Formula 1’s brilliant technical revolution in 2014 has been largely overlooked by the blinkered folk in the F1 Paddock but finally Mercedes-Benz has made the obvious connection that has previously been left unsaid. The Stuttgart firm has recognised that the new powertrain is far more than simply an Internal Combustion Engine. The engine is a hybrid. The team has decided to rename the F1 W05 racing car the F1 W05 Hybrid and will carry the Hybrid branding featured on series production Mercedes-Benz cars prominently on the engine cover.
“Mercedes-Benz has been at the forefront of automotive innovation since the invention of the first automobile by Gottlieb Daimler,” said Toto Wolff. “This pedigree includes over a century of motorsport involvement, which has provided a testing ground for some of the brand’s most significant breakthroughs. What we are seeing in Formula 1 today is the next generation of innovations that will eventually find their way from the race track to the road. Mercedes-Benz is leading the way in promoting the positive new direction the sport has taken.
During the early development phases of KERS in 2007, the system weighed in at over 100 kg and worked at a thermal efficiency level of 39 percent. By the end of the 2012 season the units weighed just 24 kg and were capable of 80 percent thermal efficiency levels. In other words, Formula 1 development enabled a twelve-fold increase in power density from KERS systems: the impact of which has filtered down into Hybrid systems used by the everyday motorist.
The perfect example lies in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive: with lessons learned during development of the high-power-density F1 KERS Hybrid flowing directly into the technology at the heart of this ground-breaking vehicle. The battery solution for the all-electric supercar was developed with Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) in Brixworth, delivered 740 hp, an incredible 1,000 Nm of torque and set a new benchmark for energy density. All of which added up to a 7:56 record lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife!
This rate of development has historically come as something of a by-product to the ultimate goal of faster lap time. For 2014, however, this has fundamentally changed.
“Formula 1 is the pinnacle of automotive innovation. As such, it has a responsibility to push the boundaries of technology,” explains Toto. “The new regulations not only encourage this innovation but also align the sport with the direction in which the automotive industry is heading. As a works manufacturer team, we are perfectly placed to reap the rewards of aligning our racing activities with the future technology path for series production. Formula One always has been about pure racing – and it still is today. At the same time, we’re now back at the cutting edge of technology and pioneering new solutions. That’s a huge positive step for the sport.”
Yes! Finally someone is singing a positive song about F1 technology…
joeblogsf1 
I’m at a bit of a loss as to why the teams didn’t call them hybrids right from the start, because it’s what they are The endurance racers have been pushing this for year and have got superb PR out of it I mean Audi run a 4 wheel drive turbo diesel hybrid. I’ll repeat that: a 4 wheel drive turbo diesel hybrid. Can you imagine the technology involved in making that lot work?! They’re good at putting it out there, it’s about time F1 did too.
About time
Positive . . . yes . . . but
Thank god(s) they are clear winners at this point in time.
Very good news. I suspect they had this in the planning for a while and were waiting to see how the season went. I don’t see Renault shouting from the roof tops about their fantastic innovations any time soon. FIA and the promoters might get shaken into a bit of action though. Expect to see the results of that in 2025!
Well, it’s a low-risk marketing strategy now that they’re winning! Win on Sunday…
Now we just need the rest of F1, including the FIA to follow this path. This can only benefit all the teams as they will probably end up with more sponsors wanting to get involved on the back of this ‘greener F1’. Come on Bernie and Jean Todt, grasp the nettle and start working together on some positive marketing instead of just panning your own racing series!
Hear, hear!
It’s about time!
Makes sense to hold off the PR until you have shown the superiority of the new technology so that you don’t give it a black eye if it is not working. So the slight delay from Mercedes makes sense. The FIA and FOM have no such excuse. Imagine if a car company brought out a product and did no advertising on it…… Well Ford has done that with the Flex, but my point is in a mass market selling yourself is everything. Instead FOM has had a negative campaign, which is not ironic or reverse psychology and the FIA is out to lunch and it was there idea. Go figure!
It’s totally about time! I think there needs to be much more of this type of evangelising before people start thinking about making unnecessary changes as, personally speaking, 2014 looks, feels, and yes, even sounds better. I can personally relate much more to the driver experience as you can hear power application through the turbo and the tyres squealing underneath them now and you can judge their (the cars) limits much more than you ever could before. I remember seeing the odd rear snap last year on driver cam and thinking “Where did that come from?” but this year you can understand so much more about the cars behaviour from the sound in my opinion. (Also, my daughters now don’t complain about the noise and will actually watch some of the races with me!)
As an aside, I am impressed by Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda against my initial expectations, but I am still concerned about the setup with those two and Paddy going forward into the coming years. I still see the team, and the 2014 car as a result of Ross Brawns work to bring the team together and go in the right direction and I’m not sure swapping Ross out for those three is an upwards step. What do you think Joe? When Mercedes claim constructors this year it’s Ross’s spiritual victory, and when they start losing down the line it will be at least in part down to his absence? If I’d have come in as Toto my plan would have been to stick with Ross for at least a full year into the new Formula. Damn. I’m making myself sad. 😦 Come back Ross!
When you’ve made such a flying success of it, why not flaunt it baby
Exactly!
Humorous tho’ to consider how on one well known American racing site where their technical guru answers write-ins from readers on, amongst other racing series, matters F1 – any negativity on the currant F1 incarnation (and there’s lots of it) is eagerly seized upon and further trashed.
Guess things are moving a lot slower in the US of A; FOM and FIA have a long way to go. And yes MP I mean you.
Interesting that they didn’t start the season with this badging. After four races where it’s been shown they have the clearly superior power plant I guess they felt confident to make the association. Might not have been the case if they’d proved to be unreliable.
Any chance the same will turn up on other MB supplied teams as part of their supply agreement?
Expect the car isn’t a Hybrid.
Although it captures and reuses energy that would otherwise be lost, that energy still came from the gas tank. There is only one source of energy.
But it’s interesting to see on a F1 car non the less.
And the energy from the Toyota Prius comes from??? Lightning bolts?
The point is in the subleties in the relationships between the source of the power, the way that power is used, and and the Green PR/marketing machine. There is still no substitute for fossil fuels – even to power the machinery that creates green machines/power. But (and sorry to be a bit heavy) ultimately we have no choice, because the narcissistic green people are dictating and controlling our present and future
Well, if you want to talk about *ultimately*, in the long run we have no choice as fossil fuels by definition will eventually run out. All we can argue about is what the timescale is: given our collective ingenuity in finding new fossil fuel sources, it’s probably a lot longer than is believed by some.
Matt, I don’t think you understand the concept of a hybrid, energy in hybrids comes from the gas tank, being fuel efficient with high performance is what it’s all about!
Is kinetic energy not a source of energy? It amasses energy from braking motion. If you are arguing that kinetic energy is recovered from the petrol engine then I would have to contend that since petroleum comes from fossilized plant sources originally it’s actually a solar powered car…
So yes it’s a hybrid then.
without the initial forward movement created by the petrol engine there is no braking energy to recover.
..and thats why it’s called a hybrid and not an electric car
It has two sources of energy, which would be the gas tank and the energy store. The term “Hybrid” means the vehicle utilizes at least two forms of power for propulsion, and this would be gas and electricity. So, by definition, it is indeed a hybrid. You must be thinking of “EV” or “Electric Vehicle”, which runs solely on Electricity.
Better late than never…
I am now considering buying a new Mercedes!!
I see the word ‘hybrid’ and I think Prius straight away, with the prestige of F1 surely they could rebrand this term that would then be picked up by the car manufacturers
That shows that Toyota have done a great marketing job.
I think it’s more akin (for me anyway) to thinking Google for search engine. No real marketing, it’s just that they were first.
Jim, are you sure they were first? Or do you mean they came to your mind first, which is what I suspect you mean. Google also were fairly adept at marketing from the get go. Remember when you could sign up for a Google toolbar to index a site you put up? Had their little logo. Or stump up 299pa or something. Paying them to get their index nice, yay!! At the time you could buy off the shelf components for a few grand. Or take the goog for free. And seem way cooler, because not a moment ago people asked recommendations for websites from their geek friends, as if it was some kind of closed shop. I exaggerate of course.
The way you write though, and I’m no way exemplar, makes me think you’re on a bit of a downer. I trust not. Do I trust rightly?
Actually I think I get the drift of your comments, and they’re a sight quicker to read than mine. But then I might wander off into a diatribe about some marketing or advertising thing, when I think you just said “yeah, but these guys get the recognition out there for this stuff. Amiright??
P.s. I think a lot of the drift here is that since F1 is hybrid, how the heck do we make that really stick in everyone’s minds?
A question your comments posed to me:
Is it too late to grab public mind share about being hybrid!
If so, same Q that bothers me: how to change that game.
But unlike Prius, Google wasn’t first (e.g Lycos, Altavista, Ask Jeeves…) There’s more to it than that.
Toto Wolff probably was digging through old pics of “his other team” and saw that Williams Hybrid Power was already on the cars in 2011.
And when no one looked he came up with the idea at the Mercedes garage?
Brilliant!
“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me, a Mercedes Benz…”
Joe, would this be anything to do with the Swiss Miss chucking a Sauber about at Fiorino with “Hybrid” on it?
You see Joe just give it some time and the song of praise about the new formula will be sung by those who should ; the teams.
As the FIA chief apologist you would say that. The fact is that the FIA communication has been very poor – and they have now realised it. I did notice that there was a section of the latest President’s newsletter (not that I receive it) that could have been cut and pasted from this blog. Proactive PR rather than reactive too little too late actions would really help.
This week’s Autosport contains an ad for Communications Manager for the FIA seems to confirm that realisation
It is more complicated than that.
How do I get a copy of said newsletter?
Or rather how exactly do I become so exalted in formula ughn that I may receive such missives to Joe’s exclusion?
I must work out a way to blague my name on circulation, just to I have the true mark of a non F1 dude 😐
Wow. Talking up being hybrid sure sounds impressive if one doesn’t stop to think that Toyota has been producing the Prius for over 15 years, and will be introducing a zero emission Hydrogen fuel cell powered car (Toyota FCV) to the market in 2015. Strangely, Toyota didn’t use F1 to develop their technology…
Negative as always. Why not just go away…
I’m an F1 fan and enjoy reading your views. I just don’t always agree with them.
Honest. 😉
he makes a valid point!
Does he? What is it? Toyota wasn’t even in F1 17 years ago when the Prius was launched and was already on the verge of leaving F1 when KERS was introduced, but I guess the point was that hybrid is not exactly new.
That’s true enough, but F1 tends to be about subjecting technology to tests of extreme efficiency or effectiveness rather than inventing wholly new technologies. And that’s what the Merc press release is about: significant improvements in weight and performance driven by racing.
No but now you have performance cars with hybrid systems. So the appeal is broadened. F1 doesn’t have to be responsible for all motoring changes ever to still demonstrate impact.
Sorry but a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle is only zero emissions if you ignore the energy used to create the hydrogen. And currently that is 100% of what you get back or 130% if you take account of mechanical loses.
I’m not knocking the technology but we tend to look at these so called emission free vehicles through rose tinted glasses, and fuel cells can only be practically justified where water and carbon dioxide would do immediate physical damage.
The latest Tire 4 industrial diesels are emission free, that is free of NOx, free of HC, free of CO, and particulates. What more does a fuel cell give us in terms of measurable benifit? Nothing I suspect and is why they (fuel cells) will not make any inroads into road transportation in our lives or those of our children unless some superior form of understanding happens and a change of technology. But that’s unlikely whilst government controls science.
I agree with Jim, talking hybrid is not enough. There’s not enough talk about what’s going on in what is now a development series. There’s so much to talk about, and it’s not being discussed, possibly due to the closed paddock nature that has come the mentality in what was previously a optimisation series.
If Prius is synonymous in the public eye with hybrid tech, well for starters they corralled more A list stars to drive the things than I think have visited F1 over the same period of time. During which time the Prius became the number one make of car, of them all. (Please correct me, but a long ago post of mine did do some research, and that was the trend at least).
This is of course why the heading for this article!
So I think we’re in to some constructive despondency. Because the is a won’t for real promotion, and this article is a example of what needs to be told.
I am sceptical. I think it is hard for the sport to turn around and create all new whilst something much more important is happening: the engineering makeup of the teams is changing. Not only are new faces and fresh blood essential to learn the new technologies – and they are all new in a racing context, you cannot say this is old hat, all of this is being put to serious trial – but old skills are being realigned and questioned. That makes for unusually quiet teams. You don’t say much when you’re having a good think. I think, and I am stilt scratching my head over all this, I think that F1 just got remarkably more interesting.
There is a counterpoint to the too many Chiefs Not Enough Indians presumption of commentary about those senior at Mercedes. Could it be they simply realised that complexity requires devolving more management and to give those managers real seniority? Think cabinet office, not boardroom.. kitchen cabinet maybe. There’s now more constituencies requiring leadership in the engineering hierarchy, and the all new regs I think demand there to be pillars of tech management strongly built to cope wilt the influx of new data, new ideas and new questions. Maybe even having a few too many potent grandees was the way to go, for a while, to keep everyone through a transition. But once people at the required level talk well to one another, you can cut off the titular heads of possible factions. You can loose the politics, only when . .I don’t know well enough the makeup of MB F1, but keeping high calibre names for possibly too long may have been the necessary decision until the pillars could agree on how to interoperate.
I want not homologation, but components interoperability.* I’ll chase that one in another comment. But I think the rules have to look at different ideas, and it’s clear now that smaller teams do not thrive, and my expectation is that the complex development formula opens opportunities for the smaller teams, does not close them.
F1 has a task ahead to position itself as the pinnacle not of always extreme iterative improvement technology, though it will do that again soon, but as the pinnacle of interaction between complex drive trains and the driving experience. Real drivers want stick shift, or as close to the feedback as their paddles will allow. Real fans want to know how formula one is beyond every other autosport. The current designs put a incredible intellectual burden on everyone throughout these organisations.
I think that is why MB went top heavy, so for a while they could steady the ship by allegiances and by senior command. I’m disallowing the talk of too many cooks and all that personal guff, because it goes for all healthy and unhealthy bake offs of talent, that if you put more than one real racing mind in a room you are going to get fireworks, including personal swipes, and so much of that is expected by those old enough to or rather old enough to have earned the political capital to speak in plain language and signal bluntly what they want and do not want. To some views MB has been the most bickering team. Well, Fairchild Semiconductor caused almost singlehandedly the Silicon Valley start up revolution in the sixties. Well, they basically were silicon valley. Anecdotes of punch ups over design decisions and the like abound. I mean, you’re only calculating how not to bankrupt the entire company on one production run, in a industry where about everyone burned bridges to go join . . **
If you have interoperability of auto components you open up serious possibilities to grow, innovate, draw in new talent, hone existing minds, make new teams, reduce costs. I’m hoping to be less grumpy on a separate comment. I genuinely think interop, not proscribed explicative regs, is the way to set aside F1 from any idea of being any regular kind of racing.
My good ideas are never the ones that go zing and I get compliments for. I like zing and fast buck, impact. But this is a fifteen year future, and Jim is, a bit despondently I think, right on the money with his observation.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Piece_at_a_Time
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Semiconductor
Excellent news Joe!
I know this has been a particular bug-bear of yours for a while now, and it has been of mine too, as a confirmed “eco-mentalist”, who has worked in the environmental game for years, and a devout petrol and F1 head too… this technology brings all elements together.
I think it is clear for all to see that most parties involved (less so the teams and engine manufacturers admittedly, and this helps) have done sweet FA when it comes to publicising the new tech and how good it is…. and particular guilt has to fall at the feet of the “promotor”, for not, er…. PROMOTING?!!
For what its worth, we bought for work last year, what we can accurately describe as emission free, a Renault Kangoo electric van. Its charged from solar pv panels on the roif if tbe factory, and any other elec required to charge comes from out 100%renewable tariff… nippy little thing too, and fun in the wet 🙂
G
I’m sure Renault and Ferrari will be adding some more stickers when they are a little less embarrassed about their powertrains 🙂
What a good publicity stunt. Very happy for Merc!
Yes… Thank you.
Yes it’s about time the hybrid nature of the F1 power trains was brought into the open as it has been in other formulae.
Does the Wolf family speak German at home? Suzi’s accent has lost it’s Scottish base and she now has an accent in English very much like her husband’s. eg she sounds German!
Vettel seems to be having a run of bad luck.
Nice article, Joe. This is a major part of what F1 SHOULD be about IMO. Taking the investments made in F1 and filtering the technology down to road cars. I actually really like the new formula, which has given us some great races so far, and personally couldn’t give two hoots about the engine noise. We have an exciting formula – which is now greener and more road-relevant to boot!
I believe any lag on renaming the vehicle as a hybrid may have been due to MB’s reliability concerns. Now that the car has demonstrated performance and reliability they can market the hell out of it to the maximum benefit of their road vehicles.
Indeed. For most of its history, the technological benefit of racing for the mass-produced family car has not been very persuasive. Harroun’s 1911 Indy 500 win has been credited with bringing us the rear-view mirror, for example, but it didn’t seem that engineers needed a car race in order to come up with that idea, or much else that has happened in the design of cars that people actually use. Now the potential for real technological payoff is greater, in part because it’s no longer a matter simply of making cars faster (which is not especially relevant to the family sedan), but making them more efficient (which is). A great PR opportunity for F!, for sure (and I hope FIA are paying attention), but more importantly, greater rate of automotive evolution.
To be fair, it’s natural to want to make sure that the thing actually works and wins before taking this kind of step. I dare say they’ve had it lined up for a while on the contingency.
Well done Mercedes. As well they let their drivers race each other which is good for them and good for the sport. Other teams please note.
Good stuff from Mercedes, but I am still just amazed and dumbfounded that the engine makers (all 3 of them) did not do this from Race #1, or even Test Day #1.
Hardly takes a marketing genius to recognise the value of the link.
Joe – with the increased efficiency (aswell as laptimes) afforded by the Mercedes team in particular – is there any suggestion that they are fueling them less at the start of the race? I know the maximum is limited and obviously every kilo less brings them a better time but do we know if they’ve started doing it yet.. If not its even more bad news for the other teams!
Not trying (too hard) to burst the enthusiastic bubble concerning the current PU’s (malodorous indeed), but wouldn’t it be rather strange for Mercedes to be anything other than rapturous at this point? Frankly, I am surprised it has taken them this long to acknowledge their own magnificence in this way.
Of course, it is just a massively successful PR campaign from a company that pushed incredibly hard for an engine formula it knew it could market in its corporate profile. Granted, they have done good work, but they have spared no expense in doing so. That is not a crime, but is it efficient?
Also, what Formula 1 has mandated as technologically advanced is hardly cutting edge. Hybrid power is old technology that is a current fad amongst manufacturers who can upsell the cost of development onto first world buyers who have been brainwashed into believing that carbon credits save the earth.
Cars will drive themselves before electric vehicles provide better value for money than conventional diesel and petrol engines.
Then again, Formula 1 has never been about the efficiency of its product, so perhaps hybrid technology is a perfect fit for its image?
Formula 1 needs to be very careful over the next few years. It has ventured down a path which does not differentate adequately from other forms of motorsport. GT endurance racing is a better advert for hybrid power, and as we are continually reminded, GP2 is almost as fast. Next they will freeze more components with the intent of limiting expenditure, but instead will simply only limit the precise ways in which the money is spent. Can’t spend $200 million on the chassis and engine? Then $200 million will be spent on front wings.
I think Formula 1 has ventured down the wrong path by attempting to pander to manufacturers by creating rulesets that invite them to play. All this has done is ratchet up the amount of money needed to stay afloat, let alone compete. It has created an endless arms race, and there simply isn’t enough free capital available to subsidise more than 3 successful teams.
In short, the problem does not reside with the rules or technology; the players of the game who are at fault.
To my mind, F1 would be far more efficient and the competition more even, if the FIA simply barred any constructor it could prove without doubt spent more than $X million dollars per year. No-one derives any benefit from watching Caterham and Marussia burn through a combined $120 million a year, every year.
It’s a very good point you are making here Joe, as with the change from 2013 Engines to 2014 Power Units, the word ‘Hybrid’ has definitely been lost from the translation. This should really start to push it forwards, especially as the Mercedes is currently the dominant engine of the sport. ‘Hybrid Power Unit’ would suit just fine.
I can’t blame you for banging on about the lack of positive marketing coming out from the FIA FOM and others.
It’s obvious to any blind freddy the product they have is pretty good and any marketing company must be wringing there hands they haven’t got the F1 contract right now to take it to another level.
As you said, finally one of the team’s has taken the initiative. The new cars are great, they sound great — with all their extra whirry bits and the sport will be greater for that. Even with the new megaphone exhausts to satisfy the laggard contingent, F1 has made the right move into the future and will begin to see a new generation of fans coming on-board.
Given its investment, Mercedes’ PR hyperbole is only to be expected. The relevance of this technology for the everyday motorist, however, is rather more questionable. It is certainly not measured by their $550’000 SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive or any other of the few luxury models on which bits of this drive system have been incorporated. Even Toyota, with the Prius the pioneer of hybrid technology, has since then offered it mainly on their top-of-the range Lexus models, for the simple reason that it is far too expensive for the mass market. And Mercedes is hardly the car manufacturer to change that.
Renault, intriguingly, is threatening to reduce further development of its power unit or cease supplies altogether, because (some of) its customer teams don’t pay on time. That might become a self-fulfilling prophecy as the Renault-powered teams slip further behind in the ranking and their incomes fall.
So might we be heading for another period where one supplier powers most of the cars on the grid, as it was with the Cosworth DFV for a good dozen years? Some remember that as the golden age of F1, but I can’t see Mercedes being too keen on such an outcome.
Once upon a time the same was true of anti-lock brakes.
Maybe not the best example, Jem: ABS was developed about 80 years ago for aircraft. In fact, the fabulous carbon-fibre brakes used for many years now on race cars have not found their way into production cars.
With the cars as ugly as they are they should be called mutants not hybrids. And yes, that is meant to be light hearted.
Why are the FIA so slow to push their own products
I think there’s a big marketing/promo/engineering issue here, because “F1” and “Hybrid/green” are two mutually incompatible mind-sets.
F1 is about motor racing… high octane fuel, noise, machines, cars.
Whereas Hybrid and green are much more generic and apply generically across almost every aspect of life, much of it about which we have no choice (the meddling poiticial issues), not just motorsport.
You are spot on ben….
What do you think F1 is using this year…..91 octane fuel???
Combine this statement with the previous statement Mercedes made regarding not willing to continue under the old formula which had very little in common with their production cars, hopefully will help the concept sink in with the noise brigade.
Of course, a car for the “everyday motorist” – Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive @ $435,000 🙂
Formula E anyone?
That’s the real future, not this stop-gap technology called “hybrid”…
The industry is not ready for Formula E . I suspect it will follow the A1Grand Prix model.
Another demonstration of how dull F1 now is.
Hear! Hear!
It seems fitting that the teams are slowly starting to admit the hybrid quality of their cars. Everybody knows how boring hybrid cars are, and there is certainly no point in denying what F1 has become this season.
“One small step” for Mercedes! Cheer on, the Star is enlighting a new path for motorsports future! It was time for a counter-offensive against the PR of the sound-and-diehard reactionaries. Shame that Ferrari will be stuck with its Jurassic-Dino-V8 and V12, although they will also go hybrid with them….
Ferrari’s already gone hybrid with LaFerrari. Silly name, mind.
The marketing men at Mercedes certainly take their cues from fans / journalists on Social Media.
Teams votes in support of double points, fans active of Social Media express discontent, Mercedes publically question the process and create viral campaigns using drivers to mock the change.
Mercedes develop engines fully aware of how they will sound, Media say the cars are too quiet, Mercedes first to press on the testing of enhancements.
Media (mainly Joe) begin to question why F1 isn’t making more out of the technology revolution. Mercedes rename their car!
Can we start a campaign for lower ticket prices for race weekends!?
It is good to see a team / company responding to fans, although I wonder if they should be looking for a more proactive approach. Don’t wait to be told what’s wrong before you change your product, Mercedes marketeers move away from the reactive strategy.
I would be curious to see data on the estimated advertising revenue Mercedes have generated so far this season.Considering the likes of Repucom suggest Infiniti generated $1 Billion in advertising exposure over 2013, I wonder if Mercedes offset development costs against advertising revenue
Thanks for posting this. The guys on NBCSN in the US referred to the Merc-AMG car using the term hybrid, (not sure whether it was in reference to the car or the engine) but the message was heard by them, and repeated. I agree that this is good, think that they/the sport could have benefitted from earlier association with hybrid tech in reference to the power plants. But feel that the negative nancies that are going on about toyota and some of the other crap are tired and boresome.
Probably not a post that will be agreed with, but imho and that of many oother fans, all I want is proper racing in all motorsport series. Not one make or weird powerplants, but real racing engines, that make real engine noises and provide a platform for all teams to participate with the most level playing field possible. At present while one can say wow, how technical it all is, the reality is that the balance has changed from aero to powerplant, and neither was a way forward. Aero created boring racing, and these pu’s are also creating boring racing. This year is even more of a right off than previous ones this century.
The way things are, F1 is still headed down a blind avenue, and worse, it has doubled the cost of entering, at a time when money shortage is critical.
On Sunday, by the time the race had hit mid point, I went and emptied the dishwasher, reloaded it and made some lunch, then came back to watch Hammy finish off his win, for the last 5 laps or so. The script is now confirmed for the year, and I won’t be watching all the time anymore, as there isn’t any point. In anycase, it pains me more than I can say, to hear commentators say things such as, ” well, you can hear him lift and cruise now, this is the way the new F1 is…” and the continual engineer’s input of ” save your tyres, save your fuel”. In my book, that is not motor racing!
I know this view is not popular with Joe, or some of the eco minds here, but you really should listen to the thoughts of race fans who have a much broader outlook on racing, and have been following the sport for a very long time. It’s popular to dismiss some people as dinosaurs, but the thing is that there is nothing new under the sun, the pu’s are not some new idea, or brave new world, but what they really are is a threat to the continued existence of F1. And anyone who saw the empty spaces in the grandstands at Barcelona, should think about that statement. The MotoGP circuits don’t have empty spaces, and Alonso is enough of a draw himself, to fill the place, if people think he has a chance. And, that was good to see too, that he stopped on the parade, to reach out to the crowd, there ought to be more of that happen.
Anyway, if this gets placed, it will have all the usual outrage shown, but the real problem is that no one will stop and think about the real problems here. It’s not just, is my view correct, or the eco view correct? It’s the plain fact that the current rules ( and the previous ones ) have brought about unsustainability. Bernie hasn’t helped, he created the Golden Goose, but it’s old and tired now, and the egg laying is reducing. Baku is just another nail in the coffin.
People follow motorsport to be entertained, and to see heroics, to feel things. To feel and hear sounds, of the cars, the crowds, the smells or rubber, oil and burnt fuel. It may not be healthy at times, but we need to have sensations in life, particularly when life is so restricted as it is these days, by the worry that we might hurt ourselves, so we have to be corralled by authority, for our safety, or so they think. Joe says F1 can only appeal to younger people by going hybrid, but this is not the case, what is really turning the young off, is lack of action, and the feeling that they know the result already. Dominance is what kills it off for fans new to the sport. Younger people don’t even care if they are watching one make racing, it’s the drivers more than the cars or engines, that they want to see in action. Me, I like cars, I love a carefully crafted naturally aspirated, racing engine, and I like to watch great driving too…I also have a sense of history, and love the back story of this sport. I am happy to acknowledge the superb skills and technology of the engineering teams, and the amazing things they can do, but these things do not stir me inside, they do not provide any form of thrill for me. And I suspect that if most fans were asked for an honest answer, they would also admit that there is no thrill to an 8 speed gearbox or fancy energy recovery machine.
Frankly, If you want to admire beautiful engineering, go look at John Cobb’s Napier Railton at Brooklands Museum, or go round the Donnington Collection. That is great to do, but what we all want to see is great racing and great drivers having the chance of racing close, with the best guy on the day winning. What turns young and old off, is someone saying ” slow down, save your tyres, save fuel, lift and cruise” etc etc….if you keep that type of rules, then eventually the fans will leave, and that is a fact not a fantasy.
great mate..