The throttle problem which jeopardised Charles Leclerc’s victory appears to have been mechanical rather than electronic in nature, his team believe.
Formula 1 cars have used electronic fly-by-wire throttles since the nineties. However a physical fault appeared to lie behind Leclerc’s problem, said team principal Mattia Binotto.“On the initial feedback It’s more a mechanical one we got, but I cannot give you more details than that,” he told RaceFans and other media following today’s race.
Leclerc first reported a problem with his throttle after the Virtual Safety Car period late in the race caused by his team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr’s retirement. Conversations between him and his team on the radio indicated the throttle was not cutting out fully when the accelerator pedal was no longer being pressed.
The final laps of the race were “very stressful”, said Leclerc. “The throttle was really inconsistent and in the middle of the corner, it would get stuck to whatever percentage.”
The problem was especially acute in the sharp right-hand hairpin turn three, he said. “In turn three, it was very, very tricky because that’s where you don’t want any more speed in mid-corner.
“It was quite tricky to manage, not so much in the high speed, but mostly in the low-speed. But at the end we managed to get the car to the end, which is great.”
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Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
10th July 2022, 20:17
Duh, of course it was mechanical. It felt different therefore it was the actuator, the pedal part, not the electronics.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th July 2022, 22:30
Was thinking the same, not a surprise this comment by ferrari.
Antz (@antznz)
11th July 2022, 0:59
@esploratore1 it might be one of those comments targeted at Ferrari’s perceived intellect of their fans?
Todfod (@todfod)
11th July 2022, 6:41
Ferrari is a little slow in the head. They’e figured this out after the casual fan has.
MacLeod (@macleod)
11th July 2022, 8:00
I had this once in my car and it lays in the component which translated the mechanic force into a electronial it was fun to drive with it and much more challenging for the garage as when they test it everything works fine.
So Charles was lucky if he had my problem you could only trottle to 50% and not more it could be very bad for him.
But he didn’t it was the spring to return the pedal to his 0% position it’s annoying but he could still give 100%.
Kevin C (@kev-f1)
11th July 2022, 11:45
Do they also suspect Sainz’s retirement was also due to a mechanical failure?? lol
John Platô (@johnplato)
11th July 2022, 4:42
It was pretty obvious that it was mechanical.
The pedal was sticking.
The thing is, Ferrari can’t even build a pedal box properly, how are they going to mount a championship challenge like this?
AV
11th July 2022, 8:18
It’s a feature, not a bug. Just didn’t work this time, evidenced by Leclerc going on to win.
Qeki (@qeki)
11th July 2022, 8:41
Yes I suspect that Ferrari is made by Ferrari
S
11th July 2022, 10:22
Perhaps ironically, pedal boxes are one of the most commonly outsourced sub-assemblies.
It’s quite possible – probable even – that the pedals weren’t actually made by Ferrari at all.
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
11th July 2022, 8:56
Good win for LeClerc, good for the competition. I have one question: if a pedal is not working as it should, and it is mechanical also, why is that not a safety issue. Didn’t they have to pit to check it? I know they didn’t and it worked for them. Still got that question.
S
11th July 2022, 10:23
‘Safety issue’ is the greyest of grey areas in F1.