When a spectacle becomes a parody of his own

[Big Tea]

If you don't want drivers to go slow, then you need to reward them for going fast. For example, at the end of each lap, give points to the drivers who completed the lap the fastest. Or, give drivers a percentage of the points based on their average speed compared to their qualifying speed. For example, if Hamilton's average speed was 95% of his qualifying speed, then give him 95% of the 25 points for first place. I personally wouldn't care for something like this, but it might be a solution for those who don't like winning a race by going slowly.

They are going slow in the race because of the tires.

I would like to see ONE race tire. A tire that could last the race without significant degradation, and no fuel-flow limit and enough fuel capacity to go hell bent for leather for a whole race.

That won't make the slow fast or the fast slow, but at least it would be racing.

To make it work this way you would need at least 3 tyres, but, and it is the big BUT, assuming a completed pit stop cost 25 seconds, the difference between completing the race on the some tyre and using 2 faster tyres has to add up to about 27 seconds over the race and the even softer one to close on to 55 seconds or it will not be worth the risk.
The options then are one tyre for the whole race, which will be knackered on the last few laps allowing the stoppers to catch and pass them. One soft stop one softest stop should also be coming into contention for the last few laps but not as good as the 2 stops for softest. Options such as 2 mid soft should also be considered but probably track specific.

If nothing else it would give TV something to show and chat about mid race and add a 'will-he-won't-he-catch-up' to proceedings. Artificial yes, but so is safetycar and blue flags.

[LeClerc]

The same sensitive tires you are criticizing at least make most races more interesting because it limits the advantage a team can have over others and adds the strategic value to it. Add bullet proof tires and that goes away and you’ll have processional races where the order at the end will be the same but with less halpening in between. Then the bitching will really hit the roof in topics like these.

I did not criticize anything.

I just don't see what the programmed degrading and mandated two compound rule does to enhance the racing, other than making sure there is a pit-stop.

I would much prefer to see drivers racing, not having their car serviced at random intervals.

[Phil]

There will be no “race” if you have a qualifying order and no pit stops as a result of more durable tire. Think about it; if every car qualifies in the order of their performance, you let them start on super durable tires and no mandatory stops, how many overtakes do you think you will see? You can call your race a time trial then.

[LeClerc]

There will be no “race” if you have a qualifying order and no pit stops as a result of more durable tire. Think about it; if every car qualifies in the order of their performance, you let them start on super durable tires and no mandatory stops, how many overtakes do you think you will see? You can call your race a time trial then.

I never equated racing with overtaking.

If I want overtaking over racing, I can watch NASCAR.

[Edax]

If you don't want drivers to go slow, then you need to reward them for going fast. For example, at the end of each lap, give points to the drivers who completed the lap the fastest. Or, give drivers a percentage of the points based on their average speed compared to their qualifying speed. For example, if Hamilton's average speed was 95% of his qualifying speed, then give him 95% of the 25 points for first place. I personally wouldn't care for something like this, but it might be a solution for those who don't like winning a race by going slowly.

They are going slow in the race because of the tires.

I would like to see ONE race tire. A tire that could last the race without significant degradation, and no fuel-flow limit and enough fuel capacity to go hell bent for leather for a whole race.

That won't make the slow fast or the fast slow, but at least it would be racing.

You know what happens then. You will have cars revving like idiots in slow corners just to burn off fuel and shed weight at the start of the race. We’ve been there before.

The only sensible way to increase competition IMO is to make the cars less sensitive to the wash from the car in front. With the current cars and DRS it is easy to pass but incredible hard to get within 1 second without destroying your tires. Except for outright competition it also prevents a lot of teams of pursuing alternative strategies if it involves passing backmarkers (eg Vettel-perez in singapore). Resolving that would open up more strategic freedom.

I think it is not something you can solve with the tires. No tire is resistant against the car sliding, it has to be in the way the floor, diffusor and exhaust are set up.

[Jolle]

If you don't want drivers to go slow, then you need to reward them for going fast. For example, at the end of each lap, give points to the drivers who completed the lap the fastest. Or, give drivers a percentage of the points based on their average speed compared to their qualifying speed. For example, if Hamilton's average speed was 95% of his qualifying speed, then give him 95% of the 25 points for first place. I personally wouldn't care for something like this, but it might be a solution for those who don't like winning a race by going slowly.

They are going slow in the race because of the tires.

I would like to see ONE race tire. A tire that could last the race without significant degradation, and no fuel-flow limit and enough fuel capacity to go hell bent for leather for a whole race.

That won't make the slow fast or the fast slow, but at least it would be racing.

You know what happens then. You will have cars revving like idiots in slow corners just to burn off fuel and shed weight at the start of the race. We’ve been there before.

The only sensible way to increase competition IMO is to make the cars less sensitive to the wash from the car in front. With the current cars and DRS it is easy to pass but incredible hard to get within 1 second without destroying your tires. Except for outright competition it also prevents a lot of teams of pursuing alternative strategies if it involves passing backmarkers (eg Vettel-perez in singapore). Resolving that would open up more strategic freedom.

I think it is not something you can solve with the tires. No tire is resistant against the car sliding, it has to be in the way the floor, diffusor and exhaust are set up.

I agree, a single tire is just one thing to take out of the equation which could lead to some excitement.

I do like the idea to shift the downforce back to the floor, what is the idea for 2021. That way cars will be less sensitive but not so easy that a slipstream will almost be a natural drs.

I also would like some difference in tire choices and setup. Now the teams setup their car for a hot free qualifying lap and nurture that trough the gp. There is so much to gain with wheel settings (camber etc), ridehight and small wing adjustments and a freedom of tire choice that would be benefits racing without breaking another bank.

But... whatever you do, a race like on a track on Monaco will always be a progression of cars. Just look at the last race. Even a 140 hp and fuel offset couldn’t stop RIC from winning the race.

[sosic2121]

Maybe tire rules should change. Let the teams to choose tires to run on and drop the obligatory pit stop. This should create some diversity and chaos

[Big Tea]

Maybe tire rules should change. Let the teams to choose tires to run on and drop the obligatory pit stop. This should create some diversity and chaos

I would like free choice of tyres, especially as the claim was that the supplier needed to take extra trucks full of unused rubber to races, but now they seem to have to chose them 6 months in advance that will not hold up.

I don't see the pit stop going even if not regulated. As long as the 'start on the tyres you qualified on' stays.
There may be one or two back end cars going for a long shot though.

[strad]

Open it up to more suppliers?

[Big Tea]

Open it up to more suppliers?

The way things have gone it would become a race of who can make a tyre to do the whole race best after loosing the soft 'skin' in qualifying

[strad]

OKAY
Problem? Don't tell me they would have to nurse them. They do that now.

[Jolle]

Maybe tire rules should change. Let the teams to choose tires to run on and drop the obligatory pit stop. This should create some diversity and chaos

The whole idea of the tree compounds was that there would be a diversity in choice. After the first season every team “got” the fastest strategy for each circuit and now they are running all more or less the same compounds every race. With a single tire you will have the same, every team will find out the right tire pretty soon and all will run it.

[Phil]

There is still diversity in the tire strategies, we just dont see it among the top teams as much, because they are closer to each other in performance, have similar considerations, starting tire from Q2 and it’s easy to mirror each other.

Not much unlike when we had refueling and cars would run similar lengths of stints etc.

[zac510]

I just totally don't believe that there is any circumstance in which an F1 car and driver can 'push' and be on the edge for the entire race. If you give them rock hard durable tyres then they'll just have a durability limit in the engine/drivetrain, or then the amount of fuel, then the human brain's concentration span and then finally the patience of the team principal to tolerate the risk of crashing the car while being on the limit in a race.

You'll have to address each and every one of these limits (and maybe even some others that I haven't thought of).

The ability of the human brain to do a race distance of Q3 laps in a row is especially interesting topic. There is lots of scientific research around this but maybe not in the context of motorsport, but it's clear that the brain starts to do more poorly when it needs to do more things at once. This is true for the difference between qualifying and the race, as in the race the driver needs to consider other cars, blue flags, pitting/strategy, changing car balance and so forth so no doubt a driver's single lap performance will drop in a race compared to qualifying, let alone a series of laps. I'd love to ask a driver how many Q3 laps they could do in a row before the risk of a crash increases to an uncomfortable level. If it's 10 laps, then you'd just have to make the races 10 laps long!

[Jolle]

Formula one is also one of the few sports (I can't even think of another one) where the excitement is in the beginning of the event instead of the last part, and for some circuits (like Monaco) even the day before.

If you miss kickoff of a football match, you havent missed a thing, same more or less for an event like the indy 500. With F1 you need to see the start, when it's close the first few laps until the first pit stop and that's it, most of the time...