xpensive wrote:
- 150 Hp of KERS for 30s is 110 kW and 3.3 MJ, far more than they can ever store over one lap.
- A 1.6 turbo with 2.0 Bar boost, has a potential power of 1000 Hp at 12 k, but with a 50cc/s fuel flow,
you limit that to 650 Hp at a 28% efficiency. I would say that's one helluva incentive to increase efficiency?
- I you ban the front wing and introduce a standard floor, aero-game is effectively over.
I did not figure what the increase in time would do to the KERS energy. This will indeed make more sense if they go for a 3.3 MJ limit. You would definitely have to go to AWKERS to come anywhere near that value of energy. Still the push to pass control of accelerating torque is ludicrous. The breaking torque will have to be automatic dual torque. So why not do the acceleration as well.
If they run the pit lane electric only the cars will use the KERS motors as electric starters. That can make sense.
Regarding aero they have said that the emphasis will move from wings to the floor so that ground effect will become more important. This is simply a consequence of better aerodynamic efficiency. It does not say that they will have more standardized aero and break the strangle hold of the aerodynamicists on F1. They will simply go to a new set of configurations to perpetuate the game. With the new side impact protection the side pots will come further forward towards the front wheels and the floor area will increase.
With 1000 bhp engines restricted to 650 bhp by a fuel flow limit there would be an incentive to stay as close to the fuel flow limit as long as possible. It would promote wasting technologies like retarding the ignition to help the blown diffusor. If they allow movable aero devices the downforce will be increased to utilize the engine power as much as possible during part throttle phases of the race. It is all designed to increase the fuel consumption and not to decrease it. And you can bet the farm that the flow limits will not be very restrictive. They will make an optimistic prognosis how total fuel use will go down with a certain flow limit and in reality nothing will change much because the engineers will try to keep the fuel use close to the limit. It will be quite the same game the aerodynamicists have been playing with the downforce reductions for 20 years. You say the downforce is cut by 50% and by the time the new cars run it is at 95% of the old configuration. At the end of the year the downforce is bigger than before. Fuel flow limitation is a nice way to make it appear as if fuel use is reduced. In reality it is an incentive to waste as much as possible in the limit and use political power to set meaningless flow limits.
Only a total limit of race fuel is a true incentive to make the car go faster with less fuel. There would be no cheating with estimated fuel use. The limit is absolute and there would be an immediate reward of higher speed if you improve efficiency anywhere in the drive train or the chassis because you can go to a higher power setting than those who did not find the efficiency improvement.
