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Too much technology in F1? (4 posts)

Topic tags: F1, f1 paddocks, technology

Viewing post 1 to 4 (4 total posts)

Deleted User said 1 year, 9 months ago:

F1 is renowned for being the technological pinnacle of motorsport but I�m wondering if it�s gone a bit far. I�ve been an F1 fan for about 15 years and the sport has changed so much in that time. Faults on the cars can now be fixed from the pit wall which means there aren�t as many pit stops or retirements which in turn means the field isn�t mixed up as much as it perhaps could be. I hardly ever watch a race now and take into consideration that reliability might affect the race (in the top runners at least). In fact thinking about it, teams can now tell there is a fault on a car before drivers feel anything. A driver will adapt his style to look after a front left tyre which is showing on the pit wall as starting to overheat etc.

Then there is the fact that teams have so much technology and information that they can predict to quite a high level of accuracy how another team is going to run a race. The race director makes certain team radio transmissions available to the wider audience which gives the fans more information about what is happening within a team but also everyone else running. Where�s the element of surprise?

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beneboy said 1 year, 9 months ago:

This is an inevitable consequence of having to make engines and certain other parts of the cars last for several races; a few years ago a part failure would cost you a result at a GP – these days it could cost you the GP plus whatever penalty that’s applied for the following race(s) and therefore the teams are making sure that reliability is one of their top priorities.

There’s also the fact that F1 cars are being severely limited in their performance which means that parts are not being pushed to the extremes of a few years ago.

And could we please stop the ridiculous “F1 is the pinnacle of technology” rubbish – F1 hasn’t been at the pinnacle of technology for over a decade thanks to the unbelievable idiocy that has lead the FIA to ban almost all new technologies over the last twenty years; laser ignition, active suspension and many other systems are used in production cars these days and while they may not perform at the same very high speeds of an F1 car the average family car now has more advanced technology on it than anything that lines up at the start of an F1 GP these days.

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Zadak said 1 year, 9 months ago:

I’m sure 2014 will have a few more retirements

Reliability could be down to the fact that they have been running the same engines for so long, and it’s only going to get better until the new regs come in.

One reason the result are a little predictable (same top 3 teams for every race) is because those front teams are WAY ahead of the rest. You know it’s going to be Red Bull, Mclaren or Ferrari but from there on it’s total guesswork, the midfeild is also very hard to predict.
As for too much technology, I don’t see your point, the teams still make bad pit calls sometimes, lots of mistakes happen. The more tech they can have, the more mistakes that can be made.

It could be so much more predictable, just look at 1988

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NotToThink said 1 year, 9 months ago:

@f1paddocks That’s an interesting way of looking at it – too much technology makes it too reliable – most people complain that too much technology takes away from the drivers.

But surely having more reliability puts it a little bit back in the hands of the drivers again. Like you say, drivers might adapt to problems or possible failures, which is an element of skill we mightn’t have seen as much of before.

Reliability can only be a good thing in my view… who wants to see drivers win reces by default?

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