Interesting fact during the Italian GP

[ioan]

Did anyone else catch the moment when the STR team told Vettel not to bother with Hamilton closing on him, cause he was due to stop in 3 laps?
I was more than impressed when it turned out that Hamilton went for the pits exactly 3 laps later!

How come that teams know how much fuel a rival car is carrying and also its consumption in a wet race :?:

[Powered by Cosworth]

Macca are still using the same engine from when Newey was with them?

I'm sure he could give a rough estimate on fuel consumption, and by laptimes and whatnot they can work out how much fuels in the car.

I think it was just a very good estimate using the info thats available to them.

[ArrowsFA1]

I was more than impressed when it turned out that Hamilton went for the pits exactly 3 laps later!
One team knowing when another is stopping? :eek: :eek: How did they know? Who told them? Quick, call Max :p : :laugh:

Seriously though, teams observe each other closely throughout the weekend and make calculations based on a number of factors. You'll often hear a driver knowingly say something along the lines of "we're happy with our strategy" i.e. on fuel corrected pace we're quicker than those around us. They know, or at least are fairly certain of their calculations.

Those calculations may have become increasingly sophisticated, but it's the kind of thing that's been going on for years.

[samuratt]

In Spain we are very luck to have PdlR on the live broadcast helping the commentators. He always gives very insightful information about when everybody is expected to pit and who is on a 1 or a 2 stopper. When he is asked when is Lewis or Heikki going to stop he always says something like "well, in the next 3 laps" or "between laps 22 and 25"...

So yes, the teams know a lot about their competitor's strategies :D

[PolePosition_1]

Well, I thought it was a well known fact that teams know exactly when their rivals are pitting (within lap each side), due to sources within eachother etc. Even commentators sometimes know.

But apparently, its highly illegal if you look at the spygate report, where McLaren knowing the pit strategy of Ferrari was put forwards for justifying the $100m fine despite all the teams having similar information...

[Ranger]

Did anyone else catch the moment when the STR team told Vettel not to bother with Hamilton closing on him, cause he was due to stop in 3 laps?
I was more than impressed when it turned out that Hamilton went for the pits exactly 3 laps later!

How come that teams know how much fuel a rival car is carrying and also its consumption in a wet race :?:

Stopwatches, savvy observers and supercomputers. BMW have the best supercomputer in the business and I'd guess that all teams would have them to some degree, all of which are uncredibly useful (as you'd expect when a 'small' one does 8 trillion calculations a second!).

[MrJan]

Brundle has said that they use microphones and software which hears the engine note and can determine the fuel load.

Besides that each team has a witch who sends a newt to spy when teams are filling the car :D

[Valve Bounce]

Did anyone else catch the moment when the STR team told Vettel not to bother with Hamilton closing on him, cause he was due to stop in 3 laps?
I was more than impressed when it turned out that Hamilton went for the pits exactly 3 laps later!

How come that teams know how much fuel a rival car is carrying and also its consumption in a wet race :?:

I have it on good authority that somebody at McLaren sent Team Torro Rosso an e-mail!

[Sleeper]

Brundle has said that they use microphones and software which hears the engine note and can determine the fuel load.

Besides that each team has a witch who sends a newt to spy when teams are filling the car :D
The microphones are used to measure the horsepower of an engine and not the fuel load, which wouldnt have any effect on the sound of the engine.

The teams all know the relative speeds of the other cars and how much less fuel is used in the wet. From there they can work out just how much each car is carrying in fuel.

It makes he drivers attempts to hide strategy from Brundle and co on the grid laughable as everyone probably already knows!