Shrieker wrote:First of all, if a similar topic have been started before, apologies. I did a quick googling and it seems like this subject wasn't discussed before.
Hamilton's test day 1 crash got me thinking on this once more. I've had this thought pop in my head time and again, having played Geoff Crammond's GP series all those years ago. Simply, you had a graphical representation in the cockpit warning you of any damage received. If you lost your front/rear wing or had a puncture, you could see it in the display right away.
What if the FIA mandated a damage warning system similar to what was in the game ? We already know teams run wires through front wings for aero purposes for example. You could run similar wiring through the rear wing as well. Teams monitor tire data all the time, so displaying a tire failure/explosion instantly in the cockpit shouldn't be much of a problem. Additionally, wiring could be run through the suspension arms so the driver could make the distinction between a tire/suspension failure (if that would be of any help to the driver). They already have cables to prevent wheels from detaching in a crash, so there's another thought. Bib/stay is another vulnerable yet very important part for cornering (remember Hamilton sailing straight in Melbourne practice last year ?) Such a system could be implemented cheaply, but with a high potential to prevent nasty crashes.
Why on earth would you need this? You can feel a failure like a broken wing or a puncture, and mostly when something important catastrophically fails you don't get enough warning to react, so you are a passenger anyway. For a slow failure, like the diff overheating or something, the telemetry will will the pit wall, and the pit wall will tell the driver.
The reason they have to put visual warnings on comuter games is that you have no tactile feedback.
It's like saying that you need a visual warning to know that the wheel has fallen off your road car. Or you need a 'heath bar' to tell if you are losing a fight.