FORUMula1.com

[acosmichippo]

and it's not like turn 15 is a super weird corner.

[Hammer278]

Autosprint Italia is reporting that Vettel attributes his success at Buddh to a magic line through Corner 15. He claims it gave him three to four tenths per lap.

Must've been a worm hole at that corner none of the other drivers found. Curious that didn't show in the video.

[Matt_1222]

doubtful, looked to me like he took the same line as everyone else.

edit: just watched, he took the line that i would have taken, people on f1 2011 take that line, trying to take credit for what his car does >_>

also can't believe he thinks that he got 13 poles in a 2011 season is as good as it used to be when there was only 16 races

[racechick]

1 lap quali was a bit dreary compared to what was before and what came after...

The current system is fine, they just need unlimited tyres for it / quali tyres, so there's no opting to stay in the garage.

Or just have unlimited tyres for the whole weekend.

LOL

Spot the obvious fix to help Lewis Hamilton

No not really. Time wasted in pits wont get wins. But it might stop people dicking around in Q3 and doing nothing. And would lead to more interesting and differing tyre strategies

[myownalias]

There's a very easy solution to stop teams/drivers electing not to run in Q3; a five place grid drop if they don't set a time inside 107% of pole (which should be easily achievable if they have made it into the top 10 shoot-out); obviously there will be exceptions, for example should a car have mechanical issues or had a shunt in the previous Q2 session.

[andrew]

Even simpler, make it mandatory that each driver has to do at least 1 timed lap in Q3 or they will have been considered to have not set a time and will be out of the race.

[racechick]

Or simply give umlimited tyres

[andrew]

But that doesn't stop anyone from not going out in Q3. They could claim they are saving fuel, engine and gearbox.

[racechick]

But that doesn't stop anyone from not going out in Q3. They could claim they are saving fuel, engine and gearbox.

Yes but the actual reason they dont go out is that they want to save the tyres. New tyres are better than one or two places up on the grid. If tyre saving isnt an issue theres no reason not to battle for those grid spots.They dont need to save petrol in quali.

[andrew]

But that doesn't stop anyone from not going out in Q3. They could claim they are saving fuel, engine and gearbox.

Yes but the actual reason they dont go out is that they want to save the tyres. New tyres are better than one or two places up on the grid. If tyre saving isnt an issue theres no reason not to battle for those grid spots.They dont need to save petrol in quali.

I know that's the reason. I like my idea, no show in Q3 and they don't race - it would work with the tyre restrictions.

[myownalias]

If we had unlimited tyres; that'd mean the cost saving exercise would be over; more tyres, more transportation costs and more cost to the teams, the three newbies already struggle with finances.

[GRHinPorts]

But that doesn't stop anyone from not going out in Q3. They could claim they are saving fuel, engine and gearbox.

Yes but the actual reason they dont go out is that they want to save the tyres. New tyres are better than one or two places up on the grid. If tyre saving isnt an issue theres no reason not to battle for those grid spots.They dont need to save petrol in quali.

IMO a better solution to any that has been suggest so far is to give the Q3 competitors a super fast "qualifying" tyre that maybe offers a 2 second per lap advantage but is absolutely only ever going to last 2-3 laps. That way we see all the drivers absolutely flying in Q3 and nobody has to worry about saving tyres. Also nobody in Q3 will have any advantage over those who went out in Q1 & Q2 because the "qualy" tyre will be totally useless for the race.

Racechick - The reason I suggested unlimited tyres would advantage Lewis is because it would allow him to maximise his strongest asset (the ability to go faster than most over a single lap) for longer, whilst at the same time minimalise his weakest point (the ability to keep his tyres from degrading too quickly and therefore compromise his ongoing race pace). All of this shows up in particular sharp contrast with the relative strengths and weaknesses of his teammate Jenson Button.

If there were unlimited tyres for the race all the drivers would be multi-stopping because the advantage of going faster over each single lap on fresh tyres pretty much negates the time lost for the extra pitstops.

[andrew]

I've been against the cost savings/budget caps from the very start. I'm all for the big spending and have little sympathy for the newbies. They should know how much F1 costs to compete in and if they fail to understand that then tough.

[GRHinPorts]

I've been against the cost savings/budget caps from the very start. I'm all for the big spending and have little sympathy for the newbies. They should know how much F1 costs to compete in and if they fail to understand that then tough.

Surely the additional tyre cost would be picked up by Pirelli anyway?

[LewEngBridewell]

I've been against the cost savings/budget caps from the very start. I'm all for the big spending and have little sympathy for the newbies. They should know how much F1 costs to compete in and if they fail to understand that then tough.

It didn't used to cost this much to compete. If it cost this much in decades gone by, just think... great teams like Williams may not have been able to form!

I'm all for making it more affordable for smaller teams... they have the proper racing spirit and drive that corporate manufacturers like Honda, Toyota, BMW and so forth always lacked. The more teams the merrier IMO.