Something that annoys me...

[johnoneill2006]

...It's that comment for trying to get things banned along the lines of "Well, if it's deemed legal then it means we'll all have to develop it, at huge costs, and it'll probably be banned next year anyway"

Well I'm sorry Mr. Horner and the rest - if you don't want to spend the money on an optimised DRS system then don't spend it!

We need to encourage more innovation in Formula One!

[solarflare]

I kind of want to agree, the rules allow for so little leeway you can hardly say F1's motto is "vive le difference" and innovation is good.

But at the same time if they are just going to ban it for the start of next season, you might as well ban it now, because the pseudo-innovation that this inevitably leads to isn't much better.

All I end up feeling is that the FIA feel slightly embarrassed that they didn't understand what the "offending" team asked if they could do in the first place..."yeah yeah sure you can do that"..."oh, oops, we didn't really envisage it working like that, but we've said yes now so we'll just have to let them have it now and we'll close that little loophole for later".
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Life is.....the gap between Formula 1 Grands Prix

[johnoneill2006]

Hi Solarflare,

I have a huge respect for your postings on this forum - and I love the fact that we can have this debate... but on this occasion I disagree... Sorry!

The other top teams had roughly equivalent budgets and brain power - and they missed a trick! If it is within the rules (which it seems to be) why shouldn't Mercedes get an advantage from it?

Even if it is banned next year - nobody is forcing the teams to spend money copying it. Maybe they could invest their time and money in another area, that causes a similar amount of controversy!

John.

[solarflare]

No need to apologise just for disagreeing, you make a fair point

I'm all for Merc getting the advantage they deserve. It's all swings and roundabouts anyway, Ross Brawn was saying some teams are still doing funny things with exhaust gases that the rules were probably supposed to stop.

I think I was just more of the opinion that I want the innovation to be open and free and that if it's good enough to run with this season then it should be next season. By all means the FIA should be stepping in if it develops past an existing rule (that, over time is probably inevitable) but I just wish they'd stop resetting the clock. But I guess such is the trickiness of the knife-edge of F1 development!
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Life is.....the gap between Formula 1 Grands Prix

[Anfield5]

The reason for banning certain innovations and tweeks came in a few years ago, basically to save money without penailising the team who came up with the innovation in the first place.

For example Merc has come up with a way to legally stall the rear wing, they shouldn'y be penalised by having thier innovation banned, unfare on them as they have done well to find their solution. It is probable that every other team will copy it for next season, meaning there is no benefit to Merc for having it, so to save money for other teams ir their development budget, the innovation is subsiquently banned.

This doesn't really address the problem of the cased up big teams from chucking money at the development of a similar system for this year.

As for teams like RedBull complaining about a team findin something they haven't thought of, all I can say is WHAT . RedBull in recent years have been happy enough when they have found something new, or different to make their cars faster, so get real Mr Hormer.
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Movable body panels - welcome to the Wacky Races

[MatCoch]

What's the cheapest and most efficient way of clawing back that performance differential? Develop your own system or have someone else's banned.

[Karlos]

IMHO, things should only be banned if deemed dangerous.

And by dangerous I do NOT mean dangerous to other teams mental well being because they are no longer the best car out there...
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Red Bull - Gives you Championships.

[Anfield5]

[IMSA Racer]

Yes, that indeed sums it up in my book also . . .
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Ex IMSA Racer