Technical F1 Cars Too Easy to Drive at the Limit

[Kewee]

The Artist..... You seem to have misunderstood or added to the comments I made. I have simply repeated views made by Senna in an interview shortly before his death. I'll repeat what he said, "removing the driver aids", in the case of the Williams active suspension, "made the cars far more difficult to drive and will lead to serious accidents before the end of the season," He went on to say he hoped it didn't lead to any fatalities.
In your third paragraph you say it's wrong to suggest that todays cars would be undrivable without driver aids. I NEVER SAID THAT OR EVEN SUGGESTED IT.
If you read my first posting on this topic you'll find we're not far apart in our beliefs relating to what needs to be done to improve F1.
Our main difference appears to be tyres, you believe they need lees grip, I believe they need more grip and less aero. Aero creates turbulence around the other cars and if you reduce the use of aerodynamics and replace it with more mechanical grip, tyres and other changes to set-up the reduction in turbulence would see much closer racing and a high degree of skill, not to mention an increase in the overall spectacle.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

I get the impression a lot of you would be happier if F1 went back to racing the same cars as we saw in the 80s?

 

[Kewee]

rufus_mcdufus ........ late 60's to mid 70's.

 

[Tuscan1969]

To me its about basics ;

I can appreciate a drivers skill if he (or she) is the one choosing where to break, when to accelerate and which lines to take.

But I'd like it even more if they had to judge how much power to apply before they got wheel spin (esp. at the starts) and of course if there was no system telling them when to shift gears and stopping the engine over-revving. Put the driver in charge and make them responsible....

I'd love it if they had to shift gears "manually" with a real gear box and no flappy paddles but they are not going to back to the dark ages on that one...

 

[Bushi]

Agree Tuscan1969 . That's what i hate when i race online, when people use the racing and braking line. Now in f1 it's verbally, but it takes away the skill.

 

[Bushi]

8) after 5 seasons if a team has scored nil points they should be given nil cash for year 6 -so if they want to stay they have to pay big time and only by getting better would there be any business case for them to stay. If they decide to leave the Feeder series constructor Champion should be allotted the space and the vacant year 6 funding plus 25% to ease start up costs but should start in year 7 giving time to design car and select drives sponsors etc etc

Thoughts???

Considering that new teams get nothing in their first 3 years and the costs beeing so high in f1 that any new team can barely make it to the top 10 without spending a numerous amount of money. I say nay
Think i saw an article yesterday about f1 doing nothing to prevent teams from leaving. Well this point is quite the opposite.

 

[Tuscan1969]

Bushi My point 7 was raised exactly to address this weakness about lack of funding and high costs in the first few years.

Only once all teams are more fairly paid would we get more even competition....but if we do fairly spread the cash and still get a team that scores nil points then for the sake of competition we should encourage them to leave and encourage a new (hopefully better) entrant to join.

 

[Westy]

In my mind F1 are trying to have their cake as eat it as well. They want their cars to be road relevant and progress the technology, but they only allow innovation when they see it as cost effective or they introduce a cap at hoe innovative one can be. A few have mentioned about opening up the regulations to allow for innovations, or for regressing to a by-gone eras formula. These ideas are sound at heart, but F1 is not interested. They need to be the fastest series out there, so aero is here to stay. They also want to cut costs (when they feel like it) however, this isn't an issue in some other series like LMP1. F1 want their costs low so the teams can compete (of course this is only to a certain extent, please see struggling teams) so they put regulations in place to for engineers as designers down a linear path. They then complain about the lack of "true racing" and change the series as they see fit for the "benefit of the fans." Remeber, DRS is what we fans "wanted" thanks to that survey that I don't remember ever filling out.

F1 has an identity crisis, it wants to be the pinnacle of Motorsport, the leader in innovation, but also a homologated series where the head honchos are in power and can regukate the utter pants off the series.

For those longing for the golden age of F1, it has been and gone. We have the enjoy the sport that we have now or find something else. I am really enjoying this season and hope they stick with this formula for a while. I don't like seeing change in the middle of a season and I don't want big regulation changes at the end of every season either. What I want to see is a good race, some drama, some excitement, and a drivers/constructors championship settled before Double Dhabi. A boy can dream... a boy can dream.

 

[Westy]

Sorry for the above typos. That's a problem that comes from typing on an iPhone. I can't be arsed to fix the mistakes. The stewards are investigating.

 

[gethinceri]

JYS and Paul, Westy?

 

[siffert_fan]

I think it would be fascinating to put each of today's F1 drivers into my Porsche 935K3 and see how they would do at Spa or Zandvoort. No driver aids, power equal to or greater than the F1s of today, much more turbo lag, and having to actually shift gears with no computer assist. I bet it would be very entertaining.

 

[Mephistopheles]

it's like saying that the 100m is easier than it was 30 years ago, of course it isn't

Actually it is, due to shoe technology and track surface technology just like swimming is easier due to low drag swimwear and a bigger gap from the outside lanes to the sides of the pool it used to be that lanes 1 and 8 were never favoured but now they are......

 

[Bill Boddy]

Am I alone Westy in not wanting F1 cars to be relevant to production cars? If I wanted that I'd watch WTCC or similar. I want my racing cars to be something special with much more latitude on design so that they do not all finish up looking and behaving the same.

 

[ATL11]

Am I alone Westy in not wanting F1 cars to be relevant to production cars? If I wanted that I'd watch WTCC or similar. I want my racing cars to be something special with much more latitude on design so that they do not all finish up looking and behaving the same.

I want difference too Bill Boddy, I want pinnacle innovation, I want cars to come to grand prixs with new surprise aero tweaks or body modifications, I want discussions on development not standards, flow rates & tyre degradation.

 

[Westy]

Bill Boddy that is exactly what I want as well. This is a racing series, not a show case for what our cars will be in five to ten years.

This is why I say F1 has an identity crisis.

 

[marksawatsky]

I think we can have innovation and excitement by reducing the restrictive nature of the rules but making the rules more effective. Maybe that's not a good way to explain it so here are examples:
-Allow any engine/hybrid combo but engine must breath through a restrictor plate
-Allow slightly larger restrictor for any engine that uses stock block from passenger car (minimum production 5000 units)
-Allow refuelling but must be gravity fed by a crew member holding a fuel jug
-Wider front and rear tires
-Teams can run any two tire compounds per weekend, must be declared to Pirelli 7 days in advance
-Single element front and rear wings only
-testing allowed the Monday after every race with back up drivers only-broadcast available online

Think of all the possible engine combinations and strategy possibilities

 

[snowy]

Remeber, DRS is what we fans "wanted" thanks to that survey that I don't remember ever filling out.

I have serious issues with surveys and even more with non-existent ones.

 

[KekeTheKing]

I bet it would be very entertaining.

That would be absolutely fantastic. Seeing Kimi or Lewis wring the neck of that thing would be simply incredible! Give em an outing or two and they'd be right on Ludwig's pace.

Oh and I can just imagine the look on your face when Maldonado bins it. That would be worth the price of admission alone!

edit - grammar

 

[sushifiesta]

One of the arguments here is about the likes of Max Verstappen getting a race seat hurting F1's reputation. Well I'd much rather have highly rated teenagers trying to prove their worth than pay drivers who trundle around a second slower than their team mates for a few seasons until the money dries up.

 

[ATL11]

One of the arguments here is about the likes of Max Verstappen getting a race seat hurting F1's reputation. Well I'd much rather have highly rated teenagers trying to prove their worth than pay drivers who trundle around a second slower than their team mates for a few seasons until the money dries up.

I can see both the positives & negatives for this, but if F1 is aware of it's image, having a kid racing round a track at 200mph when his peers are at the same time only starting to drive a Fiat 500 with L plates on it and driving instructor tub on top, you can understand why the every day person can perceive the F1 car and therefore F1 as being easy.