F1 2020

[Rare White Ape]

Fun fact:

F1 goes through regulation changes as fast as sportscar racing does, perhaps even faster.

Group C might’ve died in the 90s but the Le Mans 24 Hour still continued. Prior to that there were many different classes that filled the niche of sports prototype racing. Now we have LMP1 which will last until the rollout of the Hypercar class; LM-H.

The most important thing is the trophy at the end of each season. F1 will continue into infinity as long as it’s the peak series. It doesn’t matter who owns it or what the ruleset is. They could go back to rules limiting it to 4-cylinder open-wheelers built by old British weirdos in their back shed and the sponsors will follow. Like that time F1 was held within F2 rules. Remember that?

[Rare White Ape]

The biggest hurdle is risk-averse manufacturers afraid of losing image and money on a stupid investment.

F1 doesn’t need boardroom fuckos worrying about stonks while trying to fund a racing team. If F1 is F1 you will always have racing teams vying for the Big Trophy. All of them will be happy to bring innovation that helps them beat Ferrari.

And Ferrari will always take part even if the rules limit them to fibreglass bodies draped over tube-frame chassis made from old bicycle parts.

[CudaMan]

there's talk of going to a "spec" ice that can be 'tuned' by mfrs and a propiertary ERS system. whatever it may be, the engine formula is wrong and needs to change.

Bring back the ******* V12s!


Wasn't there a new boss of Honda motorsport appointed recently? I thought I remembered reading something like that.

[Kchrpm]

1 liter V12s with 20k rpm redline and hybrid power, let's gooooooooooo.

[JoeW]

I have a feeling that the timeline for the end of internal combustion engines is moving faster than we think. Not sure what new player would want to sink millions into making something where any technological advancements they may discover in order to be competitive will ultimately mean nothing in a world moving toward 100% electrification.

It’s like sinking money into making the best CRT TV.

[Kchrpm]

Have Cosworth build all of them, and the manufacturers can focus on the electric part, since that is what they need to spend development on anyway.

[JoeW]

Nice idea

[Rare White Ape]

A better idea (in my opinion):

Remove any restriction for cylinder count/layout, forced induction, or electric propulsion, and just limit the fuel tank size and battery capacity.

Work out a KJ to litres equivalency so that manufacturers can be free to choose how much of each type of energy storage they want, and review and adjust it every year to maintain parity. Teams can pick a maximum of 70% fossil fuel, or maximum 70% electric to begin with. Teams must publish their chosen layout so that everyone knows what they’re doing, but they can keep trade secrets to themselves.

Every two years take 10% of maximum fuel capacity away so that they must gradually put more focus on electric systems, until they reach a minimum of 30%. At this point any manufacturers who started with 30% fuel and 70% electric will have an advantage since they’ve been developing under that allowance for 8 years.

If you want to slow the cars down or improve efficiency then just reduce the total energy budget.

This way, a winning formula will be developed and copied by other teams, but it will not stay like that when the limits are adjusted so there will be a constant shake-up and this should encourage development of novel ideas.

[Kchrpm]

Make sure that you keep the development limitations with that idea, though, to prevent any team from just testing all of the variations.

[Rare White Ape]

Nah.

If they can afford to do it and are willing to invest that much money then they can go right on ahead.