Whilst we all have our opinions, we generally agree that regardless of the driver input the better (best) drivers should be in F1.
That should be the case. But how do you decide who the best drivers are, especially when looking through the junior formula's to pick someone who is good enough got F1? It's not as simple as picking the ones who win championships in their first season as we've seen in the past quite a few of those guys failed when they got to F1. Sometimes they arrive too soon. What should happen is the average drivers should be dropped out of F1 when it becomes clear that they aren't doing the job after say 2 seasons. What happens in reality is they hawk themselves around to other teams either because they have bags of money or they are considered a safe pair of hands because they have some experience. The quality of driver on the grid now is far far better than what F1 used to have 20 or so years ago when there were a lot more teams so money could buy you a drive almost anywhere.
tbh we don't really know the level of their true racing abilities because they can't push the car that much or they'll run out of fuel/tyres or hit the limits of what the FIA says they're allowed to get out of the engine. They only push the cars close to what they can in Quali. It'll be interesting to see how they pan out when the cars are fast. The cars of 20-30 yrs ago were beasts with 50% more HP and far less stability, half the current grid would probably bin one on the parade lap.
Yeah, black sidepod, yellow bargeboard, and yellow trim around the cockpit? *Yellow or gold, looks like a fusion between the two.
You guys still watching F1 then? I absolutely love its history and have still been watching but I'm just losing the motivation. Its just so predictable and has lost its feel. To me when you watch racing you get that childish sense of excitement and fear. The cars are brutish, fast, loud and they stink of oil and burnt rubber and if they crash someone could get hurt. You can feel them as they wizz past. Now though without the power and noise and with all the green options, I just don't feel that at all. It just feels contrived.
Fails the sniff test for me - Might have kicked out Button, would have allowed Villenuve to hang around for ever! Seriously though that's f1 as the place to aspire to is a European centric fans view. Huge numbers of American racing drivers don't give a stuff about single seaters, many of those who did have prioritised Indy first (and then often not made it to f1). The absolute level of F1 at the top and bottom has always moved around somewhat, but I'd say the grid of 20 years ago compares pretty well to today, especially if you allow for the larger commitment to run a team today. Bit more experience back then, compared to today's youth, but that just seems the way that f1 is going.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-to-scrap-power-unit-token-system-from-2017-671488/ Token system scrapped as of 2017. Free engine development!
WOW I didn't see that one coming!!!!!!! Did the manufacturers also agree all the PU supplied to their customer teams would get same upgrades? If not customer teams are doomed to 5th or worse in constructors championship.
Great in principle, but unless there is a stipulation on same spec engines for customers its even more flawed than now. Currently it is unlikely that a customer who is supplied same year engines will ever be more than 1 or 2 specs away from the manufacture due to the token restrictions. With unlimited tokens, its plausible that the manufacture could develop 5 or 6 specification upgrades.
In a simplified world you could retain the token system in name and then offer customers 100,000 off or something for every token they are behind the current PU.although customers will have the right to the latest unit.
Red Bull are not going to be happy (again). Remi Taffin (Renault): 'There is a stepped programme but the programme is made for 2017. Obviously, we're racing every other weekend in '16, so if we can put some more performance, we will. But it will still be driven by the fact that 'is it a good thing for '17?' – 'Yes' – 'So we do it', because for '16, we have to be humble..' Full story : http://www.crash.net/f1/news/226484/1/renault-engine-programme-focusing-more-on-2017.html Doesn't sound good for Red Bull but it's not unexpected that Renault will work towards 2017 when engine development is not dependant on tokens. I really hope Renault put together a decent PU for 2017 and Red Bull have found their own PU.
Good read about the correlation of efficiency to development and the suggestion that size zero may not yield the ultimate performance.
Interesting article on sizing of Turbo, energy harvest, and efficiency: http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/opinion/is-hondas-size-zero-obsolete/ Damn Smithers you beat me to it.
Looks like Manor are becoming more of a Merc 'B' team: http://www.crash.net/f1/news/226536/1/wehrlein-says-manor-f1-deal-is-done.html Wehrlein to join Manor in deal believed to be worth $5million to Manor PLUS use of Mercs 50% size wind tunnel!!!!!! Think Manor need an experienced driver to assist in development. Any ideas who?
