Alienturnedhuman wrote:
With refueling:
The races are more predictable, because once the first stops have happened you know exactly what that car is going to do for the rest of the race, each stint becomes a re run of the last in terms of pace because its weight and tyre degradation will be a repeat of the previous one.
They become less strategic, because you have to come at the scheduled lap (because the fastest laps occur when the car is lowest on fuel, so coming in early will squander that advantage)
The cars are designed in a less compromised state, meaning the team with the bigger advantage will have that advantage magnified (if a car only has to run with 1/3rd of the weight of fuel in it this means the designers have a more consistent operational window to design the car to run in, whereas with a race distance of fuel in the car there is a bigger differential between fully laden and empty)
The times in qualifying do not reflect the fastest times possible, nor does it mean that whoever gets pole is the fastest driver/car package (which is why comparing pole stats meaningless)
There is significant less overtaking. If you are stuck behind a slower car, at the next fuel stop you just fuel for two more laps, sit on their tail, pull out two fast laps when they pit and you're ahead. No need to risk an on track pass. Even without DRS the number of overtakes without refueling is significantly higher before and after refueling was introduced 1994-2009.
The races were much less exciting during the refueling era - 2010 was the most exciting championship battle in a long long time, 2011 has the most exciting races for the consistency of the season and 2012 was a mixture of the two.
Since refueling was scrapped the excitement has shifted more towards human error than technological error. Pitstops are botched by a driver not hitting his marks exactly or a mechanic not changing the wheel fast enough rather than because the fuel rig did not engage or got stuck when releasing. Strategies are dependant on a driver managing his tyres correctly rather than because a computer failed to judge the best fuel load for the race. It opens the race to a lot more variety - drivers can call to pit at any time - rather than a two lap window at the end of the fuel stint, where they have to then make a call (or the team has to make a call) on when they are next going to want to stop, 15-25 laps in the future. Rather than being locked in to that pit stop time, teams and drivers can respond organically to the race.
And as for the comments about the sport some how being worse for drivers "nursing their tyres" rather than going as fast as they can for lap after lap - well it's actually a lot harder to drive that way. It might not be as physically demanding (although the lap times aren't that different so the difference is very small) - it's a lot easier to just drive "as fast as you can" because the driver doesn't have to think about what he is doing. It's the similar to the car designers having an easier job when designing a car that operates on a smaller weight differential. If the driver knows his tyres could last 200 laps without having to worry about them then there is no tactical challenge in what he is doing, he just has to drive "as fast as he can"
It's usually Hamilton fans who complain the most about this, because of the belief Hamilton is hampered by degrading tyres and would be much faster if the tyres lasted much longer, but Spain this year was one of Hamilton's best drives of the season - he was the fast car/driver package of the weekend, however he managed that speed, got his tyres to last one less stop than the rest of the field and ended up finishing ahead of Button despite starting at the back of the grid. And when he got out of the car he made numerous mentions of challenge of managing his tyres for the race and how he'd managed to do such a great job of it.
Tyre management does not hold drivers back, it adds an extra layer required to be a Formula 1 driver. We have qualifying to determine who can do the fastest lap - the race draws on a much bigger pallet of skillsets.
Brilliantly explained. I hope the OP has read this.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
