no more help for the drivers

[strad]

The drivers are definitely going to have their hands full, at best. Imagine getting a flat spot, the only time they really
have time for fiddle with buttons is on the straights and we've heard several drivers say a flat spot will vibrate so much they can't see

Well the way I see that is, that it will then force them to be better drivers and not flat spot their tires. That's a driving skill.
They are supposed to be " the best drivers in the world" ya know.

[Gaz.]

Rather than Williams or Mclaren trying to knobble Mercedes, which would hurt them just as much as the works team of not more as you'd expect the stronger Merc drivers to overcome radio silence better than the inexperienced Magnussen & Bottas, and Felipe has always seemed to require an awful lot of assistance from Smedley while at Ferrari although we only hear what FOM want us to. Perhaps it is Mclaren trying to put some distance between themselves and Force India, or Ferrari trying to leapfrong Wiliams or Sauber trying to catch Torro Rosso. Perhaps it is one driver getting fed up that his team mate gets so much assistance... or perhaps the teams were watching the Hungarian GP during the sumer break while cringing at the amount of driving information was being aired.

[Richard]

To my mind "Information concerning damage to the car" allows the team to warn a driver that something is damaged. That means the diver can be made aware of safety issues, and also to pit for a new nose etc.

However I now see there is a bit in the banned list that says:

Selection of driver default settings (other than in the case of a clearly identified problem with the car).

So I guess that bit in brackets allows them to talk through system resets?

[AliMadsen]

Yep - it'll be a mess. It's a censorship, and censorships are difficult, if not impossible, to police. I bet we will see a "radio-gate" before the end of the season.

For my sake they could play subliminal messages or heavy metal, if that would improve the driving.

Even the driving instructions, like for Checo, I don't mind. I mean - he would get the information anyway, just after the race, or in the simulator before next years Monza. By getting the tips during the race, it just speeds up the process of optimizing the performance. And makes it happen immideately. We get faster lap times and closer battles by using the technologies available. I find it fascinating that the teams are able to provide the information so fast, and that the drivers are able to absorb the input.

It also underlines that it's a team sport. You still need the best talents to drive the cars, but today they are also backed by hundreds of employees, analyzing and feeding back information in real time, to win the battles. Why? Because the technologies makes it possible. The radiocom is one of the many technologies that makes F1 fascinating to me. The clampdown is a step backwards - for safety, entertainment and performance.

Information wants to be free. And Bernies gang should try to enter the information age, instead of trying to hold F1 back in the past millennium.

[langwadt]

The drivers are definitely going to have their hands full, at best. Imagine getting a flat spot, the only time they really
have time for fiddle with buttons is on the straights and we've heard several drivers say a flat spot will vibrate so much they can't see

Well the way I see that is, that it will then force them to be better drivers and not flat spot their tires. That's a driving skill.
They are supposed to be " the best drivers in the world" ya know.

It is also a driving skill managing to drive even with a flat spot and blurred vision
They are best drivers in the world but I don't expect them to be engineers at the same time.

[dans79]

The spirit of the change was good, but its proposed implementation is moronic.

The spirit of the rule was to stop stuff like:
1) use 5th gear in turn 7
2) lift and coast more before turn 2
3) Two tenths down to John in turn 5

As it currently stands, the following is not allowed:
1) The breaks are to hot
2) The breaks are to cold
3) The ES is overloaded

The issue with now allowing the teams to communicate the above, is that the driver has almost no way of knowing it until they have a failure.

[basti313]

The issue with now allowing the teams to communicate the above, is that the driver has almost no way of knowing it until they have a failure.

Well, they can look at the data on their steering wheel.
But I find it very interesting which driver will have an advantage: The one who is cautious with his settings and saves his engine or the one who extracts everything and has an pace advantage.
Imagine Rosberg loosing the WC like Alonso in 2010 because he is too cautious and thus too slow in Bahrain. Or Hamilton loosing it because he kills his ERS in the last race due to too aggressive settings...

[theblackangus]

I have played video games with more control's being used far more actively than an F1 car. Example ARMA III has literally a hundred + controls/options, and before that Tribes 1/2 I used around 136 keys/combinations with roughly 50-75 of those used multiple times per match.

It just doesn't seem like a top level driver should have a hard time with this at all.

Were you sat in a box at 35-45 degC being subjected to vibration and high g loads? Were you sat behind a wall of spray so you couldn't see? Were you physically wheel to wheel with someone at 200mph? Did a mistake risk injury or worse? When you were playing your game and the computer suddenly decided to reboot did you just spill your soda in frustration or did you carry on at 180mph towards that tight right hander whilst simultaneously trying to brake, steer, defend/overtake, and sort the computer problem? Take Kimi's recent issue - he had to remember that the action required for that one issue was P4. P4 was 12 clicks on one button followed by 4 clicks on another button. So he'd have had know what the issue was, then what solutions might work, then remember a set of button pushes then carry them out, without losing count, all whilst driving a vibrating machine that will put him in the barriers if he takes his mind off it. Oh, and he has to race in close proximity with others at high speed at the same time.

Really, comparing video games to real situations is the sort of thing one expects from a ten year old.

Your simply putting words in my mouth and over blowing the issue.
The key point is that, in my opinion, mentally the driver should not have a problem instructing the car and a few hundred settings isn't asking too much. Sure there are other challenges to driving a car on a track, (which I have done, so indeed do understand those challenges, including the high heat in a box, with more than my comfort in g-loads, granted my suspension isn't nearly as stiff as an F1 car) but that is what they signed up for and are arguable the best in the world and want to prove that.
You also have to take into account that the driver isn't constantly fiddling with everything, the use of the these few hundred settings/controls isn't that frequent and I doubt they are using 100 different settings in a race.

Maybe a different point of view - ever been in a jet fighter cockpit? Those have way more buttons/controls and the pilot there is at least in the same situation as an F1 pilot, usually more dangerous as if they crash they just die. I would hope our best drivers have the same or better mental capacity as a fighter pilot!

Whats that good old saying... any man can use a tool, a good man can use a tool for two purposes, the man that can use a tool for 3 purposes... hes the one I want working for me.

I'm not too worked up either way. At the end of the day they all have the same rules, sometimes those favor different people/skill sets.

Funny for someone calling names to accuse someone else of being a 10 year old. Next time find the good not the bad in someone

[theblackangus]

Under the new proposals, the correct sound bite will be "the driver will also need to be the race engineer as well as driving the car".

So Richard your 1st choice of sound bite is certainly correct, but is it really any different than when the drive used to have to understand the car in different ways (60's, 70's) Many times the driver was the one plotting his strategy on the fly?

I would say some of what the driver used to need command of has moved to other people. Personally I would like it either way as in one case you have the driver having to trust someone else and ignore his instincts (which is difficult), or the driver having to understand and make those decisions himself while heavily occupied with other things.Both provide for possible errors in judgement, but they each favor particular types of drivers in different ways.

[dans79]

Well, they can look at the data on their steering wheel.

They can, but having to do that on top of all the other stuff they are already doing is asking a lot.

Consider break temperatures alone for a moment. The break temperatures are dependent on.
1) how long have they had to cool off since the last breaking zone (different for every turn)
2) are they getting clean air to cool them off (following someone closely)
3) how much deceleration is needed in the next breaking zone (different for every turn)
4) what harvesting mode are they in
5) how does the ambient temperature and humidity effect the cooling rate

I'm sure there are probably more factors than I have listed above, and even those seem like a lot of things to keep track of on the fly. How long till someone pulls a Maldonado and drives off the track because they where to busy flipping switches and checking gauges.

If they cut off all technical aid from the wall, I think it will be safe to say driving an F1 car is harder than flying a fighter jet. All the modern fighters have systems to take as much load of the pilot as possible, so they can focus on the most important thing, killing the enemy.

[langwadt]

Well, they can look at the data on their steering wheel.

They can, but having to do that on top of all the other stuff they are already doing is asking a lot.

Consider break temperatures alone for a moment. The break temperatures are dependent on.
1) how long have they had to cool off since the last breaking zone (different for every turn)
2) are they getting clean air to cool them off (following someone closely)
3) how much deceleration is needed in the next breaking zone (different for every turn)
4) what harvesting mode are they in
5) how does the ambient temperature and humidity effect the cooling rate

I'm sure there are probably more factors than I have listed above, and even those seem like a lot of things to keep track of on the fly. How long till someone pulls a Maldonado and drives off the track because they where to busy flipping switches and checking gauges.

If they cut off all technical aid from the wall, I think it will be safe to say driving an F1 car is harder than flying a fighter jet. All the modern fighters have systems to take as much load of the pilot as possible, so they can focus on the most important thing, killing the enemy.

What will probably happen is that the teams that can afford it will hire a large team of programmers to stuff the intelligence and decision making of the race engineers into a big computer in the car

[strad]

It is also a driving skill managing to drive even with a flat spot and blurred vision
They are best drivers in the world but I don't expect them to be engineers at the same time.

A good driver will not flat spot his tires in the first place.
Not every lock up flat spots the tires you know.. only those where they do not modulate and cook them. It's called skill mate.

[PlatinumZealot]

Well, they can look at the data on their steering wheel.

They can, but having to do that on top of all the other stuff they are already doing is asking a lot.

Consider break temperatures alone for a moment. The break temperatures are dependent on.
1) how long have they had to cool off since the last breaking zone (different for every turn)
2) are they getting clean air to cool them off (following someone closely)
3) how much deceleration is needed in the next breaking zone (different for every turn)
4) what harvesting mode are they in
5) how does the ambient temperature and humidity effect the cooling rate

I'm sure there are probably more factors than I have listed above, and even those seem like a lot of things to keep track of on the fly. How long till someone pulls a Maldonado and drives off the track because they where to busy flipping switches and checking gauges.

If they cut off all technical aid from the wall, I think it will be safe to say driving an F1 car is harder than flying a fighter jet. All the modern fighters have systems to take as much load of the pilot as possible, so they can focus on the most important thing, killing the enemy.

What will probably happen is that the teams that can afford it will hire a large team of programmers to stuff the intelligence and decision making of the race engineers into a big computer in the car

Yeah. Preprogrammed race plans and target reference values for every inch of track. When the driver is out of a predefined range he gets an alarm from the dash in all its "google go" glory: "you're going too fast through the apex on turn five dumbazz!"

[PlatinumZealot]

Sergio Perez: OK google!! Nico hulkenburg. Monza! sector three!

[Sevach]

Will the teams that opted not to use the new displays be more impaired by these rules?
I imagine it would be harder to know your fuel consumption and ERS reserves.


I don't like the "team mate brakes later into T5", but these rules are completely stupid.


Maybe we need a few cars failing to finish to give them a clue on how their stupid rules mesh together.