Noisier & cheaper engines from 2021

Noisier & cheaper engines from 2021

Author
Discussion

CoolHands

18,630 posts

195 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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Why not use ballast? The more points differential you have the greater the weight penalty?

thegreenhell

15,327 posts

219 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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Some reports today that they are considering keeping the 1.6 V6 layout, but ditching the MGU-H and going to twin-turbos, while retaining KERS.

Vaud

50,467 posts

155 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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CoolHands said:
Why not use ballast? The more points differential you have the greater the weight penalty?
Why does racing have to be equalised?

confucuis

1,303 posts

124 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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thegreenhell said:
Some reports today that they are considering keeping the 1.6 V6 layout, but ditching the MGU-H and going to twin-turbos, while retaining KERS.
Could that make the engines even quieter? Given the turbo at the moment acts kind of like a silencer?

thegreenhell

15,327 posts

219 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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It would be quieter than a N/A engine, but should make more and better noises than currently. The MGU-H takes a lot of energy out of the exhaust gases, which is why they sound so feeble now. Current Indycars have a twin turbo V6, and they sound quite fruity compared to F1.

Krikkit

26,527 posts

181 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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The tricky thing with these new engines is that no-one really knows what they should be...

Noise - Noisier? How much noisier? What kind of noise? I don't think going back to the old ways would be much better, needing earplugs to be anywhere near the track wasn't much fun after the first 10 minutes imo, I'd much rather have a better noise than more of it. That may mean more revs, or less restriction in the exhausts.

Efficiency? Again, how much do we really want? The new engines are bloody amazing pieces of kit, but there's no doubt that the rest of the spectacle suffers for their buttoned-down efficiency and complexity.

Road car relevance - Personally I couldn't give a fig about making F1 relevant to road-going tech, but if it draws big manufacturers into the sport then it may be worth putting up with.

Someone needs to sit down and work out exactly where they want to go with it, then they can draw up the new format for the engines. I'd say the best route would be the same tactic as LMP1 - give them a set fuel amount and flow rate, and a fixed limit on the amount of recoverable/deployable battery energy (if any), and then let them decide on the best way to get it.

HustleRussell

Original Poster:

24,691 posts

160 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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I don't want them to abandon any of the clever technologies, I'd prefer to see MGU-H retained possibly using standardised components. Could do the same for the deployment side, leaving the ICE, turbo and associated ancillaries to the manufacturers.

I don't see the need to take a backwards step in order to make the cars louder. The consumer has a breadth of choice of loud race series to go and listen to.

swisstoni

16,985 posts

279 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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If the MGU-H is killing the 'noise' then good riddance.
It's been well tested in the last couple of seasons and if manufacturers want to use it in road cars good luck to them. It's not particularly relevant at the moment.

CoolHands

18,630 posts

195 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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Vaud said:
Why does racing have to be equalised?
To make it more exciting. That's the whole point of everything really, isn't it. If they become more equal the driver skills and overtaking make a difference. If one car is so much better than the rest, they don't.

Vaud

50,467 posts

155 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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CoolHands said:
To make it more exciting. That's the whole point of everything really, isn't it. If they become more equal the driver skills and overtaking make a difference. If one car is so much better than the rest, they don't.
So just have a stock formula. Big companies won't invest millions in 2 tenths advantage of only to have it nullified next race.

thegreenhell

15,327 posts

219 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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CoolHands said:
Vaud said:
Why does racing have to be equalised?
To make it more exciting. That's the whole point of everything really, isn't it. If they become more equal the driver skills and overtaking make a difference. If one car is so much better than the rest, they don't.
But it also penalises the best drivers so that worse ones can keep up. You're effectively being punished for being good, rather than incentivised. I know it's accepted and works well in BTCC, but so does the PIT manoeuvre.

Crafty_

13,284 posts

200 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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rdjohn said:
I think that in reality, it could be fairly simple. It's just that the big teams don't want it.

If teams size were limited to about 100 design and 50 race personnel, then an audit trail would have to exist for everything that goes on the car. A couple of sceptical forensic accountants and engineers for each team could ask all the right questions and be rotated annually to resist indoctrination and ensure consistency.

Any team found guilty of cheating gets penalised and pillared.
So, team A employs a caterer to provide food for staff and guests. Occasionally they turn up with a new wing, spoiler etc. The aufit will show that the aero department came up with the new part.

Factory team B implements some tech that comes from the R&D dept of the parent company. How are you going to stop them using knowledge or IP from the parent company that has spent millions on it ?

Its unenforceable. If you tried to implement one it'd just get abused and workarounds put in place. Remember the FIA would be responsible for enforcement and they don't have a good reputation do they ?

The RRA ended up exactly the same, abused and undermined.

m444ttb

3,160 posts

229 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
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Keep the engine tech and simply double up. V12s turbos with the fuel. 1600bhp+ and watch them hang on. Might be interesting

Alicatt1

805 posts

195 months

Thursday 6th April 2017
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coppice said:
Yes- saw my first top fuller in '73 and have been addicted ever since- got my last fix at Santa Pod in September ! A lot of DFV engined cars sounded impressive enough, but not soul stirring . Personal highlights from trackside have included Matra MS 120,any Ferrari or Alfa V or flat 12 etc but the one best sounding engine for me was the Toyota V10 from about 2005 - amazing range of noises .
One of my best times at the track was at Le Mans 2005 with Audi and ADT

Here we are setting up for a photoshoot with the Audi cars and the ADT CCTV van, I ran the CCTV vans for ADT.


rdjohn

6,177 posts

195 months

Thursday 6th April 2017
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Crafty_ said:
So, team A employs a caterer to provide food for staff and guests. Occasionally they turn up with a new wing, spoiler etc. The aufit will show that the aero department came up with the new part.

Factory team B implements some tech that comes from the R&D dept of the parent company. How are you going to stop them using knowledge or IP from the parent company that has spent millions on it ?

Its unenforceable. If you tried to implement one it'd just get abused and workarounds put in place. Remember the FIA would be responsible for enforcement and they don't have a good reputation do they ?

The RRA ended up exactly the same, abused and undermined.
it failed largely because it was voluntary.

If any part does not have a bar code and a certifiable audit trail it cannot be used. The whole point of a cost cap would be that big teams no longer bring a revised fromt wing to every race.

The caterer would be a subcontractor, as would most carbon fibre bits. 3D printing is used for the small fiddly bits, but they have files.

The risk of being found cheating is also a huge deterrent.

Fortunately Liberty seem to be convinced of the merits.

Crafty_

13,284 posts

200 months

Friday 7th April 2017
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rdjohn said:
it failed largely because it was voluntary.

If any part does not have a bar code and a certifiable audit trail it cannot be used. The whole point of a cost cap would be that big teams no longer bring a revised fromt wing to every race.

The caterer would be a subcontractor, as would most carbon fibre bits. 3D printing is used for the small fiddly bits, but they have files.

The risk of being found cheating is also a huge deterrent.

Fortunately Liberty seem to be convinced of the merits.
So the external company does all the research, testing etc of a part. The team make a few drawings of the finished article and produce a part with a barcode on. Job done.

Its impossible to enforce a cost cap and track every single activity the team / engine manufacturer do, short of having a team of auditors/inspectors sat in the factory 24x7.

There has always been disparity in team spending power, just like a football team in division 4 can't afford a player from the premier league (for example). What we need is a set of regulations that allow money to be spent effectively so a team with a small budget can do 95% of the job a big budget can, then on one special day with a bit of luck the small team gets a win...

CanAm

9,197 posts

272 months

Sunday 9th April 2017
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ash73 said:
While they're modding the engines I wish they'd shorten the cars a bit, look at the amount of space around the sidepods (due to the incredible packaging), and the front wings are ridiculous.

Agreed. I'd like to see reduced front overhang and single element wings (none of these ridiculous strakes and vanes) no wider than the inner edge of the front wheels. Also rounded ends to the wings like the original Porsche Turbo. Hopefully this would reduce the amount of damage in first lap traffic.

Dr Z

3,396 posts

171 months

Thursday 20th April 2017
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Dr. Marko is making some noise about this.

F1 risks losing Red Bull over post-2020 engines - Marko

It's the usual posturing.

Derek Smith

45,655 posts

248 months

Thursday 20th April 2017
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Dr Z said:
Dr. Marko is making some noise about this.

F1 risks losing Red Bull over post-2020 engines - Marko

It's the usual posturing.
With the grid down to 10 teams, and that's giving second teams credit, and those lower down the grid suffering (and FI's boss not having the most reassuring of times) Marko thinks he'll threaten someone.

I got the impression that one of the advantages of having a 'cheap' engine, noisy or not, was to get other manufacturers interested. VW has made noises, BMW might not be far behind, so there are going to be a lot of sources.

If, and I think it is a big if, if RB do pull their cars then there might well be a lot of pretenders wanting a place on the grid, especially if engines are cheapish. Further, I bet some other regs are agreed which will reduce costs.

Perhaps someone should tell Marko not to close the door after him as there'll be a queue outside by 2020.

He really irritates me. I almost feel sorry for Horner. Almost.


CanAm

9,197 posts

272 months

Friday 21st April 2017
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The purists will hate me for this, but I'd like to see an equivalency formula, with the non-factory teams allowed to use modified production car engines. The Chevrolet "small block" is over 7 litres now in some guises and could no doubt be stretched a bit more. That would give some interesting noise.

And the cars are stupidly large; did you know that the wheelbase of a current F1 car is over four feet longer than the Lotus 38 Indy car? (and the Lotus 49 F1 car was smaller than that!)