Ecclestone: F1 needs overhaul to cease being "engineers' championship" Ecclestone: F1 needs overhaul to cease being "engineers' championship" - Formula 1 News
Just turn off ALL of the onboard telemetry...period. There is no need for any data being sent to the pit except by the driver's voice. That would be a good start. That way, the pit could not give the driver any directions on how to drive without the driver first recognizing a problem. If the brakes are overheating, the driver needs to sense that and adjust. If the car needs more front grip, he can ask that a turn or two be put on the front wing. But without a constant telemetry stream of data to the pits they can't tell the driver to ease off the brakes because they are 12 degrees C out of spec. The only possible reason to stream data from the car to the pits is to allow the engineers to intervene in how the driver is doing his job.
1) ban all communication to the driver about how to change his car's settings or issues the engineers see. Pit announcements and anything to do with safety are OK though. 2) ban all software controlled driver's aids that enhance handling 3) ban all electronic movable wings or aerodynamics 4) bring back manual gearboxes, which would allow the banning of Launch Control. 5) stop the idiotic ban on testing which only puts millions of dollars of money into simulators for the drivers. Let drivers test in real cars on real tracks to learn their machines and discuss them with the engineers. Even if they did 1-3, it would put the car back in the driver's hands and make the racing less predictable.
In addition to much of the above......Make technical regulations that encourage innovation instead of rules that handcuff the engineers. What is so hard about that?
Absolutely agreed. Also, mandate cast iron brakes instead of composite to lower costs and increasing passing opportunities, and ban pneumatic valve trains to reduce costs and make the technology more relevant to production cars. Then open up the engine formula to "run what you brung", with only a displacement limit, or possibly a fuel allotment limitation. Get rid of the spec racing formula and open the series to technological innovation. And quit trying to be "green"-- that's for other, lesser, series and not for the supposed pinnacle of motorsports.
Mosley and Ecclestone...Team Integrity! They do need less coaching IMO; but some telemetry is not a big deal.
What's the point? They always have all this beautiful proposals only to decide to favour crappy ones when the real deal comes along. F1 is slowly dying. Maybe that's what needs to happen only for a better series to rise form the ashes.
Anything that puts the driver more in control and more responsible for performance is good in my book. The cockpit has been so dumbed down that they could replace drivers with robots and nobody would notice the difference... Ban out telemetry and ban pit to car radio for any and all non safety issues.
Costs money; regulations are there for cost saving. F1 is torn apart between new, inevitable engine tech/formulas, cost saving measures and spectator demands. Since Ferrari, Mercedes, Honda and Renault all have committed themselves to F1 (and 4 engine suppliers is probably adequate); only way out is to give them all a limited window of say 6 months, of token free, limitless inovation. To speed up development and especially to allow Honda and Renault to regain lost terrain.
DRS was introduced to allow easier ways of overtaking, it works too. Remember the days when F1 was an endless parade of cars that hardly could overtake eachother. I wouldn't ban it. LC is already banned. Every serious racing series these days uses paddle shift gearboxes; F1 was the pioneer. Seems a big step backwards to ban them.
Seamless shifting allows for less competition. F1's gearboxes are part of the problem. Skill wise they offer very little. Id be pleased to see them gone as well.
I severely doubt you would see any substantial impact from switching to manual transmissions. These drivers are excellent and all came up racing some kind of manual transmission at some point. Although, in the future it is conceivable that you might get f1 drivers with no manual transmission experience. Removing power steering is a better idea IMO. That is clearly a driver aid. Indycar doesn't use PS.
Don't get me wrong either; I think it would be awesome to see them rowing 6 or 7 gears and using a clutch, but I don't think it's in the spirit of F1 to regress on transmissions.
Im not thinking its regression. Its about skill. The tech for manual transmissions still exist. Its a driving skill. F1 should also have room for that. Tech has gone too far.
What F1 needs is a way for aero to be less problemetic when following. Brundle mentioned something about the front wings during the Russian GP....they look beautiful, a true masterpiece...but so damn fragile for debris and even worse when following another car. IMO limiting aero performance is the way to go, and would improve F1 ten fold. Wouldn't be any need for DRS, either. Getting rid of wings is not it though. I like wings and belong on an F1 car...
Good points as aero has always been an issue of late. Id like to see some experiments here in the offseason to refine an aero solution
Front wings: Single element, non-adjustable(except manually), limited width and depth, no end plates or other elements such as turning vanes. Rear wings: Single element non-adjustable(except manually), limited width and depth, no end plates. Floors: Floor may not be visible when viewed from above car at 90 degrees to reference plane. Body: No vanes, flip-ups, wings or other affectations that extend from the body except to FIA provided camera pods which may only be located within specific areas and in such numbers as required by FIA and enforced against all cars All of this will significantly reduce down force, aero grip. Permit tires size and track width to be increased so as to increase mechanical grip.
Yep. Just a quick look at lower categories such as GP2 shows that overtaking is entirely possible because they have simpler aero which allows for easier following and thus overtaking. +1
It has only been that way since.....Oh.....1956! F1 racing is about what happens back at the development lab (a.k.a., Maranello). Then every 3 weeks or so they get together to see who is doing better back at the lab.
Bas, thought you would enjoy this video from when cars didn't need wings. The driver line up is a who's-who from the 1960s. And of course the track... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVJNkEuVhDI
