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F1 News & Discussions => General F1 Discussion => Topic started by: John S on January 12, 2020, 02:26:24 PM

Title: Could F1 be looking to change staggered race start positions?
Post by: John S on January 12, 2020, 02:26:24 PM
Pat Symonds admits that FOM has been running it's own computer sims on grid formation, amongst other things, and now wants to use Esports series competitors to further assess impacts of differing grid start slots.

Side by side wont necessarily lead to more 1st lap shunts - apparently.
Just a reminder Pat that real world and sims, even with experienced gamers, are often a long way apart.
Ask the teams who find new parts showing big big gains in sims only to disappoint on track if you need proof.

F1 has been using its own simulations to try and assess potential sporting rule changes for the future, such as introducing reverse grid sprint races that were ultimately rejected for 2020.

Speaking at Autosport International in Birmingham on Thursday, F1 chief technical officer Pat Symonds revealed that in order to introduce a human element to its trials, it would be working with some of the Esports leaders in the future.

One of the models we’ve run is we’ve looked at whether the grid formation that we have at the moment, which is the staggered eight-metre grid, whether that’s the right way to do it,” Symonds explained.

“If you want to investigate what would be the effect of a two-by-two grid, physics will tell you that the cars will all make the same start, they’ll all arrive at the first corner in the same order. But that’s not the way it really is.
“We need to understand, well, will we actually get a more exciting first lap, or will we just get a lot of accidents? We obviously don’t want to wipe out half the field on the first lap. The only way you can do that is the human in the loop thing.

“The teams have humans in the loop, driver in the loop simulators, but they are looking for peak performance. We’re looking for something different.

“What I’m hoping at the end of this year is that we’ll use some of our elite gaming racers from our Esports series to actually test out some of our ideas for sporting regulation changes.”

Courtesy Luke Smith, Crash.net, 11th Jan.
Title: Re: Could F1 be looking to change staggered race start positions?
Post by: Jericoke on January 12, 2020, 02:44:40 PM
Baseball and ice hockey experiment with rule changes in minor leagues.  I would imagine FOM can do the same thing with lower Formula. 

Would actually make things interesting if young drivers have more experience with rule changes than the veterans.
Title: Re: Could F1 be looking to change staggered race start positions?
Post by: Alianora La Canta on January 20, 2020, 10:40:36 AM
I thought eSports were so prone to first-corner crashes anyway, that any arrangement wouldn't help!
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