Would F1 be improved by having 5 speed gearboxes again?

[dave kumar]

Better keep it 8 speed. 5 speed is too little.

I'm interested in why 8 gears is preferable to 6, 5 or 4... or 20? What makes it the optimum number for the current regulations. It feels to me at least that if you go higher then 8 then you're heading in to CVT territory and gearing is a diminishing factor in car setup. May be that is the right way to go for the future, gears do seem a bit last century.

The single set of gear ratios rule hugely limits the usability of the same 5 ratios over the entire season!

You're quite correct but if we didn't have that restriction what would be your reasoning for choosing 8 gears over any other number or just going for a full on CVT. I'm deliberately sidestepping the cost aspects as I'd like to understand the impact on car setup for a given track of being restricted to, say 5 gears and whether it may have some benefits to the racing as outlined in my original post.

I'm not advocating rolling back the years based on some nostalgia for 5 speed gearboxes or stick shifts and manual clutches. It just occurred to me that restricting the number of gears may improve the racing by adding an extra dimension of compromise to the car setup as you will have to make greater compromises with fewer gears available. I'm getting the impression that the general opinion is that the selection of gear ratios are irrelevant to the current formula but I was hoping you guys with the technical knowledge could enlighten me as to why! For example is the power band of the hybrid power units is so broad as to make gearing irrelevant save for the final ratio?

[Tommy Cookers]

the final drive ratio cannot be changed within the season
(apart from maybe 1 change allowed in seasons when the cars have changed)
loosely speaking the idea is that drivers need to use eg gears 1 - 6 at Monte Carlo and eg 3 - 8 at Monza

[Moose]

No - it wouldn't be improved. There's a reason the FIA intentionally designed the regulations so that the top end of the rev range wasn't used much. It means that when people get into a DRS train they still have revs available to get past rather than just bouncing off the rev limiter.

[dave kumar]

Thanks guys, that helps clarify things. So we need to leave some revs at the top end of the range for overtaking (presumably drafting as well as DRS?).

Do you think that by having larger intervals between the ratios (ie fewer forward gears), that teams would be more compromised when setting the car up for a given track or are people broadly of the opinion that it wouldn't make much difference because the hybrid power units have such wide power bands?

[OO7]

Can we go back to a stick shift and a clutch peddle just for a change up. Really make the drivers work for a change

Because sustaining up to and above 5G over a 2 hour period while simultaneously adjusting over 30 switches and their associated sub functions, racing other cars and managing fuel,tyres and temps is easy..

And I'm sat thinking this was a technical forum!

I believe marmer does raise a good point.
Managing the switches is fairly straight forward. The ability to aggressively up or downshift while braking and or negotiating a bend is also straight forward with contemporary semi-auto gearboxes.

[marmer]

whoever neggged me for that get a life for gods sake

[PlatinumZealot]

whoever neggged me for that get a life for gods sake

Welcome to the club.