Do F1 engineers or FIA officials surf forums to get ideas?

[Tim.Wright]

Greg if you think someone working for Colin Chapman would even have had time to be surfing the internet, you are sadly mistaken. Work schedules were such that there was very little time for any life outside of doing your job.

If you read his post again, you will see that is exactly the point he was making.

[multisync]

I remember being in Gary Anderson's office many years ago when he was at Jordon and there was a pile of letters on his desk. Apparently he used to get loads and loads of them from F1 fans who sent in idea's and sketches how to make the car go faster. On one he'd written something about the idea not being with the regs so was dismissed

So it's reasonably clear he -at least- was willing to look at idea's from outside the organization

[bhall]

By many accounts, there are a lot of assholes in F1. So, I can't really imagine someone associated with F1 spending his/her free time around here dealing with more of the same.

[marcush.]

back in the age of mr Goodyear people were working in paralell on very similar ideas...only to be beaten to a patent by days or hours...
In these days it´s VERY unlikely to find out NEW things ....so it definetely makes sense to source information from anywhere you get get .
everyone -bar Newey -has a computer ,ipad,smartphone todays ....make up your own mind what people do when they have time off ...

The idea of a technical leader having no time to look around is jut utter nonsense.It´s quite the opposite.The good ones force themselves to at least spend one or half an hour per day of their working time to look into things new or only randomly relevantto their current project.

I agree that in my racing times I rarely had time to surf this forum ...simply because I had no mobile access back then and I may not have been the best organised of technical directors...
I think other internet sources are better suited to broaden your views and get new input but i would not say it´s completely useless ..but then I´m not working in formula 1 anyways.

[multisync]

They're smarter than us, guys. Get over yourselves.

'Smart' people don't ever overlook any sources of information or inspiration. F1T is, arguably, one of the finest free, openly available sources for F1 related technical information, including photos, diagrams, theories, ideas, speculation and much more. If an F1 team didn't look in here regularly, they would be limiting themselves in so many ways.

Hello to all the teams! Love what you do.

Don't fool yourself into thinking F1 engineers come here looking for ideas Cam. Active engineers don't have time to be surfing the web looking for some magic bullet on an internet forum. It's nice to think they do, but not quite a reality. If you're putting in 16-20 hour days, somehow I don't see it happening.

Nonsense, I have seen engineers surfing the web and reading various websites, chatting about nonsense, moaning about this and that etc etc.

Don't make out they are all worker drones 24/7 as it just isn't so....F1 isn't really that different to the rest of the world once you get past the so called glamour. In all honesty many have little or no interest in F1 past it being their livelyhood

[TheBaverianBasterd]

Greg if you think someone working for Colin Chapman would even have had time to be surfing the internet, you are sadly mistaken. Work schedules were such that there was very little time for any life outside of doing your job.

If you read his post again, you will see that is exactly the point he was making.

Tim, he was saying someone working for Chapman would have had time to surf the internet. It would never have happened, especially in the middle of a F1 season. Real engineers spend their time working during the race season, not surfing internet message boards. If any race engineer had time to be surfing an internet automotive forum constantly, they couldn't possibly be employed at this time. Even if their team was out of contention they would not be on a message board.

[multisync]

Greg if you think someone working for Colin Chapman would even have had time to be surfing the internet, you are sadly mistaken. Work schedules were such that there was very little time for any life outside of doing your job.

If you read his post again, you will see that is exactly the point he was making.

Tim, he was saying someone working for Chapman would have had time to surf the internet. It would never have happened, especially in the middle of a F1 season. Real engineers spend their time working during the race season, not surfing internet message boards. If any race engineer had time to be surfing an internet automotive forum constantly, they couldn't possibly be employed at this time. Even if their team was out of contention they would not be on a message board.

I have been in these places during the whole year and seen it with my own eyes and my experience doesn't match yours

[Cam]

[quote="TheBaverianBasterd"][quote="Cam"][quote="Red Schneider"]They're smarter than us, guys. Get over yourselves. [/quote]
'Smart' people don't ever overlook any sources of information or inspiration. F1T is, arguably, one of the finest free, openly available sources for F1 related technical information, including photos, diagrams, theories, ideas, speculation and much more. If an F1 team didn't look in here regularly, they would be limiting themselves in so many ways.

Hello to all the teams! Love what you do.[/quote]

Don't fool yourself into thinking F1 engineers come here looking for ideas Cam. Active engineers don't have time to be surfing the web looking for some magic bullet on an internet forum. It's nice to think they do, but not quite a reality. If you're putting in 16-20 hour days, somehow I don't see it happening. [/quote]
And I guess that's where creative people differ. Whether they actually do or not wont be proved until facts are shown, however my mind simply won't be closed that anyone could look in this forum for ideas and inspiration. Just because a few of you don't, doesn't mean you automatically write off thousands of engineers and associated personal that possibly could. It's that kind of narrow mindlessness I can't see occurring in a creative and idea driven environment.

[TheBaverianBasterd]

Yes, yes, and all of that.

[Lycoming]

As has been pointed out before, the lack of time is more acute than the lack of ideas. Not to say that it can't happen or hasn't happened, but browsing this forum with the express intent of searching for inspiration isn't really the best use of time, bearing in mind the crap you have to wade through on a so-called "technical" forum. If its even possible to gain some helpful inspiration on this forum, I can't imagine it being something that happens often enough to be worth the time. If they browse this forum, it will be because they enjoy it, not with the express intent of looking for ideas. I certainly can't imagine somebody spending hours at work doing that.

I'm not sure if F1 could be considered that much of an idea driven environment. More than anything else, they just sort of... mega ultra optimize.

[Cam]

Okay? So none of the developments on an f1 car are 'ideas'. Refinement comes after the idea.

[Paul]

What makes me a bit sceptical about abundance of ideas is the fact that teams actively copy other teams' solutions and cars tend to converge to one design. If there really were that many unexplored ideas, each car would be distinctively different from others and that difference would only grow in time. Or am I totally wrong in thinking that?

[Just_a_fan]

In all honesty many have little or no interest in F1 past it being their livelyhood

True enough. I know an ex-F1 engineer who told me once that he wasn't interested in the races just whether the car was quicker than it had been at the last race. Sure, the guys who go to the circuit and man a garage for each driver will have an interest, but many in the factory will just be interested in whether what they do makes the car quicker or not.

[multisync]

In all honesty many have little or no interest in F1 past it being their livelyhood

True enough. I know an ex-F1 engineer who told me once that he wasn't interested in the races just whether the car was quicker than it had been at the last race. Sure, the guys who go to the circuit and man a garage for each driver will have an interest, but many in the factory will just be interested in whether what they do makes the car quicker or not.

I happened to be in one of the teams HQ this morning. One I had never been in so was looking forward to it. Quiet as you would expect but not one person I spoke to mentioned India or the car or drivers: They all just got on with chatting about what they were making that day. After a while the novelty of working in F1 wears off and for most it becomes just a job..