Tony Rickard wrote in
. uk:

> mcewena wrote:
>>>I think the "who can refuel and when and by how much" thing is
>>>an unnecessary complication as well.
>
>> I thought so to until one of the Speedtv guys gave the
>> rational, the more laps you run in the 3rd session the faster
>> you go because of the lowered fuel load, so each team is
>> encouraged to run as many or more laps then the other guys.
>> This keeps the maximum cars out on track in front of the fans
>> instead of them all waiting until the last 2 minutes.
>> At least that's the theory. I imagine monaco will throw a
>> monkey
>> wrench into it...
>
> Or some engineer will develop a gas guzzling engine map that can
> use up half a tank in the outlap or maybe an aircon option as a
> health & safety gesture for the Malaysian heat which
> mysteriously fails starting the first flying lap?
>
> Seriously though I think it is agood step to return to those
> exciting qualifying sessions with traffic and multiple laps
> without the waiting game for the lower runners to lay the rubber
> down.
>
> Cheers
> Tony
>

They only get a gas credit for those laps that are faster than
107% of the ultimate pole time. And the gas credit, IIRC, is a
calculated value: don't ask me how it is calculated.

So if the driver goes out and does a bunch of slow laps to burn
off gas, he won't get any gas to replace that used in those slow
laps. That's what happened to MS, and he refered to the "missing"
lap's worth of fuel as costing him the race. If he had had that
extra lap added in, he could have stayed out longer and Fernando
wouldn't have been able to beat him out of the pits that last
time.

Since drivers don't know ahead of time what the pole position time
is going to be, they have to drive moderately fast to get their
laps to count. Not the same as full out speed, but still, better
than just cruising around to burn off fuel.

--
Darryl