How fast can they go?

[slipstream]

20 minutes into the first free practice of the years first GP and they are already going faster that last years qualifying time. The teams have been talking of taking nearly a year to make up the ground lost under the new regulations. Have they already got it all worked out or are the tyres making the difference? Mad Max must be furious (he is probably considering the addition of speed bumps on all tracks)

[F1FansClub]

Lol Slipstream.

This is all down to the tyre war and so the two manufacturers, Bridgestone ad Michelin, will carry on to try and beat each other. As James Allen said on ITV's coverage of the qualifying there is a lot more chance that because of the 'war' and the grooves being worn down more because of it, there will be a lot more cases of races being resolved in the courts rather than on the track and I firmly believe him.

Ally

[Liz]

Max will never figure out that he is not dealing with bureaucrats (or should I say OTHER bureaucrats) but with engineers and racers, whose motto is that there was never a rule that could not be finessed. No matter what Max does to try to slow down the cars, they will not slow down. This is why they call it a race, not a stroll.

How fast can they go? FASTER.

[R]

Originally posted by Liz
This is why they call it a race, not a stroll.

Well said!

[Bononi]

And even faster !

[Tristan]

If Max really wanted to slow down speeds, then WHY OH WHY has he removed elements from the front AND rear wings?? Any loss of grip in the corner has been replaced by increased tyre development, which now just means the cars are so much faster down the straightaway's. Mad....

[Liz]

Max is not a racer and has never read "The Tar Baby." Oh, Mr. Mosley, don't fling us in the briar patch!

Either Max should stop meddling with the cars or he should take ome engineering courses so he knows what he's doing.

Generally speaking all he is doing is making the cars ugly and unstable. He's not making them slower. And he never will.

[Tristan]

Hmmmm... I have to disagree. He will eventually NEED to make them slower. AND HE WILL. Personally, I feel the speeds right now are fine and should be maintained. If they begin to rise significantly in the next few years, then the issue WILL have to be addressed before people start getting hurt. In F1 the tracks have corners, narrow bits and (as we've seen today) spectators in very close proximity to the track. THEY ARE NOT SUPERSPEEDWAYS. F1 therefore cannot REALLY be compared to CART in that respect.

HOWEVER, I DO aggree that if the methods used to reduce the speen significantly infringe on the driver's skill, overtaking, and the spectacle that IS F1, it will be a crying shame. However, I'm confident they wont be that stupid. If F1 gets any more prossesional then TV audiances will simple turn off, and I don't think the FIA would be willing to risk that, do you?

[R]

The introduction of grooved tyres before 1998 did reduce the speeds, but developments since then means the cars are now faster than ever.

With a tyre war upon us, I can't see any reduction in speed happening in the near future, rather the opposite.

[Bononi]

Well said !
The way things are going it only points to more and more speed.
And no matter what Max does, the engineers will gain it back.

[Dino IV]

Since 1998 the forum has been filled with topics demanding more mechanical grip (slicks or like now tyre competition) and cutting off the aerodynamical part (diffuser, wings). Well you're demands have been furfilled, there's a lot more mechanical grip (tyre war, TC even ) and the aero has been cut (diffuser shortened, frontwing raised, rearwing less elements) and there's still something to nag about?

The dimension regulations are fine as they are now (track back to 2 metres would be nice though). If there's anything wrong, it's the same thing what's been the biggest disease in F1 since 1993. The totally wrong filosofy behind the rulings by not describing all the area's in detail, but by leaving the fileds vague on purpose. That's where it's been going wrong over the past seasons and will remain this way some time to come.

The results are obvious. We've been looking at electronically aided topteams for the past seasons without punishment. We've seen some horrific accidents in the same time, leaving the drivers relatively unscatched because of the hugely improved safety-cell. But as we can conclude from the huge life threatning crash rate of the past weekend things will get worse. They will untill what point? Till the point we have another freak accident and some driver dies? Schumacher could have landed head down in the gravel trap, sinking his rollbar into the gravel, thus smashing his neck. Burti could have rolled and hit the fence helmet first. Jacques could have been killed if he had hit the fence in a slightly different angle. Hakkinen could have rolled and suffered the same faith etc etc. That's an awfully scary balance for the first GP of a new regs season, isn't it?

If there's anything that needs improving it's the regulations format. Every area needs to be described specifically in order to get cars the way you, as a regulating body, want it to be. Suspensions need to be made stronger from metal tubes instead of carbonfibre for instance. Wing suspensions the same. Constructions in hot areas need to be guarded for failure in a prescripted fashion. Areas and constructions that need to be strong, beefed up or fail safe need to be described in the rules to be like that. Leaving all those areas open to interpretation to the teams is bound to return the Chapman-syndrom to F1. They simply can't handle that safety reponsibility in relation to their competition efforts and therefore should never be left free to choose one or the other. Max's hands are still free of driver's blood as chairman of the FIA, but if he won't alter this FIA filosofy that will change pretty soon ...