So, how do you imagine the F1 Car as formulated in, let's say 2015? I think of this kind of "driver helps" that can hardly be defined as such:
LCD screen or HDU display: Am I the only one that find a little obsolete the arrays of flashing lights along the top of the steering wheel? Big red numbers on a black screen?
Perhaps some soul, more used to computer screens will have some kind of idea about new ways for the display of information on the cockpit. HUD comes to the mind.
After all, you could think of the hybrid power plant status, the speed, the rpm, the Gs and the other info relevant, nothing different from what you already have seen on the screen of your TV when they show you the telemetry, but on the visor of the helmet.
I bet, eyes closed, that one day this will be much more cheaper than the current array of mechanical display gadgets on the dashboard. I see this kind of display as ideally suited for some Taiwanese and Chinese electronic companies to make at a dollar a piece, so I imagine that in the future no car will have anything else for display, btw.
Don't you agree it's feasible and maybe logical? Where is the ergonomy in the modern F1 cockpit, or am I missing something? I have to confess here that my mind is confused at the mere sight of an F1 wheel...
I suppose I'm too "computerized" or maybe I don't get it by my genes or something, but the word that comes to my mind when I see an F1 steering wheel as a display device is "quaint". And before someone else says it, as an input device, for me, it is an exercise in confusion at 300 kph.
Little knobs with little arrows that point to little numbers printed on top of the wheel?
C'mon! That's really the best they can do for car control? How many tenths of a second does that kind of interface takes from you during a single lap?How about something similar to a mouse? I mean, just one input device, more intelligent, I'm not talking about using a mouse literally, but more on the lines of a glass cockpit concept.
Another idea that comes to my mind is that this is another technology that could be introduced in the name of safety in F1: it's easy to think of a system that avoids the blurring of the display that you get when you have a flat-spotted tyre or even when you move in a cockpit at high vibration levels, normal in racing. Nothing different from what I already have on a regular video camera for image stabilization.
Finally, taking this idea to the extreme, given better and better resolution and higher computing power, it's easy to predict that one day, it will be better to "see the world" through a screen than directly through the visor... mmmmm... could THAT be patentable? The BTR helmet? (Better Than Reality
)And, how cool will be a helmet in 2050? Images of Star Wars helmets come to my mind: the eyes of Darth Vader helmet and the full face-covered helmet of Boba Fett.
A pilot helmet in 3008, with indirect vision... the rocket and the gun come handy when fighting for position
Notice the little camera on top of Mr. Fett's helmet: it's easy to think of getting rid of the rearview mirrors (that definitely ought take some tenths of a second from a lap because of less drag) and project the image of the rearview camera on the HUD.
It's also easy to imagine the little camera actually following actively the car behind you, not merely fixed at an angle to the driver as today.
Just think about the blurred, vibrating image you get in a flimsily (and insecurely fixed to the chassis) rearview mirror of today. Given the rear view mirror size, and with a proper camera you could get less weight. Maybe you could use the current "regulation" cameras and build the rear image from it, using a different lens that covers 360 degrees: the software necessary for image "extraction" from the regulation cameras weights nothing.
Active driving technology: Yes, yes, I know, that's a no-no, this clearly is a driver help, but I ask two things about this:
a. How about a "safe-mode" active driving? I mean, some sort of switch you can "throw-in" for safety reasons, to avoid crashing so hard into a wall? I'm talking of a driver help as some kind of last resort safety device.
Even if this is probably not more than one of my weird ideas, I think it is relatively cheap and could be a contribution to safety that maybe only the F1 world can implement.
I don't know how much you can achieve from the safety side in the few tenths of a second before a crash, but I'm sure that a computer can do marvels in that time and can easily infer when a car is going to crash into a wall at an oval or a race track.
Shutting off the fuel valves? Flooding the fuel tank with flame retardant foam? Stiffening the seat belt and the HANS? Kicking in TC (and everything available under the sun of illegal driver helps) for the driver to use in a last second chance? Maybe turning the car sideways or steering it somehow to diminish the speed? Warning other cars of the impending danger ahead? I don't know, you name it, there are a lot of possibilities when you think of active safety measures, active in the sense of, I repeat, before the crash. Besides, it would be extremely cool.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea from the civil engineer standpoint, for which I frequently speak: this could bring new life to old tracks, and diminish the requirements for safety areas of today, if well implemented.
Finally, I suggest another crazy idea: TC could be "switched on" by a computer, when a crash is imminent, or by the marshalls when conditions require it, either because the cars are under yellow flags (which brought several crashes last year) or because it's too wet too fast (which also brought some other crashes).
b. How much of passive rear steering has already built in an F1 car?
I think most modern cars use some passive rear steering, that is, the rear wheels steer slightly through arrangements in the suspension linkages, more at low speeds, giving you a stiffer rear steering at high speeds.
Actually, when you don't use that kind of mechanisms, in suspensions of yore, the rear wheels tend to steer opposite (they twist a little outside when you turn in), which is undesirable: you get the "snake effect" typical of motorhomes. In few words: you have understeer by design, through a slight, "automatic" steering of the rear wheels.
I wonder if I'm the only one that find amazing the turning abilities of a modern car (I mean, less than 15 years old
), specially when compared to a kart...Anyway, how much is too much in an F1 car, under regulations? That's a question I'm asking. How much could you tighten the curves at Monaco if you steer more than slightly the rear wheels? It is a practical idea? How much it is used already?
Drive by wire (DBW
): It has become a technology that offers weight savings. After all, you already have a lot of computing AND networking power on board.Why ask for old style mechanical linkages, when you already have on board (on the ECU) auditing systems and programs to avoid other kinds of cheating? I'm thinking here about the birth of the "electronic marshall".
It should be straightforward to "link" directly the foot of the driver to the electronic actuator on the engine, using some "FIA provided algorithm", without cheats by the teams, for the purists of "no driver helps".
Anyway, taken to the extreme, you could dare to predict a day when networked wireless sensors and actuators replace all cables in a car and a central computer conveys the information to and from the driver in a well-thought manner, so, why not take the initiative?
Well, I don't know what other ideas you have about a F1T, some kind of equivalent to COT for NASCAR. Do you have any?
As this is probably my last post of the year, a happy 2008 for all of you. Sorry for the weirdo ideas and the lengthy post, blame it on the rum.
