Unfortunately you'd probably only have about three teams with the budgets to compete, otherwise it'd be interesting. Good post, but for me I think the difference is that to the average viewer, you want a sport where you can see drivers are right on the edge. Tyre conservation recently has meant drivers having to drive well within themselves at perhaps 75%, which isn't really challenging them visibly. It's been very rare in the last couple of seasons to see a driver bin it because they pushed too hard. What I'm hoping the new formula will do is show us which drivers can drive on the limit for long periods, and if that limit varies between drivers. Last year we saw lots of drivers driving to target sector times, and a lot of the time spent just managing the race. In race trim you often couldn't really see the talent of the individual driver. I'd like the cars to be a handful that only the best can drive quickly, with more sliding as they struggle to get the power down, etc, as it's a visual sign that the car's on/over the limit. It's more exciting than watching a driver lapping 10 seconds off quali pace, just because if they don't the tyres won't make it to their pit stop. Seeing drivers lose it when under pressure from a car behind, or even when under no pressure, has been very rare recently, so I'm hoping to see more of that. Whether fuel-management replaces tyre-management to the extent that we don't see it, remains to be seen.
Top five technical innovations seen at Jerez ERS LIGHTS MESL DASH McLAREN SUSPENSION BLOCKERS WILLIAMS BEAM WING INTERCOOLING
yeah i guess that would be an improvement, but the edge as you call it is always going to be different in different cars, with them seemingly trying to remove as much rear down force as possible but increase the amount of torque, what little rear end grip the teams can generate will probably become even more critical. If anything i can see the quality of car becoming even more influential this year, with the grid not only being more spaced out but the cars further down the order being much more uncontrollable as well.
I think another issue is the tracks themselves. They've got a lot safer which is good obviously, but if a driver makes a mistake they're punished with race standard tarmac. We see drivers cutting chicanes and going wide a lot, with no loss at all. I cant see how a metre or so of grass or something slippy can be that risky when theres 500m of run off. The drivers need to punished more for going off, stop them taking the mick all the time.
The paradox is that they tried to make it more exciting removing the gravel allowing more cars to be maintained in the race!
I seem to remember recently reading that, I think it was, touring cars would be penalised if they put a single wheel on the white line!!!!!! Never mind keeping 2 wheels inside/on white line. Problem is does a driver who goes over white line to avoid an accident get punished? It's a balance between stopping drivers cutting corners and having a get out of jail free runway of tarmac.
Body language time: (Hands included, I'm impressed by the CNN.) [video=youtube;__Pzsvfo-mw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Pzsvfo-mw[/video] 1: During the whole video his hands are clasped together and moving during most of the interview, this is a sign of him being nervous so he is mentally trying to calm himself down during the interview and reassure himself that the situation will be fine. 2: But during 1:18 after he says 'the cars are ugly' he tightens his grip and body fearing the worst with what he said about the Ferrari being included in the fugly group. His finger stop clasping and become interwoven, this is a very bad sign of fear and frustration being displayed. This must be because he was told off last time for talking bad about the car. Fernando then tries to let it be known that this is what everybody thinks so it shouldn't matter to Luca. He also briefly brings his legs together to his penis tightly, this is because of him fearing of being attacked further on the subject, very likely Luca. He pretty much continues with this on the subject of all the cars. 3: His fingers are still clasped on the subject of Kimi, seems nervous of facing him at Ferrari and knows he cannot under perform in qualifying anymore, he starts rubbing his hands again trying to calm himself on the subject so he is nervous going up against Kimi this season that is for sure. At 2:10 though he does calm down a little bit with regards to talking about Kimi's talent as an F1 driver. As I said a week ago about all F1 drivers, they all talk like they're not afraid of anybody but Alonso here is somebody who is a bit worried he might be under threat at Ferrari now by Kimi and that he wont be getting any favours from Luca to beat him easier.
According to Autosport Ferrari, Marussia, Sauber and Mercedes(constructor) are using water-to-air intercoolers. INTERCOOLING Part of the challenge for designers this year is the cooling demand from the power unit. One of the factors in the increased cooling is the need to cool the air after being compressed by the turbocharger, before it goes into the engine. Cooler and therefore denser charge air has more oxygen and, as a result, creates more power. Typically, F1 teams have used intercoolers to cool charge air, with the radiator-like structure passing the charge air through tiny tubes, and the external airflow taking heat out of the intercooler. This is thermally efficient and light. But the current breed of intercoolers are huge, three to four times thicker than a conventional water radiator, and end up filling an entire sidepod. This is bad for aerodynamics as the drag of the cooler area, as well as the extra sidepod volume enclosing the intercooler, are a major penalty. Another means of intercooling is to use water as an intermediary cooling step. Water-to-air intercoolers enclose the charge air-cooler core with a water jacket. The water conducts heat away from the tubes, and then this water is separately cooled with the water radiator in the sidepod. This method is far more thermally efficient and requires a smaller intercooler area and a small water radiator. This benefit is compounded as the water-air intercooler does not need to sit in the airflow and can be tucked away for aerodynamic benefit; secondly, the smaller water radiator saves on drag and sidepod space. Even the pipework can be smaller, so turbo lag can be slightly reduced as the path from the turbo-to-inlet tract is shortened. This solution has been used in F1 in the past: Toleman's Hart engine of the early 1980s initially used water-to-air cooling for the single turbo. So although this solution is proven to work and has major aero benefits, why isn't it adopted more widely? The answer is that the complexity of the plumbing, the water pump and the water jacket all add weight to the car. So few teams have been able to adopt this method, as the cars are on the edge of the weight limit already. It is understood that Ferrari, Marussia and Sauber are using water-to-air as well as the Mercedes factory car. Those top two teams at least can afford the weight penalty of the heavier set-up, and can thus recoup the benefits in aerodynamic performance. These sidepod-packaging advantages could allow better airflow to the rear of the car for production of downforce. It's possible that this could have played a part in Ferrari and Mercedes foregoing the anteater-nose design for one that compromises airflow to the rear in favour of front-end downforce.
[h=1]Formula 1 in push to shake up qualifying for 2014[/h] Two ideas basically to stop people sitting out Q3: - Give the guys who made it to Q3 a 'free' set of tyres to be used in Q3 only (sensible) - Force the guys who make it into Q3 to start the race on the tyres they used in Q2, thus giving no benefit to sitting out Q3 (silly?)
Why are rules still being tinkered with this late? Much prefer the idea of supplier an extra set of Q3 tyres, far more straightforward. The second suggestion would seem to penalise drivers for finishing 7-10th, as drivers 11-14th would have free choice of tyres, but they wouldn't. You could end up with a bizarre situation of midfield runners not wanting to go too quickly in Q2.
Don't expect them to do something sensible like allocating tyres that can only be used in Q3... Expect something like being forced to start the race pointing backwards if you fail to go out in Q3.
Good idea, but why don't they just give tyres for Q3, that can be recycled. Or is that not cost effective.
It does seem a waste just having a set of tyres to do a couple of laps on before they get thrown away.
[h=1]Analysis: F1 drivers set for sideways headaches during 2014 season[/h] Formula 1 drivers are bracing themselves for more sideways action than originally anticipated in 2014, after the first pre-season test highlighted some surprise challenges with the new cars. The higher torque of the V6 turbo engines had already been expected to make life difficult for drivers in terms of causing more wheelspin on the exit of corners. But the initial feedback from 2014 cars shows that balancing the rear of the car - especially the tyre temperatures - has been made even harder due to other rules changes. Drivers have found that it is harder keeping their rear tyres in the right operating window because of design changes at the back of the car. Aids that helped them in the past keep the tyre temperatures up - like the heat from blown diffusers, soft rubber compounds and large rear brake discs - have all been removed.......
