F1 - 2015 Australian Grand Prix

[A_Harman]

The car count was pathetic.
Manor racing didn't even get on track.
One of the McLaren's failed a power unit on the warmup lap.
One of the Red Bull's lost a transmission during the warmup.
One of the Lotuses was slow at the start, and retired at the end of the first lap.
And they want to do 20 races this year.
This hybrid F1 car era is very expensive and has already bankrupted two teams, yet Bernie keeps pushing for more races.
The race cars have become triple-complicated and it takes almost a whole night to do a power unit change.
The cars are 150 kg heavier and 8 seconds a lap slower than the relatively simple cars of 10 years ago.
One team has a performance advantage of one second per lap, and will only lose a race through attrition.
If this year is a Mercedes walkover similar to last year, people will lose interest in F1.

Could F1 be in trouble if things keep going as they are?

 

[gofast182]

There was a lot wrong with the Aus. GP. But the grid will refill and teams will get their issues sorted out.

In one sense I think this will be a defining year for F1. If McLaren Honda can't get it together (I believe they will by the European season, please see my blog post linked above) or Ferrari can't make the most of their new found pace there will be no hope of challenging Mercedes until the next set of rule changes in two years, they are the only teams who can do it and if neither can, it will cost the sport valuable fans and TV ratings. We're already seeing teams and Grands Prix themselves run without title sponsors amid the higher costs so it's not inconceivable a death spiral of sorts could begin. But good ol' Bernie ususally has a way of getting in and out of bad situations so we'll see what happens.

One area where I tend to agree with Bernie is the smaller teams. The caliber of team you attract and the funds they obtain are always proportional to what the cars cost so I don't have much reason to believe that things would change if costs were better controlled. Going back decades, how many small teams have come and gone? They come, sometimes bringing great drivers who ultimately get deposited elsewhere on the grid, stick around for a while, and then leave. It's the nature of things. I'm not saying don't welcome them but accept that they come and go instead of making huge pity stories out of them.

If it were me I'd change the formula to incorporate wheels and tires that are between 16-18" to be more relevant to street cars, engines could be NA or turbo (BOP applied) with only a state-of-the-art MGU-K (no MGU-H), up the power, up the fuel capacity of the cars by 10-20liters with no flow limit and let them figure out the efficiency, among other things. But what do I know?

In the meantime I'm glad the 2015 F1 season is on and we get to watch it all unfold.

 

[BikeWhisperer]

Give them 1000 hp and lots of traction then get rid of the hideous body work (single pane wings front and rear, no "winglets" or any of that [censored]). Get rid of wind tunnel testing, CFD designs only and you will eliminate a huge expense. Also offer customer chassis, F1 did this for years and many teams including current ones used customer chassis when they first got started. I agree with the wheels too, lets use what the industry has moved to. 18" with low profile tires.

Engine wise I think small turbo engines are the way the industry is headed so use those. Make the hybrid systems simpler, if Toyota can make a hybrid run 10 year plus reliably then F1 can make an engine and hybrid system last 5 races.

Lots of power with less down force will promote more (real) passing and better racing. The most skilled drivers will be fastest and Maldonado will consistently crash. Eliminate the cost of developing a chassis and more teams can participate. Maybe even get to the point where pre-qualifying is needed, last seen in the mid 90's.

Just my $0.02 from watching F1 since I was in the single digits

 

[Garak]

I can live with wind tunnel testing. It just seems to me that the current set of rules are just too expensive right now, especially in this early stage. Cutting edge is one thing, as is new technology. However, there is an issue of needless complexity. Why don't they just make a rule where they must run four laps on the gas engine followed by one lap on battery alone, if they want to make silly rules just for the sake of silly rules.