Originally Posted by bystander:
“More importantly, F1 fans have been voicing their concerns over the nature of the communications between drivers and teams so why not change it now, why wait, if it's relatively easy to implement.”
For the reasons that have already been stated.
Primarily, because the FIA have spent the last 20 years (at least) trying to make F1 more "strategic" in order to replace the wheel-to-wheel racing that we had in the 1980s so it's a little silly to then ban the teams from operating strategically.
And, more basically, because doing it mid-season creates an unfair situation where some teams will be better able to modify their operating procedures to account for it than others.
We're not just talking about the "little fish" here either. RBR, for example, doesn't have an MFD in their car so how the hell are Vettel and Ricciardo supposed to monitor stuff like gearbox and engine settings, fuel-usage, clutch settings, brake bias (incorporating stuff related to ERS) or anything else related to ERS using a row of LEDs?
Quote:
“There's a nice long clarification list been issued of what can and can't be communicated.
Looking forward to reading a few essays of how unworkable they are, by the forums team managers.”
For anybody who's interested, a summary of the stuff involved is up on the BBC website
HERE.
Some of the stuff they've specifically banned is pretty ridiculous.
Seems that if a car suffers a problem with the engine, gearbox, clutch, brakes or ERS the driver will be expected to browse their MFD to find the problem for themselves and twiddle the associated settings in an attempt to find a remedy for themselves. While driving at 200mph.
I see they're also supposed to deal with fuel consumption and ERS information for themselves, to ensure they can finish the race.
Personally, I think I'd struggle to work out what the fuel-consumption of my road-car is while fighting my way through rush-hour in Aberdeen so an F1 driver attempting to do this mid-race has my deepest sympathy.
Looking at the list of stuff that
is allowed, I suspect we're going to see a huge increase in the number of radio messages related to
that stuff which are, apparently, completely nonsensical.
"We'd currently rate the track condition as 3, Nico, and we think you'd be doing much better if it was 5 instead. do you understand?"
Wonder if the FIA have radio monitors who're able to understand all the driver's native languages?