Gotta love it an F1 car wearing a cod piece. :crazy: Maybe they store an extra 50 pony's in there....
I would bet it has to do with measuring the deflection/performance of the wing. Maybe call it the Flipper?
Formula One: Change tracks to improve passing? Perhaps music to the ears of Formula One fans worldwide, the FIA on Tuesday said that it will investigate whether today's modern circuits can be altered to improve on-track passing opportunities for drivers. “The circuit design group is examining grand prix circuits to identify the possibility of increasing the opportunities for overtaking,” an FIA statement said. While the subject of overtaking has long been on F1's agenda, the issue was thrust back to the fore after last season's finale on the Abu Dhabi circuit, where championship contenders Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber could not pass Vitaly Petrov's slower Renault for the majority of the event, allowing Sebastian Vettel to waltz his way to the title without pressure or the drama of a championship clash. Despite the introduction this year of moveable rear wings and kinetic-energy-recovery systems, most in the F1 paddock have said that they doubt there will be significantly more overtaking in 2011 than there was last season or in the recent past. Source - Autoweek
I've read a lot of this stuff and noticed great similarity from one gripe to the next. Even those saying it's a good thing because it will shake things up, etc, don't deny the level of degradation. Starting to wonder whether this season is going to be all about tires. Petrov describes extreme tyre degradation (gpupdate.net)
This seems like another step in the wrong direction for F1... Artificially introducing more variability and difficulty into the racing... And there's not even a glimmer of a benefit to street tires from this sort of thing. Unless we like the idea of tires that wear out a whole lot faster than they need to. My wish would be for F1 to lose all of the artificially contrived elements, and revert to an open formula, with general limits, that promotes safety, speed, and trickle-down benefits to street vehicle technology. F'rinstance, I've been loving "driving" the Red Bull X2010 car in Gran Turismo 5. I want the fan-assisted ground effects on my road car! The current direction F1 is taking is crippling innovation for the sake of affordability and for lack of a better term: "randomness". Who knows who will win the next race? Nobody. Because there are too many artificially induced variables to make the racing more "interesting", and to give the fans something to cheer about when sheer luck determines the win. Without allowing innovation in design (and without constraining the research and testing that go into developing such innovative designs), we might as well be watching a single-make series like Formula World, or whatever it's called (A1GP?), where the cars, engines and drivers don't matter. We only cheer for the color scheme of the livery that best matches our loyalties. F'get it! _Dave_ [unrant]
Let's see...let them use stuff like kerrs, movable wings, more electronic gizmos than a space craft with no refueling to take that out of the equation and then design and force them to run tires that go off pronto......? Sure!!
I don't imagine anyone following along here has fingers crossed that HRT will have a break-out season. In case I'm wrong, here's an article that pretty much sums up their position and just might to give you reason to move on and maybe support one of the other underdogs instead. The collaboration with Williams is a plus but otherwise I'm getting rather strong feelings of deja-vu from last season. HRT Will Not Miss Melbourne - Owner (formula-one.speedtv.com)
It's looking less likely every day that there'll be a race in Bahrain this season. I think the FIA and/or FOM gave them until May to decide whether they want back in at/near the end of the season but the King just declared a 3-month state of emergency and there are even troops going in from Saudi to help out. Seems like the F1 heads need to call this one now and end the speculation. I'm personally not bothered by the loss of that race. There are 19 others on the calendar plus...it's only Bahrain.
Mar.17 (GMM) Bernie Ecclestone has revealed he is “at loggerheads” with FIA president Jean Todt about F1′s engine formula for 2013. Todt has announced new 1.6 litre four-cylinder turbo regulations, but F1 chief executive Ecclestone on Thursday admitted he fears it will rob the sport of one of its two most important factors. According to Australian news agency AAP, he said one crucial factor “is Ferrari and second is the noise” of the big normally-aspirated engines. The 80-year-old said he is so worried that he fears television broadcasters will stop buying the rights to formula one. “I’m anti, anti, anti, anti moving into this small turbo four formula,” said Ecclestone. “We don’t need it and if it’s so important it’s the sort of thing that should be in saloon car racing. “The rest of it is basically PR — it’s nothing in the world to do with formula one. “These changes are going to be terribly costly to the sport. I’m sure the promoters will lose a big audience and I’m quite sure we’ll lose TV,” he added.
For anyone who hasn't made the connection, the Ferrari reference comes from their objections and I'm sure they've been prodding Bernie to push back at the FIA. I think the idea is this small engine formula follows trends and supports the idea of F1 developing new tech that can be translated to street cars. Makes a certain amount of sense, but Ferrari is complaining that their F1 image and F1 development normally have much closer connections to their road cars than they do for anyone else on the grid. They say they aren't about to start putting tiny engines in their road cars so this new formula screws them over and might give them reason to finally drop out of F1 because it'll be so much less relevant for them. I'm sure they've been complaining to Bernie as well as anyone else willing to listen.
....can't believe I'm saying this but......I agree with Bernie. 1.6 liter 4 cylinders and F1 do not belong in the same sentence, much less on the track together.... He must have experienced a brief moment of coherency.
I'm having trouble remembering wonder what sort of engines (cylinders/displacement) they were using back in the "turbo era" (late 70s thru 80s?) when they were putting out power in the 1000(+)hp range. I don't imagine those cars were quiet and they certainly were fast. I think I like the idea of a return to turbos with modern tuneability and technology and techniques to deal with lag and so on. Imagine what would happen though if they allowed teams to slap turbos on today's F1 engines.....
Alfa Romeo: V8 1.5 L Turbo BMW: M12 inline-4 1.5 L Turbo Ferrari: V6 1.5 L Turbo Ford: V6 1.5 L Turbo Hart: inline-4 1.5 L Turbo Honda: V6 1.5 L Turbo Motori Moderni: V6 1.5 Turbo Renault: Gordini V6 1.5 L Turbo TAG-Porsche: V6 1.5 L Turbo Zakspeed: inline-4 1.5 L Turbo
Looks like the FIA allowed teams to run either of two options back then with max. displacement limits for each, 1.5L with a turbo and 3.0L without. Sounds like a better idea to me, give the teams turbo and N/A options with max displacement (and max boost levels?) and let them decide what to do. Or maybe go with the proposed turbo option and set today's engine formula as the N/A option. Would create some diversity on the grid.