New points system for 2010

[n smikle]

The shortcut Idea is not too bad.. I read that each driver would have a limited number of times to use the shortcut... it would make racing more interesting...use your five shortcuts early? use them late? what if you and a bunch of other guys use the shortcut at the same time?... I like it..

[ISLAMATRON]

Use all 3 shortcuts early(first couple of laps), thus lapping the field and then have your teammate bring out the SC just after you pit... game over.

[andartop]

Shortcuts? What an excellent idea. So, while we had an average of, say, 2-3 overtakes per driver per race, and normally those would take place at the start/first corner or during pit stops, now we will have 5 of them, but all taking place literally off the track, that is, in the shortcut. Well done.

-BREAKING NEWS-
The organizers of the Monaco GP are considering a novel solution to the lack of space available to create a shortcut. 26 rafts will be employed, each capable of carrying an F1 car and four average sized men with their rows, which the drivers will be able to board from the nouvelle chicane, and be ferried straight to the turn in for la rascasse. Bernie Ecclestone himself reportedly agreed to the idea, commenting that it will bring the world of F1 and powerboat racing closer. Also, he suggested that all drivers should be handed 5 tokens before the race, which will be used in an automated robotic arm that will be able to lift the cars and place them straight on top of the rafts.

Others, however, have expressed concerns that this solution might necessitate a significant reduction of parking space available for ridiculously expensive yachts. Another suggestion would be to incorporate wheel extension systems on F1 cars, similar to those first fashioned in the popular TV show "Inspector Gadget", to allow drivers to overtake above their opponents. "These could be operated by a KERS system!", a source said.

Ejecting platforms, similar to those seen on Super Mario Kart, have not been approved due to environmental issues. Pro-wildlife organisations calculated that the risk would be too high for an F1 car colliding with pigeons, though some argued that the only place one could find pigeons in France would be in a restaurant menu.

On a less serious note, it keeps amazing me how on this forum one could create a thread, say, on the dimensional accuracy of superplastic forming of titanium components and end up getting posts about how Ferrari is all that is wrong with F1..

[n smikle]

The organizers of the Monaco GP are considering a novel solution to the lack of space available to create a shortcut. 26 rafts will be employed, each capable of carrying an F1 car and four average sized men with their rows, which the drivers will be able to board from the nouvelle chicane, and be ferried straight to the turn in for la rascasse. Bernie Ecclestone himself reportedly agreed to the idea, commenting that it will bring the world of F1 and powerboat racing closer. Also, he suggested that all drivers should be handed 5 tokens before the race, which will be used in an automated robotic arm that will be able to lift the cars and place them straight on top of the rafts.

My mouth was watering at this proposal before you got rowing part..lol

..Mario Kart... good times... good times.. Deep down inside I long for a racing series like Mario Kart....

[myurr]

The shortcut Idea is not too bad.. I read that each driver would have a limited number of times to use the shortcut... it would make racing more interesting...use your five shortcuts early? use them late? what if you and a bunch of other guys use the shortcut at the same time?... I like it..

Sorry to disagree but I think it's a stupid and dumb idea that further removes my faith in the people running F1. Instead of addressing the issues, they're inventing gimmicks that add nothing to the sport.

Why not just put a button in the car that lets you blue flag the car in front of you three times during the race. Or each lap vary the engine power by 10% at random. Or not tell the teams what compound each tyre is so that they don't know if it's going to be soft, and therefore fast but short on life, or hard and therefore slower but lasts a longer distance. Or each lap get the race director to throw two dice - if he rolls double six then put the safety car out for a lap. Or add any number of other gimmicks.

Each of those would create opportunities for drivers, but all would be horrendously artificial.

[Roland Ehnström]

Why not just put a button in the car that lets you blue flag the car in front of you three times during the race. Or each lap vary the engine power by 10% at random. Or not tell the teams what compound each tyre is so that they don't know if it's going to be soft, and therefore fast but short on life, or hard and therefore slower but lasts a longer distance. Or each lap get the race director to throw two dice - if he rolls double six then put the safety car out for a lap.

[richard_leeds]

"The other thing that's bad, in the seventies whoever was in the top six places at half distance, you could guarantee that by the end of the race only three of them would be there - and now all six are there. You don't get people stopping anymore."

<snip>
Even now, drivers willing to settle to their race positions and give up figthing for more; can't think what may happen if they have unreliable cars at their disposals.

You'd get better racing. If you suspect the chap in front has an unreliable car you race him to the end hoping the car will break. Or if you have an unreliable car then you worry when the warning lights starts showing up in the last 10 laps and there's a chap right on your tail pushing you to go harder when you really want to ease off.

Bernie is right - I did an analysis of this in another thread, cars are much more reliable, hence less variable, hence more predictable, hence more boring.

Here's the % of cars at the start line that failed to make it to the finish line:

2009 12% (ie total 475 starts, 58 did not finish)
2008 24%
2006 32%
2003 34%
1999 45%
1989 51%
1984 54%

[meves]

How about we put an electric motor on the car that lets them recover energy from the which can be used for a set amount of time per lap.... umm maybe it can be called KERS

These boost, shortcut ideas are all rather silly. I thought a better idea was to give a gripper surface on the wide line to encourage differing lines through the corner, opening it up more for overtaking.

Making the brakes less efficient may help or even setting the volume of air allowed through for brake cooling may make it more interesting as the drivers would have to manage their brakes...

[richard_leeds]

These boost, shortcut ideas are all rather silly. I thought a better idea was to give a gripper surface on the wide line to encourage differing lines through the corner, opening it up more for overtaking.

Making the brakes less efficient may help or even setting the volume of air allowed through for brake cooling may make it more interesting as the drivers would have to manage their brakes...

I agree, avoid silly add on gimmicks. If we want to spice things up, it should by making the cars a tougher challenge to get to the finish line , either due to limited mechanics (engines/fuel/tyres)or harder to drive (less grip/downforce).

[Astro1]

So what is being suggested, is that we go from few on track passes to even fewer. I'm sorry this idea is retarded.

A driver starting anywhere in the first 5 grid slots would never attempt an on track pass but could potentially use his 5 attempts to pass off-track?

Why would this be good?

The proposed idea would kill any possible chance of an on track battle for the championship.

They might as well forget the whole race all together and just do a time trial.

Again...RETARDED!

[richard_leeds]

A driver starting anywhere in the first 5 grid slots would never attempt an on track pass but could potentially use his 5 attempts to pass off-track?

... and the passed driver would pass right back at you on the next lap.

Anyway, don't we already have this scenario, albeit with random implementation decided by stewards? I think it is called La Source

[WhiteBlue]

Ecclestone chimes in...
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80852

"I think it would be very easy for us on each circuit to have an area where you could gain a bit of time so you could overtake - a shortcut if you like - which a driver could use five times during the race, so it would stop people getting stuck behind somebody," he suggested.

"It's good for TV, good for the TV commentators, they could talk about somebody having three [shortcuts] left and somebody else having two and what's going to happen and so on."

Hilarious!!!! And I'm sure you'd get more shortcuts than the other teams if your cars were painted red and also get paid more money from FOM for using them.

Hilarious?! I've seen monty python sketches that were more serious than this. I can't believe this guy is still the F1 supremo... he lost the plot.

Might as well just make 26 parallel tracks.

Joe Saward thinks its one of the cheeky speech bubbles Bernie spits into the dead season to create PR for F1. Ther old bugger is probably rolling on the floor seeing all the discussion he kicked off.

[tarzoon]

Why not just put a button in the car that lets you blue flag the car in front of you three times during the race. Or each lap vary the engine power by 10% at random. Or not tell the teams what compound each tyre is so that they don't know if it's going to be soft, and therefore fast but short on life, or hard and therefore slower but lasts a longer distance. Or each lap get the race director to throw two dice - if he rolls double six then put the safety car out for a lap.

How about the pilots start pressing harder on the accelerator?

Long, long time ago, that used to give good results.

Joe Saward thinks its one of the cheeky speech bubbles Bernie spits into the dead season to create PR for F1. Ther old bugger is probably rolling on the floor seeing all the discussion he kicked off.

Not the first time. Last year he had the medal system. Yet, it's degrading: does he really need to invent something like this to generate PR?

[Downforce]

Bernie is right - I did an analysis of this in another thread, cars are much more reliable, hence less variable, hence more predictable, hence more boring.

That is the result of strict technical regulations (especially regarding engine and transmission).

You dont' get that "push to the limit" approach to designing systems on a car. Just when designer decide to use his imagination, techical regulation wall comes on heavilly and put's him back to reality...

[Mr Alcatraz]

it's degrading: does he really need to invent something like this to generate PR?

Totally agree!! Even though F1 is the sport I have the most interest in, every sport has an off-season. That is when we can enjoy other sports and not worry about a conflict of events, and have to watch one recorded! This Sunday I get to watch my home team start its playoff run at The Superbowl.
I try to watch F1 live every race, and generally do (as I am involved with chats simultaneously). Living on the west coast of the U.S. makes me change my weekend schedule, (I can't miss qualy and practice).
If I did this year round I would go broke, and insane!
This is as stupid of a concept that I've ever heard Bernie come up with. If F1 needs this kind of crap to exist, I say let it die a natural death