F1 in 2016 & 2017

Discussions are currently being held by the F1 Strategy Group to look at ways of "spicing up" the sport after this season.

The below is quoted from the BBC article relating to Marussia's return being blocked:

The strategy group also discussed how to make F1 cars more visually dramatic and harder to drive in a bid to enhance the sport's popularity.

Discussions focused on making the cars wider and the tyres bigger, with potentially more powerful engines.

Sources say that there are two main options:

•to modify the cars and tyres for 2016, in which case the current engine rules would be left in place
•to wait until 2017 to make wider changes, which also include making engines more powerful
Bosses have discussed raising the power output of engines to 1,000bhp from approximately 850-900bhp.

The simplest and cheapest way to do this would be to remove the fuel-flow meter that is at the heart of the current efficiency-based rules and which restricts the cars to a maximum of 100kg (130 litres) of fuel in a race and a maximum fuel-flow rate of 100kg per hour.

A couple of issues with some of these ideas.

Surely making the cars wider would just making overtaking even more difficult?

Also, do they mean making the tyres wider, for extra grip, or a larger diameter, to increase top speed / acceleration?

I don't see any major issues with increasing the engine power to 1000bhp. The current hybrid powertrains chuck out 850-900bhp already, so it wouldn't be a huge step.

However, doing it by removing the fuel restrictions would surely take away a large chunk of the "eco-friendly" credentials they were trying to earn? I'm not against the idea, but it would likely be seen as a backward step.

The article also states:-

But it is based on an idea that returning the look of the cars to those of 1992-93 or similar would increase the audience.

However, some argue that could be because it was an era many of them find evocative as it was when they were growing up and first became fans of F1.

So Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has proposed that F1 conducts research to see whether this is indeed what the younger fans of today want.

For me this had nothing much to do with the technology or size of the cars...

But the clear bright liveries such as the Marlboro McLaren red and white, the Canon Williams blue etc and drivers such as Prost, Senna, Piquet, Nelson.

The liveries nowadays are too chromed, too polished, too dull. The cars don't really stand out any more. The drivers are pretty much a dull bunch too.

Improving the look doesn't improve racing, yeah, the cars do look like clones, however, this is down to tightening regulations & the reason creative minds such as Newey are leaving the sport. As for the drivers being dull, that's because we live in a world now, whereby if you say something remotely out of line, people are offended & it sparks some ridiculous debate.

The problem isn't engine power as much as torque

sportform wrote:The drivers are pretty much a dull bunch too.

You see Formula 1 drivers will be banned from changing helmet designs in-season under new rules. How pathetic. I know Vettel did abuse the way you could change design, however, I liked it, we should embrace driver's freedom in terms of design, let's them express themselves & their personality.

Agree with a lot of this.

I like the idea of making the cars look like they did in the early-mid 90s - however surely that would mean design-wise and not just in terms of liveries?

Oddly I agree that as liveries have got more sophisticated, they actually look less interesting - too cluttered and boring. A return to bold, bright contrasting colours wouldn't be a bad thing. Even better would be some animal-based designs, like Jordan's wasp (Buzzin' & Hornets) and snake (Bitten & Hisses) liveries.

Williams is probably my favourite of the current lot - clean, simple and distinctive. That said, Ferrari's never seems to change much and that shade of red is unmistakeable.

If we could also have similar car designs that produce the kind of handling and peformance they had back then, it could well make for more entertaining racing.

Of course, it would also help if re-fuelling was brought back, so the cars could operate at peak performance from the start instead of lugging around full tanks of fuel. I think fuel strategies were an important part of races, allowing teams more options and making pit stops more interesting.

John hits the nail on the head as far as the design restrictions and driver behaviour go. Just shows how sterile both F1 and the world in general have become.

Looks like the agreement on 1000bhp v6's will come in for 2017, along with more relaxed aero rules. Should be interesting to see how it unfolds

Yeah, heard about this yesterday, certainly something needed to be done. These engines have been too expensive, complicated & not loud enough for F1. Haven't heard the details surrounding the finer details of this, although more power is never a bad thing. I guess Mercedes have had to give in to this decision, also what must Honda be thinking, by the time they have mastered their current engine, it will be all change again.

Basically, Pat Symonds & Horner stating that the new proposals for F1 in 2017, will have no impact upon improving overtaking. Horner states, 'overtaking will be no less easy or more harder with these new proposals in 2017. The cars will be five seconds quicker, more exciting to watch, have a bigger diffuser, bigger tyres, a bigger wings & will we see drivers having to work much harder, than what they are currently used too.'

All the Sky pundits & Anthony Davidson are pretty puzzled as to why F1 is going in this direction. Then Ted Kravitz says, 'why are we creating bigger wings, which make the DRS even more powerful, we wanted to reduce the impact of artificial overtaking, this does the opposite, by strengthening the DRS'.

LiamB wrote:Basically, Pat Symonds & Horner stating that the new proposals for F1 in 2017, will have no impact upon improving overtaking. Horner states, 'overtaking will be no less easy or more harder with these new proposals in 2017. The cars will be five seconds quicker, more exciting to watch, have a bigger diffuser, bigger tyres, a bigger wings & will we see drivers having to work much harder, than what they are currently used too.'

All the Sky pundits & Anthony Davidson are pretty puzzled as to why F1 is going in this direction. Then Ted Kravitz says, 'why are we creating bigger wings, which make the DRS even more powerful, we wanted to reduce the impact of artificial overtaking, this does the opposite, by strengthening the DRS'.

I have to say I'm equally puzzled.

All this will result in is a faster version of what we have now.

Totally agree with the pundits too. There are already complaints that DRS makes overtaking too easy on some circuits. All the larger wings will do is amplify this effect, while creating more turbulence and making it even harder for cars to follow, outside DRS zones.

Assuming there will still be heavy emphasis on fuel and tyre management, this is going to punish any attempts at wheel to wheel racing even harder.

Seems everyone is doing their darndest to ignore that particular elephant in the room.