Everything in the FIA World Endurance Championship revolves around time, one of the key reasons that TUDOR is the FIA WEC’s valued official timing partner. But, time in motor racing is measured not just in hours and minutes but in tenths, hundredths and thousandths of a second.
As the world saw in Shanghai two weeks ago with the remarkable qualifying ‘dead heat’ between the #8 Toyota TS 040 Hybrid and the #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid, the intensity of the competition burns white hot. It is often, literally, too close to call and takes the skill and accuracy of the FIA WEC’s timekeepers at Alkamel Systems to measure the precise timings.
The odds on such a scenario such as Shanghai qualifying ever occurring again are almost impossible to calculate. Such is the closeness of the competition, especially in the qualifying sessions in 2014; it would be a brave person who wagered against it being just as tight again in Bahrain.
With the average four laps registering exactly the same time at Shanghai it shows that every thousandth of a second counts out on the track for the driver, as well in the pit stops for the mechanics.
So, what can be done in 0.001s, which is the four decimal place timing to which most modern motorsport works too?
The beautiful Hummingbird beats its wings at an approximate average of 60 beats per second, this equates to 0.01s, which compares to a lot of time when you consider the closeness of the Shanghai qualifying session! Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson would have gladly settled for that margin and thus the extra point for their title quest.
And when it comes to the human body and its complex reflexes, there are some fascinating comparisons to be made too!
The average duration for a single blink of a human eye is 0.01 to 0.04 seconds, or 100 to 400 hundredths, according to the Harvard Database of Useful Biological Numbers. For purposes of comparison, the tick sound made by a clock lasts about one second. So it would be possible to blink three times during a single tick of a clock.
In the FIA WEC even the blink of an eye is not quick enough when it comes to separating the competitors!
Whatever your perception of time, be sure to watch the 6 Hours of Bahrain action this weekend, as the protagonists fight for every 0.001s once again!
Sam Smith
