Feedback: your letters
I was very pleased to read that Liberty Media is looking at revising tracks to help with closer racing.
In all the years I have followed and competed in motor racing, it has always been clear to me that increasing the number of lines through a corner helps with passing strategy. However, this will not be provided by only increasing the width of the track.
I believe the best solution is to vary the camber across the track in critical corners preceding straights and after braking places to allow similar speeds to be achieved with a number of optional lines. This could be easily calculated by computer modelling and amended to work properly on site.
Generally this would entail negative camber on the inside of the corner and banking on the outer portions to allow overtaking ‘around the outside’, or getting into clear air on the way onto a straight without having to take the optimal line.
A flat, consistent track will almost always dictate one single ‘best line’, resulting in the car behind being condemned to dirty air. Look what happens in the wet – Verstappen, Brazil 2016, anyone? Seems a better solution than Bernie’s
‘let’s artificially wet the track’. Guy Dormehl South Africa
Read Roebuck and learn
I hope Autosport sent a copy of Nigel Robuck’s Fifth Column ‘Waiting for racing’ (November
30) to Liberty Media.
The last race of the 2017 F1 championship in Abu Dhabi was just one example of how cars cannot follow each other due to ‘dirty air’. It needs to be the final curtain on the current aerodynamic aids. Do we really have to wait for 2020?
So far for 2018 all we have is the removal of ‘shark fins’ and a new range of tyres from Pirelli.
Ross Brawn would like to remove the rear-wing drag reduction system, but I can understand his view that presently this is the only hope we have to see any overtaking.
Please remove all fancy aerodynamic bits first, simplify front and rear wings to reduce downforce, and remove the need to save fuel. Liberty Media needs to change direction quickly for the sake of F1. Graeme Lovell Snitterfield, Warwickshire
Three steps to a better F1
To my mind there are three things that need to change with Formula 1: fairer distribution of funding for teams; more overtaking, which I understand could be improved by underfloor aerodynamics instead of all the unsightly add-ons as at present; and, thirdly, the abolition of the absurd penalty system.
I appreciate that there will always be better funded and therefore more competitive teams, but I’m sure most fans would welcome the smaller teams being given a chance. Roger Edwards Maidenhead
Electric shocker
What a fiasco Formula E turned out to be in Hong Kong. It was more like Hong Kong Phooey than the muchhyped future of racing. The circuit was much too narrow, with stupid 180-degree turns. No percentage battery levels remaining displayed until after the car changeover in race one. The 30-minute delay to sort the race order was diabolical. Hardly a showcase for future technology!
As for Ferrari’s threatened departure from Formula 1, it is only equivalent to the baby throwing the rattle out of the pram. They have had a financial advantage over every other F1 team and too big a say in the rules for years. Let Ferrari leave; for me it can’t come soon enough. The money saved can be distributed among the smaller teams. David Kirkwood By email