F1 Hungary - Heidfeld's fire

[Scott]

They suspect it was a result of an extra long pit stop due to a tire problem, and the forward facing exhausts heating up the bodywork until it caught fire.  I always thought the forward exhausts might cause fires.

Can you imagine being on the pit crew of Renault?  If the exhaust is so hot it causes carbon fibre to burn, it must get pretty darned hot while you're changing a tire.

They also didn't mention anything about the explosion.  I sure hope someone is trying to figure out what happened.  KERS blew up or what?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93584

[cosworth151]

I don't think the stop was longer than the cars in the first few rows spend sitting still on the grid between the recon lap & the start. As quickly as that flared up and spread, I wonder if an hydraulic, oil or fuel line broke.

I suspect a KERS battery in the explosion too, Scott.

[Wats-on]

I always said that Heidfeld is the now-a-days Amon. If there is any bad luck, it finds him...

Luckily he got out without injuries...

[John S]

In this vid of the car on fire it does look lke the explosion comes from infront of the engine so KERS battery looks a likely suspect, but I guess could also be an hydraulic fluid resovoir going up.   

[Monty]

That poor marshal wasn't limping because he was hurt......he just had something running down the inside of his trouser leg!

The cars have pressurised cooling systems. As the explosion happened there was a lot of white smoke. Could this have been steam, suggesting a radiator had exploded?

[markfarrell9572]

Its rare to see F1 cars catch fire these days, even if the causes were seperate I think both of Heidfelds fires this year should be investigated fully.

[John S]

The team now says it's the small gas cannister, which supplies the pneumatic valve system on the engine, that exploded. The following is from GPupdate.com, Today. At least the marshall seems to have escaped relatively uninjured. 

Although Technical Director James Allison is yet to publish a full report into the incident, it is highly expected that the issue began when one of the wheel nuts forced a lengthy stop - with normal procedure requiring the driver to maintain 18,000rpm as full throttle is applied with the pit lane speed limiter active.

As mechanics attended to the wheel problem, the car remained stationary for around 10 to 12 seconds as opposed to the usual three or four; this caused the forward-pointing exhausts to overheat and in-turn the bodywork caught fire.

 The subsequent explosion of the left sidepod occurred as the cold fire extinguisher foam came into to contact with the aforementioned small gas canister, which all cars carry in order to feed the pneumatic valve system of the engine.

 It has been confirmed by the Hungaroring that a marshal – hit by flying debris as the sidepod exploded – suffered no more than bruising to the leg.

 Renault are expected to authenticate an official explanation on Monday evening.

[cosworth151]

I'm glad to hear that the marshal is OK. The video John put up shows how much debris the cars exiting the pits had to run through.

[Neil.P]

Looks like Nick might have done a bit in his trousers too, looked a bit shocked at the end of John's vid there, hehe.

Neil.P

[Scott]

Geez, time for a re-design on that little tank...maybe a safety valve or something? 

Still, I'm still a bit suspicious.  I've never seen an explosion like that on an F1 car, or ever seen a tank like that was described in debris. 

[cosworth151]

They're going to bring back the old Renault Fuego name for the car.

[cosworth151]

They now say it came from a crack in the exhaust.

It was an expensive fire. The car is a complete write-off.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93623

[lkjohnson1950]

They think the actual cause was a new fuel map which caused excess heat, cracking the exhaust. The thing that got me was with the throttle open the exhaust temp rises 600' per second!! This is because they run a hot blown diffuser and there is raw fuel in the exhaust stream.

Lonny

[Canada Darrell™]

They must've been trying to emulate a jet fighters afterburner technology and it backfired!

[John S]

They must've been trying to emulate a jet fighters afterburner technology and it backfired!

Never a good idea to use afterburners whilst stationary.