Australian GP on Speed

[thesk8nmidget]

Originally Posted by mohaughn

I watched the race live. I went to the 12 hours at Sebring race. We walked over to the awards ceremony at the end of the 12 hour race, then walked back to our camp spot and watched the F1 race live until 2am.



It has more to do with putting the car back into the hands of the drivers. F1 has a major issue because the cars were getting to fast. So one of the first things that they did was limit tire size. The tires used to be huge. If you allow the cars to have huge tires with huge amounts of mechanical grip the speeds really start to get insane. So they limit how much mechanical grip the cars can have, and instead ask them to do more with aerodynamic grip.

The problem has become that F1 cars can no longer draft. In order to be fast an F1 car has to be in clean air. If one car tucks in behind another car it loses aero-grip and will slow down. This has made passing very difficult.

Getting rid of traction control puts the outcome of the race back on the drivers. The cars are just as safe, just the drivers have to adjust. No longer can they lay it out 120% and expect the computer in the car to save them. It can't save from everything, but most F1 incidents with TC are from missing a brake zone, or hitting another car. You didn't see many human-induced errors because the computer would step in and correct most errors.

Now, if you get on the gas to quick, or let off the gas to much, the car will not save you. To me, that makes for better racing.

If every team in F1 had the same budget to work with, you could let the series proceed with very little limits on technology. But when Ferrari and Mercedes/McLaren spend billions of dollars every year, it gets very hard to say that there is a level playing field.

To me it should always be about making better racing, and F1 had been boring before last year. Even then, it was only the drama that made for good racing. A lot of the races were really boring.

I forgot to mention, it also has a lot to do with going to a standard ECU in all cars. The new ECU does not support TC or engine braking. The FIA technical site says this should only slow down the cars by about .4 seconds per lap. Or about 25 seconds over the course of a race.

very well said!!

+1

[mohaughn]

Another point, is that F1 is still pushing technology limits. It is just that they are not defining higher tech as needing to be faster. Right now the big push is on reliability.

They changed the rules where the engines have to run multiple weekends, and now the transmissions have to do the same thing as well.

TC, ABS, and all of the other great things that have come out of F1 have done wonders for the automotive world. Imagine if your engine/transmission could easily last to 500,000 miles or even 1,000,000 miles because of the current technology being developed in F1. The changes for the upcoming years include re-using what is currently wasted energy to make the cars more efficient and faster.

[Petex]

Team Toyota has almost unlimited budget, but that has not given them any success for 5 years. Only good drivers can develop cars, and without good car you cant get a good driver....even with huge money.

Everybody remember to cheer for Kimi and Heikki at next weekend!

[thesk8nmidget]

were abs and tc invented by f1 people?

[316i compact]

And i also have to add, that BMW doesn't have a huge budget, but they are going very well after been an independent team!

[mohaughn]

Weird, I typed another reponse to this thread, but I don't see it.. Maybe it was a dream.. hehehe


Sauber was always a very good team when the were independent, but they never would have been a podium finishing team, at least not consistently.

If you ask me the whole BMW Williams thing was politics and the lead players were not playing well together which was hurting the overall team. BMW needed their own team and another chasis and Sauber had one. BMW/Sauber definitely has the potential to be a great team as they have great engines, and the chasis is coming along well. They also have the ability to attract top talent in both the team management and driver categories.

Toyota has team issues. To me it just shows that you can spend gobs of money on a project, and without good leadership, most of that money will be wasted. We'll see if their recent team changes will make a difference.

[thesk8nmidget]

i never knew so much about f1 before this thread lol.

but then again i dont watch tv andf have maybe only seen 1 race before

its makes me want to watch some more

[greenmeanie]

Watch the young drivers who have not driven with t.c for long, they will soon be flying.
It is the old guard who have learnt to rely on t.c. & engine braking who have allready started to have problems.I hope we see the likes of Lewis Hamilton and all the lads who have come up from carting all the way to F.1. and all of the great skills that they have.
Not only are they great drivers, they are great people and an example to other sports men.