All the teams are sorting their Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems for the new rules next year, and you’ve probably heard how a BMW mechanic got zapped by one of their cars during a recent Jerez test. But even if you have, you should still watch this (but be warned, it’s pretty uncomfortable viewing…):
The energy that’s recovered under braking will be stored in the cars and then released via a driver operated button at points of their choosing throughout a race. There should be around an extra 80bhp on offer each lap, for a short duration of 7seconds-ish – or more bursts for shorter durations. It’s hoped to improve the spectacle of F1 by increasing the ability to overtake, coupled with slick tyres and less aero for 2009.
So what do you think? Excited at the prospect? I’m a bit gutted about the aero changes to be honest, because I think that the current cars look awesome with all their flicks and flaks swooping off the cars, but the KERS ability will offer up some interesting new things during a race.
I wonder if drivers will press the boost button and spear off into the wall like I regularly do during Midnight Club on the Playstation?
I too will be missing all the cool aero bits. It’s a little unfair on the teams who have put so much effort into all that sort of stuff, they have worked hard to make their cars good. Now their hard work is being undone.
I’m glad the areo rules are changing. The current cars look horrendous (just look at the elephant ears on the front of the Honda!) and it destroys any chance of close racing. Less aero and slick tyres next year is sure to enhance the racing for spectators.
why is f1 going eco-mad?why cant the engines be allowed use all the revs possible.we want f1 to be hated by bearded communists!f1 is where most tech innovations come from we cant allow it to return to the dark ages!kers should be good however
Sounds like “push to pass” from the now dead Champ Car Series (formerly CART).
F1 isn’t really ecomad, the engines are limited because of safety reasons. We can’t have Lewis of Kimi smashing a 1500hp car into a barrier. Also the engines would almost certainly explode after each race. thats not to say the bernie isnt looking for more eco ideas like biofuels which whilst eco are also more powerful than normal petrol so it will get faster. I do like the aero stuff they have now but if the catachment for the slip stream is increased then overtaking will be easier on shorter straights. sorry for the long comment.
I agree with voice of reason and kristof because f1 aren’t going eco mad, Most series now are bio-Fuels. Indy car, WTCC and ALMS and more to follow. I also glad the areo rules are chaning because as kristof said look at the honda elephant ears and BMW Horns come on not nice at all.
I don’t think it’ll be long before some cars start using diesel. If diesel F1-level engines are anything like diesel engines in road cars, they’ll be more robust and more economical. Audi currently use diesel in Le Mans and SEAT use diesel in the BTCC. How long before a diesel McLaren?
I say McLaren because the concept of a diesel Ferrari is blatantly preposterous of course.
F1 is becoming eco-mad and seems to be forgeting it’s a racing series. getting rid of the aero packages is a bad decision. the cars look amazing with them, especially the bmw, and the teams have spent so much money developing them over the years. the extra hp this will ofer is just to cover up the fact it is a step towards them making f1 completely eco-friendly. the whole point of racing is to push the limits of what is posible and forget the concequences. what next? electric and diesel cars? the sooner they realise racing is not meant to be green the better, but atleast we get slicks for next seeson
what happens if most drivers press the button at the usual same place on a track… e.g. like this gp is hungory; there’s really only one place to use it.
isn’t F1 the pinnacle of tech on cars? will this boost button come on road cars? if so then we will definitely fly off the track like I regularly do too during Midnight Club on the Playstation.
cheerio
omg, will you guys ever be happy, i can see the thread that follows the free-money-for-watching incentive. give it up and enjoy the racing you claim to ‘enjoy’. more whiners here than labour get at a union meeting. so ‘fans’, any of you actually got anything ‘new’ to say, erm, i guess not. wait until its an F1 300 metre drag race, no circuit racing, i guess you’ll all be happy. omg, no you won’t
@Nasos – no, it probably won’t make it to regular road cars as a “boost button” but the energy recovery systems will make it into road cars as electricity generators for future electric cars. It also isn’t restricted to straights, you can use it to exit out of corners as well (provided you’re not Felipe Massa in the wet)
@vegas – expressing an opinion isn’t “whining”.
@F1 – I do agree that F1 should be the pinnacle of technology and that boundaries should be pushed. Aero was pushed to the limit 30-odd years ago with skirts, engines hit 22,000 RPM a few years ago, we had adaptive suspension systems and smart LSDs. Dumbing down F1 is like entering GP2. Let F1 keep their toys and continue to push the boundaries of technology!
Being green is good but it’s a sport. We want to see the best, quickest and fastest cornering machines on the planet being driven by the craziest people on wheels.
The problem with letting F1 continue to push the boundaries is that we would quickly end up with about 6 cars on the grid as teams such as Williams, Red Bull and Force India would struggle to keep up with the manufacturers. A lot of the changes have been made to try and curb the spending, limited revs, making engines last 2 races and gearboxes for 4 races, freeze on engine development and next year the reduction of aero all have economic reasons behind them (although the aero thing is also a bid to improve racing and possibly the aesthetics of the car, I can’t see how anyone can think the modern cars look good after the photo of the McLaren with a fin!).
Diesels in motorsport are not a good thing either. I was at the BTCC at the weekend and the SEATs were near silent, it does detract from the spectacle of attending a motorsport event!
If there is ever going to be a Diesel in the F1 then it just has to be an Audi :p They are still the pioneers on diesel engines and I can’t wait untill they come up with an F1 variant of the V12 TDI of the R10
Now as for resticting the F1… there are good and bad sides to this. Ofcourse on the bad side, it will make F1 racing less extreme and perhaps slower (altough switching from V10’s to V8’s didn’t exactly slow them down), but it does keep the championship as a whole more interesting because now you all the sudden see young rookies like Sebastien Bourdais (or Sutil at Monaco) with “weak” cars defeating the big cannon’s like Kimi and the rest.
If we let the F1 loose again then where just gonna go back to the years that Schumi dictaded F1, and if I remember correctly there where alot of people whining about that to..
So what’s it gonna be? Rules and excitement; or freedom and boring?
@Barracuda – Is ‘freedom and excitement’ too much to ask?
I think that they’re trying to put a leash on F1; slowly but surely, F1 is getting less cool and less dangerous, which is what attracted us in the first place- it’s a bit like what’s happening to supercars right now.
im glad all the aero parts are being banned, a few look good, but most of them are hideous. the cars will look so much better next year, with smooth lines, aswell as slick tyres. the reason most of us are formula 1 fans are because we fell in love with the sport at a young age, and its vital the cars look good for younger fans, and also casual viewers. my friends ask me ‘what are all those bits sticking off?’
the vital thing is increasing mechanical grip, and reducing aero grip, because this the reason hardly any overtaking happens. i, for one, cannot wait for next season! new rules, closer races, gonna be brilliant!
Personally, I love the way the cars look at the moment. Although the McLaren looks ridiculous with it’s new little elephant flaps on the nose. Simplifying the Aero will help slipstreaming, but it’ll also make the cars look less cool. Plus, any simplification in aero will immediately be eliminated by KERS boosts, not to mention the ridiculous idea of adjustable wings! The drivers will now have a KERS boost button, an aero boost button and, most likely, have an extra set of shift paddles to match McLaren’s controversial torque (traction) control. In fact, Ferrari will probably have them this weekend.
A driver may use their KERS boost and take another driver on a corner, but that driver will just boost back around them on the next corner. And then someone else will overtake them both on the straight because they will hit the KERS and Aero boost buttons at the same time. There may be a bit more action but it will be entirely down to pressing buttons, not the driver’s skill. In fact, it will simply lead to a lot more incidents and dangerous crashes between cars that will vary significantly in performance over different areas of the track.
And as for KERS having an impact on road car development.. it just won’t. Luca Marmorini from Toyota has said that their road cars already use more sophisticated KERS technology, and their hybrid racers in the Tokachi 24-Hour race use more advanced technology than the KERS system in Formula One. So, what’s the benefit? It is simply a rule that has been added to satisfy the Environmental groups who think that F1 is single-handedly causing global warming.
I dont really think that the being green is the main reason here…………-it’s all in an attempt to find speed.
Honda changed their whole livery to an earth design even though their car does 4 MPg-.
Unfortunatly F1 and environment doesnt mix!!!!
For most teams/brands, F1 (aside from being the premier motorsport) is a device to get punters into showrooms, and it also provides a side-effect of being a viable platform for developing tchnology for roadcars. I think as F1 becomes more eco-concious, the technology developed to enable F1 cars to maintain the handling, acceleration and straight line speed will be a good thing for the cars we’ll be offered in 5 or 10 years.
Roadcars will have more sophisticated engines, better drag coefficients, better weight distribution in low-end models, better fuel efficiency, better handling, chassis capable of putting more of an engine’s power down, more efficient manifolds – in and out, better cooling, better reliability.
it also SHOULD reduce costs of manufacture – as F1s are improved week-on-week, should mainstream fabrication processes not benefit from this?
It’s similar as War (amongst other things) being a platform and catalyst for medical research. Modern medical treatment can thank improvisation in the field for, I’d assume, many treatments taken for granted these days.
im sorry, but isnt F1 supposed to be the fastsest motorsport on earth. Why should we be slowing them down; allow any tyres, use aerodynamics to thier full advantage and keep KERS
I think that isntead of boosting the cars, the KERS should always zap the first mechanic to touch the car. that way a lot more position changes would happen during pit stops. the only problem might be a pit lane full of ambulances…
Just another way tree huggers are using F1!
First of all ‘Voice of Reason’, these cars only produce 800hp. But you’re right, about the safety side. Safety has improved so much in F1. For confirmation of this, look no further than Robert Kubica’s accident in Canada last year. 10 years ago, he’d be dead no questions asked. Now he only misses one race through mild concussion. Anyway, as long as they get the bugs sorted I think the KERS system’s a great idea. However, it’s been nicked from A1GP, which is rubbish (does anyone watch it?)
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KERs is a neat idea in racing form I just wish is wasn’t portrayed as some environmental thing. Eco mentalists will never get racing because they look at cars as simple modes of transportation (Point A to Point B) thats why they drive sou less crap i.e. Gee Whizz’s and Toyota Prius’. Leave F1 to the environmentalists and I swear it will turn int a competitive jogging contest.
You’re right, Dave; ecomentalists don’t get racing.
But plenty of regular, non-preachy, intelligent, environmentally conscious people do, and many of us don’t have, or want, a G-Wiz. We want Elises and F430s and 911s and R8s, but we have accepted that those just aren’t appropriate anymore.
We also love F1’s competition, noise, spectacle, and tire smoke, but times really are changing. And where better to develop new technologies than F1? Diesel, hybrid, electric, and others are coming; I don’t think they can (or should) be stopped. Facts are facts, and unless you want the ecomentalists running the show, why don’t we beat them to the punch? Let McLaren and Honda and Ferrari take care of the R&D so that, 5 or 10 years from now, we don’t have to drive Priuses. I shall be excited when Ferrari and BMW, and F1 deserters like Porsche, can produce a car I want to drive that still lets me put two fingers up to the G-Wiz driver.
limit the amount of fuel per race, no pitstops except for repairs, and basic aerodinamics. all eco measures directly relatable to real road cars, including kers , diesel , lpg & what have you….! you will see ingenuity at work & plenty interesting new developments.
remember side skirts, extractor fans, mobile air foils, just to mention a few aero beautes, or the 6 weeled brabham, remember the wooden chassis protos, etc.. etc..
basically what i’m saying is when they find somethin new give em some time to develop it & use it & then when its had most of the juice squeezed out of it chek it but leave the door open for new ideas, there are plenty around.
there will always be bernies around to make money out of it, you cant stop them, be real.
good luck to motor sport & have FUN BECAUSE THAT BRINGS THE SPECTATORS WITHOUT WHO THERE IS NO SPORT
Remember why slicks were replaced with grooved tires? It was because cornering G’s were approaching fighter-jet levels. Back then it a good decision because lower corner speeds meant lower speeds that cars would spear off to a barrier. Which of course meant less risk of getting killed.
Too bad for FIA that they didn’t know the teams could engineer around the problem with aerodynamics. Which lead to where we are now…
Therefore I think restricting aero is a brilliant move. It makes the cars less reliant of aerodynamic grip and therefore making the actual racing more like, actual racing.
F1 is no longer F1 without all those winglets? FIA to eco-concious? Slicks are just going to bring cornering speed right back up?
Enough with all the complaining! Because I’m sure that every alternate weekend, you are still going to camp in front of a TV and watch the race. And I bet yo’ll still enjoy every millisecond of it!
F1 isn’t supposed to be the fastest motorsport ! Try Dragsters for that.
KERS + Slicks + Less Aero = more overtaking during GP (ok cars looks ugly but let’s wait to see hw ingeneers react)
Eco : F1 has the most advanced technologies. So i guess it’s normal that F1 try using eco-fuel to improve it. Because that’s what F1 is : a giant lab.
POST 28 & 29 : you’re so right !!!!
TAKE THE VIDEO OFF UNTIL YOU / THEY GET PERMISION TO USE IT. :[