Speed traps

Hi all,
I was just reviewing f1.com to see infos about all tracks.
I have two questions regarding speed traps:
1. Is speed trap really showing the max speed at given straight? Or is it just speed at the given point?
2. Which year did they change speed traps in Silverstone and Spa? In Silverstone (according to f1.com) now trap is just before Maggots and I believe in the past it was at the end of Hangar straight. For Spa now trap is just after Eau Rouge and I believe previously it was just before Les Combes.
I didn't capture these changes.

Pep

1 - The Speed Trap is the speed at which the car crosses the speed trap line(s). I say lines because obviously you need more than 1 line to get the speed. It isn't the speed at the end of the straight, or the max archived on the lap, only over that specific speed trap.

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It has to be very sensitive, and on a short interval, if a speedtrap is just after Eau Rouge. As the speed changes in a corner, it doesn't show a topspeed if they measure the distance divided by time before the corner till after. Then you'll get an average which is lower i think than the actual speed after the corner. (Same for a straight on which cars accelerate most of the distance, until they reach the actual topspeed).

So I guess the have a very small distance and time measurement to come as close to the actual speed as possible...

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I agree with you Sapo.
For sure, they don't measure top speed before and after Eau Rouge, but they measure it on short interval just after Eau Rouge. Probably they are doing it in this place to show the audiance how fast F1 cars just after famous corner.
Is just that I don't know at which year they located there speed trap. Have a look at f1.com

Pep

I remember M.Schumacher exiting Eau Rouge at 321 kmh in 2002, setting a record. So in 2002 the speed trap was there...but maybe there is another before Les Combes..

yep, and at some circuits they are located at the end of the longuest straight, so at some circuits it is the max they reach at the circuit, well actually not the max, but pretty close because they move it a bit behind the braking area, like 20 mtrs or so, but at that point in a F1 car, they have reached pretty much almost the top speed, i would say the differnce could be 2-4 kph before the braking area

For example, in Monza, it is almost certain that the speed trap is located on the straight that the car reaches is maximum speed, the front straight, but it is still a bit before the braking zone, so they probably reach a bit more...

i guess the only way to read the max speed of each car at the circuits would be reading the telemetry

They've messed it up in the past too by putting it just before the braking point of the leaders, and it was messing up the speed for half the field. Can't remember where or when it was though.

It's frequently wrong in wet-races for the same reason - the cars are braking before the end of the speed-trap 'zone' (which is probably all of a metre long).

This raises the question of how they can measure corner apex speeds for everyone and not top speeds...

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Probably some way through the FIA standard transponder they get. That is a nice feature. I quite like it.

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NickKK Wrote:
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> This raises the question of how they can measure
> corner apex speeds for everyone and not top
> speeds...


The car are all fitted with a GPS system. This is also how FOM can display the map of where the cars are on circuit.

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The speed trap at Interlagos is actually just before the braking zone for a corner (T1 i think). The only reason I remember this is because a few years back when it rained, the speed traps were massively slower (cos the cars were braking earlier, and therefore catching the speedtrap while slowing down) and Brundle was having one of his moments of technical excellence by pointing it out to us lol.

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gav Wrote:
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> They've messed it up in the past too by putting it
> just before the braking point of the leaders, and
> it was messing up the speed for half the field.
> Can't remember where or when it was though.

Interlagos and Silverstone I think. At Interlagos, in 2003, Rubens had a "top speed" around 304 kph, while Montoya had 317. Means that those who brake earlier give us a lower speed at that point. Same goes with Silverstone, where Speed Trap is/was just before Abbey. In 2003, Coulthard was around 280 kph at that point and Rubens, who set pole, only 258 kph.

kimiraik Wrote:
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> I remember M.Schumacher exiting Eau Rouge at 321
> kmh in 2002, setting a record. So in 2002 the
> speed trap was there...but maybe there is another
> before Les Combes..

Yes, Split 1 is right there