The saga continues.
According to autosport.com, Red Bull now thinks that static from the MRT caused Webber’s gearbox to malfunction, causing him to lose the race. Team principal Christian Horner was quoted as saying:
It was exactly what [Toro Rosso] suffered from with (Sebastien) Bourdais in Friday practice, at exactly the same place. A tram line runs beneath the track at that corner and it seems as if static from a passing tram at the very moment Mark was in the corner passed through the ground.
SMRT has rebutted this claim by saying:
- There is no train passing under Turn 13 where the incident occurred.
- The nearest train was 200 meters away.
- The train was at a depth of 10 meters.
- Train wheels and rails are made of metal and thus don’t generate static electricity during operation.
Time for a quick science lesson for Mr. Horner:
Every atom and molecule in everything around us are electrically balanced, meaning they have the same number of positive and negative charges, or if you prefer, protons and electrons. Some matter hold on to their electrons better than others and the order of their charge separation is reflected in their position on the Triboelectric Series. Human hands are highly positive and metals like steel carry virtually no charge.
When two non-conducting materials come together, a chemical bond known as adhesion happens and depending on the triboelectric properties of the material, one matter might capture some of the loose electrons of the other – causing a charge to build up. When this happens, an imbalance occurs. Nature hates imbalances so upon contact with something uncharged, it’ll discharge and restore itself.
So for static electricity to build up, one needs to be positively charged and one needs to be negatively or not charged. Rubbing your hands together will not produce static electricity. Steel against steel will not produce static electricity.
Back to topic, even if there was static electricity at Turn 13, I doubt any would have traveled into the race car and screw up the gearbox because the rubber tyres would have conducted that.
In conclusion, I don’t think it’s scientifically possible for a Train to produce static electricity. Even if by some unexplained possibility that it did, it couldn’t have gone through 10 meters of tar and road 200 meters away and managed to discharge onto a vehicle with rubber tyres.
Good try Mr Horner. If you’re so sure it’s the static, then open up your gear box and show the damage. Prove what you said had actually happened and maybe I might believe you.
I wonder who’s the next losing team that will point fingers at Singapore again.
