F1 to the wrong direction ?

[BlueBiturbo]

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Editorial

F1 to the wrong direction

If you remember, in 1999 I wrote an article "F1 and Road Car" to point out that the link between Formula One and road car technology was far weaker than car makers wanted us to believe. 4 years have gone, today this not only has no improvement, but it gets even worse.

What is the problem with our Formula One business? both FIA and the participating constructors seem miss the point in their recent debate. They argued whether F1 should be a "show" or a "sport". They discussed about cost reduction and rescue plans to the troubled teams. But they miss one important thing - F1 is pointing towards the wrong direction, a direction leading it to be far removed from the production car business. F1 technologies can no longer be applicable to road cars, because in the 21st century the first priority of our road car technologies is to bring super-low fuel consumption and clean emission or simply zero emission. We need to invest billions of dollars in development programs of hybrid, fuel-cell, hydrogen power, direct-injection, common-rail diesel, Valvetronic, CVT transmission and the like. We want to build a car drinking 1 litre of fuel per 100km. We don't need a 18,000rpm engine which destroys itself after 200km of running, which has no green technology at all, which drinks 1 litre of RON102 fuel per kilometer - even though the car weighs 450kg and carries 1 person only.

To align the development of road car and race car technology, F1 should consider introducing fuel consumption regulation, banning refill. Just like in the 80s it restricted the fuel tank size of turbocharged cars so that the drivers should always had fuel consumption in their mind. What about requiring the F1 cars to finish 200km distance with 50 litres of RON98 super unleaded fuel (from your regular gas station), an equivalent to 11.2mpg? and then tighten the tank size gradually to achieve higher efficiency every year?

What about introducing Euro IV emission regulations or ULEV standard to F1 racing?

If F1 is raced under a different environment to road cars, its technology will be difficult or even impossible to be transferred to road use. Just like the funny NASCAR - they can turn to just one direction!

Introducing environmental concern to racing is not necessarily boring. No, on the contrary to that, this will slow down the cars and make the racing more exciting. To road cars, F1 can help accelerating the development of green technology that eat no power. They can explore technologies in catalyst, electronics, combustion control, fuel system and engine breathing, helping our road cars to get more horsepower while meeting stricter government regulations. We will no longer afraid that newer emission regulations will kill our Skyline GT-R or RX-7, reducing power of our Evo or STi.

I have never doubted the power of Formula One R&D. Whenever FIA introduced a new regulation to slow down the cars, say, banning turbocharging and reducing engine capacity, F1 teams always found new solutions to make their cars faster again in just a couple of seasons. The question is whether we can make better use of such development power to help improving our road cars.

Last week FIA announced a reform in Formula One. The focus was on cost reduction. But one of the changes seems going to the right direction: from 2004, each engine must be able to complete one racing weekend, from practice, qualifying to racing. From 2005, this will extend to 2 races. Undoubtedly, F1 engine makers will have to make their engines stronger and more durable - just like our road cars.

That's not enough though. I hope to see more useful changes in the future.

Mark Wan
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What do you think guys?

I agree with Mark Wan : At least the F1 racecars should give benefit to roadcars.
The catalyst suggestion is definitely a yes. It'll be interstesting to watch road legal (at least in terms of pollution) engines in F1
I thought the DTM and BTCC cars have some sort of catalyst? And I've seen small airbags?

Cheers,
Taffy

[Finality]

I'd be happy to see a 1 car per race decision but not to happy about a car doing 2 events. There are talks about making it a 6 event car makes no sense whatsover in terms of competition. Teams with a good engine for that first race would easily win the next 6 races without any competition while the rest of the teams have to pretty much give up because the latest bit of tech didn't play out as well as they hoped. eg McLaren engine at the start of 2002.

Increase in mpg would be good but I dont think teams would opt for that at the moment. Main problem is tire wear and until they come out with a longer lasting high perform compound I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Dirim]

Renault Team manager already critisized the 6 race engine as it probably is even more expensive than to make a one race engine. So, where is the cost cutting? He also pointed out that the ban of electronic engine controls (such as launch control, traction control, etc.) were pointless as the FIA had no way of really finding out whether the teams were cheating. Remember, at the height of these bans, teams were doings tricks like cutting the engine power to achieve similar effects.

I personally see the F1 as a technology creator and showcase where pretty much everything should be allowed. There are so many other motor racing series where down to earth rules apply. So, let the F1 go wild! People can turn to other series'if they like. No matter what the FIA does, the teams find more silly ways to spend their money anyhow. For example, if there is a testing ban, they build multimillion dollar simulators and so on.

I also don't agree that these changes are necessary due to Ferrari's domination. I believe there will be fair competition among the top 3-4 teams for the next few years and the back markers were never in the the game fully in the past either. Their bankruptcy will not effect the sports as the FIA claims. It's the FIA who don't show the images of the back markers during a race anyway. So, who cares whether they are there or not? If it comes to that, top 3-4 teams can race 4 cars I think.

Thanks Taffy for bringing up the topic to get this off my chest!

[Finality]

Been away for a while? You mest Kevins thread

http://www.bmwm5.com/vbulletin/showt...399#post264399