3530 replies to this topic

[Redliner]

gawd damn it ferrari, i thought you'd be the one team to hold out

I hate it when teams just see something, and work to imitate the original. I wish they'd come up with something original to counter the new changes of another car. Now every team is running the fins or wheel covers, which I think look horrendous.

See, like Honda, they put dumbo ears on their car -- that's very unique and innovative!

[Nacho]

Good point. I'm the last person that's gonna pretend that the FIA is a fair, independent, and just body....but I still think mcmerc was guilty of 1st degree cheating, and renault 2nd or 3rd. Karmically, they deserve people stealing their bridgewing before the 100 mill fine.

'Borrowing' other people's obvious developments has been and always will be a big part of F1.

[Nacho]

See, like Honda, they put dumbo ears on their car -- that's very unique and innovative!

Which seem to be a take on the old BMW version, then McMerc is using them, so how long till Ferrari and everyone else has them?

[_R_]

See, like Honda, they put dumbo ears on their car -- that's very unique and innovative!

have you seen what McLaren ran today?

[kngrsll]

You know, i didn't think about it before, and i'm likely still way off, but the aero regs are for 50% downforce next year, right? 50% of when? Season start or end this year? if it's start, or some time in the past, the theory is worthless, but if it's END then i wonder who will take the hit in Brazil with every bit of aero possible to up their 50% rate.... Even stuff that doesn't really work, but gives a little more downforce stuck on every car on the field would be pretty funny.

good point... i cant wait for the new regs...

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

You know, i didn't think about it before, and i'm likely still way off, but the aero regs are for 50% downforce next year, right? 50% of when? Season start or end this year? if it's start, or some time in the past, the theory is worthless, but if it's END then i wonder who will take the hit in Brazil with every bit of aero possible to up their 50% rate.... Even stuff that doesn't really work, but gives a little more downforce stuck on every car on the field would be pretty funny.

they're not going to measure every car and deduct their downforce levels by 50% at the end of the season. what the regulations are going to do is effectively reduce downforce by roughly 50% (thats a ballpark figure) but it'll most likely be higher than that with the current rate of aero development. the new rules dont quantatively limit downforce, it just disallows winglets and flow modifiers.


realistically you cant put the downforce to a single value. downforce at what speed? what C_L? what frontal area? what reynolds number? there are simply too many variables.

[Robert]

Cars are lookin mad gay son.

[More&Faster]

they're not going to measure every car and deduct their downforce levels by 50% at the end of the season. what the regulations are going to do is effectively reduce downforce by roughly 50% (thats a ballpark figure) but it'll most likely be higher than that with the current rate of aero development. the new rules dont quantatively limit downforce, it just disallows winglets and flow modifiers.


realistically you cant put the downforce to a single value. downforce at what speed? what C_L? what frontal area? what reynolds number? there are simply too many variables.

ya i imagine they'll just limit the size and placement of the wings more than they do now in order to roughly cut the downforce in half. i'm looking forward to it. not so sure about this KERS thing but atleast they're trying something new.

[_R_]

Retired Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has continued his recent run of close calls at the wheel of high speed vehicles.

Following several falls as he enjoys semi-amateur motorcycle riding, it is now being reported that the 39-year-old German crashed a Ferrari road car last week while testing at the notorious Nordschleife circuit at the Nurburgring.

Last Tuesday, Schumacher was not injured when his prototype 430 Scuderia struck a guardrail and was written off, Bild newspaper said.

It is suggested that Ferrari was using the partially-damp circuit exclusively, when its former champion went off at more than 250kmh.

"Michael called me and said 'We have crashed the car but are going to continue with another one'," Schumacher's spokeswoman Sabine Kehm confirmed.

[_R_]

World champion Kimi Raikkonen says he would try his hand at rallying once his Formula One career is over.

The 28-year-old Finn, who is currently weighing up whether or not to renew his contract with Ferrari beyond 2009, told the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport that he is not afraid of life after Grand Prix racing.

"I will not be bored," Raikkonen said. "When I stop Formula One, I will keep going for fun to other races. At some point I will try rallying.

"That interests me; asphalt, gravel and ice, it must be fun," he explained.

The 2007 drivers' title winner stopped short of saying his ambition would be to compete at World Rally level.

"It's difficult to say, because I have never done a rally seriously. On asphalt I would probably be okay but on gravel I have no experience. And having a co-pilot for me would be difficult."

Raikkonen's interest in rallying is probably stirred by the exploits of his older brother Rami, who is a rally driver of some repute in Finland.

What is clear, however, is that if Raikkonen does hang up his F1 helmet in the near future, he will not walk away from motor racing entirely.

"I have spent my whole life in motor sport. I have never had the plans to do anything else," he explained.

[DrDickAction]

More like Shimacher, mirite?

[Robert]

More like Shimacher, mirite?

[Redliner]

More like Shimacher, mirite?

Where's that pic of Shi's BMW??

[_R_]

NASCAR has vowed to learn from the tyre debacle at Indianapolis, where excessive wear forced several caution periods to avoid blowouts in the race.

Speaking after the race, NASCAR's Robin Pemberton said not even an open test session would have been helpful to anticipate the issues of the first trip to the Brickyard with the new Sprint Cup car.

"I think when you have an open test things like that have already been decided," he said. "I don't think an open test here would've done enough for us, it wouldn't have helped, I don't think.

"You may have had enough issues that you'd have gone back and redesigned the tyres, but I don't know if we could've gone with that in time. Hindsight is always 20/20, I think we'll just learn from this experience and try to do a better job next year."

Pemberton denied the track or its abrasive surface are to blame for what happened this weekend, three years after French manufacturer Michelin were forced to retire their cars from the Formula One race due to unexpected failures on the left-rears.

He claims that having the new car at the track for the first time created additional challenges that resulted in the tyre issues.

"This isn't the first time we've raced here with the surface the way it is, and in the past we've been able to accomplish what we need to accomplish," Pemberton added. "So to pick on the surface wouldn't be fair.

"I think the new car, and probably not having a test here, probably didn't help us at all. You can say that surface is abrasive, but we have been able to accomplish a full fuel run here in the past."

Pemberton said that the solution wasn't as simple as having a tougher or harder compound on the right-side tyres. He claims that, together with Goodyear, they have to find the balance between making the tyres last and keeping the cars driveable.

"We have to anticipate where the tyres and the competition are going to meet on Sunday afternoon," he said. "We have challenges when we develop tyres here because you have such a dramatic change in surface grip as the track rubbers in.

"You can make everybody happy on Friday, miserable on Saturday, and really miserable on Sunday, or you can come back and work best at trying to achieve the right grip when it comes to Sunday afternoon."

He also admitted they have now learned that with the new car, it's impossible to run similar tyres at Pocono and Indianapolis, as was the case in the past.

When asked if having support events during the weekend to help rubber in the track is a possibility for the future, Pemberton said he didn't believe that would have helped.

"We just ran a 400-mile race with 43 competitors, if we didn't rubber it in, I don't think a Nationwide or Truck race was going to help us today."

Despite the stop-go nature of the race and the record number of laps under yellow flags, officials claimed there were 114 more green flag passes than in last year's event.

huh... you mean even nascar as tire problems at Indy?

[DrDickAction]

huh... you mean even nascar as tire problems at Indy?

wagon wheels will do that

[mads]

jk

[mads]

Where's that pic of Shi's BMW??

[Shi]

shit I'll never live that down

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

coulthard to DNF this weekend:

Coulthard to use same engine in three GPs

By Jonathan Noble Tuesday, July 29th 2008, 09:44 GMT

Renault have decided to let David Coulthard use his customer engine for the third consecutive weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Although drivers must use their power units for a minimum of two events, Renault have opted to extend the use of Coulthard's engine for a further event in a bid to help their tactical challenge over the remainder of the season.

It means not only will he be on a different engine cycle to teammate Mark Webber, but ensures he will use a different engine in Belgium and Italy - two of the toughest tracks on power units.

Talking about the reasons behind the decision, Fabrice Lom, who oversees Renault's efforts at Red Bull Racing, said: "First of all his V8 has not done too much running and we are not especially worried about its reliability.

"Plus, having our two drivers out of synch on the engine cycle means that we won't be putting all our eggs in the same basket. This decision will also help us in the second half of the season in terms of the logistical challenge.

"And finally, it means that David will not have to use the same engine in Spa and Monza, which are two of the toughest challenges on the calendar."

[mads]

coulthard to DNF this weekend:

as opposed to usually not dnf?

ibwin

[_R_]

Renault team boss Flavio Briatore believes Formula One needs an overhaul in order to satisfy the fans and get the teams to have a bigger say.

The Italian also feels the sport is hurting due to Max Mosley focusing on his personal problems.

"His absence is felt as there's no project for F1. The teams feel abandoned," Briatore told Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.

Speaking about the issues Formula One is facing, Briatore said: "The Concorde agreement, the number of races, the costs, the spectacle, the imperative increase of revenues. Formula One needs to be re-designed.

"I feel that it should be down to the teams to decide, by electing in turns a director of operations. A guy who does things, not a PR person.

"On top of that, we need to decide with a 51% majority, not unanimously like now, otherwise we'll carry on being stuck."

He added: "Nowadays Ecclestone takes 50% of all revenues, but we are supposed to be able to reduce our costs by 50%.

"How? Starting from the engines. Making them more environment-friendly, accepting Mosley's challenge of reducing fuel consumption by 50% by 2015, while cutting the high costs of the engine themselves and also cutting the staff.

"The problem is that us, Renault, have stuck to the letter of the current regulations on frozen engines, and we've been buggered: others didn't do that and are far ahead, while we suffer. It's not fair."

Briatore and the rest of team principals and other officials will meet today in Maranello to discuss the future of the sport.

oh and Ferrari is going to be running the dorsal fin engine cover this weekend

[DrDickAction]

flavor flav making a lot of sense right there.

[Redliner]

flavor flav making a lot of sense right there.

that's why he gets all the hot Italian chicks. He's the perfect fit for F1-crew. Somebody needs to go and recruit him

[DrDickAction]

that's why he gets all the hot Italian chicks. He's the perfect fit for F1-crew. Somebody needs to go and recruit him

I thought that was because of all the good coke he gets.

Either way, somebody go recruit him.

[_R_]

where is everyone?