567 replies to this topic

[Shi]

Williams took a huge dive between 2010 and 2011.

2010: 6th with 69 points, just behind the big 5.
2010: 9th with 5 points. Only ahead of Lotus, HRT, Virgin.

[Redliner]

Even HRT, Virgin and Caterham/Lotus aren't fielding pay drivers in both seats...

This is Williams, and the only reason this double pay driver junk isn't being universally derided is that one of them happens to share a name with the popular vote for best driver in memory (I'd still argue that Fangio was better), as if his family name meant anything to his ability.

If this was Nelson Piquet Jr, Nicholas Prost, or Marco Andretti buying a seat with his family name and subsequent money, I doubt there would be nearly as much cheering.

I disagree with that. Racing has always had pay drivers and there are countless teams in lower classes that runs full-time pay drivers/riders. Besides, what's the difference between having 1 pay driver compared to 2? Once you have 1 paid driver, it means the teams hurting for sure...so I don't think having the Senna name is enough to make people gloss over the fact that Williams has 2 pay drivers.

[vietlol]

Who does Sutil have to glass to get a seat now?

[Shi]

Who does Sutil have to glass to get a seat now?

Woah good point

Sutil's end of the season was pretty strong

[Nacho]

Who does Sutil have to glass to get a seat now?

You think glassing the New Lotus guys would have gotten him a seat over at Old Lotus.

[DrDickAction]

You think glassing the New Lotus guys would have gotten him a seat over at Old Lotus.

Would be an upgrade over Trulli as well.

[kngrsll]

all these old guys hanging around for F1 isn't really helping... Trulli, Barrichello, Schumi, and you could even argue that Kimi already had his F1 career with a 'chip to boot.

[Nacho]

Would be an upgrade over Trulli as well.

For sure.

Hell, Boobens should get Trulli's seat.

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

For sure.

Hell, Boobens should get Trulli's seat.

But he's "pushing-a-like-a-hell!"

[DrDickAction]

all these old guys hanging around for F1 isn't really helping... Trulli, Barrichello, Schumi, and you could even argue that Kimi already had his F1 career with a 'chip to boot.

Schumi is still the best driver out of the 4 you've listed. I wouldn't have said that in the 10/11 offseason though.

[_R_]

Peugeot done with endurance racing effective immediately

[Shi]

Peugeot done with endurance racing effective immediately

That's a huge blow to the World Endurance Championship. What a shame.

[DrDickAction]

The racing fan in me is , the audi owner in me is

http://www.autoblog....ve-immediately/

Who the shit is gonna stop the auto unions now? I remember reading about them trying to even the gas/diesel gap with regulation changes, but shit, nobody is remotely close.

[cASe SenSiTive]

BREAKING: Peugeot gives up Le Mans to Audi, in the worst French surrender since the Maginot Line
-breakingauto

[kngrsll]

speaking of French cars, I really wish we got the Renault Sports in the US. Has anyone else looked at those cars? They look like a blast...

http://www.renault-sport.com/en/

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

Peugeot done with endurance racing effective immediately

Was just gonna come here to post that Audi had just won the 2012 24heures du mans..

[kngrsll]

when does toyota enter the picture? 2013?

[DrDickAction]

when does toyota enter the picture? 2013?

this year.


on a related note, I found this jalopnik opening pretty funny:

Audi may have diesel, guaranteeing it victory after victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but you know what Toyota has? No, not old people. No, not beige, take this seriously. No, unintended acceleration won't win races.

[Redliner]

Stories I didn't expect to read this morning:

http://jalopnik.com/...pitstops-faster

How A Track Star Helped An F1 Team Make Pitstops Faster
In 2011, Williams finished ninth in the Formula One Constructors’ Championship, their worst result since 1978. Two months before the new season kicks off, the team have unveiled a rather unorthodox aspect of their efforts to return to their glory days in the ’90s: they’ve hired ’90s track god Michael Johnson to train their pit crews. Yes, that Michael Johnson.
If you share my occasional obsession of watching men run very, very fast, you’ll no doubt have permanent memories of August 1, 1996. That was the day when Michael Johnson performed one of history’s great athletic feats, running 200 meters in 19.32 seconds, smashing his 5-week-old world record by a full third of a second—about an eon in a sprint event. It’s a run you can watch over and over again and still be flabbergasted by his otherwordly speed, making absolutely world-class athletes like Frankie Fredericks and Ato Boldon appear as though they’re competing on a high-gravity planet.

There were years when Williams’s F1 cars were like that. Footage of Nigel Mansell’s FW14B from 1992 shows a car which seems to disregard physics with Johnson’s flair. But the team have been on a slippery slope toward complete irrelevance since 1997. They’ve won a scarce 10 races in the past 14 seasons and haven’t finished in the top three since 2003.



To complement the past few months’ various personnel changes on the technical side of the team, they’ve now teamed up with Michael Johnson Performance, the company Johnson started after retiring from active competition. Johnson’s company, based in McKinney, Texas, provides training to Dallas’s Cowboys, Stars and FC Dallas, along with runners at various levels of competition.

Why the need for an Olympic athlete at a Formula One team? Since refueling cars during a race was banned in 2010, pitstops have crept into the 3-second range, and they’re ever more crucial to get right as fast as humanly—or, in this case, inhumanly—possible. The 2011 season has seen a number of high-profile position changes during pitstops. Now that teams can’t use super-fast helium-filled wheel guns, they’ll have to resort to simply doing things faster. And fast is something Michael Johnson knows quite a lot about.

It also turns out that Johnson is a fan. Here’s how he was quoted by the press release about the partnership:

I have been a huge Formula One fan since I first attended the Grand Prix at Spa in 1990 where I had the great privilege of meeting Sir Frank Williams. I am confident that the experience and biomechanics expertise of the MJP staff that has benefitted numerous American football athletes, Premier League football teams, and Olympic federations, can also benefit the Williams F1 Team pit crew in their goal to cut hundredths and even tenths of a second from their pit stop times.

Whatever magic he can inject into Williams’s crew on their way up from rock bottom, Johnson may also have Formula One history on his side. In 1978, their second season in the sport, Williams finished ninth. In 1979, they came second behind Ferrari. And in 1980 and 1981, they became back-to-back constuctors’ champions, a feat they would repeat three times. Not unlike Michael Johnson’s various magical runs in his helium-weight golden shoes.

[Shi]

Stories I didn't expect to read this morning:

http://jalopnik.com/...pitstops-faster

MJ was my running hero

[Nacho]

FIA: jk, Lotus' reactive ride height system is illegal.

http://www.jamesalle...m-is-not-legal/

[DrDickAction]

Fucking FIA.

Been a while since I've said that.

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

Lollercoaster.. just like thr J damper again, the frogs cant seem to catch a break, even when they are midfielders.

[Shi]

What the fuck. FIA seems so amateurish

[MrHahn]

At least when Max was around we had Nazi sex parties.