I came to think about writing something about modern F1 and rain after reading a lot of “angry” comments on Twitter and on the internet.
A lot of people is bashing the decision to abort the qualification today down in Australia. They´re writing Ayrton (Senna) this and Gilles (Villeneuve) that. First let my just say that it´s not my intention to be disrespectful about these great, no BRILLIANT drivers. My point is merely why we can´t ask Ayrton and Gilles themselves. For that we can blame the safety, or the LACK of safety back in those days. After all we haven´t had a fatal driver-accident in nineteen years in Formula 1.
It´s not just the cars that has gotten a lot more safe, it´s also all the other factors. Apart from safety there is also a huge difference in how the cars were back then and how they are now. People tend to forget that these cars laps the circuits bloody fast despite having lesser power than what they had just some eight years ago. That has a lot to do with the aero-efficiency of the modern cars. They are so much more aerodynamically complex these days, so they just cant cope with such amount of water on the track that was the case today. They would aquaplane and be unable to drive. Another factor to consider is the track surface and drainage of the track etc. There is a huge difference of let say the Silverstone circuit and the roads of Melbourne, after all Albert Park isn´t a permanent racetrack. So it´s a bit unfair to just write it off as “cowardly” or “unskilled” drivers.
Yes, but still, I’m pretty sure it’s because their make-up can melt under the rain the reason of the quali abort
:-p
Well, we can’t have that happening, can we!?;-)
Would you say we should go back to the early 90′s where it was a single front wing and racing was close, Mansell-Senna, Senna-Prost, springs to mind. The cars would race in all sorts of weather just by cranking up thejdown force. They should ban some of the aero stuff to make them less reliant on ideal situations. Safety must come first, no driver is paid enough to risk their lives for viewing figures.
I´ll make no secret of missing the wider V10 cars, so I say around 1997 was the top of F1 cars.
More power, wider rubber and less downforce.