r/F1Technical • u/some_guy30 • Jul 28 '24

Regulations Hypothetically, if Russel crashed the car just after he won, would he have evaded disqualification?

I know there is no cooldown lap at spa, so assume Russel just crashes on the straight. He loses significant amounts of his car. Would he retain the win, as his car wouldn’t be weighed (or if it is weighed, it would obviously be below min weight but for good reason I.e. pieces of car have come off) ?

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u/splashbodge Jul 29 '24

We have had occasions where drivers have done 1 stop before tho and this has never been an issue. We've had cases where drivers have driven the tyres down to the carcass and it wasn't an issue before... George's tyres weren't down to the carcass, in fact they looked pretty good, he never had the fall off the cliff with them.

Even if 1.5kg was from the tyres, don't they weigh the car without the tyres, it is the car weight after all. I know in Ted's notebook you could see them taking the tyres off and weighing the car again, so they either weighted it without tyres or they replaced the tyres to find out what the true weight was

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u/eidetic Jul 29 '24

Even if 1.5kg was from the tyres, don't they weigh the car without the tyres, it is the car weight after all.

No, they weigh them with the tires. This is literally why drivers are instructed to pick up loose rubber on their cool down lap, just to make absolutely sure they have some extra weight just in case to be safe.

Like I said, that was just the team's explanation, I suspect something else is at play here.

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u/splashbodge Jul 29 '24

That's weird, if a part was broken due to a crash they would replace it with a like for like part for the weigh in. Why wouldn't the same be true for worn tyres then, replace it with non worn tyres for the weight... Or weigh without tyres and add on the typical tyre weight.

Are you sure it includes tyres

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u/eidetic Jul 29 '24

Yes I'm sure. They literally roll the cars straight onto the scale. This is something you can easily Google too.

They are weighed with the tires because a car must always be above the minimum weight throughout the entire race, including tire wear.

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u/splashbodge Jul 29 '24

The reason I question it is because you could in theory finish the race with a puncture and the tyre partially destroyed. Like Lewis in Silverstone a few years ago. Normally if it were a car part damaged they'd replace it with an equal part for the weigh in. Do they do the same if a tyre is destroyed - if not that seems a bit unfair as it is no different than a damaged component, like when they'd lose their bargeboard back in the day. If they did replace the destroyed tyre with a new one for weigh in then I don't see why tyre wear should even matter for this.

It seems weird to me. They drain the fuel from the car for the weigh in but could easily take the tyres off too and only count the actual car without wheels. I just don't think a cars minimum weight should include the tyres & fuel.

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u/Inside-Definition-42 Jul 29 '24

Cars can be called in for a weigh in during FP and qualifying.

They stop them after the entrance to the pits, drive the cars onto the scale, weigh them, then let them continue to their garage.

Taking a weight without tyres would dramatically complicate this!

Vettel got a fine few years ago for wheel spinning off the scales as he couldn’t afford to lose time before going out for another qualifying lap.

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u/splashbodge Jul 29 '24

Valid point I didn't think of.