Lies! Damned Lies!:
Commenting on his team’s unimpressive performance at the recent Austrian F1 Grand Prix, WilliamsF1 Chief Operations Engineer, Sam Michael said that, “Juan [Pablo Montoya] was on line to win the race - he had enough fuel in the car to finish that off.” [BBC] I’m afraid I don’t like that suggestion very much.
Montoya made one refuelling/tyres stop during his race, pulling into the pits for a total of 28.787 seconds (from pit-lane entry to exit) on lap 20 — eleven laps before his engine petered out. I find it amusing that Sam Michael would have us believe that his driver’s car had taken on 49 laps worth of fuel (it’s a 69 lap race) in the sixth-fastest pit-stop of the day, while everyone else — his own teammate included — only managed to fill up with 25-30 laps worth.
Even if it that were possible (with the helpd of some miracle), the car would be so weighted down by the extra fuel that the other cars would easily catch it up. Nevermind that his heavily worn tyres would be no match for the fresh ones of all the drivers breathing down his neck. Nope, not buying it, Keep dreaming Sam, and leave the bullshit at home next time!
