Thinking the unthinkable

Well said


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I think william needs the all-star poster award for the past few days. He has:

1.) Posted a thread about American swimmer Ryan Lochte in the F1 forum and then argued why it is relevant to F1

2.) Argued intensely that Spa '98 was the fault of MSC even when confronted with information that DC himself admitted it was his fault

3.) And now seems to be supporting the notion that F1 should be converted to a single make series

Wow.

 

I think if you just allowed very powerful engines and large wings you would transfer it into an air race. The aerodynamics would make overtaking impossible (because of lack of downforce on part of the following car). Duckling single file the entire race.

The simplicity that could go along with it is also of questionable use for the low-budget teams. A electric-assisted model actually still come out faster, and some teams could afford it if allowed. The lower reliability would be a price they would pay.

Effective control of cost (large amounts of extra money convert into small increases in performance) is very difficult.

Control of downforce limits is also very difficult. The smaller size you restrict the wings to the more it matters that you have a genius aerodynamics engineer and lots of computing power.

 

Completely true.

These days, it's all about who can pay more to host the races. In the middle of nowhere. While i agree about globalization, and that we need to embrace it, dropping traditional circuits, in favour of characterless ones is pure nonsense.

We lost Turkey (a great track), India, Valencia, and even South Korea. These guys barely lasted 3 years. Imagine how much of money was put aisde for this, only for them to be parking lots, and middle of no where. All because they dangled the carrot for Bernie.

Personally, F1 is a dying brand and so called sport. Sponsors are staying away, pay drivers are here and there, and they don't even race these days. It's all just a snorefest. I am just thankful and lucky i witness the V10s and proper racing in person a couple if times. I truly cherish those memories, because i know that i'll probably never witness those things anymore.

 

The future....and it is not pretty.

Autonomous cars...meet the Devbot. Get rid of that squishy bit in the middle of the car and capabilities go way up....not to mention, the center of the tub can be properly structured and braced.

Meet DevBot, a self-driving electric racing car | Ars Technica

 

Same over here...

 

Thanks again Captain Obvious, you're on a roll

 

+1
Pete

 

Some idiots have even called this ''the future of racing''. Err. No. It's the death of racing. What's the point of autonomous racing cars? They all follow the same racing line, computer programmed racing lines so there will not be any overtaking. Even if you let some people control it live by remote control...

Might as well skip this step and watch virtual racing IMO. Or join it. All it takes is a half decent computer and a steering wheel.

 

Anyone who thinks that is the future of racing is a fool. Racing is about people. Always has been.

 

You´re underestimating the robots. You´ll be the first to die when they get the control.

Now seriously: it´s already possible to make a robot that is able to overtake. Even in video games the computer controlled cars can change the line when necessary, and I suppose that the algorythms in a game are a joke compared to the current state of the art in artificial intelligence. Although at this point probably overtaking is the only thing that humans still can do better than a robot at a race track.

 

You are right but the people will not be the drivers.

Here are some points to explain IMO where we are going and why:

1. Joe Average now finds driving very easy and of little challenge. The cause of this is the over development of the automobile and modern cars are sanitised to suit 99% of the population that don't get the fun side of driving.

The end result of this is that Joe Average believes that motor racing takes little skill and he/she could just jump in a race car and be fast, etc.

2. Supporting this we have Elton who goes out of his way to make it seem so easy for him. He does not use the simulator, etc. to learn new tracks and continually makes comments to the media that it is so easy for him, etc. Of course he is doing this as an ego trip but what he does not realise is that to 99% of the population of Joe Averages his comments are reinforcing their belief that being a racing driver takes little skill.

3. On top of this we have the FIA, who have been behaving like the automobile manufacturers and over developing their product and sanitising it. We now have ridiculously over safe tracks where you can take enormous liberties and not suffer any consequence at all. So to the Joe Averages not only is motor racing skill-less but it is also no longer dangerous.

4. The current generation of Joe Averages are growing up with the santised products that the manufacturers are pushing out where the only advancements are now related to touch screens and connectivity with other hardware such as mobile phones. Yes the public want this stuff but that does not mean that is the only thing manufacturers should be focusing on ... but lets face it, for the last 20 years car design focus in regards to handling, etc. has been related to cost. They have long solved the question on how to make a car handle, stop, turn, etc. now its just how much do they want to spend.

Have you noticed that you can jump into one of the many cheap cars and does a pretty damn good job of ripping through corners, braking, etc. Now not Ferrari levels but impressive none-the-less. When I was learning to drive if you got into a cheap car it was horrid in the corners and took for ever to stop, etc.

5. So we have, thanks to the manufacturers success, a generation that gets little back from driving, who in some ways fills this void with finding the computer/phone based technology advancement interesting. After all we are still on the learning curve here.

6. On top of this, the challenge of creating programs that can drive a car is massive and nerds all over the world are having wet dreams about it. Whether it is required or will harm mankind does not come into the equation.

7. Absolutely autonomous motor sport would bring back the crowds and interest like F1 used to back in it's fledgling days. There would be crashes and spills galore and it would be fun to watch them develop this technology. The programmers would be heroes to the nerds like F1 drivers today.

Also manufacturers would learn a considerable amount and to be honest until an autonomous car can negotiate safely a standing start and first lap of a race, I'm not getting into one.

If I was running the FIA I'd be worried.
Pete
ps: I have a family friend that has created a robot that races through mazes. If you search for it I'm sure you will find these competitions. Schools competes, but our friend did this just for a hobby. The robots have to learn the maze and then the fastest through without a mistake wins. He even added a fan to his to suck the robot down to the floor so it could corner faster