Making F1 Driving more challenging

[prince]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/116031

Driver Radio limitations, which has been a hot topic of late, is borne out of concern that current generation F1 driving has become so much easier due to all the driver coaching and something need to be done to get this right. Partly, Max Verstappen's direct entry to 2015 is also a background, because no one would have ever conceived the thought of putting a teenager, with almost no experience of feeder category, into an F1 car in 1980s.

So, what can be done to make F1 driving more driver dependent?
Note: I would urge people to keep racing improvement suggestions like tyres, refuel and other suggestions out of this.

Singapore GP
Tony Ross - "For information pit lane limiter won’t work so in first gear you can’t go higher than 6,500rpm."
Nico Rosberg - "How do I know what 6,500rpm is? Give me another indication."

Guillaume Rocquelin - "Sebastian open the gap to Alonso, ignore the beeps. Open the gap."

One of the things that I feel is a small change, but can really alter the way driver drives, is the banning of BEEP for gear change. Let the driver use his instincts to understand the need for changing gears. Today it is so robotic that a driver gets a beep and he quickly changes the gear. Taking away that aid, would have a an impact on gearbox stress (in turn on engine) fuel usage, traction, cornering and as a whole, complete driving. Slightly long on gear, excess fuel usage, slightly early on downshift, reduced torque output.

I don't think we have to go back to stone ages.

Here is a clip of onboard from 1986.


From 2012,

[Just_a_fan]

As I understand it, the beeps are not telling the driver when to change gear, they're telling the driver when to start the coast phase on the approach to a corner as part of the fuel management system. There's no way a driver can do that instinctively - they need some input even if just fuel info on the dashboard.

[strad]

in the past the beeps were for gear change ..perhaps they've changed for the new cars.

[wesley123]

A driver has to save fuel, tires, consider ERS changing, brake balance, changing engine maps and make their engine last for 5 races and still have to drive fast enough to finish in a good position, how on earth isn't that challenging??

[PlatinumZealot]

A driver has to save fuel, tires, consider ERS changing, brake balance, changing engine maps and make their engine last for 5 races and still have to drive fast enough to finish in a good position, how on earth isn't that challenging??

That is managing your neutured abilities that is not balls to the wall driving with everything your talent gan give. Do i want to see Usain Bolt jog a two hundred meter race because he has to complete it int one hundred and twenty steps not 79? Hells nawz! Do i wanna see serena williams lob a ball over the net because she is not alowed to smash the ball over ninety miles an hour?! This what formula one is doing. It is castrating itself!! Removing the manhood out of the true apex of motor racing.

For me personally.... I need to see at least 1500 horsepower and meatball tyres. I dont care if the cars are slower through the turns, the monstrous horsepower is what we want the drivers to reign inat every single turnbefore it throws them into the barriers! Balls of lead and nerves should be a prerequisite! Oh. Did i mention that Power steering and throttle by wire should be banned!

[bhall II]

...save fuel, tires, consider ERS changing, brake balance, changing engine maps and make their engine last for 5 races and still have to drive fast enough to finish in a good position...

I think you could double that workload, and it still wouldn't be as challenging as sprinting a proper F1 car throughout an entire grand prix.

Speed is the challenge; everything else is clerical.

[Vettel Maggot]

Pressing buttons on a steering wheel and listening to an engineer tell you what buttons to push is no where near as respectable as driving a good old fashioned manual 1980s F1 car, I'm sorry. Today's guys have it a lot easier. Far less risk involved too.

[Manoah2u]

Man those classic F1 cars are so great. Give, they were essentially deathtraps on wheels but that was pure racing.

Anyway, the past is the past and shouldn't be held as 'canon', F1 needs to continue into the future. I do agree however
that racing must be more challenging, i don't think however you can say F1 is too p*ssy-racing because Verstappen
enters. Verstappen entering F1 is a rare sight at itself and perhaps speaks more of Max's ability and quality rather than
F1's level.

'F1 is too soft and too easy because a teenager can enter'. With that same logic you can render all F1 drivers back in the
late 80's and early nineties as weak p*ssies just because Ayrton Senna entered and schooled every single one of them.
Senna could have won Monaco in a Toleman for crying out loud, versus high-profile and settled F1 figures like Alain Prost,
Nelson Piquet or Nigel Mansell. Senna was right up there with these 'greats'. Does that make the 'then current' drivers (1984) simply weak wussies that aren't that special because a 'rookie' comes in and schools them?
Was f1 weak and for p*ssies because a rookie could enter and battle straight away with the greats?

Nah hell no.

First of all, let's just wait and see how Max does in F1. He could just as well fumble completely. He could just as well do amazing and it would show more his absolute driving ability instead of F1 being weak.

If F1 really was that 'easy', then why is Vettel fumbling versus Ricciardo? Are these cars so easy to drive that no accidents no errors happen? Or are the drivers so well-trained that they are able to cope with these machines?

Just look at Pastor, man what a horrible driver. And Grosjean has proven he can do quite the decent drive, yet he's struggling with a absolute disgust of a lotus. F1 easy? no way. Not as ball-to-the wall as in the 80's, sure, that's obvious.

Anyway, yeah, there's too much non-mechanical driver aid. Engineers telling the drivers to lift and coast, set to steering wheel to 17,20, whatever is proof of that. Would it be too difficult without the team constanly speaking into the earpiece?
Surely not. Fighter jet pilots have way more buttons and switches to their disposal and they don't have a 'daddy hold my hand' engineer constantly telling them when to switch mode or buttons......
...and kimi was classic: "yeah yeah shut up i know what i'm doing, you don't have to tell me all the time, leave me alone".

My fix for f1?

- Remove DRS
- Allow full-race KERS and not lap reset, and make the energy constanly available instead of through a button.
- Introduce bigger size rims, and much wider tires at the back.
- make front wing much narrower and ditch the 'mandated' centre shape (bold moves are punished because one cannot see the wing and has to gamble instead of do a bold and courage judgement on overtaking)
- mandate front and rear wings, no more then 3 different shapes over a season (reduces development costs and needs drivers to cope with the shapes,)
- unlimited testing throughout the year
- no power steering
- no navigation system on the car (beeps)
- no engine mode switches on the steering wheel
- no brake-by-wire
- improve tire quality (no balloon-pop tires, and no artificial wear. improve driver confidence by having thrustable tires.
mandated switch between tire compound is enough to impose an artifical strategy).

added bonus rule change:

- slightly enlarge 'driver protection pod' size so the driver doesn't have to 'lay' in the car but can be 'seated', shorten the distance between driver's head position and front wheels, and additional to enlarging rim size, enlargen actual wheel size (tire wall height), and enlarge rollbar height for driver protection. Result: driver can better see the car dimensions around him, positively afffecting his surroundment judgements, and thus use his skills better (go out flat instead of neuter himself by the anxiety of hitting the car in front of him resulting in damage and penalty).

and fixing the amount of settings that can be adapted on the steering wheel will do away with a lot of the communication between team and driver. It's like F1 drivers are entering computer settings whilst driving. Make practice sessions dure longer or use unrestrictive all-year testing for drivers to discover how to use settings to better effect their performance.
At race day, they must set-up their car and they'll have to race that setting and that's that.

[FW17]

One of the things that I feel is a small change, but can really alter the way driver drives, is the banning of BEEP for gear change. Let the driver use his instincts to understand the need for changing gears. Today it is so robotic that a driver gets a beep and he quickly changes the gear. Taking away that aid, would have a an impact on gearbox stress (in turn on engine) fuel usage, traction, cornering and as a whole, complete driving. Slightly long on gear, excess fuel usage, slightly early on downshift, reduced torque output.

The beep is of no help and cannot be treated as a driver aid, it is just a replacement/redundancy to the lights on the steering wheel. In case you think it is easy to shift seeing lights or a beep at high rpm, just play any NFS game with a drag race and you will change your mind

This topic sounds like F1 has fallen in love with NASCAR.

[wesley123]

Pressing buttons on a steering wheel and listening to an engineer tell you what buttons to push is no where near as respectable as driving a good old fashioned manual 1980s F1 car, I'm sorry. Today's guys have it a lot easier. Far less risk involved too.

Different times feature different challenges.

Sure, driving a stick shift and pushing through a whole race is challenging, but so is everything current day F1 drivers do. Technology has advanced and with that comes different challenges. changing the position of a scroll function on one of the 5 scroll wheels that are very close together to a function you know little about while driving very fast, with hardly any sight at all and wearing gloves doesn't sound very easy to me. and neither does managing all that to make it last 5 races.

We could apply a similar comparison the other way around; All 80's F1 drivers had to do was drive fast, shift and rarely make a pit stop, and after they did they could go home, do coke or whatever it is they wanted to do. Sounds much easier if you ask me!

both times are just as challenging, just with different challenges.

[mrluke]

More power thats all they need 1500+

[strad]

PlatinumZealot;
How did you get such a low score? You seem like an intelligent guy.

[xpensive]

PlatinumZealot;
How did you get such a low score? You seem like an intelligent guy.

Like how did I gather 262 strad?

Bring back the stickshift with an H-pattern, make them miss a gear or two.

[Richard]

- Allow full-race KERS and not lap reset, and make the energy constanly available instead of through a button.
- no brake-by-wire

KERS no longer exists.

How can a manual brake integrate with energy recuperation?

[strad]

Richard how does manual or by wire affect harvesting?
Either way the act of brakes being applied is what initiates harvesting isn't it?
All by wire means is use of a potentiometer instead of a manual linkage.
Are you saying/implying that it needs to know how hard you're pressing the pedal?