Post here all non technical related topics about Formula One. This includes race results, discussions, testing analysis etc. TV coverage and other personal questions should be in Off topic chat.
Thunders wrote:Of course the Letter is vague and Diplomatic. The Real discussion must be behind closed Doors. Public shaming and Finger Pointing isn't the best Base for negotiations.
This Letter imho is more to Protect Drivers that say something along these Lines (recent Interviews from Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton come to mind). They will not be seen as some lonely Renegade anymore. Also it gives the Fans and Media more to work with and put Pressure on the Governing Body.
The letter says absolutely nothing at all other than "we are unhappy and things should change". How can anyone get behind such vague statements when they neither specify what they perceive is wrong and what should change. So I don't understand why people here are saying "I agree completely" when they've said literally nothing.
All this has come about by the lack of long term vision for sport and the chasing of large money pots. In reality F1 is meant to be about peak performance so why is there an artificial limit on the number of engines and tyres. Go burn money and rubber.
Why cant Bridgestone and Michelin also provide tyres?
Why is fuel limited?
Why not have more testing in season?
Oh it is about green and cost saving. That is pure rubbish peddled to get some political brownie points. If that was the case then we should have F1 peddle cars.
Likewise the sell out of the TV rights to Sky has limited the availability and interest of fans.
I certainly will never buy a Sky contract and if its owner was on fire I would be more than interested in adding inflamables than extinguishants.
Nothing will change till Bernie is gone. Clearly nobody has the stones to say in public what needs to be said. Hell even three ex drivers, in DC, Webber and Wolff just mumbled and stuttered their way through being asked for a response to Bernie's rather insulting comeback to the drivers during Channel 4's Quali build up.
He'll continue to run the sport in his short term, max income approach, because he clearly doesn't care about the long term. Why should he? He seems to favour money in his pocket now, over what will be left 5-10 years from now, by which point he could well be dead, nevermind retired.
For me personally, F1 has become so complicated. I think simplicity is key for improving the experience of the sport for the drivers, teams and the fans. Also financially it would be better for everyone, because by banning removing/reducing certain areas of the sport, it wouldn't be so expensive. I'll repeat again my remarks on certain areas of the sport:
DRS:
It's a form of driving aid and creates the effect of becoming a 'sitting duck'. Racing would be more on the edge if this is banned. The effect of being a sitting duck means that you can't even defend when a car with DRS activated flies by with a much higher speed. Then there's also a constraint when a yellow flag occurs in a DRS zone and when conditions are too wet. There's also a gray area on a track with conditions are improving. It's still wet, but conditions are good enough for the use of DRS. If banned, it wouldn't be so complicated.
ERS
It's part of this era in F1. It has been with the sport since 2009 and I think we can further develop that. If F1 want to be an ambassador of renewable energy, then that's the area to look for imo. I believe at the moment the energy is being recovered by the energy that's created a car is under braking. I think we could expand this by recovering energy out of heat sources for example.
Tires
At the moment we have 5 different dry compounds that Pirelli provides. Just like I said before, teams nowadays have to produce a car that can perform on all dry compounds. That means testing those compounds becoming a crucial stage of developing the car. However, the limitation of testing opportunities are getting reduced season after season. So where do you find the time to test besides that?
It may sound radical, but if we reduce the dry compounds to just 1 dry compound. It would be a lot easier. I think it's a win-win situation. Teams have to optimize on 1 dry compound, meaning the car just has to perform on that tire. Tire manufacturer Pirelli would only have to develop 1 compound for the season. I could see costs for a tire manufacturer being reduced if this happens. So perhaps other tire manufacturers might want to join F1 as well and take on the challenge.
Tire blankets
Ban tire blankets due to reducing costs. If there's no tire blankets in Indycar, then surely in F1 it can be done the same. Maybe the compounds have to adapted to this rule change, so cold tires don't feel like driving on ice.
Fuel limitation
Remove fuel limitation, no lift and coast. Return to the situation before 2014.
Qualifying
Ban this 3 part qualifying system. Instead make 60 minutes of running with x amounts sets of tires at disposal. The 3 part qualifying system has a downsides when issues are found on cars and need to be fixed. There's almost impossible to fix something in 15mins and sent the car out to set a lap time. With 60 minutes of qualifying, there's enough time to fix certain issues and still be able to sent the car to take part in qualifying
Yellow flag situations
A slight rule change. If there's a yellow flag situation + crash + a car needs to be pushed/towed / there's debris on the track, then virtual safety has to be deployed and shortly after, a safety car period. This is introduced to reduce freak incidents and also create safer situations for track marshals to work on.
These are only just a few suggestions what I think might work. Feel free to discuss.
