Pants and nose rings and driver safety

[Sandpit Steve]

MG CHRIS said:

Didn't tyrell use ball bearings or something like that and was spotted dropping out of the car in the pits in Monaco then got banned mid 80s I think for the season

There was a story of the team that made a pit stop a couple of laps from the end of the race, and some mad number like 50kg of ball bearings were put into the fuel tank at the stop.

There was also a driver given a hug by the team at the end of the race, who managed to acquire pockets full of lead weights in the process.

A funny talk on the subject of rule-breaking in motorsport, by half a dozen experts in their field. https://youtube.com/watch?v=hfq7-1ePW-M

[Evercross]

This may be apocryphal, but I recall a story about a team running the car underweight at the start and then switching to a heavier set of wheels at the last pitstop once they had a big enough track position advantage?

[MarkwG]

MG CHRIS said:

MarkwG said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

It's why the drivers have to be weighed in full kit including helmet, HANS, etc., and why they are not allowed to put watches etc. back on until after they have been weighed. You can imagine how heavy their watches would be otherwise.

It's like in the early 1980's when the regulations allowed you to top off all fluids post-race before the car was weighed. Colin Chapman came up with the idea of having a reserve water tank and the first thing it did in the first couple of laps was dump all that water so the car could run underweight for most of the race. Then, post-race, it was refilled and the car was then over the minimum weight.

Indeed, most cars are designed underweight so that ballast can be used to bring the car back up to minimum weight whilst giving some control over weight distribution. It's also why there have been complaints when the minimum weight was difficult to achieve, with drivers being put on diets to try to bring the weight down to the minimum (obviously no ballast used in that scenario).

Minor point - I recall it as Brabham & Williams, rather than Lotus, with rumours there were others at it too. The water was supposedly to cool the brakes, but suspiciously it was all used up very quickly...

Didn't tyrell use ball bearings or something like that and was spotted dropping out of the car in the pits in Monaco then got banned mid 80s I think for the season

A mix of water & lead shot topped up at the final pit stop - the spilled lead shot gave the game away eventually. The FIA expunged their results for that season, & their drivers banned from the last three races - Stefan Bellof & a Mr Martin Brundle - wonder whatever happened to him...?

[patmahe]

Would be very interesting to see Martin present a special on cheats in F1 including the one at Tyrrell, he has to have known, a tell all about how the idea was born and manifested, who drove it through was everyone on board etc... would be fascinating, doubt it'd ever happen though.