Official Formula 1 thread

[cfusionpm]

So uhhhh..... how bout those 2014 cars?

[Tim_Asphalt_FRS]

Originally Posted by cfusionpm

So uhhhh..... how bout those 2014 cars?

At least we know Red Bull's car is a anatomically correct male.

[Gixxersixxerman]

Motogp, limit the fuel and rpm.. 22liters.... Now 21liters making 240-250 bhp and have to last the whole race distance. It's gotten boring, Honda with the pockets of repsol have managed a way to sip fuel and make max power. Yamaha tried to make up with the power deficit in handling and braking, but Hondas caught up to them. Ducati.. Well in race terms a joke.. 40+ seconds from the race winner is horrible.. I always thought let them free, build what they want and run what they brung type thing.. But after thinking about it.. If one company has the "perfect" blue print, why would another company possible waste millions to hopefully run with them.. I can use NASCAR as an example as I'm pretty well versed in that sport. Ford isn't going to pay to play if their car design is so un aero dynamic it has no chance of winning, it's in there because the rules give them that chance with that brick


Oh and F1 cars have looked the same to me for years

[cfusionpm]

Also after watching some of the video interviews with team principals and technical directors, it seems a strong divide in the reception to the new regulations. Ferrari's James Allison and Pat Fry seem exited and enthusiastic to be building something ground-up from a blank sheet of paper. But Red Bull, and specifically Adrian Newey, are not pleased with the new regs whatsoever. Newey is quoted in an interview saying how ugly and compromising the car is. How air flow is terrible and the nose looks stupid. He then went on to complain about how he had no time to design it since the team spent so much time continuing development on the 2013 car instead of focus on 2014 like everyone else.... I guess the price for 9 wins in a row and a 4th consecutive championship is starting at the back in Jerez testing....

At least this shake up will level the playing field, even if the cars are ugly as sin and have giant penises spouting from the front. It really seems that it could be anyone's game between Ferrari, Mclaren, Mercedes, even Williams. It's just great to see some diversity instead of Seb taking every pole and rocketing off from the start. Here's hoping for a competitive season!

As far as visual differences, I'd say it's pretty clear....

[GTB/ZR-1]

The new sound of F1...

This sound is quite vintage & will take some time to get used to--at least for me it will. Like we went back in time to (oddly enough) the Cosworth NA V8 era of ~45 years ago.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s99QFe6htJ4"]Formula 1 test Jerez 2014 [HD] pure V6 turbo sound - YouTube[/ame]

[Calais]

I'm going to miss the sound of the NA V8/10/12s it was an experience when you were crossing over a straight and a car blasted under you at full throttle, it was like my head was going to explode i loved it(missus didn't, don't know why lol).

I'm not put off by the sound of the new engines but it is hard to make out from vids on the net at just how loud the cars really are, i read everyone at the tracks that they are noticeably quieter and this is the only thing that worries me, iwant the cars to be loud i want to be woken up at 7am in my hotel room a km away from the track when he cars are warmed up in the morning.

i cant wait for Melbourne! there im sure no matter what the cars sound like i'll have a good time looks like a lot of the teams will have failures

[rice_classic]

My 3 favorite teams are the 3 without dildos on the front of their cars. How convenient.

So I can confidently say, I hope all the dong-faced teams do poorly.

[YukiHachiRoku]

F1's Phallic fantasies came true!

[FnFast]

8 more days!

[Lischynski]

New F1 rules: Celebration now allowed for race winner.

After receiving the end-of-race signal all cars must proceed on the circuit directly to the post race parc ferme without any unnecessary delay, without receiving any object whatsoever and without any assistance (except that of the marshals if necessary)," reads 43.3.

"An exception to Article 30.4 (which states a driver cannot stop on track without a justifiable reason) and*to the above*will be made for the winning driver who may perform an act of celebration before reaching parc ferme, provided any such act;

- Is performed safely and does not endanger other drivers or officials.

- Does not call into question the legality of his car.

- Does not delay the podium ceremony.

"Any classified car which cannot reach the post race parc ferme under its own power will be placed under the exclusive control of the marshals who will take the car to the parc ferme.

-via the F1 times and Jalopnik

[GTB/ZR-1]

Encouraging news abt Schummi...

http://www.examiner.com/article/mich...with-his-mouth

[cfusionpm]

So winter testing is over and Australia is up next week! Where does everyone stand?

Mercedes looks like the creme of the crop, at least in testing. Quick laps, good consistency, good reliability in long runs. Lewis and Nico are both very quick.

McLaren seem to have the same strength in reliability and Magnasun is showing quite a lot of promise. The car should be quick if their bell-curve suspension bits work in race mode.

Ferrari is not showing their hand, but have had good reliability throughout testing and reasonable pace. Kimi may not like the setup as much as Alonso (and has spun a few times), but I think both drivers will be excellent this season.

Williams is surprisingly good and Massa looks very good over there. Bottas will probably do good things as well.

Don't remember much about Force India other than doing OK to good. Hulk is always one to look out for.

Lotus was hurting bad and I can't recall any solid runs from them.

Sauber looked mediocre and Sutil looked very frustrated most of the time.

Toro Rosso were having some woeful problems most of the time. Not expecting much from them.

Marussia and Caterham didn't do much either. Although ironically Caterham got some of the most testing out of ALL the Renault engines.

Red Bull is in a world of hurt, and other than a single day from Ricciardo, they've got almost nothing to show from three testing events. I hope they crash and burn. No one will shed a tear for them. However, if they can sort out their overheating and reliability problems, their car might be just proper damn quick.

Very much looking forward to Melbourne. So much so I took the day off work to watch it (usually work every Sunday).

I'll also be attending the USGP in Austin later this year. Just working out travel arrangements and waiting for the actual tickets to go on sale.

Going to be a very interesting season this year!

[mike the snake]

Thanks for the updates. I can't wait for the 1st race of the season! I haven't missed a live race in many many years.

I too hope redbull chokes this year. No More "redbull show".

[cfusionpm]

The problems Red Bull are having (as far as I've been able to gather) are that Renault gave them a bit more optimistic figures and estimations on the heating and cooling requirements. When doing testing on a dyno with just the engine, it apparently runs a lot cooler than with everything attached and hooked up to a transmission. Go figure.

A lot of the Renault teams were having massive problems with cooling, except for Caterham, who seemed to have made utterly massive sidepods with huge cooling ducts. Newey doing what Newey does, made sure to design the Red Bull as tight, narrow, and cramped as humanly possible in order to get the absolute best aerodynamics he can. Unfortunately, they can't seem to throw together more than 10 or 12 laps before needing to bring the car back in.... They might have some new tricks ready for Melbourne, but it's going to be a rough start for the fuzzy drink team. They're going to need massive overhaul to the aero to make everything cool down properly. They already had plenty of overheating and KERS problems last few years.... now double the power output and quadruple the heat generation... Going to be fun times at the Red Bull camp while they figure something out.