he setup and attacked the course fully they could have gone much quicker, but as it was only a demo run they weren't chasing an ultimate lap time

[tinchote]

plus toyota are hardly any good are they. and it was a demo run, i think i read something from Zonta at the time saying that if they had properly sorted he setup and attacked the course fully they could have gone much quicker, but as it was only a demo run they weren't chasing an ultimate lap time

And of course you have such details as a 2.4 engine against a turbocharged 2.65 engine, different tyres, etc., etc., etc.

Good flame bait, though

[rlenis]

you begin to wonder where are all those millions for ultra supersonic aerodynamic technology ending up.
lets compare this year lap times in montreal.