Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
It seems that everytime FIA does something to reduce costs, teams has to spend more! Thats because they have got money to optimize whatever FIA dictates, so the problem here is ovbious: its not about reducing costs, its about how much money does teams have to spend and thats about how much $ sponsors has in returns.
So, F1 is expensive because its popular.
So it is Football in many countries leagues and so its NBA and so on and so on.
If FIA makes a spec series out of F1 and its still popular we will see teams spending millions to optimize whatever they can optimize to be 0,2secs faster. If not, they would pay those millions to hire the faster driver.
Just thoughts...
"You need great passion, because everything you do with great pleasure, you do well." -Juan Manuel Fangio
"I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence." -Ayrton Senna
kimi wrote:....The software is free to develop for the teams.During the summer we saw many teams(i.e. ferrari n McLaren) testing the new ECU.So these teams have definitely going to have an advantage over others in the fact that they have their ECU perfectly tuned to work with their car.
Though teams like SA and FI might face some problems yet.
Why do you only mention Ferrari and McLaren? Is there a possibility that you did not hear about the many other teams who where testing the new ECU´s as well? FYI, other teams have tested them as well.
I´m not 110% on this, but every single team that is competing in 2008 has been provided with the 2008 spec ECU (at the same time). Otherwise it would not be ¨sporting¨ of the FIA to provide only a handful of teams at once, then later the rest.
November testing primarily consisted of ´08 ECU testing.
Wrong,
McLaren had it from conception, not after production.
Its not as simple as ensuring all the teams receive the specs at the same time. I'll try to come up with a metaphor (that may end up being way off target but what the hey)
Imagine McLaren have built a house with a nice dining room. Now they want a dinner table made to fit this room. So MES comes over, collects the required measurements, desired color/finish/etc and start work on the table.
Now suddenly MES gets the contract to supply the whole neighborhood with a single type of table. They may make modifications to make it more generalized but again, considering their parent company, they may not.
Now all of the teams (other houses in the neighborhood plus McLaren) are given the specs of the table. But these houses are already built. So they need to figure out how best to accommodate this table in their room. In the worst case, it may not even get in to the house! (Renault had problems getting their engine to fire up with the standard ECU).
If Mosely and Dennis didn't hate each other so much, this might have been a much more serious issue. But given their animosity, I can't imagine how FIA would grant McLaren such a big advantage. Then again, if it were so clear, we would have heard a lot more serious complaints from the other teams too.
Supposing that this builder has always used the same table makers for all of their houses.
Also, that the other builders in the neighbourhood also had their own favoure tablemaking contractors to use...and that even some of them had contracts with more than one builder.
Along comes the government and says - you guys are paying too much for tables...we only need to eat off them..and so the decree was made.
The tablemakers were asked to tender for the contract to supply all the houses.
The oppressive government chose the one tablemaker for the other builders.
End of story.
It is not a certain builders fault that the same tablemaker they had always used was the one that was chosen. It was the goverment's decision.
The fact that the tablemaker may already build tables more suited to a certain builders room was not something that the builder and tablemaker connived about. It was entirely the governments decision.
....and they all lived happily ever after.
Anyway..the cynic in me says that the FIA chose MES just to enable some mudslinging and finger pointing..which is exactly hat happened.
No governing body should be allowed to dictate to the competitors who they can do business with. Period. It's none of the governing bodies concern as long as it's inside the rules and complies with safety requirements. This is all bullshit.
I completely agree. The FIA should satisfy itself that the safety of the drivers and people at the circuit has been dealt with and not meddle in the way the teams do their business.
My point on the ECU is that it is not of McLaren's doing or choice that they gained what seems to be an already negated advantage.
CMSMJ1 wrote:My point on the ECU is that it is not of McLaren's doing or choice that they gained what seems to be an already negated advantage.
I could be wrong, but didn't McLaren Electronics lobby hard to get that contract? Even if they aren't under the racing team in the company ladder, it still benefits them to have a head start. So yes, it was their choice.
CMSMJ1 wrote:My point on the ECU is that it is not of McLaren's doing or choice that they gained what seems to be an already negated advantage.
I could be wrong, but didn't McLaren Electronics lobby hard to get that contract? Even if they aren't under the racing team in the company ladder, it still benefits them to have a head start. So yes, it was their choice.
MES wanted the job, just as Magnetti Marelli, Pi and several others did too.
I am sure that the other tenders for the contract were also lobbied hard and unless the FIA releases the details of the tenders we will never know the full story.
There is no way that anyone can argue that having one of the series competitors develop the SECU for the entire series, as well as handle technical support for about 3 billion dollars worth of top-secret technology, was a GOOD IDEA.
It should have been 3rd party hardware, not McLaren hardware.
And Im SUUUUUUUUURE that Mclaren got their absolute FIRST LOOK at the SECU the same day that Renault, Ferrari and the rest did...lol
What "testbed car" do you think MES used to work on the new SECU? If your answer is anything other than the MP4-22/23, then you are a complete mystic.
There was an advantage. It is probably not that big of a deal at this point, but it was there due to the FIA mandate.
Maybe if we get rid of Max after his "Donkey Show", we can get some clear thinking individuals calling the shots if F1.
I, for one, sincerely hope so, because I am finding it harder and harder to respect F1 as a "competitive" sport when there is a list of subjective, advantage granting decisions that is ass high on a giraffe.
What ever happened to actual honest and honorable competition? I forgot, its about money, not about honor any longer.
IRL/CCWS is where I am hanging my long term hope, but I am sure that they will screw the pooch as well to line their own pockets.
