Well Said Stefan Johansson

[Nem14]

Engineering Porn:

“F1 creates these monstrously complex vehicles and then gets way down the road before they realize that what they’ve done is causing huge problems.

“The multitude of complex settings and technical adjustments on the current cars’ steering wheels never should have been allowed. With the complexity of these cars, [the] engineers were telling the drivers on every straight what settings to have for the next corner – which is ridiculous, of course.

“So they then ban all kind of communication, which effectively means that currently you can’t even tell a driver what to do even if there’s a technical fault on the car."

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/johansson-urges-f1-to-move-away-from-engineering-porn-799479/

[Rollo]

“So they then ban all kind of communication, which effectively means that currently you can’t even tell a driver what to do even if there’s a technical fault on the car."


Am I the only one who thinks that that's a good idea?

Once upon a time there was only pit boards and the driver had to do things like monitor the health of the car themselves. As someone who drives a car on the streets, the on board telemetry that I have tells me that I need petrol. Why isn't that good enough for F1? Aren't these chaps supposed to be driving multi-million dolllarpound machines which should relay that sort of info to the driver?

[Jag_Warrior]

Although I realize that many of these systems in F1 *may* make their way to the street and give us more efficient drivetrains, emotionally, they do nothing for me. I mean, who watches racing to know that the cars are X% more efficient than they used to be? It's probably a generational thing. I like (love) performance cars. I like turbos (although a return to normally aspirated wouldn't hurt my feelings). And I don't really have anything against energy recovery systems. But the complexity of the street car that I got a couple of years ago takes away from the driving experience for me. I'm not a trained racer. But if I have to sit with a manual for 30 minutes in order to properly change some settings and put the car into a more optimal driving mode for certain conditions, that's kind of a turn off. OK, maybe that means that I'm lazy and can't remember things like I used to. But still...

I don't think F1 cars are easier to drive these days. I think they're probably harder to drive. But not physically... mentally. How the drivers manage to get all of those switches and dials set correctly in the midst of battle, I have no idea - especially now that they're not allowed to get any advice from the pits. I watched the GP2 Race 2 from Monaco last night. I enjoyed the sound and the spectacle more than when I watched the F1 race a couple of months ago. I'd rather see Le Mans prototypes be the test beds for slide rule technology. I'd rather see F1 be more about balls to the wall racing. I'd really like to see the driving and race craft abilities of the human racer be more important to the outcome of the race, and less to do with his ability to remember what Mode Strat 6 is and how to achieve that on his Playstation steering wheel.

[Nitrodaze]

Although I realize that many of these systems in F1 *may* make their way to the street and give us more efficient drivetrains, emotionally, they do nothing for me. I mean, who watches racing to know that the cars are X% more efficient than they used to be? It's probably a generational thing. I like (love) performance cars. I like turbos (although a return to normally aspirated wouldn't hurt my feelings). And I don't really have anything against energy recovery systems. But the complexity of the street car that I got a couple of years ago takes away from the driving experience for me. I'm not a trained racer. But if I have to sit with a manual for 30 minutes in order to properly change some settings and put the car into a more optimal driving mode for certain conditions, that's kind of a turn off. OK, maybe that means that I'm lazy and can't remember things like I used to. But still...

I don't think F1 cars are easier to drive these days. I think they're probably harder to drive. But not physically... mentally. How the drivers manage to get all of those switches and dials set correctly in the midst of battle, I have no idea - especially now that they're not allowed to get any advice from the pits. I watched the GP2 Race 2 from Monaco last night. I enjoyed the sound and the spectacle more than when I watched the F1 race a couple of months ago. I'd rather see Le Mans prototypes be the test beds for slide rule technology. I'd rather see F1 be more about balls to the wall racing. I'd really like to see the driving and race craft abilities of the human racer be more important to the outcome of the race, and less to do with his ability to remember what Mode Strat 6 is and how to achieve that on his Playstation steering wheel.

These modern drivers are from the playstation era. Tweaking comes natural to them as they do it for fun playing their console games anyway. But it is fair to say that driving at 200 MPH does not give one the mental scope to remember all the setting of a modern F1 car. It is ridiculous that the drivers are asked to deal with complex technical issues while actively competing with other drivers at break neck speeds without assistance when confronted with trick problems. I think some level of simplification would help. But the other problem of F1 is that it is over regulated. The situation is cat and mouse really. The engineers are constantly looking for loop holes to exploit for competitive edge over the opposition. And the FIA are constantly trying to police and limit the excesses of the teams. This face off has existed since the formative years of F1. That said, coaching drivers how to drive a race track, took matters too far. That had to be stopped. But it kind of looks like they threw the baby out with the bath water a bit, don't you think?