The fallout from the United States Grand Prix is that Lewis Hamilton will have to wait a week before he has the opportunity of clinching his 5th world championship. However, there was other fallout that had little to do with Hamilton’s title bid and more to do with fuel or the flow thereof.
It seems that Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen was deemed to have used more than the allowed fuel and this has garnered a disqualification from the event. It also seems that Force Indi’s Esteban Ocon may have used more than the allowed amount as well and he was also disqualified from the race.
Photo by: www.kymillman.com/f1Haas F1 had a tough weekend on home soil with Romain Grosjean being given a 3-place grid penalty for the next race and more points taken away from his license which means that he’s now just two points away from a race ban. A penalty, possible future ban and a DSQ for Haas F1 is not a good weekend in Austin and with the focus on using as little fuel as possible, conserving fuel and dialing engines back, penalties were given.
Alonso and F1’s amateurs
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso was not happy with being clouted out of the young Williams driver Lance Stroll.
Photo by: www.kymilman.com/f1“I’m not upset – I’m disappointed because I’m here [for] nine days in the US to do a race and I do 600 meters of the race and they push you off,” said Alonso, who races in the WEC with Toyota.
“That’s the way it is, but it’s more a problem for the FIA if they keep allowing this type of driving. I drive in another series with amateur drivers, theoretically, and there has never been a problem.
“There are more amateurs here than in other series.”
“Maybe when there’s a big crash they will do something.
“Until then we’ll try to have fun in other categories where we race against 34 cars, against amateur people, against 60-year-old men and nothing ever happens.
“Here we need bumpers, like rental go-karts, so we can all crash into each other.”
Alonso has been critical of the direction Formula 1 is taking of late and perhaps the full-throated approach to signing teenagers is not something he’s keen about as well.
Hat Tip: Autosport
How can K-Mags (or anyone else) use more than the allotted amount of fuel?
Are they pulling off some Smokey Yunick style cheat like using the HALO as an auxiliary fuel tank?
I do believe they can carry as much fuel (kg) as they want as long as it fits in the fuel cell. Since the fuels F1 uses can have varying weight per liter, if they were using the so called heavy fuel they could put more than the needed 105 kg into the same volume. Also, the 105 kg limit is from race start to finish, so they need enough for pre-race and post race running.
I do find it odd that a Ferrari engine would use too much fuel unless the driver/team weren’t paying attention.
Lap 1 midfield carnage… hardly anything new.
Maybe if McLaren bothered to try and develop their car this year, he wouldn’t be in this scenario.
I think we can label Haas as a Fail or WTF. I was hoping for better this year, but, maybe they can redeem themselves in the few races that are left.
If memory serves correctly, they entered this weekend around 8 points behind Renault and now they are something like20 or so? Not a good weekend.
I get that rules are rules, but can anybody tell me why it’s important that a Formula 1 car only burn 105kg of fuel? If your car is under weight, you cheated in that a lighter car is quicker. But if you get disqualified because you didn’t “life n coast” enough and burned 106kg of fuel instead of 105, we are saying that you are a cheater because you drove too fast.
In a race.
At the pinnacle of motorsport.
You drove too fast.
Yeah….
That’s one of the issues I’ve had with the fuel flow rate and limit. I believe F1 is correcting some of that next year.
According to KMag, it was a mere 100 grams too much fuel. It’s totally upside-down that crashing into someone and ending their race like Stroll did is a short time penalty or drive-through, while burning four ounces too much fuel is a full disqualification.
You have a point there. :) Don’t get me started on fuel limits. ;)
Lord, we’re gonna miss Alonso!
Best laugh I have had all day.
Except we can watch him run sports cars and maybe Indy.
No doubt. :(