Formula One Gran Premio de Mexico; Free practice 1/2/3 ***SPOILERS***

Wow people are just going off all over....slick track lol! A touch windy and not much grip.

 

Brundle trackside saying the Honda has never sounded this bad all season...

 

This is your engine...
And this is your engine on hypoxia.

 

If Honda do have a smaller turbo, it will suffer more at altitude than the others.

 

I was waiting to see how the spec hybrids managed their first trip to the thin air in many moon.

I remember seeing the turbo WRC cars struggling with high alt rallyes.

 

remember they also have electric power

 

In theory, turbo engines should suffer less than atmo engine at altitude.

Turbos started to be fitted on some transport military aircraft during WWII, precisely to allow them to fly higher above mountains in Asia.

Thin air density affects atmo engine far more, as far as I know.

 

The Honda had a noticably different note, even my gf said "what's wrong?"


That track is historically dusty, not so much from disuse, but from the part of town it is in.

MOST of Mexico would classify as "not paved"......

 

I heard a bit, sounds a lot like they forgot to tighten a bunch of bolts which are travelling through the engine...(does explain why they break down so often ).

 

If the rest of the cars are sewing machines, that one is a coffee grinder.

 

crazy speeds at this track! Faster than Monza!!!

 

Theory makes sense. Atmo engine is stuck with, er, atmo pressure which is much lower up there. Turbo engine can pump up cyl pressure as high as you want. However, at altitude, this means the turbo has to spin faster in order to make up that pressure diff. And Honda's already having trouble spinning fast enough at sea level.

 

Well, we all wanted louder engines....

and coffee grinder McLaren/Honda delivers.

 

I welcome that!!

Since Monza was emasculated with chicanes, and Hockenheim amputated of its long straights, there are really not many fast tracks visited by F1 anymore.

To me, speed and tricky corners necessitating hard braking is what racing is all about.

 

This looks like a great track.

 

Really?? BS. That wasn't remotely true 20 years ago, it is certainly not true today.

 

I remember going to a Mayan temple somewhere in Mexico in the 90's, and it had been raining. As we were driving along, I asked the guide what the black stuff all over the road was - tarantulas basking in the sun! Jeez, gave me the creeps for the rest of the holiday.

Ok, not f1 related, but my only knowledge of Mexico save senor frogs bar in cancun where my then girlfriend and I were introduced to Jell-O shots!

 

To clarify I meant the immediate neighborhood around the track. The last period it was used for F1 it had a reputation for the blowing dust....

Dirt..

Whatever you want to call it....

 

Obviously there is a limit to how fast a turbo can spin before it eats itself. At altitude the bigger turbos will have an advantage. If they push it, the Hondas could fail.

 

The track looked good and the speeds were amazing and I really like the track layout. I hope more rubber can get laid down in qualifying though because most of FP1 was like a ice skating rink. Overall I was impressed with everything.

 

It's not like the F1 machines leave "spare" boost in the garage, elsewhere.
So there's not a lot of room for "compensate" in the wastegate.

And they're running spec ECUs -- which likely weren't programmed for "attitude compensation".
Even cars in Colorado have issues with the altitude -- and that's lower altitude than Mex City.
(The office distributed a guide to Colo relocation -- cars, cooking, breathing, humidity: lots of things are different in high altitude cities.)

But the turbo aircraft have the advantage of flying not only in thin air, but very cold air.
Cooling a turbo is problematic, and even more so when the air is too thin to conduct much heat away.

Before watching any of the sessions, I was expecting engine heat issues.

FP1 revealed issues cooling those carbon brakes.

So far, I suspect some of the issues have balanced.
High altitude can mean a richer mix, which might help with engine cooling. (Until the plugs foul. )

The wet conditions would also offset the dry air you normally get at altitude.

The water on the fresh asphalt caused some traction problems, but I suspect the wet weekend will offset some of the altitude issues.

 

FP1/2 was like an extended advertisement why F1 cars need less grip. Sure it was a combination of a very green track but also limited downforce; the latter can't be overcome!

Reminded me of the late 70s cars with big, lairy, powerslides everywhere...