https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/formula-1-tweaks-grid-penalty-system-for-2018-986583/ And erm...they've changed absolutely sweet **** all. They talked about revising the system for an entire season(!), and this is what they've come up with: Nothing! The only thing they've changed, is that now journo's can't say ''Honda driver X has an 115 place penalty this weekend''. It'll be fixed at 15. How the **** did Todt run unopposed? Did he delete the applications by accident?
Thats the way I see it. Commentators would say, " Alonso has a 45 place grid penalty with only 20 cars on the grid.....these penalties are antiquated and need revision!" If that's the case, they should have left it as is....at least we are familiar with the antiquated grid penalty system.
We all know the real answer to this dilemma don't we? Simpler, less expensive engines so they can have 10 if they want. No more grid penalties. Or... if they go beyond some magic number, doc the team points.
Docking the team points for using too many power-units in a season wouldn't work - Ferrari would happily end the F1 season with -1000 points in the WCC if it meant they could use as many power-units as they wanted to, in order to win the far more coveted and noted Drivers World Championship!
I did some research. A turbocharger for an F1 car is over 100K per unit. That's not an error. A hundred thousand dollars, for a turbocharger. Ludicrous. 2x GTX35 turbo are 5K, a very large GTX45 is 3K. If they actually wanted to stay even remotely road relevant, tell them to use commercially available turbos!? Not a single car will use a 100 grand turbo charger. What the actual ****. Mercedes is going to throw away over 100 engines, destroyed on the dyno next year. They want to find the ultimate breaking point on each (new) engine to ensure it'll go as far as they're told they need to go. It's a false economy. It's costing well into the 100m figures every season just on engines, let alone development of them. Taking off all the overcomplicated bits, replacing the expensive turbo with 2 commercially available ones and revving to actual 15K rpm would be so much cheaper it's not even funny. Unit cost for the entire engine would be <100K per engine + ancillaries. They can use a new engine every weekend and it'll be miles cheaper.
Its not just a turbo charger though, and by the time that tech makes it to a road car it won't be $100k per unit. Sure they could build a twin turbo V6 for 100k, but at what point does it just become another engine... F1 went from building basic tube frame cars with big engines, to the leading forefront of automotive tech, this is just a natural progression. We're at the point where the balance needs to either be towards developing that tech, or keeping it simple for the sake of the racing. Which is it? Its like the old cost triangle. Cheap, reliable, or quality, pick two...
F1 is not relevant because it shares components with current road cars...it's the trickle down technology that is developed in F1 that eventually makes it to production vehicles. I can't think of a way to make F1 more boring than to throw parts at them from online retailers...might as well use crate LS motors.
Just get Cosworth or whoever to supply the (much simpler) engines, would save everyone a ton of cash/time and perhaps even the racing might be a little bit better?
Wash your mouth out with salty water! Hahaha. I think ferrari can build a great naturally aspirated engine thank you very much!
I believe you mean no one is listening to you. ...the fans cannot agree on what the future of F1 should be. Some want spec, off-the-shelf components...others want to tear up the rule book and make a template like the one at the airport (if your car fits inside this box, it races)...everyone else is somewhere in between. There might be a touch of consensus on what some of the problems are...but, there is none when it comes to solutions.
We are not talking about the "future of F1". We are talking about the grid penalties. It's just stupid to go all the way to an F1 race (usually months of planning ahead) see your guy qualify well but have him go to the back of the grid for a gearbox change or a turbocharger change. Penalize TEAM POINTS -- not the driver's-- for mechanical problems. That's what the fans want.
Right. But the two posts immediately following your post had conflicting suggestions as to how to accomplish your goal. And...we are, in fact, talking about the future of F1.
A single current engine costs as much as an entire season's worth of V-10's. F1 hasn't been serious about cost containment under Todt.
Except it's backwards now. F1 uses a hybrid system...similar in concept to what Toyota started with their first Prius in 1997. How exciting! To make things worse, Roombas sound more violent than an F1 car does.
That’s why I had a ferrari badge on my roomba! He looked awesome stalking the dust with a Cavallino on him. He’d have bashed elton way harder In Baku if he became a sudden obstacle I can tell you..... roomba is ruff and tuff!
Exactly my point. It's a false economy. When these engines where introduced Todt promised costs would be halves, but they went stratospheric instead. Lotus went broke (Renault bought them for a pound), Caterham couldn't afford it and closed their doors. Marussia went broke. Would those teams still be around today with normal engines? Who knows but surely they would've stood a better chance. The amount of fans and therefore sponsors leaving and the incredible cost of these engines was what killed these teams off.
DECEMBER 15, 2017 Top F1 teams too reliable says Todt Jean Todt thinks the level of car reliability in formula one is too high. He said the fact cars can often go a full season without a mechanical breakdown in a race shows that too much money is spent. Referring to Lewis Hamilton, the FIA president told Auto Bild: "He did not make any mistakes, but he also had an incredibly strong car -- strong in terms of performance and reliability. "Even if the Mercedes was not always the fastest, Lewis scored points in 20 of the 20 grands prix," said the Frenchman. "The cars are too reliable." Many think Ferrari lost the title due to poor reliability in the second half of the season, but Todt doesn't agree. "Ferrari impressed me as well," he said. "I stay with what I said: Ferrari and Mercedes were too reliable. That costs money. Tests, simulators, it's all too much. We don't need all of that for a good sport. Actually, the contrary," the FIA president added. Todt also admitted that talks are currently taking place about a compromise between what existing and potential new manufacturers want from the 2021 engine rules. "The current engines are too expensive, too complicated and too quiet," he admitted. "But we can build on them. We are currently talking to the manufacturers about an evolution of the current engines. The process is not finished yet."
