On 2020-10-13 2:12 p.m., XYXPDQ wrote:
Use weight penalties like others do (example: LeMans).
I am ambivalent about the various Balance of Performance methods that
I have seen used in various series. For one thing, they tend to be
used in series where you have different chassis, tire and engine
combinations. There may be enough differences between the new Corvette
and the latest Porsche in the same class that a BOP may help to negate
the performance difference and make for a more competitive event.
F1 is quite unlike those series. The engines are quite similar,
although some builders obviously have done a better job than others.
The chassis varies little between one team and another. Every year,
the danger of F1 becoming a spec series grows. Everyone uses the same
tires from the limited selection available at the tracks.
On the other hand, I do agree that there isn't much interest -- for me
-- in watching the same cars in the same order from one race to
another. One would like to see *something* done to help Williams, as
an example, be able to fight to podiums. (And the same for every other
team, by the way.)
To take weight penalties specifically, I can see at least one issue
with them. That is, they should be recalculated to a value appropriate
to the individual tracks. Where does extra weight have the greatest
influence? Corners and acceleration, I would think -- not being a
racing engineer. Tracks with more corners and more acceleration onto
longer straights should have a lower weight penalty than tracks like
Monza with few slow corners where acceleration away from a slow corner
is less important. As a non-programmer, I would find this incredibly
difficult to manage fairly.
And, finally, I can see no way to account for driver ability from one
car to another. Trying to code a BOP penalty to make up from the
differences in driver skill -- which I still believe to be a huge
factor in the overall performance -- would be at best arbitrary and at
worst capricious in the extreme. Even a spec series, where there is
relatively little difference between cars, the same drivers will
usually come out in front, time after time.
I may well be overlooking something that is obvious to everyone else.
I suspect I fall into the "old fart" category who like to think of F1
as a cutting edge series using all the best the engineers can think of
to make their cars faster then all the others. The idea of F1 becoming
a spec series is -- dare I say? -- anathema to me.
--- SBBSecho 3.06-Win32
* Origin: SportNet Gateway Site (24:150/2)