Australian Grand Prix

[Matra et Alpine]

Originally Posted by crisis

I used to think (perhaps naively) that F1 represented the pinnacle of automotive developement. We are constantly told how the technology filters down. Now it is so contrived to address so many different agendas it no longer offers the best to build the best. I like it but I would like it more if we could see two consecutive seasons go by with the same rules.

Materials and geometry filtered down many years ago.
The aero developemtn in F1 has filtered down more than anything else in recent years - just look at F3 and prery much every other single-seater format, the wings, pods, airflow have all been given their starting point by F1.

The big problem in recent years on technologies has been the cost. Hugely expensive to consider carbon fibre suspension arms on an FF or Formula Renault etc. Club racers can't afford to replace every suspension arm after every hard kerbing or wheel touch. Also the inherent weaknesses in these woudl be detrimental to the lower formulae - 9/10 of an FF grid would be out on the first lap with broken wishboes from wheel contact !!
The McLaren special materials liners could NEVER be put in the hands of a track racer as they were medically lethal
The problem was the F1 cars had gone too far. A bit like Concorde, what did it teach the 747 designers ?

[crisis]

Originally Posted by Matra et Alpine

The problem was the F1 cars had gone too far. A bit like Concorde, what did it teach the 747 designers ?

That only so many people can afford to fly transatlantic in 3/5 or whatever hours. 50 years ago domestic flight was a luxury. Now it is a neccesity. 50 year ago the rich flew and the poor took a ship. Now its the other way around. The Concord was born from the second golden age of flight. When we had broken the sound barrier and were pioneering outer envelopes of flight. The 747 represented a much more clinical, economically rational era. Your analogy is perfect. F1 is the formula that is supposed to go too far. Without something like that we have no avenue for design for design sake. Automotive technology is about to enter a very boring era, paradoxically on the back of some of the most exiting, adventurous forays in recent years. Just as the boundarys are being pushed by the legacies of F1s greatest ,Enzo, Mclaren, we are about to be plunged into a ecological driven,environmentally friendly future while F1 limits the dollars that can be spent on advancing the state of the art. Combine the two and even I might relish driving a diesel.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by crisis

Combine the two and even I might relish driving a diesel.

Accept the inevitable . (Cummins diesels were once running at Indianapolis )