FORUMula1.com

[What's Burning?]

Could it be as simple as a setting for nuetral, or when they lift for a corner the drivers engage the clutch keeping the revs high and keeping the blown exhaust air coming when they need it the most

There is no coasting in F1. Even in the slowest corners, they run twice the sideloading of the upper limit of the best handling street autos. Under those conditions, the car will slow dramatically any time the driver isn't applying serious horsepower.

Also, whether accelerating or de-accelerating (which, in the case of an F1 car, is virtually all the time), so long as the clutch remains engaged, the engine contributes to the grip available to the front tyres. I would think removing the effect of the engine from that equation would work at crossed purposes to the blown diffuser.

Not to mention the dynamics of mid- and rear-engined cars get wonky if you clutch or brake while in mid-corner.*

*The book of Porsche, Chapter 1, Verses 4-7

Slow in fast out, slow in fast out, slow in fast out. That's what I always replay mentally every time I drive a 911.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

"...It's very easy from a chassis point of view," [Sam Michael] explains, "but the problem is doing it without damaging the engine, because you've got to retard the ignition significantly so that you get the gas to fire in the exhaust system and produce a lot of high energy air coming out of the exhaust but for very low engine torque. Doing it places considerable strain on the exhaust vales...."

[darwin dali]

"...It's very easy from a chassis point of view," [Sam Michael] explains, "but the problem is doing it without damaging the engine, because you've got to retard the ignition significantly so that you get the gas to fire in the exhaust system and produce a lot of high energy air coming out of the exhaust but for very low engine torque. Doing it places considerable strain on the exhaust vales...."

Interesting...

[What's Burning?]

The more this comes to light the more it looks like they are doing it sparingly in Q3 and that's why they've looked superhuman during qualifying but not nearly as good in race pace setup. Maybe they do it for one of two hot laps in Q3 and that's it.