Australian Off-road Racing Championships - Waikerie, Rnd 3

Waikerie is a country town of South Australia situated along the Murray River and is only a bit over 100km from the Victorian border. Australia’s best buggies and trophy trucks converged there last weekend as the small town played host for round 3 of the Australian Off-road Racing Championships. 



The cars got underway at about midday on the Saturday and I was surprised to see this thing take off from the start line. The Datsun 1200 had nowhere near as much ground clearance as any of the other cars, but that didn't stop it from roaring away from the start line with the same amount of enthusiasm as the bigger and burlier buggies.

2015 Formula One Regulations

Image Source: autoevolution

2014 saw some revolutionary changes take place in Formula One. The most prominent of these changes had to be the new 1.6L V6 turbo power units which replaced the screaming, naturally-aspirated V8's of yesteryear. In 2015, there will be some more changes.

Image Source: justcarnews

The most controversial change has to do with safety car re-starts. Every time a safety car is deployed, there will be a standing re-start from the grid, as opposed to a rolling re-start. However, this will not be carried out if there is less than five laps to go, or within two laps of the start of the race.

The number of engines allowed for each driver will decrease to four per season as opposed to five. However, the number of engines per season will go back to five if the season has more than 20 races.

Comparing the nose of the 2013 and 2014 Ferrari F1 Car. Images Source: f1fanatic 

In 2014 the maximum nose height of the cars dropped significantly from a maximum of 550mm to a maximum of just 185mm for safety reasons. This resulted in some unusual designs. 2015 will see more changes to the nose of the car to further improve safety and to make them more visually attractive.

The number of in-season tests will be reduced to two, (down from four) of two days. Two of the four sessions must be reserved for young drivers. Pre-season testing will be restricted to Europe, with three pre-season tests of four days. In 2016, this will be reduced to just two tests of four days.

There was also a proposed ban on tyre blankets for the 2015 season, but this has been withdrawn. I found this proposal very interesting, and it will be re-discussed in the future if the wheel and tyre diameter is to increase.

There are a number of other minor regulation changes, but I’m still waiting for the day where they take the rule book, tear out the pages that apply to the safety and efficiency aspects, throw the rest of the book away, and just keep these pages. That would make things very interesting.

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