FIA ban on performance-related radio chatter

[vanhookvintage]

Jim Clark does resemble the old caterham nose a fair bit, so I can understand why you have it hanging up.

Possibly, but I think we're bordering on the sacrilegious................

Cheers,
Greg

[drledford93]

Scuderia--then how does MotoGP do it? They've never had radios. If they can do it and be successful, then F1 can do it. It's not imperative that radios be in the car. Same with all the electronic aids. Make the driver drive the car, dammit!

[billgtp]

Just like Moto GP go back to a clutch, shift transmission & you have to drive the car.
I don"t feel there is a driver today that can drive a real car. Only a go Kart.

[daveyman]

We have manual shifting in race cars. It can be found in historic racing. Where do you draw the line with this retro stuff, go back to front engined dinosaurs?

[drledford93]

All of the electronics that aid the drivers are for one thing--to make the car easier to drive at the limit. In my mind, it doesn't supplement the driver's abilities, it negates them. What it does is to allow the driver to "ignore" certain aspects of driving that had to be concentrated on previously. It is this ability to focus on a seemingly myriad of things involved with driving (shifting, watching fuel levels, and generally keeping the car mechanically sound, for examples) at the same time and still bang out extreme lap times is what many of us want back. Keep driving a skill and not aided by anything.

If the current level of aides is what is to be for the forseeable future in F1, I'll turn my attention elsewhere. It will not be the same in my eyes.

[AndreaModa]

In terms of driver aids, it's a lot better than it has been in the past. In fact it's one thing the FIA has got right with the current crop of cars in my view. By outlawing things like traction control, launch control and the like, you get a much purer representation of the cars being driven on the limit. They now leave black lines, get out of shape on the exit of corners, etc.

I'd love to see MotoGP go the same route and start banning some of the electronics as well, but old Carmelo doesn't fancy upsetting big boy Honda any more than he has already with the stock ECU...

Fundamentally, the advice over the radio doesn't make the car quicker, as drledford93 points out, it only makes it easier to drive. Therefore it adds nothing to the supposed "advancement" of the formula. As a result it isn't necessary, it's just become part and parcel of F1 because the cars have become ever more complex.