Motorsport Magazine "Engineering the greats" Podcast series

[jjn9128]

Don't know if anyone else will be interested in these but I enjoyed them. Motorsport magazine (not the motorsport network) talking to a load of old boys about the drivers and cars they engineered in their careers. Some controversial opinions which may rub fans of certain drivers up the wrong way if the youtube comments are anything to go by Also seemingly universally critical of modern F1 and the 2022 rule change.

• Adrian Newey

• Frank Dernie

• Patrick Head

• John Barnard

• Gordon Murray

[JordanMugen]

An older series of interviews by Mario Muth are great too!

Frank Dernie - the Car is the Star

universally critical of modern F1 and the 2022 rule change

How curious! I would have thought a movement to Indycar/CART-type body styling to improve racing would have been favoured? Did they give a "better" alternative?

[jjn9128]

An older series of interviews by Mario Muth are great too!

Frank Dernie - the Car is the Star

universally critical of modern F1 and the 2022 rule change

How curious! I would have thought a movement to Indycar/CART-type body styling to improve racing would have been favoured? Did they give a "better" alternative?

I have a lot of time for Frank Dernie.

I'd say universally critical of the over complex bargeboards and increased spending on ever more marginal gains, as for 2022 critical of the ever shrinking freedom in the rules . Dernie, like me, believes tyres should be one of the bigger talking points regarding improving racing. i.e. use harder tyres to reduce peak grip and induce some sliding, more spectacular and rely more on driver skill, also removes the single grippy "rubbered-in" line and off line marbles.

[JordanMugen]

i.e. use harder tyres to reduce peak grip and induce some sliding

V8 Supercars used to use very hard tyres -- it used to create a lot of cruising around on worn out tyres, being barely able to touch the throttle. https://youtu.be/m3Q4OGTW-cs?t=4839 "Just driving nice and neat and straight", the drivers are not stupid, they are not going to slide if it's slower.

The drivers can actually attack more on the softer tyres V8 Supercars use now that go together with more frequent tyre pitstops, they can take different lines and so on, so I dunno.

Same goes for F1 maybe -- softer tyres gives the ability to attack and push the envelope more?

[jjn9128]

V8 Supercars used to use very hard tyres -- it used to create a lot of cruising around on worn out tyres, being barely able to touch the throttle. The drivers can actually attack more on the softer tyres they use now, take different lines and so on, so I dunno.

There's varying degrees of hardness. Le Mans Michelins can double or triple stint at basically F1 loads, that's a Grand Prix distance and some. Given the brief and the will it should be possible to have tyres which can hold up to a Grand Prix length. V8 supercars are a very different proposition to a Grand Prix car.

There's also an eco-argument, currently Pirelli have to manufacture and transport 1600 tyres for every GP weekend. Freight is a bigger polluter than racing so reduce the tyres from 20 sets/car to 3-5 and you save a lot of truck journeys over a season.

We've very quickly gone off topic

[Stu]

Don't know if anyone else will be interested in these but I enjoyed them. Motorsport magazine (not the motorsport network) talking to a load of old boys about the drivers and cars they engineered in their careers. Some controversial opinions which may rub fans of certain drivers up the wrong way if the youtube comments are anything to go by Also seemingly universally critical of modern F1 and the 2022 rule change.

• Adrian Newey

• Frank Dernie

• Patrick Head

• John Barnard

• Gordon Murray

I thoroughly enjoyed all of them (and might even listen again.
Unsurprisingly for ‘old school’ engineers they seem to be united on how F1 has ‘technical specialists’ rather than rounded engineers nowadays, and that there is too much reliance on computer power to generate design (as opposed to using it a tool to prove design).
Murray is is usual self (pushing his suggested rule-set from a decade ago - not that he was wrong!), all interviews are very engaging.

[PlatinumZealot]

I saw the Newey and The Patrick Head onese. I didn't know of the others. Will watch - with rice.

[Zynerji]

This will be my background "music" while pushing reports today. TYVM!

[jjn9128]

I saw the Newey and The Patrick Head onese. I didn't know of the others. Will watch - with rice.

The Dernie and Murray ones are my go to.

[Morteza]

I saw the Newey and The Patrick Head onese. I didn't know of the others. Will watch - with rice.

The Dernie and Murray ones are my go to.

I have watched Frank Dernie's interview a few times He had another interview with them before which is my favortie. His quotes about Nigel Mansell are controversial, but hilarious

[jjn9128]

I saw the Newey and The Patrick Head onese. I didn't know of the others. Will watch - with rice.

The Dernie and Murray ones are my go to.

I have watched Frank Dernie's interview a few times He had another interview with them before which is my favortie. His quotes about Nigel Mansell are controversial, but hilarious

For a Brit to say Piquet was better liked and faster (up until his concussion) than Mansell is sacrilegious

[Morteza]

The Dernie and Murray ones are my go to.

I have watched Frank Dernie's interview a few times He had another interview with them before which is my favortie. His quotes about Nigel Mansell are controversial, but hilarious

For a Brit to say Piquet was better liked and faster (up until his concussion) than Mansell is sacrilegious

Indeed!
I was really impressed by Piquet's work ethic though. The fact that Mansell refused to test the active suspension car, and they had to call Piquet. Piquet flew to the UK from Brazil, did the test and flew back home again.

[jjn9128]

Indeed!
I was really impressed by Piquet's work ethic though. The fact that Mansell refused to test the active suspension car, and they had to call Piquet. Piquet flew to the UK from Brazil, did the test and flew back home again.

TBF to Mansell, didn't he have some big crashes in the Lotus active car?

[Morteza]

Indeed!
I was really impressed by Piquet's work ethic though. The fact that Mansell refused to test the active suspension car, and they had to call Piquet. Piquet flew to the UK from Brazil, did the test and flew back home again.

TBF to Mansell, didn't he have some big crashes in the Lotus active car?

I guess so. I understand his dislike for it, and I definitely would have felt the same had it happened to me too.
Nothing against Nigel, I meant that Piquet was/is better than how he was portrayed. Gordon Murray also found him quite a dedicated driver/person.

[DiogoBrand]

Piquet to this day still has a sharp tongue and doesn't miss a chance of calling Senna gay and so on.
I've seen him say that the active suspension made it difficult to feel what the car was doing and Mansell wasn't very good with it, so when he was at Williams they basically gave up on it first because of Mansell and second because when they lost the Honda engines to McLaren they didn't have enough power to run it. And then when the system was fully developed, Mansell just had the easy job of using it to cruise to his world championship.