This race would have been more interesting without DRS during the full race.
Good finish position for Sainz.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
This race would have been more interesting without DRS during the full race.
Still 10 minutes to go before the stewards start on Ferrari's fuel problem. "A team representative is required to report to the Stewards at 19:45"...that's 15h45 GMT.
Stewards issued a fine of €50,000, but Leclerc keeps his third place...link:
The FIA's findings read: "TD/014-19 required teams to declare the amount of fuel that they intended to put in the car for the laps to the grid, the formation lap, the race, the in-lap and any fire-ups that would be needed. The Technical Delegate was able to confirm the fuel mass put in the tank by checking in accordance with the procedure specified in TD/014-19.
"There was a difference of 4.88kgs between the team’s declaration for car 16 and the Technical Delegate’s measured fuel mass.
"The team’s declaration was therefore inaccurate and constituted a breach of the Technical Directive. This in turn constitutes an infringement of Article 12.1.1.i of the International Sporting Code."
Waits for Adrian to post something about favouritism......
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
The FIA strikes again, if it had been McLaren they would have got a £120 million fine
There you go
If it's of any interest, here's a link to the decision document...Offence Doc41 - Ferrari (Fuel Declaration)...and another to the Official Classification.
I may be missing something here, but surely more fuel would weigh the car down and slow it down, probably by a negligible amount, what is the issue here??. Or was it less fuel they put in? Genuine question.
Stuart
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
I'd guess that the car was filled correctly as per race requirements however the weight declared was incorrect, it was this discrepancy that earned them the fine.
They put in more. Technically, more fuel allows more (longer) high speed pace. In the beginning of the race, the Ferraris had superior speed over the RB, where they failed to keep up with the RB later in the race. A heavier car would not have been able to produce more speed. Therefore, the surplus of fuel must be used to produce more speed. As I said earlier this day, in the future there will always be a hint of scam and deceit when one refers to Ferrari's 2019 season.
There's no evidence that Leclerc's car had more fuel in it than declared, only that there was a discrepancy between what was stated and what was found, at least that's what the statement in PickleB's post says.
It could well be that there was less fuel in the car than was declared, not more. The fine was for the incorrect declaration, not for a specific under or over filling.
I'm only going by that statement, if there's any evidence that his car was under-declared I haven't seen it.
Unfortunately I missed the post-race chatter on Sky's coverage, maybe there was something mentioned there about the car being over-filled.
Going by the official statement released, it could have been under or over. There's an article on the racefans website saying that the car was over the declaration by 5kg, within that article they quote the statement as per PickleB's post that only mentions a discrepancy.
More or less? Try this link.
A 50,000 Euro fine for Ferrari's fuel infringement. What naughty boys they have been.
Interesting it's the first time they have been checked this season, so it begs the question how many times have they done it previously (and got away with it)? Also Was it just CLC car or was it both of them that were checked? And perhaps more importantly who is feeding the FIA all this intel on what Ferrari are getting up to - perhaps a spy in the camp?
As for Lewis's performance yesterday, sublime and then to set the fastest lap on old knackered tires simply rubbed his and Mercedes dominance in.
Its been a very enjoyable and entertaining season and hopefully we will see more of the same in 2020.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I've read that they had 4.88kg extra fuel present. There is a suspicion that the recent Technical Directives were aimed at Ferrari who were believed to have found a way to cheat the FIA sensor (which samples at 2 khz) and "add" extra fuel somehow between the measurement frequency. Hence having extra fuel to burn gives them extra fuel whilst still having enough fuel to satisfy the end of race fuel measurement requirements (1 kg IIRC). Add to this Seb being told to move to engine mode 4 (most powerful being 1) and when asking why was told "because we need to".
In my view it's blatant cheating all round but it's unlikely we'll see any punitive action beyond a derisory 50k euro fine.
In 2005 BAR got a two race ban for using fuel as ballast, it will run and run but if Ferrari do it, its not cheating it is an error.
Last edited by adrianw; 2nd December 2019 at 10:13.
Contains quote:
Binotto said his team’s cars have had their fuel weights checked on many previous occasions with no problems. “I think this year we have been checked at least 10 times,” he said. “It’s not the first time, we’ve always been OK and today we got a discrepancy.”
And then we get...
Ferrari were fined for the discrepancy between the delclared volume and actual volume, nothing more and nothing less.
Who knows? However there's no evidence to suggest that there were other discrepancies so there cannot be any accusation or insinuation of guilt. The discrepancy was spotted as part of a random check, not because there's a mole or snitch. You've also got to ask yourself the question as to why would Ferrari even bother trying to cheat. Both the CC and DC were already won and they'd also already secured 2nd place in the DC, why risk the negative exposure of being caught when you've nothing to gain.
I agree with Lewis' and Mercedes' performance, a fantastic way for them to sign off an enjoyable season.
I've read through autosport, motorsport, F1 and planetf1 websites and haven't read a single report from any of them that confirms Leclerc had more fuel than declared, only conjecture on forums presuming it to be so. If there is a report I'd be happy to read it, I'm not going to include the racefans report as I simply don't trust it.
I could well be wrong however I still see it all as people trying to fit so called evidence to a so called crime implying Ferrari tried to cheat yet all we have is the FIA/stewards statement. The only thing that Ferrari have been found guilty of is stating a different fuel load, as to why or how that happened we may never know.
As...
...didn't convince you, how about this link?
I’m still finding it difficult to understand where Ferrari’s immense improvement after the summer break came from and even more confused how that speed disappeared after the Technical Directives issued by the FIA.
After all, it’s not as if Ferrari don’t have form re rule interpretation.
Mark Hughes mentions it here:
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/opinion/f1/hamilton-crowns-f1-title-crushing-win-2019-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-report
"Leclerc’s podium was as much as could’ve been asked of a Ferrari around here and the team was doubtless relieved just to be fined $50,000 for the fuel load offence. An extra 4.88kg (5% of the maximum) was found to have been in the car which, in a fuel-limited formula, is worth lap time."
Last edited by tiny73; 2nd December 2019 at 12:25.
That's not a website I've ever used before hence not referring to it when checking, thanks for that. Still a bit odd that the 4 major sites haven't reported it but there you go.
Even if there was 5kg more than stated it doesn't prove there was 5kg too much, as in it was Ferrari's intended race volume plus an additional volume that could be used to somehow cheat with. It could still have been the correct race volume with a clerical error understating it.
Bottom line for me is that I don't see any reason why Ferrari would cheat in the final race of the season when a) championship positions were already decided b) they were already under scrutiny for fuel flow management and c) it sounds like there was a 50/50 chance of them being caught out based upon the number of occasions car/fuel weights had been checked in prior races.
I completely agree, I could be wrong (again) but I cant think of another team that have made an error and not been penalised with the FIA saying "rules are rules"
I just remembered an example of rules is rules, I think it was 2008, Hamilton cut a chicane to avoid kimi, LH then slowed down and KR didn't go past (he later crashed) and Hamilton got a massive penalty for it.
Found it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzy7...ature=youtu.be
Last edited by adrianw; 2nd December 2019 at 13:12.
5% is a lot when you step back and realise that everthing in Formula 1 is measured thousands of a second, where engine tolerances are to be measured with a devices only readable under a microscope. You can't dismiss this with '...measuring mistake, it's 5% difference!' Everything is checked and rechecked. You can't convince me that someone wrote down the wrong number in relation to the amount of fuel in the car without someones else checking that. Perhaps someone can clarify the correct procedure?
Or is this also a part of Ferrari's problems to run a team without mistakes?
FWIW: One liter fuel weighs about 0.70 kilo which makes 5 kilo about 7.1 liters. That's a lot. And still, the overspeed of both Ferraris at the beginning of the race isn't explained, compared with their lack of pace later on. Combine that with 'Engine -mode 4' and there are even more puzzles.
Menno
Last edited by thieuster; 2nd December 2019 at 13:41.
Here's the official statement on the FI website: https://www.fia.com/file/111722/download/30082
The statement doesn't specify whether the there was more or less fuel than they had declared, but I think there's enough reports to safely assume it was more.Decision
The Competitor (Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow) is fined €50,000.
Reason
The Stewards heard from the team representative, FIA Technical Delegate and the
FIA Head of Single Seater Technical Matters.
TD/014-19 required teams to declare the amount of fuel that they intended to put in the
car for the laps to the grid, the formation lap, the race, the in-lap and any fire-ups that
would be needed.
The Technical Delegate was able to confirm the fuel mass put in the
tank by checking in accordance with the procedure specified in TD/014-19.
There was a difference of 4.88kgs between the team’s declaration for car 16 and the
Technical Delegate’s measured fuel mass.
The team’s declaration was therefore inaccurate and constituted a breach of the
Technical Directive. This in turn constitutes an infringement of Article 12.1.1.i of the
International Sporting Code.
Accordingly, the stewards determined that the team should be fined €50,000 for its
inaccurate declaration.
Competitors are reminded that they have the right to appeal certain decisions of the
Stewards, in accordance with Article 15 of the FIA International Sporting Code and
Article 9.1.1 of the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules, within the applicable time limits.
Last edited by hogthrob; 2nd December 2019 at 14:54.
Looking at the list (link) leads me to think that the FIA is trying to avoid criticism of nationalistic bias by having representatives from many countries (all those holding a GP?). I take that they are nominated by their national organisations.
Having any more than four, as at present, for any one event would probably be unwieldy, if not unmanageable.
While the idea of having a smaller, permanent team is appealing I doubt that it would be without its own problems. Who would choose them...the FIA's decisions are frequently criticised and an election by drivers or teams would similarly be open to accusations of bias. However, it shouldn't be an insoluble problem, but...?
The bottom line, is a win is a win. Especially when it's the last race of the season and a team is looking to take any positives it can in to the closed season.
But in a sport, which is so technical and which is subject to all sort of governance and scrutiny, how is it possible that Ferrari could make such a mistake. Incompetence or something else? Which ever way you look at it, it not good for Ferrari, or the FIA for that matter.
Whats even sadder is it begs the question how Ferrari and their drivers would had reacted had they not been tested and won the race?
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
That's it, then. All over bar the gloating, and not much to look forward to between now and pre-season testing, unless Lewis Hamilton would care to make another of his seasonal social media gaffes (nephew in a dress, fought his way up from the slums of Stevenage etc,) for our amusement.
Overall, 2019 was a better season than any of the preceding during the turbo-hybrid era, because there were some genuine challengers to Mercedes' dominance, and some exciting new young drivers making a name for themselves. High point of the year has undoubtedly been the resurgence of Honda, who have improved their power units beyond all recognition, and credit must go to Toro Rosso and Red Bull for the way that they have integrated the Honda units into their respective chassis, and produced winning cars. And, in Max Verstappen, they have a potential World Champion, who must have inherited much of his ability from his mother.
Ferrari? So near, and yet so far. Their ability to snatch catastrophe from the jaws of victory seems unsurpassed, and I hope that for the sake of the sport they can provide Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc with the tools and infrastructure to regularly beat Mercedes.
2020 will see a season of stability before the yet to be agreed major changes of 2021, and teams will be divided between two programmes, with a lot of effort going into the 2021-onwards cars, so next year might prove to be a repeat of the season just finished, which will no doubt delight the Hamilton supporters. Underlying rumours of Penske making a bid for the Mercedes operation keep circulating, and there's no smoke without fire, although it wouldn't be the first time that the Captain has dabbled in Formula 1. Liberty would love to have an American team at the forefront of the sport, and Haas doesn't seem to be threatening the Big Three, so who knows? The threat of a second US Grand Prix hasn't gone away, either, although I've always been left feeling a bit underwhelmed by the attempts of our close allies to come up with a decent venue - they've always been a bit half-hearted, and although they made a real effort with Austin, getting Herr Tilke to use all of the best corners from his previous circuits from around the world, it's a bit rubbish, and has become very bumpy.
Until 2020 then, ...
Last edited by Backward point; 4th December 2019 at 19:19. Reason: Went a bit Yorkshire - t turbo! Corrected!
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
Well said! Thanks.
Sounds about right.
Although 2021 may be very different as Honda and Renault pull the plug and Mercedes head towards Formula E.
Yes.
Not unthinkable though that we will see Honda achieve the last worthwhile F1 title; a Ferrari single mark series will interest few. By´22 the fourth gen e-cars can very well be up to the level of proper circuits.
I hópe not though as full e-power is a trap and hybrid makes way more sense.
To balance all that E nonsense, here's some old school sound. I'm not a fan of the Suderia, but this is breathtaking! For a more intense experience, go to the Ferrari Museum in Maranello where you can nearly 'feel' the V12 sound in a special booth. (Nice museum, but I encountered some 'flak' when I entered the museum, wearing a t-shirt with the Porsche dog-leg shift pattern...)
Very good analysis of the Ferrari fuel issue:-
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/o...nd-controversy
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Anyway, all water under the bridge now, which, if the puppet masters don´t act more dramatically, may happen to the whole of F1.
The reasons given by Honda for only an extension for ´21 is like bright dayglow graffiti on the crumbling wall.
... but what makes me happy is, that pure driver's skills like Hamilton's and Verstappen's are able to counter cheating. Before Sunday's race I mentioned that there will always be an air or fraude over this season. Not knowing what would happen a few hours later when the fuel weight difference was discovered. That suggestion of fraude is now even stronger.
Another thing: I think that there were less engine and other mechanical failures than in previous years. But I might be wrong.
Menno
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
In fairness cheating (or pushing the limits of the regs - as some would claim) has being going on forever. So no real change there, but yes driver/racer ability usually comes to the fore in most cases. It's just a shame when it often prevents other drivers from fulfilling their potential by getting poles and podiums - a bit like team orders.
Regarding mech reliability I would agree with you. Most of the DNF were the result of crash damage rather than failures, plus we seemed to have less grid place penalties. This may be because technology has improved, however personally I think it's a lot of it is because team's turn the wick down and "manage" the mechanicals during the race as well as having to manage the tires, I.e cars operate at 97% rather than 100%. Not sure it's a good or bad thing to be honest.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ah, the power of selective quoting
It's funny how some people zero in on one aspect of an article and others note another, Mark Hughes' last paragraph sums it up for me.
"Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto points out that the team has been pre-race weight-checked ‘about 10 times this year’ and always found to be in full compliance with its declaration. What happened in Abu Dhabi was a simple error, he insists. Without proof, anything else is speculation. But it’s easy to understand the suspicions of Ferrari’s rivals."
I'm aware that I've been banging this particular drum for a number of posts now however I still can't see why Ferrari would attempt to sneak an easily discovered cheat, for the want of a better word, past scrutineers when they had a 50/50 chance of being sussed. Why add to to the already existing fuel flow rumours for zero gains? Is it easy to understand the suspicions of Ferrari's rivals? Yes. Is there nothing but a degree of circumstantial evidence that Ferrari have been fiddling with zero proof? Another yes.
Maybe we've heard the last of this, maybe we haven't.
As for summing the season up there are a number of highlights for me.
Lewis and Mercedes, Russel, Norris, Albon, McLaren and Honda all had a successful 2019 campaign. There has to be nothing other than respect for a team achieving their 6th successive championship wins, the three rookies above all shone brightly, McLaren were the most improved team from 2018 and Honda appear to have taken another step forward, and a notable one at that by achieving their first race wins for many a year.
The biggest disappointments? Williams spluttered into the season after missing the first two test sessions, they soon admitted that the car was a complete dud and wrote the season off there and then, Paddy Lowe cleared his desk sharpish as well. Did the new front wings improve the racing? We did have some cracking weekends over the course of the year however I don't remember any chatter about the altered aero being even a part of it. Haas screwed 2019 right up and were, for me the greatest disappointment of all, the last half of the season may have seen them occasionally qualify OK however they appeared to have lost the ability to use top gear come race day. Oh, and they chose to keep Grosjean instead of hiring Hulkenberg for 2020.