Are you not entertained? Your F1 top changes

[jaybee]

Formula 1 has often been described as a circus but despite it's issues, the modern day formula 1 aims to put entertainment as a priority for fans, but in the famous words of The Gladiator I ask OCUK... are you not entertained?

Happier than Hamilton or DRS dragging you down?

What would you change if you could to make it more entertaining for you? Realistic stuff, pipe dreams, fixing annoyances... all welcome.

I'll throw one out there to get us started...


Sort out track limits. It's a whole topic in itself but I'd favour seeing old skool grass run offs making a come back to see instant physical reductions in speed when running wide. Will never happen though as they like safe tarmac to scrub speed.

 

[JRS]

Allow ground effect, combine with active suspension to keep cars on the ground. Remove DRS, since cars will actually be able to follow each other now. Ditch the 'two tyre compound' rule. Allow mixing tyre compounds on the car (you want soft tyres on the front and hard on the back? Go for it. Soft tyres on the right and hard on the left? No problem). Mandate a much shorter wheelbase (so they have to widen the bodywork to get everything in and punch a bigger hole in the air, also lower polar moment of inertia).

Points system - point for pole, point for fastest lap, point for leading a lap, point for leading the most laps. Rewards a dominant performance, also means someone can try an oddball strategy to nick an extra point somewhere. Go back to 10-6-4-3-2-1 points system.

Radio between car and pit one way only - car to pitlane. If the team want to give the driver a message they can use pitboards. Driver can radio them to tell them if he's got car issues or a puncture and is coming in.

 

[jonchaz]

I'd go the opposite way to JRS's suggestion as downforce is the enemy of good racing. Cornering in the turbulent wake of the car in front causes the following car to lose downforce and grip and slide off the track. So I would like to see the balance altered towards more mechanical and less aerodynamic grip as much as is practical, which might mean smaller wings, bigger tyres or wider cars. This would let following cars get closer to the car in front while cornering and so be more likely to be in a position to slipstream down the next straight.

Get rid of the turbo engines and go back to naturally aspirated V8/10/12s, lets have F1 engines that sound like F1 engines. Just keep the hybrid system to maintain the illusion of F1 having something to do with the development of more environmentally friendly road cars.

 

[JRS]

I'd go the opposite way to JRS's suggestion as downforce is the enemy of good racing. Cornering in the turbulent wake of the car in front causes the following car to lose downforce and grip and slide off the track.

Which is why I said ground effect.

Look at cars in the early '80s. Note how they often ran with little to no front wing to speak of (Williams FW07B springs to mind). The floor was doing a good enough job that a front wing was wholly unnecessary.

 

[englishpremier]

Ground effect for sure. The 79 Lotus produced over 1000kg of downforce from ground effect alone at 150mph, compared to less than 300kg from the wings, and that was quite a crude design. Can't imagine what modern cars would be creating.

Scrap the two compound rule, it's completely meaningless.

Allow more testing/running (plus an additional engine/gearbox to compensate) to teams lower down the grid.

I'd like to pit to driver coms reduced, drivers able to talk to each other would be hilarious though.

Everything that happens in the race or session should be dealt with within that session, especially in qualifying. Even if they have to delay the start of the next session by a minute or two whilst they double check and make up their minds.

And lets not always go to tracks in the middle of the summer. Lets get some rain and allow the cars teams to actually set the cars up for rain.

 

[Flibster]

Allow ground effect, combine with active suspension to keep cars on the ground. Remove DRS, since cars will actually be able to follow each other now. Ditch the 'two tyre compound' rule. Allow mixing tyre compounds on the car (you want soft tyres on the front and hard on the back? Go for it. Soft tyres on the right and hard on the left? No problem). Mandate a much shorter wheelbase (so they have to widen the bodywork to get everything in and punch a bigger hole in the air, also lower polar moment of inertia).

Points system - point for pole, point for fastest lap, point for leading a lap, point for leading the most laps. Rewards a dominant performance, also means someone can try an oddball strategy to nick an extra point somewhere. Go back to 10-6-4-3-2-1 points system.

Radio between car and pit one way only - car to pitlane. If the team want to give the driver a message they can use pitboards. Driver can radio them to tell them if he's got car issues or a puncture and is coming in.

Basically this.

Including allowing only a single element front and rear wing, no bargeboards, no winglets and so on. No cuts in the floor, floor allowed to have shape rather than just flat to facilitate more effective ground effect.

No in race refuelling though.

 

[kaiowas]

Not practical on cost grounds, but from an engineering and innovation perspective I’d like to see totally free engine regs. Maximum fuel allowance for the race to control power output and drive efficiency. Hybrid still allowed but all batteries or other energy stores to be in a discharged (or otherwise equalised) state when you go to the grid. Essentially give the teams a fixed amount of energy for the race and it’s up to them to determine how best to use it including as much energy recovery as they can manage. Reduce the energy allowance on a season by season basis to keep pushing development of efficient drivetrains.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Allow ground effect, combine with active suspension to keep cars on the ground. Remove DRS, since cars will actually be able to follow each other now. Ditch the 'two tyre compound' rule. Allow mixing tyre compounds on the car (you want soft tyres on the front and hard on the back? Go for it. Soft tyres on the right and hard on the left? No problem). Mandate a much shorter wheelbase (so they have to widen the bodywork to get everything in and punch a bigger hole in the air, also lower polar moment of inertia).

Points system - point for pole, point for fastest lap, point for leading a lap, point for leading the most laps. Rewards a dominant performance, also means someone can try an oddball strategy to nick an extra point somewhere. Go back to 10-6-4-3-2-1 points system.

Radio between car and pit one way only - car to pitlane. If the team want to give the driver a message they can use pitboards. Driver can radio them to tell them if he's got car issues or a puncture and is coming in.

So basically F1 in the early 90s?

 

[jonchaz]

I'd like to see a set of rules relating to internal cockpit dimensions that would force teams to build their cars to suit a broad range of driver sizes.

 

[JRS]

So basically F1 in the early 90s?

The best bits of the '80s and '90s technical regulations.

Hell, I'd like to see something akin to the concept behind the Lotus 88. But doubtless the ban on moveable aero devices would scotch it (though DRS has an exemption in that regard, so it could be done if TPTB wanted).

Not practical on cost grounds, but from an engineering and innovation perspective I’d like to see totally free engine regs. Maximum fuel allowance for the race to control power output and drive efficiency. Hybrid still allowed but all batteries or other energy stores to be in a discharged (or otherwise equalised) state when you go to the grid. Essentially give the teams a fixed amount of energy for the race and it’s up to them to determine how best to use it including as much energy recovery as they can manage. Reduce the energy allowance on a season by season basis to keep pushing development of efficient drivetrains.

Indeed. I'd much rather see an arms race based on engines than one based on "who's spotted the flaw in the diffuser regulations this year"

 

[MissChief]

The good news is that the regulations in 2022 will have some ground effect which, hopefully, will lead to closer racing as downforce drop off will be much reduced when following another car closely.

 

[englishpremier]

So basically F1 in the early 90s?

Ground affect was banned well before the 90s.

 

[cainer]

Would be fun if the teams just get given length, width and height dimensions and told they can do whatever they want as long as it's within those dimensions

 

[Quartz]

What I mainly want is more interesting tracks. There are tracks which are boring. So change them so they aren't boring.

Something else I would like to see are safe ways for damaged cars to quickly get back to the pits. It doesn't make for a fun race if a car gets damaged in the first few turns and has to limp all the way round the track to get to the pits, especially at somewhere like Spa; if they could turn off the racetrack and get back to the pits quickly they can get back into the race quickly. It's also a safety issue: that damaged car may be shedding rubber and carbon-fibre.

 

[Feek]

Regulations are too tight, there's no real innovation any more and apart from a few minor differences, all the cars look the same. There would be no chance of a fan car, or an active suspension car, or a six wheel car any more, it's just not possible to do anything out of the ordinary.

For as long as I can remember, people have complained that F1 is boring, that's it's a procession and nothing really has been done about that. Many things have been tried but nothing has ever succeeded apart from DRS which is a bit of a cop out. Dreadful circuits don't help.

Things I miss.

Engines that sound like real engines rather than hairdryers. The V10s were fantastic and listening to recordings of old F1 cars makes me smile.

The chance that a driver might run out of fuel on the final lap. Give them enough fuel to complete the race but not enough that they can run flat out for the entirety.

Drivers actually racing in the wet. Get full wet tyres on and allow them to race rather than start behind a safety car and don't put the safety car out when it rains.

It's supposed to be the pinnacle of motor racing.

 

[Stumble Bum]

I want the noisy engines back and sexy pit girls.

 

[MissChief]

Regulations are too tight, there's no real innovation any more and apart from a few minor differences, all the cars look the same. There would be no chance of a fan car, or an active suspension car, or a six wheel car any more, it's just not possible to do anything out of the ordinary.

For as long as I can remember, people have complained that F1 is boring, that's it's a procession and nothing really has been done about that. Many things have been tried but nothing has ever succeeded apart from DRS which is a bit of a cop out. Dreadful circuits don't help.

Things I miss.

Engines that sound like real engines rather than hairdryers. The V10s were fantastic and listening to recordings of old F1 cars makes me smile.

The chance that a driver might run out of fuel on the final lap. Give them enough fuel to complete the race but not enough that they can run flat out for the entirety.

Drivers actually racing in the wet. Get full wet tyres on and allow them to race rather than start behind a safety car and don't put the safety car out when it rains.

It's supposed to be the pinnacle of motor racing.

Regulations are tight due to cost and to keep competition close. If the regulations were more open you could end up with one of the major teams hitting on something that massively improves their performance meaning all the other teams need to spend millions to catch up giving the bigger teams a massive advantage as they can spend this money. Red bull mastered the engine blowing over the diffuser when not on the throttle and Brawn mastered the double diffuser meaning other teams had to spend big to redesign their car. The bigger teams always out develop the lower ones, having more open regulations means this happens even more reducing competition. A big turn off.

NA engines sounded great but weren’t in the interest of the manufacturers, the ones developing the engines and selling them to other teams. Renault said they’d leave if the NA engines continued. Honda said they had no interest in returning if the NA engines continued. That would have left Ferrari and Mercedes. Mercedes also said they’d prefer a move away from NA engines to a hybrid too. The NA engines were also at their zenith for development. Teams were routinely spending millions for an extra 5HP so little was the development available. I agree the engines sounded like crap in 2014 but the TV doesn’t do the current sound justice, they actually sound decent now. Not V10 decent it’s true, but way better than they used to.

The teams regularly ‘under fuel’ the car knowing that fuel is weight which is slower laps. They rely on being able to turn the engine mode down later in the race and the driver lifting and coasting into corners as well as a safety car or VSC to allow them to save fuel. The issue is the cars and teams are so good at estimating fuel usage down the millilitres that it’s extremely rare for a car to run out of fuel.

Racing in heavy rain is ok but if there’s too much standing water the cars float and fall off the track which isn’t fun. I agree they often keep the safety car out too long though, but safety car speeds the track looks Ok, at racing speed the spray is massive and drivers behind usually can’t see a thing.

 

[this_is_gav]

NA engines sounded great but weren’t in the interest of the manufacturers, the ones developing the engines and selling them to other teams. Renault said they’d leave if the NA engines continued. Honda said they had no interest in returning if the NA engines continued. That would have left Ferrari and Mercedes. Mercedes also said they’d prefer a move away from NA engines to a hybrid too. The NA engines were also at their zenith for development. Teams were routinely spending millions for an extra 5HP so little was the development available. I agree the engines sounded like crap in 2014 but the TV doesn’t do the current sound justice, they actually sound decent now. Not V10 decent it’s true, but way better than they used to.

I think the V8s sounded poor at best. They all sounded the same with little character and zero torque, just noise for the sake of noise. The V10s (and obviously other selected older engines) all sounded better, but I preferred the hybrids over the V8s from the off, and I've watched every F1 race for more than three decades. Bernie's attempt at distorting the sound from the trackside was the main problem.

The teams regularly ‘under fuel’ the car knowing that fuel is weight which is slower laps. They rely on being able to turn the engine mode down later in the race and the driver lifting and coasting into corners as well as a safety car or VSC to allow them to save fuel. The issue is the cars and teams are so good at estimating fuel usage down the millilitres that it’s extremely rare for a car to run out of fuel.

That was something from long before the hybrids too. It came to a head in 2010 in that rather (in)famous race in Istanbul, but it has been going on since the 80s and that teams were choosing to do it even while refuelling was allowed is telling - ie it was quicker to under-fuel a car over a stint (and indeed for several stints) than it was to give it a standard fuel load.

Racing in heavy rain is ok but if there’s too much standing water the cars float and fall off the track which isn’t fun. I agree they often keep the safety car out too long though, but safety car speeds the track looks Ok, at racing speed the spray is massive and drivers behind usually can’t see a thing.

As you said, the standing water isn't the issue. They could easily design tyres that get around that. The issue is that if there's that much water on the track, then that water requires lifting from the track to get grip, and lifting water off the track to any great degree means huge visibility issues, which are further extenuated by the diffuser and rear wing, meaning that at some point visibility issues overtake the grip issues in terms of safety.

It's a relative piece of cake to design a wet tyre and you could do so for several centimetres of water if you wanted to - the problem is the better the tyre the more water is thrown up into the air.

 

[Mr Jack]

The cars are too big. Too long and too wide. Make them smaller and passing is easier.

Most of the 2022 rules look good, so I hope they work out.

No more than 18 races a season, with half the tracks on a rotating calendar rather than the same tracks year after year.

A midseason test so they can catch up with the lead cars.

Get rid of the rules carrying tyres from Quali to Race, they're silly and just limit strategy. Speaking of Quali: import the system from Formula E, it works well and has done balancing effect between teams.

Bring back refueling

 

[Matt72033]

Scrap Friday practice

1 hour free practice Saturday morning followed by quali and race on Sunday.

we don’t need 4 hours of them learning exactly how each tyre compound works.

strap on a set of hards in the middle of the race and they don’t work for you, tough ****.

the softs you started on only lasted 8 laps instead of the 20 you hoped for, unlucky.