With 24 days until the first wheels turn in anger, I figured I’d open this year’s F1 thread. I’ve only been paying spotty attention to the testing and new car launches, so haven’t got much to say about them yet. But I was looking at the rule changes for 2011 and noticed two that I think are going to be interesting:
107% Qualifying Rule: “During the first phase of qualifying, any driver who fails to set a lap within 107 percent of the fastest Q1 time will not be allowed to start the race. However, in exceptional circumstances, which could include a driver setting a suitable time during practice, the stewards may permit the car to start.”
Team Orders: “The clause in the sporting regulations banning team orders has been removed.”
I’m wondering if the first will mean some of the back markers will have cars that don’t get to start at some races. And if the second will allow Nico Rosberg to get the credit and attention from his team that he deserves (or if they’ll stiff him for Schumacher).
Every year I find myself wondering how Ecclestone and his cohorts can ruin F1 just a bit more. These two rules don’t help, if you ask me. The first one, the 107% rule, really hurts back marker teams. What’s the one thing that you need to do to get better as a team (or as a driver)? Race. And since with few exceptions the only passing in F1 is the leaders getting by the back markers, F! is going to be the world’s most exclusive and expensive parade laps more so now than ever.
And team orders? Again? F1 might as well announce that blatant race fixing is perfectly legitimate. Haven’t they been burned by this before?
I often wonder what it will take to make the sport genuinely interesting again. It always has the potential, with the greatest drivers in the world driving the most technologically amazing machines in the world. But it’s not anything near what it should be. Even in the 1980s when you knew McLaren was going to win and the 1990s when you knew Williams was going to win it seemed more interesting than it is now. I just don’t know.
I’ll watch the races when I can and idly support Button and Hamilton but most of races are without overtaking and thus boring when compared to other sorts of track racing (Moto GP being the standout for me).
As for those rule changes, I can understand why they have removed the restriction on team orders as all it would need is for Ferrari to come up with a better code system and be less obvious about it for this year. However, it still doesn’t feel right to me.
Interesting restrictions on when the adjustable rear wings can be used or not. In conjunction with KERS this could be interesting. But I do not really understand why they have stopped work overnight for the pit teams. Is it that they wanted to protect the poor, powerless workers with a six hour mandatory sleep period?
I can’t say I’m a fan of the technical niceties introduced. The moveable wing and Kers strikes me as too “mario kart” for my liking but they are a sticking plaster for the fundemental sore of difficult overtaking. Short of taking all downforce away, what can you do?
I’m not a fan of “one make” series and I do like to encourage technical innovation but with that comes the risk of having a one sided-season.
So bring on the new season and all of the tinkering. Let’s see what we get in the knowledge that it’ll be different next year anyway.
Actually, I’d be prepared for a “one-make” series of F1 if they were all in Lotus 49’s (gold leaf livery of course!)
GP2 Asia series race at the Bahrain circuit that was supposed to take place this weekend just got canceled. Wonder if the country will have sorted itself out by next month for the big boys. Mr. E has already expressed concern.
Drivers are not enjoying the movable rear wing in testing. Seems like we’ve hit the critical mass of buttons and toggles and switches on the steering wheel.
The 107% rule is fairly cosmetic. I don’'t think there would have been a single car excluded from the race just by this rule in the last half of 2010, had this been in place last year.
The no-team-orders rule was shown to be unenforceable last year, because the FIA refused to do so. Removing it was better than leaving it on the books having shown it to be toothless. (Better still would have been to show it had teeth.)
107% Rule: As MHaye mentions, not a big deal as far as competition is concerned. I did some math and, through Canada, I think only a few times would cars would have been left off (I’m sure they would have excepted Alonso after he wrecked at Monaco). Not going to effect competition at all.
What it MAY effect, though, is sponsorship. As someone pointed out, why would someone dish out big bucks to advertise with a struggling team if there’s no guarantee you’d make an appearance in the actual race. All this to keep one slow car off the track? IMO, there’s not enough difference between Virgin running 1:23s and HRT running 1:24s to justify something as severe as keeping HRT from competing.
Team Orders: I’m against team orders, but don’t have a problem here either. If they really tried to enforce, teams would just code the messages.
Drivers are already starting to complain about the cockpit getting too complicated. Now, they’ve got levers for the clutch, transmission, diff, KERS, and the Rear Wing all the while trying to drive the car around the track at 180MPH. :eek:
I follow Will Buxton on Twitter. While he said he was treated well, he seemed pretty relieved to GTFO of there after they canceled it.
What’s wrong with taking away the downforce? I heard somewhere that the teams opposed that not for technical reasons, but because it would eliminate several square feet of space they currently sell to sponsors.
For years I’ve been curious about what would happen if they did that. For one thing, the technical specs would need to be a lot more specific than “no downforce”. The rules are written in an excruciating combination of techspeak and legalese, but I think it could be done.
You want to fix the show, get rid of the flat bottoms, allow two venturi tunnels under the car and mandate single-element wings and no protuberances, winglets, flip-ups or other doo-dads beyond the shark fin engine cover and single-stalk mirrors that must be aerodynamically neutral.
If they have to make the majority of downforce from the car and use the wings just to tune the balance, that’ll change the racing. Also, banning carbon-carbon brakes and requiring ferrous discs (or pads) would lengthen braking distances and improve the show. As it is now, you stand on the gas until just before the corner, slam on the almost-instantaneous brakes and let them and the aero resistance slow the car down, then gas it again.
The problem with that is that you end up with a high-tech version of NASCAR, cars that use “antiquated” equipment in the quest for competitive races. Formula 1 should be at the forefront of technology development, not the obstacle to it.
Of course, then you have boring “races”. It’s a lousy trade-off, isn’t it?
I don’t think that’s true at all. In fact, the development of wings isn’t really driven by technology at all. They keep tweaking the design, adding bits on to bits, but I don’t think there’s been any recent leaps in the materials or anything.
Take the wings off and there’s still plenty of room to innovate; engines, valves, tires, brakes,… Let them put their research into areas that might show up on real cars, someday.
No guarantee it would lead to closer racing, though. I gather that in the pre-wing era, there were dominant cars and backmarkers just as there are now. Still, it would be nice to have cars where being behind someone didn’t sap your performance and make it more difficult to pass.
As I understand it (please, wider heads chip in) The problem with the downforce is not so much the assistance it gives to the car using it, more the disruption it gives to the man on your tail
That being the case, even if you limited the amount of downforce at a given speed it might not reduce the amount of disruption it gives to the following car.
It would increase the sliding certainly and probably reduce the cornering speeds so the dynamics of a fast lap would change.
New here and I’ll say Hi before I put my two cents in.
I think it’s good the rule against team orders is gone. F1 is a team sport. The manufacturer, the driver, his car, his mechanics et al, and his team mate. The driver competition can and does overshadow the manufacturers, but that’s to be resolved by the team.
Eliminate the rule and there is no more attempts to beat it, as well as avoiding the possibility of accusations in error.
T-1:10:00 until the start of P3 in Australia. SpeedTV is streaming P3 live from Australia without commentary as they did yesterday with P1. It’s really amazing to hear the cars roar without anything over the top.
Not the most exciting race, but at least the season is underway with wheels spinning in anger, as they like to say.
KERS seems to still be primarily a defensive tool, and easily countering the “DRS” movable rear wing. Vettel in his RB7 looks primed to waltz away with any race he doesn’t crash out of, McLaren seem to have some catching up to do, and Renault looked pretty good in the hands of Petrov. I’d’ve liked to have seen Kubica in the other car.
Pirelli’s tires seem to be giving the teams fits all around. How much can they tinker with the rubber composition through the season?