From: danjones@pyrps5.eng.pyramid.com (Dan Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport
Subject: Re: F1:Comments on fuel,tires and HP quotes...
Date: 15 Apr 92 05:20:09 GMT
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corporation, Mountain View

Alex Tsourinakis (altsourinaki@vaxsar.vassar.edu) writes:

>Lots of suggestions have been presented lately concerning changes in F1 racing,
>may be because of Williams-Renault's absolute domination so far.Most of them
>are not even in touch with reality.Unlike any other form of auto racing,F1 is
>designed to be the absolute technological cutting edge,and that's what it really
>is! During the past week,I've come across some dazling suggestions:Let's ban 
>reactive suspension,let's standardize F1 fuel,and so on.I really don't get it.
>I think it's pretty clear by now that F1 technology eventually filters down to 
>the cars that we drive every day.And if "eventually" is too long for anyone,
>fine,go buy a Ferrari or a Bugatti or an NSX and you'll see how close you'll
>get to F1-related technology.

OK, do you happen to have a few bucks I can borrow? :-) Anyway, then why ban 
skirts, other forms of ground effects, turbos, etc?  Sometimes its necessary
for safty, for costs, or just to keep things competitive.  F1 has never been
a 'Formula Libre' formula, the closest thing to that was the old CanAm.

>As a racing and a F1 fan,I'm very comfortable with the fact that among all the
>different kinds of auto racing,there is one,namely F1,where the rule of the
>extremes is dominant:extreme costs,risks,speeds,glory,pace of technological
>advance,danger etc.Actually,I
>was stunned that they knocked out qualifying tires from this year's races.
>What you get now is huge traffic jams out on the track,as each driver can
>practically stay out there for the whole hour and lap continuously in the hope
>of a faster lap!This is crazy,even safety wise.Before,Q-times were lower because
>of better grip and so on,BUT the drivers knew that each set of tires could last
>them for 2 laps,one for a warm-up and then a fast one.That was it.You skrewed
>up,and you were stuck with whatever lap time you had before.With
>Q-tires,strategy on the part of the driver and the team was at a premium,and
>qualifying sessions were transformed into miniature races.You want to make it
>interesting? Limit the number of Q-tires each team has.

Q-tires cost us Gilles Villenueve.  The problem is not the lack of Q-tires, but
rather the format of qualifying that F1 uses.  Several cars participate 
(sometimes) on Fridays for an hour, then all 30 remaining cars participate in
the rest of the sessions until Sunday.  Why not divide the group up like F3000
or IndyCars, or better yet, single car qualifying like NASCAR?  Sure the NASCAR
system is not perfect, the track conditions can change, but it wouldn't take
too much thinking to come up with a reasonable system.  How about if they would
qualify in the order of the previous event's qualifying order?  This would also 
eliminate the pre-qualiying bullshit.

>Now,you have the top teams/drivers qualifying in the fear of encountering a 
>bunch of slower cars
>that will slow them down.Not to mention of course,the number of cars on the
>track at any given moment of the qualifying session.When I went to Phoenix for
>last year's F1 opening event,qualifying was spectacular,safe for the drivers as
>very few cars were on the track at the same time,and it worked fine.We've
>already had the Senna-Mansell incident in Brazil,where Mansell was fortunatelly
>only bruised.What if he had not been able to race as a result of his encounter
>with Senna? In the Q-tires era,no cars of top contenders were out qualifying at
>the same time,as a result of the teams' different strategies.And the examples 
>are countless...

I find the NASCAR style of qualifying much more entertaining than the F1 style.

>The same,in my opinion,goes for F1 fuel.Why ban exotic mixtures,which are of
>course observing FISA rules,and give all teams the same fuel to burn? The
>advances in F1 fuel result in cleaner,better fuel for the rest of us,and for
>the billions of cars that pollute the atmosphere every day.Isn't that a big 
>enough contribution? F1 is and should continue to be an exciting lab,a window 
>to the technologies of tomorrow.

I don't have an opinion regarding fuel, but I would like to see a ban on some
of the suspension technologies.  How can most of the teams be expected to 
finance the R&D for this stuff?  Would you care to test such a system by the
Andrea Moda Formula?  I like the technology side too, but there should be a 
limit.

Dan Jones