Tear off's, dumb question?

[Balmoral Green]

Are these a hazard? Considering that often quite a fuss is made of a bit of debry on the track. Seen a few of them being torn off and discarded, and flying about in various cars wakes too. It's not inconceivable that one could end up in an intake and could cause some restriction, or betwixt disc and pad or into another drivers visor.

[AndrewW-G]

Yes, one of the reasons why the sidepods are cleaned during pit stops, cant see them bothering the braking system due to the heat build up in that area

[majordad]

Could they not be guilty of an offense under the litter laws ? But then some of the countries F1 visits now are not too clean in the first place.

Still a stop and go penalty to pick it up would liven things up no end !

[need45peed]

Back in the '90s in a Champcar race, a driver tore off a visor strip as he left the pits. It went straight into the engine intake and through the turbocharger with terminal consequences. It worries me more in bike racing though, imagine a tear-off under your front wheel at the instant you hit the brakes! So, yes, I would consider them a danger.

[Eric Mc]

Chris Amon went to tear off a strip and pulled his entire visor off - which contributed to him not winning a grand prix he was leading at the time.

[CampDavid]

They won't get into the brake disks as the disks are shielded within the wheels.

If they were court under a braking wheel I'd imagine they'd just disintegrate pretty quickly. I can't see them being too much of an issue

[130R]

Would have thought the most likely problem would be if the tear off went into the big air intake above the drivers head. Not sure if it would cause a problem but it could block some of it off.

[Motown Junk]

majordad said:

Could they not be guilty of an offense under the litter laws ? But then some of the countries F1 visits now are not too clean in the first place.

You mean like England...

You can't even chew gum in Malaysia let alone 'decorate' every single paving slab with it

[BoRED S2upid]

I would think not having then would be more of a hazzard especially in a wet race.

[d3dna]

Would the drivers and riders be briefed prior to free practice/qualifying/race where they are allowed to remove the tear off's?
Usually you see them removing them when going down a straight which seems the best area to do it as the driver/rider are not focusing on anything other than nailing it down the straight and the wake of car/bike should push the discarded tear off to the sides of the track.

[petergb]

Eric Mc said:

Chris Amon went to tear off a strip and pulled his entire visor off - which contributed to him not winning a grand prix he was leading at the time.

Amon never did have any good luck.

[paolow]

what I dont understand is the number of drivers will would pull off a tear off immediately after leaving the pits having had some bloke clean the visor with a rag. whats the point?

[Mr Jenks]

paolow said:

what I dont understand is the number of drivers will would pull off a tear off immediately after leaving the pits having had some bloke clean the visor with a rag. whats the point?

They probably use the same rag for wiping the dipstick when checking oil level

Edited by Mr Jenks on Monday 15th March 22:12

[Mazda Baiter]

petergb said:

Eric Mc said:

Chris Amon went to tear off a strip and pulled his entire visor off - which contributed to him not winning a grand prix he was leading at the time.

Amon never did have any good luck.

1971 Italian GP iirc. Way ahead in the V12 Matra.

[sheps]

d3dna said:

Would the drivers and riders be briefed prior to free practice/qualifying/race where they are allowed to remove the tear off's?
Usually you see them removing them when going down a straight which seems the best area to do it as the driver/rider are not focusing on anything other than nailing it down the straight and the wake of car/bike should push the discarded tear off to the sides of the track.

I wouldn't of thought it is very wise to try and do it halfway around a corner

Anywho, most of the drivers i have seen pull it off, release the tear off well to the side, and out of the way of the intake above the drivers head.

Edited by sheps on Tuesday 16th March 00:30

[Eric Mc]

sheps said:

d3dna said:

Would the drivers and riders be briefed prior to free practice/qualifying/race where they are allowed to remove the tear off's?
Usually you see them removing them when going down a straight which seems the best area to do it as the driver/rider are not focusing on anything other than nailing it down the straight and the wake of car/bike should push the discarded tear off to the sides of the track.

I wouldn't of thought it is very wise to try and do it halfway around a corner

Edited by sheps on Tuesday 16th March 00:30

The use of "of" in this context is banned on PH

[f@tboy]

Sorry for the hijack, but it's a dumb tear-off question...

How does the driver know to pull the next one from the left or the ride side? Can't be remembering which is next surely?

[BonzoGuinness]

Does it matter which side? The handles of the tearoffs underneath are all folded over the posts on the visor, so when the top one is pulled off the handle of the tearoff underneath will unfold ready for use. I think that's why the holes on the handles are larger?

[f@tboy]

d'oh!! That's really simple.

(I was thinking one tab per tear-off, alternating sides.)

Thanks :-)

[StevieBee]

I remember in the 80s, several drivers used a fan arrangement on their helmet. It would spin with airflow, dispersing water and debris without the need for tear offs.

Either it didn't work or they were banned.

Did try to find an image but no luck.