No pitting for fuel next year? bye, bye most excitement

[truefan72]

rubbish Idea by the FIA, they need to stop tinkering around with the rules so much.

leave refueling in, it is a worthwhile elemnt to the race and does add a bit of itnruige and excitment. This has been true for 50 years and i don;t know why it needs tampering with.

i am already on the verge of leaving the sport adn more arbitrary rule changes don't help imo

[F1boat]

To me this is another idiotic decision, which will add to the medals farce.

[DexDexter]

"those Osellas and other backmarkers used to be at least 5 seconds a lap slower than the quick guys"

Teams like that added character to the sport. Since the demise of Minardi and Super Aguri, the grid had had a much more "sterile" feel to it.

"plus we had a great point system were you only counted 11 out of 16 races"

I agree with you here, that was bad, but in all honesty was it any worse than Bernie's proposed "medals"? Both systems over-complicate things in an attempt to reward wins greater, just increase the points differential from 1st to 2nd (as they did in 1991) and be done with it, I say.

"some teams had 100 horsepower more than others"

Whereas now we have "equalised" "homologated" engines, identical in cylinder configuration, vee angle, etc. bit of a turnoff really. And large horsepower differential leads to more overtaking. Besides, what the customer V8s lacked in horsepower they made up for in agility, fuel efficiency, and when in the back of, say a 1990 Tyrrell or Newey-designed 1988 March, a good chassis.

"the races were boring with not a lot of lead changes..."

Not really, I've watched a few old VHS of season reviews and what-have-you, if a car behind was quicker, overtaking was generally easier than it is now. If someone ran away with the race that's because he and his team deserved to, which is the whole point of a competition after all.

"in one year one car had semi-automatic gearbox active suspension, ABS, traction control etc, while others still had a stick shift etc...."

Technical variety is good, IMO of course.

"I don't know maybe we've been watching a different series. I started watching in 82."

'91 for me, I actually envy you, from what I've heard it was even better back then!

I think this is one of those "agree to disagree" moments though

Yep, I agree. Some of the gold old times were good, some were tragic and boring. But it's not bad now...I agree with you about the medal system though.

[Demonhill]

And guess what, new larger tanks, redesign, cost..... say no more...

[V12]

Yes but if you only want to look at the cost-cutting angle to this, they'll save on fuel rigs, they can employ less people as pit crew, etc..

[truefan72]

Yes but if you only want to look at the cost-cutting angle to this, they'll save on fuel rigs, they can employ less people as pit crew, etc..

...while employinhg others to redesign the cars, and the cost involved in changing fundamental aspects of racing. All these cost cutting measures are a joke,considering that 7 teams have to now spend millions to redesign their cars literally from the bottom up mideseason because of indecision and grey areas by the FIA and judgments that seem to only serve to provide cover for their indecisions.

I bet you teams have spent more money this year than ever before, and are probably not finished. It will be interesting to see what happens when they set a budget and then the sporting body changes the rules forcing everyone around to scramble and spend money.

I would first like to see proper permanent race stewards employed, with unbiased judgment and the abilty to maker timely calls based on their learned knowledge of the rules, before they venture into yet another overhaul of the racing weekend

Mosely and Bernie need to go

...and bring back in season testing for the good of the sport please.

[Hawkmoon]

Not every decision will be made with cost cutting in mind. KERS was introduced for innovative reasons, not budgetary ones. Same goes for refuelling. It's a sporting decision, not a budgetary one. The cost will be neglible anyway. All the teams will be designing new cars for 2010, they just have to allow for a bigger fuel tank. How is this a huge expense?

This is a good call. Refuelling was reintoduced in 1994 to make the sport more exciting. I, and it would seem others, think it failed for the most part. Let's face it, a pass on the circuit is a million times more exciting than one in the pits.

Combined with the new aero regs that have made passing easier, if the first 3 races are anything to go by, then I think this is one of the few good sporting decisions the FIA has made in years.

[Ranger]

Not every decision will be made with cost cutting in mind. KERS was introduced for innovative reasons, not budgetary ones. Same goes for refuelling. It's a sporting decision, not a budgetary one. The cost will be neglible anyway. All the teams will be designing new cars for 2010, they just have to allow for a bigger fuel tank. How is this a huge expense?

R&D. It isn't simply a case of building a bigger fuel tank. Everything else needs to be changed to accomodate the bigger fuel load and its discrepancy over the race.

Just as the 19000rpm rev limit wasn't simply a case of knocking off 1000rpm. The engines had to be changed to maximise their performance within their new operating constraints.

There is nothing wrong with the racing we are seeing this year. They should keep the fuel tanks as they are.

[CNR]

how the ???? will this work
will an engine on its third race use more fuel then an engine on its first race.
will qualifying be done on a full tank

why not just run untill all cars have run out of fuel and the last car wins

[markabilly]

how the ???? will this work
will an engine on its third race use more fuel then an engine on its first race.
will qualifying be done on a full tank

why not just run untill all cars have run out of fuel and the last car wins

Max announces for 2010 in keeping with the spirit of being green, the cars will be secretly filled by the FIA with random amounts of fuel, so secret the teams will not know, and the cars will race until...........