FIA put off driver aids ban till 2004

[Down F0rce]

from teletext -

"FIA have delayed the ban on driver aids imtil that start of next season beacuse of the legal challange to rule changes."

a FIA statment said:

"The FIA is reuctant to commit the necessary resourses until actual or threatend arbitration proceedings have been resolved"

[Inigo Montoya]

Well done Ronnie!!

[DNQ]

Oh great, another 15 races of traction control, launch control and automatic brakes. Oh yeah, it's gonna be a great season..........

This really annoys me SOOO much

[ASCII Man]

PRESS INFORMATION
DRIVER AIDS

The FIA has today sent the following note to all Formula One teams:
The technical devices which will ensure the absence of driver aids (in particular
launch control, traction control and fully-automatic gearboxes) require substantial
investment.

The FIA is reluctant to commit the necessary resources until actual
or threatened arbitration proceedings have been resolved.
Accordingly, the full enforcement of the long-established ban on in-car driver aids
will be delayed until the first race of the 2004 season. If current uncertainties
have not been resolved before the deadline for ordering the technical devices for
2004, competing teams will be required to demonstrate the absence of driver
aids to the satisfaction of the stewards at each event of the 2004 and subsequent
Championships.

Paris, March 28, 2003

That's it!
I'm a CART-man now!

[DNQ]

Yeah, CART is good, but I just can't stand seeing my beloved F1 being ruined like this. It's pathetic.

The so called 'pinnacle' of racing has traction control, launch control, fully automatic gearboxes, power steering, no decent circuits on the calendar, a near total absence of privateers, and cars which can hardly overtake at the best of times. What a bloody sham this sport has been reduced to. I'll keep watching, but my passion for this sport is 10% of what it used to be

[Super Tourer]

This is a bit ominous - give the team's the rest of this season and the winter break to fight the ban altogether.

What with Bernie against the new qualifying format as well, before the season's over we'll be back to where we started.

What happened to Max's iron glove all of a sudden?

[SALEEN S7R]

Pah, forget CART and F1, who needs them when u have, F3000, WS, Euro F3000, Formula Nippon. They arent much slower, Particulary the Nippon cars and the racing is far better than what u seen in both CART and F1.

If u want to see F1 drivers race watch the WS, Marc Gene, Enrici Bernoldi, Stephane Sarrizane, Frank Montagy they are all there..

[bradenc]

un-fapping-believeable!

Time to kiss f1 goodbye for me.

[ASCII Man]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
If u want to see F1 drivers race watch the WS, Marc Gene, Enrici Bernoldi, Stephane Sarrizane, Frank Montagy they are all there..

Who?

[DNQ]

Originally posted by SALEEN S7R
Pah, forget CART and F1, who needs them when u have, F3000, WS, Euro F3000, Formula Nippon. They arent much slower, Particulary the Nippon cars and the racing is far better than what u seen in both CART and F1.

If u want to see F1 drivers race watch the WS, Marc Gene, Enrici Bernoldi, Stephane Sarrizane, Frank Montagy they are all there..

Shame none of that's on TV here

[ASCII Man]

We get to see Formula Nippon, F3000, CART, ETCC and sometimes JTC on Eurosport

[Adam43]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I'd sacrifice any of the other new rules for a bad on driver aids

[Inigo Montoya]

What are you guys/girls all complaining about? With the new rules, you've seen nothing but exciting races so far, with the driver aids on.

I think this is great news! With the current setup, we have exciting racing, lots of passing, *and* we get to keep the high technology component (and all its trickle down to passenger cars).

[Speeddemon555]

Oh boy, Schumi will take advantage of that.

[Inigo Montoya]

Ronnie and Flabio spent alot of time and money on their electronic gizmos, and finally, when they seem to have it right, and we are set for an exciting season, you want to take that away from them? I don't blame them at all for threatening legal action....

[golem]

trickle down to passanger cars? wtf? Inigo... cars already have traction control. And abs. And active yaw control, active suspension, brake force distribution, variable valve lift and timing, variable geometry manifolds. And they banned rotaries.

Out of the above list, F1 cars are only allowed traction control.

All traction control does that variable suspension/geometry/cams don't is mask driver errors. I'd much rather active suspension come back in to replace traction control. If Max was desperate, I'd offer that as an alternative because if a driver screws up with active suspension it can't mask squat. The driver still needs to control the car.

As I have said before and will say again, current F1 cars are decisively limited and not the havens of technology they are claimed to be. An SL55 has more tech in it than an MP14/D. The reason the Maclaren racer is more expensive is all in the details and the fact they're chasing minute perfectionism inside a technology. If they can't spend it on traction control Mercedes will most probably devote money back into road car development programs.
Like most road car manufacturers.

This is just Ron and Frank being spoilt little kids. Don't think I'll bother watching the last half of the season. I personally hate Ron and Frank now. Max sets out a plan to actually make the sport more appealing and affordable and these spoilt brats put it down.

[Adam43]

Whether F1 is/has been for two races/will be for the rest of the season exciting is immaterial. Cool cars do not have traction control, because cool drivers don't need it.

Road cars should have it, but F1 cars no way. It reduces the chances of mistakes. If the chance of making a mistake is reduced the chance of greatness is reduced too.

[Lee Yue Yang]

Awww man!And I was so looking forward to the ban....

[Adam43]

Removing traction control also promotes more real racing. Far better than artifically giving the impression that the grid is exciting by the introduction of this comedy fuel rule.

[Speedworx]

Its the beginning of the end.

Old style qual will probably return and decent F1 will be gone forever.

[Inigo Montoya]

What is artificial, Adam, is making racing more "exciting" by making it low tech, and then going and introducing standardized parts. Might as well go NASCAR.

I would have preferred the rules did not change at all, but everyone was threatening not to watch - so Max had to do something to make the masses happy.. thus the no refueling stuff.

Cool is in the eye of the beholder. For me, cool=fast. And fast=high tech.


Golem, we used to have many of those things you mentioned in F1, but they were, as you mentioned, banned. However, it was their appearance in F1 that expedited their appearance in road cars.

As for your point about F1 cars being decisively limited in their technology, that was my point - this situation should be avoided. I am glad we agree about this

[Adam43]

Of course the situation is somewhere in between allow everything and NASCAR (if you like).

What we have now is far from allowing any technology and the removal of traction control will hardly make it NASCAR (if you like).

Some things were developed on F1 and then found there way onto road cars. Some the other way round (ABS for example). But F1 isn't about road cars. It is about the sport of F1 in it's own right.

I want it to be more difficult (for the drivers). More chance for mistakes. I want to see Schumacher, Montoya, Raikkonen and Alonso driving these cars. However I do accept that even Michael disagrees with this view, but he is in the minority and most driver past and present prefer a car that is technologically advanced, but still requires driving.

Cool is driver skill. And also cool is, as Senna used to say, "spinny wheel".

[Inigo Montoya]

Speaking of spinny wheels, do you think the cars would still be safe with their skinny grooved tyres and no electronics?

[Glen]

I think it is every bit as difficult to drive these cars to the max as any previous generation cars - if one element of driving (throttle control for example) get easier through technology then the emphasis just shifts to the next most critical point, such as taking the braking deeper into the corner or cornering at a higher speed, because they know that the corner exit is going to be a little bit easier.

The drivers make plenty of mistakes already - TC clearly doesn't do what a lot of people think it does, because if it did we wouldn't see so many spins.

[steve_r]

A bit of an over-reaction here to what was a poorly thought-out plan to ban drivers aids, with very little notice for the teams.

If it dissapears at the end of the season for good - that is fair enough. I thought it was out of order to try and push a ban through without at least one season's notice.