Teh Formula 1 Encyclopedia: 2018 Edition.

[FaultyMario]

- Give all teams a limited fuel allocation for each race weekend, or restrict fuel cell sizes (with no refuelling allowed during the race).

That's nearly impossible to police.

[Tom Servo]

I love those sounds, but to me F1 is not the sound. Sure it's a part of the sport that is missing, but it's just a small portion.

Considering I've watched hundreds of races on TV, and only two in person, it doesn't bother me that much. When I went to see them in person, it was more disappointing, but on TV, it's not a huge deal.

Not sure when you went to see them in person, but I saw them back in 2005 at Indy when they were V10s, then a couple of times at Austin after the turbo era started. Part of the reason I haven't gone back is the ludicrous ticket prices, but a big part was the noise. I remember watching qualifying in 2005 and it was just amazing. Shook every part of your body when they went by, howling, spitting fire on downshifts - it was like nothing else I'd ever heard. Austin was nothing like that.

F1 on TV isn't affected as much, but pretty much all road racing is better experienced visually on TV than it is in the stands. What made it worth going there was that you could *feel* the cars through that cacophony, that was something you just couldn't recreate at home, no matter how good your sound system is. Now you don't want to bother, and given that having a seat that's not on an uncomfortable bleacher is something like $1,000 per, just not interested in going to the races anymore. That could be COTA specific, as I didn't find it a particularly enjoyable track to be at, and I'd love to compare it to something like Monza or Spa, but that's even more money.

[Crazed_Insanity]

- Give all teams a limited fuel allocation for each race weekend, or restrict fuel cell sizes (with no refuelling allowed during the race).

- Over time, balance the need for speed against the need to produce gains in fuel economy. If the average speed/laptime/whatever over a season reaches a certain amount, then take some fuel away to lower that average again and slow the cars down.

- Any tyre manufacturer may enter, but they must supply the same tyres to all teams - no preferences should be given certain teams for better tires. Teams may pick whichever brand they want, and are allowed to change brands once throughout the season.

- Cars must be RWD with open wheel bodies and a minimum weight. No underbody aero (i.e. skirts) or fans. All other rules other than sporting and safety considerations are free and open.

I think these are great rules... except part of the tires rule that allows for teams switching mid-season? I'm sure no tire manufacturer wants to be dumped mid-season, right? Or imagine on certain races, Goodyear finds out that no team picked their tires. That would be embarrassing... Anyway, idea is good that teams are allowed to just pick the best tires to use, but I just don't see how this can be done contractually to mutual satisfaction...

Anyway, I particularly like the set fuel allocation rule. Forget engine formula. Imagine that over the decades down the road, which "engine formula" will emerge as a clear winner by natural selection? Turbo or naturally aspirated? How many cylinders?

[balki]

???
Mercedes dominated 2014 because of the new rules, changing all that will just mean a different team dominates until every car reaches the same formula (ie; almost everyone ends up running NA 90° 5L V10s, and the ones who don't will only be successful at Monza or Monaco and not in-between)

As much as I want that (say 100kg of fuel per race and some standard safety features) it will just go back to 4-6 years of Ferrari/Red Bull/Mercedes dominating. The FIA should just focus on maintaining decent downforce with less turbulence/easier following?

[Crazed_Insanity]

Those were just his ideals, of course it ain't happening.

But it sure would be a lot more interesting to find out which engine formula is really the best based on engineering natural selection, rather than a bogus formula by committee. This fuel rule also needs to be as static and unchanging as possible... and may only be changed when everybody catches up to the same level or when things get too dangerously fast.

Fuel limitation should also prevent teams from developing more down force(turbulent air) because additional drag will cost more fuel. Aerodynamicists will instead focus more on drag reduction... cleaner air should also benefit cars racing behind...

Stable rules should help cutting cost too.

They also need to lift limits for the smaller and slower teams out of the top 10 in championship standing... let them do as much as they want in order to catch up. Encourage the big players to perhaps help develop the smaller teams that can benefit them mutually. What's happening with Ferrari and Haas is something that's good for both teams and good for the sport overall I think...

[Rare White Ape]

Nope, my ideal calls for no help for the slower teams. Complete freedom to innovate is what will help them. If they’re given an artificial leg-up then it just causes the richer teams to spend more to compete, or the faster ones to turn the party mode dial and unlock previously unseen performance, and you’re back to the arms race.

I say we embrace the arms race and see what happens. Don’t lock every team into the exact same thing. If one is more successful then others will follow, and from there everyone has the choice to spend more and more to gain less and less. But my great hope is that you can also encourage engineers to go in a different direction and find a new niche that might turn out to be wildly successful, that doesn’t cost millions to develop in the short term. So yes, in that sense it would resemble natural selection.

To clarify on the tyre rule, it’s also designed so that nobody is locked into one set standard and has the freedom to compete. If a tyre manufacturer doesn’t want the embarrassment of losing all of its teams, then it needs to build a good set of tyres.

[JoeW]

Haven't followed MotoGp for awhile but back in the day you could run whatever tire you wanted to partner with. I distinctly remember when Cagiva came on board and had Pirellis...the only team with Pirellis. And boy did Pirellis get embarrassed in the beginning...Mamola basically had no chance so he would end up doing these ridiculous power slides just for show in front of the crowd.

Then when Lawson signed on, he brought Michelin tires and managed to actually win a race and be competitive. Of course much of that was also Eddie being a damn genius and helping Cagiva develop the damn thing into something pretty damn good.

So tires can fuck you or make you. Choose wisely

[Blerpa]

All the stupid blatering about car manufacturers... meanwhile last year WTCC had its horrible last season and now it is getting up again as WTCR: a fusion of WTCC and the greatly going TCR.
And it is a World Cup, not a Championship by FIA rules. Why? Because, to fight what brought WTCC to death (and Group B, and Group C, and Can Am... shall we continue?) car manufacturer direct involvment is FORBIDDEN.
FUCK Car Manufacturers in autosports. Always.

EDIT for newbies: World Cup are for customer teams, Championship for manufacturer teams, per FIA titulation rules.

[The359]

Actually WTCR is still a World Championship. Direct factory involvement is not required, just a minimum requirement for number of manufacturers represented.

The FIA GT1 World Championship also forbade factory teams, but met the required minimum with 5-6 different manufacturers involved.

I believe the requirements are four manufacturers, and the season must take place in at least eight different countries and at least three continents.

[Rare White Ape]

Important point of difference:

Formula 1 has not collapsed due to lack of manufacturer involvement. It has outlived ALL of those other series.