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Please do not flame me if this was already discussed.
My proposal is incorporating grid penalties for aero updates.
A sample application would be a 2-place penalty for a change at each of the areas of the car. The areas would be front wing, nose cone, barge boards, chassis, floor, diffuser, rear wing, etc.
This would protect small teams who can’t test and bring millions’ worth of aero bits every other weekend. And the big teams would have to make a decision: update the car, or start further from the back.
I hate grid penalties as much as anyone. But they kind of help keep power unit costs under control. And I’m wondering if that would help the little teams as well.
Please share your thoughts
Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense. Carl Sagan
If you can't list at least one possible negative thing about your proposal then you probably haven't given it enough thought yourself. For example, think of an unintended side effect of this rule.
few issues.
if you make a mistake in development you would be punished twice.
aero is not that expensive per part. the cost is in staffing to develop new parts this would't change. teams need new wings all the time due to accidents so the production cost would barely change.
would hurt small teams more than the big boys. if your battling around 10th you don't want a grid drop it would take you out of the points. if your red bull if you knew your part was good at worst you would start 7th or 8th
Wouldn't work. We'd just have the same R&D, but more thought in to when to actually deploy the upgrade (do it all as once batch, or take smaller penalties spread out..). People would need to test these parts, do we start punishing teams who switch back? Or need to adjust their solution?
As others mentioned, can't keep up, you're not cut for F1 (anymore). Then enjoy F2, Formula E, IndyCar, LM, Wec, or whatever.
nobody's holding a gun to the teams heads. I think HAAS is a perfect example of how to deal with things nowadays.
If i look at Force India and HAAS and their budgets, then i really can't bring any sympathy or the smallest tear for a team like Williams.
As far as i'm concerned, they can pack up and leave, and that's all down to their own doings. I would have said the same for Sauber untill recently,
but i hope the Alfa Romeo partnership and especially ditching that toxic Kaltenborn was what was needed to get Sauber 'back' in the game.
not saying their trouble is over, but they're in a different situation now.
As far as Williams, Claire is as toxic or even worse to the team as Monisha was to Sauber. The prospect with Williams unfortunately is that
there is zero chance Claire will step aside, that means it's game over man - sooner or later, unless they change their 'approach' philosophy.
Hell, they could simply copy HAAS and make a deal with Mercedes. If Renault actually was any good, they could do that, but that's no use right now.
Cost would be significantly lower, and they could 'hire' actually capable drivers and atleast be in the midfield. following that concept for 5 years would
bring a huge amount of savings that they could then use as an investment to 'renew' the team. Instead, they're at the tail end of the field now once again,
losing many more sponsors and hope, and if a potential new manufacturer wants to step in - like Porsche for example, they'll most certainly skip Williams
and opt for a team that is in a better position, especially with what budget they have. Force India would certainly then be an interesting choice.
Anyway, i do agree to an extent that aerodynamics are too dominant nowadays. The complexity of the front wing and end plates. barge boards, etc. is completely
out of control and insane and is leaving far too big of a footprint in F1. Now i'm not calling for any half-baked half-assed panic rule intervention to control that,
but i do feel that it is a matter that needs to be looked into.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
Only way save money in formula 1 would be to standardise non performance parts of the cars. Alot of this is already standard. But you could add to it wheel nuts and guns. Instead of teams designing new wheel nuts every year.
Potentially gear boxes as they don't really add performance a gear is a ratio all they add is reliability depending on manufacturer so if everyone had the same the reliability wouldn't matter
not sure much more could be added before it would affect performance.
Standard battery and fuel tanks perhaps
