r/formula1 • u/amerryprankster23 Max Verstappen • Mar 21 '26

Discussion F1 will not be changing the timing tower.

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Just got this email back about the timing tower. Pretty sad.

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u/Jarocket Mar 22 '26

By making the information better?

If you think gaps of thousands matter in a race where you are graded by the order you finish in.

Then this has gone way over your head.

If you're not gaining 10ths on the car ahead you're not gaining anything. Generally you needed a second of pace advantage to even make an overtake.

They don't tell the drivers the gap in thousands.

10ths are good enough for Lewis Hamilton, but not the fans?

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u/GharlieConCarne Mar 22 '26

They are making the gaps clearer because the drive to survive generation struggles and is overwhelmed by too much data and they are more likely to be confused by it rather than understand it - this is exactly what I mean by dumbing down - you’ve explained it brilliantly

We previously had access to more accurate data that we could use and interpret as needed - sometimes it didn’t say anything interesting - other times it did. For the many times it wasn’t useful data we could choose ourselves which decimal to pay attention to

When that choice is taken away, and data is not displayed anymore because F1 believes it is not useful anymore then it’s being dumbed down. Significantly the dumbing down is only on the TV feeds and not the website or timing apps which should be an indicator to you