9 replies to this topic

[HandyNZL]

So Marky Mark DNF's because his alternator packs up and thus his battery runs flat...flat battery = no spark in the combustion chamber.

But he has a totally regenerative battery pack on board.  It's called KERS.

Why has no smart boffin at any team not considered that fact that you could lose a chunk of weight (the traditional battery and the alternator), and replace it with taking a current draw off the KERS batteries for sparking purposes?

The batteries store more amps than they use for the boost they give (or are allowed to give), and every lap the KERS batteries are recharged by those big black spinning rubber alternators, so they would never go flat being used as the source for the spark.

And, it's not a performance enhancement...no extra HP is being made, no wings or ducts opened.  Just keeping the engine running.

I just sit here thinking, "dudes! You're missing the point of KERS!!"

[Rainmaster]

No idea, to be honest. Although I refuse to believe you're smarter than Adrian Newey Maybe something in the regulations somewhere?

[freaky2]

Well, even if the regulations are dumber than Craig that's still a good observation.

[Rainmaster]

Dumber than Craig? Come on they're bad but..

Actually, on the alternator issue it was funny to hear Newey saying how it's absolutely a Renault problem, they've had the alternator on the engine since 2005 and it's been failing since 2005. I'm sure they'll appreciate that!

[freaky2]

Argh, horrible wording >.< Sorry!

Even if they blame Renault, RBR work together with them. They could have complained and the issue could have been fixed. And how come we only hear from RBR about it? There are other cars with the same engine :S

[Rainmaster]

Haha!

Well, as I think James mentioned, apparently the other Renault teams decided to use a new, modified alternator whereas Red Bull stuck with an older one (similar to the one that failed on Red Bull's car in Valencia, strangely). But in Brazil they will have the same one as Lotus, Caterham, etc had in this race, but I guess they'll still have everything crossed on the pitwall.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...rmula1/20389287

Edited by Rainmaster, 19 November 2012 - 01:55 PM.

[Jean-Pierre]

The problem Red Bull has now is that they were using 2011 alternators after discovering that the 2012 were faulty, but there are no more 2011 alternators left, so they have now to use the 2012, and it is a 2012 which failed Mark this week-end. They must be very worried about the last race, where they will have to use the 2012 model.

[Peeweev]

Its an interesting idea but there must be something to stop it happening; maybe the way the kers pack is regulated for discharge - 6.6 seconds.

Also it does make the final race a lil more exciting with vettle on a timebomb!

[F1 FANatic]

Well, the regular car systems work on a 12v charge, like every other car in the world really. The KERS runs around ~600v. The KERS still uses a very low amperage but the two systems are independent of one another.

Same reason you need a battery in a Prius or any other hybrid

[HandyNZL]

F1 FANatic, on 20 November 2012 - 06:59 PM, said:

Well, the regular car systems work on a 12v charge, like every other car in the world really. The KERS runs around ~600v. The KERS still uses a very low amperage but the two systems are independent of one another.

Same reason you need a battery in a Prius or any other hybrid

Good point, however there are ways and means of converting high voltages to low voltages.

It's not an unsolvable equation in other words.