The FIA meeting in Monaco/teams agree! (merged)

[Glen]

If they take ten per cent out of the car package weight they take ten per cent of energy out of an impact - in fact the relationship is probably exponential (anyone know for sure?) so the energy would be significantly more reduced than that. The crash protection is already quite adequate and most cars are carrying well over fifty kilos of ballast and still comfortably achieving the safety standards.

Lighter, more agile cars give the finesse of the driver more chance to shine - I would be veruy mch opposed to going back to tanks.

[Pingguest]

I don't like the new engine formula. Things like the one engine rule poised the competition in the sport. Previous speed was more important than it is now. Today the reliability is a too important factor.

Reintroducing the slicks is a great idea. We will see more overtakings. The ban on traction control is a great idea too!

Standard breaks are totally idiot. In Formula 1 diversity is a very important thing. By introducing the standard breaks, this will be destroyed.

[Schummy]

Kinetic energy of impact doesn't matter to who is inside (it just matter differential speed between driver and car's interior), it only matters to an exterior object against it can collide. The only scenario where this is important is in a car against car crash (for example, Zanardi's), but in this case shape of cars are far more relevant (nose like torpedoes... ).

Also, energy can play a role in the design of wall protection or run off areas. But, let's talk about kinetic energy:

It not only depends of mass, it depend in a quadratic form of speed. With less weight, cars are going to reach high speed sooner, are going to maintain high speed more time because of later braking, and are going to corner faster by mean of a reduce centrifugal force. So weight reduction for itself are not going to reduce kinetic energy in a real road race.

There is a more relevant variable in terms of safety: if FIA is really serious about "zero" tolerance of unsafety they have to ban open wheels. Senna and Krosnoff's accidents had not happened if cars where close-wheeled. Driver protection in a closed canopy is far greater (but no perfect, obviously). But open/close wheels debate would be a revolution in terms of fans, so... I don't see it coming

I'm more interested in discussion about "racing" impact of less or more weight.

Or... as some people as said in another thread, why we don't let weight be unchanged?