Technical Regulations for 2009-2015

[MattF1]

How about having customer cars to keep more cars on the grid, but not letting them compete in the constructors championship.

[ernos5]

why can'y other manafacturers just compete in Formula 1? GMC, Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche etc they have money, why not put it to good use?

[Ogami musashi]

The Formula One Teams Association was officially launched today.

Luca di Montezemolo is the chairman, John Howett the vice chairman.

3 Working groups are set up:

The Sporting Working Group led by Martin Whitmarsh.

The Technical Working Group led by Ross Brawn.

The Commercial Working Group led by Flavio Briatore.



The aims of the FOTA are the following:


-promote the development of Formula One and enhance its worldwide image and reputation;

-represent, defend and promote the interests of its Members;

-allow its Members to debate, within the corporate bodies of FOTA, any issue regarding the Formula One industry and/or Formula One racing;

-co-operate with the FIA, in particular by submitting proposals for amendments to current technical and sporting regulations or for new regulations;

-to co-operate with the Commercial Right Holders.



The aims are much more vague than the 2005 attempted GPWC.

See the difference (at the bottom of the page):

http://www.motorsm.com/motorsport/auto/F1/GPWC.asp

[donskar]

Well, the goals are both innocuous and positive.

And there is plenty of gravitas with Montezemolo, Howett, Whitmarsh, Brawn, and Briatore. Respected men, all.

Let's hope they can both level the power playing field and create some cooperation among the teams, Mosley, and Ecclestone.

[Ogami musashi]

I'm really against Flavio briatore's ideas. Someone who says "Nobody's interested in our suspensions or brakes" may have missed a significant part of the F1 enthusiasts.

Just the idea of a standard F1 that he would like to implement kind of scares me...which is not new he says that for years now..no the problem is that the idea starts to grow in some other teams.

[TRICKLE69]

I'm really against Flavio briatore's ideas. Someone who says "Nobody's interested in our suspensions or brakes" may have missed a significant part of the F1 enthusiasts.

Just the idea of a standard F1 that he would like to implement kind of scares me...which is not new he says that for years now..no the problem is that the idea starts to grow in some other teams.

I agree 100%. I love F1 for the technology way more then the racing. I can watch great racing in the ALMS, ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES,LEMANS SERIES, MOTO GP, WORLD SUPERBIKE,AMA, ETC. The one thing they dont have is the amount of relevent technology that F1 brings to the table. No other team in any other series spends HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO GAIN A SECOND IF THEY ARE LUCKY !!! If we went to a standard, like in INDY or CHAMP CAR WAS there would be no fan base. Thats why CHAMP CAR no longer exists and INDY sucks.

[Ogami musashi]

Decisions at FOTA will be taken as this:

-Unanimity for immediate changes.
-70% for changes more than 18 months ahead of the planned changes application.


People at the FOTA are pretty optimist that decisions won't be blocked by vetos from different teams.

[Scotracer]

I like Teissen's idea of using the current V8 engines and lowering the rev limit to 18,000rpm to increase durability therefore allowing fewer engines per season and saving money. I know it's against the spirit of F1 but I can't bare to see the screaming engines go in favour of boosted 4-bangers

[WhiteBlue]

It seems I missed out on that one. Once they got going with KERS and HERS there is no way to avoid better fuel efficiency from the engine. An eternal rule says you need to look at the total system to optimize something. So the moment they get back to working on the engine they will brake efficiency limits like a sound barrier. The FIA, FOTA and FOM needs to embrace constantly reduced fuel flow limits and free rules for power train design. In my view anything should go. I know you cannot liberate it in one go but certainly a plan for it must be formulated. The noise issue is a bit of a problem. If you give teams an alternative between winning races and a screaming engine they will go for winning races. sound is just another dissipation of energy and in the long run the FIA may have to mandate certain noise if they see it as essential.

[myurr]

It seems I missed out on that one. Once they got going with KERS and HERS there is no way to avoid better fuel efficiency from the engine. An eternal rule says you need to look at the total system to optimize something. So the moment they get back to working on the engine they will brake efficiency limits like a sound barrier. The FIA, FOTA and FOM needs to embrace constantly reduced fuel flow limits and free rules for power train design. In my view anything should go. I know you cannot liberate it in one go but certainly a plan for it must be formulated. The noise issue is a bit of a problem. If you give teams an alternative between winning races and a screaming engine they will go for winning races. sound is just another dissipation of energy and in the long run the FIA may have to mandate certain noise if they see it as essential.

Personally I think they should say that in 3 or 5 years time all F1 cars will start the race with x amount of fuel and there will be no refueling during the race. From there on in it's up to you to come up with a power train that maximises performance against fuel efficiency.

At the end of each season they can then review the amount of fuel given to teams to keep the cars at the desired performance level. They would do more for fuel efficiency than has ever gone before, were they to adopt this approach.

Thinking about it, they might even be able to relax the aero restrictions a bit - drag costs fuel, so they're going to have to balance drag against the performance benefit of cornering vs straight line efficiency.

[scarbs]

I think the FIA's aim is for F1 cars to maintain the current power level, but only part of that comes from the engine driving directly. The balance will be in front and rear KERS (always limited to a max power output). The current KERS is rated at about 60hp, they will need to go some to develop ones that will return ~200hp each, leaving the engine producing just 3-400hp. At that power output the engine could be just a 1.2l straight four (half a current V8) with very light forced induction.
Sadly there's no equivalency formula being debated, so engines will no doubt remain to be strictly regulated, as petrol, four stroke etc....

This will create an impressive vehicle, I can see how this would be attractive to the manufacturers and improve F1's green credentials, it will maintain laptimes and safety (batteries not shocking the pit crew permitting).

From F1Ts point of view the cars wil be technically interesting, assuming the teams announce some of the solutions they have inside the KERS set ups.

From a testosterone fuelled petrolhead perspective, the cars will not be monster engined supercars anymore. But the world just isn't like that anymore.



Scarbs

[WhiteBlue]

I just don't understand why they do not allow freedom of design with limited fuel flow. It almost seems the teams are interested to work to a very tight specification of the engine. whenever we hear team comments on future rules they talk about very specific engines like Renault and BMW about 1.5 L Turbos. What is driving those people to be so unimaginative. do they think that with limited technologies the biggest resources will allways win?

[Belatti]

From a testosterone fuelled petrolhead perspective, the cars will not be monster engined supercars anymore. But the world just isn't like that anymore.

Scarbs

What can I say? I do like italian angry V12´s but also do like Colin Chapman´s philosophy, so any changes are welcome if from F1Ts point of view the cars wil be technically interesting

[modbaraban]

I do like italian angry V12´s but also do like Colin Chapman´s philosophy...

How I wish we could have both

[Ogami musashi]

Like Whiteblue i'd like to have more freedom but we can't definetly negate that an F1 car would perform so much better in a very little time if it was the case.

Considering all the limitations imposed to the cars (tyres being the first) i find it almost incredible they lap a wet track as fast as a GP2 car on a dry one.

Next year, it seems they finally set up the downforce loss to 15%. That's already very little, not from a turbulence perspective, but from a performance one.
With slicks, there're risk they'll end up really faster.

Fuel consumption is good but that doesn't prevent from power increase. I mean considering the rules are extremly restrictive now and that still with engines frozen some teams find 25bhp here and there i can't imagine if you let them choose the way.


I guess we have to make a compromise between safety-cost-show and ecology.