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[stonemonkey]

At Melbourne, is the guy running in front going to have to conserve fuel later and is the guy behind conserving his fuel at the moment?

[NHcheese]

That will be like, tactics with tyres, two strategies along with tyre strategies. Which means it is gonna mean the driver is gonna need to focus on 50000 things at once.

[stonemonkey]

I don't know, there'll be a lot more communication from the pit and maybe until the teams start to get an idea what others cars can do we'll see them just running their own race for the first few races.

[CookinFlat6]

At Melbourne, is the guy running in front going to have to conserve fuel later and is the guy behind conserving his fuel at the moment?

I think we are all in danger of underestimating the engineering and especially engine management software.
I dont think the driver will be doing that much calculation or decision making beyond selecting modes.
For example he might start with a mode calculated to get him to the end of the race at an optimum fuel usage and power output. as the race goes on depending to his actual % of using that mode, he can then change modes/profiles.

I really dont think they will be lifting and cruising like LMP which is more endurance. F1 with the low speed corners and constant acceleration/decceleration wont be the same. The drivers will still drive to the max all the time, its just that the max will be dictated by the particular engine mode selected.

So one guy could have his foot flat down and his teqammate has his foot flat down and flys past him - because of the different engine modes. I dont think one of them will be thinking 'I have 23 kgs left, let be depress the pedal 77.34%

I could be wrong, but everyone seems to be thinking the drivers will make a difference by gentle pressing a fly by wire pedal, which is ridudiculous really

[stonemonkey]

There are differences the driver can make to his driving but yes I know a lot's down to the engine modes etc. The point I was trying to make though is that no one really knows what anyone elses car can do relative to their own yet with respect to fuel consumption and initially it won't be clear what sort of mode they're running in at different phases of the race so forming a strategy as the race unfolds will be difficult.

[Jabberwocky]

It turns out that there is 35 Mega Joules of energy in a L of fuel.

[CookinFlat6]

Yes agreed, its going to be a lot of learning on the job in the first few races. Especially for those who havent completed race sims. On one of Nicos sims for examples he had to cruise for the last stint as he had overdone it earlier, which doesnt mean the Merc is thirsty etc, just that they now know more about the modes

[Jabberwocky]

lets not all be so rough on if the engines will be thirsty or not. Just like tires where if you push you burn them out quicker. The Fuel game will be the same. Do you burn a lot of fuel at the start of the race and then cruise at the end? Do you cruise at that start and then catch the people who are cruising at the end because you have fuel to burn?

Lets look at it as a new aspect to the strategy

[CookinFlat6]

Sure and all that will be a matter of the driver having some display that allows him to see how his delta to the standard optimum map. So if he is extra aggressive at the start and is under, then later he will have to choose one of the leaner modes.

I just dont think we will physically notice much of this especially when the cars will be quite different in engine terms

[Hammer278]

I think this is being blown out of proportion.

The drivers can only really control very few things in the cockpit - engine mapping (running rich or lean) and their own pace on how hard they want to push the tyres or help the engine conserve (if things get bad).

The engineers can easily read the rate of consumption during practice and make their plans on a Saturday night, aka running rich for a certain number of laps (phase 1), then lean on the next 20 laps (phase 2).

The only thing added to last season is running 2 separate stints side by side, tyres and fuel. Tyres will have a stint plan, fuel another. What's so difficult in following this? Drivers just have a knob to turn maybe 3-4 times during a race, the rest comes down to tyres again. Things should get a whole lot more predictable for engineers and drivers (non-Renault customers) alike by the 3rd race.

[stonemonkey]

It's just turning a knob a couple of times in the race but it's knowing where and when to turn it, at least with tyres you can see what someone else is doing as the race unfolds but not so easy to see how the others are managing their fuel. They'll have ways of working out the quickest way to cover a race distance but throw other cars into the mix on race day and it's not as straight forward as that.

[Hammer278]

The when and where will be lead by the engineers monitoring the data. If the car is in heavy traffic and the driver is using more fuel than normal, they'd just need to radio him and warn him reg engine management or have a contingency plan...these things can all be worked out before a race. The sad part is that the improvisations done during the race will not be by the driver but the engineer....the driver is just going to be taking orders and doing what he needs to in order to get to the finish line.

[spankyham]

People are confusing last year with the new regulation. There will not be multiple mappings available. At the Australian gp all teams must nominate ONE mapping, and that is ALL they can user for the whole year. They are allowed ONE wild card change. So the thought that a driver can change mapping's during a race is completely wrong - thanks to the supporters of reduced options for cost cutting

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[stonemonkey]

Isn't that to do with the valve and ignition timing? Will they not still be able to adjust the fuel mix?

[sagi58]

...Lets look at it as a new aspect to the strategy

Great summarization!!
The most successful team will be the team that works as a team!!

... throw other cars into the mix on race day and it's not as straight forward as that.

Good point!!
And, that's why testing isn't always a good indicator of who can do what and when they can do it!!