Never paid particularly close attention to formula E, but the current generation of turbo-hybrids have horrible problems with dirty air (due to the current chassis regs, not the engines). That’s the main reason there’s little close up racing in F1. Following cars take a big hit to their downforce and they overheat quickly in dirty air (just look at Bottas retiring last weekend). This is something the FIA think they’ll fix by bringing back ground effect in 2021.
Then you have the seperate problem that there’s only 3 competitive constructors in F1 at the moment (and even then 1 of them is quite far above the other 2 - apart from those races where Ferrari was cheating with their fuel injection).
From F1 to the 24 hours of Lemons, all racing series are heavily regulated to make things interesting until someone crosses the line first. Even Green Monster had to have wheels not wings strapped to Art Alfons' turbojet.
Anything goes does not exist in a vacuum though, there's over-the-top regulations aiming at a specific goal (here, driving research on efficiency) and there's what you want to achieve within a set of basic rules (e.g drag race, best lap, best 10 laps, max laps under 24h...).
Take for example LMP, which used to go well above 400kph, but not so much car regulations as much as track regulations made that impossible/useless (e.g old Mulsanne Straight), designing top speed out of the cars because it simply was too dangerous. Mulsanne now has a brake zone from ~320kph down to ~100kph, much more humanly manageable.
More downforce also means more drag, and for LMP's long running races this means too high a fuel consumption. Also, ground effects and closed body vs open wheels. Reliability (or lack thereof) is on the F1 side since LMP has to run hundreds of long laps, while a F1, even with "X races per engine" rules has to run continuously for a couple hours at most. Lift such a regulation and you could make a bloody efficient engine that self-destructs over a single race.
LMP have a minimum regulated weight of ~900kg, and as every fellow driver knows, "weight is the enemy of performance". Barring that, and tuned to the problem, LMP would kick the pants off a F1 because F1 is (comparatively) insanely regulated.
The beauty of F1 is that it achieves incredible performance in spite of suffering extremely limiting regulations. My bet is that lifting all regulations would quickly put the human as the sole limiting factor to performance, because the poor pilot of a guy would be on the verge of passing out at braking and inside every corner, unless they're on a balancing seat and have anti-g suits.
You see this in competitive dinghy racing. One person will intentionally starve their competitor of good air, so they know and could do the opposite if they wanted.
Lots of sports deal with this “dirty air” concept like Formula 1 especially, regulations were changed for this season so the car in front produces cleaner air off the back so cars behind can follow better (which provides a better chance to overtake/better viewing spectacle).
Yeah, I hear they are trying to change the engines to a 4-cylinder these days too. That would be really unfortunate, and would probably sound awful.
I went to the Indy 500 this year, I heard in years past their noise rivals F1. But this year they downsized their engines, and the cars there were not impressive/loud. It would have been downright disappointing if I wouldn't have been so.."well hydrated" with beer. I really hope that doesn't happen to F1
I am a casual motorsports fan. F1 and Nascar have become boring with cookie-cutter cars. Would love to see a new racing series that allowed real innovation again. Just impose a team budget cap and some basic rules for track safety (no active aerodynamics, fuel load limits, etc). Otherwise do whatever you like whether it's a 16 cylinder engine or all-wheel drive or a giant wing or something totally nuts.
The problem is that car racing is very boring if you allow engineers to go wild. For example using airflow to increase grip at some point gives advantage to the car in front. Pair that with powerful engine and there won't be any passing ever once that car is in front.
Making fast, unpassable car is just to easy. Regulations are about crippling them enough to make racing interesting. If you have to do it anyway then why not add other lofty goals like driver's safety, efficiency, disallowing solutions that would drain everyone's budget etc.
Agree on normalization. Or at least keep the core regulation (engines, aerodynamics, tires) untouched for a few years. Right now it's some kind of new regulation every year, and the big teams with their crazy development budgets can buy wins in the next year. If that stuff would at least stay the same for a while, the teams could become more even. For a few years Red Bull dominated completely because of aerodynamics regulation, now it was Mercedes because of engine regulation, and it just becomes more boring all the time.
The powertrain is pretty free nowadays in Formula E, but the rest of the car is almost entirely spec, which inevitably means there's a lot of similarity. It also means they can spec something where the aero doesn't produce so much dirty air.
I think keeping the development limited to the powertrain is the right move for Formula E; there's plenty of other series where money is thrown at the rest of the car, so let developments happen where the series stands out.
There are limits on everything: acceleration, maximal speed and even noise. Formula E will be boring same way as Formula 1. Identical cars circling around the track.
F1 is slowly becoming more energy efficient and therefore more relevant again. The changes being introduced next year are massive (1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engines, a much improved energy recovery system providing an extra 160bhp for about 30 seconds per lap, maximum fuel limits) and have already encouraged Honda to return as an engine supplier.
F1's long history and worldwide popularity is also a big factor that will be hard for any new Formula to compete with.
Maybe, but the IP holders are never going to agree to this. You have not only the entrants themselves, but also engine manufacturers and so on. I really believe the manufacturers would leave the sport first; many of them are on a hair trigger anyways given the shift in consumer R&D to electric.
It's worth noting the current rule set is trying to optimize for spectator moments, safety and budget constraints. An F1 series unruled at this point would be a case of biggest pockets wins, and the racing wouldn't be close at all. I like to think of F1 as just a big go-cart race. The cars are obviously on the edges of performance inside the rules, but the cars are still homologated.
The really interesting racing has been in Time Attack and grassroots leagues in my opinion. I forsee an end to F1 soon enough, the budgets are big and it's no longer a good platform for R&D given manufacturers will start to ditch consumer ICE anyway. Whereas Time Attack and other leagues are more about developing enthusiast level performance fabrication shops and parts which is something that will go on in to the future.
I do not think Formula E will ever amount to much more than an interesting side show. As soon as the technology in Formula E is mature enough, I fully expect it to be folded into F1. Where they will go all Electric, or balance of performance rules will be put in place to allow electric and internal combustion will compete against each other.
I wouldn't get worked up about things being 'limited' when virtually all race cars are limited in some form. F1 has fuel flow restrictions and rev restrictions (which can't be reached due to the fuel flow requirement). Nascar has restrictor plates. LMP2 and 3 both have displacement restrictions. Indycar has rev restrictions.
Unlimited racing basically becomes a bloodbath and a contest of who has the most money (which is a problem that F1 still has). Yes, fan boost is a gimmick, but don't get too upset about the purity of 'artificially crippled' racing.
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