The F1 Technical Developments Thread

Honestly, I don't understand why they need to slow things down. If you compare it to several other professions and racing series, there it is clear that the human body can take far more abuse they an F1 car can deal out. Any stunt, air race, or military Jet fighter deals with more then twice the Gforce that an F1 driver does (red bull air race regulate to 12 g's), and have to think on their toes a bunch more. To me, thats the kind of thing I want to see in F1. There are ways of coping with high g-forces, either through traning or technology.

I don't want the cars to turn into Le Mans cars, but I wouldn't mind if they added a canopy. Heck, while they are at it, bring back ground effect to its former glory and keep the big ole engines, and then make a g-suit mandatory attire. Sounds like fun to me. Haul ass around in a air conditioned cockpit at high g-forces and speeds.
 
Honestly, I don't understand why they need to slow things down. If you compare it to several other professions and racing series, there it is clear that the human body can take far more abuse they an F1 car can deal out. Any stunt, air race, or military Jet fighter deals with more then twice the Gforce that an F1 driver does (red bull air race regulate to 12 g's), and have to think on their toes a bunch more. To me, thats the kind of thing I want to see in F1. There are ways of coping with high g-forces, either through traning or technology.

A red bull air race lasts 2-3 minutes, and they only do a couple runs spaced out over a weekend. A formula driver experiences maybe 5gs for 5-20 seconds of a minute 20 second lap, and they do so for up to 2 hours. And if I'm not mistaken, the gforces during an redbull air-race a predominately in the vertical direction and not the lateral direction. The two events aren't really comparable imo. If a formula 1 driver were to experience 12gs in a high speed corner, the cornering speeds would have to be much higher which would be dangerous.

I don't want the cars to turn into Le Mans cars, but I wouldn't mind if they added a canopy. Heck, while they are at it, bring back ground effect to its former glory and keep the big ole engines, and then make a g-suit mandatory attire. Sounds like fun to me. Haul ass around in a air conditioned cockpit at high g-forces and speeds.

Ground effects are arguably quite dangerous because they are very sensitive to ride height adjustments, going over a small bump could be enough to lose a significant amount of suction and thus send the car off mid corner at very high speed. I think you misunderstand what a g-suit is for. A g-suit for fighter pilots is used in order to stop the blood pooling in their feet, a Formula 1 driver experiences lateral g-forces which means the blood isn't falling from their brains into their feet, so a g-suit is not needed. Red bull air race pilots don't use g-suits either because it reduces their feel of the controls, so even if Formula 1 drivers experienced the same forces, it's unlikely they would wear the suit so they also need the feel in the controls.
 
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Honestly, I don't understand why they need to slow things down. If you compare it to several other professions and racing series, there it is clear that the human body can take far more abuse they an F1 car can deal out. Any stunt, air race, or military Jet fighter deals with more then twice the Gforce that an F1 driver does (red bull air race regulate to 12 g's), and have to think on their toes a bunch more. To me, thats the kind of thing I want to see in F1. There are ways of coping with high g-forces, either through traning or technology.

Vertical G is easy, Lateral isn't.
 
Cold Fussion I read some where a while back that the proposed re-introduction of Ground effect for 2013 would be different to the one applied in F1 a while ago. The difference as I understand it is that there would be no sideskirts to prevent air escaping in the proposed 2013 regulations. So while the ground effect wouldn't be as effective as it would be were it to have sideskirts, it still would have quite a substantial result in increasing downforce. Now I don't wanna make a claim because I simply could not find any evidence of this. However I do believe and please correct me if I am wrong, but such a ground effect system with no sideskirts would not experience the problem you described of changing ride height due to bumps in the road.
 
Bodywork regulations are as unfathomable as ever without the aid of a 3D presentation, but the engine regulations are pretty clear. Mandatory 90-degree V angle on the engine, turbocompounding mandatory, 4 valves per cylinder, and by the sound of it, energy recovery systems can discharge their stored energy for a total of ~16 seconds/lap. No variable-vane turbochargers, probably why Audi dropped out.


Also, exhaust gas recirculation. :lol:


EDIT: Internal starters mandatory! And engine off in the pitlane.

5.18 Starting the engine :
It must be possible for the driver to start the engine at any time when seated normally at the
wheel and without any external assistance.
5.19 Electric mode :
The car must be run in electric mode (no ignition and no fuel supply to the engine) at all times
when being driven in the pit lane.

EDIT 2: Gearboxes with 8 mandatory forward ratios.
 
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I can't see how 8 speed gearboxes are required in a turbo car. Do they expect to see narrower powerbands than we do now?

No idea, but it might have something to do with the fact that the gear ratios are now constant over the whole season. So probably expect for Monaco usage of everything up to 5th or 6th, and 8th reserved for Monza probably. :lol:

And no, I don't see the sense in that either. Teams may re-nominalize gear ratios, but only once over the whole season.
 
Bodywork regulations are as unfathomable as ever without the aid of a 3D presentation, but the engine regulations are pretty clear. Mandatory 90-degree V angle on the engine, turbocompounding mandatory, 4 valves per cylinder, and by the sound of it, energy recovery systems can discharge their stored energy for a total of ~16 seconds/lap. No variable-vane turbochargers, probably why Audi dropped out.

does audi have petrol-variable vane-turbo's? i thought only porsche had those?
and why is it regulated how long they can use the electric energy? why not just limit the total energy stored, and let the teams decide for themselves if they prefer short boosts of power, or a constant additional push?

why all the limitations? give them carte blanche for the first season and see what ingenious systems they can come up with? then the FIA can start adding rules for the following years...
 
Gear ratios which have to be decided pre-season? This has to be the dumbest rule change in a while. While I understand it might bring some excitement if the teams end up with different ratios, but this is not the way to mix up the field. Besides, the most likely scenario is that the teams end up with very similar ratios and we'll end up with useless gears in the box like vikiradTG2007 mentioned. They should just stick with the 7-speed and changeable ratios.

I know the rule's been about for a while already but I still don't understand why the V angle has to be regulated. It's likely that everybody would end up with 90 degrees anyway, but it'd be good to know there's an option.

Onboard starter engines? Cool. Engines off in the pitlane? Don't get it.
 
does audi have petrol-variable vane-turbo's? i thought only porsche had those?
and why is it regulated how long they can use the electric energy? why not just limit the total energy stored, and let the teams decide for themselves if they prefer short boosts of power, or a constant additional push?

why all the limitations? give them carte blanche for the first season and see what ingenious systems they can come up with? then the FIA can start adding rules for the following years...

Audi and Porsche are now both in the VAG group anyway.

And the maximum output from the energy recovery system to the wheels is 120 kW, and there are two other figures on transfer rates per lap from and to the energy recovery system, 2 and 4 megajoules. If they keep the usage regulations as they are now, then that would mean that 2000/120 = somewhere in the region of 16 seconds of boost from the ERS.

I know the rule's been about for a while already but I still don't understand why the V angle has to be regulated. It's likely that everybody would end up with 90 degrees anyway, but it'd be good to know there's an option.

Onboard starter engines? Cool. Engines off in the pitlane? Don't get it.

Engines off in the pitlane = pretty much the same hybrid homologation test as the ACO imposed on LMP cars, which was travelling the length of the pitlane, at the pitlane speed limit, on electrical power only. As for the V6 angle... 90 degrees would throw it off balance, the balanced V6 configurations are at 60 and 120 degrees of V afaik.
 
Audi and Porsche are now both in the VAG group anyway.

yet they will battle each other in le mans...

if you keep thinking about it, audi hasn't anything to gain from F1 in the first place. they should stick to le mans and their diesels, let porsche take the leading role when it comes to petrol!
 
I can't see 2014 arriving and all of these rules still holding up. Teams will protest several.
 
Gear ratios which have to be decided pre-season? This has to be the dumbest rule change in a while.
Very cost effective though, no need to rebuild the gearbox before every race!

Cool. Engines off in the pitlane? Don't get it.
Leaving the pits not only have you got new tyres but you also have no KERS charge. Should make the outlap fun.
 
Very cost effective though, no need to rebuild the gearbox before every race!
I?m thinking a decent mechanic can probably do that within an hour or two. Even if you were to calculate his salary with something completely ridiculous like 1000 ?/hr, it would still be peanuts in F1 terms.
 
I?m thinking a decent mechanic can probably do that within an hour or two. Even if you were to calculate his salary with something completely ridiculous like 1000 ?/hr, it would still be peanuts in F1 terms.

True, but you have to have a set of replacement ratios for each gear, the time it takes to design and manufacture all of those ain't cheap.
 
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