Quote:
Originally Posted by billy bleach
In the light of the apparent failure of the Mercedes there must be a long line of blind alleys over the years? Williams Walruss springs to mind
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The Honda RA302 not only did not work (the air-cooled V8 was heavy and underpowered compared to the Cosworth DFV I believe), it was also a death trap.
The magnesium alloy sheet metal was, I believe, unusually reactive in the case of a fire. Although most of the cars of that era had poor safety measures for the fuel cells (or lack thereof) and there were other magnesium alloy cars in F1 and other categories at the time.
IIRC, some say Surtees refused to race it because of the magnesium body while others say it was just because of the poor handling characteristics. Not sure.
Also: should F1 bring back Indycar-style pit paddocks, with tents (or even just grass) that are truer to the name of a paddock?
I'm no expert, but that front impact structure seems deficient! We have oil cooler, thin bulkhead and then feet. Yikes.