Showing posts with label DTM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DTM. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Reinventing Formula 1 RACING

Don't Copy From This Blog...

Protected by Copyscape Plagiarism Detection
Formula 1 is the pinnacle of competitive motor-sport. With millions of dollars being spent on research and development to find every tenth of a second on track, it is extremely competitive and even the slightest advantage can translate into wins and ultimately championships. However, ever since Alain Prost retired, and Ayrton Senna passed away, F1 has lost that element of surprise and excitement to keep viewers hooked on to the television. The only excitement comes from charismatic drivers, and thanks to corporate sponsorship deals, even that charisma is being suppressed. Formula 1 is simply too boring.

Hungary 2007



But if you venture to the lower levels of motor racing, such as GP2, Formula Renault 3.5 World Series, or even GP3, there is a lot of excitement. In these low costs series, the cars are standardized, and thus driver talent and team strategy can be seen. 21 laps of GP2 on a drying Silverstone circuit was more exciting than 52 laps of the Formula 1 race that took place later that day. Because the drivers are fighting for the prize money and attention from the bigger Formula 1 teams, they really fight tooth and nail for every position.



In this 21 lap race you clearly sort out good drivers from the bad ones. Luiz Razia had a brilliant start, and snatched the lead with a few laps. He pulled out a good lead, and started preserving his tyres. Giedo van Garde had a horrible start, and then ruined his tyres within a few laps, and started dropping back. Davide Valsecchi had a bad start, but he refrained from attacking as he preserved his tyres. He only went fast enough to hold his position. But in the final 10 laps, he really put the hammer down, and nearly caught Razia. Simply superb driving from Razia and Valsecchi.

Here is the Formula Renault 3.5 World Series Nurburgring race.




This was a gripping race, proper edge of the seat stuff. With changing conditions and the compulsory pit stop, this was probably one the best races I've seen in a long time. Predicting the weather conditions, and making the necessary tyre choices was the key here, and this made it very exciting to watch.

The reason why these races are so exciting is because every driver has the same car. So the driver can't make any excuses. Formula 1 cannot have have standardized equipment because innovation in technology and design is a major aspect of the sport, apart from the wheel to wheel racing. However, with rising costs, and with bigger teams pulling away from the smaller teams on the track, there has to be some level of standardization. DTM, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters now has standardised rear wings. Not only does this level the playing field, but it also forces designers to work on the other parts of the car, hence forcing them to become more creative. You can't standardised any aero parts on a Formula 1 car, as the aerodynamic package is what differentiates a McLaren from a Sauber. So there has to be a good balance in creating more exciting racing, but still encourage technical innovation.



Part 2 : TECHNICAL


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Overtaking in racing; hatke style.

Don't Copy From This Blog...

Protected by Copyscape Plagiarism Detection
Racing in essence, is all about overtaking the guy ahead of you. And some pit-stop strategy. With a dash of technical wizardry. Like the F-duct on the Mercedes F1 2012 car. Well played.

However, after some lemonade and light thinking, I hit upon two new ways to overtake.





For the DTM drivers. Especially for those guys who have exhausts on the side of the car. DTM cars run V8's which heavily tuned and undergo a lot of stress. Often the engines de-stress by throwing out a bit of fire from the exhausts, on a trailing throttle or a sudden downshift. Actually it is quite a lot of fire. So why don't the cars with exhausts on the side, instead of having them at the back of the car, burn the flipping tyres of their opponents right off? I think it's quite possible if you're persistent. With good planning I think it's possible to set fire to those super-soft tyres in a few laps or so?

Fire!!!






Flamethrower.



Right. Now F1. Why can't the teams have alliances and stuff. Like, for example, "lets all screw Schumacher or some other poor sod everyone happens to hate at that moment" by overtaking him with planned teamwork. Like, a back marker such as Massa, and a front runner like Sergio Perez, or Kimi Raikkonen can overtake, let's say Webber by blocking him on the left and the right on the pit straight and then shutting the door on him before the first corner. Drivers should have the capability to radio each other mid race, plan their moves and overtake other drivers. There will be copiously epic amounts of overtaking, and not only because of the DRS activation nonsense which is extremely partial to the front runners. Seeing Narain Karthikeyan pulling a move on Vettel would be epic, and there'd just be so much unpredictability in the racing. There wouldn't be any Rosberg style pole-to-victory nonsense like in China anymore. Creativity and drifting will you earn you extra points. Of course, for proper racing fans there could be a ban on this stuff, say in circuits such as Spa and Monza. But nearly everywhere else, Kobayashi could very well get more points than the race winner even if he finishes outside the top 10 because of his drifting.


Something like this. Massa shutting the door on Webber while Alonso takes advantage. There could be inter-team overtaking as well.

What say Bernie? 

 
//PART 2