Filed under: Motorsports
Try, try again: FIA puts further restrictions on F1, freezes engine development
The World Motor Sport Council of the FIA, the international racing authority that governs Formula One, among other series, has rolled out a series of restrictions on the development of F1 cars starting with the coming 2008 season.
The restrictions include a complete freeze on engine development for the next ten years. In a speech delivered last week in Monaco at the Motor Sport Business Forum, FIA President Max Mosley (pictured at right) justified the decision by pointing out that the engines developed by F1's six engine suppliers – Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Toyota and Renault – are already evenly matched and incredibly advanced: "There is no need to develop an F1 engine any further." (Heck, let's go back to foot-powered Flinstones-mobiles then.)
The far-reaching restrictions also covered the use of wind-tunnels for the first time in the formula. The new regulations state that each team can only use one wind-tunnel, can only operate it for 15 runs per 8-hour day, no more than five days per week. Further limitations were set on how the wind-tunnel may be used, and to prevent teams from simply switching their personnel over to even more expensive Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulators, the FIA intends to put a cap on that, too.
Ross Brawn, former technical director at Ferrari and new team principal at Honda, recently pointed out that restrictions like these don't achieve their intended goal of reducing costs, they just force teams to find newer, more expensive ways to gain a performance edge. We'd have to agree with Brawn: you can't contain a competitive spirit, and F1's chock-full of 'em.
[Source: Autosport]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
aman 5:01PM (12/09/2007)
this is bs
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MixiM 5:57PM (12/09/2007)
The intent for this is to let the smaller teams have a chance to win.... Well in the 70's and 80's a small team could win the entire thing... But then technology within the great companies ran away from them and they could never catch up... This is what the FIA want's to stop, and that is the problem as some people have already stated.
The reason we love the series is because of that Lotus developed vacuum aerodynamics which got banned, the mad turbo era that went to a stop, because of the 4 front wheels on the Tyrell P34. This was ingenuity on a new level that now gets supressed every year by the FIA. Formula 1 is one of the most unrestricted series until next year, when the cars loose their TC... I understand that they want to make this a drivers competition.... but let the F3000 be that or some other subclass.... Let theese cars be the fastest thing on 4 wheels round a corner a track on this planet.
Where will manufacturers let their cutting edge engineering have a playground like this. This is why european cars (up until nowdays) been supperior in handling/chassis technology and engine efficiency....not only because of consumer demand.
why not the LS2LS7? 6:54PM (12/09/2007)
European cars superior in engine efficiency? What?
Perhaps you mean volumetric efficiency (power for displacement).
I always chalked that up to being because countries tax on displacement in Europe (or at least used to). Since displacement is only a rough relation to engine size or weight (or efficiency), there's no other good reason to concentrate on it as much as European companies do.
3000GT TwinTurbo 10:36PM (12/09/2007)
F1 Technology and advancement drives all of the automotive industry. It may take years, but the technology will make it to road cars. Stoping them from advancing is like saying..."No More Science!"
aman 5:01PM (12/09/2007)
this is bs
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JD 5:08PM (12/09/2007)
The FIA seems dead set on dismantling F1 piece by piece. Why? I just don't understand why they feel the need to mess with rules so much. If you take out all the development, then there's no purpose for F1- which is already a somewhat dubious prospect from a business standpoint- since the technology is really the biggest reason. Does it take a while for F1 tech to trickle down to the street? Of course. But it does get the ball rolling. I didn't see why they decided to freeze development in the first place, but for a frickin DECADE!?!?!! They're insane.
Basically, now's the time for the manufacturers to make their own breakaway series that is self governed, and not under the FIA. What a political nightmare that is, and it's gotten much worse recently.
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info 5:32PM (12/09/2007)
I fully agree. F1 used to be a series where technical development eventually found its way into everyday cars. What I see now could be called the nascarization of F1. Screw that! I hope the manufacturers will tell Mosely and Eckelstone, Inc. to go to hell and finally set up their own F1 series.
jordan 7:04PM (12/09/2007)
Agreed. The simplest thing (relatively speaking) would to be to get together with each other (the car companies) and discuss the possibility of starting a new series.
Michael 3:32AM (12/10/2007)
I whole-heartedly agree that a break-away series is in order. But I bet the manufacturers and teams who participate in F1 have probably signed something that prohibits them from doing so. But if an alternative race league was developed there must be some sort of regulation by people not affiliated with the teams participating to keep things fair.
llarbkd 5:19PM (12/09/2007)
Looking on the bright side... This means no V4s by 2011.
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Wally 5:30PM (12/09/2007)
"There is no need to develop an F1 engine any further."
Um, what about the fans enjoyment. Some people like seeing technology being showcased and seeing what sort of incremental performance benefits are realized with new tech being introduced season to season.
And what about the technology being implemented for the street? Street cars have been using race developed technology since the onset of racing, not just F1. Very discouraging.
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Chris Vitale 5:31PM (12/09/2007)
what a douche bag
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lithdoc 5:34PM (12/09/2007)
Each year F1 is getting less and less interesting to watch. Boring stuff, really.
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rndmnme 5:34PM (12/09/2007)
Welcome to NASCAR ladies and gentlemen
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James Rickertsen 5:43PM (12/09/2007)
This is plainly ridiculous. F1 has always and should always be about technological superiority. To me what sets F1 apart from other forms of motorsport is the technology. I have always marveled at the innovations that come out of F1. Now, its just going to be another NASCAR. I can understand some restrictions such as rpm limits etc, but completely stifling innovation altogether is thickheaded idiocy. They are going to kill the appeal of F1.
Even NASCAR doesn't have restrictions on what kind of developement can be done? Is this rule even enforceable?
The money will simply shift to better dampers or tires or brakes. It will not bring down the cost and it will not be good for the series of the world of motorsport as a whole.
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MemphisNET 5:46PM (12/09/2007)
Ok, I'm not big into F1, so forgive my ignorance on this. However, isn't product (racing) development done because of a) fun/sport and b) bringing that tech to the street one day? Will this not have a negative impact on product development for these vendors? I mean, I'll never own a Ferrari, not in 1:1 scale anyway - but it does seem a little short sighted. And 10years? 10 freaking years?
And yes, I miss REAL NASCAR. 'NAS' doesn't even mean anything. They have 4wheels a drivetrain, but they're not cars anymore.... not really anyway. Take me back to the 70's (minus the disco *laughs*)
Racing, no matter what kind, has always been about innovation. You take that away, and what do you have left?
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Vivek G. 5:55PM (12/09/2007)
F1 is quickly becoming just a more expensive, open wheel version of Nascar. Wait, isn't that what the Champ Car series is too? And Indy Car? Fantastic.
Lets all just go back to sports car racing, where its actually interesting to watch. Stop limiting F1, and then delete the redundant Nascar/Indy/Champ Car series, and we should be just fine.
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why not the LS2LS7? 5:56PM (12/09/2007)
Stupid stupid stupid stupid.
I can't say it's completely unexpected, since Champ Car and IRL took this route a few years back.
But it's really stupid. Drivers should be happy now though. With the engines on parity, drivers will be able to shop around for more rides.
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Mehul Kamdar 6:12PM (12/09/2007)
I was an F1 fan when I was a boy thirty plus years ago but have stopped watching any races in recent years. So have most of my friends, all of whom were equally interested in motorsports. Thanks, Max Moseley, for letting us know that we are absolutely in the right in not wasting time on the miserable end product of your empire. At the very least, I hope that severely declining revenues would lead to your being fired from your position at FIA's head, hopefully without any pension whatsoever.
Now, will the manufacturers who have been talking about starting their own racing series get off their backsides and actually start working to make the FIA completely irrelevant asap? They would do themselves and those who enjoy the sport a tremendous service if they worked really hard from this point on.
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tankd0g 6:19PM (12/09/2007)
Thank god this isn't the only racing on TV. Why not go to restrictor plates and oval while you're at it. Indy car is going to be more advanced than F1 by 2010.
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