Pirelli confirmed as F1 2011 tyre-supplier

Grim.

from crash.net

The FIA has confirmed that Italian manufacturer Pirelli will become the official F1 tyre-supplier from 2011 on a three-year deal - along with a whole host of other changes agreed by the governing body's World Motor Sport Council...
Following a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Geneva today (23 June), F1's governing body has officially confirmed that Pirelli will become the top flight's sole tyre-supplier from 2011 on a three-year contract, taking over from present incumbent Bridgestone.

Pirelli had been embroiled in a battle with French rival Michelin to clinch the deal, but all the latest signs pointed to the Italian marque being given the nod, with Michelin making increasingly pessimistic noises and the preference seemingly being to plump for the cheaper option – if a less recently-tested one, given that Pirelli has not been involved at the highest level since 1991, whereas Michelin only left F1 four years ago.

In other decisions taken by the WMSC, the 107 per cent qualifying rule is to be re-instated from next season – barring 'exceptional circumstances...which may include setting a suitable lap time in a free practice session' – and a number of other changes have also been approved.

Key amongst them are an immediate amendment to the safety car regulations in the wake of the Michael Schumacher/Fernando Alonso last lap controversy in Monaco, and the stipulation that a new 'maximum time' will be set for drivers to return to the pits at the end of sessions, to avoid any further incidents like that which earned McLaren-Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton a fine and a reprimand post-qualifying in Montreal last time out.

'With immediate effect, no car may overtake until it has passed the first safety car line for the first time when the safety car is returning to the pits,' a statement from the governing body reads. 'However, if the safety car is still deployed at the beginning of the last lap, or is deployed during the last lap, it will enter the pit-lane at the end of the lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking.

'With immediate effect, any car being driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or which is deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers, will be reported to the stewards. This will apply whether any such car is being driven on the track, the pit entry or the pit-lane.

'In order to ensure cars are not driven unnecessarily slowly on in-laps during qualifying or reconnaissance laps when the pit exit is opened for the race, drivers must stay below the maximum time set by the FIA between the safety car line after the pit exit and safety car line before the pit entry. The maximum time will be determined by the race director at each event prior to the first day of practice.'

On the technical side, F-ducts have been banned from 2011 whilst the proximity rear wing and the return of KERS have conversely been approved, with the confirmation that 'adjustable bodywork may be activated by the driver at any time prior to the start of the race and, for the sole purpose of improving overtaking opportunities during the race, after the driver has completed two laps.

'The driver may only activate the adjustable bodywork in the race when he has been notified via the control electronics that it is enabled. It will only be enabled if the driver is less than one second behind another at any of the predetermined positions around each circuit. The system will be disabled the first time the driver uses the brakes after the system has been activated.'

Finally, and ostensibly in response to scandals such as 'Spygate' and 'Singapore-gate', it is 'under consideration' that 'specific licences' might be required by 'members of staff of competitors entered in the FIA World Championships', whilst Renault reserve driver Ho-Pin Tung has been granted a 'four-race probationary super-licence'.

amacachi

Just came on to post that. :pac: Like some of the other changes, though getting rid of the f-duct in favour of something way more convoluted seems pointless to me. The increase in minimum weight can only be a good thing.

thegoth

amacachi wrote: »

Just came on to post that. :pac: Like some of the other changes, though getting rid of the f-duct in favour of something way more convoluted seems pointless to me. The increase in minimum weight can only be a good thing.

Dont agree.

I think a button on the steering wing that the driver presses when less than a second behind the car ahead in order to reduce drag and get an extra 15kph is much safer than having a driver use on hand to operate an F Duct while the other is used to take a 100 mph corner or even distract the driver by having to keep a leg against the side of the cockpit.

Pressing a button is easier..........for the driver

amacachi

thegoth wrote: »

Dont agree.

I think a button on the steering wing that the driver presses when less than a second behind the car ahead in order to reduce drag and get an extra 15kph is much safer than having a driver use on hand to operate an F Duct while the other is used to take a 100 mph corner or even distract the driver by having to keep a leg against the side of the cockpit.

Pressing a button is easier..........for the driver

It's not the pressing a button as such, but since most of them have developed an f-duct why not have that controlled by a button/electronically rather than the rear wing? Never mind the fact that the hand doesn't need to be used in an f-duct as shown by some teams.

recyclebin

The adjustable wing rule sounds like a load of ballox. It can only be used a certain times at certain positons on the track. It's over complicating things and just another stupid unneccasary rule change.

Why do they have to keep changing the rules? Can we not go a season without something being banned or rules being changed.

EvilMonkey

This is retarded:

'The driver may only activate the adjustable bodywork in the race when he has been notified via the control electronics that it is enabled. It will only be enabled if the driver is less than one second behind another at any of the predetermined positions around each circuit. The system will be disabled the first time the driver uses the brakes after the system has been activated.'

Everything else meh

May as well start watching wrestling or something

amacachi

EvilMonkey wrote: »

This is retarded:


Everything else meh

May as well start watching wrestling or something

Again, if they're going to do that why not just give a few hundred more revs? Far simpler to achieve like.

EvilMonkey

amacachi wrote: »

Again, if they're going to do that why not just give a few hundred more revs? Far simpler to achieve like.

Yeah it could simplely be a push to pass system, or since there going ahead with kers increase the power, leave the blown rear wing etc...

I don't like the idea of the car in front being a sitting duck on any circuit with long straights. Why shuld you be punished for being infront. I would prefere real overtaking.

I wouldnt mind an adjustable wing if the car infront can respond

amacachi

EvilMonkey wrote: »

Yeah it could simplely be a push to pass system, or since there going ahead with kers increase the power, leave the blown rear wing etc...

I don't like the idea of the car in front being a sitting duck on any circuit with long straights. Why shuld you be punished for being infront. I would prefere real overtaking.

I wouldnt mind an adjustable wing if the car infront can respond

Aye, at least with other push-to-pass and similar in other series there's a defence, whereas this is just trying to hard to manufacture overtaking, don't know why they don't just cut horsepower for each second someone gets further ahead.

Tau

There's no mention of double diffusers in all that - I thought they were going to be banned in 2011? Or have they not bothered mentioning it because they've already been banned?

Cookie_Monster

all the adjustable stuff seems pointless and more confusing than before

Good news on the weight front, take pressure off the drivers.

Cormac2791

Will they still be doing wrc??

amacachi

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Good news on the weight front, take pressure off the drivers.

Will it? I'd say the teams will just do what they always do and insist on having as much spare weight as possible. I think it's good news because it means longer breaking distances which should make overtaking more likely without just penalising the guy in front.

Cookie_Monster

amacachi wrote: »

Will it? I'd say the teams will just do what they always do and insist on having as much spare weight as possible. I think it's good news because it means longer breaking distances which should make overtaking more likely without just penalising the guy in front.

well its been covered a bit this year that many drivers have lost a lot of weight to met car targets. Kubica is notably affected because of his size. It would be better if there was a driver weight set separately, but at least drivers represent a central mass in the car so its not like the weight will be badly distributed. There will still be plenty of scope to move weight about.

Ghost Train

Hope the movable rear wing will help with overtaking but does sound overly complicated. And if it helps too much it might just lead to same two cars overtaking every lap.

frostie500

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I am glad that the 107% has been brought back, some of the backmarkers were causing havok. Not really their fault as their cars arent up to the task at the moment.

I'd be surprised if you'd see much change with this rule. I haven't had time to do any real number crunching but off the top of my head the only races where drivers would have failed to meet the 107 was Bahrain(both HRT's first time on track), Sepang (wet qualifying so not really representative), Spain and Canada(Chandhok had massive tech problems) .

Of them HRT wouldnt have raced in Bahrain because they were way off the pace but in Malaysia a few drivers would have missed out and been given a dispensation. In Spain Senna was off the pace and missed out by less then a tenth and in Canada Chandhok had tech issues.

The new teams are getting beaten by a stick(look at the comments from Ferrari after Canada) but in actual fact they are doing a pretty reasonable job. I like that this ruling has been brought back, just so we dont have situations like Bahrain with teams laughably unprepared but from that race on we've seen the new teams meet the standards expected of them so this rule won't have much of an affect on Virgin, Lotus and HRT.

It will mean that the 13th team will have to do an adequate job so this rule can only be a good thing for the future

amacachi

LIGHTNING wrote: »

All good points but from your figures, thats 4 rounds that issues have poped up and considering a recent championship has been won by a small margin it could cost somebody the title. This new wing rule is interesting I dont know how I feel about it yet.

Not trying to be funny, but eh, tough. Even with the stewards being allowed to waive the requirement for teams who had difficulties in qualifying how would that work? Suppose it was Ferrari and the stewards said they were within 107% in practice, I'd say (hopefully someone can check :P) that there's rarely been a practice session other than Bahrain this year when the new teams were outside the 107%, so should they be given the benefit of the doubt if top teams would be?

The only thing I don't like about the 107% is that it goes by the pole qualifier's time rather than the fastest time in the first part of qualifying when times are properly comparable.
EDIT: Actually it does go by Q1 so this rule gets my thumbs-up! :pac:

frostie500

Ok I've done some numbers on quali thus far to see what races would have been affected by the 107% rule.

In Bahrain both HRT's missed on the 107% time with Senna out by 0.605 and Chandhok out by 2.269 seconds.

The wet Malaysian qualifying would have elimated Di Grassi and the HRT's but all were within 107% of the fastest dry lap in quali and would have recieved a dispensation from the stewards. In the past when a session was hit by rain (France 99) practice times were used in the determining whether drivers were capable of lapping at a reasonable race pace, so there would have been no issue in Malaysia for these drivers.

In Spain Senna missed out by 0.011 seconds after technical problems in Q1, with him being so close to the 107 time and a best lap of the weekend comfortably within the 107 time(1m 16.152s was his best time, a full second better than 107%)

A similar situation in Montreal occured when Chandhok had mechanical issues and missed out in Q1. His practice time was 0.5 seconds better than 107%.

On average the new teams have comfortably been inside the 107% time at each race, with the exeption of HRT at Bahrain and in the rain of Malaysia. For Lotus their drivers have on average been nearly 2.5 seconds inside the 107% time at each race. Virgin Racing are 1.4 seconds inside(Glock 2.162, di Grassi 0.652 inside even with Malaysia when he was 6.25 outside due to the conditions) so its quite clear that Lotus and Virgin are well within the pace requirements.

HRT are clearly the slowest team on the grid but interestingly even with their lack of pace in Bahrain and the wet session in Malaysia Senna is within the 107% time on average for the season thus far. Chandhok is outside of the 107% time but that is due to the reliability problems in Canada.

All the teams are showing progress and are comfortably with the 107% time unless there are extradinary circumstances(rain, poor reliability, etc) so I cant see the rule affecting them. I was quite surprised by the results because I though HRT were way off the pace but they are clearly making progress and with Lotus chasing down some of the midfield such as Williams and Sauber at some races its clear that all are earning their stripes in F1. While its easy to agree with Luca di Montezemolo saying that the backmarkers (Kovalainen
and Chandhok) cost Alonso the chance of a win in Canada it's also quite clear that both drivers deserve their opportunity to race in F1 and that their teams are doing a satisfactory job at present

Ghost Train

Good to have a 107% rule, just so there's some set limit. Don't see it making much of a differance looking at Frosties times but its better to be comparing the new teams to 107% time than GP2 times :pac:

donspeekinglesh

Tau wrote: »

There's no mention of double diffusers in all that - I thought they were going to be banned in 2011? Or have they not bothered mentioning it because they've already been banned?

I think they just didn't bother mentioning it because it's already banned.