Fire, Fire & Fire

[Rollo]

Not one but three during the weekend and all to do when the fuel nozzle was being taken out. Thankfully no-one was hurt during any of the incidents though Bordais was covered in gunky stuff for the rest of the GP.

What the heck happened that we have three fires in a weekend? Is it a bad batch of nozzles? Who makes these things? And is there an inquiry?

[grantb4]

http://www.intertechnique.fr/asp/activites.aspx?IdLangue=1

[markabilly]

During commentary, it was suggested that heat was the problem. I could see how either from contact with the hot car, or ambient air temperature, that the temperature was affecting the parts, possibly because some metals will expand at different rates. Indeed tolerance might be so tight, that the nozzles might not work at all when there is extreme cold or heat

or it could be a conspiracy..........

[speeddurango]

It's not the ambient heat being the direct cause of the fire, but rather the design of engine cover for this specific race. Since it's a hotter race the engine needs extra cooling so there are more holes on the engine cover to discharge the heat on the inside, thus makes certain parts of the outter layout of the car much hotter caused by the engine heat.

[wedge]

It's not the ambient heat being the direct cause of the fire, but rather the design of engine cover for this specific race. Since it's a hotter race the engine needs extra cooling so there are more holes on the engine cover to discharge the heat on the inside, thus makes certain parts of the outter layout of the car much hotter caused by the engine heat.

British commentary said it was hot, but not Malaysia hot.

Malaysian GP last year Massa had small fire and Ferrari traditionally run shark gill engine cover for the hot countries. Though obviously it helps for the cars to be in motion and air fed into the sidepods and conversely today's sidepod/radiator are much tighter packages these days.

[Powered by Cosworth]

It's the fuel rig fiddling scandel of '94 all over again ;)

[tinchote]

It's the fuel rig fiddling scandel of '94 all over again ;)

Nah, Steve Machett (who was into that fire) was - as usual - at the ESPN commentary and he didn't pay much attention to the incident

[leopard]

I thought thermal image were involved creating the fire, until I realize that they were real fire.

[MAX_THRUST]

Seb Vettel said in his interview with ITV that his car had to retire due to a lengthy pitt stop then a small fire which burnt something out. So I guess it was four fires......Interesting to know how many actually went wrong, and what are the teams and FIA going to do about it?

[Storm]

Yes there were 4 I think too,,with the big one with Bourdais

[elinagr]

Seb Vettel said in his interview with ITV that his car had to retire due to a lengthy pitt stop then a small fire which burnt something out. So I guess it was four fires......Interesting to know how many actually went wrong, and what are the teams and FIA going to do about it?


you sleep with your shoes because you didnt get an answer of what fia and teams are going to do? :P

[jens]

This was really weird. I don't remember so many teams having problems with fuel rig. Probably some kind of flaw in manufacturing, a'la Michelin tyres at Indy'05. :p : The weather may have been hot, but that's not an excuse - we've experienced hot weather in the past too!

[Valve Bounce]

British commentary said it was hot, but not Malaysia hot.

Malaysian GP last year Massa had small fire and Ferrari traditionally run shark gill engine cover for the hot countries. Though obviously it helps for the cars to be in motion and air fed into the sidepods and conversely today's sidepod/radiator are much tighter packages these days.

There's a good idea: refuel the cars while they are still racing on the track!! That would keep the engines, sidepods and radiators cooler, and prevent fires during refueling.

[hmmm - donuts]

...and I thought Max re-introduced refuelling some years back as a safety measure!

[Firstgear]

British commentary said it was hot, but not Malaysia hot.


Could it be a combination of hot weather and track layout (ie. no passing).

With the track layout allowing minimal passing, cars will be running behind eachother in the hotter exhaust air for long periods of time. Combine this with the hot weather, and it may create a hotter scenario than that of a Malayian race.

[Sleeper]

This was really weird. I don't remember so many teams having problems with fuel rig. Probably some kind of flaw in manufacturing, a'la Michelin tyres at Indy'05. :p : The weather may have been hot, but that's not an excuse - we've experienced hot weather in the past too!
There was a lot of fuel rig problems around 2001 when we would have 1 or 2 rig failures almost every race. Intertechnique were close to being linched back then by the teams and it seems they have some problems again.

The hoses were leaking (you could clearly see the fuel come out before they got the fuel rig on Rubens Honda, something thats not supposed to be possible) and fuel + hot exhaust= fire. This is dangerous but I suspect its a cse of manufacturing errors on this batch.

[wedge]

There was a lot of fuel rig problems around 2001 when we would have 1 or 2 rig failures almost every race. Intertechnique were close to being linched back then by the teams and it seems they have some problems again.

The hoses were leaking (you could clearly see the fuel come out before they got the fuel rig on Rubens Honda, something thats not supposed to be possible) and fuel + hot exhaust= fire. This is dangerous but I suspect its a cse of manufacturing errors on this batch.

Good observation!

Could be heat building up some kind of backpressure:

http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=Ted_Kravitz&id=43602

[jens]

There was a lot of fuel rig problems around 2001 when we would have 1 or 2 rig failures almost every race. Intertechnique were close to being linched back then by the teams and it seems they have some problems again.


If I remember correctly, then in 2002 it was mainly Williams having fuel rig problems. There were even accusations like they weren't treating the rigs properly! But I don't remember so many teams having problems at once like we had in Hungary in '08.