The F1 Spanish Grand Prix held last weekend was quite dramatic. Seven time F1 world champion Hamilton proposed to withdraw his Mercedes Benz from the race a few seconds after a collision with Magnuson's Haas car on the first lap. After starting from the pole position, Le Clair's Ferrari lost power on lap 27, which gave Hamilton's teammate Russell the lead.
Data map
Peres and his red bull overtook Russell on lap 31 and vestapan overtook Peres on lap 49 to take the lead. In the end, the two red bull racers brought back the first and second places, while Mercedes Benz gained some key points through Russell.
Vestapan is trying to defend his title this season, but he almost completely missed the Spanish Grand Prix. Vistapan's Red Bull dealt with the DRS problem before the race, which began to haunt the car on lap 14. If the DRS problem persists, vestapan will find it difficult to lead the game, but he almost completely missed the Spanish Grand Prix, but it's not because of this.
Fuel temperature problem
A report from Autosport pointed out that vistapan was the last driver in line before the maintenance station specified by the FIA was closed before 2:30 p.m. local time. He left the Red Bull garage just seconds after Red Bull 2 and driver Pierre gasley played. Red Bull initially said that the delay was due to the DRS problem on the car, which may explain the lingering DRS problem of vestapan at the beginning of the game. DRS is a movable baffle on the tail wing of F1 racing car. Opening the baffle can reduce aerodynamic resistance, so that the vehicle accelerates faster and the top speed is higher.
Red Bull didn't mention anything about gasley's second team and why it had to leave the garage later than most people. Autosport added that this is related to the compliance of fuel temperature, especially the FIA regulations on minimum fuel temperature. According to Article 6 of the 2022 FIA technical regulations, the fuel in the vehicle fuel tank shall not exceed 10 ° C of the official ambient temperature during the competition date.
According to paragraph 6.4.2 on refuelling: "the fuel intended for immediate use in vehicles shall not be more than ten degrees Celsius lower than the ambient temperature. In assessing compliance, the ambient temperature will be recorded by the FIA designated meteorological service provider one hour or two hours before any practice competition. This information will also be displayed on the timing display."
In addition, the rule added -- "the fuel temperature to be used in vehicles must be measured by sealed sensors approved by the FIA."
Lower fuel temperature
Auto Motor und Sport further added that when the maintenance channel was opened 40 minutes before the Spanish Grand Prix, the fuel temperature of the two red bull cars did not reach the specified value. The FIA has set the minimum fuel temperature for the first five races of the 2022 F1 season at 18 degrees, which also means setting an ambient temperature of 28 degrees for the Grand Prix races in Bahrain, Jeddah, Melbourne, Imola and Miami. But for Barcelona, the FIA sets the official ambient temperature at 35 degrees. According to FIA regulations, the fuel temperature in Barcelona shall not be lower than 25 degrees.
Planet F1 said that the FIA suspected red bull was cooling the gas for its rb18 car in hot Barcelona, which means that the team must heat up the gas before the vehicle leaves the garage. Anything colder is denser, better for performance and endurance, and colder fuel gives drivers an unfair advantage over other vehicles that use hotter gases.
It is reported that vestapan and his teammate Peres had to drive out of the maintenance station 8 seconds before the maintenance channel was closed at 2:30 p.m. If Red Bull does not comply with the FIA fuel temperature standard, the Spanish Grand Prix will have a different outcome, because if vestapan and Peres cannot "heat" their fuel, they need to start the race in the maintenance station. The same thing happened at this year's Miami Grand Prix, when Aston Martin's Vettel and lance stroll started the race in the maintenance station.
Rival teams suspected vestapan of using colder fuel to start the race, but the FIA said that through on-site monitoring, the fuel temperature of the car was within the specified range after leaving the garage.