Vettel - car breaker?

Kitchster_uk · 29 Mar 2010 at 17:51

I don't think anyone doubts SV's talent - he is one hell of a driver, but he seems to have had more than his fair share of mechanical failures and also the odd 'moment' last year. In a sport where reliability has increased year after year, is Seb just a little rough with his lady? Webber hasn't had as many failures and he's not exactly gentile and dainty.

Or is Vettel just unlucky?

PinkFloyd · 29 Mar 2010 at 17:52

I'd say a combination of bad luck and pushing the cars very hard. Hard to really tell though!

/middle of the road indecisive post

gord · 29 Mar 2010 at 17:58

At the moment, just unlucky.

Running a lean car causes spark plugs to fail.
A carbon brake disc can fail if its grown incorrectly, but they have pretty good allowances.

If we get more car breaking stats in the season then he'll be the car breaker.

xen_ · 29 Mar 2010 at 18:00

Unlucky I think, I remember Brundle saying that there isn't really anything an F1 driver can do under normal circumstances that can really break the car. It does seem weird that it's Vettel's car instead of Webber's car that tends to have more issues but there was nothing he could have really done about all the engine problems last year and the spark plug failure in Bahrain, and the brake failure yesterday was from the wheel nut not attached properly or something along those lines apparently.

dannyjo22 · 29 Mar 2010 at 18:46

Its always the driver that gets the blame even in this rev limited age. Perhaps Webbers engineers are just better at bolting the car together

Just unlucky really. Some drivers have bad luck at one team and then good luck at another so it's hard to blame the driver over the car.

Setroc · 29 Mar 2010 at 18:54

Yeah, it does seem to just be bad luck at the moment. It's a shame: he's a great driver

Shimmy · 29 Mar 2010 at 18:55

Just bad luck, wasn't long ago when Webber had all the bad luck.

Alibaba99 · 29 Mar 2010 at 20:14

dannyjo22 said:
Its always the driver that gets the blame even in this rev limited age. Perhaps Webbers engineers are just better at bolting the car together

Just unlucky really. Some drivers have bad luck at one team and then good luck at another so it's hard to blame the driver over the car.

The thing is the Renault engine in the Renault hasn't been anywhere near as problematic as in the RBR. So it could be a combination of Newey pushing the design envelope, cooling being on the edge and Vettels driving.

Smit · 30 Mar 2010 at 08:55

He's just unlucky, I get the feeling the same thing will happen this season whereby these reliability issues will cost him the championship.

EddScott · 30 Mar 2010 at 09:51

Smit said:
He's just unlucky, I get the feeling the same thing will happen this season whereby these reliability issues will cost him the championship.

Been thinking the same. Also think that if RB don't sort out the reliability, SV will leave. Would he not have won the title last year if his car hadn't failed? If he comes 2nd this year as a result of car failure then I would imagine he'll be in a Merc in 2011.

Burned_Alive · 30 Mar 2010 at 10:27

Alibaba99 said:
The thing is the Renault engine in the Renault hasn't been anywhere near as problematic as in the RBR. So it could be a combination of Newey pushing the design envelope, cooling being on the edge and Vettels driving.

It does have a different exhaust system than anyone else running the Renault engine:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&&suggest&note_id=364467075228&id=124126244179

And I seem to remember there were mentions that they were struggling with heat build up and the exhaust could've been something to do with it. May be way off though.

Pete19s · 30 Mar 2010 at 17:31

Brembo have released a statement denying any brake failure on Vettels car.

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=40347

PinkFloyd · 30 Mar 2010 at 17:57

I'm sure I saw a site saying it was a wheel nut failure?

/ignore just actually read the article where it mentions that

stockhausen · 30 Mar 2010 at 17:58

Burned_Alive said:
... I seem to remember there were mentions that [Red Bull] were struggling with heat build up and the exhaust could've been something to do with it. May be way off though.

I seem to remember comments about this at the Bahrain GP. As I recall, Martin Brundle said that Red Bull had done something very clever but somewhat risky with the exhaust system in that it offered aero advantages but was likely to result in heat build-up.

Kitchster_uk · 30 Mar 2010 at 20:06

Some drivers just seem to put less pressure on the car. I like Vettel and feel really sorry for him, I just get a niggling thought that he somehow rags the car a little too hard. I know Brundle has said an F1 driver can't do anything to break a car, but I just wonder if his natural ability/style has an unfortunate side-effect of making any imperfections into major issues. We already know he is hard on his tyres but whether or not there is anything that can be drawn from that, I din't know. I suppose we will see as we go through the season. Could be worse - he is still a top driver and very young, loads of potential.

Setroc · 30 Mar 2010 at 22:10

Let's not forget that Vettel has only driven F1 cars designed by Adrian Newey.

And Newey has a much longer list of car failures than Vettel could even hope to achieve

dannyjo22 · 30 Mar 2010 at 22:19

Kitchster_uk said:
Some drivers just seem to put less pressure on the car. I like Vettel and feel really sorry for him, I just get a niggling thought that he somehow rags the car a little too hard. .

How do you rag a car thats rev limited. A few years ago when they were all going for power and revving past 20k I could understand short shifting might save the engine but these days the engines are operating well within themselves. After they bought in the engine freeze and 10-8 points everyone forgot about outright power and went for reliability.

That renault engine is hardly a radical new design, it's impossible to rag it. He doesn't seem to ride over th ekerbs hard or be any harder on the brakes than anyone else.

Just an unfortunate set of luck recently.

Dutch Guy · 31 Mar 2010 at 13:41

dannyjo22 said:
How do you rag a car thats rev limited.

They still have the option of changing gear when one light is on or all of them, maybe Vettel always changes when all lights are on and Webber does it just a little sooner :confused:

dannyjo22 · 31 Mar 2010 at 14:06

Dutch Guy said:
They still have the option of changing gear when one light is on or all of them, maybe Vettel always changes when all lights are on and Webber does it just a little sooner

The only time they would short shift is to save fuel or the engine when the race foir them is effectively over. Other than that they would both be changing gear at the optimum time. As I said these engines are not that highly stressed anymore to cause excessive problems due to a hundred rpm here and there.

Neither of Vettels failures have been due to engine stress anyway.

OpenToSuggestions · 3 Apr 2010 at 00:36

Vettel is not a car breaker.

If anyone watched the 2009 season they will know that Webber had far worse luck with reliability.

May be Webber swapped the cars over

?

If the Red Bull stops breaking, this is Vettel's championship title.

Vettel - car breaker?

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