F1 dead?

koreshot said:

Finally!!! .... is all I can say.

I didn't agree with the direction to limit costs by turning F1 into a spec series. I thought it will ruin F1. There are plenty of reasonably inexpensive spec type racing series with lots of bumper to bumper racing. Let F1 be about big money and freedom to design chassis and engine which fit the rules. Yes, sometimes this results in bigger performance gaps than in a spec series, but I personally would rather watch an F1 car lapping solo around Monaco than some Nascar race. The Nascar cars don't excite me, neither do boring ovals in the boonies of alabama. Besides, Brawn proved that big money isn't everything. Oh and so did Toyota, billions of dollars spent on the F1 program... no worthwhile result.

So hopefully now the F1 teams, the people who make F1 special, will be able to remove themselves from Bernie and his lawyers and we can have the real F1 back. No freaking KERS, no rules changes halfway through season, no idiotic arguments. Just racing. I know, I'm probably dreaming.

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Geoff said:

As long as there are more than two groups willing to spend infinite money, I have no problem with the notion of "unlimited" with any kind of racing. It becomes an issue when one group has way more resources than all the others and can buy their victories. It happens in yacht racing. It certainly happens in major league baseball. With auto racing, it's cool to see what infinite budgets and no design restrictions can do. NASCAR slowed the cars down to stop killing the drivers. What's the fun in that?

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Glenn said:

This is really interesting. They should have just left well enough alone and let teams do what they want to do with x amount of money.

NASCAR and F-1 are at two different ends of the spectrum. I still find it pretty cool that teams can eek out 200mph+ with a car that's just tubes and sheet metal, loosely based on the design of a production car (well, the shape at least) with a carb'd V8 engine.

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mondeo said:

It may take 15 years, but so much technology developed in F1 finds its way into production cars. Variable timing, intake runner length, active suspension, traction control, stability control, automated manual gearboxes, etc. all came from F1. I like the idea of KERS, but take the restrictions off it. Let them find the optimum balance of power and storage, and then push those technologies to their limits.

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Geoff said:

Hmmm... intake runner length... that's a new one to me. I guess it makes sense to model it and optimize it. When the intake valve closes, it must create a wave effect in the intake manifold. You want the pressure restored by the next time you open the valve and you don't want it to interfere with the other cylinders.

My VW GTI has the Volkswagen interpretation of an automated manual gearbox. Even with the added weight from the heavier transmission, my DSG system is faster 0 to 60 than a 6 speed manual and it doesn't give me a fuel economy hit to be driving an automatic. The paddle shift system is also very useful for snow driving and to control my speed going down hills (important around here where there are speed traps everywhere). My last VW had a manual transmission. I didn't think I'd like having an automatic but it performs so well that I'm beyond it.

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mondeo said:

The DSG is a slick system. Probably heavier than the traditional nonsequential gearbox. I just wish someone would just come along and say, "ok, here's a true sequential gearbox, just be aware that it'll cost ya."

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