Beefy's Corner - The Off-Topic Chat Thread

Interesting yes, fun no

 

Want my idea of an exciting F1..?


1] OK, no down-force for starters. Cars must be wind tunnel tested, and if they produce any significant down-force at all, other than their standing-still weight, under any conditions, they are illegal.
2] I would also want a limit on aerodynamics. The art of slipstreaming has gone from F1 because there is no advantage to the following car, and a huge part of racing is denied them. So I want them to be relatively poor aerodynamically in the wind tunnel, under any conditions, at any speeds. No tricks.
3] Cars need to be smaller, so they can more easily overtake. It's ridiculous that tracks like Monaco are still being raced on by F1 cars when there is little or no possibility of overtaking. It doesn't take special sections of the lap where you apply a horsepower boost, simply make the cars smaller. Overtaking is the very lifeblood of racing. Make it too difficult and people will eventually see the formula for what it is now - a parade of technology going round a track very fast indeed and that's it. But overtaking is dangerous in an F1 car, due to the wheels possibly interlocking, so
4] fill in the gap between the front and rear wheels and have guards over them. No, I'm not talking about filling in the entire bodywork of the car, just making them entirely safe to overtake with. Nothing should hinder overtaking. In comparison, competing motorcycle racers will overtake each other several times a lap, due to the inherent strengths and weaknesses that a motorcycle has. F1 cars need to have weaknesses that can be exploited by driver skill.
5] A weight limit of both car and driver. Everybody to be the same, so that
6] a fuel limit does not favour those lighter drivers. MotoGP, for example, had become a sport for little blokes with a stringent fuel limit, but now there is an agreed overall weight for bike and rider, and therefore there can be a fair fuel limit too. This would be the case for F1 too.

I know there are plenty of competitive rules already in place in F1, so don't go citing what is already there. This is my list of requirements, and there would obviously be a need to iron out specifics. How much drag required; how little down-force, how much power, etc... I wouldn't expect several overtakes a lap for competing F1 cars, but at least once per lap could be expected. At the moment they have gadgets and rules to achieve it and the twerp that is Bernie Ecclestone once wanted them to spray tracks with water. That shows how desperate he is. I'd throw the gadgets out entirely and get back to what made F1 racing exciting before - driver skill. At the moment, a great driver in the fastest car wins. That needs to be changed back to when a great driver could occasionally win in a slower car. They need to stop F1 being a follow-my-leader procession.

Unfortunately, the rule makers seem to be taking F1 further and further away from my racing ideal, which is why I won't be watching any races soon.

 

Overengineering is definitely hurting F1; so many of the rule changes in recent years have been gimmicks to manufacture drama, and even when it succeeds it's all a bit hollow. The tire situation right now is an absolute joke...no one is able to run full-out for fear of having no tires within five laps of outset, and when that's combined with the DRS drivers are conceding position on a frequent basis because it's better to get home with a worse result than to defend a position you'll lose anyway and destroy your tires.

My idea? Start with 2) and get rid of the wings. Narrowing the wheelbase isn't a bad idea, either. Otherwise, let teams run as much or as little fuel as they want. Run whatever tires they want. Burn through as many engines as they want. The team-specific elements of the car will always be a central feature, as it always has, but there needs to be a point where the car ends and the driver takes over.

 

I agree with TSS that we need to get back to driver skill being the main factor in deciding races, and I agree that most of his suggestions would lean towards this. But what about tyres? At the moment, as Schad says, you have a false situation where because of the no-refuelling rules, you have to have pitstops governed by tyre lifetime. Why not make better tyres that last longer so that there is a chance that smoother driving (a la Jenson Button) gives you a shout of completing the whole race on one set? Or if you want to see pitstops anyway, allow refuelling again, so you can have an early charge with low fuel load followed by as many pitstops as your strategy dictates.

 

daft punk's album has leaked if anyone is interested

 

I just saw this.... weird....

[video=youtube;2PAT1UmlJ-0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2PAT1UmlJ-0[/video]

 

The problem with the rules these days is that the cars are too similar, and this touches on what TSS said with regards to MotoGP. Every bike has different characteristics, like Yamahas are better handling, Hondas have more poke out of the bends, Ducatis are (or used to be) fast as **** down the straights.

In Formula One, the cars are far too similar these days. Look at the mid-90s, there were so many different variations in car shape. And the racing was so close, and real. Unfortunately I can't find a copy of the technical rules from back then, but I'm sure if I went back to my season review videos that they would be mentioned somewhere.

 

Agreed. My feeling is that, if you remove the wings but allow teams greater leeway otherwise, you'll get more interesting races...if grip is at a premium, trade-offs will have to be made, and in so doing you'll get the sort of variation of which you speak. F1 doesn't like that because ultimately, it's more expensive; far better to have everyone working from much the same template with the innovation happening on the very margins.

 

Neymar to Barca then.

 

Cheers pal, did the trick.

 

Monaco make bid for Dani Alves and Valdes €50m apparently.

 

Where you seeing this? It would make a lot more sense than him moving to Bayern.

I think we'll be seeing an awful lot of these over the summer. I mentioned that they're chasing Tevez, Evra and Park as well. I honestly don't think they'll get a single one of those, but will probably chase a lot of barely-realistic targets and perhaps manage to get a couple of them. Makes for exciting news, but unfortunately also encourages journalists to make **** up, so it's going to be near impossible to tell which rumours to take seriously.

 

Palmeri is tweeting about both.

 

Last time I checked, he was an expert in Italian football.

 

Two very bizarre news stories...

Loic Remy has been arrested on suspicion being part of a gang rape of a 34 year old woman - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22537941

And...

A man has died two weeks into a trek which involved him dribbling a football from his home in Seattle to Brazil in time for the World Cup - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22537627

 

Does that mean he wouldn't know anything else?

 

Gianluca Di Marzio, the top man at Sky Italia - says Ancelotti has been promised Gareth Bale if he goes to Madrid...

 

Back to f1 .

What I would love to see , but it will never happen , is have safety rukes and regs .

But apart from that anything goes , can you imagine a grid with the Brabham Fan car , the 6 wheel tyrrell , the fantastic Bradbham Delta car , the ground effect cars , HEAVEN !!!!!

In the meantime bring back gravel traps !

 

Are they not bringing back ground effects cars from next year onwards?

 

Honestly don't know , but wish they would re-introduce gravel traps !