Wohooo, so teams not having a competitive engine ready till March 2008 will be stuck with it for 10 years. Boy this will sure make the races more interesting.
How about they introduce a standard engine instead. And a standard chassis, so all teams are basically driving the same car. Don't forget driver ballast either, I mean we want to give the slower drivers a chance to be even with the faster drivers, even though they're driving the same car. Please completely remove downforce too, it's just making the corners too fast and dangerous. Talking about dangerous, the new cars should be FWD, to cut down on the spins caused by light cars without downforce.
Does that mean if a team develops an underpowered engine compared to their rival engines and has to submit it they will have to use that engine for the next 10 years?
/sarcasm on
If that is the case it will REALLY make racing interesting wont it..
/sarcasm off
Here's an idea: how about all teams get a fixed amount of fuel to use per race distance and development of the engine is completely derestricted (except size and boost)? That way, F1 can drive engine technology forward towards efficient delivery of power. Oh wait, that would be too logical.
Im all for this idea, i mean if they are looking for drivers in a real life series now in LFS why not take ideas as well it only seems smart. Hope the lower spec cars are allowed to somehow able to manage because i would love to see an F1 Race thats all drivers competing for it not just the ones with better Budgets.
Proberly the smartest thing the FIA has done since inventing F1
Very curious. It's a great way to cut costs and force money and innovation to happen elsewhere. If the engines between teams are truly as close as they think, then there shouldn't be a case of a team being stuck slow for 10 years. I do find the time period rather long though.
I don't fully understand the massive aero restrictions thought (scale model testing and wind tunnel use, etc).
Android - why not go one step further and replace all drivers with clones of Mr Hamilton. That way the racing should be really close and no driver will ever complain that "I would never have risked that move".
Where did you read that? How that will happen? Doesn't this 10 year halt basicly confirm that pretty much does NOT happen. Looks like they already gave up green racing to Le Mans.
I'm not surprised, this plan was announced weeks ago. I wonder on what the money is going to be used in the future, if the aerodynamics are going to be as limtied as the proposal says?
this makes a lot more sense, would be a lot easier to enforce, and would force all the teams to develop more efficient engines. the freeze wont encourage the teams with fast engines to add any green technology at all. it will just add weight to the cars and slow them down. it's only effect will be to put pressure on the slower teams to try something new that probably wont help them to compete anyway.
Yeah but that was just for three years 2007-2009. The FIA extended it even further.
Like Bob said, all the engines on the current F1 grid are making about the same power. Cosworth was pushing out more than anyone at the end of last year, and at higher RPMs, but they were quite unreliable. And aren't here at all anymore regardless.
This really isn't that big a deal. The FIA is simply forcing teams to stop pouring millions and millions into incredibly small details which A) fans can't see, and B) which don't appreciably affect the racing. The top teams run their wind tunnel and CFD programs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Three eight-hour shifts a day. For what? One more swoopy winglet, or an even crazier looking front wing which improves aero efficiency by 0.02%. It makes more sense for teams to spend money on improvements which make a significant difference in the quality of the racing (banning winglets to reduce aero disturbance for following cars) and on technology which is useful for road-going cars. Remember, for many people (read: manufacturers) F1 is as much a technical exercise to acclerate technological advances as it is a spectacle of driver skill.
On the other hand, grand prix racing should be free of silly restrictions and bureaucratic intrusion as much as possible. Both arguments have their merits.
Hopefully the FIA have made a wise choice and coupled with the massively different aero rules / regenerative braking techonology / et cetera that's coming soon, the quality of the show will improve.
This is not really a big deal, since they did the same development ban last year. It's just a clear message to the teams that they need to shut down their engine departments for good. If they banned for just 1 year, the teams would keep the departments and there would be no cost saving.
F1 is changing too a new type of engine, I just wonder if it will be open development, or restricted to just some shit tech like biodiesel.
how about petrol+turbine hybrids, that would be fun.