- A doubling of engine life, with each driver limited to a maximum of eight engines over the season. Teams will also be allowed four engines for testing. Engines will be limited to 18,000 revolutions per minute.
Effective, but rev limits make em sound lame. I miss 21k
- Cheaper engines for independent teams, costing about half as much as in 2008.
Effective, but where's the money going to come from? Pay for half as much... get half as much.
- During the season, teams will only be able to test their cars at Grand Prix weekends during scheduled practices.
Not very effective. F1 team's simulation budgets and laboratory testing budgets dwarf their on track testing budgets. Only thing it will do is widen the gap between the top teams and independents, because the top teams will funnel their track budget into better simulation.
- Limits on the use of wind tunnels, which are employed to improve cars' aerodynamics.
Wind tunnels are only used to prove what CFD tells the engineers. Effective but pointless.
- Teams' factories to close for six weeks per year.
Ineffective. 6 weeks of downtime means that work will have to be made up the rest of the year, which means more staff. Good for keeping families together though.
- Reduced manpower for teams during race weekends.
Riiiight.... that'll happen.... Each tire costs more that each worker makes in a weekend. Ineffective and pointless.
Changes to be introduced after next season will be even more radical, as the FIA seeks to ensure the sport's long-term survival. Races could even be shortened to save money, and refueling will be banned from 2010 - which could dramatically alter the spectacle for fans.
Good god... they want to *completely* remove passing?? And charge $90 for a half hour race?? wtfover.
From 2010, independent teams will be supplied with engines for less than $6.6 million per team per season. The engines will come either from an independent supplier or from the teams that manufacture their own engines. If an independent supplier is chosen, the deal will be signed no later than next week, the FIA said.
If such a reform proves practical, all teams will use the same transmission.
Same transmission is a bad bad idea. That's a structural member of the car, and is a place where significant differences in handling are able to be made up.
Race weekends will look radically different with the ban on refueling and a ban on warmers used to heat up tires for better grip.
I'm sorry, didn't we learn from Alex Zanardi's wreck that tire warmers are a *good* idea?
Market research will be conducted before a decision on whether to make races shorter.
Let's only hope.