Or hasn't..... That story first raised the specter of the loophole..... Discussions ensued and Charlie clarified where they're at over Xmas. My interpretation, which I know differs to many, is that the existing three are now free to introduce upgrades at will, anytime, until they've used all 32 tokens. At which time they'll homolgate their '2014-plus-mods' units as their 2015 units. Cheers, Ian
Ian, in addition to violating the clause against modifying an already homologated PU, each time a modified PU was raced, since it was different than the last PU, it would have to be considered another one of the four PUs allotted for the season. If a PU was modified more than 4 times, the team would have to race with a penalty for the remainder of the season. Unless they simply blow open the updating rules and let PUs be modified on a continual basis, I don't see any other manageable scenario. If PU makers were allowed to introduce modifications at any time during the season, would they have to provide the updates to every car using their PU? Would Mercedes and Ferrari keep the updates for themselves until they had used up their 32 tokens and the PU was homologated?
These guys could eff up a wet dream. I'm assuming that there's also an end date. Otherwise they could hold back tokens and not freeze until...
Which would be the equivalent of sticking our head in the sand. Fact is we need to find a viable replacement for petrol/oil, if for no other reason than allowing the western world to leave the Middle East alone. So sorry the US government has got it wrong with their too low fuel prices and should follow the rest of the world. Pete
You may be right. And this may well be at the heart of the 'threat' (reported elsewhere) about McLaren-Honda protesting any such upgrades. However, the way I'm reading Charlie's comments from Xmas is the existing guys will be considered homologated with their 2014 engines+32 tokens. Note he says 'upgrades throughout the season', not 'an upgraded PU'. Rightly or wrongly, I think that's exactly what they've done..... Maybe Marlboro man has more more clout than we thought..... I *believe* they can only run one configuration. Ie, they'd have to make "Ferrari 2014 + 16 tokens" available to all at the same time. Cheers, Ian
Or finally paying attention as the emporer's new hybrid clothes are pointed our for what they really are. There are way better solutions available than the electric cr4p Sure, it's always better when govt gets involved by taxing more and subsidizing like Solyndra - ROFL
Ian - I interpret the article as you do. They do not have to homologate until they use up all of the 32 tokens - whether that is in March or next October. This is the only thing I do not understand how they will regulate the use of the tokens - updates to already run engines. This could get interesting and be an opportunity for McHonda to argue a rules violation. If someone decides to redesign the tops of their piston, or use a different bearing design, or whatever, you are replacing a wear component and just extended the lifetime of the engine. As it appears from Charlie's note to the teams (as Ian has pointed out) that is exactly what appears to be happening this year. And I for one am quite thankful for it.
I mentioned this elsewhere already, but I see how token changes can be made during the 2015 season. Firstly, we need to remind ourselves that homologation is entirely different to frozen. What that means is an homologated engine can be different from one race to the next. Next we should bear in mind that the current rules provide for periods of development of homologated engines and then re-homologation. During the period of allowable changes then engines do not become non-homologated. True, the "intention" of the FiA was clearly that the period of allowable changes to homologated engines was to be during the off-season. But that is where the loophole exists, the date of re-homologation was not actually defined. In summary, an homologated engine can change. Within the current rules an homologated engine can have 32 tokens worth of change made between the 2014 and 2015 homologations and while those token changes are implemented the engine does not become "un-homologated". I tend to agree with Ian, but I'm equally certain its not clear cut.
Oh, good!.... I was starting to think I was pissing into the wind here. It's possible we both are of course. Certainly, we disagree with the mighty James Allen..... A good point. I guess (always dangerous!), that any such upgrades can only be made to as yet unused PU's...... The first in Aus, uses, let's say, 2014+16 tokens. That's it. However, prior to using the second, it continues to be homologated, but is now 2014+24 tokens. The third is a minor upgrade and is 2014+28 tokens. The last gets run as 2014+32 and becomes the 2015 homologation base. Just a thought.... +1 As I said somewhere else, maybe the Marlboro man knows how the corridors of power work..... Cheers, Ian
Your assumption is that they have a coherent course of action. I suspect that some of these logical anomalies are intentional, designed to give the FIA flexibility of action as the season unfolds. Foolish consistencies/small minds and all that.
I don't consider that a long term solution. Now I live in Australia so my views might be skewed by our weather but over here there is absolutely no reason why ALL our (Australia's anyway) energy cannot come from the sun, and yes I mean ALL. We then would be getting our energy without depleting anything at all. Yes there will be maintenance costs for the solar plants but that is it*. Electric cars powered by solar generated electricity in at least Australia make an extremely good case. Pete * many houses over here now have solar panels on their roof. In fact my neighbour is now making a profit.
They're considering more horsepower from the engines and more aggressive looking cars for the future, at least from 2016: Formel 1 der Zukunft: Aggressive Autos mit 1.200 PS - AUTO MOTOR UND SPORT Personally would go back to the 2008 look of machinery, those were amazing. Especially the F2008. Image Unavailable, Please Login
You should gain an understanding of how algal works. Very simple tour for you. 1) Algal is a solar converter - just far more natural than manufacturing panels 2) It is carbon negative - if you ascribe to global warming (I'm skeptical but also practical) 3) It can intake waste water and output clean water 4) It requires no infrastructural change for energy deployment for vehicles (fancy way of saying you will still fill up your car at the same petrol/gas station using the same pumps and tanks. 5) It doesn't require large chunks of land or compete for space 6) It can be implemented and used in all countries and regions that can grow macro or micro algaes There's more
But it has a purpose on this planet that we will upset if we grow it or use it all up. I guess there is no way to generate energy without using something of our planet, as of course we have to use raw materials to make solar panels ... but we need to stop looking for a raw energy source on our planet that we can dig up or grow. Sunlight comes here whether we use it or not, nothing we do can harm that energy source. Oh and by the way it take energy to grow anything and for algal to be sustainable we would have to farm it, and that would require an industry. Once we had enough solar panels we would only need to make enough to deal with failures/wear and growth of the population (one thing that needs to be halted. The real cause of global warming). Pete
Hi Pete, I enjoy chatting about this topic. I hope I can prick enough interest for you to do a bit more reading. This is an excellent solution, far better than using electric/batteries. Remember that algae is a plant, so the net effect as it grows in popularity would be more plants on our planet. That reverses a trend that most science says would be a very good thing. Building panels manufacturers artificial things. Then the energy from the panels needs to be transported. Then it needs to be stored in a burgeoning number of toxic batteries. And remember algae is a super efficient natural solar energy converter. Most important, all the solar panels under the sun can only ever aspire to getting close to carbon neutral. Algal fuels can be carbon negative AND purify our waste water to boot. It is well worth giving some thought to. I've got lots of material I've accumulated over time on this. I'll post some later.
Solar powered cars... Nice! Now let´s go for a dinner TONIGHT, in ICELAND, in JANUARY. Hopefully fusion power will be working in 30 years and batteries will be efficient then, or we´ll have that stuff of algae, if not we´re screwed.
Particularly poor example you picked. Debate or not whether hydro is considered as renewable but Iceland generates a total of next to nothing of their electricity from traditional fossil. They got plenty Geothermal power stations. Open your mind a bit, dude. An electric car might be another global solution. Not everyone would need to use solar panels... Algae is quite a scary thought to me and many. What the future brings, we don't know, but there is sooo many trajectories for green or not so green economies...
We already have it, and algae is a great natural way of harnessing it. BTW I think its about 8 minutes and 20 seconds
It seems that I´m not that good at sarchasm, or maybe the audience is cold. Just FYI, despite being a car nut for my whole life, I hope to see petrol cars banished from our cities soon, so relax, I´m not a redneck who enjoys scaring Toyota Prius drivers with his RAM truck. BUT, and despite being from a country that is (or at least was not so much time ago) a world leader in solar power, I stand to my point: solar energy has serious shortcomings, and I think that it´s only useful as a supplementary source of energy.
