Ferrari Mailing List: LH Gearbox

[clyde romero (clyderomero]

Now it was NOT Lewis' fault for the slowdown during the race:

McLaren has rejected published reports suggesting that Lewis
Hamilton’s gearbox glitch in the early stages of the Brazilian
Grand Prix, which effectively cost him the World Championship, was
caused by the British rookie pressing the wrong button on his steering
wheel.

Hamilton slowed almost to a halt on lap eight of Sunday’s race,
dropping from sixth to 18th place, but was then able to regain speed
after being coached via the radio on how to reset the system. The
incident sparked suggestions that the 22-year-old had pushed the wrong
button on his steering wheel, locking the gearbox in neutral until he
was given instructions over the radio how to reset the system. 

Compounding these rumors was a report in Montreal newspaper La Presse,
which quotes Hamilton directly as saying he indeed pushed the wrong
button. However, a source close to the Hamilton family has described the
report as “absolute rubbish,” telling autosport.com that Hamilton
had not spoken to the Canadian newspaper or said any such thing to
anyone. A McLaren spokesperson also denied the report and said the
failure was not down to human error.

“We can confirm that the temporary gear-shifting problem Lewis
suffered on lap eight of the Brazilian Grand Prix was due to a default
in the gearbox that selected neutral for a period of time,” she said.
“It was not as a result of Lewis pressing an incorrect button on his
steering wheel.”

McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh also ruled out driver error and said
the likely reason was hydraulic valve failure.

“It was a gearbox problem, and it went into forced-neutral and
changing down seemed to rectify it – it might be mechanical, but we
doubt it,” he told Autosport. “If it was something mechanical, they
usually don’t fix themselves. It could be electronics software – but
there’s no evidence in the analysis to support that. Could be a sensor
– but again, there’s no evidence in the data recordings.

“So it would appear that the barrels that change gear went out of
control – and out of control of the driver – and that’s probably
hydraulic.

“That could be either a very small Moog servo control valves that
were interfered with by a tiny piece of debris, or they are sensitive to
magnetic interference – something generated a magnetic field which
caused the valve to misbehave.”

 

 

 

 

Clyde

 

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