I had the pleasure of flying across for the race and it was great!! I had no appreication of how fast and how loud these cars are. If you have never been to a Grand Prix, I 'd highly recommend it. I'm definately going next year again.
I would also have to commend the the organisers for the 4 days. It was awesume
Later in the year they will be losing launch and traction control. This will make it a little more about the driver rather then technology.
2003 Formula 1 Rule Changes
Communications
* Pit-to-car telemetry is OUT, so the engineers can’t make changes to the cars during the race (up to driver to figure out his car’s behaviour!)
* Car-to-pit telemetry remains – but is OUT from 2004
* Radio communication between team and driver ALLOWED but…
the system must be stand-alone (i.e. not used to carry other signals) and the communication must be open and accessible to broadcasters and the FIA (i.e. they can’t give clandestine team orders!).
Spare cars
* To be used ONLY if a race car is damaged beyond repair. Spare cars would start from pit lane.
Work on cars
* To be severely restricted between end of qualifying and start of race. Cars to held under parc fermé conditions; work beyond a short list will require special permission.
Driver aids
* Traction control and automatic gearboxes OUT from this year’s British Grand Prix.
* Launch control OUT at the same time provided teams can arrange manual operation of exisiting clutches.
Friday testing
Three teams – Minardi, Jordan, Renault – have signed up for Friday morning testing at each Grand Prix. In return, they agree not to do more than 10 days’ testing elsewhere through the season.
* This means fans will see F1 cars on track for an extra two hours first thing on Friday morning.
* Teams can use a combination of their current drivers plus local or other invited drivers for those test sessions.
Qualifying
* Will revert to one hour on each of Friday and Saturday afternoons.
* Will see each driver allowed only one flying lap in each session.
* Friday they will run in World Championship order, with World Champion Michael Schumacher first on track here in Melbourne.
* Saturday, the slowest man from Friday goes out first, the fastest man goes out last.
* Only Saturday times count towards grid position
World Championship Points
* Instead of the existing system of 10 points for a win then 6-4-3-2-1 for the top six, the new system awards points for the first eight places.
* The new scale is 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.