Formula One - 2016 Season

[mexos]

Also - the halo is there to deflect. The test they use, a wheel being fired at it deflects the wheel upwards. It introduces the possibility of the wheel scaling a fence and landing in the crowd. 

 

Fix one thing, break another. 

 

It's a shitty half solution to a problem that imo won't be solved any time soon. 

 

 

 

[Dudley]

I don't think "exposed heads" is part of the definition of the sport anymore than "No seatbelts" is. But then I also don't think the halo makes it any less "Open cockpit"

 

 

Yeah, in a race that's not going to affect them even a tiny bit.

[Shimmyhill]

Not sure the Halo would have saved Jules and it has to give vision issues at times.

 

im for safety but I don't like this one as it seems to be a plaster covering a bit of the wound rather than a solution - I don't have the solution mind.

[Moodmon]

As harsh as it is to say, what could have saved Jules?  He went head first into a digger/similar at speed.  Short of a fairly reinforced cockpit, what would have stopped that?  Open to suggestions, I honestly don't know.

 

I am glad the drivers can see through the halo, but not sure how they will get on for seeing the starting lights.  I can see both points - safety first and foremost but at what point do you just put a closed cockpit on it and call it a day?  Then again I am sure if we are having this discussion then much more intelligent people are also trying to find a solution.

 

And the FIA.  Welp.

[Dudley]

They need to solve the escape issues with closed cockpits, this won't affect that but will help.  It's not really different to raised cockpit sides.

 

[JPR]

1 hour ago, Moodmon said:

As harsh as it is to say, what could have saved Jules?  He went head first into a digger/similar at speed.  Short of a fairly reinforced cockpit, what would have stopped that?  Open to suggestions, I honestly don't know.

 

I don't think anything could have, the peak forces in his helmet where the equivalent to dropping the car from 48 meters onto the ground. The FIA said a closed cockpit wouldn't have made a difference, there isn't enough impact structure on an F1 car to deal with the energy and make it survivable.

 

The key is to make sure the situations for a similar crash don't arise again, so things like the virtual safety car.

[Dudley]

Supposition of course but last year, Kimi to the fastest Manor was 4.2 seconds in qualifying.

 

If the reported 0.8s gain of the ultra softs is accurate and Pascal and Kimi really did do qualifying runs today as reported that gap is now 1.5 seconds.

 

2.7 seconds gained.

[mexos]

Notbad.gif

Notbad.gif

[merman]

So they changed the qualifying format again.

and there was no driver consultation.

 

Omnishambles.

[MrPogo]

It's the implementation rather than the theory I don't like. I'd envisaged something a bit like this when I'd heard about the idea before; more of a minimalist metal cage you'd hardly see (especially if a chrome colour etc) rather than something so visually obtrusive. I suppose can only assume the protection value would be lowered massively with more that sort of design.

[wev]

Yeah that looks about as safe as sticking a shopping basket over the cockpit

[kiroquai]

So they've apparently been testing these in a couple of team simulators already; general gist is they take a while to get used to, but the drivers found them pretty reasonable to deal with and that quite quickly they just look beyond it anyway. In terms of sims/games I can understand that pretty well - I drove a 30 lap race on F1 2015 the other day in cockpit and it wasn't until after the race that I noticed there had been a whacking great piece of carbon fibre jutting up from the middle of the chassis just in front of where I was sat. Had completely phased it out whilst I was zooming around.

 

To be honest, I say they go for it. It wouldn't have saved Jules (the only thing that would have is a properly deployed safety car, but that's a rant I've gone on before) but it could certainly deflect a flying wheel or bigger pieces of debris and that's enough to justify it to me. I agree with Dudley that it doesn't - in my opinion - alter the fact they are open cockpit cars, and I'd go as far as to say I'd welcome a full canopy. The key aspect of Formula One to me is the open wheel part of it, not the open cockpit.

 

I finally completed my set of 1:43 'Brackley F1' cars today (save the 2002 cars that were never made) with the two 2004 BAR Hondas. Celebrated having spent so much money by spending even more on a nice centrepiece car, complete with custom case and plaque.

 

 

 

Nico should be safe from gusts of wind in that thing

[kiroquai]

 zing! To be honest I think this year is his last chance. If he can somehow carry his late-season mojo on from last year and get under Lewis' skin then he could do it. If he flails around putting in average performances like he did at the start of 2015 then it's gone. It's what makes the driver pairing so much fun to watch, though - they're both really easy to wind up and half the time they resort to silly, childish things in an attempt to do it!

 

Interestingly, I have... er... come across information that Lewis becoming available late in 2012 put paid to plans of Mercedes running a Nico and Nico partnership from 2013. Shame, as I still would love to see what Hulkenberg could do with a race-winning car. I guess you could say that for quite a few drivers though.

 

 

[Nick_L]

Just want to say I'm 100% jelly of your collection kiroquai. Epic.

[mexos]

Hey McLaren please paint your cars like this! 

[Dudley]

13 hours ago, MrPogo said:

It's the implementation rather than the theory I don't like. I'd envisaged something a bit like this when I'd heard about the idea before; more of a minimalist metal cage you'd hardly see (especially if a chrome colour etc) rather than something so visually obtrusive. I suppose can only assume the protection value would be lowered massively with more that sort of design.

 

I think that would actually affect vision worse than the real design because there's 2 pillars both right where you need to be looking for corners.

[T Pot]

Someone made a mockup of the view:

 

[Sidewaysbob]

And that's why i ALWAYS got for the nose cam

[wev]

Wouldnt it also make getting out the car difficult? Dont they run a test to make sure a driver can get out of the car in an alloted time?

[Dudley]

A proper version would be hinged.

 

I'm not convinced by that mock up, I think the top of your effective vision in a helmet would be lower. It's the usual thing of games thinking people stare at the bottom of the dashboard when driving normal cars.

[MrPogo]

On 3 March 2016 at 1:07 PM, Dudley said:

They need to solve the escape issues with closed cockpits, this won't affect that but will help.  It's not really different to raised cockpit sides.

 

Fuck this shitty new forum software. This is not the post I want to quote! This board is pretty much unusable now

[merman]

And now there will be elimination qualifying at the first race of the season.

 

So we have an unnecessary change rushed through, altered twice, without the graphics to let TV viewers know what is going on and all done without consulting the drivers - and no guarantee it will actually make qualifying any more exciting. In fact some are saying it will make things WORSE as tyres wear out early and we end up with empty track again...

[Dudley]

[wev]

Is that their fastest times or an overall average? (If its the latter someone had a lot of time on their hands)

[Dudley]

The single fastest time set.  Not everyone ran ultra softs or in the same conditions of course but I suspect it's not far off, except Mercedes have absolutely not shown their hand.

[MrPogo]

Yeah, hard to read much into it. Teams struggling will often do a proper "qualifying lap" to make things look better than they are, whilst those who have really nailed it will sandbag greatly!

[MrPogo]

10 hours ago, Dudley said:

 

I think that would actually affect vision worse than the real design because there's 2 pillars both right where you need to be looking for corners.

 

I wasn't proposing anyone use that exact design, just trying to demonstrate more what I expecting in a "steel tubes" sort of approach rather than "massive block of carbon fibre"!

[T Pot]

3 hours ago, merman said:

And now there will be elimination qualifying at the first race of the season.

 

So we have an unnecessary change rushed through, altered twice, without the graphics to let TV viewers know what is going on and all done without consulting the drivers - and no guarantee it will actually make qualifying any more exciting. In fact some are saying it will make things WORSE as tyres wear out early and we end up with empty track again...

 

I still think a hotlap would be better. Drivers do 3 laps.

 

Exit Lap

Timed Lap

Pit Lap

 

You push your car as hard as you can. You brake early, turn too wide, slide out a bit, that could mean the difference between 1st and 15th.

 

Each car goes in, next one goes out.

[JPR]

I thought the hotlap qualifying format was one of the worst ones we've had, a boring procession.

 

I was always happy with the 60 minutes 12 laps, I don't need something to be happening every second and often an exciting ending to look forward to.

 

Which is something we're surely going to lose now, no last minute jumps up the grid that will knock a big name out, only two cars able to go for pole at the end.  It didn't need changing.

 

[wev]

Was it the 60 minutes 12 laps format the one they ran in the late 90s that resulted in 3 cars (Schumacher, Hakinen & Frentzen?) Having the same time?