Formula 1 in 2015

In all seriousness, I am okay with refuelling but surely it will come with redesigned fuel rigs and much tighter safety regulations to try and minimise incidents.

Many want a louder product - no surprise therefore on the higher fuel flow rates. And I like the teams being able to choose compounds, along with wider tyres and lighter cars. Maybe it's just me.
 
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In all seriousness, I am okay with refuelling but surely it will come with redesigned fuel rigs and much tighter safety regulations to try and minimise incidents.

Many want a louder product - no surprise therefore on the higher fuel flow rates. And I like the teams being able to choose compounds, along with wider tyres and lighter cars. Maybe it's just me.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
 
Refuelling and higher fuel flow rates are constructive, are they?

Alrighty then...
By constructive I mean they actually agreed in something besides the date of the next meeting. A rarity in Formula One.
 

Simple Jack

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I was having a look at the LMP1 regulations and I saw this:
Engine is free except following restrictions:

  • Only Petrol or Diesel 4 stroke engines with reciprocating pistons are permitted.
  • Engine cubic capacity is free for "LM" P1-Hybrid cars
  • Engine cubic capacity must not exceed 5500 cm3 for "LM" P1 cars.
Now I knew the engine regs were pretty relaxed but jeez I didn't know how much.

The only rule is basically that it has to be a 'normal' car engine.

F1 is a joke.
 
I was having a look at the LMP1 regulations and I saw this:
Engine is free except following restrictions:

  • Only Petrol or Diesel 4 stroke engines with reciprocating pistons are permitted.
  • Engine cubic capacity is free for "LM" P1-Hybrid cars
  • Engine cubic capacity must not exceed 5500 cm3 for "LM" P1 cars.
Now I knew the engine regs were pretty relaxed but jeez I didn't know how much.

The only rule is basically that it has to be a 'normal' car engine.

F1 is a joke.

LMP1 is controlled by an energy formula, rather than by regulating the engine. It's a very convenient way to get the manufacturers to focus on engine efficiency rather than outright power. That being said things like maximum boost etc are controlled.

There's rumours of Audi coming into Formula 1 and everything they have learnt in LMP1 will be invaluable if they intend building an F1 engine. Diesel isn't allowed in F1 but apart from fuel type, the rest is similar.
 

Simple Jack

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LMP1 is controlled by an energy formula, rather than by regulating the engine. It's a very convenient way to get the manufacturers to focus on engine efficiency rather than outright power. That being said things like maximum boost etc are controlled.
Which is what F1 is trying to do with the ERS/turbocharged V6's except going about it in an arse-about way. It's an illustration of the point of my longer post a couple of pages back. The LMP1 approach is simpler, cheaper, more effective and achieves the same goal.
 

DamoESP

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So, HAM to stay at Merc for another 3 years after he negotiated his own deal apparently worth $65million AUD a year. Turns out its nearly $3million a race! That's stupid amounts of money :O Wish I could paid even 100th of that a few hours work!

Lewis Hamilton will stay at Mercedes until at least the end of the 2018 season after signing a new contract which is set to make him Britain's best-paid sportsman. The new deal, finally completed after months of wrangling, will extend the world champion’s stay at Mercedes for another three seasons and is thought to be worth in the region of £100m in total.

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/9847182/hamilton-contract-prep

Had a laugh at Hamilton's quote from another article I read:

Hamilton did joke that he “earned his 10 per cent” by negotiating for himself, after months of re-reading the 80 pages of legalese. He was even congratulated by team-mate Nico Rosberg, with whom he has had a long-standing feud. “I congratulated Lewis because it is great for him to sign a new contract,” said the German. “We have a mutual relationship and it is working. We are really pushing each other to higher levels all the time and it is good to know now what the future is.”
 

ricardogp

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It does sound ridiculous, but I would be fascinated to read about the economics of these deals. Whoever is paying this kind of money must be making money themselves. Deals like this are business driven, not talent driven.
 
So, HAM to stay at Merc for another 3 years after he negotiated his own deal apparently worth $65million AUD a year. Turns out its nearly $3million a race! That's stupid amounts of money :O Wish I could paid even 100th of that a few hours work!



http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/9847182/hamilton-contract-prep

Had a laugh at Hamilton's quote from another article I read:
The thing is it isn't really a couple of hours work. That is massively understating it. Still megabucks, but he would only be paid it if they are making that sort of coin back from employing him.
 

DamoESP

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The thing is it isn't really a couple of hours work. That is massively understating it. Still megabucks, but he would only be paid it if they are making that sort of coin back from employing him.

haha yeah I know, I may have been over simplifying it just a little bit... :p
 
Renault make a statement of the obvious...

Renault expecting two penalties per car in 2015

Every engine manufacturer in F1 has been busy preparing upgrades for its 2015 'power units'.
Ferrari and Honda have traded in the very first in-season performance 'tokens' in the days between Monaco and Canada, while Mercedes is taking a reliability upgrade to Montreal.
And the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, closely following the early career of local rookie Max Verstappen, said Red Bull and Toro Rosso supplier Renault is also heading to Canada with a reliability update.
The French marque has struggled not only with performance so far in 2015, but also reliability, with all Renault-powered cars in the field burning quickly through their allocation of four engines for the entire season.
"Unfortunately we are doing damage control from a sporting point of view now," Renault's Cyril Abiteboul admitted.
"Therefore, we should think about using the fifth engine already. Not because we cannot use the fourth, but also so we can begin using the fifth."
A main problem so far has been in the basic piston design, and so the current upgrade is believed to have addressed that area.
Fitting the fifth engine, of course, attracts ten-position grid penalties, but Abiteboul played down the impact.
"I know there is a lot of frustration," the Frenchman admitted, "but ten place penalties in tracks where you can overtake and a car is out of place, you can quite easily make up during the race.
"So I'm sorry for my customer teams but I don't think it's a big game-changer for the championship," he added.
And the very next engine upgrade in the pipeline for Renault, it is believed, involves the spending of 'tokens' for performance.
Sixth engines, then, will attract even more grid penalties.
"It will happen," Abiteboul confirmed, "maybe twice per car unfortunately."

I'm pretty sure the reliability update that is being discussed above does not count towards engine use criteria, but as everyone knows each engine only has a certain number of kilometres in it and will eventually have to be replaced.

If it is only the engine (ICE) that is being replaced the team takes a 10 place grid penalty for the 5th and 6th engine. If it is other components that are also being replaced they each attract a 5 place grid penalty.

Christian Horner has previously stated that taking the 5th and 6th engines should be a tactical decision and be taken at tracks where it is easy to overtake - as stated again by Abiteboul above.

The penalties imposed for using additional elements work thus: the first time a fifth of any of the elements is used, a ten-place grid penalty will be imposed. A five-place grid penalty will then be imposed the first time a fifth of any of the remaining elements is used. Likewise, the first time a sixth of any of the elements is used, a ten-place grid penalty will be imposed, and so on.
 

OzBomber

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From 2010 until the end of last season I could count on my two hands the number of races I'd missed live. This season I've seen two live races. The Aus Grand Prix which I attended and the Monaco GP. This season has just been such a bore and it's clear there needs to be changes which you can see by the dropoff in viewers all over the world, most noticeably in Europe.
 
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They certainly need to do something about it, but you can't make rules against Mercedes success.
Ferrari have shown glimpses of being able to compete with Mercedes over a long stint, would be more ideal if you had 3-4 teams on equal footing.
Its even more noticeable this year because of the decline of Williams and Red Bull. Mercedes are that far in front, it becomes comical when they start talking about "managing the car" and you aren't even 30% into the race
 
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They certainly need to do something about it, but you can't make rules against Mercedes success.
Ferrari have shown glimpses of being able to compete with Mercedes over a long stint,
Scrap the current tyre rules. Have a single, hard compound, where it's ideal to use over a long stint, or even the whole race?


would be more ideal if you had 3-4 teams on equal footing.
Its even more noticeable this year because of the decline of Williams and Red Bull. Mercedes are that far in front, it becomes comical when they start talking about "managing the car" and you aren't even 30% into the race
Saving the car and money?

Pretty boring race this morning
Thanks for letting us know :thumbsu:
 

OzBomber

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They certainly need to do something about it, but you can't make rules against Mercedes success.
Ferrari have shown glimpses of being able to compete with Mercedes over a long stint, would be more ideal if you had 3-4 teams on equal footing.
Its even more noticeable this year because of the decline of Williams and Red Bull. Mercedes are that far in front, it becomes comical when they start talking about "managing the car" and you aren't even 30% into the race
Didnt they change the rules to stop Red Bull? How many times did they bring in new rules to try and even up the field.

There's no interest in the midfield either ad the cars are just so poor compared to 4-5 years ago. Instead you end up with drivers driving around with barely any company.
 
The problem with Formula 1 at the moment is that there is no easy fix to make the racing closer.

Mercedes are currently going through a period of domination at the moment (and there's nothing wrong with that), and Ferrari look like they're on the rise.

The problem is that Renault and Honda have no strong teams (at the moment), Williams look like they've taken a step back, and there's no money to allow the midfield teams to move up the grid.

The biggest problem is funding of the teams, and I don't see a fix to that issue in the foreseeable future.
 

Javelin

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The biggest problem is funding of the teams, and I don't see a fix to that issue in the foreseeable future.
The quickest solution for this (although it won't resolve the problem entirely) is to distribute funds among the teams more evenly (or even weighted in favour of those further down the grid). It's well known that Ferrari get a large piece of the pie, simply because "they've been there longer". :rolleyes: Then the Constructor's Champions get a large share and so on down the pecking order. If you were really serious about making the competition more even, distribute a larger percentage of funds to those teams that actually need it. If Manor didn't have to spend so much time calculating how to save every cent, they might be able to increase performance enough to challenge the next team or two in front of them.
 
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