I too love the budget cap. I think it's a very smart idea.

I haven't heard about the No Refuelling though, until now... I don't think that I would be a big fan of it, I like to see pit strategy and pit action in general is entertaining, not to mention everyone sitting heavy from the dig would be boring compared to what we get treated with now on the start.

 

Fuel strategy is such a big part of the race... i would hate to see it go.

 

As long as the engine rules are constant (i.e. everyone is running 2.4L V8s of a certain bore/stroke), weight rules are constant, I don't think it will change the start of the race significantly.

One of the things I don't like, and getting at what GoKimiGo was saying, is the transmission rule. I realize it's meant to save costs, but the reason you can buy a BMW with an SMG transmission is because F1. Same with Ferrari. Porsche/VW/Audi's Dual clutch (and all the copies of it) were a byproduct of racing (LeMans). I would really like to see F1 go at a CVT.

 

they did it a few years ago. it was hillarious watching the cars go in for a pit for more fuel... there would be 20 guys surrounding the car, the fuel guys would hook up the rig to the car, and the 3 tire guys for each tire would huddle around the lug nut guy while he sticks a tread depth measuring tool on the tire. thats all they would do. 12 guys to measure the depth of 4 tires

 

I forgot about that.

 

Power train development is frozen for the next few years.

Again, F1 has always been a sport where engineers, teams and drivers come together to have the best overall package. By having such a tight budget engineers are limited in what they can do which in turn slows development drastically.

Anyone one who thinks that the "richest" teams are the only ones who win things in F1 don't pay much attention. Do you think McLaren & Ferrari are the big spenders in F1? Honda (Brawn), Toyota and Redbull have for years been dumping twice as much cash into their F1 programs. Only this year have they seen fruits of their labor and the sole reasons was because of drastic changes to the rules and a much longer development schedule that either Ferrari or McLaren. Plus Ross Brawn is a hell of a smart guy which took them from the back row to the front row.

You think this cap will help the likes or Redbull, Toyota and Honda when they can't shell out the wads of cash they have been for years? Even though I do not believe in making rules to narrow the pack (It is like the NBA when they created new rules to handicap Shaq from dominating), this budget cap will have the opposite effect of what you all here seem to want.

I stick to my guns, the teams need to abandon the FIA. If Ferrari, McLaren were to leave the rest of the teams would follow. Does anyone think that it would matter that the prime motorsport in the world were no longer called Formula 1? I wouldn't care if they called it Fornication 1 and I would still watch it, as would millions of other around the world.

The only thing the FIA are good for is sucking up the cash of the teams, the municipalities where the races are held and the fan's. Also pretty good at creating idiotic rules. "Lets get rid of slicks and increase aero!"... "Wait no, let's get rid of aero and bring back slicks! Brilliant!"

The teams association could much better manage rules and guidelines between them selves, they already do! They had to go to court to clarify the FIA's own rule on the rear diffuser. Meanwhile the FIA could have saved everyone lots of trouble by saying either "It is legal." or "It is not legal." Bunch of *******.

 

My numbers were a bit off and I am very surprised at McLaren's spending, but this was an average at the start of the 2006 season and I know that Toyota, Honda and Redbull invested a lot of money since then into their teams.

In any case how do you go from spending around 200 million pounds a year to 40 million? It is just not gonna happen. It will be a wonder if they can afford to cloth the drivers. I'm sure Kimi won't mind driving in shorts, flip flops and a pair of goggles.

http://www.f1technical.net/articles/31

 

You're touching on two points here, not one.

The money being sucked out of the system is FOM (Bernie) and the Concorde. FOM and Ferrari have a financial agreement that Ferrari won't leave F1, which means it's pretty much a dead issue. The teams are fighting for more of the money, but Bernie is nothing if not shrewd.

FIA writes rules that are vague, then other teams complain when someone uses a loophole. The rules either need to be very precise with no leeway, or anything goes if they're vague. The diffuser situation was done entirely wrong, IMO - the rule was written poorly, and three teams came up with an alternate solution that met the rule's wording. There should have been no court date, like you said. There's too much reliance on "spirit of the rule" in FIA.

 

Not on this list, but also not part of the £40m/yr, is driver salaries.

Those huge budgets won't drop much. Of the $400M McLaren spends, how much does Lewis get paid? £20m/yr. How much is marketing and young driver programs? £50m?

 

^Hit the nail on the head with the rules being much to vague Billy.

I see your point about the budget. Which ever way you look at it I still don't think however that this is a helping hand for the "smaller" teams. Even after all that is factored in there is still a big gulf to that 40 million pound mark.

 

Sorry to be a nitpick about this, but it's 40 million Pounds (£), not Euro (€)... not that there's much difference these days ... poor Brits, hehe.

l8r)

 

Insperational. GokimiGo!!!! Great points. You too Billy great POV.

Thanks

 

I thought this was a great article, pretty interesting reading.

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,189...267162,00.html

 

Funny EDDIE IRVINE Quotes...

Saturday September 29th, 2001
"Villeneuve was made to look like some sort of hero because he stood up and voted against Schumacher at the drivers' briefing," Irvine told The Sun newspaper. "But Villeneuve is the most contrary bloke I have ever met.

"If you told him the sky was blue he would say it was pink. If there was a wall made out of bananas he would say they were oranges. He does it just for effect."


Wednesday July 4th, 2001
"Michael Schumacher has already won the title," Irvine told ANSA. "The Championship is over, Michael could go on vacation and let other drivers win the Grands Prix and the title would still be his."


Saturday March 17th, 2001

Eddie Irvine promised to get even with Jacques Villeneuve on Saturday after the Canadian held him up on a fast lap in qualifying for the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix.

"He came down but I didn't see him, there's no point," he said. "There's no apology for that.

"The only thing that works for that is revenge."


Monday July 9th, 2001

"You must understand one thing. When we were together at Jordan Barrichello was a moaner. When I left Jordan he moaned. He arrived at Ferrari and he moaned. He will leave Ferrari and will moan again. He is made like that, he is a moaner."

"But it's a bit of a hollow World Championship," he said, referring to Briton Damon Hill's 1996 victory. "You can stick your name on it and stick it on the wall but you know the true story. Damon did a reasonable job in a year when he had a rookie as a teammate and he had by far the best car. Good luck to him. He won the World Championship, hats off to him. But personally I would not be sitting there feeling chuffed with myself and he probably isn't really chuffed with himself. Damon is honest enough to know the true story."


Thursday July 12th, 2001
"He complains a lot to the team and he blames everybody else but himself. He is a good driver but he is not in Michael's league. The pressure is getting to him. The pressure of winning the Championship got to Michael (Schumacher - Barrichello's teammate) but now he is in the lead he's performing like he can do."


Saturday October 20th, 2001

Speaking about Button, though, Irvine was even more outspoken, stating that Benetton should have ditched the young Briton altogether, preferring Giancarlo Fisichella over him.

"I feel Benetton should have done everything possible to hang on to Fisichella," Irvine said. "In fact, if I had been the team boss I would have ditched Jenson Button so that Fisichella and [Jarno] Trulli could have driven together.

"I'd have to say: 'Jenson, you are the weakest link. Goodbye.' I know Jenson had a great debut season with Williams but he has been a big disappointment this time around."


January 24th, 2003

Schumacher on Irvine's retirement.

"When Eddie and I were together at Ferrari we got along very well and had a lot of fun, very likely because we are so different," he said. "I think it is not only me who will miss him. There will be a piece of glamour disappearing from formula one."


Friday April 27th, 2001
Fernando Alonso in action todaySpaniard Fernando Alonso's complaint about the tribulations of life as a Minardi driver won little sympathy from Jaguar's Eddie Irvine on Friday.

Irvine said that anyone who started their flying lap within two seconds of a Minardi deserved to be held up.

"In the race I can understand their problem because they are so damn slow that they are constantly getting lapped," he said. "They might as well not be here, you're not racing in Formula One, you're just looking in your mirrors.


Wednesday January 10th, 2001

Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine is hoping to complain less and win more points in Formula One next season.

"My job last year was to complain a lot about what was wrong," said the Northern Irishman at Tuesday's launch of the team's new R2 car for 2001.

"Hopefully, I complained about the right things. Hopefully, I won't have the need to do so much complaining.

"Last year was a year when we had to put a finger on all the problems so we didn't make mistakes this year."


Thursday November 23rd, 2000

The Ulsterman also admitted that he felt he was more influential at Jaguar than he was at Ferrari, where he spent four seasons alongside Michael Schumacher.

"Here there are a lot more problems to solve. I'm a lot more involved in that whole process than I was at Ferrari.

"There I would come in and say it's got this, this and this and they'd have all these little Indians who would run away and sort it. Here we don't have the depth or the experience so basically I spend a lot of time with [technical director] Gary [Anderson] trying to figure things out."


Saturday November 4th, 2000

"It's true, Ferrari can be very flexible with their strategy but - again - that is down to Schumacher's incredible pace.

"So when a McLaren pits, Schumacher is able to run for several more laps, open up the lead he needs, then come in for his stop - and return to the track in the lead.

"That makes technical director Brawn come out looking like some kind of superstar. I'm sorry to shatter the illusion that many have, but he has little to do with Schuey's success.

"Take Schumacher out of the equation and what would Ferrari have won?"

---------------

When Eddie Jordan told him he had to do a photo shoot
"Do I have to? Send out some f**ker in my helmet, they'll never know the difference"

When asked why Schumacher had an odd shaped helmet
"Because he's German, he's got an odd shaped head."


This guy was hilarious!

 

I really don't like the FIA...

http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,189...288324,00.html

This is no good...