Myself and a bunch of guys from my motorsport course were talking to one of our lecturers today and the conversation got to this question:

'What ten things affect a championship winning racing car... putting the most important first'

A riot pretty much ensued and we couldnt settle on a 'right' answer... just wondering what you guys opinions were on this and what your answers would have been??

Well for a championship you NEED reliability.
You need a car that has good predictable handling (in a fast way).
You need a fast reliably engine.
The car would need to be as quick in the wet as it is in the dry.
You'll need goo mechanics and engineers that dont make mistakes. ! mistake could cost you a championship.
If its a series that involves pitstops then you need a fast crew.
All of the above is useless unless you have a good driver of course.

1. It's speed around a race track
2. It's reliability
3. The ability of the driver to use the car to it's potential at all times without throwing it off the optimum route
4. Money (links to above 3)
5. Nice stickers/paintjob
6. Gridgirls
7. Flashy team transporter
8. Beer and those fold up chairs with beer can holders in the arm rests for your fans
9. Personal photographer
10. A website using as much Flash as possible to infuriate rival teams

Quote from tristancliffe :

10. A website using as much Flash as possible to infuriate rival teams

red bull website much? , its almost impossible to find your way about.

Number one: The Driver.

No matter how good the team is, a 5 year old cant win the F1.

A bit exagerated yes, but it puts the point across

I don't have a list, but I think continous development is pretty high up the rank.
and continous development itself is a product of: 1. sufficient funding 2.good infrastructure 3.consistent track performance 4.a good basic package, which make all these the most important aspects.

Talent in depth in every area of design, manufacture, testing, racing, strategy, driving, organisation etc.

Equal first (IMO) - Good setup, good driver. Without either the car won't do that well.

what do you think is worse, a less than good driver with a pro setup or a good driver with a screwd up setup?

It depends how screwed the setup is. If it is something like the 'RACE_S' sets in LFS then IMO the less than good driver will be better, if (s)he can actually drive the car without spinning, etc.

Quote from andy_bonjon :

Myself and a bunch of guys from my motorsport course were talking to one of our lecturers today and the conversation got to this question:

'What ten things affect a championship winning racing car... putting the most important first'

A riot pretty much ensued and we couldnt settle on a 'right' answer... just wondering what you guys opinions were on this and what your answers would have been??

1). Finding a penny with heads facing up(luck)
2). Horseshoes, Four-leaf clovers(Luck)
3). Crossing one's fingers(Luck)
4). Among people who use marijuana, the number 420 is often considered lucky.
This is all I can think of just luck imo

My experience in autocross is that a great driver with an average car can still pull off some impressive times, but an average driver with a great car can not (or can only occasionally). There are people out there who put tens of thousands of dollars into their cars for autocross and are still beaten by guys with virtually stock cars.

Quote from Michael Denham :

My experience in autocross is that a great driver with an average car can still pull off some impressive times, but an average driver with a great car can not (or can only occasionally). There are people out there who put tens of thousands of dollars into their cars for autocross and are still beaten by guys with virtually stock cars.

fair enough, but in a championship series you should expect more than a few good drivers, at which point it comes back to the car again.

1) It has to be fast.
2) It has to be fast and reliable.
3) It has to be fast and reliable with predictable handling.
4) No cup holders, unless alcoholic beverages are allowed
5) White paint weights less
6) Twin blue racing stripes.
7) Me not driving it.

Quote from evilgeek :

fair enough, but in a championship series you should expect more than a few good drivers, at which point it comes back to the car again.

For sure. I was just responding to the question about car vs driver. At the US National level the driving is just amazing. In a slalom, top drivers will wiggle half the cones without knocking them down, and can drive to within an inch or two of their perfect line time after time. Then it mostly comes down to who has the deepest pockets. At the local level here, you could be competitive in the 'Street Prepared' class in a Miata by spending maybe $5k on your car if you were a good enough driver. But for Nationals it appears the sky is the limit...

Quote from Vain :

The amount of money that was put into it (relative to the amount of money that was put into the competing cars).

Vain

Unless it's the Toyota F1 team....

Quote from Michael Denham :

My experience in autocross is that a great driver with an average car can still pull off some impressive times, but an average driver with a great car can not (or can only occasionally). There are people out there who put tens of thousands of dollars into their cars for autocross and are still beaten by guys with virtually stock cars.

Autocross is very dependant on driver skill so long as a car is strong enough to take the enormous driveshaft loads just about anything small and light can get somewhere with a good driver. Circuit racing is very different in that in modern cars simply driving round the track quickly, but not at the limit is fundamentally very easy.

Aerodynamics testing
Tyre testing
Driver