Going to be a good weekend!

I'm looking after some clients this weekend and one of them turns out to be an electrical engineer for Force India! Really nice guy! He's also Sutil's engineer.

Been chatting to him all day about loads of different things. Things like reaction when Fisi left to fill in for Massa (apparently long before it all happened, Ferrari signed a contract with him to be a test driver from 2010 onwards anyway, so it was a pretty straight forward slot in when Luca turned out to be a bit slow). And also about how they designed last years car around KERS, had it all done etc, then decided not to run KERS because it was going to get too expensive. So he was a bit gutted considering he designed the system and then they didn't use it lol.

It's inetesting to hear things from within the F1 circle and how things really work etc. He was telling me about how McLaren let them use their simulators and he was telling me how it all works and all I can say is, I WANT A GO! Somewhat different to Sega Rally!

Some other things to point out... they're still no closer to picking a tyre supplier for next season after they nearly signed up Pirelli and they still have no idea what engines they will be using in 2013.

He'll be here until Monday.... so lots of chatting to do!

It's going alright thanks Jo. That time of year when I'm flat out again. Got 9 people on board at the mo and then more are coming the week after. Still... can't complain lol.

Dave's a really kool guy. I was having a bit of a **** week coz I cought the flu, but as soon as I found out what he did... I was healed. A miracle I tell you! lol Will see if he has anything else worth mentioning tomo.

willnabby said:

Eyup Coss, Your going to be doing more probing for info than work I bet , lol,

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Too ****** right! lol "Man overboard? Don't care!" lol How's it going mate? Work going ok? Haven't spoken in a while!

jojo said:

Excellent! Sounds like you are having a whale of a time, just try not to bump into one.

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The species that swims or walks?! lol

After chatting to him yesterday... all I can say is that I knew that F1 cars were highly strung pieces of kit, but blimey! Just incredible what they do over your average weekend when everything runs smoothly! Let alone when things go wrong!

He was telling me that for Canada, they won't be having any major upgrades. They're just trying to hone their F-duct because they had a few probs with it to do with sealing the system properly.

He was also telling me about their fuel pick up system and how it all works etc. You've got the fuel cell where there are 2 electric fuel pick up pumps at the back of the tank so it'll always be able to pick up fuel under acceleration. The fuel then goes into like a cylinder which is still inside the fuel tank. Cylinder is similar in size to a bottle of water. The fuel pump which drives the fuel to the mechanical parts picks up the fuel from this cylinder. The cylinder helps stop fuel starvation when you're running low on fuel in the tank. Now this cylinder is also pressurised depending on the temperature. In Turkey it was obviously hot so they had to pressureise the cylinder. Apparently on Sutil's car, the pressure system broke so he couldn't pick up enough fuel. They had to lean him right out to finish the race with 6kg more fuel than what they wanted.

They've also got a fair difference in fuel consumption when they use the different mixture settings. Apparently when they lean the engine out, they can get to 6% difference than normal setting. When they change to a rich mixture, they can get to 4%. Still on fuel mixtures, they've also got a 'push to pass' button. Say one of their drivers is on a lean mixture to save fuel and they have a chance of overtaking the guy in front, he can put a button and the engine settings go into optimum mixture mode for 20 seconds to give him the power he needs to overtake.

This was new to me... when the car is on the overrun, braking into the corner or whatever, the car automatically switches off one bank of 4 cylinders to save fuel! They do the same when they are less that 50% throttle and when they are idle on the grid or in the pits. When they are stationary for a while, again they run one bank of 4 for about 30 seconds, and they there is a 2 seconds overlap as the other bank fires up and that one stops. It's to save fuel and help manage overheating when stationary.

I'm loving talking about it all! More later on!

OK so my new best mate left yesterday lol. He’s heading to Canada tomo evening apparently.

He was telling me how their average weekend goes and what they do on the 3 days. I had no idea that every time the car goes out, they completely re-programme everything to do with the electronics (engine mapping, diff settings etc). Hence all the laptops. He also said that Fridays are always long days because when they’ve finished practice, they change the engine and gearbox and you’re looking at midnight before they’ve finished.

He was also saying that on some tracks, the drivers closer the back of the field can’t really see the lights because of a combination of a gradient of the track and if it’s on a bend. So what they do is get the race engineer over the radio saying “3 lights, 2 lights, 1.... GO!” Which I found amusing lol.

I asked him what he thought about the Vettel/Webber incident and he (along with everyone else by the looks of things except the Red-Bull bosses) put the blame squarely on Vettel.

He was also saying that Hamilton is Sutil’s best mate.

Another thing that I found interesting is about how their drug testing works. Now I don’t know if it’s the same for all sports men/women, but the F1 drivers need to be known where they are 100% of the time. Even where they are going on their holiday. That’s so that doctors or whoever can walk up to the driver at any point in time and give them a drug test. So a driver could be lying on a beach and next thing he knows he’s being tested! No privacy at all!

I really enjoyed chatting to him. I like getting into the technical side of F1. He was telling me all about the telemetry systems and their start up procedures and why exactly they need loads of laptops to start the car up etc. He was also telling me about the behind the scenes war between Force India and Lotus. Was good insight! I'll be keeping an eye out for him on TV because he's one of the guys with a laptop on the grid. Sutil for pole! lol

Good to hear your well mate.