2023-05-02 07:35:50
Formula 1 fans are still around with the ruling that deprived the Asturian driver of the podium. de Fernando Alonso managed to finish the weekend on a rather positive note, with a fourth place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix but it escapes no one that, had it not been for the DRS failures, the Spaniard would have entered the top three .
The Aston Martin team premiered a novelty this weekend with which they hoped to make a qualitative leap in the fast zones since it improved the top speed of the AMR23, the Achilles heel of the car. The car is really competitive in slow areas and with curves, however, in the fastest ones and when the straights take center stage the car loses time per lap because it does not have a top speed as competitive as its direct rivals. A problem they wanted to solve in a big way with a new low downforce rear wing at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix but it didn’t work as expected.
As soon as he got out of his Aston Martin after the qualifying session, the Spanish double world champion explained that a problem with the DRS cost him a potential fourth position, which would have left him just behind the drivers who were fighting for pole position, and by ahead of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton. “We had some problem with the DRS in the end zone in qualifying that cost us a few tenths of a second, and seeing how tight qualifying is, we probably would have been fourth, instead of sixth”He stated showing his discontent.
And that the innovation in the rear of the car, called to be a revolution, became a nightmare during the sessions on Friday and Saturday that cost the cars of Alonso and Stroll two tenths per lap, until the mechanics came up with the key.
He The failure was due to an aerodynamic characteristic of the new low drag wing specification, which caused the device to oscillate and only activate intermittently.
So the team decided to use ingenuity and looking “in extremis” for two solutions that allowed the driver to once again have an exceptional race and come close to the podium.
Lubricant!
The first was to change the upper component of the brand new wing on his car and review the rear suspension of the AMR23. And the second, much more surprising for its simplicity, is to use lubricant. With a small amount of this oil, it is possible for the fork bars and the body or rod of the shock absorbers, both air and spring, to considerably lower their friction.
So, as a temporary solution for the Azerbaijan GP, in which Alonso finished fourth and Stroll seventh, the team cleaned the rear wing endplates with lubricant to facilitate flap movement. “I can not tell you,but it was not far from using WD40!” Confessed the director of the team, Mike Krack, to Motorsport.
“The car is in parc fermé, so there is not much you can do. We try to clean the surfaces and we try to check your gaps, everything. We checked everything with the FIA and the FIA was very helpful in this and you will have seen we also changed a flap on Fernando’s car. This was after a routine service, basically, because if you pull all the time on the fin when it’s not moving, then you put more stress on it. So, for security, we wanted to change it, ”he concluded.
The WD-40, according to the product’s own description, lubricates moving parts such as hinges, wheels, rollers, chains, and gears. Protects against rust and corrosion and It is often used to free stuck corroded parts such as nuts, bolts, valves and locks.
Now those from Silverstone are working against the clock to permanently solve a problem that has been subtracting points from Alonso since the beginning of the competition.
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