F1 circuits upgraded to cope with faster cars

[rooster59]

F1 circuits upgraded to cope with faster cars

By Alan Baldwin

 

Formula One - F1 - Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - 27/11/2016 - Mercedes' Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain drives during the race. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed -

 

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - Formula One's governing body is writing to every circuit on the calendar to advise them of specific measures that need to be carried out for safety's sake due to faster cars and higher cornering speeds.

The 2017 specification cars are expected to be three to four seconds a lap quicker than last year's with more corners taken flat out following regulation changes that include much bigger tyres.

"Every single team has been asked to provide simulations for their 2017 cars," said Laurent Mekies, safety director for the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA), delivering the annual Watkins lecture at the Autosport International Show on Friday.

The lecture is named after the late Formula One doctor Professor Sid Watkins.

"We've used these simulations to feed our simulation software, we therefore simulated every single track with the 2017 cars, so much higher cornering speeds -- up to 40 kph faster in high speed corners.

"Every single track is receiving from the FIA a requested upgrade based on that work... that process is ongoing. We are doing it in the order of the championship and therefore not all the tracks have received it yet."

Mekies said Melbourne, which hosts the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 26, had done what was required by putting up additional safety barriers at turn 12 in place of tyre walls.

Turns one, six and 14 will have the existing tyre walls doubled in depth. The season has 20 races, ending in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 26.

Mekies also provided an update on the 'halo' cockpit protection system that was evaluated by many of the teams in practice last year.

"The engineering work is done," he said. "Someone needs to decide if it's right for F1 or not...the net safety benefit is established."

Mekies said whether it was right for Formula One had become a 'philosophical' question that stakeholders needed to resolve and were busy discussing.

The halo is fixed at three points including a central pillar in front of the driver that supports a protective loop above his head.

It is designed to deflect large debris and objects such as bouncing wheels, with the governing body estimating it boosts the chance of driver survival by 17 percent.

Reactions have been mixed, with some drivers giving it their approval while others have questioned the aesthetics and how easy it would be to get out of the cockpit if the car overturned.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-01-15

[sandrabbit]

I hope these changes actually produce some racing, our group of friends were getting bored last season and some were switching to indycar. Motogp (all classes) wipes the floor with F1 for excitement and Sepang Malaysia had a 90,000 sell out for motogp and only 30,000 for F1. Even Niki Lauda said of the Italian motogp round that it was better to watch than F1.

[daveAustin]

I would take anything motormouth Lauda says with a big pinch of salt. Compared with his day, he thinks it's all boring. Malays are more into their bikes than cars, plus ticket prices for F1 are undoubtedly way more than for Motogp.

 

I know what you mean though regards F1 being boring (at least compared with just a few years ago), but I dunno, I'm a biker, done Brands Hatch etc, but find Motogp inherently boring to watch. There may be more overtaking, but just too much flitting around for me between top few places to retain any excitement. The whole thing with the tyres going off and no more refueling stifled F1, but hopefully there'll be more excitement in 2017.

[Mosha]

OT but John Surtees had died aged 83

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/18872723/motor-racing-legend-john-surtees-dies-aged-83

Sent from my iris 505 using Tapatalk