FIA considers freeing up aero rules.
Posted by **Taylor**
Taken from Autosport.com....
The FIA is considering a radical plan to allow flexi wings in Formula One if teams reject its push for a standard chassis in the future, autosport.com has learned.
Talks are currently ongoing to frame future regulations from 2011, with the FIA making it clear it wants more road-relevant energy efficient engines to be introduced.
As well as that, the FIA wants an overhaul of car regulations too. The governing body has made no secret of the fact that it believes a standard chassis would be the best way of reducing costs and improving the show.
Its stance was made clear in a letter circulated to F1 team principals earlier this month, a copy of which has been seen by autosport.com, in which FIA president Max Mosley outlined his vision for the future.
Meetings are scheduled between the FIA and the teams for after the British Grand Prix to discuss the radical plan and come up with alternative proposals if the teams are not happy.
"We believe that a standard chassis is the best solution," wrote Mosley in his letter. "The competition would then be between drivers armed with rival, fuel-efficient drive trains but otherwise in equal cars. Painted differently and with different sponsors, the cars would look as different as they do today to anyone but an expert.
"But if the teams want to continue to make individual chassis, we need some proposals which really do meet the four agreed objectives of road-relevance, safety, cost reduction and improving the show. We also need to ensure the survival of the independent teams."
Mosley acknowledges that teams are unlikely to accept plans to adopt a standard chassis, but he believes that only a radical alternative solution will be of any benefit.
And that is why he has suggested the idea of freeing up the aerodynamic regulations to allow flexi wings - which have been banned for many years in F1.
"One example of radical change would be to permit moveable aerodynamic devices," added Mosley. "Arguably, the safety problems of 40 years ago no longer exist.
"Modern Formula One technology is sufficiently mature to eliminate the risks of both passive and active aero devices. Moreover, the FIA is already confronted with ever-more sophisticated moving bodywork. Engineers appreciate that when subjected to a force, everything moves – it is just a question of how much.
"Immense time and effort is currently going into making bodywork which moves enough to enhance performance, however slightly, but not enough to excite the interest of the regulator or rival teams. This is not satisfactory; it is wasteful, expensive, ultimately pointless and contrary to sporting fairness.
"With moveable aero devices, both active and passive, designers would have an incentive to build a car which the driver could adjust to optimise performance when following another car. This would facilitate wheel-to-wheel racing.
"There are also a number of areas where active aero could be road-relevant, for example cooling systems. But part of any discussion on moveable devices would have to be how to contain the resulting increase in performance.
"In the hope of starting a useful debate on a new approach to chassis design with variable aerodynamics, we are preparing a discussion paper similar to the one on engines.
"Among other things this will look at the implications of moveable devices and any changes to engine output, which might become necessary in order to contain speeds. This paper will be circulated as soon as it is ready.
"We think it might perhaps be useful to follow it up with a discussion in the second week of July (after the British Grand Prix), at which each team would be given an opportunity to present its ideas (ideally in writing beforehand) and answer questions on future Formula One regulations, either alone or jointly with other teams."
Personally I think it would be very interesting if drivers could control their wing levels from corner to corner, straight to straight - It would give the driver more opportunity to influence the speed of his (or her
) car. Another skill to master if you like....
The FIA is considering a radical plan to allow flexi wings in Formula One if teams reject its push for a standard chassis in the future, autosport.com has learned.
Talks are currently ongoing to frame future regulations from 2011, with the FIA making it clear it wants more road-relevant energy efficient engines to be introduced.
As well as that, the FIA wants an overhaul of car regulations too. The governing body has made no secret of the fact that it believes a standard chassis would be the best way of reducing costs and improving the show.
Its stance was made clear in a letter circulated to F1 team principals earlier this month, a copy of which has been seen by autosport.com, in which FIA president Max Mosley outlined his vision for the future.
Meetings are scheduled between the FIA and the teams for after the British Grand Prix to discuss the radical plan and come up with alternative proposals if the teams are not happy.
"We believe that a standard chassis is the best solution," wrote Mosley in his letter. "The competition would then be between drivers armed with rival, fuel-efficient drive trains but otherwise in equal cars. Painted differently and with different sponsors, the cars would look as different as they do today to anyone but an expert.
"But if the teams want to continue to make individual chassis, we need some proposals which really do meet the four agreed objectives of road-relevance, safety, cost reduction and improving the show. We also need to ensure the survival of the independent teams."
Mosley acknowledges that teams are unlikely to accept plans to adopt a standard chassis, but he believes that only a radical alternative solution will be of any benefit.
And that is why he has suggested the idea of freeing up the aerodynamic regulations to allow flexi wings - which have been banned for many years in F1.
"One example of radical change would be to permit moveable aerodynamic devices," added Mosley. "Arguably, the safety problems of 40 years ago no longer exist.
"Modern Formula One technology is sufficiently mature to eliminate the risks of both passive and active aero devices. Moreover, the FIA is already confronted with ever-more sophisticated moving bodywork. Engineers appreciate that when subjected to a force, everything moves – it is just a question of how much.
"Immense time and effort is currently going into making bodywork which moves enough to enhance performance, however slightly, but not enough to excite the interest of the regulator or rival teams. This is not satisfactory; it is wasteful, expensive, ultimately pointless and contrary to sporting fairness.
"With moveable aero devices, both active and passive, designers would have an incentive to build a car which the driver could adjust to optimise performance when following another car. This would facilitate wheel-to-wheel racing.
"There are also a number of areas where active aero could be road-relevant, for example cooling systems. But part of any discussion on moveable devices would have to be how to contain the resulting increase in performance.
"In the hope of starting a useful debate on a new approach to chassis design with variable aerodynamics, we are preparing a discussion paper similar to the one on engines.
"Among other things this will look at the implications of moveable devices and any changes to engine output, which might become necessary in order to contain speeds. This paper will be circulated as soon as it is ready.
"We think it might perhaps be useful to follow it up with a discussion in the second week of July (after the British Grand Prix), at which each team would be given an opportunity to present its ideas (ideally in writing beforehand) and answer questions on future Formula One regulations, either alone or jointly with other teams."
Personally I think it would be very interesting if drivers could control their wing levels from corner to corner, straight to straight - It would give the driver more opportunity to influence the speed of his (or her
) car. Another skill to master if you like....wouldn't eveyrone just do the same settings as each other for each corner at each track though, nullifying the adjustment?
RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael
RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael
Brilliant, when following a car put some more wing, and then on the straight put low wing without changing the f1 to much.
without changing the f1 to much.Well I just think that if it's driver controlled it's another thing for them to think about & potentially either gain an advantage or lose out on. Sort of a modern day equivalent of when drivers could miss gears before the semi-auto sequential boxes were introduced....
IMHO anything that gives the driver more of an influence as to how fast they are (and not been mostly constrained to how good their car is), can only be a good thing...!
IMHO anything that gives the driver more of an influence as to how fast they are (and not been mostly constrained to how good their car is), can only be a good thing...!
I hated it, cuz its making the whole game too much complicated for my taste. They SHOULD stop being lazy and BAN these aero devices.
"I'm an artist, the track is my canvas, and the car is my brush."
"I'm an artist, the track is my canvas, and the car is my brush."
definitely NO to standardised chassis, designing & building your own car is the very core of what F1 is. i don't even like the customer chassis for '08, but that's what we'll get, so...
and i also have to say no to moveable aero. remove electronic aids and all the little aero devices, add high-grip slick tyres, and there will be enough of a difference compared to now, to make racing exciting again. with those changes, we wouldn't need the extra factor of driver-controlled wings to bring some excitement back.
RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2007 03:25PM by Muks_C.
and i also have to say no to moveable aero. remove electronic aids and all the little aero devices, add high-grip slick tyres, and there will be enough of a difference compared to now, to make racing exciting again. with those changes, we wouldn't need the extra factor of driver-controlled wings to bring some excitement back.
RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2007 03:25PM by Muks_C.
Standard chassis would rip away at the very core of F1 IMHO. Unless teams were permitted to develop the standard chassis in any way they liked, and were given ample testing time to do it.
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Don't think the whole slick tyres, no driver aids etc... idea is feasible for Max and the FIA as it won't aid road cars. All the new regulations are aimed at cutting costs and/or aiding the design of road cars. Banning winglets might be an option, but Max never seems to take the simple route.
ban max and bernie from F1
Its ridiculous to make F1 an reference for new road cars improvements, The engine manufacturers HAVE OTHER SERIES TO DO IT (Rallyes, WTCC..)
"I'm an artist, the track is my canvas, and the car is my brush."
Its ridiculous to make F1 an reference for new road cars improvements, The engine manufacturers HAVE OTHER SERIES TO DO IT (Rallyes, WTCC..)
"I'm an artist, the track is my canvas, and the car is my brush."
Surely series whcih require homologation should be more connected to road use rather than F1?
Although if they want it to relate more to road technology then bring back manual H boxes
Although if they want it to relate more to road technology then bring back manual H boxes
More and more people drive an automatic though
Senna Wrote:
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> ban max and bernie from F1
>
> Its ridiculous to make F1 an reference for new
> road cars improvements, The engine manufacturers
> HAVE OTHER SERIES TO DO IT (Rallyes, WTCC..)
Why is it ridiculous? The data gathered in all forms of motorsport will be used to design road cars, not much point going out and gathering the same data in a road car is there?
Flexi wings aren't going to improve the racing as all the cars will practically do the same thing... If anything it will make the racing worse if one team manages to make a better job of it. Does Mr Mosley really believe the drivers would control the wings? All the designers would do is come up with a smart spring loaded system which would lock the aero devices in a position to cause less drag and then release under heavy breaking.
What the FIA should do is free up is the diffuser and floor area of the car and taking away so much of the reliance on the upper body of the car to generate downforce. But that's just too simple for the FIA
.
Single car chassis? Ermm... No! May as well watch GP2, A1GP etc. F1 is about different teams and different equipment, that's why I watch it. Although the regulations are very tight it's still nice to watch cars from different factories coming within a few tenths of a second.
Keiran
vMax.Keiran
Velocity Maximum Simulation Racing
www.vMaxSR.com
www.liveforspeed.net LFS Status:
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> ban max and bernie from F1
>
> Its ridiculous to make F1 an reference for new
> road cars improvements, The engine manufacturers
> HAVE OTHER SERIES TO DO IT (Rallyes, WTCC..)
Why is it ridiculous? The data gathered in all forms of motorsport will be used to design road cars, not much point going out and gathering the same data in a road car is there?
Flexi wings aren't going to improve the racing as all the cars will practically do the same thing... If anything it will make the racing worse if one team manages to make a better job of it. Does Mr Mosley really believe the drivers would control the wings? All the designers would do is come up with a smart spring loaded system which would lock the aero devices in a position to cause less drag and then release under heavy breaking.
What the FIA should do is free up is the diffuser and floor area of the car and taking away so much of the reliance on the upper body of the car to generate downforce. But that's just too simple for the FIA
.Single car chassis? Ermm... No! May as well watch GP2, A1GP etc. F1 is about different teams and different equipment, that's why I watch it. Although the regulations are very tight it's still nice to watch cars from different factories coming within a few tenths of a second.
Keiran
vMax.Keiran
Velocity Maximum Simulation Racing
www.vMaxSR.com
www.liveforspeed.net LFS Status:
FFS will the FIA make up their mind, they dont have a clue about the future do they!!
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Trying to make F1 relevant to road going cars is a pointless PR task. How much does a F1 car have in common with a sedan? Not much, apart from tires and an engine. Same can be said of almost every other auto racing series extant.
Lets stop kidding ourselves here.
Usually I applaud Max for being open to new solutions and technologies, but the sooner we put this magic genie of "relevancy" back into its bottle the better off the sport will be. Moveable aero isn't a bad idea though. Add slicks and a return of v-10 and v-12 engines and then we can get back to real racing. Hell, even a new generation of fuel efficient turbo engines appeals to me, as long as they are not neutered by the technical regs to the point of redundancy the way the ruined them in the late 1980's.....
"There are some pikeys there at Turn 10 putting tarmac down - what do you think of that?" - Martin Brundle
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2007 03:38AM by Jagdpanzer.
Lets stop kidding ourselves here.
Usually I applaud Max for being open to new solutions and technologies, but the sooner we put this magic genie of "relevancy" back into its bottle the better off the sport will be. Moveable aero isn't a bad idea though. Add slicks and a return of v-10 and v-12 engines and then we can get back to real racing. Hell, even a new generation of fuel efficient turbo engines appeals to me, as long as they are not neutered by the technical regs to the point of redundancy the way the ruined them in the late 1980's.....
"There are some pikeys there at Turn 10 putting tarmac down - what do you think of that?" - Martin Brundle
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2007 03:38AM by Jagdpanzer.
Oh yeah, it will be nice to allow flexi wings...this ideea is brilliant
Scuderia Ferrari Forever
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