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When it comes to the halo, I'm still at stage 1 in the Kübler-Ross model. In other words, I keep telling myself that the halo is just some long trolling attempt and the 2017 cars will look as nice as ever.
Next stage is anger.

Not yet but some guys protested after Baku after it showed that these cars are so full of technology (space ships, according to Alonso) that drivers can no longer race a car without help.

crazy idea: eliminate technology and keep it simple

Ah okay. Well, i hope the FIA doesn't do anything. Sure, the cars have become more complicated, but the drivers just have to adapt and the engineers must devise a way to keep it simple enough for these uber smart drivers (laugh). You can simplify it, but that is the job of the team off course, too simple might mean performance loss, and that is not going to happen.

Drivers should stop moaning and do their job. Hamiltins whining if he is not winning is becoming a trend. Sad habit for a great driver.

cars were better to drive when was just an engine attached into a transmission

simplify, then add lightness

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

Rosberg was able to overcome the issues.

Please no ban on this, as in Baku it was the only interesting thing that happened...

Are we reaching a point where engineers/teams would rather have an AI driving the cars?

Therefore you could change the brake ratio precisely for each single corner, change cartography in the middle of a straight, put exactly the lateral load you want on each tyre, etc... You know, things these pesky humans can't do without losing concentration, or forget to do once they're racing someone else.

Yeaa, that's the problem. They have all those buttons on the wheel and in the cockpit to change almost everything. They have different settings for each corner and straight, even change with the different tyres and lower fuel load. They need to cut down on it, bring it back to the driver. As Hamilton's radio showed, it's at the point that it's dictated by a team of engineers in the garage then the driver and it's so much that the driver can get confused with the radio ban in effect.

Let's face it, the millionaire in the car is just there because otherwise fans wouldn't turn their TV on. Nobody wants them there in the seat. They're a liability to the FIA if they die, a pain in the ass to the team's managers/lawyers, a hole in the team's finances, and a fleshy G-force limiter to the engineers.

and that's why roborace will be a failure

plus reducing that ammount of electronics would bring costs down (I want to believe)

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

On other news, former F1 driver Gianmaria Bruni was in close proximity to terror attacks at Istanbul.

^Scary.

I'd be glad to see all electronics, computer programs and adjustments inside the car to be banned. Then someone says "that's like going back to the 50's, F1 needs to be the pinnacle of technology". Yeah, says you. For me F1 needs to be the pinnacle of racing, technology aside. Nowadays F1 is less and less about racing and more about running a preprogrammed simulation of the race done by engineers.

Not surprisingly, I'm more interested in F4 or F3 these days.

This is a proper steering wheel for a racing driver (well, it could lose a couple of buttons). If only the cars would go 350 km/h like F1...

It can be the pinnacale of tech and not have a million buttons on the steering wheel.

Indeed it can, just need to replace steering wheel buttons with one of these.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

True.

The steering wheel on the left is from 1993, when the cars were technologically very advanced (just before the ban of traction control, active suspension, ABS and four-wheel steering). Well, Barrichello's Jordan not among the highest of them but anyway.

classic steering wheel with just the kill switch, and analog displays, failproof

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

The reason why steering wheels were clean and clear was that switches and buttons that were located in and around the dashboard and cockpit. All of this was then moved onto the steering wheel for easier access for the driver.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Yup. Here's the FW15C:



Unfortunately you have to zoom in a bit, but I counted 13 buttons, switches or knobs not on the wheel. Interesting to note the clear right-handed bias, which must've irritated Senna if he ever got to drive this one

I've got no problem with all of the switches etc. I do have a problem with the teams not being able to tell a driver how to fix a problem though. These things are hideously complex, and drivers shouldn't have to trouble shoot, lets face it, some pretty serious and complex problems that would be a stretch to fix when not driving.

A simple fix would be that teams can tell drivers how to fix problems when warning lights come on, but not to give performance advice...ie the Nico Rosberg rule (incidently I blame the airing of his radio messages for the current state we are in..seemed every message we got in 2014 from him was his engineer telling him how to drive the car).

After all what is the point of having team radio then, other than a relay for FIA warnings, red flags etc.

I agree with you completely Scotty, but I think there is a tipping point where there is a discord between technology which is what F1 is ultimately about, and an actual show of driver skill/balls etc.

I just feel that F1 is heading down the alienating fans route by trying to be too proactive with tech that hasn't actually been called for (halo, failure to get across just how insane these engines really are, crappy tyres, DRS etc) and instead of being a golden age of F1, which we should absolutely be in right now, F1 is headed down the ITC route of the mid 90s. Super sophisticated expensive cars the the fans ultimately didn't want to watch.