[Blind Kid Seeks]

of course it would... just like you said... even top fuelers would go quicker with more dissplacement.. i mean s##t just bolt rockets onto cars....

but i guess the whole Joy of motorsport is being able to push any macchinery to its limits.. and giving each category a set of regulations means advances need to be made up in other ways.

anyways... F1 is fantastic.. i love it.. and restrictions on cars just means the drivers need to get better. all the more exciting.

[JayMan]

if F1 was purely for speed they wouldnt have the ride hieght restrictions that they do.. if the cars are too low they can create enough downforce to make the car bottom out canceling the flow of air under the body. when that happens the driver has no control and the tyres have no grip.. its happened before a famous driver died that way cant remember who though.. some rules are created to save lives.. others are just dumb

[trdee]

you're thinking of ayrton senna.

turbos, active suspension and ground effects. those were the days..

[gzerolla]

yea turbos!!! and slicks

and massive wings (that they use to have)

[callum]

f1 is in trouble when road cars like the bugatti veyron are faster.

[Talasas]

GTI-TRD, on Jun 25 2008, 11:09 AM, said:

I thought his steering failed/ frontend collapsed?
either way I remember watching it as a youngen and being quite moved by the whole thing... still remember seeing it quite vividly. It was replayed on CH 9's 20-1 show a few months back. made me shiver all over again.
and lets not forget the other guy that died first that same weekend, Roland Ratzenberger... and Barrichello very nearly did too.

No, the car kept bottoming out around Tamburello, the Williams cars ran active suspension in previous years and did very well with it until it was banned in 1994. The FW16 model he drove that year was reported to have handling problems because they hadn't enough time to redevelop the car to compensate for the loss of active suspension. A new rear end was installed for Imola and they had problems with it.

While there are many theories about exactly how he died, much of it is speculation. At the end of the day the car had handling problems which can be traced back to the removal of active suspension and lack of time to compensate for it. This doesn't mean that allowing todays cars to run it and then take it away (which they would eventually do) would cause problems, but it certainly would get people nervous - just look at the endless circus they had (and still are having) with the removal of traction control this year. Even in Monaco they were still asking every driver that crashed "do you think this was due to the loss of TC?".

callum, on Jun 28 2008, 01:55 AM, said:

f1 is in trouble when road cars like the bugatti veyron are faster.

I won't even begin to say what's wrong with that statement...

[callum]

ok so a bugatti veyron has more top speed, maybe thats all i meant lol.

[Talasas]

That's all right then though without all the drag they get from the aero setup they run on circuits they are faster:

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/07/21/honda-f...-at-bonneville/

[callum]

Good effort from honda, especially how the car looks like its in race trim(apart from the rear wing)

[The Dom]

Didn't the FIA impose these restrictions about engine development and KERS and standard ECU's to encourage the development of relevant technology??

An engine revving 22,000rpm+ sounds awesome but really has it got any real world relevance? Same with the 1500hp turbos running on benzene, whats the point? F1 is at the pinnacle of technology and serves as a startpoint for innovations to siphon down into production cars. It takes a long time but eventually it'll happen.

With KERS coming in, technology which will makes these units lighter, stronger and more efficient are ALL pluses for the future of consumer vehicles.

A lot has to do with safety etc. but the end of the day F1 does have another purpose.

[actiondan]

dont forget the simple fact that having the ecu do everything for you i.e. braking, traction control, anti-spin etc, takes away from the actual skill the driver has! f1 is the pinacle of automotive racing like fighter jets are the pinacle of aviation....do you really want to watch an un-manned computer controlled f1 car race around the track? what a lame future it would be if there were no rules governing f1!

[trdee]

fighter jets are now 80% computer control. without computreised automation none of the new fighters would even be able to get off the ground

[actiondan]

MY POINT EXACTLY!!!