Zynerji wrote: ↑14 Jul 2020, 22:02
e30ernest wrote: ↑14 Jul 2020, 07:02
Zynerji wrote: ↑14 Jul 2020, 02:40
I doubt it, as strategy would mean much more. Having 2, 20 liter tanks in the car allows the teams to vary each load, as I expect it takes at least 90L to finish a race, it would mandate 2 stops.
I think it's a thing that would be great for F1.
The teams will all have a hierarchy of strategies that would all end up roughly the same. Back when refueling was allowed the strategies remained mostly the same across the teams during the race. This is because apart from the time gained/lost from fuel loads and tire selection, you also had to factor in track position. Most teams would not be willing to sacrifice track position even if it means going for a more conservative strategy.
You see this multiple times in past seasons too where refueling was no longer allowed. There were several races where Mercedes admitted that a 2 stop was theoretically faster according to their models but they went for a 1 stop because of track position for example (they had several of these in their post race debriefs in YouTube). I think allowing refueling again would end with this same issue.
Don't get me wrong, I was once in the "allow refuelling" camp before. But after some time I've come to the conclusion that maybe the gains in entertainment here wouldn't be as much as we would hope.
At least not enough to justify the extra danger to the pit crew and driver of having to handle highly flammable fuels in a high-pressure, high stakes environment.
That is exactly what I want to see. I get that most teams follow a model for refueling, but reactions to others would be where the real shake up would happen. Did they short fuel for a faster middle stint because their competition long fueled??
I'm telling ya, folks. My Formula series will be off the chain...
My prediction how refueling will go:
Mercedes will be near perfect, like clockwork, 95% of the time, predicable, boring, fast.
RedBull will gamble a lot, "win" the other 5% and be hailed as the perfect strategists and that refueling works
Ferrari's will run out of fuel on track