2020 F1 and Coronavirus

[rage2]

Mugello, Nurburgring, Portimao, Imola, Instanbul. What a great calendar this year turned out to be.

[chongkee_]

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Mugello, Nurburgring, Portimao, Imola, Instanbul. What a great calendar this year turned out to be.

Having Canada, COTA, and Brazil would've been nice as well but understandable why it's a no go.

[rage2]

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Having Canada, COTA, and Brazil would've been nice as well but understandable why it's a no go.

I was hoping Sepang would make it as that’s one of my favorite tracks, but since China and Japan put their foot down and said no races, the Asian leg was completely nixed. The thought of this calendar plus Sepang Suzuka and Shanghai...

Those “new” euro tracks are nostalgic, but I wonder how good they will be for actual racing. Here’s hoping with no test data that there will be wild unknown variables to make it good. Imola was mostly boring back in the day, but that was also pre DRS.

[OTown]

Not sure if its because of the recent Indy 500 but theres lots of very unofficial rumours about bringing back Indy F1. That would be pretty neat

[flipstah]

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I was hoping Sepang would make it as that’s one of my favorite tracks, but since China and Japan put their foot down and said no races, the Asian leg was completely nixed. The thought of this calendar plus Sepang Suzuka and Shanghai...

Those “new” euro tracks are nostalgic, but I wonder how good they will be for actual racing. Here’s hoping with no test data that there will be wild unknown variables to make it good. Imola was mostly boring back in the day, but that was also pre DRS.

Sepang would've been nice! It's also my favorite since that's where I saw F1 in person for the first time

[speedog]

Mind boggling to see Ferrari so off of the pace.

[flipstah]

Boring

[rage2]

Yup. Boring. Unless you watch it from the 2 Ferrari in car cameras. Then it’s the best race ever.

[speedog]

So what to do then to make these F1 races less boring? Hell, even the race announcers were hoping for rain in the last few laps just to spice things up a bit - that alone says volumes.

[flipstah]

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So what to do then to make these F1 races less boring? Hell, even the race announcers were hoping for rain in the last few laps just to spice things up a bit - that alone says volumes.

1st and last place on the grid qualify for their positions; if you're second last and time difference is less than a specific interval than the second place position, you can swap spots with them. And etc.

Or automatic wet track halfway through

[schocker]

Such a clean start. Was definitely expecting some contact at T1. Felt bad for sainz but lol every time someone pulled behind a ferrari on the straight.

[davidI]

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So what to do then to make these F1 races less boring? Hell, even the race announcers were hoping for rain in the last few laps just to spice things up a bit - that alone says volumes.

Turtle shells on the track.

[Buster]

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Yup. Boring. Unless you watch it from the 2 Ferrari in car cameras. Then it’s the best race ever.

I need to start doing this.

[88CRX]

This is why I’ve never been able to stay engaged for an entire season of F1. Merc, then Red Bull (used to be Ferrari) and then everyone else.

[rage2]

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So what to do then to make these F1 races less boring? Hell, even the race announcers were hoping for rain in the last few laps just to spice things up a bit - that alone says volumes.

1. Ban top drivers. Seriously, Ham and Verstappen, if they're not fighting each other, they're off into the sunset and managing their pace. Nothing happens. We need shittier drivers to make more mistakes. A perfect drive is boring.
2. Ban top teams. Take Mercedes and RBR out of it, and the races would be so tight.
3. Reduce team data. The fact that F1 teams have access to a fuck ton of data, they can literally understand everything that goes down during the weekend.

The problem for predictability is that the teams and drivers up top are near flawless. They do everything they can to manage that predictability as that wins them races. Strip away team data, meaning less testing, no announced tire choices, no access to track grip data, and let them figure shit out and see who's the fastest at it. It's an engineering race and a track race.

We'll see if my less data theory is correct when Imola rolls around. No team has recent track grip data so tire data should be useless. It's also a shortened 2 day weekend, so there's a 90 min free practice, qualifying, then race. Imola was a tough track to pass at, if they can make that race interesting, then that's the secret sauce.

Edit - ban safety cars. Or at least control pit stops there so there’s no advantage to pitting under SC. Forgot this one today. Typically spa has some interesting strategy because of the long track and undercut is huge. Lots of gambles. Today that didn’t happen because of SC forced almost everyone on the same strategy on the same lap.

[JustinL]

Delete fuel flow limitation. That would let the engine rev higher and add a new element of strategy. Allow refueling. This would let teams run hotter engine maps if they wanted or run lighter. Again just adding more different ways to play the game. Right now there is an optimal strategy and then everything else.

[revelations]

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1. Ban top drivers. Seriously, Ham and Verstappen, if they're not fighting each other, they're off into the sunset and managing their pace. Nothing happens. We need shittier drivers to make more mistakes. A perfect drive is boring.
2. Ban top teams. Take Mercedes and RBR out of it, and the races would be so tight.
3. Reduce team data. The fact that F1 teams have access to a fuck ton of data, they can literally understand everything that goes down during the weekend.

The problem for predictability is that the teams and drivers up top are near flawless. They do everything they can to manage that predictability as that wins them races. Strip away team data, meaning less testing, no announced tire choices, no access to track grip data, and let them figure shit out and see who's the fastest at it. It's an engineering race and a track race.

We'll see if my less data theory is correct when Imola rolls around. No team has recent track grip data so tire data should be useless. It's also a shortened 2 day weekend, so there's a 90 min free practice, qualifying, then race. Imola was a tough track to pass at, if they can make that race interesting, then that's the secret sauce.

Edit - ban safety cars. Or at least control pit stops there so there’s no advantage to pitting under SC. Forgot this one today. Typically spa has some interesting strategy because of the long track and undercut is huge. Lots of gambles. Today that didn’t happen because of SC forced almost everyone on the same strategy on the same lap.

Agree - but I would like to see more commonality and less technology. Every nut, bolt etc. on the top cars are monitored for stress, temperature etc. All in an attempt to get that 0.001 second advantage.

Another eg. make a common driver steering wheel - its stupid complicated now. Less focus on racing, more on pushing the right buttons.

All of this was caused by the top teams asking for increased tech which lead to increased budgets and other teams to languish.

Ferrari though, wow ...... but I guess if your strat is to give up on 2020 and focus on 2021, it might make more sense?

[ganesh]

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Delete fuel flow limitation. That would let the engine rev higher and add a new element of strategy. Allow refueling. This would let teams run hotter engine maps if they wanted or run lighter. Again just adding more different ways to play the game. Right now there is an optimal strategy and then everything else.

+ 1 to Refueling.
Also allow more tire manufacturer to enter.

- - - Updated - - -

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Agree - but I would like to see more commonality and less technology. Every nut, bolt etc. on the top cars are monitored for stress, temperature etc. All in an attempt to get that 0.001 second advantage.

Another eg. make a common driver steering wheel - its stupid complicated now. Less focus on racing, more on pushing the right buttons.

All of this was caused by the top teams asking for increased tech which lead to increased budgets and other teams to languish.

Ferrari though, wow ...... but I guess if your strat is to give up on 2020 and focus on 2021, it might make more sense?

Ferrari have no hope in 2021. They better work on their 2022 car.

[88CRX]

What happened to Ferrari? How are they so slow?

[npham]

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Ferrari though, wow ...... but I guess if your strat is to give up on 2020 and focus on 2021, it might make more sense?

2022. No reg changes for 2021, and they won't be getting faster anytime soon. Engine freeze doesn't help them for next year, so they might as well focus on the reg changes in 2022.

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What happened to Ferrari? How are they so slow?

They were cheating with fuel flow last year and had to revert their engine. They got a sweetheart deal with the FIA to not take all their points, money, wins, etc away for showing them how they cheated. That's why all Ferrari powered cars are dogshit this year.