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The Formula 1 2012 Season |OT| The Year of the...uh...Platypus?

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Dilly

Banned
That's the creepiest thing that happened to me on internet.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FV?

My profile pic was too lowres anyway, might consider making a new one if you love me so much!
 
I'll take your bait for attempting to get back on topic (Although I'd argue your face + Jessica is on topic and more interesting than "the exhaust seems 2.3mm longer this year") and state that I can't wait for the weekend already.

Orgun and I were saying in F1 2011 earlier how painful the wait is after such a great opening race.
 

Dilly

Banned
Please go - you can meet me and Orgun and play our F1 drinking game....

Definately a possibility, since I'm probably going forever alone. However, me getting drunk could result in talking dutch gibberish.

I'll take your bait for attempting to get back on topic (Although I'd argue your face + Jessica is on topic and more interesting than "the exhaust seems 2.3mm longer this year") and state that I can't wait for the weekend already.

Orgun and I were saying in F1 2011 earlier how painful the wait is after such a great opening race.

There isn't another man in this world now who's winning more than JB is.
 

oipic

Member
There isn't another man in this world now who's winning more than JB is.

So true. Every woman wants him (I think?), and every man wants to be him (surely?). Pulling this off while giving every indication of being a Good Bloke is some seriously classy work.

Completely unrelated: having seen up close (or through a fence) all of the work that goes into deploying and packing up the F1 circus, or even just a single team's pit area, I have the very utmost respect for F1 crews and their ability to handle these back-to-back race weekends. The logistics of it all! F1 really is quite remarkable in so many ways.
 

Boerseun

Banned
The following chart was posted by a user on the Planet-F1 forums. I'm hoping it's okay to repost it here.

image002.png


Some interesting conclusions can be drawn from the above:

  • Petrov was significantly faster than teammate Kovaleinen and actually pulled away from him in the race (until both their cars failed).
  • The Marussia gets significantly faster as it burns through its fuel load (and surprisingly so!).
  • Senna had a terrible day.
  • In contrast, Senna's teammate, Maldonado, had a fantastic day until his late crash.
  • There really isn't much between the McLaren and Red Bull based on pure speed.

More observations?
 

Orgun

Member
The following chart was posted by a user on the Planet-F1 forums. I'm hoping it's okay to repost it here.

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu247/rubalsher/F1%202012/image002.png[/IMG]

Some interesting conclusions can be drawn from the above:

  • Petrov was significantly faster than teammate Kovaleinen and actually pulled away from him in the race (until both their cars failed).
  • The Marussia gets significantly faster as it burns through its fuel load (and surprisingly so!).
  • Senna had a terrible day.
  • In contrast, Senna's teammate, Maldonado, had a fantastic day until his late crash.
  • There really isn't much between the McLaren and Red Bull based on pure speed.

More observations?

All I can see is the London tube map @_@
 

ANDY_098

Member
I'm surprised how far down the order both Mercs are.

RB seem to be faster than McLaren on high fuel, and vice-versa on mid and low fuel.
 
Michael never takes his eye off the ball. Immediately after a crash his first priority is to make sure the underside of his car stays out of view, then once he's got that taken care of he starts to study the rest passing by.
 

Septimius

Junior Member
Edmond Dantès;36183860 said:
Interesting reaction by Schumacher is this video after his crash in practice 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5gjPrb43LA&feature=youtu.be

Haha, I just spent 7 minutes watching Schumacher standing around.

My respect for Australians just went up.

He still failed miserably.

http://i.minus.com/i44n2hEEOiuhN.jpg[/MG][/QUOTE]

Wow. You don't ever stop spewing bad energy, do you?


I still have high hopes for Mercedes. Seems Schumacher had the car in a better place this weekend (I'm sure this'll change, come changing conditions and different types of tracks) - and it seems the problem with tire degradation came from falling out of the optimal window, which Schumacher might've been able to stay in. The only thing I know is that I'm super-excited about the next GP, and that's a feeling I've missed.
 

defel

Member
He has a great car this year, I can understand why he's so protective. Imagine Massa's reaction in a similar situation: "Take some photos, get whatever you want, there's nothing to see here. Ill even pose for you".
 

Shaneus

Member
The following chart was posted by a user on the Planet-F1 forums. I'm hoping it's okay to repost it here.

http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu247/rubalsher/F1%202012/image002.png[IMG]

Some interesting conclusions can be drawn from the above:

[LIST]
[*]Petrov was significantly faster than teammate Kovaleinen and actually pulled away from him in the race (until both their cars failed).
[*]The Marussia gets significantly faster as it burns through its fuel load (and surprisingly so!).
[*]Senna had a terrible day.
[*]In contrast, Senna's teammate, Maldonado, had a fantastic day until his late crash.
[*]There really isn't much between the McLaren and Red Bull based on pure speed.
[/LIST]

More observations?[/QUOTE]
Petrov was one of the few starting on mediums as well. But other than the reliability, I honestly think that Caterham will be mixing it with the mid-tiers by some stage in 2013. They just look like they have potential vs. Marussia/HRT which just seem to tread water.
Williams will be on the up as well, I think. Their best result for a while and it looks like Maldonado is starting to lift his own weight a little more.
From what I can tell, McLaren doesn't have a whole lot of wiggle room as far as tweaking their car over this season goes, whereas RBR do with it being a more radical car from the RB7. This should produce some interesting rounds.
Webber will get up over Vettel in at least a few races during the first part of the season while ze German gets a handle on a car without that rear diffuser grip he's so used to.
Alonso will win at least one race through sheer persistence in that POS Ferrari, but will mostly be relegated to *just* missing podium finishes. Massa wishes he could be so lucky, and will get replaced mid-season.
Merc will struggle with tyre degradation issues for the first few races but I think they'll resolve that (or at least, stop it becoming an issue).

[quote="Foliorum Viridum, post: 36179614"]Because of that image Dilly with cry and/or wank himself to sleep tonight.[/QUOTE]
[url=http://i.imgur.com/0i9mz.jpg]I think I might as well. At least, the latter.[/url]
 
Sorry, forgot i had asked for help, thanks for those that have given ideas, so far we've got:

Pasta Maldonado is the obvious one

SilverSCONE
SuzuCAKES
NurBURGERing
Kimi Special - Magnums and Vodka

SePastyen Vettel
Lewis HamRollton

Fernando Alasagna

Giancarlo Fishnchips

Johnny Sherbet

Drinks:
Sebastien Vittel
Vimtonio Liuzzi
Pedro De La Rosé (wine)
Red Bull (Dull, but effective)

Food:
Jérôme d'Ambrosia Creamed Rice
Nico Battenberg
Nico Iceberg (lettuce)
Alexander Rosti (potatoes)
Murray Walker's Crisps
Jenson Biltong
Slices of meat, simply labelled "Cat or Ham?"

Kamui Kobaysushi
Paul di Shesta(? bit of a stretch)
Heikki Kovaheineken
Michael Schumacaroni

Anymore??
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
Schumacher: Malaysia will show true order
"Sepang will be interesting because it will be the first clue to the real relative strengths of all the cars. The range of slow and fast corners give a good indication of where you are, which always makes the race fun for the drivers and engineers, and overall a big challenge for both man and machine. I'm looking forward to it."
Source


Raikkonen: Could be fighting for podiums
"It’ll be hot and humid which is a challenge but we have a good car. As long as qualifying goes well we could be fighting for podiums. We’ll have to wait and see. You still need a good car and that looks to be what we have.
Source


Webber wary of late Malaysia rain
"Late afternoon is usually when the rain comes in Malaysia, and when it comes you know about it," said Australian Webber. "It's something to be wary of."
Source
 

Xun

Member
Lol. This is awesome.

Looking at that chart, Maldonado directly behind the McLaren's and Red Bull's? Didn't expect the Williams to be that fast. Too bad they don't have a real proper driver now, should've kept The Hulk.
And also Barri... :(
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
More on the Concorde deal from Joe Saward.
For the last few days there have been a number of sources reporting that Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have reached a deal with the Formula One group over the future commercial structure of F1. The deal is believed to give the two parties shares and voting rights on the board of the Formula One group (although it remains to be seen what that will include). The strategy is not very different from January 2005 when Ecclestone played his ace in the negotiations for the current Concorde Agreement when the FIA, Ferrari and Formula One Management announced that they had agreed a deal between them to extend the Concorde Agreement until the end of 2012.

The announcement came as a major blow to the GPWC, an earlier team organisation, that was under the mistaken belief that Ferrari was one of its membership. Things are a little different now in that the FIA is not quite as willing to march hand in hand with the Formula One group, as once it was, although if there is an incentive to do so there is little doubt that the federation will join the party. What happened after that was that while some teams folded up and joined the arrangement, others became more hardline in opposition and a new organisation called the Grand Prix Manufacturers’ Association began looking at creating its own championship.

Things are not very different now, apart from the fact that the manufacturers involved are fewer in number. Mercedes is the key player in this respect, while Renault does not have its own team at the moment. McLaren will be opposed to the deal as well, but the rest of the teams are largely irrelevant as they are not brands that F1 can live without. Red Bull is relatively unimportant in the overall scheme of things because the Austrian drinks company is regarded in the sport as an organisation that will depart as soon as the sport has served its purpose, just as Benetton or several car manufacturers have done. However, having the drinks company as an ally is valuable at the moment for Formula One, because it has been successful in the last few years and the firm controls too teams. Ferrari also has an element of control over Sauber as the Swiss team needs engines.

The other teams have a right to feel betrayed as Ferrari and Red Bull were members of the Formula One Teams’ Association and went through the motions of looking for a better way for the commercial side of the sport to be organised before swapping sides to feather their own nests. The collapse of any realistic collective bargaining means that the teams have once again been divided and will be conquered and will end up with a smaller share of the sport’s revenues than perhaps they should have had.

The lack of unity means that once again the sport will be used as a cash cow by financiers and money that is being generated will disappear, rather than being used to strengthen the sport.

The next step will be to try to float the business on a stock exchange to allow CVC to take yet more money out of the sport, while leaving control in the hands of the current management. This has also been tried before but proved impossible because of questions about the way that the commercial side of the sport operates.

CVC may well have asked Goldman Sachs to sell its stake in the business but there are hurdles that must be cleared. The primary problem is that of Bernie Ecclestone. He runs the business and there are questions as to how effective any successor would be in the same role. At the same time there is no obvious succession plan and with Ecclestone turning 82 this year, the sport really needs a solid concept for a post-Ecclestone era in order to get investors excited. On top of this there are the questions that still hang in the air over the Gribkowsky trial and the reported tax investigations. These are the sort of things that make big financial institutions uncomfortable. Flotation may not be possible and in that case it will be back to the devices used in the past, with private sale followed by bond issues. These will make the sport a cash cow for financiers once again and while Ferrari and Red Bull may be willing to scramble for what they can get now, the other teams will not be so keen.

F1 needs a full grid and while some of the current teams will likely be lured over to Ecclestone’s side, others will resist. This is probably why there have also been rumours that in the future teams will be allowed to run single cars and can buy chassis from the big teams for the first few years of their existence. This would, in theory at least, open the way to create enough small fry to fill the tarmac behind the big teams. Some teams are completely dependent on the sport although others have learned from past failures are are now businesses that could survive without F1 if necessary. They could, in theory at least, sit out a few years until they are offered a btter deal from F1.
Continued
 
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