The 2014 Formula1 Thread!

[Brian Stirling]

All the energy that used to exit the exhaust and manifest itself as noise is now harvested by the turbo. That's why the cars are less noisy.
And I'm pretty sure we won't see any kind of modification to the current technical regulations just to see an increase in noise levels.

Yeah, in addition to turbos to increase airflow to the engines the ERS system also uses turbos to reclaim energy so there is no straight flow from engine to exhaust tip. I don't think the issue is just loudness, I think the engines just sound slower and they are, being limited to 15,000 and 6 cylinder versus 18,000 and 8 cylinder. I see no way to modify the engines to bring back the scream of past cars without wholesale changes to the engine design and that aint gonna happen this year or next.

I'm not a fan of turbos for road racing, they're fine for ovals where the speed to nearly constant with very little shifting. I have no problem increasing the energy recovery system as they have this year but all those turbos in the exhaust pretty much eliminate the classic engine scream.


Brian

 

[LTC8K6]

One team is faster overall than the rest, as usual.

Except worse, as Merc appears way faster.

F1 will have to do something about them, or we will have the bore to end all bores in motor racing.

Or hope Merc is unreliable.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

One team is faster overall than the rest, as usual.

Except worse, as Merc appears way faster.

F1 will have to do something about them, or we will have the bore to end all bores in motor racing.

Or hope Merc is unreliable.

well, that's what almost always happens in multiple make, non-equalized racing. to top it off, the fastest cars get to start at the front!

 

[LTC8K6]

well, that's what almost always happens in multiple make, non-equalized racing. to top it off, the fastest cars get to start at the front!

And in the clean air, the car at the front disappears. This year, they will be 3/4 of a second quicker or more, plus the clean air advantage...

The race, as before, is really for the pole. Barring something odd, the pole sitter is the race winner.

Plus they sound like tractors...

I predict changes.

 

[_Rick_]

The only change I can imagine to happen, is that for next season, they will allow some further engine development (since Honda will enter the sport, this only seems fair) which should equalize power delivery a bit. Mercedes won't be too happy about that, but I suppose it's still better than the sport becoming uninteresting.

But let's also not discard mid-season aero development, which can probably unlock close to an extra second or so.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

The only change I can imagine to happen, is that for next season, they will allow some further engine development (since Honda will enter the sport, this only seems fair) which should equalize power delivery a bit. Mercedes won't be too happy about that, but I suppose it's still better than the sport becoming uninteresting.

But let's also not discard mid-season aero development, which can probably unlock close to an extra second or so.

if i ruled f1, there would be open engine spec and development. the rules, as they are, promote parity with 1 hand and domination with the other. the parity will come in a couple years when everyone has fully optimised engines and especially optimised packaging of the engines in the cars - then engines will be locked into "performance non-differentiators" again.

aero and other developments will unlock tons of time. they started 2014 3.5 seconds off 2013's pace, and at the 3rd of 18 races they're only 0.8 seconds off.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

WOO BOY hell of a 1st half!

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

WOO BOY hell of a 1st half!

Yeah, as dominant as Mercedes is, it makes it much more interesting having two strong drivers on the top team who are not afraid to really duke it out. It's funny to see Red Bull and Ferrari looking so defeated. Seems like the Mercedes PU106A is so superior to what Renault and Ferrari have designed that even the best-designed cars with Renault power (i.e., Red Bull) can't compete with a mid-pack chassis with the Merc drivetrain (e.g., Force India or Williams). Also fun to see the drivers for Force India, Williams, Ferrari and Red Bull duking it out within each team.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

bastard maldonado causing the likely crash of the year 2014, way too slow on the SC deployment.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

bastard maldonado causing the likely crash of the year 2014, way too slow on the SC deployment.

In general I think Maldonado is a marginal and unsafe driver, but in this particular instance I thought Gutierrez was just as responsible for that crash.

Overall that was the most entertaining F1 race I've seen in a long time!

 

[The Boston Dangler]

f1 is boring!

i don't like the way the cars look!

i don't like the way the cars sound!

real race cars have v8's!

yeah, right. that was 1 of the best races 2014 will see in any series.

 

[_Rick_]

God damnit, McLaren, why did Button's car have to crap out on the last 5 laps
Not a good race for me, Rosberg again only second, the Hülk too slow on the final laps, Alonso nowhere at all....

Oh well, that's how it goes...

 

[LTC8K6]

The very brief battle at the front was interesting. I hope Rosberg wasn't ordered to stand down.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

The very brief battle at the front was interesting. I hope Rosberg wasn't ordered to stand down.

he wasn't. the team did instruct "bring both cars home" but let them fight.

that's the luxury of having a car immensely quicker than anyone else. lots of f1 fans seem to think that's normal, and would gladly throw a title away.

 

[LTC8K6]

he wasn't. the team did instruct "bring both cars home" but let them fight.

that's the luxury of having a car immensely quicker than anyone else. lots of f1 fans seem to think that's normal, and would gladly throw a title away.

Since I saw the battle, I obviously heard that...

There's no telling what orders we didn't hear, despite the rules.

 

[_Rick_]

Team orders are legal, ever since Massa was told to let Alonso past, and the FIA just realized there was nothing they could do.
And judging by what happened into turn 1, several times, they were not "keeping the order".
In Malaysia last year, the team orders kind of made sense, since they were on the back foot in the championship, and desperately looking to get points. This season, if they crash out, it's bad, but not nearly as catastrophic, and this was about race victory, where team orders tend to not get respected anyway - again, look at what Vettel did in Malaysia. If you can have a go for the top step, you have that go, nevermind what the radio chatter is indicating.

 

[boomhower]

So basically we are going to rehash last year except with a different color car at the front. Yay. (well and they have two Championship capable drivers so at least they can fight each other)

The engines were closed up way to soon. Mercedes found an edge which is great for them but bad for the sport. With the aero things Red Bull and Mercedes in the past have found other teams could develop to match as the season went on. But with the engines closed up there is no improving. It's said and done but the writing on the wall at this point. Only question is whether Red Bull/Ferrari can stay competitive with Force India and Williams over the course of the year.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

So basically we are going to rehash last year except with a different color car at the front. Yay. (well and they have two Championship capable drivers so at least they can fight each other)

The engines were closed up way to soon. Mercedes found an edge which is great for them but bad for the sport. With the aero things Red Bull and Mercedes in the past have found other teams could develop to match as the season went on. But with the engines closed up there is no improving. It's said and done but the writing on the wall at this point. Only question is whether Red Bull/Ferrari can stay competitive with Force India and Williams over the course of the year.

mercedes have a huge edge right now, but the title is far from guaranteed. imo, the titles are of much less interest than the fighting on the track, so i'll still enjoy it as long as the action is good.

 

[JulesMaximus]

What a phenomenal race today! Lots of great battles, Rosberg and Hamilton battling for the lead on the final laps.

 

[Skurge]

Meh,

I don't mind that Mercedes are 3secs a lap faster than everyone else, as long as as there is a fight for the win and if there is similar battles going on down the field then this will be a great year, even if I am a Mclaren fan and I am getting sick of them producing crappy cars.

How did they end up slower than Force India and Williams. They are slower than Ferrari and Red Bull who have a MASSIVE power disadvantage. It seems like whoever leaves mclaren ends up doing better (Hamilton/Perez)

 

[Koing]

Really enjoyed this race. Lots of over taking.

Koing

 

[velillen]

Awesome race! Im only just getting into F1 (started watching it last year) and this was the best race i have seen so far. Racing from spot 1 down to 12-13 and racing between teams too.

The restart really showed the power advantage Mercedes has. Both cars were gone soon as the race started back up. It was also fun to bring the top 2 back close instead of having a 6 second gap or whatever it was for the finish. But the race also showed which teams were struggling a bit too. Alonso telling his team he has no power as Force India (i believe it was) just drove right past him was interesting to see.

Hopefully we will see plenty more races that are this exciting and less like the first two

 

[Brian Stirling]

Yeah, I don't get all the whining about Merc being ahead and the limited passing of F1. This is road racing and there's going to be less passing just as there's less passing when NASCAR hits the road circuits. There are fewer passes but everyone of them matter -- in oval racing nothing much matters until the final 30 laps or so. It won't be long before Red Bull closes the gap.

Now, I don't particularly like the look of the front on the cars and the tractor sound totally blows but the racing is still great.


Brian

 

[redgtxdi]

How about the absolute NIMRODS in the production booth who couldn't take the camera off 5, 6, & 7 for 2 seconds to show us the battle at the front!!

Here we have the most amazing racing going on at the front, both guys disobeying orders, Hamilton at the supposed disadvantage (my guess is that Nico's tires started to give from all the racing & eventually the tire advantage was leveled) and practically swapping paint, and they take the cameras off to go look at the back of the field. WTF!!!!!!

Production crew should all be FIRED!!

P.S. As for the turbos, ya they suck, but they'll tell you it's the future of automotive engineering in general. Well, I've got a thought or two......

#1.) The kind of engines in F1 have little to do with what will reach our Fords & Toyotas, though they'll argue otherwise

#2.) We haven't even done the Ecoboost thing in passenger cars long enough to see how much it costs average middle-income John & Mary to replace their turbos once they blow. More moving parts (and fast at that) and we're supposed to think it's just FREE-MPG???

DO THEY THINK TURBOS ARE MAINTENANCE-FREE AND JUST GO FOREVER??? (Give it a few more years & we'll find out how much that turbo in that 2.0L blue oval REALLY costs)

 

[The Boston Dangler]

the application is certainly different, but technologies and experience can transfer to road cars.

as for turbos, 75% of the energy in fuel goes out the tailpipe without moving the car. either you recover as much of that as possible with a turbine generator, or you throw it all away. this is the future of all cars. last time i checked, turbos were covered under the same warranty as the rest of the car. the technology is centuries old and factories crank out millions of turbo-equipped cars every year, so i think there is enough maturity to stop panicking.