Dull Season-opener prompts call for further change.

[Chris Borg]

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100316/sport/dull-season-opener-prompts-call-for-further-change

Let`s hope that Jean Todt stamps his Authority, and convinces Bernie to instigate the necessary changes!!!!

[Jericoke]

The best a mandatory 2 pit stops can accomplish is having the passing occur in the pits via strategy, rather than on track action.  One of the reason why refueling was banned to stop this from happening.  Is the solution really to just bring back something we were complaining about?

The rules need to change to make the cars leave no wake... or even better, produce an aerodynamic effect that actually aids following/passing cars.  I understand this would be difficult to police, but a low tech portable wind tunnel should be sufficient for post race scrutineering.  It won't rescue this season, but it's a way forward.  (I guess in the mean time, 3 sets of tires per race it is.  At least the drivers won't be worried about protecting tires as much.  In theory.)

[Monty]

I think there has been an over-reaction.
We do not know that the cars cannot overtake. In the first race it is clear that the Ferraris were overheating when they got in the slip-stream so they backed off.
It is also clear that nothing went round corners like Vettels Red Bull so he held people off even with a down-on-power car. Other than that, quite simply nobody tried to overtake (except for the Lotus / Virgin battle).

Button had downforce problems with his car so he didn't attack Schumi.
Webber just didn't show any aggression so he didn't attack Button.
I think we need to see a few more races before we condemn the new regulations.

[Scott]

The rules need to change to make the cars leave no wake... or even better, produce an aerodynamic effect that actually aids following/passing cars.  I understand this would be difficult to police, but a low tech portable wind tunnel should be sufficient for post race scrutineering.  It won't rescue this season, but it's a way forward.  (I guess in the mean time, 3 sets of tires per race it is.  At least the drivers won't be worried about protecting tires as much.  In theory.)

I don't think it would be as hard to police as you think.  One problem is the front wing, which could be mandated with one or two elements, with no endplates (ok, with two you'd need an endplate, but it could be a simple rectangle) and half as wide as they are now.  Rear wings could also be mandated, but the design would have to be more carefully thought out to, like you say, aid following or passing cars.  Certainly a lot smaller and lower.  Bodywork outside of mirrors should be completely banned - no winglets of any kind and get rid of diffusers completely.  Template points along the bodywork would stop any outrageous designs (a la IRL), but even with that, a clever design could probably make one car dominant over another (keeping people like Newey employed in the sport - which I'm in favour of). 

Is it do-able?  I doubt it.  Too simple for the FIA and a bit less advertising space for the teams...nobody would agree.

[FW14B]

You talk a lot of sense there Scott, it all makes perfect sense, so in true F1 form, I must say 'Burn the heretic  '

[Warmwater]

I gave up on F1 last year after repeated dull waste-of-time parades of mobile advertising.
I challenge anyone to prove that Bahrain was actually a motor race.
If it is not possible to pass another car on the circuit, it is not a race, even in normal rush hour traffic I can pass other cars.
And don't get me going on qualifying... if every team gets to start in the race, they all qualify.... so what is the point except to set up the grid with the fastest cars at the front and the slowest at the back, and if nobody can pass during the race the entire excercise is an insult to our intelligence.
The effects of "dirty air" affecting following cars is well known, and obviously the solution is to eliminate that factor. The reason that there is a problem for the following car is because his wings lose effectiveness, and the cause of this is the turbulence from the wings of the leading car. Ergo get rid of the wings.
The purpose of the wings (and other aerodynamic stick-ons) is to generate downforce, which artificially increases the traction of the tires. If the FIA want to fiddle with rules, all they have to do is limit the amount of downforce generated by the bodywork/chassis. Preferably to zero.
If you want to argue that this would diminish the "pinnacle of motorsport engineering", I would suggest that the word "pinnacle" does not mean quite what you think.

No doubt that reducing aerodynamic downforce will reduce cornering speed, but the only person who would notice this is the driver... the people in the stands do not care if the cars are going around a curve at 160 mph or 140 mph, they want racing not parades!
Hopefully someone can enlighten me on this subject, because I am tired of wasting time watching this stuff.

[Alianora La Canta]

There were 29 successful overtaking moves in Bahrain, not counting anything that happened on lap 1, pit-lane changes of position or passes resulting from someone retiring. That's above average for a Grand Prix.

The trouble was that the camera missed lots of moves and most of them proved completely meaningless as one or both parties to the overtake retired with technical problems.

We need meaningful racing that we can actually see...