http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kre35Pct0yA&mode=related&search=
I watched this race on TV, THIS is auto racing.
They’re driving like bicycle messengers!!!
Madness! What a race. Gilles is my all time fave.
A very compelling argument for going back to slicks…you just can’t do that stuff (should you somehow have the stones) if you’re relying heavily on downforce instead of tire grip.
Thanks!
I think it has more to do with the kind of downforce they had, rather than slick or grooved tires. The aerodynamic regulations were much looser then, and you could get all the downforce you needed from ground effects. The front & rear wings were used more as trimming devices since the ground effects generated so much downforce. The cars were much less sensitive to “dirty air” from cars ahead or beside them, and you could race wheel to wheel like that. Look at the back of the Renault at around 42 seconds into the video–the rear wing relationship to the underbody is pretty clear–this allows the rear wing to help pull air out of the underbody, which gives a huge downforce advantage. (1986 March indy cars were a prime example of this, with rear wind endplates that went all the way to the ground.)
Now the regulations really limit your aerodynamic options, and you have to tweak everything to the nth degree to get downforce, and the car becomes very sensitive to any kind of aerodynamic disturbance.
The amazing thing is how fast they close on and overtake other cars while having such a battle. And it was for 2nd place!
dbh1…great analysis…
Hell , these days if there was an actual race battle like that for position, there would have to be a 6 hour meeting with the FIA after the race with the drivers having to explain their dangerous manuevers, they would probably both be fined heavily , and penalized for the next race 10 grid spots!
Do you think F1 should go back to fast at all costs?..I kinda do…isn’t supposed to be dangerous?
The problem with faster cars is the race tracks. Some of the European tracks are 50+ years old, and don’t have the runoff areas or sightlines to work at higher speeds. Not only is driver safety a concern, but track workers, spectators, etc. come into play.
The closest thing to “unlimited” is NHRA Top Fuel–relatively few regulations. The prime restrictions are time between rounds to re-build / prepare the car, and cost. The cost issue seems to be kind of self-regulating in Top Fuel–the sport doesn’t generate the mega-millions in sponsorship that F1 does, so the cars are limited by the funds that are available. These are the fastest race cars (outside of land speed record cars, which don’t race wheel to wheel), and they do it in a quarter mile of racetrack.
I’m not sure what the real solution is. It all really comes down to dollars. No matter what you do with the rules, the team with the most money has the best shot at winning. And it’s a Catch 22, if you have the money to win, it’s easy to attract more sponsors and investors, if you don’t have the money to win, you probably never will attract it. About the only solution is a “claimer” rule–anybody can buy your car for a fixed dollar amount, that way you won’t be able to invest so much money and technology in it. NASCAR has effectively done that since their rules are so detailed with what you can and cannot do to your car. Like it or not, it works pretty well. There is some great racing in NASCAR almost every race, even though the cars are dinosaurs.
Check out Keke Rossberg–always fun to watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph4Q2I326qQ&NR=1