Most liked posts in thread: F1 - 2011

Redbeard · Dec 17, 2010

ScottinBend said: ↑

And here are some of the rules changes that were NOT adopted..........

The Rejected 2011 F1 Rule Changes

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Jalopnik/SniffPetrol said:

●Bernd Maylander in a Mercedes SLS to be recognised as an official world championship entry.
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LOL, awesome.

Steve · Dec 22, 2010

This looks like something outside the rules changes we've seen published so far...I think...

â€˜Major changesâ€™ set for 2013 Formula 1 cars (gpupdate.net)

Formula 1 cars are set to take on radical modifications ahead of the 2013 season, according to an investigation conducted by BBC Sport, as team bosses hope to improve racing and in particular overtaking opportunities. The new-style and slightly slower vehicles, inspired by the ideas of designers Patrick Head and Rory Byrne, would have significantly smaller wings and specially-shaped floors.

With the proposals having been drafted by Williamsâ€™ Head and Byrne, a major player in the Michael Schumacher domination years at Ferrari, the aerodynamic changes would see downforce being created differently as cars used around 35 percent less fuel and become more challenging to drive, despite speeds decreasing to some extent.

The drafts have now been sent to F1 governing body the FIA in Paris ahead of a meeting for the Technical Working Group (TWG) in January.

The most significant changes would be the following:

- Much smaller front and rear wings

- A far greater proportion of the total downforce of the cars will be created by the underfloor, compared to the wings

- A major reduction in the amount of total downforce created by the car

- To achieve this, the underfloor of the cars will be shaped along its length to generate downforce for the first time since the 1982 season - currently cars have bottoms that are flat between the wheels

- The average proportion of a lap that a driver is able to spend on full throttle to be cut from 70% in 2010 to 50% in 2013

- Tyres will remain large and chunky to ensure cornering speeds remain high

â€œWe are only going to have roughly 65 percent of the amount of fuel and a (limited) fuel (flow) rate - that was a given,â€ Head, who with Byrne began drawing up ideas in March, explained to BBC Sport.

â€œWe were just told, 'That's what it will be, you've got to come up with a car spec that is not going to be more than five seconds a lap slower than a current F1 car.â€™â€

â€œSo some circuit simulation was done by Rory at Ferrari and when we'd come up with some numbers, in terms of drag and downforce, it was then to try to come up with a geometry of a car that could try to achieve that.â€
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Minidave · Dec 22, 2010

In other words, scrap everything we've been doing and start over - there, THAT'LL save some money.......riiiiigghhhhttttt....

Steve · Dec 22, 2010

I wonder where the impetus came from for this. My first guess was it's a FOTA idea rather than a request from the FIA, but I can't imagine all the teams agreeing to this without significant pressure from the FIA.

minimark · Dec 22, 2010

Unfortunately it might just be the case of "the haves" making dang sure that "the have nots " remain that way....

....and you can be sure that Bernie will "have more" in the process.

Nathan · Dec 24, 2010

Red Bull Christmas Card

Crashton · Dec 24, 2010

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Nathan · Dec 28, 2010

Whoops!!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AKTJq0xg2I]YouTube - Kubica finds cellphone in cockpit[/ame]

RllyDrvrIX · Dec 28, 2010

Priceless!

Crashton · Dec 29, 2010

He should have pitched it out when he passed the pits.

Here's a funny tale...

Back in the dark ages I was sitting on the grid at Mid Ohio ready to start the pace lap of an IT race when a friend of mine comes screaming into pit lane does a smoking stop & starts heaving tires, tool boxes, & jack stands out of his Pinto. I almost pissed myself laughing as did most of the folks standing in pit lane. We started without him. That was back in the day when a lot of guys drove their race cars to the track. Life was simpler then.

Back on topic...

Distracted F1 drivers. :lol:

Steve · Dec 29, 2010

Will Gray speculating a bit on the 2011 addition of adjustable rear wings and return of KERS (snipped from a longer article found on uk.eurosport.yahoo.com).

They didn't make KERS use compulsory but looks like they artificially stacked the deck to make it almost crucial.

ADJUSTABLE WINGS AND KERS

The FIA's new efforts to improve overtaking mainly centre on the re-introduction of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) and the creation of a new adjustable rear wing.

The latter aims to replace the f-duct with a relatively standardised solution to reduce drag on the straights that is easier to develop (the f-duct was cheap but took significant engineering talent to perfect). The transparent method of its introduction should keep all teams on a relatively level playing field and simply provide a device that improves overtaking rather than altering the order.

KERS, on the other hand, is quite the opposite - and while the tyres could open up an opportunity for the smaller teams, this is likely to make it very difficult for them to make a breakthrough as although it is not compulsory, KERS will be an effective must-have (like the f-duct and the blown diffuser) if a team wants to race competitively.

The systems will essentially be the same as seen in 2009, with no increase in the maximum permitted power, but the entire development is expected to cost around Â£8m per team.

Brawn won the title without KERS in 2009, despite rivals McLaren and Ferrari both running the system, but that was because KERS came without a compensation for its weight. For 2011, the minimum weight has been increased by 20kg to give allowance for the addition of a KERS system and the weight distribution is fixed between 45.5% and 46.5% front to reduce the chances of a team that does not run KERS being more competitive.

This time, therefore, running with KERS is likely to be the only option to be competitive - yet given the cost of the system the backmarkers are unlikely to be able to take up the opportunity.

If teams can afford to run it, however, there is scope for innovation in packaging to gain advantage. When KERS was last in F1, fuel tanks were much smaller as refuelling was allowed. Now, without refuelling, the larger fuel tanks will demand clever solutions to accommodate battery packs and other elements that are used in the KERS system.

Given all these issues, it seems likely that we will see some order shuffling amongst the groups - but the only way a lower level team will jump up to the next level will be if they can afford to run KERS, can innovate with its packaging and also get an early handle on the way the new tyres work best. Not an easy task at all.
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minimark · Dec 29, 2010

Keeping the have nots just that.....

Steve · Dec 29, 2010

Well that and to coerce interest in KERS regardless of the challenge of integration and any genuine interest in using it.

minimark · Dec 29, 2010

As much as I love Ferrari I fear that they are pushing hardest.. They already have the technology and the history of manipulating F1 for their benefit and to insure few upstarts have a chance....

Don't know about you guys but I like to see new teams and competitors in racing; it keeps old favorites on their toes and a freshness to the sport...

Steve · Dec 30, 2010

Another pundit (Ted Kravitz) contemplates 2011's movable rear wings:

How new rules could change the championship (news.bbc.co.uk)

HOW THE MOVEABLE REAR WING WORKS
Formula 1 rear wings are made up of two main elements. The main plane, which is the flat, horizontal part, and the flap, which is the piece of carbon fibre angled up against the airflow.

The flap is the part that will move. It will be pushed open, like a letterbox, against the airflow. The flap will move by five centimetres - a significant amount in aerodynamic terms.

Moving the flap up allows more air through the rear wing gap, which stalls the main plane and dumps drag, effectively giving the same result as 2010's F-duct. In fact, it is anticipated that the effect will be much greater than the F-duct, and could even be as much or more than the boost delivered by Kers.

The flap will be pushed up by actuators. It remains to be seen how teams make it work and whether it will be electrically or hydraulically operated by the driver via a button on the steering wheel.

Indeed, when you add Kers management systems and the moveable rear wing to the many buttons and switches already in use, you can quickly see that mental agility and capacity will be key requirements for any driver who wants to be successful in 2011.

WHEN AND HOW TO USE IT
The driver will be able to move the wing at any time throughout practice and qualifying. This way engineers can select appropriate gear ratios after measuring the car's maximum speed with the wing open. There is no point having a sudden straight line speed boost only to then hit the rev limiter.

But there are very different rules governing use of the moveable rear wing in the race.

Firstly, drivers will only be able to move the wing on one, designated straight. So at Silverstone, for example, it will be the Hangar straight and Barcelona will be the pit straight, but it might not be such a clear choice at other circuits. Charlie Whiting, race director of governing body the FIA, will choose.

Secondly, drivers will only be allowed to use it in a specific zone on the straight. This zone is expected to start a few hundred metres down the straight and end at the braking point for the next corner. This is to allow the cars to be securely established at high speed before taking away downforce. The sudden removal of rear downforce has to be done with great care.

As soon as the driver touches the brake pedal for the corner, the flap snaps shut and the rear wing provides downforce again.

Thirdly, drivers will not be allowed to move their wings in the first two laps of the race, nor during the two laps following a safety car period. This is understandable as everyone will be tightly bunched together.

The fourth and arguably most intriguing rule about moving the wing in the race is that the car behind must be within one second of the car ahead in order to be allowed to activate the wing. The car's electronic control unit (ECU) will be sent timing information to govern when the driver is allowed to move his wing.

Crucially, the driver ahead is not allowed to move his rear wing to defend the overtaking move, unless he too is within one second of another car in front.

WHAT EFFECT WILL IT HAVE ON THE RACING?
This will inevitably change race strategies. Championship-challenging teams will be less concerned about getting held up by midfield cars, as Ferrari were in Abu Dhabi, because as long as they can close to within a second, they will be able to overtake fairly easily. This will allow them a little more freedom in when to pit.

And even between the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, these new rules will have a huge effect because for the first time, the driver running behind will have an advantage, and will be able to use that to potentially win a race.

Take Singapore 2010 as an example. Vettel had the fastest car but finished second to Alonso because Ferrari covered Red Bull's pit stop and were always ahead on the road.

With a moveable rear wing, if Vettel could have stayed within a second of Alonso, he could have waited until the last lap before activating his moveable rear wing and passing the Ferrari.

Alonso would have been powerless to defend because the driver ahead is not allowed to move his rear wing to neutralise an attack.

Of course, the bottom line is that no one - not the teams, not the drivers, not the FIA - actually knows how this will work in practice, and they will not until the first race in Bahrain on 13 March.

As a result, it will be a work in progress for the first few races, as the FIA look to see whether it is working as they intended, and refine it if not.

It could be that, with this new rule, having track position could change from being a blessing to a curse.

It may be that if there are evenly matched cars, they race in pack, in order to be able to overtake with your moveable wing later on.

Whatever, it's understandable that, to many, the moveable rear wing will be seen as an artificial gimmick that will cheapen the value of overtaking manoeuvres and could lead to unjust results gained by good timing rather than genuine pace.

However, as long as the wing works as intended, that will not be the case.

The aim is to allow cars that are significantly faster than others to be able to overtake, but for it to remain difficult for one car to overtake another of similar pace.

How it works in practice remains to be seen.
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Steve · Dec 30, 2010

minimark said: ↑

As much as I love Ferrari I fear that they are pushing hardest.. They already have the technology and the history of manipulating F1 for their benefit and to insure few upstarts have a chance....

Don't know about you guys but I like to see new teams and competitors in racing; it keeps old favorites on their toes and a freshness to the sport...
Click to expand...

I agree, I love to see new blood. The problem is I want them to mix it up with the established teams and that's sort of a bridge too far without either big budgets (for the new teams) or punitive rules (for the established teams) designed to make things easy for the new boys. Of course it's crazy to expect them to catch up in their first year so results in 2010 really shouldn't be used as justification for persecution.

Ferrari do seem to be complaining more than most about the new teams being embarrassing jokes and little more than movable chicanes. They're also the ones pushing (still) to fill out the field by allowing three cars per team instead of adding new teams. Here's where I agree with Max Mosley (probably for the first time ever) who said Ferrari's logic is short-sighted and would do more harm than good.

Steve · Dec 31, 2010

Here's a different spin on Ferrari's 3 cars per team idea.

Verstappen: Ferrariâ€™s third-car plan has merit (gpupdate.net)

Ferrariâ€™s desire for the top teams to be able to enter a third car could be good for the sport, thatâ€™s the view of former F1 pilot Jos Verstappen. Indeed the 38-year-old also reckons that if done cleverly it could be used as a way to help young drivers break into the sport.

â€œFerrari has the idea of three-car teams and I must say that I see something in that proposal,â€ Verstappen wrote in his latest column in Dutch newspaper, De Telegraaf. â€œFor the [big] teams it is not that expensive to have a third car because the parts and components are already there.

â€œA third car could also be a unique way for young drivers to break into F1. If it was up to me, I would have a maximum age for a â€˜thirdâ€™ driver set at say 23-years-old. You could make it a kind of development car for talented young drivers.

â€œAt the moment with the current test restrictions there is not much chance for so-called â€˜thirdâ€™ drivers to actually drive.

"This could therefore be a good solution and the FIA should consider it seriously,â€ he concluded.
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minimark · Dec 31, 2010

Doubt seriously that that is what Ferrari has in mind...

Steve · Dec 31, 2010

minimark said: ↑

Doubt seriously that that is what Ferrari has in mind...
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:lol: I know! I can just imagine Montezemolo reading about Verstappen's idea while sipping his morning coffee and doing a spit take. Imagine all the back-tracking he'd be doing if the FIA decided Verstappen was right?

I actually like Verstappen's spin except it would dump on the smaller teams who wouldn't be able to afford it. Still say young driver development for F1 took its biggest hit from the test restrictions.

minimark · Dec 31, 2010

Agree! While testing isn't cheap it is the best way for a driver to develop the skills required for F1 and when compared to all the Techno stuff the big teams have, it can be more cost effective for new teams developing new cars....

Might also consider that if the powers at be could narrow the teams involved down to say 4 or 5 with multiple entries then they have more control over the whole series and can funnel the money to Bernie much more efficiently .... Lol

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