The wheel covers should be banned.

sejtur · Post by **sejtur** » 12 Apr 2009, 15:09

I just was watching A1GP, and I suddenly realised that I miss the glowing brake discs and shiny race rims from the F1. It looks way better than these rubbish wheel covers, way more classic. And sometimes when you see them moving, it just looks like they're hovering. It just looks awful, with fake rim stickers pasted on the covers. For me it really takes away from the beauty and the rawness of the cars. Plus, McLarens devices are almost covering up the whole wheel, it's getting really out of hand. Now who's with me.

coup · Post by **coup** » 12 Apr 2009, 15:51

I'm with you!

TwistedArmco · Post by **TwistedArmco** » 12 Apr 2009, 17:46

Agreed. I think they're also fundamentally illegal. How are they not an "aerodynamic device" on the wheels? Unless since 2007> those have been legal.

BMWSauber5 · Post by **BMWSauber5** » 13 Apr 2009, 10:36

yep, miss those days....

metalhead188 · Post by **metalhead188** » 13 Apr 2009, 17:12

i think they should keep them... they having improved braking efficiency, pedal feel, and braking strength over the length of a race.... the last thing someone wants to see is a high speed crash due to brake failure

sejtur · Post by **sejtur** » 16 Apr 2009, 13:48

metalhead188 wrote:i think they should keep them... they having improved braking efficiency, pedal feel, and braking strength over the length of a race.... the last thing someone wants to see is a high speed crash due to brake failure

So the wheel covers help preventing brake failure? Maybe.. but before Ferrari had them, they weren't troubled by brake failures either.
But I don't know how it would affect pedal feel?

Like twisted armco said, how can it not be seen as aerodynamic device? This is something like the diffuser case, bending the rules in some way.

TwistedArmco · Post by **TwistedArmco** » 16 Apr 2009, 16:11

metalhead188 wrote:i think they should keep them... they having improved braking efficiency, pedal feel, and braking strength over the length of a race.... the last thing someone wants to see is a high speed crash due to brake failure

well they all coped without them for umpteen years beforehand, so I'm sure we can dow without them wiht barely a brake failure. Honestly I think the two concepts are barely linked at all.

metalhead188 · Post by **metalhead188** » 16 Apr 2009, 22:08

the wheel covers where designed to extract heat from the brakes... their aerodynamic gains have minimal compared to an improved efficiency of the breaks over the race distance... which allows the drivers to dive into the turn deeper and considering the only way F1 cars can pass each other is by out breaking the other car

lets use Monaco for an example... lots of heavy breaking with short spurts to cool them off... years back drivers complained of break balance issues as wheel as pedal feel... pedal feel comes from the brake fluid boiling over and the pedal goes soft (not a fun feeling at 100+ mph)

TwistedArmco · Post by **TwistedArmco** » 16 Apr 2009, 22:27

metalhead188 wrote:the wheel covers where designed to extract heat from the brakes... their aerodynamic gains have minimal compared to an improved efficiency of the breaks over the race distance... which allows the drivers to dive into the turn deeper and considering the only way F1 cars can pass each other is by out breaking the other car

lets use Monaco for an example... lots of heavy breaking with short spurts to cool them off... years back drivers complained of break balance issues as wheel as pedal feel... pedal feel comes from the brake fluid boiling over and the pedal goes soft (not a fun feeling at 100+ mph)

But does that really affect things all so much? After all, the last brake failure I can remember before 2006 and the development of wheel covers was Schumi's in 1999. I'm sure there are other, more recent ones, but it doesn't seem to me like if we took them off, we'd have a whole field full of brake failures. It's less a safety thing than a performance gain. They're not a necessary part for safety.

swca92 · Post by **swca92** » 16 Apr 2009, 22:38

The wheel covers have nothing to do with brake faliures, they simply act as an aerodynamic device. I think we've seen less brake faliures cos from 05-08 the cars had less grip due to new aerodynamic regs and less grip from tyres, and the more grip, the more strain on brakes. With much less aerodynamic grip this year I can't see there being many brake faliures, and anyway its up to teams and brake disc manufacturers to avoid faliures. These wheel covers are a nuisance that often mess up pitstops and worsen the look of cars, getting rid of them would be good to see.

nickel · Post by **nickel** » 25 Apr 2009, 15:10

Put me on the "good riddance" list! Even if it is about brake failures, I disagree with some of the comments here. More efficient braking only promotes overtaking if one driver benefits and one does not. In our modern F1, braking distances are so short, and brakes so efficient, that a brave driver has little wiggle room to outbrake his opponent. Did anyone notice that in China, on the long straight, drivers only started braking 70M from turn entry? While that is incredible, no doubt about it, this makes braking even 5 meters later risky (if not impossible).

So I say, get rid of the covers, and while we're at it, how about some good old steel brakes? Then we can see the great drivers show their mettle as to who's got the cojones to brake late.

er15 · Post by **er15** » 26 Apr 2009, 06:07

They are banned Next year i heard. Good News:)

TwistedArmco · Post by **TwistedArmco** » 26 Apr 2009, 08:53

er15 wrote:They are banned Next year i heard. Good News:)

Where did you hear this?

swca92 · Post by **swca92** » 26 Apr 2009, 09:33

BBC commentary-I think it was Legard who said it though it might have been Croft commentating on practice.

Post by **phil1993** » 26 Apr 2009, 09:35

No, thats a misinterpretation: he meant tyre covers... the tyre warmers

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