2009 Tyre Warmers ban - An improvement to driver safety?

[DaveKillens]

Of all the different racing series I watch, tire warmers and their consequences happen only in Formula 1. For everyone else, if you have to leave the pits with cold tires... deal with it. I'm totally in favor of removing warmers because it introduces an unknown variable. That is something teams work to eliminate, so it's understandable when teams bitch and complain about something that spins the wheel of fortune.
But for the fan, it's just great. Now, after a car pits, interesting things happen, and usually do. If a driver spins out or something, then it's because the driver made a mistake. Tough.
It's tools such as tire warmers that have made the sport more predictable and sterile. Good for the engineers and drivers, but for the fans... boring.

[Conceptual]

Of all the different racing series I watch, tire warmers and their consequences happen only in Formula 1. For everyone else, if you have to leave the pits with cold tires... deal with it. I'm totally in favor of removing warmers because it introduces an unknown variable. That is something teams work to eliminate, so it's understandable when teams bitch and complain about something that spins the wheel of fortune.
But for the fan, it's just great. Now, after a car pits, interesting things happen, and usually do. If a driver spins out or something, then it's because the driver made a mistake. Tough.
It's tools such as tire warmers that have made the sport more predictable and sterile. Good for the engineers and drivers, but for the fans... boring.

I still think that reverting to the 2005 spec tyres would solve this issue. If all drivers start on the same cold tyres, then everyone is decreased the same amount for the same time.

But slicks, of course to prevent the marbling that plagued the 2005 spec tyres.

Chris

[WhiteBlue]

It was introduced as a cost saver. with the 2009 tyre dimensions to be the same as 2008 it really isn't a significant cost saver. hence they should drop the issue. I changed my mind and so the poll is a bit misleading now.

[mx_tifoso]

It was introduced as a cost saver. with the 2009 tyre dimensions to be the same as 2008 it really isn't a significant cost saver. hence they should drop the issue. I changed my mind and so the poll is a bit misleading now.

The ban of tire warmers will be a cost reducing measure to competing teams, since the tire dimensions will be different than those of 2008. And a change in tire dimensions leads to a change/redesign in tire warmers, thus tire warmers for the 2009 season being labeled as an expense within a teams budget report. Although I am not informed of the service duration a tire warmer happens to have, it would be a nice piece of information to add into the discussion.

As to whether a ban of the use of tire warmers is an improvement to driver safety, I believe the FIA did not intend this new regulation to be for the sake of safety or performance, but as a simple and effective method to reduce costs for all competing teams.

[guy_smiley]

I'm sorry, but to think that banning tyre-warmers is an effective cost-cutting measure is, I must say, ridiculous...As Steve Matchett pointed out during the Spanish GP: the switch from V-10's to V-8's (mandated by the FIA) costs tons of money, the switch from V-8's to 1.3 ltr Turbos (mandated by the FIA) costs tons of money, the switch to KERS (mandated by the FIA) costs tons of money, and banning the lowly tyre-warming blankets all of a sudden saves $100,000,000?? Please...if cutting costs is your aim, banning tyre-blankets would be the last of your concerns!

Thanks for listening!

[PNSD]

Read thurs press conference with the tech directors... Im sure Sam Micheal says the current engine and gearbox rules mean they spend LESS money.

[nae]

not having to make something and not having to cart it around on a world tour costs
less that having to make and move it, regardless of what it is.

in a sport where it is known that as little as 10 Kg of fuel has a fraction of second
cost per lap surely it cant be that hard to figure that hauling anything extra around
costs money / time, i mean even not loading a singular box onto a truck is a saving

unfortunately i find my self agreeing with max's drive to reduce the unnecessary equipment in F1 especially equipment that doesn't add to the show

and as for coultards comments on testing, that is that the team will have to do more laps in testing to get the tyres up to operating temp he seems to be forgetting that they have limited K's in which to test and therefore cant 'do more laps' not to mention if it takes time to heat up the tyres then they will be busy testing that during tests as well to understand how to do it properly

[WhiteBlue]

It was introduced as a cost saver. with the 2009 tyre dimensions to be the same as 2008 it really isn't a significant cost saver. hence they should drop the issue. I changed my mind and so the poll is a bit misleading now.

The ban of tire warmers will be a cost reducing measure to competing teams, since the tire dimensions will be different than those of 2008. And a change in tire dimensions leads to a change/redesign in tire warmers, thus tire warmers for the 2009 season being labeled as an expense within a teams budget report. Although I am not informed of the service duration a tire warmer happens to have, it would be a nice piece of information to add into the discussion.

As to whether a ban of the use of tire warmers is an improvement to driver safety, I believe the FIA did not intend this new regulation to be for the sake of safety or performance, but as a simple and effective method to reduce costs for all competing teams.

I have made an estimate of the cost saving figures further up in this thread.
We actually don't know what the tyre dimensions will be next year as the published rules are obsolete. my assumption is they will keep the track width and the tyre dimensions.

[WhiteBlue]

FIA scraps plans to ban tyre warmers

By Jonathan Noble Friday, June 27th 2008, 09:57 GMT


Tyre warmers will remain in Formula One next year, autosport.com can reveal, after the FIA agreed to scrap plans to impose a ban in 2009.

The governing body had been scheduled to scrap the use of tyre blankets to coincide with the return of slicks at the start of next season in a bid to improve the racing and cut costs.

But that move led to concern from drivers about safety implications, after they tried out slick rubber without warmers in winter testing.

With a big difference in laptimes between cars on cold tyres and those with warmed up rubber, drivers feared about the increased chance of accidents.

Bridgestone was adamant though that the rubber it planned to use would not cause any safety problems - and it told the FIA that it saw no reason to scrap the tyre warmer ban for this reason.

However, one way of guaranteeing tyre safety was for Bridgestone to impose a minimum tyre pressure limit – and this was something the teams could not find a satisfactory way of imposing or policing.

Honda Racing team principal Ross Brawn told autosport.com recently: "You can run tyres for sure without blankets, lot of formulae do, but we are a particularly competitive formula and if you don't run blankets with tyres you need to have a minimum pressure control.

"We haven't worked out how to do that and that was the big concern – how to introduce it fairly and effectively for all the teams? And how do you avoid the massive overhead of policing it?

"The TWG (Technical Working Group) said it wanted to keep tyre blankets because it could not see a solution to controlling minimum tyre pressure, and that was a big worry. So the option of having blankets was the easiest.

"And interestingly tyre blankets are not prohibited in testing, so for efficiency of testing we will almost certainly be using tyre blankets in testing. So we will have had them in testing and not racing."

The FIA agreed that the tyre pressure problem was insurmountable in the short term and, allied to the fact that there would be little reduction in costs because tyre blankets would still be used in testing, the governing body's World Council this week agreed to scrap the ban.

Interesting points made by Ross Brawn. I take this as an indication that the TWG is working ok and that the WMSC respects the decisions that come from the TWG. Hopefully the other points regarding the 2009 rules can besettled now as well and we can get a published version.