Do you want Refueling back?

[GitanesBlondes]

But with solid tires, one stop sounds fine. I never found F1 boring in those days, it was pure racing back then.

I guess it depends on the many interpretation of "pure" racing. Personally I rate strategy and mechanical performance alongside diver skill.

Personally I recall everlasting tyres being processional after the first lap. Then we'd have a few frantic fast laps at the pitstop, then a procession to the end.

I think my optimum is a tyre/fuel combination that allows both 2 and 3 stop strategies to be competitive. That's when the team strategists have a more significant role, plus the driver on the 3 stop strategy is required to gain something like 20-30 seconds to make it work as well as overtake people on track. Meanwhile the slower driver is required to deliver metronomic laptimes to make the plan work, and to then deliver 4 or 5 super fast laptimes before the pitstop.

The result is that you never see rivals side by side. So people who prefer wheel to wheel combat are disappointed.

So to conclude I'd rather see refuelling, but for strategy reasons not pure speed.

Not pointing you out specifically, but the main issue with the "need" or "desire" to see wheel-to-wheel action all the time is that it is what has given us this overtaking silliness, as well as the ever-narrowing restrictions in car design.

You're not going to get a great deal of wheel-to-wheel action unless one car is somewhat faster than the other, and is not hampered greatly by dirty air. It's a trade-off at the end of the day, and processional racing is something F1/grand prix racing has always been known for. But it's what made overtaking that much sweeter to see.

Whether or not the strategy aspect needs to be increased or decreased in the sport is an altogether different story, that's quite subjective. More than anything if refueling is never seen again, the tires need to degrade much slower without penalizing on-the-limit driving for doing such things. 2014 would be fascinating with tires that do not degrade at the rate they do now, and with refueling.

[Richard]

Not pointing you out specifically.

My post was more offering up another perspective to the argument that pure racing is all about speed. I'd rather a formula that was competitive on multiple levels, not just speed.

I also agree with all your points. There are multiple factors at play all of which have validity.

So back to the OP, refuelling will bring in another variable which will make race strategy more complex, and that'll make things more interesting to some people. To be honest the variety that comes with newness would be momentary because the teams would quickly converge to the optimum.

[GitanesBlondes]

I agree. Refueling like many things is great in theory, but would quickly become uninteresting.

In my opinion, the only way refueling could be interesting is if all the restrictions were taken off the engines from fuel flow rate, to boost pressure, to development, and restrictions on engines used per season. Maybe have something where teams have to lock-in whatever power levels they want before qualifying starts. Do you want more power, but the potential to burn through fuel at a faster rate so more pitstops are required? Or do you want to go less, and decrease the need for pitstops?

[SectorOne]

I doubt you would see much of an improvement in fuel usage just by loading all of it in the car from the start.
I fail to see why F1 should care about reducing it´s fuel consumption on track when one of their airplanes on a two way trip uses more then the whole F1 circus over a full year including testing.

What do you consider 'proper' driving of an F1 car?

Fumes to half a tank of fuel in general.
Running around with 150kg´s of fuel is like watching a sumo wrestler doing ballet.

When they're on fumes they're not really driving "proper" since then you're in limp home mode; turn the engine down, lift and coast, short shift. I know what you mean by fumes... but that's what qualifying is for.

Half a tank and down then. Was just to show in what spectrum i wanted fuel in for the races.

[Pingguest]

As Formula 1 is the ultimate drivers' championship, pit stops is against the spirit of the series. Drivers and not their teams should take strategic and tactical decisions. In the past, Niki Lauda and Alain Prost lacked pure pace, but won race because of their talent to figure out the best race strategy and adapt to how races went. Hence, both refuelling and tyre changes should be banned.

[Lycoming]

As Formula 1 is the ultimate drivers' championship...

If that were true we wouldn't have a constructors championship.

[SectorOne]

As Formula 1 is the ultimate drivers' championship...

If that were true we wouldn't have a constructors championship.

It is true. But we have two championships.
So it´s equally the ultimate constructor´s championship as well.

It however started out as the ultimate driver´s championship because they did not have a contstructor´s title for the first 7 years or something like that.

[Richard]

ANiki Lauda and Alain Prost lacked pure pace, but won race because of their talent to figure out the best race strategy and adapt to how races went.

Adapting strategy only works if you have pit stops to strategise.

Strategy and pitstops are as old as F1 and fundamental to its character:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957_German_Grand_Prix
Also read about Fangio's 1956 WDC - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Manue ... _successes

[zeph]

Pie in the sky.

They have reduced max fuel load to 100 kg for 2014, why on Earth would they negate the targeted increase in efficiency by allowing refueling?

[Duke]

I voted no, although I did enjoy refuelling in the past. They need a set starting amount of fuel, so they can race at full speed for 99% of the race rather than what we have now. The FIA could then reduce this amount slowly each season as efficiency increases.

[bcoxa]

why not recharging then, allow for additional charging of KERs battery during pit stops?

[Pingguest]

ANiki Lauda and Alain Prost lacked pure pace, but won race because of their talent to figure out the best race strategy and adapt to how races went.

Adapting strategy only works if you have pit stops to strategise.

No, drivers will have to figure out when to push and when to slow down in order to conserve fuel and tyres.

[Richard]

In which case your ref to Lauda and Prost isn't valid because they did use pitstops.

[Pingguest]

In which case your ref to Lauda and Prost isn't valid because they did use pitstops.

Lauda won two championships before pit stops were introduced in modern Formula 1. The third time we won the championship was without mid-race refuelling. Alain Prost won all of his world titles while refuelling was banned and when it was not uncommon to drive the entire race distance without changing tyres.