Quote:
Originally Posted by NickyC
It's incredible to me that with the money involved in this sport, they get three limited days to test their machines before placing them in an actual grand prix. It just seems so dumb.
|
It's indeed very very little, but it also shows how far windtunnel testing and CFD modelling has come.
Even these are time limited, and windtunnel testing is limited to 60% scale.
But the rules apply to everyone, and it arguably keeps the sport less expensive, levelling the field even more, where intellectual performance sets the bar and not how much money you have.
And F1 is of course looking at making the cars not too fast (dangerous, a death in the sport is very very bad for business), yet still have competitive racing.
And they don't want to go the cupracing route (everyone the same car) as no one watches that. Teams developing the best cars attracts a lot of paying spectators.
It only seems dumb if the goal is to make the fastest car possible, but that's not the goal of F1. Currently it's making the fastest car possible within a certain ruleset and with a budget that is realistic for every team.
However, what I do think is strange, is that these testing days are only 1 week prior to the first GP, so there is very little time for making adjustments and certainly not enough time to come up with a completely new concept.
There is of course also that 200?km of testing on your private track.