MJSpeed

First off I can't stand Bernie Ecclestone, he is an idiot! But I don't wish death on anyone just wish he retires soon...

As for the rules, some are good others well, not so good. As others have stated the safety trade-offs are frightening.

ew928

Hybrid. Great for city stop and go driving.
Not so much for extreme race cars.

Hope the Green Parties know that the battery packs last for 1 race, from what I've heard.
If the European Greenies really care about F1 and the environment, they'd wake their fat asses up in the middle of the night to watch the Singapore race instead of burning up Gigillion watts of power to light up the circuit.
If they really cared, put electro-flourescent panels on the cars like the number plates in ALMS and dot the track surface with LED lights.


I like the new F1 cars. Looks just like the LEGO race cars i used to build.
Ungainly huge front snow-plough with a tall tail wing handle.

Guess Toyota's moveable aero rear wing didn't pass muster.
Wonder if the moveable front wing flap did anything.

A.Wayne

Kers is great and will lead to some fantastic racing . I'm a bit concerned over the safety aspect , but love the technology.

F1 is better , well more entertaining today than it has been in over a decade , is it because of Bernie or in spite of Bernie ? I mean everytime these ******** make a change , everyone cringes and yet , it makes for or at least turns out to be some nail biting entertaining **** .

MJSpeed

^^ Yes but it always seems that their rules fall short on logic.

Quali in three sessions is great but Q3 is a waste of money and time, what's the point of having just burn fuel off. KERS, cool technology it seems, still can't tell for sure, at this point, how much of an advantage if any, it renders...again cool but if you really wanted to cut cost, then why not a spec KERS system like the ECU's. Smaller rear wings and as a result less grip...then why go back to slicks that have more grip than grooved. Two tire compounds to choose from...but why force the teams to use both during the race.

It's always something...

Land Jet

Death was a little too much, but he pisses me off. Someone should restart the CanAm series and give the finger to all who want to make every racing series into identically prepared IROC type racing. Call it the "Widowmaker 1000" and only the truly brave will enter.

Flying Finn

+1

I'm not a fan of Bernie either but you can't argue with the popularity of F1, why the hell everyone keeps watching it or talking about it if it's so boring etc.?
There are things that you just wonder why he isn't changing (i.e. the point system that was proposed by teams) but in the ends, F1 is pretty damn successful and popular. None of the other open wheel (or other) racing series can't come even close.

With KERS I wonder why doesn't all teams use the same system and a system that would be like Williams' system where there is no electrical danger involved?

2BWise

Personally, I think that Bernie and Max are nuts, but the changes they implemented have definitely mixed up the field. Its far more entertaining when everything is up in the air and there are no powerhouses that run away with the championship. When was the last time that we saw so many cars mixing in up and the entire field being capable of picking up points. I do think that the big money teams will essentially "buy" speed throughout the year, but at least they're all starting out on even ground. It should make the year interesting.

M758

1) Aero= Like the less appendages. slicker = better. However I hate the narrow rear wing and hoover style front wing. They look jacked up... Other than that I like the clearner look. One race in there is not evidence that it impact passing.

2) KERS = Who cars

3) Tires = Love the slicks Hate the rules about two sub optimal tires and must use both in the race. They should bring their two best and let the teams pick. Then be able to run either tire all race. Forcing teams to run a tire that goes away 2-3 laps in is dumb and dangerious.


4) Pit Speeds. Who cars, Pit open during yellow. Great. There was a safety car, but it did not jack up the results.

The only good thing is that all the changes have a tendancy to shake up the grid as it give a chance for a team that was behind on the old forumula to potential get it right out of the box on the new forumula rather than always play catch up.

M758

That is an interesting point. However given the lower of RPM to 18000 it seems to me you can easily create a power boost just by allowing them to rev to 19k for a limited duration.

Even so I don't like it. I rather see them race straight up.

jenk12m

they can leave KERS out. BMW put it in N. heifield's(sp) only b/c he weighs less than Kubica and Kubica was way faster w/o KERS or the trick diffuser

Flying Finn

KERS was not put in in F1 only to make more passing, it's part of F1 being more "green" and developing a system that might eventually be adapted more to normal cars which of course is a good thing.

As far as safety goes, Williams has a system where the energy is not stored in batteries but instead in a "storage flywheel".

MJSpeed

And as far as I'm concerned this should be the only way to adapt the system. This then becomes workable in street cars.

ew928

Battery cells may be heavy and inefficient, but they don't have gyroscopic effects when you scale up the kinetic energy system.
Don't the high speed spinning discs require some sort of CVT to bring the rotational speeds down to usable output for the transmission.

With a battery system, at least you get the option to charge it up.
Not sure how the flywheels get spun up if the car is at rest.

If it wasn't for the space constraint, wonder if any F1 team would have considered using compressed gas for a KERS.