no more help for the drivers

[SectorOne]

https://twitter.com/nico_rosberg/status ... 5907535872 Hamilton welcomes it as well.

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12433 ... -clampdown

[strad]

Glad to see that a couple of the top drivers agree with me.

[SectorOne]

Another good possible thing about this is that the drivers may get slightly overwhelmed by all the settings and data that will prompt FIA to cut down on that through regulations.

for example Mercedes. Six strat modes. Seriously. How about 2. Full power and eco/engine save whatever mode.

[BanMeToo]

That's just another step in the wrong direction. Pretending that the cars don't need to be complicated for maximum performance doesn't actually make them less complicated.

[Moxie]

That's just another step in the wrong direction. Pretending that the cars don't need to be complicated for maximum performance doesn't actually make them less complicated.

Gotta disagree with you here. Now don't get me wrong, there are lots of things I do not like about this situation. I don't like the decision to do this in middle of the season. I especially do not like the way FOM does this stuff without thought of the consequences. I cannot stand the thought of them having even more rules which they will not enforce consistently or fairly. However in more broad terms, I am in favor of the decisions of how to drive the car being made by the driver. Give the drivers raw information about fuel, tire temp, tire pressure...etc, and let the driver decide how to drive the car accordingly.

[Juzh]

for example Mercedes. Six strat modes. Seriously. How about 2. Full power and eco/engine save whatever mode.

12 actually.

Yellow turning dial:

[SectorOne]

Insane. I figured it was six since that´s the highest one i´ve heard on the radio.
12 HPP settings as well...

[De Jokke]

If the drivers have a problem: f.e. ECU or MGU-K, may the team help them with it or not (via the radio) ?

[Just_a_fan]

As suspected by some, Bernie is behind this change.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/29254082
Obviously hoping to the title fight has some reliability issues to keep it interesting up to the last race.

It's all about the money...

[mikeerfol]

Insane. I figured it was six since that´s the highest one i´ve heard on the radio.
12 HPP settings as well...

Isn't the HPP the one the drivers use to tell the team at the pitwall about the condition of the tyres?

[Phil]

As for the quality of racing, the danger is that we'll only know about overheating brakes when they fail, or when the overheating light comes up on the driver dash, or the engineer finally comes onto the radio to instruct the driver to retire. Look back at Montreal this year, both Merc cars would have DNFd with overheating brakes. What will be excruciating is that the team will be able to see the problem getting worse on the telemetry and be able to do nothing about it.

I hope not. Obviously I haven't driven a F1 car, but I would think that the process of overheating brakes is a progressive development. When the brakes heat up, they will either lose braking performance and/or the brake-point might move. Perhaps one of the problems in todays sport is that the drivers are far too used to receiving input by their engineers. This extends to the point, that they would blindly trust that the telemetry and sensor data that is being supervised from the pitwall will lead to a notification in time if there is any problem arising. Makes sense - as the pitwall has the time in the world to do exactly that.

By banning radios (or limiting what can be said over the radio) however, drivers will be forced to trust their instincts and feel inside the car, over being alerted by their engineers. They effectively need to gauge themselves how far they push without going over the limit. This is a skillset that perhaps to some degree has been lost / taken away from todays drivers due to the large amount of monitoring that takes place outside the car. We should not forget that there used to be a time when drivers didn't have radios at all and they coped perfectly fine as well. Personally, I think it's great. F1 might be a team sport where the team aspect might be just as important as the individual driver, but we don't want a sport that is driven by the engineers of the team to come up with a car that is leaps and bound better than their competiton and that any driver could and would win it (to some extend; this years Mercedes or the last couple of years RedBull). Perhaps one of the reason Senna's name always stands out when naming the greatest ever drivers - he drove in an era where drivers could still stand out by their talent and skillset. Back then, the skill of a driver was a much larger factor than it is today.

[SectorOne]

Isn't the HPP the one the drivers use to tell the team at the pitwall about the condition of the tyres?

I think the HPP is engine related and strat modes are powertrain related.
They just use the HPP as a side thing to let the pitwall know what state the driver feels the tires are in.
I could be wrong though.

HPP = High Performance Powertrains.

[Just_a_fan]

I hope not. Obviously I haven't driven a F1 car, but I would think that the process of overheating brakes is a progressive development. When the brakes heat up, they will either lose braking performance and/or the brake-point might move.

I think the problem this year is that the rear braking effort is largely out of the driver's control - the harvesting system provides a lot of braking effort and it changes as the laps and race unfold. Moving brake balance to keep the various temperatures in their correct range is an ongoing issue - the optimum temperature range is likely to be much tighter than the range that the driver can feel. Don't forget that the rear brakes are essentially brake-by-wire - there is no pedal feel from them.

Perhaps one of the reason Senna's name always stands out when naming the greatest ever drivers - he drove in an era where drivers could still stand out by their talent and skillset. Back then, the skill of a driver was a much larger factor than it is today.

True, but back then the cars were also much simpler in concept. Engine, gearbox, brakes, steering. No energy recovery, no hybrid systems, no brake-by-wire. Tyres were simpler - you got what you were given and got on with it. Changing tyre compounds mid race requires changing of front wing settings and brake balance, torque maps etc. in order to maximise their performance.

Modern F1 cars are hugely more complex than even 10 years ago.

One item that may have slipped people's thoughts is that of the "coasting tone" - the beep that the driver hears when he needs to start the coast-brake phase for fuel saving and energy harvesting. Is this banned under the "driver must drive without assistance" edict? True, it doesn't come from the pits but it is assistance all the same. But then so is power steering...

[langwadt]

Insane. I figured it was six since that´s the highest one i´ve heard on the radio.
12 HPP settings as well...

also, that the knob has 12 positions doesn't have to mean they have 12 different settings

[SectorOne]

Insane. I figured it was six since that´s the highest one i´ve heard on the radio.
12 HPP settings as well...

also, that the knob has 12 positions doesn't have to mean they have 12 different settings

Good point

-
Interesting words from Vergne regarding this question. He basically said it will be more or less the same because he likes to do things himself and often he would change the settings before his engineer told him to.
(F1 PC)