The future of Formula One Design

[DonXabi]

I read this morning that teams are now agreeing to ban the F-Duct in 2011 as they deem it falls outside the spirit of the law regarding controlling aerodynamics.

That got me thinking about where the future of F1 design lays........

In my time of watching this sport, traditionally it has been about making a car go quicker than another, the wizards in the drawing offices coming up with all sorts of wonderful technical ideas.....traction control, launch control, active-ride, KERS, DDD, wheel covers and now the F-Duct have or are to be shelved. OK KERS is slightly different as it was too expensive, but if teams can afford to run it then why not let them?

My point is that the days of the FIA setting a set of rules and letting Engineers battle it out to get the best and quickest car seem to have gone - we are in a position that everytime an Engineer comes up with a new and innovative idea, it is not long before the FIA or the other teams quickly agree to ban it.

IF the F-Duct was against the rules then surely the FIA would have stopped McLaren using it in the first place?

I fear that we are going to get to a point where all the cars are basically the same, heading to an Indycar-style situation, almost a one-make series. F1 should be about pushing the boundaries of technology and speed, about innovation.

Seems that all that is coming to an end?

[kazi]

Well new technology have been banned from time to time for decades in formula 1. It's needed to keep the sport alive. And just because it's banned once doesn't mean it will never come back. Slicks for example.

If FIA wouldn't have banned stuff then todays F1 cars would have:

1. Ground Effects
2. 1500hp+ Turbo engines or maybe turbine engines (Google Lotus 56)
3. AWD with all wheel steering.
4. 6-wheel cars
5. Active ride height
6. Stalling/flexing wings
7. etc. etc. etc.

All in all, the cars would most probably have to be driven with fighter jet g-force suits about now if FIA didn't ban stuff.

[zakfourie]

V12's!!!!!!

Tobacco!!!!!

[WS6TransAm01]

Well new technology have been banned from time to time for decades in formula 1. It's needed to keep the sport alive. And just because it's banned once doesn't mean it will never come back. Slicks for example.

If FIA wouldn't have banned stuff then todays F1 cars would have:

1. Ground Effects
2. 1500hp+ Turbo engines or maybe turbine engines (Google Lotus 56)
3. AWD with all wheel steering.
4. 6-wheel cars
5. Active ride height
6. Stalling/flexing wings
7. etc. etc. etc.

All in all, the cars would most probably have to be driven with fighter jet g-force suits about now if FIA didn't ban stuff.

And what would have been so terrible about that? They can do a lap of Spa in about 1:15.0 lol As long as safety is kept as paramount, I think the FIA should let the teams develop organically based on their budget and know-how, not this homogenized socialist bull poop.

Whaaaaa, This guy cant afford to be in F1 so that guy who can should not have the ability to spend as much and let the poorer guy play as well... its BS. F1 is about being the best, not being about watering down the gene pool with lesser talant just because they want to.

F1 should run on the principal of Darwinism, if you can't afford it, dont have the knowledge, you should not be in it. What the FIA does with their constant rule changes, budget caps, testing bans, engine freezes is trying to artificialy prevent natural selection. And it sucks... Its killing F1 in my eyes.

Give it a few years, and F1 will be a downhill derby... makes me want to

[Shadow]

What happens when only 1 team survives the endless spending and there is only 1 team on the grid? Will you be happy calling the end of F1 and declaring the final winner to the sole surviving team? Without some controls, the sport would eat itself until nothing is left.

[DonXabi]

And what would have been so terrible about that? They can do a lap of Spa in about 1:15.0 lol As long as safety is kept as paramount, I think the FIA should let the teams develop organically based on their budget and know-how, not this homogenized socialist bull poop.

Whaaaaa, This guy cant afford to be in F1 so that guy who can should not have the ability to spend as much and let the poorer guy play as well... its BS. F1 is about being the best, not being about watering down the gene pool with lesser talant just because they want to.(

Exactly...........F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport is SHOULD be about innovation and pushing the design envelop - as it is we are heading towards a glorified one-make series............

[CurdaNeta]

Well new technology have been banned from time to time for decades in formula 1. It's needed to keep the sport alive. And just because it's banned once doesn't mean it will never come back. Slicks for example.

If FIA wouldn't have banned stuff then todays F1 cars would have:

1. Ground Effects
2. 1500hp+ Turbo engines or maybe turbine engines (Google Lotus 56)
3. AWD with all wheel steering.
4. 6-wheel cars
5. Active ride height
6. Stalling/flexing wings
7. etc. etc. etc.

All in all, the cars would most probably have to be driven with fighter jet g-force suits about now if FIA didn't ban stuff.

Man! that would be great to see!! jeje

[Nova]

Yes, innovation lately equals something that will be deemed illegal in the future...
I liked the rules say between 98 and 2004...The cars looked good, we had more passing than we do now..
and there were some innovations on the cars... the cars lately appear to have so many negative rules now..and they dont
make for good racing....n thats all we need, kers again....talk about boring...

[Pauloda silva]

Them the rules!!! Play according to the rules, it’s up to the clever people to come up with that new idea (within the rules) to make the car go faster than your opponent’s. Brawn, in my opinion, got away with it last year coz the whole idea of changing the cars was to create overtaking and he came up with a brilliant idea but not in the "spirit of the game" so to speak. But it was a fairytale for the sport

[DonXabi]

Them the rules!!! Play according to the rules, it’s up to the clever people to come up with that new idea (within the rules) to make the car go faster than your opponent’s. Brawn, in my opinion, got away with it last year coz the whole idea of changing the cars was to create overtaking and he came up with a brilliant idea but not in the "spirit of the game" so to speak. But it was a fairytale for the sport

Your right, they are the rules - but what my issue is is that when a team come up with a new innovation (DDD or F-Duct for example) to make their car quicker, others then bleat about it because they didnt think of it or cant afford it and the FIA either ban it or the teams have a 'gentlemans agreement' not to use it.

As Martin Whitmarsh has said, the F-Duct is a very cost effective innovation to make the car quick - so why ban it now? It is either legal or it isnt, none of this 'it breaks the spririt of the rules' rubbish.

I appeal to the FIA to leave the rules alone - let the teams have more freedom and be able to express thier creativity in their designs (as long as safety is not compromised) and leave F1 at the forefront of motorsport technology before all the designers leave through the shear frustration and shackles of the law makers.