F1 and Motorsport Forums
Sure mods would cost some money and if a team is at their $ limit then they won't be able to go faster but if they have the funds in their budget then they will be able to make a run at it. It is just part of running an F1 team to a budget. Now If they can drive those huge costs out of the over complicated engines themselves in 2016 then there would be alot more room for a given team to spend a little on being more competitive race to race be it engines or otherwise. They could afford to be innovative which imo is what F1 is all about.
Not sure how you came up with that one, since no one has suggested that Mercedes not keep developing their engines.
What's being sought after is the opportunity to catch up, rather than be expected to make up the numbers on the grid.
The rules produced a dull, predictable F1 season in 2014 and due to Mercedes blocking reasonable engine rule updates it looks like 2015 will be the same. And here we are long before preseason testing has even started and we already know which team will be wcc and who will win the wdc. Not much value in it imo if the other teams are held back.
Horner proposes to reintroduce engine development freeze, but only on the ERS bits
I and all the F1 supporters I know agree 100% Cevert.
F1 desperately needs an injection of competition but after the first test as you say it does look like a repeat of the regulated boredom that we saw last season. Mercedes engine advantage was almost 2 sec per lap last year and may be the same this season because of the inadequate engine development regs. Most of the engine is frozen unfortunately making it very difficult for competitors to catch up to the Mercedes technology.
The only hope is that even with a reducing number of tokens that some brilliant engineers at Renault or Ferrari can make a breakthrough or an innovation so that there is wheel to wheel racing between the top drivers at the front of the grid..
If that's what you have to tell yourself to live with the hypocrisy. Hamilton fans don't come in your flavor, extra bitter, so don't flatter yourself. You is what you is, no more. I say keep embodying the stereotypical essence of what it means to be a tifosi, you do a fine job at it.
After the agony of defeat, success will be sweet!If that's what you have to tell yourself to live with the hypocrisy. Hamilton fans don't come in your flavor, extra bitter, so don't flatter yourself. You is what you is, no more. I say keep embodying the stereotypical essence of what it means to be a tifosi, you do a fine job at it.
Considering you have no clue who I am or what I am, it's impossible to take offence at such bias.
Considering you have no clue who I am or what I am, it's impossible to take offence at such bias.
After the agony of defeat, success will be sweet!That being said, if this is not who you are then you spend quite a lot of time creating a virtual persona which is sad.
This is not my real world.
!
Considering you have no clue who I am or what I am,
This is not my real world.
On [img]http://tv.xunghe.vn/images/logo/ESPN.gif[/img]'s The Final Stint, Deputy Editor, Laurence Edmondson wrote:A case for equalisation
Is Formula One really broken? Does it really need the FIA to step in and put the brakes on Mercedes? It all depends on how you view the sport.
If you view it as pure entertainment then Sunday's Australian Grand Prix is cause for concern. But if you view it as the pursuit of technical excellence then you would have enjoyed seeing Mercedes leave the rest of the field 30 seconds behind. For most people, however, the answer lies somewhere in between those extremes. I you are one of those people, it will be difficult to agree with Christian Horner's comments but you won't find yourself able to ignore them.
Mercedes' dominance would be fine if the others were in a position to catch up, but the result of a winter's work suggests it is mammoth task that is only due to become more difficult as the engine regulations tighten towards a total freeze in 2020. Under the technical regulations controlling engine development, 8% of the power unit was frozen for good last year and the manufacturers were allowed to improve performance on 48% of the power unit components under the token system (see sidebar). Next year 23% of the power unit will be off limits with the manufacturers allowed to work on just 38%. By 2019 95% of the power unit will be frozen and just 5% will be left to be tinkered with.
Engineers insist those figures are not as restrictive as they look on paper, but the point is that Mercedes appears to have increased its advantage over the winter. In a year when there was the most flexibility for redesigning, Mercedes was able to build on a very solid platform and find significant gains while Ferrari and Renault went back to the drawing board to make big changes. By the time the rest of the tokens are spent, the biggest window to close the gap will be closed for good.
Ferrari undoubtedly made a step forward over the winter - the size of which is probably best illustrated by Sauber's improvement - but the real world impact compared to Mercedes will make for depressing reading at Maranello. Last year Fernando Alonso finished 35 seconds off the winning Mercedes with the unloved Ferrari F14-T and this year Sebastian Vettel was 34.5 seconds off the lead Mercedes with the much-improved SF15-T. Proof that progress is always relative in Formula One.
Renault, meanwhile, has spent 20 of its 32 tokens and taken a backwards step. By the time the manufacturer gets on top of its driveability issues (which it should be able to do through software updates rather than token spending) it should have moved forwards of its 2014 position, but while Renault dithers Mercedes is streaking ahead with just five more tokens spent this year.
In past seasons rivals have closed the gap when the leading team starts to experience the law of diminishing returns from its design, but the V6 turbo engines and ERS units are still premature technologies with plenty of scope for development. It's one thing to say Ferrari and Renault should work harder, as Toto Wolff did at the weekend, but it's another to expect them to perform miracles.
Even if your team has a Mercedes power unit, the situation isn't much better. Williams appears to have lost ground to Mercedes over the winter despite using the same power unit, fuel and lubricants. The W06 Hybrid and FW37 are very different cars with very different strengths, so perhaps Albert Park suited the Mercedes better, but is it really a surprise that the team with an in-house engine team is making progress over the customer with fewer resources? Williams is determined to catch up and its fighting spirit should be admired, but when so much of the sport is stacked in favour of bigger teams it will require Mercedes to mess up for Williams to catch up. Teams with an even poorer financial standing within the sport face Williams' problems multiplied twice over, and so unless the distribution of prize money is addressed the likes of Lotus and Force India have to prioritise survival over success.
Of course, there is another way to overhaul Mercedes and it involves starting from scratch like McLaren and Honda. The new partnership may have got off to a miserable start in Australia, but the true potential of the Honda power unit is still a mystery. If there is latent potential in the Honda engine then we could see a fight in 2016 or 2017, but it won't come soon enough to appease those knocking the sport now and doesn't solve the problems facing Ferrari and Red Bull.
The other way to view Honda's struggles is less positive for the long-term future of the sport. It could be argued that Honda's situation highlights the concern that the engine formula is far too complex for its own good and manufacturers watching from outside could be put off a Formula One project. Despite having over two years to prepare and huge resources and know-how, Honda turned up at the first race and was over five seconds off the pace. If any new manufacturer wanted to come into the sport and hit the ground running, it might now consider that it would need three to four years to do the job properly and that would mean targeting 2018. With the future of the regulations seemingly open for debate, would it make sense to throw such resources at such a long-term project with no guarantee of success?
It may seem unfair to rein in a team that has done a better job than the rest of the field, but it would not be the first time it has happened for the sake of entertainment. Ultimately, F1 is a product that has competition from whatever is on other TV channels, and one team dominating significantly limits its appeal. As sad as it may be, there are not enough people out there interested in engineering excellence to maintain a one team show and the expenditure of those trying to catch up. Something has to change.
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