No F1 thread?

[duncs500]

They've finally made a decent engine after years of being shit, now they decide to pull out!

Not surprising really, all their advertising is pushing electric cars.

Bodes well for RB then, if what happened last time Honda quit F1 is any indication.

i don't understand?

I'm Ron Burgundy?

[jamcg]

Did I get the answer right?



I’m sort of expecting red bull to just buy the Honda f1 engine department out and build their own engines

[Mito Man]

But who will they blame when it’s shit?

[jamcg]

But who will they blame when it’s shit?

That’s easy. They just sack the drivers

[Mito Man]

On a more serious note I said that we’re in the twilight years of F1 as it is a while ago. It’s a money pit and waste of resources for all but 2 teams. The FIA really fucked up by adding Formula E - suddenly you have a sport which is actually relevant to road cars and costs 25 times less per annum instead of these bullshit power units.
“The pinnacle of motorsport” is so wasteful that any innovation is banned and the engines are dinosaurs compared to electric motors with lap times artificially held back. Which begs the question why not just make it entertaining again when you can achieve the same lap times with 1/10 of the budget and resume healthy competition.

[integrale_evo]

Have you watched formula e? It’s an amazingly shite load of crap.

Unfortunately an all electric formula 1 probably isn’t that far away, at which point they may as well give up and just grow formula e.

[Zonda_]

Have you watched formula e? It’s an amazingly shite load of crap.

Unfortunately an all electric formula 1 probably isn’t that far away, at which point they may as well give up and just grow formula e.

But it isn't, admittedly when it first started and they had to change cars half way through it was but its great now.

[Mito Man]

I don’t watch FE, it’s just not for me.

But that’s the future and I imagine there’s some point where a decision will have to be made - do they unleash FE cars to make them as fast as possible or will they make F1 take its place. I imagine a fuel cell/small battery/electric motor F1 car will be a hell of a lot more relevant than the oil burning V6 hybrid nonsense they have now.

[DeskJockey]

They've finally made a decent engine after years of being shit, now they decide to pull out!

Not surprising really, all their advertising is pushing electric cars.

Bodes well for RB then, if what happened last time Honda quit F1 is any indication.

i don't understand?

[mention]jamcg[/mention] got it right. Obviously not seriously suggesting it is a comparable situation.

[Mito Man]

Have you watched formula e? It’s an amazingly shite load of crap.

Unfortunately an all electric formula 1 probably isn’t that far away, at which point they may as well give up and just grow formula e.

But it isn't, admittedly when it first started and they had to change cars half way through it was but its great now.

It’s the slow speeds and silly tracks which ruin it. I’ve seen some of it and the racing is quite BTCC which is somewhat entertaining. If they went 200 mph and on proper tracks it would be alright I reckon. It’s not like there’s any aural pleasure in the current F1 cars is it...

[Zonda_]

They do 180mph, hardly slow.

[Mito Man]

That’s surprising, maybe it’s the slow speed corner nature of the tracks but they look like they’re crawling round.

[jamcg]

Low downforce and tyres that look like they’ve come off a road car

[Rich B]

No one wants to watch racing that isn't the fastest/best. I think there's more chance of F1 going fully electric than Formula e becoming more popular than it.

[jamcg]

They need to sort the range out really, if you look at Monaco, which is pretty much the only place f1 and formula e both visit, the formula e track is half the length of the f1 track, and they only do 51 laps of it, even the formula 2 sprint race of 30 laps covers more distance

[Mito Man]

Maybe this is all part of Brawn’s plan, hence the nonsense push for splitting races into a sprint and feature race? That would solve the range issues.

[jamcg]

Maybe this is all part of Brawn’s plan, hence the nonsense push for splitting races into a sprint and feature race? That would solve the range issues.

They’d need double the range to even cover a full distance Monaco Grand Prix distance, and that’s on barely and throttle, they’d never manage somewhere like an actual racetrack where there’s significant straights and a large % spent on full throttle

[Zonda_]

Maybe this is all part of Brawn’s plan, hence the nonsense push for splitting races into a sprint and feature race? That would solve the range issues.

They’d need double the range to even cover a full distance Monaco Grand Prix distance, and that’s on barely and throttle, they’d never manage somewhere like an actual racetrack where there’s significant straights and a large % spent on full throttle

Not at the moment no but their range has doubled since the series’s started. If it was decided that electric was the way all racing was going to go I’m sure they’d be able to throw money at it and increase ranges and power.

[integrale_evo]

You can’t, there’s a limit to what existing battery tech can do, there are already manufacturers throwing billions at electric and were barely seeing any increases. Most of the increases come from improving efficiencies elsewhere, aero, tyres, weight saving, regen.

Unless there’s a significant jump in technology on the horizon then to double the range you have to more than double the battery capacity with the ridiculous weight penalty that would bring.

[Mito Man]

The current formula e battery developed by Mclaren is only 54kwh which is pretty small and weighs 385kg!
Pretty poor density for a race car.

Crucially the FIA has sent out tender for the Gen 3 cars for 2022 with a battery which can recharge in 30 seconds and it’s entirely possible now. So we could see pit stops again.
Put it this way I imagine Le Mans will be possible in an EV in a few years at this rate.