Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Is the rule still there that within the next few years cars must enter and leave the pits under electrical/KERS power only or has that been scrapped?
 
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That would be fair enough if it is what he was getting at :)

DRS is just catch up mode on a arcade racing game. Annoying and not really deserving.

More flexibility over KERS usage and also Turbo when it is brought in along with a return to ground effect should see much closer racing. Or it would if drivers like Maldonado could avoid contact with other cars when side by side with them.
 
I love how everyone misses the point of DRS. With modern aerodynamics a following car gets to within a second of the one ahead then their own downforce is affected. DRS is the solution from F1 designers with massive brains, and a rather good one at that. It gives the following car something to balance out the disadvantage and promote overtaking.

KERS is still pointless. If they want to develop energy recovery systems then do it at Le Mans.
 
Yep.

DRS is rubbish, but its considerably less rubbish than the alternative of processional races with no overtaking. Its the lesser of 2 evils.

As for KERS, I like the idea of KERS powered anti lag systems on the 2014 spec turbo's.
 
MagicBoy said:
I love how everyone misses the point of DRS. With modern aerodynamics a following car gets to within a second of the one ahead then their own downforce is affected. DRS is the solution from F1 designers with massive brains, and a rather good one at that. It gives the following car something to balance out the disadvantage and promote overtaking..
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Now they get to within a second and the tyres fade twice as fast, so equally pointless. If you don't get passed the first time you come behind the driver you are catching you take so much life out your tyres you compromise your race anyway. I think DRS would work so much better with more durable tyres. This year you can see drivers are really concerned with that trailing gap as much as they were with aero.
 
dannyjo22 said:
Now they get to within a second and the tyres fade twice as fast, so equally pointless. If you don't get passed the first time you come behind the driver you are catching you take so much life out your tyres you compromise your race anyway. I think DRS would work so much better with more durable tyres. This year you can see drivers are really concerned with that trailing gap as much as they were with aero.
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You make it sound like extra tyre wear in the dirty air is a new thing or something.
 
Mr Men said:
You make it sound like extra tyre wear in the dirty air is a new thing or something.
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It isn't new, but it is exacerbated by the compounds Pirelli have to bring to the party now.

Time was you could back off for a few laps, get your tyre temperatures back under control, then close up and try to get by again. That option is no longer available - if you've got these tyres that hot then you've already destroyed them, they aren't going to come back to you if you cool them off.
 
Exactly, I think it's worse this year than last. Well it seems to be. If you cannot pass straight away you are better off not bothering and doing what Alonso and co seem to be doing. Back off and just make the tyres last an extra 5 laps for example.

For me it's created another scenario where it's better to wait rather than race each other hard. They have made great strides in the right direction with aero and lost it again with the tyres while following closely. So to get passed quickly at some circuits they need to keep the drs. Myself I'd rather they had a tyre war and ditched the drs.

Pirelli though claim no one wants that, so we are stuck for now with tyres that are shot after 3 laps following another car.
 
Kimi followed Lewis close enough in Hungary for more than 3 laps Jenson behind Senna for a lot of laps very close, same in Germany Seb and Jenson within the DRS window for more than 3 laps.
 
And we can all pick out instances like that from now until the events detailed in the Book Of Revelations, it doesn't change the fact that following another car closely will hurt your tyres, and that these Pirelli tyres are more likely to be hurt than those used in past years.

As Danny says, right now it seems that it's better to do as The Teflon Titan™ is doing - hang back, let everyone else race each other hard and the race could well come to you. Sometimes you'll end up 5th, other times you'll win it. Seems to be working for him right now.
 
As I said, it's always hurt tyres to follow in dirty air. Does not seem to be much different to me when you look closer at it. Alonso had no pace on the soft tyre in Hungary, he was not hanging back on purpose.
 
Yes it hasn't hurt to this extent. The only reason Kimi got close to Lewis was because he let him. He knew exactly where to use his kers and speed up to make sure he couldn't pass and then let his tyres take the pain following him. Alonso did exactly the same.

Having clean air allowed Alonso to win a race he had no right to, on dry pace. Having that track position even things up with the wear people take following him and another car.

I think we are about to see a lot more leaders happy to let the car behind hurt their tyres while extending the life of their own. There's far more value destroying the car behinds tyres than pushing out a 10 second gap.

It's far removed from say Silverstone 97 where Jacques followed Hakkinen pressurising him watching his rears starting to blister. Or Spain 99 where MS followed on JV's gearbox for near 30 laps trying to get passed. He could do that for about 5 laps now and then start to get swallowed up by the cars behind him :D

Andersons piece on how Alonso won the race by just conserving tyres and putting in the pace where needed to make sure he couldn't be passed tells the story.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18952176

Fernando Alonso's Ferrari was probably the third fastest car in the German Grand Prix yet he won the race from pole position.

It was another remarkable performance from Alonso. I've said many times that if you give him a chance he will take it, and that is what happened at Hockenheim.

Ferrari have a car for all seasons. Alonso put it on pole in the wet, for the second consecutive race, but unlike Silverstone two weeks ago this time he won the race in the dry as well.

He got a good start and controlled the race. He didn't have the quickest car by any means but he managed it well.

Where he needed to be quick - through the last couple of corners, and the first part of the lap before the DRS overtaking zone - he put the car on the limit a bit more to ensure he could not be passed, and everywhere else he looked after the car and tyres.

He did his fastest lap on the penultimate lap, so he clearly had something in reserve if he had really needed to buckle down to it.

He - and the car - also looked after their tyres better than Jenson Button in the McLaren, who ran out of grip towards the end of the race.

Button caught Alonso quite quickly after he had passed Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull at the second pit stops, but Button probably should have taken a bit more time over closing the gap to ensure he had some grip left in the closing laps.
 
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