I find your attitude very unprofessional - Unnamed Chaintech executive
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Ford technical director explains low-tech approach in WRC cars
TECHNICAL AIDS were making racing too easy for drivers, rally cars will never be fully electric, and roadcars are filled with too much gimmick technology. These are the views of straight-talking Christian Loriaux, technical director for the Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Championship (WRC) Team.
THE INQUIRER caught up with the Ford chief ahead of the Spanish Rally this weekend, and he gave us his candid thoughts about the current state of WRC.
Teams participating in the WRC this year have had to make do with a number of regulation changes, many of which significantly limit high technology used in cars.
Loriaux told The INQUIRER that this 'back to basics' approach has been a good thing for the sport as it has put more onus on driver skill, helped to ensure that rallies are more exciting and helped to cut costs to attract more manufacturers.
"Strictly speaking there is not much tech in our 2011 Ford Fiesta compared to the 2004 car. In that season the car had ABS, clutch control, paddle shift, traction control, active differentials, ride height control with GPS, electronic dampers and active suspension. Having all that tech was fabulous but the cost was high and it was making it too easy for drivers," he said.
"There was a big debate between manufacturers about the regulation changes. Citroen wanted to keep things like the central diff and VW wanted the paddle shift. But you either ban all hydraulics or keep them all, and they came round to this way of thinking."
Loriaux gave an example of just how much drivers had become reliant on technology, noting that before manual gearboxes were reintroduced, drivers were just required to press a button to launch the car from the start line.
"If the driver was slow off the start it was because his engineer was an imbecile. Anyone could have sat in our old Focus and from the start to the first corner have been as fast as Sebastien Loeb [seven-time world champion].
"It is good to put the responsibility of launching the car back on the drivers. They are paid [£3m to £4m] a year and they should have the skills and responsibility."
Additional changes include reducing the minimum weight of the car to 1,200kg, which has posed difficulties as use of light-weight materials such as titanium, carbon fibre, magnesium and ceramics have also been banned.
"With so many things banned we've been working to make engines, gearboxes and electronics as efficient as possible," he explained.
"We've also been using better quality material. Some aluminium we're using now is better than steel that was made 30 years ago. The advancements in laser welding and laser cutting have also helped us manufacture parts that we could never have dreamed of 10 years ago."
Tags: Hardware
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To bring it further back to basics, homologation would ensure the cars are grounded in reality - at least a few thousand examples, anyway.
Engine size isn't an issue, as old F1 cars used heavily turbocharged 1.6 blocks.
He's right about road cars - too many gadgets, more stuff to go wrong; but I like folding mirrors. As society gets fatter, parking spaces seem to be shrinking, and it stops someone walking off with my mirror trapped in a fold of flab.
Although I agree about the driver aids ruining the sport, even worse is this constant downsizing of engines and power just to satisfy bureaucrats. I'm not interested in 1.6l engines in a rally car, and the idea of 1.2l engines is sickening. It's alright to complain about how heavy cars are, but a lot of the recent increases have been forced by mandatory safety improvements. I find it ironic the head of the Ford team complaining about weight, since FORD are themselves one of the worst offenders for producing overweight cars, always trailing edge.
I completely agree with him. It’s becoming increasingly hard to find a new car that isn’t laden with crap.
WHY do you need "electronic brake steer" in your road car, WHY do you need "adaptive headlights" in your road car.
Jesus H Christ, just give me some lights that point forward and a pedal connected to some brakes so I can feel the road, control the car and see where I’m going!
I wish all electronic aids where never invented, it completely ruins the experience, period.
So yes, too much electronic gimmicky and materials will match it less and less the driver skill and responsibility area. I agree ABS is good but traction-control OFF, adjustable ride-height OFF, They set the ride-height during each leg once. Just like tire choice.
Racing is about more people than the machine and the machine should be equally matched in weight and technology.
Americans forget that Detroit was putting out 40+ mpg cars in the 80s. They were small but bigger than a mini and didn't have half the electronics modern cars have. Power doors and locks add a lot of wiring that adds a lot of weight, why don't doors use cheap wireless Bluetooth to communicate? Bluetooth is 10 yrs old now, no longer high tech. I do need AC though, made in Britain you can live without it but not in most of the USA
nice
obviously will not not be available in USofA
we only get ugly, overweight crap