F1 Comments by Coulthard

[drunkenmaster]

You obviously don't remember Silverstone last year.

I've never understood the thinking behind the Tyrrell. It sort of worked... but the Brabham BT46B is what really worked. It sucked alright..

Kimi went off at the corner which is what led to the problem rejoining the track.

Bianchi went off in a corner, Senna went off in a corner. the majority of danger in formula one when thinking about one driver and the track itself, is from cornering. Cornering speed is where the majority of the danger lies, curbing it is sensible.

Define slow speeds. I'm pretty sure most MotoGP crashes are at a pretty high speed and they are usually catapulted into the air or smashed into the road.

I'm thinking that you haven't watched MotoGP before. You know that there isn't a sturdy carbon shell around a MotoGP bike, right? When they fall off at 'slow speed' they do fly across the gravel. Didn't Marquez come off at the end of the Mugello straight last year?


Also comparing MotoGP lap times with F1 laptimes is silly, don't do it.

Silly to compare laptimes. You do know I was responding to someone comparing MotoGP increasing in speed every year(marginally) and I was only pointing out how slow they were by comparison. Laptime is a measure of speed, a faster vehicle will complete a lap faster. MotoGP IS 30 seconds down a lap on F1 last year at Silverstone, this suggests MotoGP is significantly slower. WIth awesome acceleration and pretty high top speed... where do you think the biggest speed difference is?

I didn't say MotoGP wasn't dangerous, but sliding along gravel, even as painful as it is, is drastically, massively less dangerous than being on the bike and the bike and rider hitting a static object like a wall. Bianchi's injury, and Schumachers frankly, is from their skull stopping but their brain didn't. Same goes for almost all internal organs, car stops and the body is strapped in tight, the organs... not so much. They go bouncing around inside your rib cage and skull.

Breaking bones, fracturing your back... anyone would take that over slamming into a wall at 100-200kph that you can and will do in a F1 car. That is where you get concussions from massive deceleration, you get severe brain injuries and you are massively more likely to die from such an impact than hitting the floor. Again when a motorbike rider gets flipped then slides along the floor, there is relatively slow deceleration, a distance this happens over. It's not a lovely thing to experience, I didn't suggest it was. We were talking about F1 speeds being reduced for safety reasons, those reasons are to prevent deaths and they've worked.

Most of the biggest problems with F1 crashes in recent history are from hitting walls hard and massive deceleration. Cars flipped, landing on the top... driver fine, cars crashed into the back, side, front, cars coming over the back... drivers all fine. Driver hits wall and stops..... comparatively very high chance of severe life altering injury.

Gord, if you think a bike rider would prefer a carbon shell that kept them locked into a car, bouncing across gravel and hitting a wall at 200kph... then you simply don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Skeeter]

I would like to see changes but as is always the case changes cost money and the big teams will adapt the fastest.

You car must fit inside this box, have four exposed wheels and not use more than x litres in a race. It must use a reciprocating piston petrol powered engine, minimum cylinder count 4, maximum twelve. Turbo charging optional, hybrid mandatory. Go for it. But it would cost 100's of millions and wouldn't be sustainable.

You realise you just wrote, almost word for word, the current ACO LMP1-H regulations.

 

[The_Abyss]

I still can't get over the noddy car noise of the engines...
When you go back and watch the historic races, it's an absolutely awesome noise.
Now, the first lap is like a collection of 20 hairdryers going round.

Whatever happened to the FIA's Overtaking Workgroup?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the sound and noise of the 2015 cars. Nothing. They aren't as loud as the V8s, for sure. And of course they aren't as loud as the old V10s and V12s. But the noise is fine, much better than 2014.

In fact, it is better than fine. It is brilliant. You hear so much more yet there is a rich, distinctive engine note that's different to each manufacturer. From Jerez testing this year.

Hopefully it is apparent that the sounds above, recorded on an iPhone, are substantially different and better than those broadcast on a race weekend. The broadcast microphones for F1 are currently completely screwed.

Most people who are bitching about the sound of F1 cars in 2015 have never heard them live.

 

[deuse]

When they crash they generally don't shoot across gravel like a projectile, they come off their bikes in very very slow speed cornering.

I stopped reading after that load of tosh.

 

[andicole0]

I still can't get over the noddy car noise of the engines...
When you go back and watch the historic races, it's an absolutely awesome noise.
Now, the first lap is like a collection of 20 hairdryers going round.

Whatever happened to the FIA's Overtaking Workgroup?

Have you watched (because you can't hear) a Formula E race? Think yourself lucky you can still hear something.

You realise you just wrote, almost word for word, the current ACO LMP1-H regulations.

An LMP1 engine in an open wheel body - maybe from Audi ?? Mind you they are a few litres larger than the F1 unit.

Andi.

 

[Skeeter]

The Porsche is a 2L turbo V4 so is nearer the size of F1 engines.

For all their praise, Audi are actually the least radical and 'hybridy' of the WEC engines. They are in the lowest class of hybrid out of the 4 teams and the diesel engine is an evolution of the one they used pre-hybrid. The flywheel is super nerdy cool though .

 

[megakid]

Most people who are bitching about the sound of F1 cars in 2015 have never heard them live.

I would agree. I went to Abu Dhabi last year and I was pleasantly surprised with the sound after hearing such bad things. I wouldn't want to go back to the old engine notes now.

 

[Freakbro]

It's Formula 1, it's motor racing, if you're not driving at the limit throughout the race there is something fundamentaly wrong.

 

[Skeeter]

I would agree. I went to Abu Dhabi last year and I was pleasantly surprised with the sound after hearing such bad things. I wouldn't want to go back to the old engine notes now.

How did you find the GP2s? Having been to 2 races with the V6s I now just find the GP2 engine note to be harsh and annoying and uncomfortable.

It's Formula 1, it's motor racing, if you're not driving at the limit throughout the race there is something fundamentaly wrong.

The thing that is fundamentally wrong is peoples impression of what F1 'is'.

 

[leaskovski]

I stopped reading after that load of tosh.

He failed to mention some of the high sides, or the instant death when your race mate runs you over following a fall.

 

[this_is_gav]

It's Formula 1, it's motor racing, if you're not driving at the limit throughout the race there is something fundamentaly wrong.

F1 has always been about protecting something. The car, the motor, the driver, the fuel or the tyres, in pretty much that order, going back to the World Championship in 1950.

The only issue is that with all of the coverage now, the social media aspect and the team radio broadcasts we hear about everything. Everything. Don't kid yourself that it hasn't always been like this.