By Ernesto Nigro
It has come to light that Alsono’s chassis that fell victim to the unforgiving Armco at Massenet on Saturday morning’s Free Practice session has been deemed unfit to continue on it’s tour of duty.
While most of you already know the story, Alonso was left to be nothing more than a spectator for last Saturday’s qualifying round in Monaco due to the accident that destroyed his car. Starting from the pit lane in a car that was just a chassis in a box and had never even seen daylight or turned a wheel before that morning, he was able to bring it home on Sunday in 6th.
It was originally thought by Ferrari that they might be able to repair the wounded F10. Further investigations however made it evident that Chassis 283 was non-repairable and thus has been laid to rest.
A moment of silence please for our fallen troop…
This turn of events brings to light the importance of the return of the spare car for any team serious about winning a championship. There is currently a ban on spare cars as you may know. Many rules have been changed in the name of cost cutting that have diminished the quality of the sport in many ways and the ability for teams to compete at the highest level. As we have seen, these changes have done nothing to curb spending as teams are forced to dump heaps of money and already reduced resources into other areas that have thus been fruitless. KERS was introduced as an “OPTION”. While teams such as Ferrari and McLaren spent millions developing the technology, others did not and eventually it was agreed that KERS was not to be used for this season. Others had instead developed DD-Diffusers which in turn saw many teams spend millions in car redesign and wind tunnel testing. In turn the whole of F1 has suffered, teams, drivers and fans.
Engine development was frozen, in-season testing was banned, pre-season testing was limited and other crucial areas that have helped propel the sport to elitism were all limited, restricted or removed.
Teams however, have either found new ways to spend money or were forced to spend it chasing innovative systems or technology which have either been banned or will be (Diffusers, F-Duct, etc…)
Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali explains his view on the spare car rule:
“Let’s start from the reasons why the rule book was modified a couple years ago: costs had to be reduced by getting rid of the T-car and reducing car crews,” said Domenicali. “This was the reason why the regulations were changed.
“After that, as usually happens in F1, we lost sight a bit of the events that may happen, like on Saturday. So I think this is an issue that will be re-discussed again as soon as possible, because preventing spectators from seeing the car for this sort of reason is in my opinion worth looking at.”
Personal View:
The bottom line is really that any efforts to curb spending in F1 only seem to propel teams towards spending the same money in different ways in an effort to gain the slightest advantage over their competitors.
If money is not being spent on things such as KERS, F-Duct, DD-Diffusers etc… it’s spent on luxury mobile palaces. Has anyone seen the pictures of two and three level Motorhome complexes that sport terraces and pools?
Therefore, perhaps the FIA should review some of these rules and help the teams bring the sport back to the top where it belongs. Profit sharing to help smaller teams to allow them to test more is one idea, but getting everyone to buy into that idea is easier said than done.
Lifting the ban on engine development and removing the rev limit to allow teams to really exploit the engine and reduce (what some may claim to be unsafe) cornering speeds be removing the Diffusers and returning to mechanical grip over aero grip will bring racing back to the forefront.
Simple changes that will allow cars to follow closer which will promote overtaking, and smart spending on things like testing, may be the easiest way to fix some of the problems experienced today in F1.
But what do I know? I’m just a fan that is tired of band-aid fixes and changes for sensationalism’s sake.
Source: http://ferrarif1forum.com
It has come to light that Alsono’s chassis that fell victim to the unforgiving Armco at Massenet on Saturday morning’s Free Practice session has been deemed unfit to continue on it’s tour of duty.
While most of you already know the story, Alonso was left to be nothing more than a spectator for last Saturday’s qualifying round in Monaco due to the accident that destroyed his car. Starting from the pit lane in a car that was just a chassis in a box and had never even seen daylight or turned a wheel before that morning, he was able to bring it home on Sunday in 6th.
It was originally thought by Ferrari that they might be able to repair the wounded F10. Further investigations however made it evident that Chassis 283 was non-repairable and thus has been laid to rest.
A moment of silence please for our fallen troop…
This turn of events brings to light the importance of the return of the spare car for any team serious about winning a championship. There is currently a ban on spare cars as you may know. Many rules have been changed in the name of cost cutting that have diminished the quality of the sport in many ways and the ability for teams to compete at the highest level. As we have seen, these changes have done nothing to curb spending as teams are forced to dump heaps of money and already reduced resources into other areas that have thus been fruitless. KERS was introduced as an “OPTION”. While teams such as Ferrari and McLaren spent millions developing the technology, others did not and eventually it was agreed that KERS was not to be used for this season. Others had instead developed DD-Diffusers which in turn saw many teams spend millions in car redesign and wind tunnel testing. In turn the whole of F1 has suffered, teams, drivers and fans.
Engine development was frozen, in-season testing was banned, pre-season testing was limited and other crucial areas that have helped propel the sport to elitism were all limited, restricted or removed.
Teams however, have either found new ways to spend money or were forced to spend it chasing innovative systems or technology which have either been banned or will be (Diffusers, F-Duct, etc…)
Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali explains his view on the spare car rule:
“Let’s start from the reasons why the rule book was modified a couple years ago: costs had to be reduced by getting rid of the T-car and reducing car crews,” said Domenicali. “This was the reason why the regulations were changed.
“After that, as usually happens in F1, we lost sight a bit of the events that may happen, like on Saturday. So I think this is an issue that will be re-discussed again as soon as possible, because preventing spectators from seeing the car for this sort of reason is in my opinion worth looking at.”
Personal View:
The bottom line is really that any efforts to curb spending in F1 only seem to propel teams towards spending the same money in different ways in an effort to gain the slightest advantage over their competitors.
If money is not being spent on things such as KERS, F-Duct, DD-Diffusers etc… it’s spent on luxury mobile palaces. Has anyone seen the pictures of two and three level Motorhome complexes that sport terraces and pools?
Therefore, perhaps the FIA should review some of these rules and help the teams bring the sport back to the top where it belongs. Profit sharing to help smaller teams to allow them to test more is one idea, but getting everyone to buy into that idea is easier said than done.
Lifting the ban on engine development and removing the rev limit to allow teams to really exploit the engine and reduce (what some may claim to be unsafe) cornering speeds be removing the Diffusers and returning to mechanical grip over aero grip will bring racing back to the forefront.
Simple changes that will allow cars to follow closer which will promote overtaking, and smart spending on things like testing, may be the easiest way to fix some of the problems experienced today in F1.
But what do I know? I’m just a fan that is tired of band-aid fixes and changes for sensationalism’s sake.
Source: http://ferrarif1forum.com
