1 I'm amazed that thing didn't freeze up, let alone explode. It's obvious that the cylinders are not made of aluminum; they'd have failed long since if they were.

I think they must have done that with the cooling system deliberately disabled. Why would they do that?

2 Actually, Steven, F1 cars don't have a cooling system, per se. There are fairly small radiators, but they're completely dependent on the car's motion through the air to function.

Open this link in a new window or tab, please.

That's what the openings on the left and right of the cockpit are for (the opening above the cockpit is for the turbocharger).

Yep, those two small openings are all the cooling a F1 car has, and all it needs... as long as it's moving. If it's not moving, it's not being cooled, and as you can tell from the video, very very bad things happen then.

In fact, the Spyker of Christian Albers actually burst into flames in Sepang when he brought it to the pit-lane. He stopped the car, and *foom*, up it went (it was having overheating problems to begin with; that's why he came in).

F1 cars run right at the line between being vehicles and being an expensive pile of junk. This is just one example of that.

3 I'm going to put you into SDB's shoes by sending you a couple of gotchas.

First, turbo wasn't used in F1 for more than 10 years.

Second, Albers had his tranny stuck in 1st. That was the reason he retired, and not the overheating. He made a circuit back into the pits very slowly in 1st gear and with high RPM, and that caused the overheating and the fire.

4 The opening above the cockpit is for the what... the Turbocharger? Hope you're not tipping any of Aguri's secrets or we'll just have more "cheating" complaints filed with the FIA! No wonder Sato's been so quick! But really folks, there hasn't been a Turbo in F-1 since 1989 when the formula outlawed them.

5 I slouch corrected and chastened.

Then the opening above the cockpit is for air so the engine can combust; the restrictor the ToroRossos had last season was in place to choke down the amount that could get to the fuel in the first place.

Same basic concept. Still no cooling.