F1 interesting ideas

I was thinking as they are going to introduce double points for the last race of the season, what else would spice F1 up?

My idea is that at the half-way point of the season, the top 6 drivers have to drive the bottom 6 cars for one race. There would be no points awarded in the driver's championship but there would be in the constructors. This means the teams would have to give full support to the drivers to get points. It also means low ranked drivers would get a chance in one of the best cars to see what they can do and the top drivers would get a taste of the back of the field cars.

Bring back refuelling

Allow more innovative designs. Limit it to one innovation per team.

I don't really like all these gimmicks like double points, fuel saving, DRS, Kers etc. Why can't we just have a pure Formula 1 grand prix season?

What GSC said!

Doing away with refuelling killed a big strategic / tactical element of races and also placed more emphasis on tyre conservation at the start of races, when the cars are heavy with fuel.

Refuelling also gave the smaller teams a chance to shine, if they were clever with their tactics...maybe running lighter early on and having a very late "splash and dash" with just a few laps to go.

Refuelling would also allow the cars to have smaller fuel tanks, making them lighter and freeing up space for other equipment...or at least easing the burden on the larger drivers to keep their weight down.


Also agree with Craig, but would like to see teams given almost unlimited freedom with car designs. The only stipulations would be that the car has to fit within a specified set of dimensions and aero devices are limited to the front and rear wings, to prevent the daft proliferation of fins / winglets etc. all over the car.

Think the only other thing I would ban is exhaust-blown diffusers, as it just seems wrong to have the engine throttling up to create exhaust gases, while the driver is actually braking. Basically anything that requires the engine to run "abnormally".

No problem with bodywork sculpting to direct airflow etc. If they could figure out a safe way to reintroduce side skirts to "seal" the bottom of the car, I think I'd be okay with that.

No problem with electronic driver aids, hydraulic mass dampers or anything like that.

sportform wrote:I don't really like all these gimmicks like double points, fuel saving, DRS, Kers etc. Why can't we just have a pure Formula 1 grand prix season?

Because Barmy Bernie is determined to try and pull in more "casual" fans, by introducing random "pot luck" elements and make it appear more exciting to those who don't have much engineering knowledge, or understand the rules. All he cares about is making sure the sponsors' money continues to flow into CVC's coffers.


The double points thing is really idiotic, as it does nothing to make races more interesting. All it does is turn the curtain closer into a bigger deal than normal, assuming there are 2 or more drivers within 50 points of each other by that time. Of course, this also depends on the race panning out in the right way, in order for the extra points to matter. So it could work, but equally it might not (if the championship leader disappears into the distance).

Fuel saving is less of an issue, as it has been going on for many seasons - can't actually remember when refuelling was banned, but it was quite some time ago. Its only more noticeable now as cars have to meet fuel flow regs, as well as being limited to a certain amount for the race (plus those nice graphics help ram the fact home). That said, bringing back refuelling would open up more tactical options for teams and remove the heavier tyre wear at the start of races.

In keeping with the new ecological ethos of F1, teams would still be limited to a certain amount of fuel, but at least they could choose when to put it in the car. I think this would allow the cars to run at peak performance for more of the race and let the drivers actually race each other, instead of worrying about tyres etc.


Overall, I don't think DRS is working as advertised and should be done away with. For one thing, it can be effectively countered with judicious use of (K)ERS. Drivers now use it to build up a gap of over a second, before reaching the detection point, to make sure cars behind them don't get DRS. Also, the introduction of "double DRS" zones at some circuits means overtaken drivers now have an immediate chance to get their place back. While there a bit of scope for developing DRS on cars, the effect is very much limited by the design of the rear wings.

(K)ERS on the other hand, I think has more scope for development, as it is now a major part of the powertrain. Provided there isn't a cap put on the maximum output, there is scope for teams to create power advantages. There would also be a certain amount of skill / experience required to use it, given how much torque they now produce, as well as conserving enough "boost" for when its most needed.