[NeilP]

Benson has a decent article

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/49009359


Excuse my silly attitude but the way we are going why not have 20 bare metal cars all exactly the same and let the teams just take them away after drawing lots and paint them in their own liveries complete with advertisers!

Goodbye innovation, goodbye leading technology, Goodbye F1 I loved you ...always!

[forzaferrari]

Im struggling to get excited about this news...F1 to race in Melbourne until at least 2025 after contract extension agreed.

[NeilP]

Im struggling to get excited about this news...F1 to race in Melbourne until at least 2025 after contract extension agreed.

The only thing remotely engaging I find about the Australian GP is it is the start of a new season. As a race its about as exciting as watching paint dry.  When you look at what we just witnessed at a proper racing track I wonder what the hell are we bothering with street circuits for. Race tracks are designed to race on, streets are not.  Albert Park is so called for a reason and it has nothing to do with F1.

[PapaofGags]

Im struggling to get excited about this news...F1 to race in Melbourne until at least 2025 after contract extension agreed.

The only thing remotely engaging I find about the Australian GP is it is the start of a new season. As a race its about as exciting as watching paint dry.  When you look at what we just witnessed at a proper racing track I wonder what the hell are we bothering with street circuits for. Race tracks are designed to race on, streets are not.  Albert Park is so called for a reason and it has nothing to do with F1.

Completely agree lads.

[forzaferrari]

A proposal to bring back computer-controlled active suspension systems in 2021 was rejected because it could have had a negative effect on the racing. Active suspension allowed teams to optimise the configuration of their ride height and other variables from corner to corner. It was last seen in Formula 1 in 1993, before being banned.

In recent years teams have sought to recreate some of the benefits of active suspension using passive, hydraulic systems. These will be more tightly restricted in 2021, but the FIA’s head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis confirmed they had investigated whether to legalise active systems.

“It was evaluated because compared to the very complicated hydraulic suspension that currently get used an active system, even electronic, would be potentially cheaper than what [the] current very complicated hydraulic system is,” he explained.
However a decision was eventually taken that reintroducing active suspension would undermine efforts to improve the quality of racing by allowing cars to follow each other closely.

“We felt that if teams were able to develop cars in a very specific, optimised situation like ride height or whatever then the aerodynamic characteristics would naturally be peakier. Which means that when a following car would be there it would be much more sensitive to these small change changes of [air] flow feed and therefore suffer bigger losses.

“So we felt that having the front car optimised in a very clean and very clinical condition would mean that the result would be more sensitive and hence worse for the following car. That’s why we rejected active suspension.”

https://www.racefans.net/2019/07/19/why-...n-in-2021/

[PapaofGags]

F1 set to abandon high-degradation tyres for 2021. (Motorsport)

Formula 1 looks set to abandon high-degradation tyres from 2021, with series chiefs admitting the sport was wrong to head in such a direction.

The FIA and F1 owners Liberty Media are working on a revamp of F1 that they hope will make the racing better and boost the sport’s popularity.

Earlier this week a blueprint for the new 2021 car was revealed, with F1 chiefs committed to a ground effect concept that should allow cars to follow each other much closer.
It has also emerged that F1 is looking at a whole new approach to tyres too, as the sport prepares for a switch to 18-inch wheels.

Rather than pursuing a push for rapidly degrading tyres that has dominated the recent era with Pirelli, F1 wants to head down a route that will allow drivers to push harder for longer.

The FIA’s head of single seater technical matter Nikolas Tomazis said: “We want to have tyres that enable people to fight each other without degrading or only giving a short interval for the person attacking to attack.

“What the current tyres are is a product of what has been asked of them [Pirelli], and I think we need to ask them to do different things to what they have been asked in the past.”

[forzaferrari]

Quite a few dubious sorts trying to cash in on the Zandvoort tickets today...according to some sites there was over 1 million applications for the 315,000 available tickets.

   

[PapaofGags]

F1 to trial overtaking ideas with Vietnam GP's Hanoi circuit design.

Formula 1 chiefs hope the new Vietnam circuit will act as a testbed for future track layouts, as it will feature design ideas intended to encourage overtaking.

Work is underway to prepare the new street circuit in a suburb of Hanoi, which is set to host its first grand prix in April next year.

The track has taken design cues from successful concepts at other venues, like its tight Nurburgring-style opening sequence, or a run of corners later that are like the Esses at Suzuka.

F1 managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn said tracks need to promote better racing, and that the Vietnam concept could therefore be a good benchmark for future circuit designs.

"Vietnam will be the first circuit that has been designed from ground up to be a great racing circuit," explained Brawn. "We will see how we get on.

"Nothing is ever 100% - and we will probably make one or two mistakes - but it will go a long way towards the sort of circuit we want. And we will learn from Vietnam and do the next one.

"But we don't want all circuits to be the same. It will be incredibly boring if we had great racing circuits but they were all exactly the same templates.

"We want countries to have their own identity and we want circuits to be unique."
Brawn's comments come in the wake of complaints from leading drivers that F1's calendar has too many races where the layouts are not conducive to an exciting spectacle.

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas said after the British Grand Prix they hoped driver input - reinforced by the unification of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association - would help avoid races being held for "pure political reasons and money".

[forzaferrari]

The Spanish Grand Prix is set to remain on the 2020 Formula 1 calendar after the Catalan government approved a plan for a one-year extension of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya's contract.
The event's future has been in doubt for several months as it had thus far failed to secure a new deal with the Formula 1 organisation.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/spani...a/4505380/

[Antilochos]

Vettel's take on this:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-cl...l/4504472/

I don't disagree.