Q: What’s the current status of the new F2 car? It was announced quite a while ago that Formula 2 is supposed to have a new car for 2024 — one that implements the same sort of ground effect as the current F1 cars. Makes sense, of course, but we’ve heard effectively nothing since then and we usually get a glimpse of new F2 cars around July. Well, we’re halfway through August now and no news on the development and no peeks at the new car. I know that just because we haven’t seen or heard anything doesn’t mean that nothing’s been going on, or that it’s behind schedule.
Also, on a scale of 1 to 10 with one being “not at all” and 10 being “identical,” how close in appearance to Brad Pitt’s mocked-up “F1 car” should we expect the new F2 car to be? I’m expecting about a 9.5 — almost identical save for a massive shark fin on the airbox.
FormulaFox
CHRIS MEDLAND: The new car is still on its way, and is going to be similar to the current one in the sense that it already has some small ground effect, so it was actually ahead of F1 on that front. It will have F1-style front and rear wings, though, as well as better safety standards. Nobody I’ve spoken to has mentioned any issues about it being behind schedule either — I just think they haven’t publicized it too much so far.
For the second part, even with the above I’d be saying a four or five to be honest. There’s a little hint of the old F2 car in that APXGP design, but it’s also heavily modified to look like an F1 car but carry cameras, rather than anything bespoke to handle brilliantly. That’s just based on knowledge of the film car rather than the future F2 one, so we can revisit this when we finally see the latter!
Q: Should F1 change how it uses DRS to how IndyCar uses push to pass (i.e. anyone can use it but there’s a limited quantity per driver)? I feel DRS gets too much flack when it’s really an aero version of P2P, but because of how it’s used, it makes overtaking too unbalanced.
Andrew
CM: I reckon it would certainly be worth trialing, where it can be activated in any of multiple zones whenever a driver wants, even if it’s on an out/in lap that’s crucial or just trying to close a gap when not racing anyone. It adds a tactical edge to it but still provides the possibility for overtaking, without making passes easy.
There would almost certainly be downsides, like when a slower car is being caught but has saved its DRS up and becomes impossible to pass as a result, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t still be better than the current solution, so it’s worth a go.
And as you say, it’s more about the image because of how similar it is to P2P, plus for fans it might be easier to have the visible cue of the rear wing open to know when someone’s using it tactically or not.
Q: My questions involve F1 and flagging. Does race control actually have to wait for the person waving the green flag at the back of the grid before they start the light sequence, or is that waving of the flag pretty much just a symbolic thing?
Why doesn’t F1 have someone in the flag stand and wave a white flag with one lap to go as most of the other series do? I remember a couple of times where the person waving the checkered flag (usually a celebrity or dignitary, I believe) has waved it a lap before they were supposed to, which led to some confusion. So why not have someone do the white flag? Is it just one of those things where they have never done it, so why change it?
Gino U., Springfield, MI
CM: My understanding is yes, the race starter — who is actually in a box over the start line — has to wait for that signal before they can initiate the start procedure, as between them they cover both ends of the grid to know if everyone has lined up correctly. Then marshals alongside the grid can wave yellow flags if there are any issues they spot.
As for the white flag, it’s used to warn drivers of slow vehicles ahead from other marshal posts (as is the case in many categories), and pit boards traditionally told a driver when it’s the final lap so it was down to the team and pit crew rather than race control. Obviously now with radios there’s even less use for it, as race control can talk directly to all teams and then race engineers relay the info if needed.
F1 also doesn’t do overtime or extend races like NASCAR, for example, so doesn’t need a white flag to distinguish when a final lap will be as it’s either set in the total race laps, or in delayed races it’s often such a tight call that drivers are told by race control once they’re certain they’ve started the final lap.
My research tells me it’s never been done (other than when the Indy 500 was a world championship round, perhaps), but the rules have moved around a little after not only early checkered flag waves but also an early push of a button in Japan a few years ago. At that point a digital flag on the start lights gantry was the race-ending signal, but human error still led to that being displayed one lap early, so they’ve gone back to checkered flag waving as the signal and simply been more strict with deployment.
Q: I’m watching NASCAR practice at Watkins Glen, and as usual, they’re not using the Boot. There was some talk in the past about racing the Boot, but not now. Will NASCAR ever race the Boot at Watkins Glen?
Tim Davis, Detroit, MI
KELLY CRANDALL: Well, never say never, but it seems the main reason is that NASCAR likes the distance of the Watkins Glen race (90 laps). If they were to go to the Boot, it would shorten the race because NASCAR would take laps off. It would likely also affect camping areas and fan-viewing experiences. Michael McDowell is a fan of running the Boot and told me a few years ago that even though it’s a tight corner, it should be a passing opportunity.
Here is what NASCAR’s Elton Sawyer said just last week on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about why they don’t run the Boot:
“I could give you a lot of different reasons why we don’t; I don’t 100% know. I don’t have a great answer for you. What I would say is we have visited that in the past and I think just the fact of adding that extra distance, putting additional resources as far as officiating, as far as TV broadcast and thing of that nature, and in all honesty, we’ve had really good racing with the course we have laid out there within the time frame that TV would like for that race to win.
“Now, if we go run the Boot, then you start looking at reducing the laps and things of that nature. Each time we’ve done that, we’ve come back to, well, let’s just stay with what we have because really, what we have is not broken. But I’m sure as we continue to look at our media rights agreement and things like that and working closely with the track, that topic stays on the table. But each year we seem to go back to the non-Boot, if you will.”
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, August 21, 2013
Q: I was wondering what you remember about Bruce Jacobi? He seemed to be a “super sub,” often filling in temporarily when a team was between drivers or their regular driver was injured. He made a 10-year career of this in IndyCar before moving to stock cars, where he sustained fatal injuries in a qualifying race at Daytona. If he had gotten a regular gig with a top team, how good would he have been? He seems to be an almost forgotten footnote in racing history, so any light you can shed on him or his career is appreciated.
Gregg Rauscher, Port Colborne, ON
ROBIN MILLER: Bruce was a journeyman who was entered at the Indy 500 almost every May from 1960 to 1974, but never made the race. He qualified in 1962 but the engine blew as he took the checkered flag and he crashed (only to be bumped a few minutes later). His best ride was in 1963 with the Vita-Fresh Special but he crashed that before qualifying. His best-ever result was a fourth at Springfield in 1970 (thank you Donald Davidson for the fact-check). The real tragedy is that he’d been away from racing for almost a decade when he went to Daytona in 1983 and had his fatal accident. He was a handsome, very personable guy who was at the right place at the right time to get some decent chances but never quite made it.