@genius83
You didn't answer one of my questions. Why do the same cars, ones with double diffusers and those before it that had more aero, how do they manage to pass people on tracks like Spa, Interlagos or Monza for example? What is so different there that does not affect these same cars on those tracks?
Tilke, now how many amazing tracks has he designed? Lets see, Valencia, Yas Marina, the track at Singapore, in China, Bahrain, Istanbul, and Sepang. With the exception of Sepang, which is a nice track, what has he brought to other tracks? and he is working on the Korean track. Wonder what rubbish he will produce there. Forget F1 cars, will the GP2 cars pass others at Valencia or Singapore or China?
Interesting stuff in the article that you pasted. For starters, the last line Because without them, today’s F1 grid wouldn’t contain half the talent it does. I didn't know drivers like Heikki Kovalainen, Scott Speed, Alexandre Premat, Nelson Piquet, Ernesto Viso, Timo Glock, Lucas di Grassi, Vitaly Petrov, Kazuki Nakajima, Karun Chandhok, Sebastien Buemi, Romain Grosjean, Kamui Kobayashi counted as talented drivers who are making F1 exciting. The guy writing the article clearly is watching something else to what we get.
Lewis Hamilton, like him or hate him, is a very good and very aggressive driver. One of the few who can actually pass people. Maybe the rules had something to do with it in GP2, but the guy is good, maybe too aggressive. Him passing people will come as no surprise. I don't want to post videos here because they will come across as bashing the great man of F1, but just watch some on youtube. Search for Montoya, and see what you come up with and see what he did to people in cars that had alot more down force than today's cars. It's an art, some people have it, some don't. A very famous quote of Sir Frank Williams appeared after Montoya left his team for Mclaren. Something like " Frank will miss his pass master " It's still some where on F1db some where. It quoted Sir Frank Williams as saying, Juan Pablo can see an over taking opportunity like no one else in F1. Eight of the ten passes he puts on people are not even visible to others including-Schumacher. This after Montoya had left his team, so he wasn't praising his own driver, besides Sir Frank Williams is a man of high integrity to be accused of anything like that. The point is, some people are better at it than others and silly rule changes don't help either. Regarding mechanical grip vs aero, i was reading a nice article Here
In the years gone by, all the teams would be on track towards the end and teams and drivers had to find/make space for their flying lap. In those days the Minardi or others at the back were not threatening pole position either, they would be on track and get out of the way of the front runners. Again, they were not 10 seconds off the pace. There are examples where the stewards have taken a different view and allowed certain cars to take part in the race after they ended up outside the 107% time. 1997, Jacques Villeneuve was on pole by a second from his team mate Frentzen, and 2.1 seconds from third placed man Schumacher. I think Diniz was allowed to race despite being outside the 107% time. In the example you give, if a driver goes 1.2 seconds faster in Q3 than i can assure you the track has nothing to do with it. The track can give you a couple of tenths at the most unless it's a drying track in which case the stewards will have a different view of the 107% time or maybe the pole sitter made a mistake in Q2, to be able to go 1.2 seconds quicker in Q3. I don't know how someone can find that amount of time unless he did something wrong in Q2.
Your idea of Q4 for these teams is not bad. Just who will watch it, who will telecast it on TV etc I don't know. I guess no one will show it but they can try and get to within the 107% time. It obviously negates another thing, TV exposure for what ever sponsors they have or it could be a drying track and they will post the fastest times of all and take the front couple of rows. That should be fun, denying the top teams and cars of a shot at winning the Monaco GP for example or let the rookies in the mix for what might be a crucial championship race. Truth be told, teams like HRT, USF1 and Virgin GP should not have been selected to begin with and they would not have been if it was done in a fair manner. Well established outfits were over looked, the criteria was not merit but something else, financial. Who cares about US F1 but they were selected because F1 wants to make inroads into North America, and they cleverly talked about hiring a female F1 driver. Bernie and Max thought it was too good an idea to pass. Same is the case with Karan Chandhok. He might be good, but the hype and support given to him by Bernie and our friend Steve Slatter is not because of his talent but his nationality. Slatter is kissing up to him and as a result the team and Force India because he works for a channel which is directed at their audience. Bernie wants part of one of the world's rapidly growing economy. Thats why he took F1 to China too. There are so many things that need to be changed. FIA will inspect the diffusers in Australia, and make a rule clarification. I thought they would have done that after last year but clearly not. Four teams are running what might be deemed to be illegal difusers, among them, Mclaren and Mercedes. The other two are not clear, they might be Renault and Williams or maybe not and Ferrari might be one of the teams. So, there you have it. We might be heading into another controversy. Makes one think why were these rules not made clear after last year and all grey areas cleared up.