Bernie's "cut-through" idea

[captainmorgan]

per espn-f1:
http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/6644.html

Ecclestone made bigger headlines late Wednesday with his controversial proposal to install "shortcuts" at each circuit that each driver can use five times a race.

"You wouldn't get stuck behind a slower car," he explained. "It would be great for TV. I've tried to push the teams on this because I don't think the efforts to increase overtaking are working, but they haven't gone for it."

But Lotus driver Jarno Trulli scoffed at such plans.

"I think Bernie sometimes has very clear ideas, but this [proposal] is just not possible in Formula One," Trulli told Reuters. "This is not a game, this is a sport."

I agree with Bernie on this one. But instead of shortcuts and limited uses, they should be unlimited-use forks in the road leading to parallel and equal length-paths that rejoin. It would completely obviate any further discussions about overtaking regulations and eliminate the 1-2 second aerodynamic follower penalty. In that respect it seems more essentially about "sport" than having to lose those 1-2 seconds just because of aero

It probably makes more sense if these are two parallel straights, but having 2 parallel corners would make it more interesting, maybe as long as one route had a shorter length while the other had the better exit speed.

[ernos5]

wow what is formula 1 coming too

If there were shortcuts with infinite usage allowed then modern day circuits would be like need for speed games and drivers would all take the same shortcuts so you would still be stuck behind the other car...

I don't see why in this day and age they cannot create rules and regulations that increase down force in such a way that doesn't create too much wake turbulence so cars can follow closely.

[Giblet]

Getting more overtakes without a major redisgn won't work. F1 has less passing.

If Bernie was in charge of hockey he would decide there are not enough slam dunks, and suggest a bat --- crazy idea liike raising the nets 10 feet off the ice.

Medals and shortcuts. Time to go to the hospital and take a mental fitness test.

[Scotracer]

Getting more overtakes without a major redisgn won't work. F1 has less passing.

If Bernie was in charge of hockey he would decide there are not enough slam dunks, and suggest a bat --- crazy idea liike raising the nets 10 feet off the ice.

Medals and shortcuts. Time to go to the hospital and take a mental fitness test.

Maybe he's been playing too much Burnout with the grand-kids...

[Giblet]

DEAR BERNIE ECCLESTONE,

HIGH DEFINITION FOR FORMULA 1.

THANKS,

EVERYONE

[woohoo]

this is one of these ideas that should simply be either forgotten, or made note of for a future book about the senility of Bernie.

[WhiteBlue]

I agree with Newey that too much is changed in F1 without proper research. If the refueling ban leads to sterile processions people will be grasping at straws pretty soon. The will not be able to go back to refuelling in 2010 because the cars are not build for refueling. So scenarios as short cuts may be looked at more sooner than later.

[marcush.]

Should overtaking be more simple?
to me the Trullis and Heidfelds ,Mansell ,Villeneuve and ,yes Button as well as kobayashi tell the true story.
You could dwell for ages on improving wake formation to allow for better drafting.
but you have to realise ...processions also happen with non downforce cars.
so to work on an area just because it is of particular interest to me is not really going to help .
Nobody asks about the consequence of easy overtaking.Surely not thrilling races.
so that is the point ,you will not improve the show by this ,it will only assure that the fastest combination will be to the fore more quickly and will arrive there
with less risk of falling off.

[RacingManiac]

DEAR BERNIE ECCLESTONE,

HIGH DEFINITION FOR FORMULA 1.

THANKS,

EVERYONE

That =D>


Maybe also they should give cars turtle shells too...

[myurr]

Should overtaking be more simple?
to me the Trullis and Heidfelds ,Mansell ,Villeneuve and ,yes Button as well as kobayashi tell the true story.
You could dwell for ages on improving wake formation to allow for better drafting.
but you have to realise ...processions also happen with non downforce cars.
so to work on an area just because it is of particular interest to me is not really going to help .
Nobody asks about the consequence of easy overtaking.Surely not thrilling races.
so that is the point ,you will not improve the show by this ,it will only assure that the fastest combination will be to the fore more quickly and will arrive there
with less risk of falling off.

I think the important thing is that overtaking is possible to the extent that drivers will have a go. I don't mind if the Trulli's of this world are able to hold a train of cars behind them, as long as the car behind can get alongside and make Trulli actually work to keep his position. At the moment the cars behind get to within a second or two and then cannot progress because of the aerodynamics. That's not down to driver skill on either drivers part - it's down to the cars and the tracks.

I the olden days that many who have followed F1 for two decades or so hail as being the glory years you would often witness epic battles between legendary drivers. Part of this is rose tinted glasses, but part of it is down to three things: they were able to run much more closely to each other, often getting alongside even if they still couldn't find a way past; the cars looked more difficult to drive because they appeared to oversteer more (most times a driver makes a mistake these days they understeer a little wide, they used to have huge wobbles coming out of corners as they put the power back down); and the stewards have been too quick to penalise drivers when genuine overtaking attempts go wrong.

We used to be treated to epic battles between drivers like Senna and Mansell with, for example, Senna in a slower car holding up Mansell for lap after lap. However a couple of times a lap, on nearly every lap, the two would get alongside each other and duke it out, each struggling to get the car slowed down and into the corner and then struggling to get the power back down out of the corner, each trying to get the better entry and exit into key corners.

In recent years we've been treated to the Trulli train effect whereby Jarno, and others, have been able to drive along as they pleased, with other cars just queued up behind them unable to even get close to an overtake.

[Roger the knife]

Maybe teams could also be given a "joker" to play at one race each year for double points, Stuart Hall will be in charge of this...it would be a knockout....

[Slife]

wow what is formula 1 coming too

If there were shortcuts with infinite usage allowed then modern day circuits would be like need for speed games and drivers would all take the same shortcuts so you would still be stuck behind the other car...

I don't see why in this day and age they cannot create rules and regulations that increase down force in such a way that doesn't create too much wake turbulence so cars can follow closely.

Well according to Reuter's article http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE60C5A920100113

"I've tried to push the teams with a number of proposals. Imagine a shortcut which a driver can use five times every race. It would stop people getting stuck behind others. It would be good for TV," the 79-year-old told reporters at Ferrari's pre-season ski retreat.

[Scuderia_Russ]

I'm a big fan of Bernie's (on my own on that front I believe) but this idea is plain awful IMO.

[tarzoon]

plain silly. Isn't it easy to create a rule stopping pilots from driving in zig-zags to defend their places, and just keep a driving line?

[christopher.mahlon]

What I dislike most about this idea and others like it is the gimmickry it introduces to the races. As soon as the novelty of whatever innovation is considered next wears off, the fans will see it for what it is; a bare grab for more "excitement." So instead of putting shortcuts on the tracks, or sprinklers to randomly soak the course, why not actually design tracks that can be raced, with serious challenges to the drivers that make mistakes probable?