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Excellent point and this is currently one of my biggest peeves. The example Moss once used of the difference between a modern day race driver and a driver from past years was that of a tightrope walker. In the old days the tightrope was 30 feet off the ground and in the modern day it's 3 feet off the ground (loosely paraphrasing). The point being that it takes the same skill set but the risk factor makes it an entirely different endeavor. Well, with the massive asphalted run offs of today I think the tightrope has changed altogether to a generously wide beam... with handrails!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Oshawa
These runoffs can also allow a driver to gain speed and position through a corner. Instead of braking hard for a reducing radius like your competitor you can keep your foot planted and take the longer way around. Witness Schumacher at the first corner of the Hungaroring last week for the latest example! A great way to gain positions at a hugely congested and slow corner and not "shortcut" the track.
What can be done about it? Maybe a very coarse runoff that would allow the tires traction to slow but rough enough to loosen the fillings of a driver if such a combination is at all possible. Speed bumps located in the area where the driver would rejoin the track.
But gravel traps annoy me even more.
Starter, thanks that was pretty much the argument the Speed guys made on the F1 debrief I saw when they talked about this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starter
Gary
I agree with all of the points taken above. There is no "perfect" solution and in the end racing has an inherent danger in it. They have to and need to make facilities as safe as possible but maintain the integrity of the "race course". I say evaluate each corner and make a choice...whatever it is the driver has to balance risk vs reward...that's part of the sport. Raise the tight rope back to at least 15'.
Leaves us with something of a contradiction really. On the one hand, large tarmac run-offs fail to penalise mistakes, allowing drivers to gain advantage through their errors and/or recklessness. On the other, given the right angle of entry, a gravel trap can turn a very minor transgression into a huge accident, which would seem to be overly penalising the very same error. Tricky one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starter
The ideal would be to raise the tightrope for the car to 50' while lowering the tightrope for the driver to 3". But that, I realize is unattainable. But my point is that the idea ought to be to make the runoffs rough enough to bend the suspension while allowing them to effectively stop the car. What I am thinking out loud, is curbing. Not a single high curb (potential for launching) but a series of parallel lower curbs.Quote:
Originally Posted by TURN3
Like I said I am thinking out loud here.
Gary
Quote:
Originally Posted by hornet
Wheels off (without an assist from another driver) = drive thru penalty???? That might do the trick.
Gary
Backwards and and some speed, in the case of Nick Heidfeld! Not ALWAYS Taku's fault. And he's still responsible for one of my favourite moments in recent F1 history http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRJwZu5QqioQuote:
Originally Posted by markabilly
That's the annoying thing about Sato. He does have talent, it just seems rather lumpy, in the sense it tends to arrive unannounced, all at once and between a lot of being rubbish and/or falling off.
That is one of the reasons I refuse to rip the guy. When he is not engaged in helping Dallara's bottom line this year, he has shown flashes of pure speed for a team that hasn't built a fast car in any consistent way.Quote:
Originally Posted by hornet
That said, he proved once again why he is getting the rep he has. He turns his brain off at times....
Trouble with that is how you define "assist". Wouldn't be as simple as contact, as that would ignore drivers taking evasive action, at which point you then also have to define what you mean by "evasive", and I'm sure opinions would vary greatly on that one! Some sort of graduated response would seem reasonable. All four wheels over the white line x times and you get a drive through, stop go or grid drop perhaps? Never going to please everyone.Quote:
Originally Posted by garyshell