Is it specified as an inline configuration? If not, wonder if anybody would try a flat 4.

I doubt it. A flat 4 would have problems with exhaust routing. The aero tunnels at the rear of the car would compete for space with the pipes. Recall that the 956 was designed with an engine/gearbox package that was sloped up to the rear.

When BMW built their previous turbo 4, they canted it way over to the side, to lower it's COG. That's another way to tackle the problem.

JR

Blame Bernie. Blame the FIA. Blame the F1 commission.

If it was up to me, we'd have rules like the second coming of the Can-Am. If you want to follow a series with better rules, look into the new Audi R18 for Le Mans.

We also would skip China, Korea, Bahrain, Russia, India and the rest of the BS locations.

JR

I bet the start will sound like 22 boy racers in their fart-canned Civics' and 240sx's all leaving a mall parking lot at the same time.


Yeeeah buddy! :rolleyes:

Bring back CART. Or Can-Am.

12,000 RPM fours will sound silly. Enjoy 2011 and 2012, the last F1 seasons.

Why doesn't F1 just put the F2 cars on the grid? Move F3 up to F2.

12,000 rpm? YGBSM.
Oh well, at least we can look on the bright side, I'll be able to sleep in on Sundays from now on ...............

F1 is eating itself alive. Again

FIA GT1. Fun to watch, fun format, a new winner every time. Hard to believe it's an FIA event. (Wait two seasons, they'll start the fun-suck machinery. . .)

From the Speed web site today:

F1 cars will feature 1980-style 'tea tray' front wings in 2013, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

With KERS and adjustable rear wings to feature on the grid next season, and radical 4-cylinder turbo engines to debut in 2013, the report said the new front wings are the next significant change for Formula One in two years.

To replace the big and wide front wings of today, the 2013 cars will reportedly generate the bulk of their downforce underneath the car, with the formula drawn up by veteran engineers Patrick Head and Rory Byrne.

The teams will receive the draft 2013 regulations - which will also see the cars wearing much smaller rear wings - this week before they are discussed in detail by the Technical Working Group in January.

"(In 2013) We are only going to have roughly 65 per cent of the amount of fuel and a (limited) fuel (flow) rate -- that was a given," Head, engineering boss and co-owner at Williams, confirmed.

"We were just told 'That's what it will be, you've got to come up with a car spec that is not going to be more than five seconds a lap slower than a current F1 car'."So some circuit simulation was done by Rory at Ferrari and when we'd come up with some numbers in terms of drag and downforce it was then to try to come up with a geometry of a car that could try to achieve that," he added.

That's so bizarre... coming up with a car to meet a laptime spec. What a bunch of crap. Bring me the motorcycles.