F1 Discussion

[Prawn]

Ok, so an entire thread devoted to talking about anything related to F1. I'm going to try and post my thoughts about races after they've happened as well as any news or developments relating to the world of F1. Feel free to chime in with opinions, questions, whatever!

Did anyone see the Canadian GP last weekend? What a cracker of a race!! It was a shame that the Cirque De Villeneuve was off the calendar for two years because everyone loves it - the teams, the drivers and the fans. The recent race produced one of the most exciting GPs in recent times and its going to be tough to head from this straight to Valencia in a little over a week - In the 2 (or is it 3?) years that its been on the calendar its been nothing but an absolute snooze-fest.

Random thoughts:
- Great racing from Alonso, Button, Hamilton and Webber. Plenty of action from the midfield as well - was great to see the Force Indias scrapping with Ferrari.
- Vettel on the team radio again this week proving how much of a cock he is.
- Maybe the first race where tyre strategies were interesting and able to be followed clearly. The announcers did a great job of explaining the strengths and weaknesses of the different tyres and how the strategies were playing out for the teams.
- Shame that Webber couldn't have scored a better result but at least he's still ahead of Vettel.
- I've always said that Massa can't race, he can just drive fast laps. Watching him ram into Liuzzi three times on the first corner just reaffirmed this for me.

Coming up to Valencia, I'd have to say that its still a fight between Red Bull and McLaren for dominance but you really can never rule out Ferrari. This is another home race for Alonso and the Ferrari's were looking good in Canada.

[dunny]

I missed this one as it was on too late.
Been loving the McLaren Red Bull fight though this season.
Go Webber and knock off that little Cocky team mate.
So do you have a favourite team prawn?

[Prawn]

I missed this one as it was on too late.
Been loving the McLaren Red Bull fight though this season.
Go Webber and knock off that little Cocky team mate.
So do you have a favourite team prawn?

I certainly do, Prince and I were talking about it on another thread...
Anyway, McLaren is my favourite team and I'm hoping Hamilton can get another title under his belt. I used to be a Schumacher fan and I'd like to see him back on the podium sooner rather than later. I like the Renaults too and think that Kubica is a great driver, Petrov sucks though...
The Force Indias have been great this year too.

I think I've covered all this so how about the team that I don't like, lol..
Not impressed by any of the minnow teams this year - Virgin, Lotus, HRT and... is the another one? They all suck balls. Toro Rosso has been really unimpressive since they've joined the sport, even with a Ferrari engine (while Red Bull has the purportedly slower Renault engine).

Oh I just remembered the other minnow team: BMW Sauber Mercedes... what a joke of a team name. Peter Sauber is a great guy and I've always had a soft spot for the Sauber team but he sold the team to BMW because it was the best thing for the future of the team, BMW ran it into the ground (and fucked over Williams in the process) then decided to pull the plug (and pull the rug out from two great drivers - Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld). So Sauber had to buy it back from BMW to keep his former employees in a job (which he'd promised to them) and source an engine from Mercedes (like, the 4th team to do so?), hence we have BMW Sauber Mercedes shitting up the grid.

Bruno Senna has been a disappointment too... big shoes to fill.
Shame what happened to Nelson Piquet with the whole Crashgate thing.

I could go on and on about it....

[Prince]

I watched the Montreal race, it was a well deserved win by Hamilton. The highlights of the race for me were the racing between Hamilton and Alonso. The part of the race where they exited the pitt lane together was great. It was disappointing that Webber had to drop back to seventh because of the gear box change. The race would have been better with Hamilton and Webber fighting closely for the win.

The Valencia track looks like it will be a lot better for the Red Bulls. There are a lot more sharp turns, which they seem to take quicker than most of the cars in the championship.

[Prawn]

Yeah for a while I thought that Webber was going to pull off a win - he was leading the race for a while but couldn't hold his tires for long enough.

A lot of people are saying that the tire degradation made for a more interesting race and there's definitely some truth to that. I hope there's more of it to come because for a while it looked as if the only interesting races we were going to get were wet GPs.

I like the idea of Valencia and definitely have a soft spot for street circuits but I just haven't seen an interesting race here yet. The circuit itself lacks personality - it doesn't seem like a real street circuit.

[dunny]

Yeah for a while I thought that Webber was going to pull off a win - he was leading the race for a while but couldn't hold his tires for long enough.

A lot of people are saying that the tire degradation made for a more interesting race and there's definitely some truth to that. I hope there's more of it to come because for a while it looked as if the only interesting races we were going to get were wet GPs.

I like the idea of Valencia and definitely have a soft spot for street circuits but I just haven't seen an interesting race here yet. The circuit itself lacks personality - it doesn't seem like a real street circuit.

+1

[Prawn]

The WMSC had a meeting this week and have come up with some new rules and regulations for F1:

- The moveable, knee-operated "F-duct" that McLaren pioneered this year will be banned as of next year. Red Bull are going to be trialling their version of this device at the GP this weekend.
- Pirelli will be the sole tire supplier next year. With all the bans on testing, I'm predicting a lot of tire failures next year.
- A new moveable aero will be available to the driver for overtaking. It will only be made active when the driver is within a certain range of a car ahead of it and once used, will be disabled after the next time the driver uses their brakes. Essentially an overtaking button, similar to what KERS was meant to do.

There's other changes that are a little less interesting... FIA licenses for staff is a direct reaction to Flavio Briatore having his penalty overturned in the French courts. I wish they'd stop fucking with the rules to be honest...

[dunny]

agreed, the rule changes only seem to be about slowing down the faster teams and bringing them back to the pack?

[Prawn]

agreed, the rule changes only seem to be about slowing down the faster teams and bringing them back to the pack?

They've reintroduced the "107%" percent rule which means that if your qualifying time is more than 107% of the leader (I think)then you're not allowed to race. This will benefit everyone as it takes some of the moving chicanes off the track - A few of the minnow teams wouldn't have been allowed to race at a couple of GPs this season.
Otherwise yeah, usually the rule changes are designed to slow down the cars and reduce the benefit of aerodynamics.

[Prince]

Just under five hours til the race. What are your predictions? I predict a RedBull will come first, Hamilton will come second, Redbull third and Alonso fourth. I also predict the Williams team will do well and will both finish the race close to the front of the grid.

[Prince]

This was fucked:

As the Lotus is a slower car, should it have moved out of the way for Webbers car?

I almost stopped watching after that but I thought I'd stick around to see if Hamilton would get infront of Vettel. I was eventually disappointed again when Hamilton got the drive through penalty, which pretty much blew his chances of beating Vettal. Lucky the penalty was given later than expected and he was far enough ahead that he didn't lose a place. I don't know why the officials didn't pick up on it earlier, I think it was pointed out by Alonso's team, as he thought Hamilton was blocking him from getting infront of the safety car before it entered the circuit. I reckon it was just Hamilton hesitating as he was unsure about overtaking it.

I thought I wouldn't find the race much interesting after Webber was out, but there were some pretty good moments and good racing by a couple of drivers that haven't had a good run this championship. One in particular was Kobayashi, whom I was cheering on by the end. For a driver that has only had 1 point and retired from most of the races he did extremely well. It might have only been the luck brought from the safety car, but he held up pretty well in third place on the same set of tires til the 50th lap. After that he did some impressive overtaking, the best being when he overtook Alonso on the second last last lap. That pass on the final turn of the last lap was brilliant too.

Another worthy mention is Barrichello's effort for the Williams team, he raced strong and gained positions and held his spot at the top of the grid til the end. It was a shame Hulkenberg's car had problems and retired as I think that would have been the best race for the Williams team, if they both finished in the top ten.

[Prawn]

There's no rule saying that Kovalainen had to get out of the way but its pretty fucking stupid that he didn't. The Red Bull was about 5 seconds a lap faster at that point and Kovalainen should have known better. Webber was saying that HK braked about 80m before the braking zone and that there was nothing he could have done. You can see it in the replays as well - there was like 1/10th of a second for Webber to react before he was airborne. Amazing that he could walk away from it.

Was probably the best Valencia race I've seen (its only the 3rd time they've raced there) and there was definitely some great action after the accident. Was awesome to see Kobayashi managing to get past Alonso and Buemi - he only raced about 2 or 3 races last year and was really impressive in both of those in the same way he was last night. Reminds me a bit of Hamilton the way he managed to make some of those moves stick.

Also a great result for Barrichello though I didn't see much of him during the race. Was funny to hear Alonso bitching about Hamilton on the team radio "its not fair. That's not fair"! He absolutely hates Hamilton to the point of it being ridiculous. Not that I don't agree with him about the penalty but to be whinging about it when you're meant to be driving is a bit much.

Was good to see that Hamilton, Button and Vettel were all friendly on the podium and all concerned about Webber as well. Yeah sucks for Hulkenburg - not sure what happened but apparently his car caught fire - but I have to admit it was kind of funny seeing him chuck a tantrum like that on the track.

Also another solid result for Kubica in the Renault - he's been a quiet achiever all year and is just behind the front runners in points. Would love to see him in a faster car but I think sticking with Renault is his best bet for the next few years at least - when they get it together they're very much capable of winning championships. Needs a new teammate though as Petrov doesn't seem to be able to do anything useful in an F1 car.

Overall a good race! This has been one of the most interesting championships in quite a while and I think its still anyone's for the taking though at this point I think my money would be on Hamilton and McLaren for Drivers and Constructor's championships.

[dunny]

Webber always seems to get the bad breaks, going from 2nd on the grid to 9th was poor enough but then the accident it was increadable he could walk away.
I enjoyed watching Kobayashi hold up Button and then go from strenght to strenght with his lap times and confidence.
Enjoy a good tantrum by a grown man, I'm gunna kick this and kick that, funny shit.
Ferrari were the unluky ones from the yellow flag but hey that's racing.

[Prawn]

Webber always seems to get the bad breaks, going from 2nd on the grid to 9th was poor enough but then the accident it was increadable he could walk away.
I enjoyed watching Kobayashi hold up Button and then go from strenght to strenght with his lap times and confidence.
Enjoy a good tantrum by a grown man, I'm gunna kick this and kick that, funny shit.
Ferrari were the unluky ones from the yellow flag but hey that's racing.

Yeah Martin Brundle had a fantastic quote about Webber once: "If he didn't have bad luck he'd have no luck."
Shame its happened as he's looked good for a chance at the championship and DNFs will not help his cause.

Yeah Ferrari weren't lucky this time around but they've received the benefit of plenty of dubious calls by stewards in the past so I think a lot of their bickering is just for show.

Every online poll I've seen for "driver of the day" has got Kobayashi winning by a landslide.

[dunny]

Webber always seems to get the bad breaks, going from 2nd on the grid to 9th was poor enough but then the accident it was increadable he could walk away.
I enjoyed watching Kobayashi hold up Button and then go from strenght to strenght with his lap times and confidence.
Enjoy a good tantrum by a grown man, I'm gunna kick this and kick that, funny shit.
Ferrari were the unluky ones from the yellow flag but hey that's racing.

Yeah Martin Brundle had a fantastic quote about Webber once: "If he didn't have bad luck he'd have no luck."
Shame its happened as he's looked good for a chance at the championship and DNFs will not help his cause.

Yeah Ferrari weren't lucky this time around but they've received the benefit of plenty of dubious calls by stewards in the past so I think a lot of their bickering is just for show.

Every online poll I've seen for "driver of the day" has got Kobayashi winning by a landslide.

Wasn't that a cream song "if i didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all"