So, why would we want a big chunk in the middle where mostly not much happens?

What they (FOTA,FIA,GOD or whoever) should be working on is ensuring that the “big chunk in the middle” is worth watching.

Wasn’t very good, was it?

As far as I know the 2009 rules are to form the basis for next year with any changes being agreed by the teams & FIA (as opposed to being arbitarily imposed as Max was doing with the 2010 regs.)
Obviously, until agreement is reached on any changes all we have to work from is the current 2009 regs.
However, FOTA have agreed that KERS will not be used so that seems to be fairly definite if nothing else.

FOTA want the 2009 rules with some small modifications… what those are has not been revealed yet… hence why all Manor was saying is that until they know what the exact rules are they can’t comment.

Rumour suggests that KERS will be banned/optional and refuelling will be banned… and to facilitate that the races may be shorter. I imagine there will be slightly bigger fuel tanks, but rather than major changes to accomodate the size required for current race length, they will find a balance between the two.

The talk was that the weight limit would have to be increased, VXR.
The present cars can`t get a full race distance of fuel in their tanks.

According to the 2010 budget cap’ regs minimum weight has been raised to 620 kgs.

Currently FOTA want to stick to the 2009 regs.

There seems to be some confusion!

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76604

Why not just have a five minutes “highlights” show

Because, like the suggesting it, that would be stupid.

I’m all for shorter races, they could even have 2 shorter races, that would be great.

MotoGP for me works because its a race, from start to end, tyres are changed for the weather and that’s all. 26 laps still has a period in the middle where nothing much happens (in most races, sometimes it can be wicked all through). So, why would we want a big chunk in the middle where mostly not much happens?

The other benefit of shorter races means that our whole afternoon is not given over to F1 and, on track, back markers become a non issue.

I want to see all the drivers having to manage the car they are given at the start for the whole race. The only thing they can change is tyres. So someone can if they want try to make the tyre last the whole race, and suffer at the end hoping their lead will suffice. However, someone else has nice new fresh tyres and a light load will be chasing them down hard for the eventual, we hope, overtake.

Probably repeating myself here, but you get the idea.

Therefore, I would hope we will see, some people going for hard tyres that suits their car better and they can run longer with maybe just one quick stop of tyres, whereas others may need 2 stops on a medium compound to get the best speed. Ultimately however they will have to do their overtaking ON THE TRACK!!

Cars handling come and go based on fuel weight and tyre usage, just like the old days. So someone who has looked after their tyres will be faster at the end over their competitors, and other cars may work better on the larger fuel loads. Back to the days of someones big lead being eaten into in the last half of the race, and the chaser has to OVERTAKE ON THE TRACK if they want to win.

However, since they`ve seen the possible demise of Mosley they have tended to get a bit more backbone.

That is all too clear to see now.They may have got their wish too if they had bothered to tone down their Thursday morning headlines a bit.LOL

Interestingly,under the 2010 ‘budget cap’ regs,refuelling is definitely banned with no mention of reduced race distance.