F1 Blueprint – 5 ways to improve it
| October 24, 2011 | Posted by admin under Formula 1 |
5 Ways to improve F1in when Turbo engines return:
- Stop adjustements from steering wheel – This is distracting for the driver and also the onboard footage. When I watched the Senna movie, I was reminded how pure those cars were back in 1985, round steering wheels, no buttons!
- Change qualifying, to just Q1, and Q2, as at the moment, Q3 is an anti climax, because 2 or 3 of the slower cars in the top 10 don’t take part as they already know the best they can manage is 8th or 9th, and that uses up tyres which can be preserved for the race. Why not have a Q2 where 15 cars can take part and extend the session to 15 mins, but each driver can only do 2 timed laps ( in much the same was as when Senna and Piquet used to have 2 x 1 lap runs in qualifying.
- Bring back chicanes, just like there used to be at Woodcote at Silverstone, or Hockenheim. The 1st and 2nd chicanes at Monza still create great action, but sadly the new circuits don’t feature proper old fashioned narrow chicanes. One of my favourite tracks is Thruxton in the UK, and there’s a chicane at the last corner, which gives great final lap overtakes in club racing. We seem to have very slow 180 degree loops now, which are much less challenging for a driver. You just pick a braking point, turn in and keep the car turning in 2nd gear until it’s time to straighten and 100% throttle.
Ground Effect
I’d also look at bringing back ground effect underbodies to the cars, to allow greater cornering speeds which could allow smaller rear wings, maybe just 1 chord, like you see on indycars on the ovals. I’m not suggesting full on skirted sidepods like the Lotus 78, but more ground effect venturi undertrays could be looked at?
As for the safety issues of a car suddenly losing adhesion because it’s gone over a kerb and lost grip and the suction from the ground effect, surely this is no more dangerous than rear wings collapsing which does happen from time to time even now, plus we’re not talking about a situation where it’s all or nothing, plus if wider rear tyres are reintroduced, then more speed will be scrubbed off if a driver locks the brakes or spins off.
Personally I’d also love to see F1 cars looking like F1 cars, with big wide rear wheels and small front wheels, like the 1976/7 James Hunt era!
This would also increase the frontal area of the car and increase drag, which would be a nice way of keeping a lid on speeds. I agree that when the cars were made narrower this made the possibilities for overtaking a bit greater, especially on tighter circuits, but if the cars handled more like shopping trollies than Scalextric cars, surely there would be more mistakes made by drivers and provide extra overtaking opportunities as well?
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