Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke
It was said that some 25 years ago, A.J. Foyt, while still a driver, got out of his Champ Car at Indy and smacked a suspicion arm with a hammer. If I understand the story, he changed the inside rear tire's toe by a fraction and the car went better. IIRC, this was well beyond Foyt's prime as a driver and also beyond his ability or desire to match the financial investment someone like Penske put into the endeavor.
The point being that while Penske's masterful crew would have systematically made minor adjustments and consulted their computers, Foyt was busy throwing his laptop across the pit and using his butt to adjust the car.
We need more butts and less voodoo adjustments in F1. They can still spend millions on the first few inches of the nose shape but they all run the exact same halo. Let's extend that idea to some of the other parts of the car and bring the driver more back into the equation. At least then we will know who the better drivers are.
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Except that it's not voodoo, there is science that's backing up all the changes. The best driver is the one who can control the vehicle and pace in such a way that the adjustments in setup are seen by the telemetry. Once you have that kind of repeatability, the path to optimal setup is much clearer.
I actually think once hardcore AI takes hold of the decision-making on setup there will be much more parity between all the cars. The machine-learning algorithms will be able to understand and comprehend data much faster than humans and suggest all the right changes.