The F1 thread

TimmyO

thumpingrug said:

Fretwired said:

thumpingrug said:

It will be riddled with break clauses.  Its no guarantee that they are staying.

Merc are staying in F1.

I will be very pleased if they do and if Hamilton stays until he decides to retire.  Im a big fan of both.  I just don't think that you can guarantee that a 5 year advertising deal is a certainty of them remaining in the sport. 

Aye it's not a guarantee but it does seem to signal a very different stance than the stories of the last few months 

I agree that Schumacher's record must be a factor in Hamilton's thinking 

Fretwired

Mercedes are to offer Hamilton £46.5 million a year to keep him - he currently gets £31 million. Wolff thinks he'll stay as no other team can match the pay and car development.

stickyfiddle

I'm watching the Ferrari launch on youtube while waiting for a curry to arrive. It's baffling terrible. Fascinatingly boring, with a mix of classical and EDM, and a brilliantly stilted translator who would have been helped greatly by having a script to read from, since the whole thing is clearly scripted in Italian... I hope the car is good!

Cols

Chinese GP is ‘postponed’; no agreement on a later date in the year though.

Unsurprising, given how congested the calendar is.  I wonder if the hosting fee is refunded to the organisers if it can’t be rescheduled?

Fretwired

Cols said:

Chinese GP is ‘postponed’; no agreement on a later date in the year though.

Unsurprising, given how congested the calendar is.  I wonder if the hosting fee is refunded to the organisers if it can’t be rescheduled?

They might have insurance.

If things get worse there could be more called off.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Well, testing underway this morning at last!

I know the old adages about testing times being taken with a pinch of salt apply, but one thing has already stood out.

Racing Point's best time of the whole winter, set on the last day of the final test - 1m 17.566s

Racing Point's best time halfway through the first morning of the very first day - 1m 17.375s

Two tenths quicker already. Quite impressive! Be interesting to see just how much faster this season's cars in general end up being, with them being the last of the current rule iteration before the big changes in 2021

stickyfiddle

The new Renault has a new Merc-style nose and looks badass in all-black testing livery. 

Williams have a car out on track and are 6th with Russell at the time of writing. 

So all looking good for the season so far! I can’t seeWilliams staying that high up come Melbourne but if they’re not last by 2s that’s a huge step forward.

stickyfiddle

What do we think of this..??!! Banned before Melbourne, or this year’s innovation that brings Ham to a 7th title in September..??

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.tech-insight-have-mercedes-just-changed-the-game-with-new-steering-wheel.78KDOPX7xRy9YtaFZPCKC4.html

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

stickyfiddle said:

What do we think of this..??!! Banned before Melbourne, or this year’s innovation that brings Ham to a 7th title in September..??

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.tech-insight-have-mercedes-just-changed-the-game-with-new-steering-wheel.78KDOPX7xRy9YtaFZPCKC4.html

Love it! Such creativity! The sort of thing that I imagine would be nigh-on impossible for rival teams to try and integrate into their cars at this late stage. So you queue the furious protests from Ferrari, Red Bull etc!

I wonder on what grounds they will try and protest - argue that it constitutes a moveable aerodynamic device, given that it'll enable the driver to change the airflow between the straights and corners, and even mid corner if they wanted to?

Cols

Helmut Marko’s already bleating that it’s illegal, claiming that it amounts to active suspension (it’s not; pretty sure toe in/out is part of the steering system).

It’s a bit depressing that the stock F1 response to a team coming up with a novel idea is “how can we get it banned?” rather than “cool idea, how can we implement that as well?”.

thumpingrug

Its also nice that after all these years and with all the tight technical regulations, someone can still come up with something novel and exciting that might actually make a difference to their car.  

stickyfiddle

Cols said:

Helmut Marko’s already bleating that it’s illegal, claiming that it amounts to active suspension (it’s not; pretty sure toe in/out is part of the steering system).

It’s a bit depressing that the stock F1 response to a team coming up with a novel idea is “how can we get it banned?” rather than “cool idea, how can we implement that as well?”.

Yeah. You can bet the entire technical team of every other team is looking at it right now working out how to do it and how much weight it might add. 

But Marko’s role seems to generally be an outspoken dick, so his reaction is hardly surprising

shugz

The piranha club.

Any gain, rule interpret or innovation I'm sure will always have some that will cry foul. Or at least cry to the stewards/ FIA. Too many over history of F1 and motor sports in general really to drag up but the ol' Brabham fan car is worth checking out. Never banned per se but no real coincidence it was shafted after one race (it won). 

One of the biggest complainers on that saga was Mr Innovate himself, Colin Chapman. As Fletcher in Porridge replied when asked why he was stealing the bell off the bike, 'well, he's got one and I ain't...'

Plus ca change.

H

Cols

The FIA ruled that the Brabham fan car was legal (at least for the rest of the season), but the loophole would be closed for the following year.  Bernie Ecclestone, who owned Brabham at the time, voluntarily withdrew it.  Bernie was setting himself up as the head of FOCA at the time and wanted to avoid antagonising the other teams.

Boromedic

Banned from next season: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/51584557

Remains to be seen if it offers an advantage, but we'll have to wait until Oz to find out. 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

1m 15.732s set by Bottas this morning. Seriously speedy, half a second faster than the fastest time from the whole of preseason last year. Looking like these could be some of, if not THE fastest cars ever. 

goldtop

If the Mercedes steering thingy works and is reliable ... Ferrari complains within 3 races; FIA caves and bans it sooner.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

First lap of the new, remodelled Zandvoort with Max Verstappen.



The banking looks amazing, and I bet it's crazy fun to drive, but aside from that I'm not confident it'll be a good track for F1. There's nowhere near enough slow corners with large braking zones for overtaking, and with so many fast corners it'll be nigh-on impossible to follow other cars closely. 

thumpingrug

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

First lap of the new, remodelled Zandvoort with Max Verstappen.



The banking looks amazing, and I bet it's crazy fun to drive, but aside from that I'm not confident it'll be a good track for F1. There's nowhere near enough slow corners with large braking zones for overtaking, and with so many fast corners it'll be nigh-on impossible to follow other cars closely. 

totally agree.  I would bet that the drivers love it as a track to drive.  Fast sweeping corners and that banking that keeps the overall speed high, but as a spectator its going to be processional as no where obvious for any overtakes.

stickyfiddle

Bahrain to be run but without spectators. Though with the Italian lockdown it's quite possible that some of the Ferrari/Alfa/AlphaTauri/Haas guys won't be able to travel at all. I can see having 22 races but only ending up with about 16 championship rounds this year