If you removed a lot of the car design regulations then the designing of the car would not be limited by natural forces or regulations but by the driver's capabilities such as reaction time and how much g-force they could withstand, therefore whoever had the best driver would have the best car. Sadly cost and safety would prevent this from ever happening.
I feel F1 does require a lot of driver skill. Its just that all F1 drivers are very skilled. Its about being that 0.1% better that can win you titles.
Try telling that to Nakajima, I think I'm probably better than him and I can't drive for another month!
I agree that F1 does require a lot of driver skill but if the car design was dependent on how good the driver was then it would be the best driver winning because they are the best driver not becaue they are one of the best drivers and are in the best car. You would also not get good drivers stuck in rubbish cars.
The problem with that is that the wake of turbulent air of the back of the leading car would be so great, it'd be game over by the end of the first corner, overtaking would be impossible. I think F1 is already a massive test for drivers, and removing the electronic aids certainly made sure of that. Traction control for one made driving an F1 car an awful lot easier (although I still don't doubt it was hard!) I guess the best way to make F1 driver skill orientated would be to give them all a standard car, but A1 tried that and it didn't work out too well!
Its a no win situation, make the cars slower and the sport will loose prestige. Make the cars faster and potentially loose teams due to funding. 2013 new rules should show us how quickly drivers can adapt.
That is a good point about the turbulent air, but my main point was that it would be good if how good the car was was dependent on how good the driver was. You could even have it that you would maybe design a slightly slower car that was easier the drive so you are going to finish a high percentage of races, or you could design a car that was right on the edge of the driver's ability to handle, so it was very fast but perhaps a lower percentage of finishes.
This would still make a gap between the good and bad teams, the ones with enough money to test a car and spend millions of pounds into developing one car, and the ones without.
Yes, otherwise the grid would probably be lined up with jet fighters. Yes but unless you have a budget cap you are always going to have this.
But they don't do anything at ground level, they're just pressurised so you don't explode at high altitudes, not really anything to do with G's. There isn't really any way to escape gravity! (at least, inside the universe...)
I'd like F1 to put greater importance back on the drivers as I feel there are certain drivers on the grid who (no offence to Mark Webber) did nothing special in their early years, found themselves in fast cars and suddenly because of the car they started winning races, beating more talented drivers and almost winning the championship. Put 2 weaker drivers in the RB7 and podiums/wins will come easily. That's not fair! How to go about making F1 more driver skill orientated, well I don't really know, but as DHCanary pointed out, standard cars = **** I am going to say something, and you are going to take that comment back. Here goes... Yuji Ide
I don't know whether some of you guys quite understand what a G-suit is. It has bands in the legs that tighten when the pilot is under intense G-force, pushing the blood into the thorax and head, to stop them passing out. However, I guess the issue with this is that pilots don't use their legs half as much as an F1 driver, so can get away with it. A sudden cut to blood flow to the leg pressing the throttle or brake is not going to help lap times, especially with the force drivers have to apply to the pedals, both the brute strength to really lean on the brakes, and the fine adjustments to maximise speed.
I didn't think about that, was just thinking about keeping them conscious. Oh well, I'm sure Newey could make it work.
Newey would probably design a surgical procedure to radically alter the circulatory system, so that with the flick of a switch all the drivers blood to non-essential organs (bar the minimum to keep the organs alive) would be directly rerouted to the brain (rather than muscles) in order to sustain consciousness. (And yes I know thats a simplified version of human anatomy, I didn't think the detail was necessary!)
More power & more drag coupled with less grip & less electronics is what is needed. as for Gee-suits, I don't think they pull enough gees, or for long enough, for them to be of any beneficial use. and BLS I don't think cutting the blood supply to the legs for a few seconds (at most) would have that much of an effect tbh.
