241 replies to this topic

[LY_Scott]

haha. Well played.

 

If its not illegal then....

[turbobob]

 

Could RBR switch to Ferarri or Mercedes power this season?

no.

 

FIA have a say in how many teams can use the same engine, so that no make can take over, the guide is 4 max.

 

also, I can't see merc or ferrari wanting to go there.

 

Renault will get there, the only question is how long it takes them and how much leeway they can get from the FIA in terms of changing from the homologated specifications.

 

I would suggest a lot of the red bull fuel sensor bullshit is tied up in the political game to get the FIA to let Renault make changes...

 

I don't think they want to make significant changes. Too much development to make significant changes. At the moment it's reliability and I don't think the Renault powered cars are running at full power yet.

 

With regards the 100kg, I asked Red Bull about this and they say it is really difficult to fully drain the tank (layout, baffles etc)so it would be really difficult to show that the tank is empty before filling with 100kg. 

[slindborg]

booo hoo (would be the same comment for any team claiming its hard)..... You know full well that the tank will need to be filled with X fuel, so dont make it impossible to drain

[turbobob]

You missed the point. They weren't complaining about it. They were saying that is why the rule for F1 for just giving a team 100 litres wouldn't work and that applies to all teams. 

[techieboy]

Luca di Montezemolo and Bernie Ecclestone plan to meet with Jean Todt during the Bahrain GP to discuss potential changes that could improve the spectacle of Formula 1. Ferrari boss di Montezemolo (LEFT) is unimpressed with the new fuel-efficiency regulations in the sport, and flew to a meeting with Ecclestone in London on Wednesday to kick-start urgent discussions about what can be done to make things better. Sources with knowledge of the situation suggest that both men are in agreement that the first two races of the season have not produced the kind of dramatic racing that some had believed would come with the new 1.6-liter turbo engines. Both races have been won in dominant fashion by the early race leader, and there has not been as much overtaking and strategic variety as some had hoped.

Here we go again. The Fiat turns out to be another Maranello shitter and all of a sudden we need to have a meeting with Todt to see what can be changed. Would you be meeting up with the poison dwarf in private, and then meeting with Ferrari International Assistance, if you'd got a couple of back to back wins Luca? "Both races have been won in dominant fashion by the early race leader". Ah, I get you, you mean the same way as has happened in the last few years with Red Bull (and in reality like has pretty much always been the case) when it hasn't been an issue.  

[JG]

or ferrari from 2000 to 2005, it was regularly 30 second leads by the end.

[jules_s]

Fuel flow sensors tampered with  The FIA have issued a new technical directive, that following the Spanish GP only sensors which have not been modified, may be fitted to the cars. Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Lotus, have been modifying the sensors provided by Gill prior to their calibration by Calibra. The modifications are apparently intended to facilitate the installation of the sensor between the fuel tank and the engine and the threads on the sensor have been drilled where the fuel lines are attached. FIA has revealed 95% of the fuel flow sensor problems to date have mysteriously occurred on Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Lotus cars. From Barcelona onwards, only sensors in their original condition as supplied by Gill sensors will be legal.

Out of interest, where is that taken from?

[siztenboots]

So Williams started the last race with just 90Kg fuel , trying a different start strategy.

[fezzasus]

Interesting, it'll be a long time before any of the other engine manufacturers can do that

[techieboy]

Judging by the results, it'll be a long time before any of the other teams bother trying.

[fezzasus]

I'm surprised they did that with both cars though.

[techieboy]

Guess Lewis holds no desire to be driving for Ferrari any time soon but he's absolutely spot on.  

Lewis Hamilton defended against accusations of being boring on Thursday, suggesting that those raising their voices now Mercedes were on top had kept quiet when their teams were winning everything. Mercedes have won the first two races of the new-look V6 turbo era with Nico Rosberg and Hamilton looking dominant while champions Red Bull and glamour team Ferrari are having to play catch-up. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has been a prominent critic of the 2014 technical changes, with quieter cars and an emphasis on fuel-saving, that he says have taken away the excitement and turned F1 racers into taxi drivers.

 

Montezemolo is expected to attend this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix and discuss the situation with commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who has also been critical of the new engine sound, and the head of the sport's governing FIA Jean Todt. Hamilton, the 2008 world champion with McLaren, would not be drawn on the politics of the sport but clearly disagreed with the Ferrari boss. "Di Montezemolo didn't say a thing when Michael (Schumacher) won those five world championships (in a row)," smiled the winner of last weekend's race in Malaysia who will be chasing a third successive pole position on Saturday. "It's the same when McLaren won all their championships that they didn't say anything, and the same with Red Bull when they won, they weren't saying anything," he continued. "Someone else gets in the lead and they'll say something. It's the nature of the game."

[jameso]

For me the most stupid rule change in recent years was removing refueling.

 

Reasons:

• In theory (this is certainly what we are seeing this season for sure) under the current format the fastest car *should* qualify first, because it is the fastest car and they all run minimal fuel. They then turn up sunday and AGAIN the fastest car is at the front (and they all have the same amount of fuel so all weigh the same) and inevitably they drive off at the 0.5s a lap they are faster than the other cars until 8s ahead then they go in to "car management mode"
• The only way to stop this is to have the possibility (through strategy) of ways for the slower cars to gain track position on the fastest car
• Refuelling allowed 2 ways of doing this:

• You had to start with the fuel load you ran in Q3 - you could consciously under fuel to gain a time advantage in Q3 to jump cars that were faster than you all things being equal (weight)
• 95% of pitstops are now 2.4 - 3.4s so you can never make up more than 1 second in the pit lane to jump a car in front of you to gain track position. With refueling pitstops were 7-12 seconds so you to consciously short fill for a middle stint to jump a car that was 2 or 3 seconds in front of you before the stops

Soon as they removed refueling I said the problem of everyone always being the same weight is more often than not the fastest car should qualify first - then come raceday, where it is still the fastest, it should just drive off at 0.5-0.8s a lap until they have a "car management" lead.  And that has been borne out since refueling went.

 

imo the only way to create a sport where someone who isn't in the fastest car and isn't the fastest driver has a realistic chance of contesting races most weekends is to give them a chance to get track position via tactics. Reality is, unless they blow up or something weird happens, a merc will win all of the first 6-9 races - just like vettel did with the last 9 of last season.

 

Arguement against this is:

• Arguably the fastest car should win?
• And is track position as useful as it used to be now we have DRS

Gimme refueling back - short of that put sprinklers on every track and have a random programming for simulated rain as that's when F1 is it's most exciting (apart from when the safety car is going round on it's own lap after lap without the F1 cars behind it to clear water and we end up with races with 2 hour delays like we have seen recently).

Edited by jameso, 04 April 2014 - 10:35 AM.

[siztenboots]

P1 live session starting

[siztenboots]

instead of the formula1.com live timing, I'm using this windows app called F1LT seems quite good.

 

Live timing is about 32 seconds ahead of tv coverage , handy for a crafty bet.

[siztenboots]

much better lap from button +0.241

[siztenboots]

magnusson +0.554

[siztenboots]

could be a great lap from alonso, purple middle sector, quickest  -0.442 from HAM

[siztenboots]

hulkenburg on good lap, +0.169

[siztenboots]

ROS , s1 fastest, s2 pb , -0.220 fastest, 1:37.733