The F1 thread

Fretwired

chillidoggy said:

I don't think Hamilton is past it, I just think he's a twat. I reckon it'll be JB's last year, unless he pulls off something amazing, and wins the title.

What I meant was Hamilton's had his chance and reached a plateau .. there are some hot new kids on the block and some coming down the line to challenge Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso. I think JB has a few more years but I convinced big Ron will go for Alonso - Vettel could then head to Ferrari if Newey decides to go boat designing in 2016.

boogieman

I don't think Hamilton is past it either. He took enough poles and seconds last year to show he still has the desire to win races. I wish he'd offload Nicole Shirtlifter though, his performance seems to be regulated by whether she's being nice to him or not.

Fretwired

Interesting news. Nascar boss Gene Haas declares interest in new team. He is working on the project with Guenther Steiner, previously technical director at Red Bull and Jaguar.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25774084

Could be good for the sport to have a competitive, well-financed US team.

thisisguitar

Fretwired said:

Interesting news. Nascar boss Gene Haas declares interest in new team. He is working on the project with Guenther Steiner, previously technical director at Red Bull and Jaguar.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25774084

Could be good for the sport to have a competitive, well-financed US team.

I can imagine the flustered American engineers puzzling over how to make a car that can corner right and left :-) 

chillidoggy

And that hasn't got air-con.

Fretwired

I bet they'll just set up a factory in England like pretty much every other team bar the likes of Ferrari and Sauber.

chillidoggy

Or buy one ready-made. Lotus might be going cheap!

thisisguitar

And cue the arrival of people who have 'junior' at the end of their names...

thisisguitar

And the arrival of the first modern F1 car with Leaf Spring suspension ;-)

Ianpdq

Interesting I hope It happens http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/9121342/Brawn-off-to-McLaren-

TimmyO

I heard today that things are grim at Lotus - things like having to design the car based on the tooling they already have as tool suppliers won't, err, supply them any more on account of not having been paid for about a year :-D 

fretmeister

That would be a shame, I'd still like to see them do well. Grosjean is becoming a damn good driver.

chillidoggy

I'd refer everyone to me earlier post about Lotus going cheap! Kind of makes me wonder if they're up for grabs by Haas.

Van_Hayden

^good point!

chillidoggy

Kobayashi is back!

Fretwired

chillidoggy said:

Kobayashi is back!

Excellent!

stickyfiddle

chillidoggy said:

Kobayashi is back!

But only in a Caterham

Lotus say their cash problems are sorted, but that could just be a ploy to make sponsors happier. It's not great. 

Rather than a budget cap I'd sooner see a "testing fee" implemented. Anyone can do as much testing as they like but they have to pay £100,000 per car per day or whatever, and that then goes into a pot to be redistributed to the teams with those doing least testing getting most money. That way RB and Ferrari can go test all they want, but in doing so they're helping fund the little guys to keep them afloat, and maybe even let them close the gap a bit. You're never going to create a totally fair system, but the current way of doing things will see 2 or 3 more teams go bust in the next couple of years if they're not careful.

stickyfiddle

Force India have tweeted their car. Not fugly!

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/01/22/force-india-reveal-first-picture-vjm07/

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/forc-vjm07-twitter-886x553.jpg

Dodge

stickyfiddle said:

Force India have tweeted their car. Not fugly!

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/01/22/force-india-reveal-first-picture-vjm07/

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/forc-vjm07-twitter-886x553.jpg

Not fugly indeed.  It's hardly McLaren MP4/5 beautiful, but it's a step in the right direction at last.  It's got to be 20 odd years since F1 cars were beautiful....

stickyfiddle

Williams render unveiled. It's a bit dicky...

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/01/23/anteater-nose-revealed-first-image-williams-fw36/

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/williams-fw36-2014-2-886x625.jpg