Ferrari Mailing List: Re: F1 Rules

[francis newman (francis]

I recently had the honour to interview John Barnard in front of an audience of 
100 of my local are group of the Ferrari Owners Club GB.

Amongst other firsts (carbon fibre tub for McLaren) JB introduced the electro 
hydraulic gear shift (flappy paddles) to F1 with the Ferrari F640 in 1989.

A few points that he told us.

1. It was introduced against CONSIDERABLE opposition in Maranello, which 
ultimately led Harvey Postlethwaite to leave Ferrari and Pierro Ferrari to be 
banned from the Gestione Sportivo.

2. Although Mansell won the first race in the car at Rio, it had a lot of 
reliability problems. these were initially blamed on the gearbox, but part way 
through the season, high speed photography of the engine showed that the 4 
bearing crankshaft of the V12 was flexing to such an extent that the alternator 
drive belt was slipping on its drive pulley, thus no power to drive the 
gearchange. Once that was realised the problem was solved.

3. The thinking behind the semi auto gearchange was nothing to do with speed of 
change or removing the over revving possibility, it was to circumvent the 
problem of a cumbersome mechanical gear change linkage interfering with other 
design parameters, particularly internal aero considerations.

That last one came as a bit of a surprise to me and the audience.

Best

Francis

On 13 Dec 2010, at 16:37, LS wrote:

> Stephen, wasn't a prototype automatic shifter tested by GV in '78?
> 
> From: stephen <stephensherman44 [at] gmail.com>
> To: LS <lashdeep [at] yahoo.com>
> Cc: ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com
> Sent: Sun, December 12, 2010 11:36:29 AM
> Subject: Re: [Ferrari] F1 Rules
> 
> With regards to paddle shifters, when Ferrari introduced them (if I remember 
> right Mansel was driving for Ferrari) and I said to my wife ''what are the 
> thinking, first you have to finish the race, why would you want to add anther 
> part to fail'. Apparently, Ferrari new what they were doing, engine failures 
> went down and that was with drivers who knew how to shift.
>  
> As a side note I had a 79 928 that had lost it's synro between 1 and 2nd and 
> had become accomplished double clutching in everyday driving. The year thet 
> the Canadian GP was cancelled because of the beer wars, I took basic and 
> advanced driving schools at Mt Treblant (Jim Russell), I can't remember a 
> session that finished without exceeding the rev limit for that session.
> I never exceeded it when accellerating and it was usually just once during a 
> session but that was all it took for the max rev tel tell
> to be set.
>  
> Stephen
>  
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: E M
> To: stephen
> Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2010 9:54 AM
> Subject: Re: [Ferrari] F1 Rules
> 
> With regards to ABS, I would agree 100%.  The current generation of ABS is 
> sooo good, I don't think it really feels intrusive to the skilled driver.  
> Early systems were so-so, and cycled so slow.  Most people never go anywhere 
> near the braking potential of their brake system anyway, even before ABS 
> kicks in.  As for those few places were ABS may not work quite as well on 
> paper, "like lose gravel", chances are, the vast majority of people who are 
> driving in such a way on that type of surface where the difference is 
> noticeable, are well on their way to crashing anyway.
> 
> Ed
> 911SC
> 
> On 12 December 2010 10:44, stephen <stephensherman44 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> I agree with most of what you said.
> When I was a programmer my goal was not to replace workers, but to allow 
> workers to do a job that thet were not qualified to do.
> Those who were quailfied benefited by not haveing to answer questions and 
> show the newbees how. ABS benefits accomplished drivers the same way by 
> reduced accidents happening to them by the less skilled. Sure there is and 
> always will be 'overdrivers'
> but I for one am glad the impact will be less with ABS.
>  
> Stephen
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: E M
> To: Stephen
> Cc: The FerrariList
> Sent: Saturday, December 11, 2010 3:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [Ferrari] F1 Rules
> 
> Nothing more satisfying to the driving enthusiast than a well executed h&t 
> downshift!  Where 1/10 or 1/00th of a second count on a track, paddles made 
> sense, as do anything that give an edge. As for road use, it's all BS.  They 
> are nothing more than toys to make less than great drivers think they are 
> race car drivers!  All they do, is instill a false sense of security in those 
> lacking talent, and encourages them to do things in cars, they have no right 
> to be doing!
> 
> Sorry if that's a bit harsh, but if you can't drive, paddles won't make you 
> quick.  Changing a gear quick is one thing, but so is the proper line, 
> braking point, turn in point, etc.  Paddles won't make up for a lack of skill 
> in those areas, it will just make you fast at times you shouldn't be.
> 
> To many cars are being built today that are telling the drivers, "you're 
> great", and not enough fellow car enthusiasts are telling their friends, "you 
> SUCK", take it easy and get some proper stick time in!!
> 
> Ed
> 911SC
> 
> On 11 December 2010 16:34, Fellippe Galletta <fellippe.galletta [at] 
> gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 3:18 PM, LS <lashdeep [at] yahoo.com> wrote:
> Or F5000....hell bring back Can Am for some real BHP and driving.
> 
> This traction control, ABS and paddle shifting is for wimps anyways.
> 
> There's ABS in racing??
> 
> As for street use, it's ok. 
> 
> Agree with traction control and paddles....I will never consider myself a 
> great driver until I can click through some quality heel & toe downshifts at 
> the track.
> 
> FG
> 
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