FIAs 9-point plan.. (F1 future)

Kali

wow just got this from autosport.com:

The nine points are:
1 Driver swapping drivers race every car on the grid during the course of a season.
2 Aggregated qualifying four half-hour sessions on Fridays and Saturdays at grands prix.
3 Bespoke tyres rubber suppliers can produce different tyres for each of their teams
4 Success ballast a penalty of 1kg in ballast weight per point scored during 2003.
5 Testing restrictions - limit testing during the 2003 season to just 12 days per car.
6 Aerodynamic freeze from 2003 only two sets of bodywork can be homologated at the start of the season.
7 Long-life engines one engine per weekend in 2003, one engine per four races in 2004, and one engine per eight in 2005.
8 Long-life gearbox gearbox assemblies to have requiered life for a number of races.
9 Standardised parts all teams would have to use standardised electronics, ECUs, brakes and fixed ballast.

my god thats a lot of changes...
Most interesting by far is #1.. would lead to a huge increase in interest in every race in the calender and additional tv coverage for lesser manufacturers throughout the year.. personally I would hate to see this introduced (it virtually eliminates driver-engineer interaction, which is a big part of modern F1), but at the same time it would be amazing to watch.

Also I don't agree with standardised parts (9), that would simply lead to (imo) a stagnation in development in F1 (no longer would you see a new Ferrari roadcar with F1-derived parts)

Nor does testing restrictions work (top teams will just use a spare or mock-test car)... as happens in Formula Renault or British F3.

Aggregated qualifying is a good idea, gets rid of the idea of qualifying engines (can't see them lasting 4 sessions)... the only reason iirc they scrapped the original Fri qualifying was down to TV coverage (they'd get more for a single sat. session).

I can't see long-life engines working either (what happens with a legitimate failure? tough ****?).. could lead to drivers simply revving the nuts off the engine and destroying it as they pass the finish line

full details (was too long to post) at:
http://www.autosport.com/featuresitem.asp?id=20923&s=5

DiscoStu

The only one of those proposals that will do anything to make the sport interesting again is the ballast. remember back in 98-99 when the oreca vipers in gt racing walked away with a victory in every race of the season. the following season there was a ballast penaly fo r each sucessive victory which really opend the field to the other teams. the rest of them are impracticle and downright stupid(driver switching?) and will only serve to hurt f1 even more.

what would make more sense would be more aerodynamic retardation and the reintroduction of slick tyres. the grip and speed gained in corners will open up the possibility of overtaking again plus the overall reducation of top speed with compensate for any possible safety factors brough about from the slicks being brought back.

chernobyl

I like the team swap idea and this is what i said on the F1gallery, so i hope this is how they implement it:

here

I like the idea, infact i truely love it but i can never ever see its introduction as F1 is far too conservative for this.


If it were introduced this is how i would like to see it go down:

Take Schumacher:
The rule stipulates he must race at least once in every car but i would say this:

10 teams, 17 races.

Schumacher is hired and paid by Ferrari to race in 8 races which he selects pre season, all points he collects are given to Ferrari towards their constructors championship and he also collects those points for his own WDC.

Schumacher also pre-season would have selected which races he will jump ship and which particular team he will race with at that event.

For the 9 races drivers are "freelance" they are paid by the FIA in relation to how they qualify and how the race but who they race for is a magor decider in the cash slice.

If Eddie races with Ferrari in Silverstone and wins he gets a certain financial reward but in that same race Schumacher in the Minardi, qualified inside the top 10 and finished in the points so he gets the biggest slice because of the relative preformance he put in.

Any points Schumacher collects from racing in rival teams, he keeps but they also get them for the CChampionship.

The system would be difficult to implement but i think its a facinating idea and although when i read it in college in the morning and instantly said "fuking idiots", i ended up thinking all day about how it would work and i now would dream of the system.

Schumacher in a Minardi would probably retire but to see what Schumacher could do in qualifying with the slow Minardi if he was pushing for WDC .....

Kali

Aside point: don't F1 cars already have ballast/extra-weight anyway to bring them up to a minimum weight limit?

I honestly can't see the points-based ballast working in F1 as it stands at the moment... the differences between the top team's engines and aero packages to the lesser teams are so vast as to make the addition of extra weight next to pointless... then again in the case of ferrari to their nearest rivals an extra 40kg would be a hella lot of weight.

Again though if it were introduced I'd prefer the current TOCA 'success ballast' method (top six finishers incur graded weights).. but it can be taken off if a non-top six finish occurs in followup races... as above points based ballast is ridiculous, an extra 100kg in an F1 car (schumachers ferrari) is getting to the dangerous stage.

jonno

The FIA are saying they want to bring the spirit back into F1. IMO I dont think taking away the notion of a team sport will work. It's ridiculous and doesn't make sense.

Maybe the 'ballast' idea might work if it was run like Kali said - on 'success ballast'.

I think they should get rid of traction control and automatic gearboxes. Thats the main reason why F1 has lost it's spirit. These introductions meant that the teams with the highest budgets would run away with it because they can obviously afford more expensive electronic systems. Oh yeah and bring full slick tyres back in. It would definately make it better.