The 2011 Regs Thread - DRS - Tyres - Kers

[F1Yorkshire]

Nice lively topic!

I was thinking about what could be done over a few drinks last night and these are my thoughts:

Tyres: They need to last a little longer and leave less marbles but otherwise its all good.

Kers: This needs to be tied into the engine regs. Instead of KERS adding an extra boost to the system they should limit the HP of the cars and the lost power can be made up by using a KERS system. This would mean it wouldn't be used as an overtaking tool just an alternative green way of powering the cars.

DRS: This is what I spent most of the time thinking about. I think it should be kept as it has provided much needed on track racing action but it needs to be toned down a little.

1st option would be to add a second DRS zone, this would increase the amount of overtaking but it would give more chances for a driver to take back a position.

2nd option could be to change how much the flap opens, this would reduce the amount of power gained when the DRS is activated making the drivers work harder to overtake.

The third option would be to change the location of the DRS zone, instead of having it leading up to a low speed corner they should place it on the corner before to enable the cars to close the gap to the car in front but does not give them enough speed to overtake.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Perhaps it would be an idea for us as a community to start collating the driver's quotes either in print, on the internet, or by transcribing them. That would allow us to get a relative idea of where each driver stands on the regulations. Obviously, they would have to be verifiable, but it might be interesting as the season progresses, even though I believe the drivers are less than completely honest most of the time.

Well clearly Fernando Alonso doesn't think overtaking has become too easy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13334558.stm

 

[Fenderman]

He seems to be saying it isn't too easy because of the DRS but then implies it is because of tyre degradation. Perhaps he would prefer an AIFTY button?

 

[Slyboogy]

He seems to be saying it isn't too easy because of the DRS but then implies it is because of tyre degradation. Perhaps he would prefer an AIFTY button?

He says this because it will help him pass Petrov

In the last stint he pitted near the same time as Webber, yet Webber used the DRS to get past....

 

[Fenderman]

Indeed.

 

[teabagyokel]

One suggestion I saw from the wonderful Fake Charlie Whiting Twitter Account is that each driver has, say, 25 uses of DRS per race. Then they have to judge when they can use it...

 

[Fenderman]

Is that the Derogation of Responsibility System, the Don't Race System or Dramatically Reduced Sensibility mode?

 

[Slyboogy]

One suggestion I saw from the wonderful Fake Charlie Whiting Twitter Account is that each driver has, say, 25 uses of DRS per race. Then they have to judge when they can use it...

That would just turn it into A1 GP....with their power boost having a limit, that's what I first thought when KERS was coming in

 

[ecclestoned]

With so much more added action on (DRS-KERS-tyres) and off(tyres) the track,I would love to hear more conversations between the pit wall and the drivers during the race.
I would imagine it goes like this:
@red Bull
Rocky:"Sebastian,you have to react,Lewis is coming to get you and he's Kersing."
Vettel:"OMG,what should I do?"
Rocky:"Kers back!"
Vettel:"!%#@!"

Meanwhile @ mercedes
Mark Slade:"Michael,you're pushing the wrong buttons."
Schumacher:??
Mark:"Remember what Nico showed you yesterday on the Playstation?"
Schumacher:"Uhm,yes,everything under control now"(thinking: Pfft..I'm getting too old for this.)

 

[ecclestoned]

Is that the Derpgation of Responsibility System, the Don't Race System or Dramatically Reduced Sensibility mode?

Or the Duck Remain Sitting! mode

 

[tranquility2k9]

I think it worked fine at the first 3 races, it didn't work at Barca very well, but im sure it helped a bit, take JB's overtake on Webber for example.

The only time it was a bit too easy to overtake was at Turkey, but I still think many of those overtakes would have happened due to the tyres.

 

[MCLS]

Added to the nature of the track

 

[tranquility2k9]

I just really think it is difficult for us to complain this season, because, although things aren't perfect, like the odd time, DRS makes it too easy and the odd time, their are possibly too many pit stops and also the qualifying climax isn't as great. But qualifying this year has a lot of interesting factors that it didn't have last year and arguably their is more pressure on the drivers to nail the lap and not to make mistakes. Q1 is now really interesting and exciting because the top teams try to get through on the hard, whereas last year for example, Q1 was pretty dull. Also, I'd much rather have a better race than qualifying. Regarding the DRS and pitstops, I'd much rather have overtaking possibilities than next to none at all and I'd much rather have 4 pit stops than 1 pit stop. I really hated the 1 pit stop processional races. They were so boring.

I don't think they've got everything right just yet, but it's so much better than last season. Ideally, this is what I'd try and improve:-

- Ensure the DRS zone is not too long at certain tracks (e.g. Turkey) so that overtaking is not too easy

- Only allow DRS to be used in race activation zone in qualifying so that teams which are already faster (e.g. Red Bull), do not get an even bigger advantage from being able to use DRS when others cannot due to lack of downforce

- Give drivers who make it into Q3 one extra set of soft tyres, allowing them to run 2 times during Q3. If tyre is not used, it is taken away and one set of softs is taken away before the race, so that they don't have an extra set of soft tyres. By doing this, you would get more running in Q2 as well, because drivers would know that if they got into Q3, they could have an extra set of tyres. The rules should be rewarding those who get into Q3, not damaging their chances and allowing people who don't run at all to benefit.

- Make the tyres slightly more durable so that we get 2 - 3 pit stops, rather than 4. Although, I actually quite like the drama of 4 pit stops where drivers can go hell for leather on a short stint.

- Make the prime tyre faster so that it is only about 0.5 seconds slower than the option. This will encourage many more teams to try different strategy and possibly start on the hard or go for a long stint on the hard.

- Alternatively, another good option would be to take away the "Start on tyre you qualify on for top 10 in Q3", essentially giving the top 10 a disadvantage over those who are slower.

I think with those tweaks and improvements, we'd have a pretty much perfect Formula

 

[Slyboogy]

I wrote this in my Spansih GP analysis (this is only a part of it)

"F1 proves we do not need DRS or high degrading tyres to improve the show. With the DRS not being at all effective this weekend and the tyres degrading less, just shows that F1 does not need to make the sport ‘artificial’, there may have been 4 pit-stops but that was only due to the front runners trying to get the ‘undercut’ on their rivals which created the usual, domino effect. This race felt less farcical as there were no breezing overtakes caused by the DRS and the tyres falling off the ‘cliff’. The overtakes we saw were more to do with KERS, as we saw by Alonso’s brilliant start, and by the DRS being not very effective. Drivers have to be clever to use KERS, rather than just waiting on the straight to push the DRS button.

Entertaining race, there was a bit of tension when Hamilton was chasing down Vettel this time, unlike in China when it was obvious that Hamilton would have gotten past.

Please F1, get rid of the DRS!"

 

[Fenderman]

I also think last season was not that bad at all. The let downs were Bahrain, Spain. GP of Europe and Singapore due to the nature of those tracks. There's been so much attention on messing with the cars and not enough effort looking at the tracks. Considering two of these are effectively street courses that get rebuilt every season one would have hoped that some effort would have been expended on those at least..

 

[Slyboogy]

I also think last season was not that bad at all. The let downs were Bahrain, Spain. GP of Europe and Singapore due to the nature of those tracks. There's been so much attention on messing with the cars and not enough effort looking at the tracks. Considering two of these are effectively street courses that get rebuilt every season one would have hoped that some effort would have been expended on those at least..

My friend, how could you possibly forget Abu Dhabi?!

I don't think Bahrain is that bad of a track it has had some good racing there, last season though it was poor because it was the first race of the season where there was lots of rule changes, plus that new horrible added section.

Singapore wasn't too bad, had a few incidents and overtakes.

But overall I agree, as usual with you Fender, last season was not that bad at all.

 

[Brogan]

Entertaining race, there was a bit of tension when Hamilton was chasing down Vettel this time, unlike in China when it was obvious that Hamilton would have gotten past.

Please F1, get rid of the DRS!"

Couldn't agree more.

There was far more tension and excitement in those few laps wondering if or when the pass was going to come than any of the passes in Turkey.

 

[Jru]

One thing I don't understand, why is everyone saying DRS did nothing this week? It still reduced drag and still gave a lap time advantage, it just didn't give enough of one to allow an overtake down the main straight. Nonetheless though it did let that car close up again on the lead car so that they were close into turn 1 and so the rest of the lap. If it werent for DRS we could well have seen Hamilton circulating unable to get closer to Seb than 2 seconds and the same even goes for Webber on Alonso. That means it would have been dull as dishwater as per usual for the Spanish GP. Possibly the most successful use of DRS in my eyes.

Also Fenderman did you really think that the GP of Europe last year was so terrible? With the safety car related fun and more particularly Kobi running through the field despite the track I thought it was pretty entertaining.

 

[snowy]

Koby had no trouble making Fernando look dull witted in Europe.

The fact is DRS was a total knee jerk, chuffed up overreaction to the SNAFU that is Bahrain. The ban on refuelling was an absolute coup and created a wealth of overtaking and scintillating on track action. Most everyone had forgotten about Bahrain by the fourth race unfortunately a few twits in high places had taken their bees out of their bonnets and stuffed them up their respective bottoms!

 

[Fenderman]

Jru asked if I thought GP of Europe was so terrible. Actually I thought that 2010 was a pretty good season overall and Kobi was a breath of fresh air. So, although I wasn't particularly enthralled with the less exciting races that I mentioned, I thought F1 was on a pretty good path. I feel the rule changes this year were a knee jerk reaction to the previous seasons and as such have been too late and over the top. It's as if no-one stopped to consider whether or not enough tinkering had been done to the cars and that maybe minds should have been concentrated elswhere. Hence my starting a thread to concentrate our minds on the circuits.