Ferrari tyre warmers causing controversy...

[Sodemo]

Apparently there is growing controversy surrounding Ferrari's new tyre warmers (which have in turn been attributed to Ferrari's increased performance in qualifying). Despite the bad feeling from other teams, the FIA have declared the system legal.



(Autosport.com)

[maximus]

I don't see the problem myself. If the other teams are against it then tough. Their tyres are still the best even if they were dodgy at the last weekend.

[Dutton]

Details?

[slicktoast]

Does it have delicate and permanant press as well as cotton settings?

[Adam43]

What are the objections? I must admit I've never seen them in use. It looks like it is just a much more effecient way of doing it. Presumably it heats the whole area better rather than just the parts in contact with the blanket. Better to heat the room than just the electric blanket?

[Kicking-back]

It's legal, no problem.

[icemachine]

From TSN Article

Article 75F of the Sporting Regulations says the only type of heating devices allowed for tires are blankets which use "restrictive heating elements". FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting gave the device the all clear following a recent inspection, saying that the box is simply a different type of "blanket" and that the same, legal restrictive heating element is used.

I don't when a box became a blanket but I think the issue is the perception that when Ferrari use something that pushes boundaries its deemed ok, but if one of the other teams pushes boundaries its not.

[PaulSands]

given that the FIA were very adamant about following the regs to the letter at Indy I cant see how a box can be "the only type of heating devices allowed for tires are blankets which use "restrictive heating elements""...the principles are maybe the same but as so many people keep saying rules is rules

oits along the same lines as accepting a V12 engine because it effectively does the same job a V10 does

[Adam43]

Who knows what would have happened if another team came up with it.

That sporting reg is correct. In which case it probably depends what is inside the box. It is a blanket?

A moment later after trying to find out before passing judgement...

Originally Posted by Autosport

The metal box is flat on the bottom and curved at the top and features a device to fix the wheel in the middle - so that there is clear air surrounding the entire wheel, roughly 20 centimetres on all sides.

Autosport-Atlas understands that the inside of the casing incorporates the kind of electrical heating elements that are found in normal tyre heating blankets. The space around the tyre allows the air inside the box to be heated and, because there are no heating elements in direct contact with the tyre, the subsequent heating is more constant over the entire rubber surface than experienced with traditional blankets.

http://www.autosport-atlas.com/news.aspx?id=45193&s=5

Nice.

[Inigo Montoya]

Very cool.. err... warm... These are the tyre ovens that the boys and girls at Speed were talking about on the Indy weekend.

[Peter Mallett]

Hmm,

OED time. What's the difference between a blanket and an oven?

[Kicking-back]

You can't cook a decent cake in a blanket

[Mr V]

You can't snuggle up in an oven

[ASCII Man]

So it's basically illegal, but deemed 'ok' by the FIA?
Allright, I'll make no comments whatsoever as it would only get flamed to hell as being an 'Anti-Ferrari Bash' post by some here, I won't use names...

Oh what the heck, it could be fun!

It just reeks(sp?) of Ferrari favouritism IMO, had it been any other team this surely would've been brought to the attention of the FIA by Ferrari themselves and would've been deemed as 'illegal'...

[kdr]

i somehow think that before the summer break we'll also be seeing them in a natty shade of silver, blue, yellow, etc etc...

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

It wouldn't be summer without a new FIA favouring Ferrari story.

I'm curious to how a 'blanket' can be the same as a box though.

[beau1]

hmmm, that "box" looks preety neat. I hate it when people start talking about the FIA favouring Ferrari or the FIA and Ferrari being the same thing. What i say is what alot of Crap. It sounds like to me that Ferrari have managed to make/do something before anyone else and quite frankly the other teams get well...jealous could be a word what comes to mind. like we said earlier we don't know what the FIA would have done if it was another team. But to be honest the FIA would have probably let another team use it.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by icemachine

From TSN Article


I don't when a box became a blanket but I think the issue is the perception that when Ferrari use something that pushes boundaries its deemed ok, but if one of the other teams pushes boundaries its not.

Here we go again... Don't you think that if the box has been looked at by a FIA official that he or she knows the difference between legal and ilegal? Is that just not good enough?

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by kdr

i somehow think that before the summer break we'll also be seeing them in a natty shade of silver, blue, yellow, etc etc...

[Marbot]

Since none of the other teams have bothered to use the same or similar devices (and they've had plenty of time to fabricate them since Monaco),you can bet that this is yet another tasty morsel to be served up later.

[Adam43]

I'll risk being boring and actually talking about the device. Perhaps to understand it better (which surely has to be the first step here).

How long have they been using it (I haven't seen it). martyn bott you say Monaco is that really the first time they tried it? I got the impression the first time was Indy (???).

Do they place a blanket round the tyre first and then the box or is the blanket somehow attached to the box and htey jsut place the whole thing (at once) over the tyre?

Also how significant is this for them?

[ferrarifan]

Originally Posted by Silk Cut Jaguar

It wouldn't be summer without a new FIA favouring Ferrari story.

I'm curious to how a 'blanket' can be the same as a box though.

SO, you admit that the whole thing of tyre new regs are to stop Ferrari... Well I personally don't see the problem, Ferrari designed the "blanket", showed it to the FIA, and the FIA approved it... So what?

maybe if BAR had followed the same procedure, they wouldn't be last in the championship....

GO AHEAD FERRARI! GO AHEAD SCHUMI!

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

Originally Posted by ferrarifan

SO, you admit that the whole thing of tyre new regs are to stop Ferrari...

Sigh, my comment about the FIA favouring Ferrari was a joke. Every year around this time a story along these lines surfaces, I thought I was fairly clear about it.

[slicktoast]

Unless my physics is flawed, since the entire wheel: rim/tire is encased in the 'blanket' (red-box), the rim will be heated as well. Once removed the rim will give up its heat to the ambient outside air as well as the 'air' within the tire. Thus maintaining a higher and longer lasting tire temperature until the friction of running the tires on the tarmac brings the desired temperature. The blankets only heat the tire and therefore it (the tire) keeps giving up its heat to the rim (like a heat sink) and the air which is at a lower ambient temperature. A very clever blanket that box!

[Gt_R]

I don't know how people can claim it illegal without knowing how it works properly. Some love to take the easy way out and just blame FIA/Ferrari of some conspiracy theory than accept a judgement made by people who actually studied the object and approve/disapprove it accordingly. Furthermore, considering the very fast developement pace of all teams, they are not stopped from reproducing the same tyre blanket. In 3 races time, we'd see more than just Ferrari using it.

If Ferrari's tyre-warmer uses alternative methods outside that allowed by the rulebooks to achieve greater heating effects, then FIA have every right to reject and object it and should do just that. If Ferrari's tyre warmers are designed within the effects of the rules but applied in a more efficient manner, then i see no problem with that. And so far, none of the reports that leak out suggest it to be the former.

It won't be much of a problem for long anyway, because isn't tyre warmers going to be banned in 2008?