I remember doing some number crunching a while ago and I came up with that from 2010 to 2013, a RBR car took pole 65% of the time (50/77) and won 53% of the time (41/77).

I remember doing some more crunching on Newey designs and that his cars have won 10 world constructor's championships with 6 different drivers on 3 different teams in just 21 years. The only thing that really stopped him in the middle was the Shumi domination, but he was a God among men (who also had the fastest car a few of those years). So the X factor with Vettel isn't as much the driver or team, it's Newey. It still takes a good driver to win a championship, but when your car drives like a traction-controlled videogame and everyone else struggles with wheelspin.... well we all know how I feel. LOL. It was fun seeing Vettel kick the back out accidentally and go off roading a little during free practice. All those little quirks that everyone else is used to dealing with will be new to him.

Almost as good as the qualifying are the commercials. Male Dependz diapers for washed up football players, catheters, testosterone supplements.

The best part was Vettel's qualifying performance! lol

Watching qualifying live right now and Vettel just got knocked out in Q2 and will be starting 13th. I'm playing the world's smallest violin in his honor.

In other news, Ricciardo is killing it in the new car. I'd almost root for Red Bull if it's Daniel!

The crowd reaction to Vettel getting knocked out in q2 was brilliant and then even more so every time ricciardo regained the top spot. Great work by Lewis too in difficult conditions.

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I think this year will be truly a drivers year. And who can adopt to the new car. I think Hamilton has a good chance to win. Even though in P1 he was out in less than a few minutes. Nico is hungry and Hamilton is determined.

Should be a great year. Can't wait till tonight/tomorrow.

I agree. This year, the playing field seems to be more even, so the better drivers will rise to the top.

I'm a big Hamilton fan, so I hope he gets another championship.

In qualifying, the cars looked more skiddish, no doubt due to the lack of downforce and extra torque.

I have to admit that quali exceeded my low expectations after dismal practice sessions. Plus I turned the volume up considerably and tweaked some controls to sound less like a tractor pull. Great to see most of Ricciardo's teeth during the post-quali interview, he earned it and I hope his star rises tomorrow along with a shuffling of the previously boring podium.

I'm sure the teams are working furiously overnight to modulate the torque delivery system without violating the traction control rule or overheating anything.

Actually looking forward to the race now and hope there's at least a half-hour of rain to level the field more. Plus secretly I'd like to see one of my favorites, Nico Rosberg, in the lead at some point so they show more shots of his fiancé Vivian Sibold.

The loudest was Mark Weber... lol

Great race!

It was ok in my opinion. Hopefully there's a team that has something for Merc next race. I feel bad for Seb and Hammy, but it was nice to see Ricciardo and Mags up front.

Talk about a range of emotions today. Being a Kimi fan I was a little disappointed in Ferrari's pace. Also pretty sad to see Hamilton out so early.

Pleasant surprise was the Mclaren team! I'm really happy for Kevin I hope we see more of the same from him. Also Button is probably the nicest guy in F1 so happy for him too.

As for Ricciardo's disqualification I'm a little conflicted. He's a great guy so I feel bad, but RB clearly ignored the rules and deserve the disq.

As an Aussie I feel bad for Daniel but rules are rules and should be enforced.

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Quite an interesting race... As an Alonso and Ferrari fan, I wasn't terribly thrilled about their performance, but today was definitely the day for rookies and non-WDCs to shine. Bottas and Magnasun were definitely the stars of the day putting in the drive of their lives. Even Kvyat looked good.

Sad news for Vettel and Ricciardo, but it's hard for me to feel much sympathy at all for either of the Red Bulls, DQ and all. They laughed in smug pride all through the last 4 years, convinced they could do no wrong. Convinced they were clever enough to get away with whatever they wanted. Convinced they had every technical loophole exploited. Well now, instead of even getting 18 points, or 12 or 10, they get 0. Boo f**king hoo. I feel bad taking the wind out of Daniel's sails, but if his team were aware of a fuel regulator issue and did nothing... well they should be punished. It's just a shame the young aussie got caught in the crossfire.

The only one I genuinely feel bad for is Hamilton. He's probably one of the most talented drivers out there, along with Alonso, but his car has always held him back. Usually in reliability, both at McLaren and Mercedes. It's a long season with plenty to go, but not exactly the way he wanted to kick off his year.

All in all, an exciting race.

More on the disqualification: http://grandprix247.com/2014/03/16/b...w-rule-breach/

I'm with you 100%. It seems like RB basically ignored the warnings they received after practice and assumed they would get away with it. Other teams took steps to make sure they complied with the fuel flow rate and RB clearly said f@ck it. They think they're untouchable.

Had Hamilton had a working car we probably would have seen a great shoot out between him and Rosberg. I think that was the most unfortunate part of the GP today.

I haven't watched F1 for a long time now. Last time I watched it was Fernando Alonso's First Championship. Im a big Michael Schumacher Fan since I remember I watched him when he wore the Benetton outfit then to The Great ol Scuderia Ferrari, I remember his teammates Irvine and Barrichello. I used to hate Hakinen and Coulthard hahah and my brother loved those two. I lost interest when Alonso won, I also remember the crazy commentator Steve Slater from STAR sports He is the best damn Commentator he was so entertaining. But since I moved to the US I lost interest I tried watching it in SPEED channel but dang watching it is so depressing.

But recently Im hearing about this new guy Vettel, and looking at his highlights. Damn this kid is something else. I have a feeling if he doesnt tie Schumi's record I think he will surpass him.

Vettel's dominance is a product of his car over the years, not his skill. He's a great driver, but he's not "something else"

WHAT HAPPENED TO REFUELING? Omg back then I remember the best parts of the race were pitstops. where clearly you have to create so much space and more strategies in order to secure the position. now its simple change tires -.-

This is the commentators I long for hahaha
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sebBFUoiZ-I"]F1 2010 R4 China Start - YouTube[/ame]

Lots of malfunctions, fires, injuries, etc. Start with a full tank and hope it lasts till the end!

As for Vettel, he's an above average driver who had an absolute rocket ship car for 4 years in a row. And the reason we saw him benefit more than his teammate was the blown diffusers (and later coanda effect rear ends) tailored to his driving style much more than Mark's classical old school skills. Now that Vettel's car doesn't drive like a videogame, he's been struggling.

It's funny how there were so many malfunctions and fires during F1 refueling, yet Nascar seems to pull it off with relatively no issues.

Call me old-school, but I loved the refueling, and just about everything from years ago, especially when there was variety, different engines, different cars, different tires, those days are gone though unfortunately.

In this first race, I heard one comment from the announcers that F1 is going away from entertaining, to being an eco-friendly, "green" form of racing.

I LOVE F1, but eco friendly and green just aren't my cup of tea when it comes to racing.

Vettel obviously had a superior car the last 4 years. I bet a number of drivers could have accomplished the same with those cars.

The acid test will be how he does with an equal, or inferior car.

Personally I think that the new regs are trying to accomplish two things.

1. Make the sport more exciting. The last few years have been pretty boring aside from one or two races.

2. Bring F1 up to the current technology of vehicles that are being driven now. Had F1 not increased their level of technology they would start to be the Nascar of the FIA world. The Mclaren P1 would have outpaced the technology in F1 cars had the new regs not been applied.

F1 is about fast cars, sure...but to me it's always been about the pinnacle of technology and helping to drive the technology of the rest of the automotive world. These changes give other manufacturers reasons to join in engine building and maybe get back into F1 as works teams.

Eco/green is the new norm. To have any racing series not get involved in that technology means it's not staying current with technology. For me I'm far more interested in a competitive racing series that is pushing the level of known technology further than a semi-competitive series based on old technology that rarely makes any changes.

If F1 didn't advance in technology eventually everyone would just be running the same setup and the refinement of each team would be slight tweaks in aero and maybe tuning but in essence you would just have a higher level CART series. zzzzzz.

I for one love the changes and think this will be one of the more exciting seasons we get to watch compared to the last 5 years.

im not too convinced about all this eco stuff in racing cars

the sound of F1 cars was a drawcard
the sound of our own cars is also a drawcard, and one reason we buy exhaust systems
and drive our cars with a smile

take that away and we all have quiet/ electric/ boring cars

the big car makers have enough money to develop racing cars and to develop eco freindly cars separately

motor enthusiasts who watch F1 and attend F1 IN GENERAL are not interested in fuel conservation strategies, eco friendly RACE cars and quiet cars

neither are the organisers of the formaula one in australia
see below

http://www.wheels24.co.za/News/Oz-GP...obbed-20140317

There's enough technology to go around in racing. The choice to go with turbo V6's is my biggest gripe.

V6's sound like crap, unless spun up over 20,000 rpm, where anything sounds good. turbocharge a low revving crappy sounding V6, and you have even crappier sound.

The new engines are so quiet, that it makes the overall racing experience less exciting. This can't be argued I don't think. Unless you are trackside, you won't be able to hear the cars at all.

All the people away from the track, on the tops of buildings, on their yaghts, and anyone that isn't 20 feet from the track will basically hear nothing. On TV I could barely hear the cars.

Yes, the new rules probably will give close racing, but the main thing that made F1 stand out over all other forms of racing was the awesome sound IMO.

I'm fine with green, and eco friendly, and high-tech, but make it loud and make it sound crazy and pissed off. We know they can do this.

Although I agree that the cars are too low reving/quiet, its not all bad. There's been a few unforeseen up sides to the quiet cars, you can hear things you couldn't before: Contact between cars, the sound of the tires when they lock up, the cars crapping the ground, and clearly hearing and understanding the team radio.

Also my girlfriend didn't go crazy and tell me to turn it down when I watched the race yesterday, so thats good.

It was quite the interesting race...collision almost off the line, powertrains dropping out left and right...Sucks for Hamilton and Vettel...was a nice race for Ricciardo, sucks that he got DQ'd...Nico steppd up big with a real good lead...can't wait till Malaysia!

Keep in mind that a lot of historic tracks are on threat of shutdown due to the noise of the racing events, especially F1, Spa being the most famous I'd say.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/28/b...portedly-safe/

It's an old article, but the noise issue was a concern, and could be again in the future if enough people complain.

So here's the thing. Obviously right now the exhausts are tuned for performance. In essence the complainers would say "decrease performance for the sake of noise". I'm sure they could make the exhausts louder by doing some fancy exhaust work, but it would result in a loss of power somewhere. You can keep the "entertainment" I'll take technology advancements and speed.

I don't think this is the case. It's the reason why Toyota, Ford, Honda all dropped out. Not enough $$$ to throw at a series that had no R&D value for them. Hybrid systems and a powerplant that could have tech directly related to current and future vehicles will likely mean more works teams.

I think the fans probably hated the V6 turbo to V12/10 change, then they griped about the V10 to V8 change (I remember that one clearly), now that V8 sound suddenly was the pinnacle of F1 noise and all that the fans care about. Meh. People will get used to it especially if the races and competition are more exciting.

I for one would much rather have an exciting race and less noise, than a procession of V8's.

I don't see how new F1 "power package" technology could translate into production vehicles that must meet emissions regs.

Toyota already leads the way with alternative fueled vehicles with their portfolio approach to R&D. That will lead to more efficiency gains than F1 even cares about.

I wouldn't be looking for Toyota to return to F1. They blew over $1 billion in their F1 experiment, enough to give every TMS HQ employee a $1 million bonus, and never won a race. And now they've abandoned the former Rolex sports car series where they dominated but still run niche series like V-8 supercars, drag racing and NASCAR that viewers can relate to better than ERS, KERS, DRS, LiOn, etc.

Toyota's priorities have changed post-tsunami. They're busy dealing with political and demographic upheaval in their home market and in several other manufacturing bases around the world that are becoming more unstable every day.

Yes, bring back the sounds of 20,000+ rpm, and not from turbos spooling.

Just finished watching the race on DVR. Miss the engine noise. Cars look twitchy. looks like once you're out front with a good car it's the same old story. Reliability looks to be an early factor.

Are they allowed only 5 engines total for the season from what the video said? Are they allowed to be rebuilt then reused? If not, there could be teams with out a car after 5 races if they have 5 failures in the first 5 races. Hamilton and Vettel down to 4 now?

The Aussies were not happy with the product.............

#2 DQ'd because he ran too much fuel through the engine but still had fuel in the tank? That's crap if they're trying to be "Green". They reduced how much fuel you can run in the tank, have no refueling yet he still finishes with gas in the tank. That's looks like he managed the fuel he had on board to me.

Guess this is going to be a wait-and-see season for a lot of people.

Kers (see Mclaren P1)
DLC (diamond like coating)
VVT (Honda developed VTEC in F1)
DSG Transmissions
Tire Tech (not from auto mfgs, but another example)
Disc Brakes (F1 tech from the 50's)
Carbon fiber tech
DOHC motors (Also older F1 tech)

Those are just the ones I know about off the top of my head. DLC and carbon fiber tech are the two big ones I know about which are slowly making their way into modern cars, even affordable ones. The fact that Ford and Honda have turbo V6 platforms (Ford already has one in production, Honda uses one in their Indy cars) makes it far more likely that they would compete in a series where they could claim there was some relation to their road cars, even as a pure marketing device (like they do in NASCAR).

I understand people are upset about losing the noise, but I think the benefit far outweighs the loss. I feel that at the end of a very exciting season nobody will even be talking about it anymore.

Imagine what it will do for midrange sports cars. Yeah, Toyota have lots of hybrid experience, but all of their hybrids are painfully dull. McLaren and Porsche have already translated modern hybrid technology to road cars in the P1 and 918, but I'll be even more excited when it trickles down to the 20-30k range.

Picking up a beefy grunt car like a Mustang or Camaro means gas mileage in the teens. What if they could be supplemented with an ERS system that was driven off the engine or brakes. Something to both boost power and increase gas mileage.

Now look at your average Japanese sport car, either a torqueless wonder like us, or a 16mpg turbo. Well, use the turbo to drive an electric generator which can deliver performance on demand and economy when you want it and I'm sold.

The CR-Z from Honda was a step in the right direction, but still pretty slow. Give a combined output around 300-350hp with fuel economy above 50mpg and now we're talking.

There's a lot of buzzwords being thrown around in this thread. At the end of the day, this is a motorsport. Look at NASCAR's 100% rule. Why force the drivers to race below 100% for the sake of strategy, or going green? That's not exciting to the fans, nor the drivers. I agree with bringing back refueling on pit stops.

If podunk little NASCAR can do it safely, then surely the most advanced racing series in the world should be able to?

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/t...e-environment/

If you think F1 hasn't had nearly direct translations to the cars on the road today I think you've missed part of what happens in this series.

The next step is driverless cars. We have to keep up with technology. :D

Nascar can do fueling because they don't have open exhausts and super hot exposed engine parts right next to their refueling spouts so I don't think that's a fair comparison. I think that saying Indy can do it is a better comparison.

I also think that the refueling rigs that were needed to be safe cost a LOT of money to transport all around the world and that cost was a large part of getting rid of refueling probably more so than safety. The goal was to make F1 more affordable so smaller teams could run and that was a big reduction in cost.

Certainly a fair point, Hatch. Just having some fun.

At the end of the day, we just enjoy a different goal of racing. All I'm concerned about is some exciting, hard racing. I couldn't care less about efficiency, being green, or resembling what's on the roads.

Unless we're talking about NASCAR. Those things have way too much downforce, and aren't even close to their supposed definition ("stock" cars).

I'm with you on this and I think that part of the economy is again to allow more manufacturers to compete in the series. High revving V10's with separate race and quali engines, unlimited tires, giant super safe high pressure refueling rigs, unlimited engine and transmissions, unlimited wind tunnel testing etc. meant tons and tons of money. Hundreds of millions of dollars a season to be involved in the sport at a winning level.

While I enjoyed that level of money and racing eventually it was boring to just watch 2-3 manufacturers always be at the top of the series. While I don't want a procession series like Indy or Nascar (which in my opinion F1 was slowly becoming) I also don't want a totally unlimited series where one or two teams can compete and everyone else is a backmarker. I want competition. I want a car that needs a competent, skilled driver to master. I want innovation and new technology which is revolutionary to the automotive world.

Right now F1 is ticking all those boxes for me and it wasn't before. It's more motorsport now than it has been in the last decade IMO. Is it quieter...sure. Should that matter? I don't think so.

Side note. I'm having a lot of fun with this debate. :)

That's a good point, and Indy has quite a few fires.

I really don't mind the engines, I like the sound of the turbos, in fact. It's nice to also hear the tires squeal, and the crowd as well. I don't agree with limiting the engines to 5 for the first season with all of these new changes though. Should have given them a trial year with 8.