bse50

Speed doesn't make a race but overhauling the rules to make the top echelon of the sport slower is stupid.


The drivers and engineers are doing all that to go slower. That's stupid.
Limiting the fuel and its flow is stupid. Limiting regular aerodynamics without increasing ground effects is stupid.
All of this to cut on costs. Yeah, true. The PU cost twice as much as the previous engines and, despite being limited to even less engines per year all the electronics, recovery systems etc have increased the cost to run a car.
Fixed gears in F1? that's STUPID.

That's just a bunch of bullshit, the cars even slow down when going down the straights to charge the batteries... did you notice the rear lights flashing at the end of the straights?

F1 has to be ***** out racing, not a test rig for some useless technologies.
If energy recovery systems were so efficient the engineers would have adopted them on their own.

Bring back the v12 or v10. 1000hp engines that last a race. That's the F1 i'm missing.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

That's probably not gonna happen. Times do change, and this is hardly the first time it's happened in F1, and not the first time there has been an overhaul that has resulted in slower cars initially.

Give the engineers some credit...they always figure out how to get back to speed.

bse50

They never got back to the speeds they had with the v10s after switching to v8 units.
Cars are around 10 seconds slower than they were 10 years ago.

Good inventions like the blown diffuser, dolphin noses etc all got banned. They basically don't want you to make a fast car.

skc

Once they have sorted out the issues these engines will be putting out more power and they expect top speed to exceed 370kmph making it the fastest FI cars ever

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

I don't think any F1 formula will exceed the turbo cars of the 1980's.

bse50

Not gonna happen, 8 fixed gear for the whole season.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Daniel Ricciardo answers questions after it was ruled that he would be disqualified from the results of the Australian GP. - Autoweek

Australian Grand Prix marks difficult Ferrari comeback for Kimi Räikkönen - Autoweek

Australian Grand Prix organizers furious with new low-volume Formula One - Autoweek

blazenblue63

I am all about making the cars tougher to drive so "blown diffuser boys" like Vettel and button can't compete with the Hamilton's Alonso's and Raikonnen's BUT Formula 1 should always be the pinnacle. GP2 isn't much slower now. The only thing keeping current F1 ahead is a higher straight line speed. that isn't F1. that's drag racing.

I like what they are TRYING to do but they aren't there yet. In the next couple years we'll see lots of rule changes.

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alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

I think the Ferrari's would have been faster, but they were setup for rain and high downforce. It looked like they had a lot of rear wing. More than anyone else.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Looking at the Austrailian Grand Prix fastest laps over the years. Rain doesn't appear to have been present for the race itself except in 2 events, where there was plenty of dry time available, so it wouldn't really affect the fastest lap times significantly.

1996: 1:33.421 (First time in Melbourne)
1997: 1:30.585
1998: 1:31.649 (all cars had V10s, only partial prior)
1999: 1:32.112
2000: 1:31.481
2001: 1:28.214
2002: 1:28.541
2003: 1:27.724
2004: 1:24.125
2005: 1:25.683 (End of V10s and new V8s, Only one set of tires permitted)
2006: 1:26.045
2007: 1:25.235
2008: 1:27.418
2009: 1:27.706 (KERS introduced)
2010: 1:28.358 (KERS and double difusers banned)
2011: 1:28.947 (KERS re-allowed)
2012: 1:29.187
2013: 1:27.274
2014: 1:32.478 (Turbocharged V6s)


Looking at this list, there is definitely a slow down for this year's race, but not by 10 seconds, only 5 over last year and only 3 over the year before. In fact, it isn't even the slowest fast lap on that track, that honor goes back to a V10 at the start of the race at that venue. There are 4 years that the lap time was within 1 second of this year's, all at the beginning of the V10s. The largest gap to this year's fast lap is 6 seconds, the last year of the V10s. However, V10 or V8, the laps all pretty much stayed within a 2 - 2.5 second range. The V10s generally got faster as the seasons progressed, the V8s generally got slower as the seasons progressed. I'd bet that it was because of the other restrictions, and not because of the engines themselves in either case. 2014 is the 6th race that failed to have a driver break the 1:30 mark in the race.

I looked for qualifying times, though they vary hugely, largely because a bit under half of the years had rain during qualifying. The races were consistently dry however, or at least dry enough at some point.

To me, this suggests that the engine configuration and size isn't the critical factor on the speed reduction this year. It's probably a combination of the fuel restriction (which I agree isn't something that should belong in racing) and the challenges of trying to get so many new technologies to work together all at once. Looking back, I can't find another year where there was a ton of new tech all at the same time.


I don't see enough reason to give up hope on the car speed.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

I remember one year, the race was in Brisbane/Gold Coast, it was rainning so hard the race was delayed for something like 4 hrs. They barely got it in before darkness.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

I only went back on the current circuit. The circuit in 1995 was much shorter, so there was a huge lap time difference that makes the comparison worthless.

WaitingforFI

iTrader: (1)

The New F1 Cars Sound Shockingly Different From Last Year's Cars <- the new cars remind of Jetson's or some other kooky 1950's vision of what the future should sound like.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

The 1980's Turbo Cars


I have a diecast model of the McLaren & Honda of these cars.

G_ man

iTrader: (2)

Gotta love F1 in the 80's

rotarygod

I actually don't consider F1 to be the pinnacle of racing anymore. I consider LeMans cars to be the pinnacle but even they are beginning to be constrained more heavily by the green agenda. At least we get to see multiple technologies compete against each other and none of them look like they have a sex toy on the nose.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

^ I agree with the LeMans perspective. It's easily my favorite series because the rules are constantly changing and evolving, and they always embrace new technology. The 24hrs of LeMans is always showcase of the newest race tech available.

I dislike it when organizations gets stuck in a rut of "what has always been done". Time moves forward, not backward.

blazenblue63

Keep in mind though, if this year's cars had last year's downforce the times would be faster than last year. It's not the engine making them slower. it's the changes on downforce that does.

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blazenblue63

except for the rotary I guess. they banned that real quick after it's win.
If Le mans gets quicker so will F1 or they will slow Le mans down too. The FIA won't let another branch of racing be quicker.

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RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

The rotary wasn't actually banned. There was already a set of rules in place that mandated engines for the next few years. If you look at the rules now, there is nothing that explicitly bans or rules out rotaries.

Edit:
To put it another way, it wasn't a decision against the rotary, it was a decision against all engines that were not the 3.5L F1 engine of the time. The rotary was one of them, but plenty of other engines were "banned" too. That was also ... 23 years ago? Rules have consistently changed every year, and there isn't any restriction on engine design at the moment, and I doubt that a restriction like that will ever be imposed again.

blazenblue63

It's been that long already? time flies lol. hard to believe it's been 20 years since Senna died too. I was 13 at the time.

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skc

Gold Coast used to host Indy Cars.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Wasn't that Surfers Paradise?

skc

Gold Coast is the city and Surfers paradise is the beach along the cost where the race was held.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

Sorry, it was Adelaide. Near Melbourne.