Ban F1 Team Privacy Screens!

[Calman]

This gets my vote 100%

That's about all you can say about that ... 100% stupid.

Discuss ...

Best Regards,
Cal

[lkjohnson1950]

Not practical. All the teams have proprietary tech the don't want out in the open. I have to say though, in 1978 or '79 when we went to the US GP at the Glen, all the teams were crowded into a large Quonset hut cheek by jowl. They were desperate to cover the secret stuff. Likewise at Long Beach, they were all in the main hall of the convention center, no privacy there either.   

[Calman]

Okay, so maybe they have their place in limited situations, but some of the footage from testing was laughable - particularly when the Ferrari stopped in the pit box and they raced out with the privacy screens (mainly blocking the front/back of the car) ... while photographers and most people around the world have already seen close up footage of ever angle of the car.

At least drop it in testing and limit it's use during race weekends.  If a car has to be stripped down to some degree, then I warrant it in those situations, but a lot of the time, it's just a bit "over protective!".

Best Regards,
Cal

[John S]

From the teams perspective Cal I'd think testing is more important to cover up than at races.

I see their argument as running something like this:- All sorts of bits and bobs are tried out on cars in testing, some work some don't.
However by allowing everyone total access to see everything means other teams - particularly the bigger better funded ones -  can more easily corelate lap times with certain added goodies finding out how effective they are almost as quickly as the team themselves.
Sometimes the whole point of running some extra little fins, under floor tricks, or even big funny shaped wings, is to try to lure the opposition in spending time & resource investigating a red herring.

They may not be able to slow down a faster car, but they just might succeed in slowing it's development further. 

[Alianora La Canta]

Privacy screens are banned in most circumstances in WEC (to enable visual inspections of "overview" compliance with certain rules and also to help the public see what is happening), but even they're allowed full use of them in testing, so I'm not surprised they also are used this way in F1.

[Calman]

Maybe from my own perspective, it's not so much the privacy issue in itself, but more the methods of secrecy.  Oh well, sure it won't be long now, before Seb & Lewis have a "squint" at each others cars after the chequered flag.

Best Regards,
Cal