I like that idea but didn't they scrap the skirts because cornering speeds were getting ridiculous? Those were exciting times - who can forget Arnoux and Villeneuve going wheel to wheel for what seemed like an entire lap - and I'm sure drivers are fitter and more G-tolerant now than they were back then.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nxwn3OHkEw[/media]

 

i thought they scrapped the ground effect skirts, as ferrari couldnt get them to work on thier cars.

i think there was a bbc horizon programme about it.

 

even venturi/double diffusers I think are less affected. Basically underbody aero is much less affected than over/around body. So concentrate on that.

 

For the new regs they're apparently bringing back "2010 style" diffusers, which I guess is exactly that. It was the blown diffusers that was the big aero change for 2014; maybe they should have kept them and done something else to reduce the downforce.

The other problem is that every time they make a big change somebody manages to get a big advantage, like Brawn in 2009 and Mercedes in 2014. Not to mention it costing everybody more. If they want to keep the racing close they should leave it alone for 10 years. If Ferrari get it right 2017 might see Vettel with a 2 second lap advantage again.

 

I am quite ready to be proven wrong,but will not more powerfull cars with less downforce mean that there will be more than one "racing line"?
Surely this will give more chances to overtake?
Looking at Arnoux and Villeneuve they seemed to be slower than modern cars but the racing was spectacular and not limited to one line..

 

ISTR that skirts were banned because cornering speeds were getting to high for the run off they had available at the time and because skirts had the added effect of keeping a car airborne once it left the ground.

 

Can't see why. That first corner at Austin has people taking lots of different lines and then continuing through the switch back corners, but that's down to the circuit design. With grippier tyres and less downforce they might be more sensitive to going off the clean line and then we'll get less racing.

There's been quite a lot of that sort of sustained side by side racing in recent years. Is this really any different to Arnoux and Villeneuve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_GWdS5RP0Q

(Jump to 0:40 to skip James Allen)

Funny how neither of them were claiming that it's "impossible to get close".

 

I dunno, maybe the 2015 Merc car is different from the 2014 ???

I certainly don't recall Hamilton or Rosberg being able to follow the other at all this season with any success.
All the battles have been first corner affairs then bye bye for the rest of the race.

And apart from a couple of races, nobody has been able to challenge Merc so we really don't know if the other teams are able to follow them closely.

One thing that has changed from that Youtube clip is the changing of driver strategy to try and gain an advantage.
I know it works both ways (for both Hamilton and Rosberg), but the way Merc has neutralised the inter team battles this year has been insanely boring.
They've had both championships tied up for quite some time so please just the the drivers race, try different strategies etc.

I really hope that Ferrari bring the goods next year, that will really blow Merc's strategy to shit and force a change of tack.

Yeah yeah shareholders blah blah, but don't forget your biggest stakeholder the audience, if they turn off then the whole thing is farked.

 

Interesting to get Mad Max Verstappen's take on the issue...

http://planetf1.com/news/max-underst...-frustrations/

 

The nose heights were lowered for this year which is the cause of a lot of the change.

Explained at length here: http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2015/0...rtake-in-2015/