News Formula One teams' costs rocket after rules changes

[Notebook]

Interesting article on F1 finance.

Next weekend Britain's Lewis Hamilton could secure his fourth Formula One title at the United States Grand Prix.
His Mercedes team is a staggering 145 points ahead of arch-rivals Ferrari despite the sport introducing rules this year which aimed to put the brakes on the dominance of a single outfit. They came at a hefty cost.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41610963

 

[Xyon]

This wasn't a surprise. As much as the 2017 regulations have been fun, they weren't well thought out and were rushed in to make the deadlines. Cost, and even overtaking, wasn't the stated aim; making the cars up to 5s per lap faster was the goal, and making them look more aggressive. When drivers and engineers expressed concern that the new cars would be harder to follow, they were dismissed.

The cars are faster, and harder physically to drive, which is great, but it's also harder to follow without destroying your front tyres, and they cost an absolute fortune, which is making it much harder for smaller teams to foot the bill to compete.

 

[ADSWNJ]

I read it slightly differently: given such a big change from one year to the next, they had to redesign more of the car for this year than in previous years. So the real impact will be seen for next year's accounts, which should be closer to the 2015 numbers. (Or not ... hey, they find ways to spend what budget they are given, and the expense for the big teams is corporate-driven for brand and results ... right Ferrari?!!)


I do agree on the problems with running close and overtaking these more aggressive cars though. I think there's a 2-3 easy fixes:

1. Make the DRS delta say 3.0 seconds instead of 1.0 seconds. Why? Allows the field to catch each other, which gives us more racing opportunities.

2. Prevent the defending car from using ERS energy when the trailing car is in DRS range and using his DRS. I.e. max advantage to the DRS car. This should give you interesting tactics for equally matched cars as to when to use the DRS advantage (e.g. swapping for the lead on successive laps, like superbikes do.)

3. Have two settings for the front wing: one for normal running, and one for close-up running. Arm the close-running any time when you are within 1.0 sec of a car in front, and then driver's discretion when he uses it. What does this do? It reduces tire-scrubbing and wash-out of the front wing when riding in the turbulent wake, which would allow drivers to stay in close quarters for longer without compromising their tires.

 

[Xyon]

I read it slightly differently: given such a big change from one year to the next, they had to redesign more of the car for this year than in previous years. So the real impact will be seen for next year's accounts, which should be closer to the 2015 numbers. (Or not ... hey, they find ways to spend what budget they are given, and the expense for the big teams is corporate-driven for brand and results ... right Ferrari?!!)


I do agree on the problems with running close and overtaking these more aggressive cars though. I think there's a 2-3 easy fixes:

1. Make the DRS delta say 3.0 seconds instead of 1.0 seconds. Why? Allows the field to catch each other, which gives us more racing opportunities.

2. Prevent the defending car from using ERS energy when the trailing car is in DRS range and using his DRS. I.e. max advantage to the DRS car. This should give you interesting tactics for equally matched cars as to when to use the DRS advantage (e.g. swapping for the lead on successive laps, like superbikes do.)

3. Have two settings for the front wing: one for normal running, and one for close-up running. Arm the close-running any time when you are within 1.0 sec of a car in front, and then driver's discretion when he uses it. What does this do? It reduces tire-scrubbing and wash-out of the front wing when riding in the turbulent wake, which would allow drivers to stay in close quarters for longer without compromising their tires.

Your ideas are interesting, but honestly DRS as it is is too much of a gimmick, and in a lot of places is far too powerful for realistic balance - I would much prefer a return to safe ground-effect downforce generation that doesn't get destroyed by following behind another car. F2, and F3 manage to follow dramatically closer, and in a lot of ways their races are more dramatic and exciting as a result.

I'd like to see refuelling return, too, if for no other reason than to add another variable into the mix; we got a small element of this in with the third tyre type in each race, but even that is utilised much less for strategy than perhaps it could be.

There are a good few options without having to add special overtaking devices to artificially create excitement.

 

[ADSWNJ]

I agree that we need more overtaking. Happy to see any way to get there, without making the cars look horrible. E.g. I see that F1's TWG is looking at what IndyCars are doing with more ground effect to compensate for removing quite a lot of the topside aero.