Spare Parts (F1 odds and ends)

Their progress will probably be glacial.

 

I think the alpine puns have reached their peak

 

yeah, it's all downhill from now

 

They will however sound brilliant

 

Anyone’s thoughts ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/54063417

 

I think it should be tried to see how it would work. I do think it would need 3 or 4 tests to really see how it plays out and how tactics work. I think a 1 off test might not show how it would work properly.
The stupid slip streaming that is going on at the high speed circuits is going to cause an accident sooner or later. So a change might be easier on safety concerns!!!

 

It will highlight the tracks that aren't fit for racing, so get your money on Williams to win Monaco & Singapore.

 

Or the fact the cars are getting to large ? I think the tracks will go before the cars size change , but Monaco is special . Love it or loath it , it has to remain .
Not saying it will .

 

If nothing else it would force teams to change their cars designs more from ultimate speed to most reliable speed.

If they did want to go with reverse grids then they're going to have to keep an eye on B teams not racing mum and dad. How you do that is anyones guess.

 

I dislike processional races as much as everyone else does, but I also dislike artificially generated competition that lets the FIA off the hook.

I don't have any particular feelings of love or hate for Mercedes, but I salute what they've been able to do in recent years and I agree with Toto...

The problem has been the lack of a level financial playing field, and the FIA spent too long trying to address the symptoms instead of the cause. The budget caps can't come too soon.

If they're going to do reverse grids, wait until the championships are both decided, but to be honest I'd still vote against it. It smacks too much of reality shows, where someone is eliminated and is then brought back later to spice things up. Once we go down that path, any sport is in danger of sacrificing sporting integrity for the next gimmicky idea designed to deliver mass viewer ratings and the advertising dollars that come with it.

One gimmick that I would be interested to see... reverse drivers (there's probably a better term for it) - put the leading drivers in the worst cars and vice versa. It would really underline which leading drivers can force a **** car through the field, and which of them can only perform in a car that's built around them. More interestingly, it would show which back-of-the-grid drivers could perform really well in a better car. Do it for one race, half-way through the season. See what that does to the driver's market!

 

Depends how it's implemented, but as stated in the article (replacing qualifying), I hate everything about it.

Gasly winning was so special and exciting because it was rare and unexpected. Too rare, yes, but it should take a crazy race for the 7th best team on the grid to take a win. Italy 2020 joins the ranks of Spain 2011, Italy 2008, Monaco 96, etc for classic underdog wins. And it's not just wins, it should be hard for the weakest team to get points. We should get those moments of Marussia or Minardi celebrating a single point like it's a win.

But as Mr B says, you can't make more of these races through gimmicks. The moment it's artificial, it means less. Give the new regulations time to close the field up and make overtaking easier, and with a more level playing field mix up the finishing order. Don't ditch qualifying, which has a really fantastic current format, history, prestige, etc, for a gimmick.

The only way I'd want to see a reverse grid race is if it has no effect on the standard quali+race. Ditch FP3, run a normal quali for a Sunday race in the morning, and then have the Saturday afternoon reverse grid sprint race, carrying perhaps 10 points for a win.

 

Maybe as a one off event.. say at imola would be OK but not every weekend.

 

From Jack Nicholls@

The order at the start of the second lap of yesterday’s “second race” was: GAS RAI GIO SAI STR NOR BOT RIC Apart from Gio’s pen and Raikkonen falling away in a slow car, there were no overtakes in the top 6 positions in the remaining 24 laps.

 

I'm sick of this domination by AlphaTauri, McLaren & Racing Point.

 

Hamilton to run his own Extreme E racing team...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/53630904

Interesting that his interests are starting to move outside F1.

 

That is interesting .

 

Reverse grids are pure bollocks.

Qualifying used to work when people had 12 laps to fight for pole. No need to keep queuing up there was there?!

 

The problem with that was that who ever went out last usually had the best track conditions unless rain played a part.

I do like the current quali format apart from on the tracks that a tow helps. Then it cause all sort of issues. Maybe reverse grids are too staged.

I think things are closing up quite nicely apart from the Mercs being 0.8 sec faster. I think the budget caps won't work for 3 maybe 4 years especially as 2021 cars will be just 2020 cars with a few tweeks. So teams with 'spare' budget will be working on the 2022 cars. I think it's going to be 2024 before we really see budget caps work, if they can be policed. There are too many teams with 'B' teams to spread out the budget costs out.

 

Agreed, the 12 Laps was hardly a perfect solution either.

Here’s a thought for you- could the FIA produce a spec car or maybe 2 cars that run around the track continuously laying rubber and then have pre-set clusters of cars (maybe 4 at a time) to do their laps? Everyone gets one attempt but one spare ‘super lap’ which you can use in Q1, Q2, or Q3 —however you see fit- to try and get you through to the next session or bump up your final Q3 position. It would remove the need for time limits in each Q1\Q2/Q3 but wouldn’t last longer due to only having one lap or 2 laps per session. You’d see a lot of cars putting in the super lap in Q1 as they’d be on the elimination danger zone but then there’d also be a real intense battle for the couple of cars going for pole as they’d likely save their super lap for the end of Q3 which would really ramp up the pressure.

The ‘FIA Car” circulating would hopefully mean there’s never really a ‘cold’ track and there’s less concern about going first?

Im not at all knowledgable though I’m just thinking out loud so it might well be a very silly idea!

 

The unwanted gift that keeps on giving.