Sprint Races

[andburg]

With the talk of mixing things up I thought I'd throw up how I'd run sprint races

Sat AM - Qualifying for sprint race, tyres used for fastest time in qualifying must be used for the race
Sat PM - Sprint Race, no pit stops except for damage and the point scorers have to use the tyres to start the main race.
Sun AM - Qualifying for pole, point scorers from sprint use new tyres to go for pole.
Sun PM - Main Race, point scorers from sprint race starting on used tyres and can't stop in the first 10-15 minutes except for damage. Remaining drivers start classification order from the sprint with free tyre choice.

Points are available for both races albeit lesser points for the sprint.

Hard Vs soft tyres for sprint race, run soft and you stand a better chance of scoring points but you will be starting the main GP on well used tyres. Gives an opportunity for the teams to roll the dice. Don't finish and you have time to repair or rebuild the car before the main race.

If you score points in sprint, you get a pole session new tyres provided.

Lets imagine you've got pole, if you've managed to save yourself some tyre life from the sprint race or have enough pace in hand you might be able to get up the road or extend the early pit stop. If your tyres are shot you'll be keeping the pack closed up, plenty of action dicing and defending that position until you can pit. By needing an early pitstop you're coming out towards the back of the field before its massively spaced out and need to then overtake to get back to the top. Could almost have the top cars all needing to make an extra stop but I'm sure teams would find the optimum way to deal with it.
By making the pit window time based rather than lap based you introduce another variable to the mix, p5 could be allowed to pit before p4 so there could be a huge performance difference for a lap.

it'll never work or happen but that's how I'd do it.

[mat205125]

I'd like to see more sprint type racing, or tyres and fuel loads that let drivers race for the full duration

Nursing cars to a delta to a lap time to sip fuel and prevent the tyres disintegrating isn't racing. Likewise only getting a couple of laps of opportunity to make a pass as they risk scrubbing the tyres to the canvas.

I want to see the fastest drivers driving as fast as they can in the fastest cars for the whole race.

[sgtBerbatov]

mat205125 said:

I'd like to see more sprint type racing, or tyres and fuel loads that let drivers race for the full duration.

In terms of fuel, every car on the grid has more than enough capacity to race for the full duration. But engineers don't want the car too heavy, so will skimp on the fuel to give the driver just enough.

Personally not a fan of sprint races, I'd rather a race of attrition. But that's just me.

One idea I had in terms of something they could try this season was to have the race results of the previous race dictate the starting order in the next race. The starting grid of the first race of the season based on aggregate times from testing.

[andburg]

sgtBerbatov said:

In terms of fuel, every car on the grid has more than enough capacity to race for the full duration. But engineers don't want the car too heavy, so will skimp on the fuel to give the driver just enough.

Personally not a fan of sprint races, I'd rather a race of attrition. But that's just me.

One idea I had in terms of something they could try this season was to have the race results of the previous race dictate the starting order in the next race. The starting grid of the first race of the season based on aggregate times from testing.

Maybe fuel should have a minimum starting level for each race, the only way to lose that weight is to inject it but I'm sure they would get rid of it through mapping on deceleration rather than using more throttle.

[//j17]

andburg said:

Sun PM - Main Race, point scorers from sprint race starting on used tyres and can't stop in the first 10-15 minutes except for damage.

And if the strategy says the best time to pit is after 8min queue the top cars in the sprint race all having unexpected, huge lock-ups on the corner before pit in, flat-spotting all 4 tyres and making the cars unsafe to drive, so being forced to pit for new tyres after 8min...

[mat205125]

sgtBerbatov said:

mat205125 said:

I'd like to see more sprint type racing, or tyres and fuel loads that let drivers race for the full duration.

In terms of fuel, every car on the grid has more than enough capacity to race for the full duration. But engineers don't want the car too heavy, so will skimp on the fuel to give the driver just enough.

Very true, however partly because they know that if they add more weight, the tyres will obliterate even faster.

WEC drivers race flat out and wheel to wheel, as the fuel and tyres are made to last at race pace.

[Benrad]

andburg said:

Maybe fuel should have a minimum starting level for each race, the only way to lose that weight is to inject it but I'm sure they would get rid of it through mapping on deceleration rather than using more throttle.

No if you forced them to start with that fuel they'd burn it most efficiently to go faster. They wouldn't dump it under deceleration. However that's not the fastest way to complete the race.

Everyone wants the cars to go as fast a possible, funny thing is that's exactly what they're doing. They've just figured out that "flat out" doesn't always equal fastest.

OP, why don't you want them to stop? Most complaints nowadays are about predictable one stop races. More stops generally mixes the order up and makes for a more exciting race

[andburg]

Benrad said:

andburg said:

Maybe fuel should have a minimum starting level for each race, the only way to lose that weight is to inject it but I'm sure they would get rid of it through mapping on deceleration rather than using more throttle.

No if you forced them to start with that fuel they'd burn it most efficiently to go faster. They wouldn't dump it under deceleration. However that's not the fastest way to complete the race.

Everyone wants the cars to go as fast a possible, funny thing is that's exactly what they're doing. They've just figured out that "flat out" doesn't always equal fastest.

OP, why don't you want them to stop? Most complaints nowadays are about predictable one stop races. More stops generally mixes the order up and makes for a more exciting race

Why would they need to stop in a sprint race? If you allow them to stop they’d do it to have fresher tyres for the main race.

In the main race I figured if you let the fast guys on used tyres stop on lap1 they would probably do it. They would ditch the used tyres and then have half a lap of clear track before they caught up with the pack.

[//j17]

mat205125 said:

WEC drivers race flat out and wheel to wheel, as the fuel and tyres are made to last at race pace.

Flat out, other than all the fuel saving that is. The best WEC drivers tend to be the mastes of lift and coast, and squeezing that extra lap out of a tank of gas, as the difference between winning and not in endurance racing is often down to who spends the least time in the pits. There's no point being 0.5 second a lap faster than the other guy over a 10 lap stint if that means you need to spend an extra 12 seconds in the pits refueling.