Most liked posts in thread: F1 - 2010

Lots of big news in the world of F1 rules, etc. Here's a start:

Pirelli appointed sole F1 tyre supplier (Reuters via uk.eurosport.yahoo.com)

I haven't seen anything yet on a decision to switch to 18" wheels. Given all the other rule changes announced today, without any mention of wheel or tire size (at least anywhere I've looked), I suspect that means they're leaving it as-is for another year.

 

I think we all know why the 107% rule is back.....

The "Aerodynamic influence" bit is meant to ban F-ducts and anything else of that nature.

The "Safety Car" section is a consequence of the Schumacher last lap pass/penalty controversy at Monaco. "It was agreed the rules were unclear - Mercedes and some other teams argued they allowed overtaking after the safety car had pulled in on the last lap."

The "Fuel draining" bit is meant to avoid situations like Hamilton parking his car instead of taking it back to the pits because he would have run out of fuel and they wanted to make sure there was enough to sample.

Gonna snip another article to cover the "Driver adjustable bodywork" section.

Full list of F1 decisions taken by FIA WMSC (crash.net)

 

snipping just the lines about adjustable rear wings.....

F1 tech changes to improve racing (news.bbc.co.uk)

 

My guess is it's a reaction to the way people used KERS defensively, thus negating the hope that it would add a differential to help equalize some of the aerodynamic disadvantage of following another car and therefore make passing easier.

In fact, I bet they figured the leading car (in cleaner air) would get more benefit than the following car, which would make passing even harder than it already is.

I want to know how they plan to enforce. Not hard to keep drivers from using the system for the first two laps as long as there's telemetry to prove they're following the rules, and the system will apparently automatically turn off as soon as they touch the brakes, but how do they expect the drivers to precisely judge when they're less than a second behind the car they're following? I suppose there'll be a telemetry control for that as well? Push the button when you think you're close and it'll only work if the system says you're close enough?

On top of that, imagine tight trains of three or more cars. If a driver is less than a second behind, he can use the system, but what if there's someone else less than a second behind him?

 

Yep, every year they add new complications meant to overcome others. Thus the funky small rear wing / huge front wing combo this year and the ban on double-diffusers after this season, etc, ETC. I think the trailing aero wake problem is an issue though and not because it messes up "the show." It forces more risky, all-or-nothing style passing than ought to be necessary and often the sane option is to not pass, but there has to be a way to overcome it by simplifying instead of complicating.

Webber said "Overtaking moves should be about pressurising, being skilful and tactical. Yes, we want to see more overtaking, of course we do, we know that, but we also need to keep the element of skill involved in overtaking and not just hitting buttons."

Hear, hear! On the other hand, they could rely more on those skills rather than quite so many kamikaze style moves if the cars didn't all have an inherent character that makes it difficult to even follow one another.

I can't figure out why they don't just overhaul the rules to back out of some of the errors of the past that brought on the problem(s) rather than adding new, complicated (useless) band-aids every year. Simplify the friggin' design!

If they're going to induce a fairly radical design change by going to 18" wheels (in 2012?) maybe they ought to take advantage and throw in some aero simplification at the same time.

 

I didn't even know about that GP2 crash, looked a bit like a dance move...was that a pirouette? Webber is pretty tall for an F1 driver so I guess that was a pretty good test of the roll hoop structure.

I saw Kovalainen was pretty confused when some thought he was holding his line and that was unacceptable because he knew his car was slower. He said, incredulously, "He ran into me!"

 

A twist on the Webber accident I would have never thought of:

F-duct a factor in Webber’s crash? (yallaf1.com)

 

That's sort of what I was thinking while watching that video of Button and Hamilton with the MP4-4. Hamilton pauses and Alan said it was "as if trying to get a sense for the great one himself sitting in the seat" but I thought it was more like "how the hell did they make these things work without the mind-numbing number of buttons on the wheel?" Just kidding, Alan's thought is certainly much closer to reality but thinking about how they drove those things still made me wonder whether today's push-button solution is really better.

 

I guess the reports that Webber came through his little Valencia incident in fine shape are spot on. Here he is doing a bit of typical Red Bull outlandish promo in London this morning.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkEfliACANQ]YouTube - Mark Webber Parliament Square F1 Pit Stop w/ Red Bull Racing[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5YyYUplS9A&feature=channel]YouTube - Mark Webber Parliament Square F1 Pit Stop w/ Red Bull Racing (Full Version)[/ame]