Technical Regulations for 2009-2015

[pgj]

Slick tyres should reduce the amount of marbles on the track. Which might offer more overtaking opportunities for the brave.

I have not seen any news on tyre compounds for next year, does anyone know if a decision was made on Sept 1?

[WhiteBlue]

http://www.f1technical.net/news/10338

the compounds are going to be more differentiated than this year.

the slicks will have huge impact together with the lower downforce and the new aero rules. fast corners will be a bit slower but the slow corners will be significantly faster. F1 will be a lot less knife edge compared to today.

drivers should be able to take different lines and do more passing.

[donskar]

Catching up with this very interesting thread:

Turbo engines could be a very good thing, especially with IndyCar going in the same direction. ight encourage new manufacturers to come into F1, with the thought that they could use similar technology in two different series.

Homologating chassis for three years? Surely that is a VERY bad idea?

Slicks will be a very good thing (IMHO), but I don't think they will reduce marbles or provide more racing lines - though that would be a very good thing.

At the end of the day, brilliant engineering always seems to defeat the most restrictive regulatins and the cars get faster and faster. That's OK, but I do hope that somehow better, closer racing - with the occasional pass on course (rather than in the pits) - will result.

[pgj]

I read that inters will disappear from next year.

Will this cause problems for teams when they use inters in early morning testing for installation laps?

[WhiteBlue]

The new alliance of F1's ten teams, FOTA, is set to meet on Thursday in the Monza paddock, Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport reports.

Among the initial ideas to be discussed, the sports newspaper said, is the possible shortening of Grand Prix from their current 300kms.

"An hour and a half for a race is too long," said Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali. "We must aim to reduce the time, because often in the second half nothing happens."

Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo is to chair the Monza meeting, with Honda team boss Ross Brawn in charge of technical matters.

Also on the agenda is the inauguration of the Formula One Teams Association constitution, with all F1 chiefs due to sign up.

Source: GMM
© CAPSIS Intern

Domenicali strikes me as a dumb nut if all he sees as a priority for the rules is shortening the GPs distance to less than 300 kms. Instead of getting mediocre short tracks and races he should seek the fault at the excessive drag and downforce. a corner like Eau Rouge provides no challenge in the dry any more because the cars are so messed up.

they should sort the cars out with a maximum of 1.2 tons of downforce and get more variety of tracks. lets have street tracks, maountain tracks, long tracks (1000 km) and night races, monsoon season races, hot races, high speed races, oval races, cold races and all kinds of challenges. making it simpler is never going to be the answer to entertaining races. there must be a challenge to engineers and drivers.

[Scotracer]

If anything, the races need to be lengthened! I want 500km!

[CMSMJ1]

I would be happy to see a 2hr timed race.

The old champcars used to run an hour and half (IIRC) and they were good races.

Shorter races would make the expense even more ridiculous - an hours worth of action for xxmillion dollars!

*edited for crap typing skills..*

[Ogami musashi]

I disagree with you, and especially with Whiteblue about drag and downforce.

I was at WSR meeting this week end and saw the 2 races format for FR 2.0, FR3.5 and megane trophy cup.

Both FR series ran two races of approx 25 laps, while the megane races were 40 laps.

If anything the less aero disturbed car was the megane (despite being heavily modified with big splitters and diffusers) but overall the FR 2.0 cars had no problems to follow each other and the 3.5 neither (but i suspect a bit more effect).

What was striking was that in almost all the races the start was thrilling (3 cars wide into the dunlop chicane) the last 10 laps too but the middle...nothing.

The megane trophy cup was the worst while the first part of the two races were the most spectacular.

I don't know why it was like that, but all series had super complex rules with forced pit stops (to change tyres), the FR3.5 was incomprehensible with a starting grid mixed with super polers and reversed order, the second race grip was the super polers then the first finishers of the previous race etc..

I also watched the first super league formula races and the same applied (well it was even a bit dull) the start was good, nothing in the middle and then at the end a car suddenly turned to overtake everybody.

And when watching the former races of F1 were pitstops were not allowed the same happened.

So i think shortening the races may not be an answer to the problem in itself, on the shorter term however that could help by shortening the cruising periods.

That said, i agree we should look at what causes bore. But many people think that aerodynamics are not the only problem and that a lot have to be done on some other topics.

[pgj]

Here is hoping that the 2009 regulation will bring racing back to F1. I am not sure that introducing moveable aero-devices is a good thing. When trying to simplify something, it seems to be contradictory to introduce something that adds complexity. It is unnecessary IMO.

If F1 fits into the pattern of interesting-boring-interesting as described by Ogami, I will see that as a positive step in the right direction.

[WhiteBlue]

the thing that makes racing boring is uniformity and predictability. unpredictable elements like rain always make for great racing.

Ogami isn't even listening to my point about Eau Rouge. Undisputably Eau Rouge is one of the greatest corners ever in F1. It has been destroyed by too much downforce. I categorically reject any technical spec that allows drivers to run Eau Rouge flat in the dry.

Bernie is dumbing down the tracks by eliminating the traditional venues. Instead of shortening races they should think how they could get the Nordschleife, the old Hockenheim or Suzuka back on the calendar. Soon we will loose another high speed track with Silverstone. F1 needs variety and challenge of the engineers and not making it easier by sprint races on go cart tracks. with vastly different tracks the pendulum would swing a lot over the season depending on how the teams have compromised for traction, high speed reliability and other factors.

[Scotracer]

It's just as much to do with the lower power as the increased downforce. In 2004, they didn't take Eau Rouge as easy flat, even though they had more downforce than today. It's all down to the drag of current cars.

[Ogami musashi]

the thing that makes racing boring is uniformity and predictability. unpredictable elements like rain always make for great racing.

Ogami isn't even listening to my point about Eau Rouge. Undisputably Eau Rouge is one of the greatest corners ever in F1. It has been destroyed by too much downforce. I categorically reject any technical spec that allows drivers to run Eau Rouge flat in the dry.

Bernie is dumbing down the tracks by eliminating the traditional venues. Instead of shortening races they should think how they could get the Nordschleife, the old Hockenheim or Suzuka back on the calendar. Soon we will loose another high speed track with Silverstone. F1 needs variety and challenge of the engineers and not making it easier by sprint races on go cart tracks. with vastly different tracks the pendulum would swing a lot over the season depending on how the teams have compromised for traction, high speed reliability and other factors.

I don't think Eau rouge has ever been a real problem in term of grip.
It was more a question of change of direction.
The culprit for Eau rouge is the fact the cars run into it 20km/h slower than in the V10 area, that's all.

And i'm not quite sure predictability is really there in racing, and in my examples forcing pitstops, running into reversed orders etc area measures to improve the unpredictability of racing.

Now diversity is a good thing but that's also a run away from facing what is racing, a good race is not always a spectacular one.

Wanting Wet races is wanting to see car spinning, racing is not about that.

My first wish is to have more possibility to actually grasp the driving.

I think you forgot a bit that driving is about the one that drives the best, not necessarily the one that make the less errors.

[WhiteBlue]

I was thinking of Villeneuve crashing the BAR there. That was a proper spec. The downforce of the mid 90ties seems to be much more appropriate with the wider tracks and slick tyres.

[bar555]

I was thinking of Villeneuve crashing the BAR there. That was a proper spec. The downforce of the mid 90ties seems to be much more appropriate with the wider tracks and slick tyres.

Not only Villeneuve but Zonta also , it was back in 1999 because of a rear suspension failure . Boht crashes were really amazing and both B.A.R. Supertecs were completely destroyed

[WhiteBlue]

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns20742.html

GP.com reports an in initiative by Bernie to allow some sort of customer car. It shows that the issue is not off the table.

what bugs me is the open meddling of Bernie in the rules debate. first he tells all the media that only the teams should decide the rules and then he continues to keep his fingers in the pie all the time.

second it signals that the FOTA has no grip on the cost issue and will probably fail to deliver a proposal to the WMSC meeting in October.

a compromise in terms of customer cars would certainly lead to better survivability of privat teams. the way Williams is rapidly approaching the tail end of the grid shows that even former multiple champs and top teams cannot hope to compete with the resources of works teams. in my view there must be several mechanisms that help privat teams over the works teams and customer chassis is a powerfull way as Toro Rosso have shown. they did a super job with the chassis although they only got it 5 races into the season. This could be one way to tweak the customer chassis rule. you can only sell a chassis after a certain n umber of races or perhaps even after a season, but 9 or ten races would be ok to create a disadvantage.