New BAR hits the track

[KC]

The new BAR chassis and Jaguar R1B both ran installation laps today in preparation for testing this week.



If you take note of the front wing, you can see the extra ground clearance required by rulesmakers for 2001. Already Panis has complained about the changes and how it has made the cars even harder to drive through turbulence.

[KC]

For some reason the browser or server is inserting a space within the HTML tag that does not appear when I edit the post, and so the image will not appear. Anyone know why this is?

[Sparky]

It happened to me yesterday with a URL I was trying to post.
Craig is aware, and I think is hoping the new forum software will take care of it.

[Sparky]

That is a signifcant amount of clearance, isn't it!

Any indication of which livery they will run?

[EERO]

perhaps they could resurrect the zipper....

[TRD]

I've heard a rumour that they will be running the 555 livery this year. Can anyone confirm? Please no more zippers!

[Gt_R]

I think the new BAR looks very clean and relatively sleek in design. Holds plenty of promises, and seems to put "function" above "beauty"...Not the best lookers, but neat and practical design...Hope they give it a more dramatic livery design than last year!

[Craig]

I have no idea but I expect |(hope) they stick with the rather splendid Lucky Strike colours (hopefully minus the silver though!) and this would fit well with their partners at Honda too i'd expect...

[MichaelC]

I understand that they are running with the 555 blue, the other half of 1999's zipboile. Hence the whole car will be painted similar to a Subaru World Rally Car. I hope with Benetton already blue, Prost go for something else otherwise Murray's buggered...

[EERO]

Honestly, kids, I'm joking about the zipper-I liked the Lucky Strike livery as it recalls the Honda F1's from the sixties.

And I agree, Craig, bag the silver parts.

[Valve Bounce]

I have been harping on this subject for ages. The wings are needed to carry advertising. When watching any F1 race, most of the shots seen are actually from front on, where the advertisements are very prominent. To outlaw wings would mean to eliminate the major means of carrying these advertisements. I couldn't care less that Panis said the car was more difficult to drive because of rule changes. F1 cars were driving around with very slim grooved tyres and without wings for years before Colin Chapman stuck those wings, some crazily mounted on his Lotus. That was progress. After that, advertisements on F1 cars were allowed, and those stupid wings became billboards. It would be unrealistic to ban wings because the sponsors would cut down on the money they put into F1. This is a shame because the obvious way to improve F1 in terms of overtaking would be to ban all wings. Nevertheless, I do notice that the projected frontal area of the rear wing has been substantially reduced and I am waiting to see what effect this will have on overtaking. By the way, is the front wing a lot larger??

[Minardi fan]

I seem to recall it being confirmed months ago that the BAR would run in the 555 livery. Personally I say RESURRECT THE ZIPPER!!! That car was lovely.

It was!

[Sparky]

Mr Fan... You are a strange one.

How can you sit there and verbally abuse the (quite lovely) green over white Jag R2, yet get all giddy with delight over the prospect of a return of that... thing they called the Zipmobile??

Even the cleaner at BAR could have produced a better scheme than that!

Lucky Strike... Yes.
BAT 555... Even better.

FIA-inspired half 'n' half mish-mash... NO!!!!

[KC]

From what I gathered of the rules changes, only the rear wing is reduced by one airfoil to last years rules. The front wing is required to be 100mm from the track surface instead of 50mm. This reduces the front wing's overall effectiveness.

The wings will not be removed any time soon form F1 because they are advertising space.

panis based hi scomment son the misguided assumption by max Mosley that raising the front wing and reducing the amount of airfoils in the rear wing will 1) make passing possible and 2) reduce speeds. In fact the cars will continue to get faster and the reduction in avalable downforce makes the cars more impossible to pass. Panis commented that the new front wing forced BAR to reduce rear downforce to the point that the car is difficult to keep on the track even when it is alone and not directly behind another car.

[RussianFriend]

The Lucky Strike design would look more stylish than the 555-one with its colors.

[Valve Bounce]

So what if the cars are more difficult to drive!! They must surely be easier to drive than the rear engined Auto Unions with their skinny grooved tyres. All I can say is, so what!! These are F1 cars, not slot cars. If the car is difficult to drive for one person, then they must be difficult to drive for everyone. Sooner or later, the designers will think of something to make them less difficult to drive. If they are difficult to drive, then I can only say that this is a good thing because the better drivers will have a greater edge over the less skilled. If the drivers want an easy car to drive, then they can hop out of F1 and into a Volvo!! I must be missing something here. Are F1 cars supposed to be easy to drive?? I know I will never have the ability or courage to ever dream of driving an F1 car, so I just drive my Volvo and go roller blading in the park in the mornings. I don't know what I am saying!!! Panis started it!!

[Gt_R]

It's true man! They earn their millions, because they are there to drive something which we cant drive, and what the hell if the car is a pussy cat? I prefer to see cars that are like wild bulls, and drivers struggling to put their skills and commitment in to drive...and MAY THE BEST MAN win...!

[Valve Bounce]

I'm glad somebody agrees with me!!

[KC]

The problem with F1 cars is they are as far from "wild bulls" as they possibly can be. The drivers cannot attempt an on-track pass unless one of two things happen. Either the leading driver has to make a very large mistake, or the leading car must get out of the way.

What would you rather see, Mika Hakkinen's pass on Michael Schumacher at Spa last year once every three seasons as we have now, or at least once every race? I think everyone knows the answer to that. Passing is not some special piece of candy that you get a piece of once a year, it is supposed to be part and parcel of racing competition.

I have never understood the notion that F1 cars should somehow be difficult to drive. Any car with super-computer capable processing to control the engine and transmission should be easier to drive, not harder. It should be hard to win with one, not hard to drive.

[Jay]

I agree with KC fully.

Although I would note, that compared to F1 cars of the past the current breed are supposed to be quite easy to drive around a circuit, but harder to be quick around a circuit.

[EERO]

I'm with KC and Jay, call me a Luddite. I'd like to think that these are cars that anyone could step into and know HOW to drive. However, actually driving it fast would be a task performed only by a rarified few. Bring back foot operated clutches, mechanical gear changes, eliminate traction control and power steering among other things. Passing is a part of racing; I'm not advocating full course yellows and pace cars to close up the field, but I'd rather see cars driven by drivers who could compete for position on track.

[Valve Bounce]

You guys have totally lost me here. Sure I can step into an F1 car, and probably drive the damn thing around a track and survive, but not anywhere close to the times these guys drive at - that would be suicide and murder. Let's not be silly: for those on this forum who do race cars, tehy will be able to go around in a singe seater, but for the likes of me to go from a Volvo to something with 800 plus bhp is just Walter Mitty dreaming. And I used to be able to drive a car on a gravel road very fast. I just don't have the ability, training or talent to dare to go that fast in an F1 car, not even in a straight line. Like harry says: "A man should know his limitations".
As for overtaking, I'd better not launch into my "ban the wings theory" again, at risk of being pelted with rotten tomatoes here.
In fact, I'd like to know how many guys here believe they can get into an F1 car and drive it around a circuit. Count me OUT!!
As for mechanical changes, with six or seven gears, and those fantastically high speeds to slow down from, I don't think one's hand will survive half a race with all the gear changes required. I would love to say bring back the days of the Auto Union, and the fantastic Alphas and Maseratis. Those times are gone, as are the days of flying boats, black and white movies, vaudeville, Nuvolari, etc. The good old days are just that - good, old and long gone.

[KC]

I have no problem with computer-controlled engine management and transmission systems. I do have a problem with Max Mosley pulling engineering solutions out of his arse when they already have a committee of properly educated and trained engineers to do the job. Every year Max comes up with some idiotic method to insure better racing or safety cause. And each year it gets harder and harder for the drivers to actually race each other. Lets just look at Max's solutions one at a time.

Narrowing the cars. Max believes that narrowing the cars will decrease cornering speeds. The FIA Technical Group tells him that the corresponding increase in speed on the straights due to less aerodynamic drag producing frontal area will offset any phantom reductions in cornering speed. The width of the car has very little to do with how fast it will corner unless a seriously drastic change is made. Max pushes on regardless.

Grooved tires. Despite protestations from Goodyear, who have been manufacturing tires since before Max was born, grooved slicks are employed to help slow the cars down in the corners. In this Max has slowed the cars down for approximately 6 races before the engineers find a way to break the previous year's track records once more. However, now we have F1 cars that have effectively 1/2 the tire contact patch as the previous year and are extremely nervous in the corners. The cars are becoming quite difficult to drive and the drivers are becoming more and more less likely to risk a pass on the track for fear of crashing out. The teams are becoming satisfied with chasing points instead of race wins.

Establishing a new ground clearance for the front wing. This effectively eliminates the front wings ability to generate any ground effect downforce and takes away enough front traction that the teams are forced to drastically reduce rear traction. The cars are now nervous on the straight and under braking according to drivers. Slipstreaming is nigh impossible as the cars have zero downforce while trailing a competitor.

Traction control systems allowed. Citing an inability of the scrutineers to be able to locate traction control software, it will be allowed later in 2001 season. This is a serious indictment of the FIA's ability to properly police their premier racing series. What other violations are the FIA scrutineers unable to verify?

These are just a few of many new regulatiosn that Max has engineered. Can anyone say that they have been for the best? Sure, the teams are making more money these days, but at the cost of the spectacle. We have seen the last of the times when a young Michael Schumacher propelled a team like Bennetton up to the sharp end of the grid to battle the likes of Williams and McLaren.

[Valve Bounce]

Balestre was worse - he reduced engine size to 1.5 litres, and at that time the Climax produced a whopping 154 BHP!!
These guys just want to be dictators, and there is no way to displace them other than terminal illness.

[Liz]

But the races sell out, and every one of us buys the stuff they sell.

Obviously it doesn't matter whether anybody's actually driving the cars or not...or that we all know at the end of the first race who will win the championship. We keep on watching.

And as long as they keep on getting away with it, they will keep on doing it.

I was thinking about this last year when picking my F1 Fantasy Racing Team. I knew that the pilots I liked and
the cars I favoured were not going to win the championship, because the script already said that TGF and Ferrari were going to win. But what fun is a game where you bet on a rigged outcome? Do you pick the team you really want to race with, or do you cynically go with the one Bernie 'n' Max have already chosen to win? Either way you are not really racing, are you?