Theissen: Politely slamming 2009 regulations
June 29, 2009 by Negative Camber
Filed under Prime & Option
Dr. Mario Theissen, BMW boss, has politely commented on the 2009 regulations. The intent, as FIA President Max Mosley put it, was to increase passing and improve the show. It was also the intent to cut costs this year as well. In both categories the regulations have failed but cost cutting gets the nod for most successful of the failed strategies.
“In the area of cost-saving, I think the progress has pretty much met expectations,” Theissen said.
“The aero restrictions we currently have, however, are not as tight as we thought they would be, so I think we could do more.”
And overtaking? “When it comes to overtaking maybe we had expected a bit more from the new regulations.”
We have seena close field this year and Theissen agrees this is the one area that has improved via the new regulations:
“It has been very exciting for both the spectators and us, sometimes too exciting,” he said. “You see almost every team going out on two sets of fresh option tyres, even in the first knockout phase of qualifying, in order to make it into the second phase.
“That is a scenario no-one expected and we haven’t seen in the past 10 years.”
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How much money did they actually cut out of the budget for 2009? Didn’t KERS and developing a brand-new car for ‘09 raise the bar in terms of expense?
I guess any extra expense is offset by what they aren’t spending on in-season or wind-tunnel testing.
They all had to develop a new car anyway with or without new regs so that was a wash. They all had to develop a front wing with movable flaps that could be changed quickly. That along with KERS development cost all the teams. The front wing is wider and the rear wing narrower…so material costs were not reduced in those areas. Less wing elements, barge boards, flick-ups, chimneys, reduces material costs and autoclave usage.
Now with refueling being banned for 2010, they all have to adapt to a larger fuel tank and make it as safe or safer than the current system. Not carrying two re-fueling rigs will save a little but they STILL have to fuel the cars for practice 1, 2 and 3, qualy and race so one rig will suffice but they will not save any on fuel as the cars will still consume as much fuel as they do now. You save a bit in salaries, food and hotels because you’re not paying 3 people to just re-fuel. One guy can work the rig when not under pit stop pressures…
The real savings is in not running a 3rd car on a test track and developing new little winglets, flip-up, flick-ups and appendages and overnighting them to the race venue. Engine testing still goes on.
So the lumps last longer as do the gearboxes but they still have to R&D them and test…so while they may last 3 and 5 race weekends respectively…they still have to have spares and carry them from track to track so no real savings there.
Saving a couple of million when you were used to spending 250 million…doesn’t seem like a lot considering they have to invest in newer computers to do the “testing” for them…so the savings this year just can’t be a mind boggling amount.