Formula 1

[serious14]

are you only in it for the crashes? seems like it...

Crashes, overtaking, pit lane f*ck ups - must have been why last night was so good.  ;D

 

[dibo]

HA!!!

Just had a gander at that digital lap thingy from Abu Dhabi - that whole "through-the-hotel" sequence has right proper potential.  Can't wait for someone to f*ck up coming out of pit lane as well.  ;D

the pit lane sequence loks shithouse - pit stops (from entry to pit lane to exit) are going to take forever. drivers will need something like 45s to be able to stop from in front and stay in front.

 

[serious14]

I meant more from an "it's under-freaking-ground" perspective - I understand what you're getting at though.

 

[hasbeen]

So ... when Button wins it's down to the car, and when Webber wins, it's down to the driver ...

 

[dibo]

So ... when Button wins it's down to the car, and when Webber wins, it's down to the driver ...

who said that?

 

[Bex]

Cosworth back into F1 with the Williams team next year after a long sebatical. One of the most (if not THE most) successful engine brands in F1.

Its going to be interesting to see how they determine what level of tuning will be allowed on the Cosworth considering all the other engines on the grid have had their designs frozen.

 

[dibo]

The most successful. Cosworth DFV won shitloads of titles.

 

[tuftman]

Cosworth back into F1 with the Williams team next year after a long sebatical. One of the most (if not THE most) successful engine brands in F1.

Its going to be interesting to see how they determine what level of tuning will be allowed on the Cosworth considering all the other engines on the grid have had their designs frozen.

They're talking, and its probably going to happen, that the engines will be unfrozen. Reason being that the Mercedes engine is so far ahead of the rest that they'll be supplying something like a quarter of the field next season.

Hasbeen - As soon as the Brawn wasn't the fastest car in the field, he was nowhere in qualifying, and it was luck alone that had him scoring points at times. Granted, he is 2009 WDC, but I'll put it this way.. he's finished on the podium once in the last 9 races and only scored(by my maths) 29 points after winning 6 of the first 7. Surely tells you the car had a lot to do with giving him such a lead to defend?

 

[hasbeen]

Cosworth back into F1 with the Williams team next year after a long sebatical. One of the most (if not THE most) successful engine brands in F1.

Its going to be interesting to see how they determine what level of tuning will be allowed on the Cosworth considering all the other engines on the grid have had their designs frozen.

They're talking, and its probably going to happen, that the engines will be unfrozen. Reason being that the Mercedes engine is so far ahead of the rest that they'll be supplying something like a quarter of the field next season.

Hasbeen - As soon as the Brawn wasn't the fastest car in the field, he was nowhere in qualifying, and it was luck alone that had him scoring points at times. Granted, he is 2009 WDC, but I'll put it this way.. he's finished on the podium once in the last 9 races and only scored(by my maths) 29 points after winning 6 of the first 7. Surely tells you the car had a lot to do with giving him such a lead to defend?

Admitted .. so are you saying the other cars or other drivers caught up with him? In all honesty the only way you will ever determine the best driver is to have them all in identical cars ....

 

[dibo]

you can tell when someone's thrashing their teammate that they're good. jenson's been pretty lucky that rubens has been so unlucky i think.

 

[Not Aloi$i FC]

Yay finally a decent thread somewhere on F1!

Anyone else think Jarno Trulli is an absolute proper tool? Sutil wouldn't have even looked in his mirrors at that point and even if he looked, he wouldn't have seen him coming. Trulli really has not improved in any way in his 12 years in F1. Only his ego has increased.

 

[Not Aloi$i FC]

I'll wait to see what the lack of refuelling does to the racing before I pass judgement on that one. I remember when Prost was around and it used to drive me nuts that this bloody boring driver would go round and round doing nothing particularly special (seemingly), only to arrive later in the race with better tyres. I actually like the fact that the current regulations mostly allow the drivers to push the cars for the entire race if need be. Some of the drivers get some good attitude on the cars. Still reckon they need to reduce downforce and increase drag though so that slipstreaming can actually benefit the driver behind rather than stuffing up mid corner speed so dramatically as is the current situation. Its an improvement on last season, but not enough IMO.

We'll see tyre stops still, for sure. Prost wasn't the bravest driver but I think he'd crap on any current driver and would outsmart them to victory even if he didn't have the fastest car. Maybe next year in many races we'll see one stop, maybe two if we're lucky or if we have a particularly aggressive driver like Lewser Hamilton chewing up their tyres quickly. As for the refuelling ban, I'd like to see the kind of situations where teams are so finely balancing their fuel strategy that some will run out of fuel in the last lap or two which led to utterly insane finishes like Monaco '82 (the last 2-3 laps of the race is on Youtube somewhere, loltastic/entertaining however you want to look at it). I'd say half of the reason for the ban on refuelling is safety, and that's fair enough. We've seen recently how many close shaves we've had because of refuelling rigs being dragged down the pitlane.

Another thing we need to do is get rid of these ridiculous driver penalties except for the most severe incidents (ie. Kobayashi last weekend). Too many stupid penalties have ruined races in the last few years (Montoya in Sepang '02, Massa in Fuji last year cost him the title). It will also encourage more drivers to try to overtake.

 

[Not Aloi$i FC]

Dunno what to make of Force India, they where so strong at Spa and Monza(low downforce circuits funnily enough) yet for the bulk of the season did not much more then make up the numbers, would be nice to see them be competitive, for the good of Formula 1.

If you remember early this decade, the Arrows had one of the best aero packages/highest straight-line speeds in the field and always did well at Hockenheim and Monza but generally struggled everywhere else unless they went for a 2-stop or 3-stop strategy. I suspect Force India's 2009 car is very similar.

 

[tuftman]

Dunno what to make of Force India, they where so strong at Spa and Monza(low downforce circuits funnily enough) yet for the bulk of the season did not much more then make up the numbers, would be nice to see them be competitive, for the good of Formula 1.

If you remember early this decade, the Arrows had one of the best aero packages/highest straight-line speeds in the field and always did well at Hockenheim and Monza but generally struggled everywhere else unless they went for a 2-stop or 3-stop strategy. I suspect Force India's 2009 car is very similar.

Vaguely remember, they went bust in 2002 or thereabouts..

Ahh Hockenheim, give me the mindless blasts into the forest as opposed to the cookie-cutter Tilke shite we have please!

 

[dibo]

Hockenheim? Blech. I remember one year when Ralf Schumacher was so bored in his Jordan he was absentmindedly tightening a wingnut in the cockpit on camera. Brundle said to Murray "he's probably just bored stiff", to which Murray replied incredulously "if you can be bored at 360kmh then you're easily bored!"

I think it was always interesting for about the first lap and when pitstops happened - cold tyres coming down from 300+ into the first chicane was always a test balancing brains and balls. The rest of the time it was processional. Nothing much is going to happen when pretty much all the big stops took them into chicanes.

 

[Not Aloi$i FC]

Hockenheim? Blech. I remember one year when Ralf Schumacher was so bored in his Jordan he was absentmindedly tightening a wingnut in the cockpit on camera. Brundle said to Murray "he's probably just bored stiff", to which Murray replied incredulously "if you can be bored at 360kmh then you're easily bored!"

I think it was always interesting for about the first lap and when pitstops happened - cold tyres coming down from 300+ into the first chicane was always a test balancing brains and balls. The rest of the time it was processional. Nothing much is going to happen when pretty much all the big stops took them into chicanes.

The Hockenheim race in 2000 will beg to differ with you. In the 13 years I've watched F1, that was surely the most dramatic and bizarre race of all time. Wet qualifying shook up the grid, tons of overtaking, a man walking onto the track, then a rain shower hit the stadium in the last 10 laps and left the rest of the track dry. Rubens started 18th, stayed on dry tyres at the end to win the race.

Hockenheim was just something different, if not a particularly exciting racetrack. The new version of the race-track is a massive turn-off for me.

Arrows got bought out by Spyker from memory, or Midland, who then became Spyker, then someone else after that I think.

 

[tuftman]

Nah, Midland bought out Jordan, which then went Spyker and now Force India

Arrows GP and Prost GP where bought out by a company named Phoenix GP, who tried to enter with old cars and old engines to establish themselves in Formula 1. They tried to say they bought Prost GP's entry, which FIA regulations say are not transferable, to get out of the 50 million Euro bond but failed.


Can't stand the new Hockenheim tbh, its so bland and samey, like most of the modern day F1 tracks tbh. Yas Marina had best be the goods

 

[Not Aloi$i FC]

From what I've read and seen, its interesting. Underground pit exit for the win!

 

[tuftman]

just watched onboard 2 seater laps with David Coulthard driving... reminds me of the China track, one turn following another and no real chance to overtake unless you really barge your way through. Prove me wrong though please Mr. Raikkonen, Webber and co.

 

[Not Aloi$i FC]

just watched onboard 2 seater laps with David Coulthard driving... reminds me of the China track, one turn following another and no real chance to overtake unless you really barge your way through. Prove me wrong though please Mr. Raikkonen, Webber and co.

Probably going to end up more like Singapore where we will all watch the pretty lights around the city while in actual fact, the racing itself is rubbish. The two Singapore GPs have turned out that way.