Back to tyres...

We all knew this anyway. I think it is both professional and magmanamus for RB to acknowledge that the changes added to their natural advantage.

 

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Seems the McLaren Pirelli test went ahead in the end with Kevin Magnussen doing the leg work.

Translation:
The Dane Kevin Magnussen is living a hectic days before knowing what their future final of 2014 because the rising star of McLaren has been commissioned to complete two days of testing the team has organized with Pirelli in the circuit Vallelunga to help the Italian brand in the development of its compounds. Though the rain did not respect the evidence on the first day, which barely Magnussen 50 laps to complete the short version of the Italian track at the wheel of McLaren MP4/26 2011, the Danish itself has been able to increase mileage accumulated on the second day of testing held on Tuesday. Although the intention of both parties was to perform this test on the Circuit of the Americas itself finally Vallelunga has been home to the ultimate test of Pirelli with a team so far this season.

 

This is really getting nursed to the end. The changing of tyres has killed not just the season but the sport as a whole.

 

Could not agree more. I've been on this side of the fence for two years now. They are f***ing stupid.... and as you say, they have killed the sport.

It's farcical... I'm embarrassed to recommend F1 to U.S. racing fans. And I cannot believe I'm saying that. This is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport. It's a shambles.

 

Endurance racing is the way forward

 

A Million times this...

 

I think it's too soon to give up on F1. The reset button gets pressed next year, everything should be different.

 

They need to press reset on the tyres... No point watching a race where people have to sit tight just to make strategy work.. I want to watch a race... not a drive.

 

I agree. The cars are too much influenced by the tyres. F1 was doing so well bringing it back to the driver talent but they have ****ed up on this. Make the tyres last all race and some so it doesnt matter how hard you push..... But then again im not sure if F1 can be fixed. Its

 

With the new engines next year, the tyres will have to be harder. The increased torque will destroy these current tyres, wouldn't see the super softs lasting more than 2 laps tbh.

 

They will be able to last a whole race next year, as all the teams will be on fuel saving mode from lap 1.

 

Urgh... Thanks for cheering me up, Miggs.

 

They need to reduce downforce. Through the 80's & 90's when the cars had massive amounts of power, the tyres didn't shred back then.

Increase the width of the rear tyres again if there is a genune safety issue with the tyres and the torque the turbo engines are going to produce.

Or, give the teams the choice of what tyre to use from all of Pirelli's compounds. The teams have to nominate prior to a weekend which two sets of tyres they wish to use, so Pirelli can then bring those tyres for the teams from the stockpile they could create. That way, each team can use the tyre they feel would be best for them.

 

I would scrap the whole 2 sets per race rule anyway. Its no longer applicable.

The compounds should be an endurance tyre vs a spint tyre. The teams can choose freely which way they want to tackle the race.

Also scrap the start on the tyre you qualified on. that's old hat too

 

An interesting post, ASC. I like your thinking but I'm not entirely sure where you're heading with one aspect of your post; your conclusions about associating downforce with tyre wear.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but reducing downforce actually increases tyre-wear because they will 'scrub' more, (rather than being pressed into the tarmac). Think of a rubber eraser: the more firmly it is pressed, the better its grip. It therefore becomes increasingly difficult to 'rub' (slide) across the surface. Of course, a complete change in philosophy to far more durable tyres, which presumably you would like to see, would offset this*. Besides, in the longer term, reducing downforce is a fundamentally difficult thing to do, although it could be stemmed by reverting to simpler wings, for instance.

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*When I became aware of the FIA's re-think on tyres, which coincided with Pirelli being announced as tyre supplier, I was concerned at what I saw as a double knee-jerk in addressing the problem of overtaking, where one would have been sufficient. I was very vocal about this at the time, since it coincided with the introduction of DRS, which was set to make a fundamental change in any case; and I felt (and still feel) that artificially forcing more pit-stops is less conducive to good quality racing.

 

What I'd like to see is a return to the late 80's/early 90's scenarios of teams on genuinely different strategies throwing up some interesting results.

My thoughts go to Benetton/Leyton House who would often race on non-stop strategies, leading the 'big' teams at the time to sweat just a bit as they went for multi-stop strategies and having to pass these guys late in the race.

Okay, the disparity in the performance between the cars would mean the big boys invariably won, but with the grid a lot closer these days (2sec covers up to 18th now, rather than 5-6 sec back then), it would leave some mid-grid teams with the genuine opportunity to have a completely different strategy and see what they can do with it.

Throw in the odd safety car now (none until 1994) as well to really screw it up from time to time and we may go back to some exciting racing again.

 

Yes, this is something of a 'Holy Grail' isn't it!?! The trouble is that as technology and general knowledge march ever onward, margins and differences tend to decrease because the technologies become more widely understood. The result is that it becomes less and less likely that different strategies will produce very similar race length times because as everyone zooms in on the same picture, smaller margins and finer detail become ever more important.

Occasional big shake ups will eventually be necessary, but this increases the chance of duller racing because until teams settle in to the new parameters, there will be bigger differences between them. Thus every set of rules has its heyday, usually lasting only half a decade or so, and never to be repeated…

Well, we have a big shake up just around the corner. We can only cross our fingers that most competitors get a similar grasp of the vitals very early on, and that they will also be able to maintain development at similar rates. The reality is of course that in the early stages of new regulations, we are less likely to see the close combat we've become accustomed to, and we'll be back where we started with complaints of not enough overtaking!

 

With modern tyres they should do away with the both compounds rule and have a soft and hard tyre. choose what ever combination you like. 3x soft or 2x hard etc.

 

Potentially good season ruined by FIA yielding to Red Bull lobbying because, god forbid, some teams did a better job of designing their cars to the tyre parameters given to them at the start of the season. A travesty, I am completely done with F1 now.

 

Gave up on F1 this last season, "what a bore" like Lewis said "glad its over" hoping for better next season with the new engines and massive improvement in energy recovery systems, 160 hp increase overall, but not overly optomistic as fuel limits will possibly **** the job up.

Reliability will cause some excitement at least.