I'm not a fan of LED lights on cars (like on all new Audi cars) however I thought LEDs could be quite useful in F1: they could be used to show when a car utilizes energy from a KERS system. Yeah, I realize it's a bit childish idea but considering how nice glowing disc brakes look I thought these KERS lights could be mounted on wheels somehow. And now I've found out that there's a technology to mount the lights even on tyres: http://www.nightbrighttyre.com/ How cool is that? Night races would looks even more awesome. But seriously, it would be great to see when KERS is being used. Knowing Bernie's attitude we probably won't even see when a driver uses push-to-pass button unless he gets some bonus cash for that.

I think something similar exits in formula nippon, on the roll hoop.

im a fan of all the audis, they just look awesome.

and i think leds would look sweet on f1 cars too, in a sensible position and maybe just for the night races!

My KERS ideas:
- no limits on power output and recovery;
- drop car minimum weight to 575kg, or something like that to make teams/manufacturers to really push for lighter and more efficient systems.

this. plus lights ;)

Le Mans cars have lights on the side to highlight class position...so I dont see why an F1 car could not have a light that shows when 'boost/push to pass' is used..

No limits on power and recovery would be awesome.

I bet you in some races, F1 cars would not have braking systems but recovery systems that broke as hard as a carbon disk brake...

Now that would develop some interesting energy recovery systems...

or have children drive them

next years le mans kers stuff is huge, but itll be linked to throttle pedal. i think its more than 10x the energy recovery than what was in f1

shame we never got to see kers and f duct
be like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLGMZDKBv8

FIA increased the minimum car weight from 605 to 620 kg for KERS. In a circuit like that of Albert Park's length, fuel needed for one lap is 2.5 kg and the corresponding lap time penalty is 0.125 s. With 15 kg extra weight that FIA has provided for KERS, we are looking at a weight-time penalty of 0.75 s. Would KERS make up this much time? Based on what we saw from last year, I don't think so. Something is fundamentally wrong here.

You mean like Ferrari already do?

do you remember why they increased the weights of the cars?
Or have you forgotten when drivers were almost passing out after getting out of their cars due to having to keep their weight so low that they were not able to have enough energy reserves to last a full race and come out of it at the end in good shape.

I like the visible KERS indicator. Specifically, it would be good for the viewer to know when KERS is in operation. But I think it transmits too much information to other drivers and might have the effect of completely wasting the boost by allowing the other driver to react quicker. Maybe there's somewhere on the car which is visible to the TV and spectators but not so much to other drivers?

I think at 200mph it may be a bit skewed for vision, it make sthe driver have to do more work to react too... also it would be good maybe to put them on the side of the cars invisible to drivers in front/behind?

I think in addition to kers, maybe think about the possibility of having an option to slow any one car on the track for a few seconds with only 3 uses would be good, with drivers not being allowed to gang up on one driver, or it could just be limited to the driver in front, would make it interesting. yes, the blah blah blah no skill in overtaking unless it becomes manufactured I will hear people raise, but it hasn't been done, so no one can know... before the trolls come from under the bridge, it was just a thought....

Forget the trolls, this is just a ridiculous idea with zero merit. It's a prototype racing series with the purpose of going as fast as possible. Some things which 'spice up the show' like different tyres etc we have to live with for commercial reasons. I see no merit at all in having anything which turns F1 into a videogame with the use of some sort of electronic green tortoise shell.

Not sure about the weight thing but the first point is spot on. Not sure why the FIA thought giving all the times the same limit would help in developing this. Surely they should be allowed to get back as much as they want then they might be able to make this more useful to the road industry

Increasing the weight makes it too easy for those who adopt KERS. Part of the fun, or at least part of what I liked in it, was the teams having to push constantly for lighter systems. Generally spekaing, what I used to like the most in F1 was to watch the never ending push for lighter, stronger and more powerful material. That sort of got lost in the midst of all this dumbing down and spec making of the F1 in the past years (when exactly were V8s and V12s outlawed?).

My reasoning for bringing the weight down is to make KERS a bigger gamble, with more promissing results, but without instantly killing the chances of anyone who choses not to use it. I picture something like a cash stripped team (say Lotus) opting for a proven and simpler design (like a Renault V10) while the teams with the mega bucks (Mercedes, for instance), put their eggs in the KERS basket. They might find it more worthy to run a heavier car with a more powerful engine. All in all, it'd open a huge window for development in F1 and they could still sell it to the tree huggers and broader audiences as pushing ahead with green technologies. The nut heads would get the return of technical diversity and the racing might improve a lot from the end of spec engines through the field.

The drivers might have to lose some weight, but none of them would ever be able to lose 15 or 20kg to meet the new minimum (it was just a random number from the top of my head). And I doubt there would be a sudden influx of 40kg midjets who can race as well as healthy and competitive folks of likes of Hamilton and Alonso. It wouldn't even be worth having an anorexic Alonso, he'd never be as good as the fit and healthy one.

Just a day dream of mine... I don't expect it to ever happen.

They are all midgets already - there is scarcely a normal sized male amongst them. Justin Wilson would not be noticed in the average city street - I am taller than him - but in the pitlane he towered over the other drivers and could hardly fit into a F1 car. Personally, I think it is all a conspiracy by Bernie so that he doesn't look quite such a shortarse.

(PS. it's not working, Bernie, we've all noticed that you're height-challenged - and that's your most endearing feature)

Justin is 6' "3, which is way above average height. Button is 6' and Webber is only a inch off.

A lot of drivers are short though, it's because of the karting background. You're at a massive disadvantage if you're tall and/or heavy which shows how good people like Button, Wilson and Coulthard were in karts.

How about being able to use KERs without any time limits....so that if you develop a very efficient KERs, you get the benefit of more usage time.

As i stated it was just an idea, not sure why it's a "ridiculous idea without merit", such a shame for you really. A better more constructive way would be to say, hey, not a great idea, these are the reasons why.... that's polite and constructive, I trust you see the point of why I raise this.

I re-state, just an idea, there has come a point where man (at top performance) and machine hit a level where performance is completely marginal, I believe it would add dimension to the race in using a whole psychological way pressure driving. I cannot confirm it will work, it's never been tried as far as I know so maybe the idea could be a non goer, but I am all for the sport evolving as these possibilities open up. I believe KERS will slightly open this up, but I think and my slight concern comes when everyone is using kers at the same time at the same places, it would render it slightly useless, because there must be 'prime' areas for each track to get the most out of kers, it would seem the lights flashing may not help in a situation like this. This is why I believe some device that 'cancels' KERS could be an extra dimension to overtaking and intelligently attacking another competitors speed without cheating (ie Schumi Villneueve or Schumi Hill... allegedly).

I personally come from the thought of not minding rules shifting to evolve the sport, to slow the cars down, it's not a huge priority for me to see sports cars going 300-400kph round a track. It is a priority for me to witness clever thought from several camps, drivers, engineers, and the track itself, to maximise the best out of the challenges laid ahead.

Many Thanks.

Its not a gimmick that will really affect the racing and it will likely benefit the sport aesthetic wise so I'm all for it.

The adjustable rear wing idea for next year is bad enough, this idea takes that principle several steps further.

The fundamental issue as relates to overtaking is still the aerodynamics/turbulent wake. If the authorities want to do something radical they should do whatever it takes to resolve this. Gimmicks like your idea have no place in F1.

Or just air this shit in 1080p, put all the shit that we want to see on the side. We have plenty of space on our WS TVs.

Gimmicks not far from KERS or thinning tyres or changing tyre brands. That have been approved, and will hopefully make a better spectacle.

I am not a big fan of KERS especially at the strict limits we saw in '09 and are in the regs. for next year. I would not call it a gimmick, however.
Thinning the front tyres was not a gimmick. It was requested by the teams to improve the balance of the cars.
Changing tyre suppliers was not a gimmick, Bridgestone did not wish to continue.

Giving the driver the ability to press a button which limits power to a car in front is like something I would expect in a video game. It may improve the 'spectacle' but so would organising a tag-team smackdown in parc ferme after the race or having bonus points for collecting gold rings on the track. I wouldn't be especially interested in those either.

But seriously if your an F1 fan then that is a silly idea to put forward.
No driver should be slowed down during a race, it just defeats the purpose of going racing. Sabotaged racing is a big no no.
The moveable wings next year could produce more Webber/Kovalainen incidents because of closing speeds so i think that should be banned.
KERS is ok but it would be abit of a joke if only a few teams wanted to implement it.

I love the idea for LEDs to visualize when a car is using KERS, especially in the night races, it would be really special, and great for photography.




I know they are different class cars, but good god that Audi is a monster.

And on that note, the closing speeds argument is pretty weak, change the position of the rear wing relative to the rear tyres if Webber is still racing next year, they are supposed to be the best drivers in the world, higher closing speeds makes it easier to overtake, which should mean you have less reliance on 'risky' moves.

Why not a huge flag that says, "I'm going to pass you now, act surprised".


This is why they don't put brake lights on F1 cars.

The whole slowing down thing is a bit of a giveaway mind..

OK fair enough, it wasn't polite. But then you need to consider whether describing those who disagree as trolls before they have done so sets a tone which you can expect to be followed.

Fact is, this idea is 'just' an idea as much as 'lets have oil slick dispensers' is just an idea too. Neither has any place in a racing series which pitches prototypes against each other which are designed to go as fast as possible within the constraints of allowed technology. It's an utterly false way to go about racing. You threw it out as an idea with little thought as to what it really means
for the sport.

KERS is designed to make a car go faster and this is good. Your idea seeks to make cars go slower. This is bad, and you've really not done enough to sell me on the idea, and for that reason, I'm out.

I like the point you make about photography. I am an amateur photographer, I designed and photographed in the wales rally the team car I designed in the WRC whilst it was in the race, it was great fun. The image got used in publications(you may sense a proud moment here). I could imagine it would be fantastic in slow shutter speed panning whilst the image sparks to life.

The only thing I worry about KERS, is the way drivers will effectively cancel out each other. I just worry that boost everyone will take at certain points will push the power band too far out of reach from each other. I think any opportunity to make the driver crack would make the race much more of an opportunity. If halfway through a kers boost it stutters out due to a clever and tactical move (only used sparingly) by the witty driver behind to pounce into the slipstream, only to find he used all his (say 3 during a race course) 'stoppers' out later on. I'm not selling the idea to fellow fans and Bannatyne I mean Buttoneer so I won't bang on about it. and I thought there was a bit of oil slick racing courtesy of Mr Dastardly Alguersuari last week!

Another thought, what about different levels of power on the kers system? only to be used a certain amount of times?

on the lights thing, id consider top of roll hoop camera, engine cover sides, and sidepod sides
no all of those, but one or two

kers chucks in another varible, so it should give us more chance events

With regards to KERS being used at exactly the same time by 2 drivers, and cancelling out, i think the answer is to restrict it to less than 1 deployment per lap.

If for example a driver could only use it once every 3 laps, lap 1 he would need to pressure someone enough to deploy their own KERS to defend(and use his own if he is going to get the job done anyway), then lap 2 and 3 he would have a run at them with his own KERS to make sure.

For qualifying; so long as every car is running the system, it would be usable every lap during those sessions if the batteries can support it, or fully disabled but left in the cars if they can not.