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The Formula 1 2011/2012 Off-Season Thread |OT| The Year of the Red Bull

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Lucius86

Banned
Hard to judge so early, but I also think Caterham are going to surprise this year, not at the front of the field obviously, but I could see them kicking the idea of competing with HRT and Marussia to the curb and being a potential mid-field contender rather than just the best of the last this year.

I hope so. It may look ugly, but I like the tweets Mike Gascoyne and co give to the fans - insightful.

Plus it was my F1 2010 car, so naturally I am fond of them.
 

ANDY_098

Member
I'm an even bigger fan. Neither yourself or Lucius went to the effort of making sure you were born in the same country as him. Pretty weak, really!

Seriously though, as if we needed more of an excuse to get behind him. Literally.

Hm. Looks like Vergne is hitting around the same times as Ricciardo, Vettel a tad slower than Webber (though we don't know the setup he's running). Is it noted anywhere on the times whether they're running light or not or what compound tyres they're using?




I'm getting a bit excited over here. Even if I wasn't going round 1, I'd still be sporting a fair chub right about now for this season. Exciting stuff :D

The only way to guess fuel load is to look at the length of the stint. Tyre info isn't shown on the timing we can get, but if you keep an eye on Autosport live then they might tell you when the drivers change tyres.
 

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
I hope so. It may look ugly, but I like the tweets Mike Gascoyne and co give to the fans - insightful.

Plus it was my F1 2010 car, so naturally I am fond of them.

It was a combination of Gascoynes hiring and a change to the Caterham branding (Including buying/saving the company) that has given me a new respect for them, I've always wanted a Super 7 for track days. So I'm going to be cheering them on in their fight, at least for as long as their not challenging my first team of choice anyway :D
 

Orgun

Member
Bad news at Force India. The team have decided to call it quits after Jules Bianchi's early morning crash. That means no running for Nico Hulkenberg who will have to wait until Friday for his first taste of the 2012 machine.

Not the best first day to have eh Bianchi.
 

Jibbed

Member
FIA urged to drop the Bahrain GP.

Why does the FIA even bother with races in countries like Bahrain? There's basically a civil war going on, nobody attends the race anyway, and the track is boring as hell. Fuck the money and take F1 back to somewhere like Imola, or better yet, the States.
 

Adamm

Member
FIA urged to drop the Bahrain GP.

Why does the FIA even bother with races in countries like Bahrain? There's basically a civil war going on, nobody attends the race anyway, and the track is boring as hell. Fuck the money and take F1 back to somewhere like Imola, or better yet, the States.
There is 1 US GP this year & 2 next year, how many do you want?
But I agree with Imola or use the free spot to keep Spa!
 

mclem

Member
I'm an even bigger fan. Neither yourself or Lucius went to the effort of making sure you were born in the same country as him. Pretty weak, really!

Seriously though, as if we needed more of an excuse to get behind him. Literally.

Hey, if there's one thing Webber doesn't do, it's get people behind him. Literally.
 

S. L.

Member
New rear body and exhaust for Sauber today
F7kWh.jpg
 

mclaren777

Member
Would anybody be interested in doing a Skype group call today to talk about the 2012 cars/season?

i0ezTp9SNFST5.png



And I've also found a great angle to see the vent on the bottom of the RB8...

iz6B1V7eS2qY5.jpg
 

NHale

Member
Well can't say I'm surprised with all the reports from Jerez... but the "we're working very hard" sounds like an excuse from someone that is already seeing the dark future ahead...

Ferrari has admitted its new car is not delivering what it had been hoped for so far - but it has faith that it can get on top of its issues before the first race of the season.

After three days of extensive evaluation of its new F2012 at Jerez in Spain this week, Ferrari has confessed it is not yet in a position to feel totally comfortable with the progress it is making.

While main title rivals McLaren and Red Bull Racing have both openly declared their satisfaction with the early indications from their car, Ferrari is more circumspect about where it is at with its new challenger.

When asked by AUTOSPORT about whether Ferrari was where it wanted to be at this stage of testing, technical director Pat Fry said: "I am not happy with where we are at the moment.

"I think there is a lot of room for us to improve from where we are. Reliability wise it is good. Performance wise I think we are okay, but we can play around with the performance and improve [the car in] some corners and some particular parts of the corner, but I would not say I am happy yet until we get the whole thing working."

Fry suggested that the biggest issue Ferrari was facing was in trying to understand how to get its car into the perfect set-up, having opted for a radical design this season.

Asked for what his message would be to Ferrari fans, Fry said: "We are all working very hard..."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97453
 

S. L.

Member
some twitter news

tedkravitz Ted Kravitz
Ferrari's Pat Fry says there's a 'reasonable' correlation between track and wind tunnel but not perfect, isn't happy with car at moment.
tedkravitz Ted Kravitz
And Lewis Hamilton says his McLaren is missing high speed downforce, describes Red Bull and Lotus as 'quick' and 'impressive'.
tedkravitz Ted Kravitz
Perez says Sauber's new bodywork helped car balance today but still much to do to be competitive. J-E Vergne admits he's just learning car..
kamui_kobayashi KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Potato,potato,potato,potato,potato....... Please no more potato!!!!!
AlO28ZbCQAUnA1k.jpg
 

DrM

Redmond's Baby
Kobayashi, legend :D

Also, as rumors are circulating, JB is much more pleased with the car than LH
 

dalin80

Banned
Back end of the mclaren still looks quite basic and crude in places, rear brake ducts are incredibly simple compared to the red bulls so I don't think they have fitted all of the race parts just yet, maybe not until they are sure the exhaust system is working as intended. Even the rear of the body looks a bit bloated compared to how much was cut away last year to make room for the cut away in the U.

I believe that we simply wont see a representative mclaren until the first race the current car just has that 'template' feel.
 

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
I wonder how LH feels being a teammate in Buttons McLaren and whether he ever saw that coming ;)

I keed of course, but damn man, given how much people said he was entering the lions den, gonna be LH's lackey at MRL etc. JB's done a hell of a lot to turn that around.

Hell, the most impressive thing for me about JB isn't so much his performance on track, but how much work he's done over the years to lose the flaky playboy racer tag and actually go professional F1 driver, there certainly was a low point at the end on his Williams days where he was very much in danger of following the James Hunt/Jacques Villeneuve route into racing irrelevance and obscurity due to living it up and not driving well enough to support the lifestyle/career, hats off to the man, well damn played!
 

DrM

Redmond's Baby
Back end of the mclaren still looks quite basic and crude in places, rear brake ducts are incredibly simple compared to the red bulls so I don't think they have fitted all of the race parts just yet, maybe not until they are sure the exhaust system is working as intended. Even the rear of the body looks a bit bloated compared to how much was cut away last year to make room for the cut away in the U.

I believe that we simply wont see a representative mclaren until the first race the current car just has that 'template' feel.

They said that they already have upgrades for the first race on car launch. Their exhausts will change and so will some bodywork parts. This first test in Jerez is meant to be for drivers to get first impression of the car and team to get some real-life data, to compare them to those from simulator. Mclaren is doing on-track vs simulator testing (drivers in Jerez, Barcelona itd., reserve driver in Woking) and comparing data.

Not encouraging words for Ferrari from Pat Fry...lost in flow-viz
 

Septimius

Junior Member
So why do you guys think most teams have gone the retarded nose way, instead of doing like McLaren did? It's apparently still possible to have a continuous nose-to-body, but it seems every team has opted for the seemingly stranger solution.

First argument that comes to mind for me is that it would be a lot of redesign to shift around the stuff that would need to be lowered in order to get the McLaren-nose, but surely they'd do that if it had an aerodynamic advantage? So does the new nose-shape have an aerodynamic benefit? It seems like it would create some turbulence in the air between the bump and the driver, as opposed to the old, sleek design.

And have there been any further speculations to the Red Bull slots?

What an amazing picture!

iubi22xQGiahP.jpg

Seems like they try to slot the hot air a bit down near the rear, there?
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
I wonder how LH feels being a teammate in Buttons McLaren and whether he ever saw that coming ;)

I keed of course, but damn man, given how much people said he was entering the lions den, gonna be LH's lackey at MRL etc. JB's done a hell of a lot to turn that around.

Hell, the most impressive thing for me about JB isn't so much his performance on track, but how much work he's done over the years to lose the flaky playboy racer tag and actually go professional F1 driver, there certainly was a low point at the end on his Williams days where he was very much in danger of following the James Hunt/Jacques Villeneuve route into racing irrelevance and obscurity due to living it up and not driving well enough to support the lifestyle/career, hats off to the man, well damn played!
Indeed, Jenson's detractors are very quiet these days. He has proved himself to be a top tier driver alongside Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton. The equivalent of the four 'aliens' in MotoGP (Stoner, Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Rossi), as the fans and commentators refer to them as.

It pains me not to mention Schumacher, but on current form, he isn't among the upper echelon of F1.
 

dalin80

Banned
So why do you guys think most teams have gone the retarded nose way, instead of doing like McLaren did? It's apparently still possible to have a continuous nose-to-body, but it seems every team has opted for the seemingly stranger solution.


Last years winner had it so everyone else copied it. If you cant get it banned get it copied.

The reasoning is a little more complicated by I truly believe its as much follow the leader as it is independent team innovation (and all end up with the same full-retard nose).
 

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
I wonder how Hamilton and co would fare against the nineties Schumacher.

His ruthlessness back then was unparalleled, so it wouldn't be a pretty site.
 

K444WSR

Member
I was one of those that thought button would find it hard to compete with Hamilton but I'm more than happy to admit I was proven wrong. The guy was awesome for mclaren last year and had in my eyes, a better season than his title winning year. I just hope that the top teams all have fairly comparable cars for Australia so we can have an amazing season from the start.

To those that have been watching the testing, how is the Ferrari looking? I'm at work during the times it's on and haven't been able to see any yet.
 

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
Edmond Dantès;34988837 said:
I wonder how Hamilton and co would fare against the nineties Schumacher.

His ruthlessness back then was unparalleled, so it wouldn't be a pretty site.

I'll be honest, I don't think there's a single driver currently on the track who is as driven & ruthless as Schumacher was during those days, not even Schumy now, but if there was one who could be called close it would be Hamilton, it's just unfortunate that Hamiltons ruthlessness comes across as rashness due to his inexperience and inability to be quite as inch-precise as Schumacher was, you couldn't leave Schumy an inch in those days and not get punished for it.

Hamilton does show that same hunger and ability to pounce on the slightest opportunity, he just seems to lack the finesse and peripheral awareness to make it pay off, if he gets those (and he IS still young) then all bets are off and he'll truly join the greats.
 
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