Incredible Open Letter To The Fia. This Guy Needs To Be In Charge Of The Fia.

[KoolMonkey 0]

As written by former Renault F1 technical director Francois Castaing in a document that he has sent to Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt,

http://www.motorspor...ules-a-failure/

Formula 1 should not go bankrupt.

In recent months, Formula 1 stakeholders and teams have talked publicly about the serious problems the sport faces. They have revealed their lack of progress in their attempts to bring the programme back on track. The two ideas expressed here could help their efforts.

1: Power units

F1 stakeholders and the current power unit suppliers must accept that, while well intentioned, the 2014 move to a complex hybrid turbocharged V6 has had unforeseen negative consequences.

Paying fans have been complaining about the exhaust noise of the V6, saying that it is both reduced in level and quality. This is actually an unsolvable issue because, by design, in the hybrid V6 the maximum of exhaust gas energy is captured into electricity at the expense of the noise. The problem is compounded by the V6's low maximum RPM imposed by the fuel metering regulations.

Managing fuel consumption has visibly killed all-out racing to the flag: another complaint from the paying spectators.

Hybrid technology has been in development for passenger car production as far back as the 1990's, especially at Toyota, GM, Chrysler, Daimler/Mercedes, BMW and VAG. Only Mercedes, among the initial three power unit suppliers for F1, has been intensively developing hybrid technologies in anticipation of worldwide CO2 regulations. In 2012, Mercedes was in the position to assign hundreds of hybrid technology engineers to help design the new F1 power unit, while Renault Nissan provided none and FIAT very few.

Hence the superiority of Mercedes since the first day of practice in 2014, superiority likely to last until major changes if any are put in place in 2017. The power units' performance disparity, cause of the "processional Grands Prix" that the paying public is not happy about, is mostly due to the hybrid systems' efficiency and integration, rather than the difference in power output of the V6s themselves.

Privately and publicly chastised by their own teams for the hopeless lack of competitiveness of their power units, Renault and Honda might decide to give up and leave Formula 1. Why in the world would any other car manufacturer want to jump in to replace them?

Not only are the spectators disappointed, but the teams are disappointed too. Despite all the talk about containing costs through inscrutable regulations imposed on the power unit suppliers, annual budgets have sky-rocketed. With Honda involved now, it is probable that the F1 annual power units' overall expense budget will reach 1.5 billion Euros this year.

Last but not least, the new V6 hybrid regulations were about displaying "greenness." Saving 50 kilos of fuel per car at each Grand Prix was the advertised grand benefit for the planet. Let's candidly put this in a broader context, as transporting the show around the world burns fuel too:

1. Including the practice sessions over 20 Grand Prix, the 22 hybrid power units could save up to 6 tons of fuel per year.

2. The logistics for the 12 overseas events require about 1,200 flight hours of Boeing 747 cargo jet and 1,500 flight hours of Boeing 777 (or equivalent) for the personnel. In total, these flights will burn about 22,000 tons of fuel this year.

3. For Europe's 7 events, 200 tractor-trailers will burn 1,770 tons of fuel to transport the same material. Regular airlines will fly 1,500 Formula 1 personnel burning another 525 tons of fuel.

Without counting the fuel used by a large number of business jets shuttling stakeholders and VIPs to the 20 events, Formula 1 will burn at least 24,000 tons of fuel this season but, thank God, the new engine regulations will save 6 tons!

In view of these facts, Formula 1 and probably most car manufacturers and sponsors involved should agree to bring back the racing engines that fans have been clamouring for as soon as possible, while seeking more effective ways to show environmental responsibility.

2: Telemetry

From the drivers themselves to the fans, many question why more and more responsibilities are taken away from the athlete behind the steering wheel. This situation is the result of the never-ending invasion of telemetry sensors in the cars. The sensors, hundreds of them for top teams, monitor absolutely everything in each subsystem of the car.

The data collected in real time in the pit allow the team to enhance their driver's performance on the track. But at a growing cost: as an example, for the power units alone the manufacturers bring to each Grand Prix at least 10 engineers per car, each with a screen or two, to monitor a specific set of parameters when the car is running.

Hundreds of engineers are travelling to each event to watch those screens. While probably of great interest for engineers, it is not clear how this costly activity helps bring better racing to the paying spectators' eyes, even when good TV broadcasters attempt to display the telemetry to at-home viewers. It was not like that in the days when Formula 1 was very competitive with epic races from Senna, Prost and the like.

Telemetry in F1 costs a lot of money in capital, head count and transport. It should be banned completely starting with the 2017 season with the exception of a half dozen sensors warning of developing brake failure.

This drastic but simple change will permit talented drivers to shine and bring more uncertainty to every race as demanded by TV advertising sponsors and the paying public.

F1 as a whole not only will save money after paying all their drivers fairly, but it should take credit for seriously reducing its carbon footprint. If 500 engineers/technicians and their equipment were no longer needed at the events, the savings in fuel burned could be as high as 6,000 to 7,000 tons per year.

Suggestions:

Formula 1's next engine could be a 1,000 HP 2.8 litre turbocharged V8, with capped boost pressure, rev limited at 17,000 RPM and burning exclusively one brand of 110 octane gasoline.

Alternatively the famous 3.5 litre V10 from the mid-2000s period could and should be brought back to life.

Either alternative would cost the manufacturers and the teams only a fraction of what the current hybrid V6 costs.

The original KERS system should be reinstated.

Last, burning an ethanol based racing fuel should be considered: its usage does not require much invention. Ethanol would make the option of refuelling during races affordable for the teams and thus possible. And it is renewable fuel!

Francois Castaing

Renault Sport Technical Director 1975-1979

Note: Estimations of fuel burn

Assumed all air transports of freight and passengers are from London and back.

Boeing 747 Cargo burns 10 tons of fuel per hour. Assumed 4 planes needed per GP but more might be in fact needed.

Boeing 777 burns 7 tons of fuel per hour. Assumed 5 planes needed for oversea GP.

Airbus A320 burns 2,5 tons per hours.

Tractor-trailer: 8 miles per gallon.

WOW. Just wow. So many of us here have been suggesting some of these points, but this is an incredible letter bringing all these points and more into a well crafted plea to save out dying sport.

[Emmcee 0]

Excellent find monkey, yeah exactly that, wow, what a read. This guy will end up dead soon, his ideas are just to simple and yet so effective, it sounds so right because it's common sense,

Something very few have today,the amount of money he would cost bernie and his "regime" will get him knocked off.

[KoolMonkey 0]

Best line of his letter is this...

...thank God, the new engine regulations will save 6 tons!

24000 tons + 6000-7000 tons of fuel saved if they were to implement these ideas, yet we get stuck with this F1 "it's not a show" and they sing to the world about the measly 6 tons saved due to fuel restrictions lol.

[Emmcee 0]

I bet bernie has been told to "use abit less" and there is no way he will sacrifice something for himself or his important friends. He won't sacrifice on logistics as that's what makes his money so the only thing left is the race cars themselves. Let the fans and sport suffer before I take a personal loss type attitude. This old fart needs to be tied up to a chair and played this on loop for the length of the longest GP of the season:

2hrs of this, cars don't sound much better bernie.

[spiral.out 0]

Yeah but I think you guys are missing the point, and so is he. And remember I'm just playing devils advocate here, sort of.

Sure the car will save only 6 tonnes of fuel. But they are forced to develop engines which use less fuel. These developments are passed on to road going vehicles, thus, over time, globally, MILLIONS of tonnes of fuel is saved. You see how that works? Unfortunately, F1 can no longer be about just the fastest cars, it HAS to have a sustainability aspect. That is the political climate, that is the way that younger viewers and the fans of the future want it. The days of pouring as much fuel down the guzzler are gone, and some of the old timers need to get their heads around it.

Hybrids are important also. But do you know what else? Hydrogen. Toyota demo'd a car the other day in Australia and Hyundai has the ix35, both emit water and nothing else. In 15 years, there will be no more fuel burning cars for sale. Who wants to watch a pile of gas guzzling old technology sh1tters race around the track with their awful smells and cancer causing toxins?

I find the constant push to go back to larger, petrol driven engines, annoying. Sure its a short term solution (maybe), but its not a long term one and this leads me to the main point:

Its not what powers them, its about how fast, and how intense, the racing is.

That is the key point in all of this. The hybrid petrol mix is good for the forseeable future. Allow them to utilise the hybrid much more and remove the fuel restrictions for another 5 years and see what happens.

[KoolMonkey 0]

Oh I can see those points as well. But progress and how people live their life isn't aways linear. Who could have predicted record players would be selling in the quanity they are today? No one could have seen that an old tech found new life again. What about old fashioner razor blades that have also made a comeback? Both examples have more modern replacements, and many people use them and love them, but what I'm trying to say is there will always be a place for quality over something that's newer and supposedely better.

I'm still not so sure anything developed on F1 cars has a real benefit on road cars at this point. Maybe it filters in over the years, but we are not going to be seeing KERS and ERS on normal cars for a long time yet. Let's take for instance the batteries in the Prius and other Hyrids. The cost to replace them, the materials used to create new batteries, and waste and energy needed to bring this all about uses far more resources than if you just used those resources directly. Or people getting rid of old cars because they aren't as efficient as new ones, when actually using that car until it really is end of life would have been more efficient. Other than off the grid organic farming, for which I have personally been invovled with, most things that are proposed to be green when it comes to automobiles are not really so. How about Ethanol? I know a few years back it took more than a gallon of diesel to make a gallon of Ethanol. Thus what is the point? For sure over time the process would be refined to better improve efficiency. But it's still a terrible product that states quite clearly one should not use in light aircraft or marine craft. Thus we've used a resource to make an inferrior resource. That's basically double the resources used.

Having said that, even if Formula E was 2x faster than F1, I have not found it interesting in the slightest. We're going to be stuck with gasoline in our lives for the rest of our life. Aeroplanes for one aren't going to be going anywhere. Muscle cars have not lost their appeal to people despite even back in the 70s people being told they were going to be dinosaurs. There's a certain fire and life that these engines and cars have. No battery powered hybid has come close to flarring that excitement.

I'm ok with having hybrid tech in F1. But what we have now is so ridiculously overcomplicated and expensive. I've said it many times, this guy in the letter too. Go back to the orignal KERS and start again from there if need be.

But the main point I got from reading the letter was understanding just how stupid the fuel restrictions are. When you see all the other things where fuel is used. The F1 cars, even if they were V10s use quite litterally the smallest amount of fuel compared to all the other aspects of the F1 show.

You know all those Hollywood "Green" save the planet type crusaders still travel around in their private jets burning more resources than if they were to say, fly first class on an airline. Being "Green" is as much a business and attitude as it is about some who really do try to make a difference. It's all very muddled now.

All the money that's been wasted on this new tech, when we could have still been using V10s or V8s is mind boggling. Costs have skyrocketed, testing reduced to zero. Now wind tunnel testing and CFD is being restricted. It never ends in the stupid direction this sport is going. Reset the clock. Go back to something that worked from a drivers perspective, a fans perspective, a team running a race team and business perspective. Then add only what will truly enhance the show, not make changes because we have not idea what we're doing, OMG let's bring back the SPARKS type of situations.

F1 is not greeen. It never has been. They can improve in so many ways when it comes to consumption and resources and still give us a great show. People still talk about the V10s and the V8s because they were part of the great show. The bibical hairs on the back of your neck hearing those screaming engines and cars flying past. Thus we have to choose how we look at it. Is it a guily pleasure, like an old muscle car, or is it a lean green spiralina smoothie that drives a Smart Car.

[Emmcee 0]

That's the soul problem right there, trying to turn formula on into road cars. Just develop them as what there meant to be and what ever innovations come out of it that benifit road cars, then great, but don't use it as the soul purpose of what f1 is about.

[Insider 0]

As written by former Renault F1 technical director Francois Castaing in a document that he has sent to Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt,

http://www.motorspor...ules-a-failure/

WOW. Just wow. So many of us here have been suggesting some of these points, but this is an incredible letter bringing all these points and more into a well crafted plea to save out dying sport.

I met François Casting many times over the years as he was often a guest at

As written by former Renault F1 technical director Francois Castaing in a document that he has sent to Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt,

http://www.motorspor...ules-a-failure/

WOW. Just wow. So many of us here have been suggesting some of these points, but this is an incredible letter bringing all these points and more into a well crafted plea to save out dying sport.

I met Francois Castaing many times. He is a legend at Gordini and Renault and his career at AMC and Chrysler up to 2000 was star-studded. We are not just talking about a former technical head of Renault F1 Sport here but a man who brought innovation and profit to every division he led at AMC and Chrysler thereafter. His final job was as the executive vice president for Chrysler International Operations. Astute, brave and a visionary. My message to the FIA is to ignore this man at your peril. he has covered the whole ball of wax with this statement and every word, comma and full stop are right on the money. There is probably on one on the planet better qualified to run the FIA or indeed, Formula One.

[KoolMonkey 0]

That kind of makes me sad to hear that Insider. This guy sounds awesome and if in charge, would bring so much good to the sport. I had such high opes for Todt after Max was kicked out kicking and screaming. But over time I feel Max did a better job. I don't mind that Todt is invisible in person, but the sport seems totally rudderless with changes constantly coming out of left field and aways in the wrong direction.

[Emmcee 0]

That kind of makes me sad to hear that Insider. This guy sounds awesome and if in charge, would bring so much good to the sport. I had such high opes for Todt after Max was kicked out kicking and screaming. But over time I feel Max did a better job. I don't mind that Todt is invisible in person, but the sport seems totally rudderless with changes constantly coming out of left field and aways in the wrong direction.

Yeah I agree totally

[Insider 0]

That kind of makes me sad to hear that Insider. This guy sounds awesome and if in charge, would bring so much good to the sport. I had such high opes for Todt after Max was kicked out kicking and screaming. But over time I feel Max did a better job. I don't mind that Todt is invisible in person, but the sport seems totally rudderless with changes constantly coming out of left field and aways in the wrong direction.

Thing is, despite this letter I am not sure Francois would want the job but he might. He is 70 now, an inductee of the Automotive Hall Of Fame and holds several directorships despite the fact he retired fifteen years ago. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Emmcee 0]

Just funny how many important figures with the inside know how have "left" the sport. Brawn, montezemelo,Moseley. It's like bernie cleared out the closet to implement his regime of terror.