F1 2015

alfadriver wrote: In reply to wbjones: Actually, I would prefer iron brakes. Ones that get LESS effective with heat. Double the stopping zones, and put a degree of variability back into it. And less downforce, of course.

yeah … lower the aero, and increase the mechanical grip, old school brakes … they seem to be "trying" to bring the driver back into the mix … but not really trying all that hard LOL

F1 is also supposed to the the cutting edge in technology … so it's a constant "fight" …back and forth .. about driver aids, and it being up to the driver

to me, and I've already said this … the only thing about the Schumacher era that was interesting was watching him do whatever the engineer told him to do as far as the pace went was interesting …

there could easily been more coverage back in the pack, as there is now … and should have been … but I'm also laughing at Merc, and their whining about not getting enough TV coverage

wbjones wrote: to me, and I've already said this … the only thing about the Schumacher era that was interesting was watching him do whatever the engineer told him to do as far as the pace went was interesting … there could easily been more coverage back in the pack, as there is now … and should have been … but I'm also laughing at Merc, and their whining about not getting enough TV coverage

Well, it's kind of their job to be on TV as much as possible. I mean, if they don't get enough airtime for their sponsors, people might stop buying Blackberries and switch to other smartphones.

true .. but to get on TV they have to provide TV with a reason to want to show them … and TV's responsibility ISN'T to make MB happy … it's to make they're own sponsors happy and to do that they have to have viewership ..if the product … Hamilton cruising along doesn't make the viewership happy, then TV has to do what will

Anyone planning on going to the F1GP in Austin, TX in October?

Winston wrote: Anyone planning on going to the F1GP in Austin, TX in October?

The problem is they've changed the date. When it was around the weekend of Veterans day it was easy to make a long weekend of it. Now it in Oct and it's not as easy to go, plus my youngest is not in high school so I can't pull her out for a long weekend so easily.

I'll be working the event again this year. Don't know what corner but I'll be there trackside in one of those stylish blue suits.

bmw88rider wrote: I'll be working the event again this year. Don't know what corner but I'll be there trackside in one of those stylish blue suits.

Wow - super jealous. I'm dying for a carbon F1 bit for my collection if you get to clean up anything crashed. No idea if they let you guys leave with that stuff or not.

Walked out with a front fender from a 458 last year from a GT LeMans car. Really once the Carbon fiber is hit, it's toast and not usually replaceable. It really depends on the series.

Funny thing is like Indy Car is super strict about returning everything to the teams though. Had to clean up Hunter-reay's car when he backed it into a wall at Texas Motor Speedway and filled up the bed of the truck. We spent a good 10 minutes unloading everything from our truck as we returned it to the team.

I typically do intervention so I'm always out there cleaning things up on the track. I keep the cleanest corner at Cota

I always wondered about how that worked...

Yeah....So if Jack Baldwin is ever looking for the trunk lid he left in the middle of my corner's racing line at the the Spring PWC COTA event....Well, I never saw it after I loaded it on the cart. rumor has it the spoiler may be now on the back of a Corvette. haha.

Anyways, enough of the derails.

Winston wrote: Anyone planning on going to the F1GP in Austin, TX in October?

I'll be there. If all goes according to plan, we'll be hanging with race engineers from Lotus and Mercedes.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Nonono you can't just throw out a comment like that with no explanation. What's the story?

So does Manor get the Mercedes engine from Lotus (or what ever it is going to be called)?

trigun7469 wrote: So does Manor get the Mercedes engine from Lotus (or what ever it is going to be called)?

I hear they get the 2015 spec engine just like they got the 2014 spec Ferrari lump this year. But the 2015 Merc engine will probably be a tick or two behind the 2016 Ferrari lump and still ahead of the Renault and Honda 2016 engines. If Rossi and Stevens could get a real shot at points next year.

In other news Mad Maxlet Ver-mini-stappen passed his driving test on his 18th birthday. Good job there!

Also Button is officially confirmed to drive next year. Let's hope Honda get their act together. From what I've read in Motorsport Magazine. The basic engine is actually making more power than the Renault engine, but they keep overheating the HERS so can't make the electric power over the course of a lap. Renault have been improving, Red Cow hired Mario Illien co-Founder of Ilmor and designer of the Merc F1 engines for a long time. He's been doing single cylinder models which are showing more promise than the Renault single cyl models, but Renault have a bad case of French pride and want a home grown resolution. This is a large reason for the public pissing match, not that I condone Helmut Marko or Christian Horner’s actions, they both deserve to be out of a job.

One other thing, with the Honda issue being energy recovery and the Renault being combustion chamber shape (they need early ignition which hurts power and fuel econ), despite the public bitching, the token system isn’t' preventing them fixing this. Chamber changes are only 3 tokens and its similarly easy to make changes to the heat energy recovery. It's a lack of commitment and pride that is hurting both companies. or so says Motorsport Magazine.

Keith Tanner wrote:

Winston wrote: Anyone planning on going to the F1GP in Austin, TX in October?

I'll be there. If all goes according to plan, we'll be hanging with race engineers from Lotus and Mercedes.

Cool! Maybe we'll get a chance to meet up. I'll be a mechanic's helper for Classic Team Lotus (runnning in the Masters series support race).

There are support races other than Spec Porsche and Spec Ferrari this year? Yay! That was my biggest complaint last year.

I've got a friend who works at Mercedes high performance engines - aka, the F1 horsepower factory. He won't be at the race, but last year he set us up with a Sunday morning tour of the pits by Lewis' power train engineer. Cue lots of geeking out over some very sexy technology, including a chance to check out the spare engines for each car - which were the ones in the cars for the last few races. I met the world championship winning engine . Anyhow, our tour guide will be back at Austin this year and we promised him dinner. His SO works for Lotus.

Yeah, they are doing the F1 historical races and Porsche Supercup races. They have the schedule posted: http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com/f1/schedule

Keith Tanner wrote: There are support races other than Spec Porsche and Spec Ferrari this year? Yay! That was my biggest complaint last year. I've got a friend who works at Mercedes high performance engines - aka, the F1 horsepower factory. He won't be at the race, but last year he set us up with a Sunday morning tour of the pits by Lewis' power train engineer. Cue lots of geeking out over some very sexy technology, including a chance to check out the spare engines for each car - which were the ones in the cars for the last few races. I met the world championship winning engine . Anyhow, our tour guide will be back at Austin this year and we promised him dinner. His SO works for Lotus.

Wow, that's really cool. Hopefully you get the VIP treatment again.

bmw88rider wrote: I'll be working the event again this year. Don't know what corner but I'll be there trackside in one of those stylish blue suits.

Sounds like a fun job! Certainly can't beat the view

In reply to wbjones:

Just a couple of races ago Hamilton got the call to run maximum pace for the rest of the race.

He made his gap to second place significantly bigger. But still not much in car or other coverage of his effort.

I guess I don't see your comparison of Schu speeding off for a few laps then cruising to a finish versus Hamilton speeding off for a few laps then cruising to a finish. DRS doesn't change what would happen in either case? I remember the radio chatter about turning down Schu's Ferrari engine by half point of the race.

I've thought about this for Indy and Formula 1 as a way to spice up the show. The polesitter gets the option to start dead last and if he can still win, gets either a big cash bonus or a bunch of extra points. For a driver in Vettel's current position it would be a way to make up some points on Hamilton and how much fun would it be to see the fastest car slice through the field?

Advan046 wrote: In reply to wbjones: Just a couple of races ago Hamilton got the call to run maximum pace for the rest of the race. He made his gap to second place significantly bigger. But still not much in car or other coverage of his effort. I guess I don't see your comparison of Schu speeding off for a few laps then cruising to a finish versus Hamilton speeding off for a few laps then cruising to a finish. DRS doesn't change what would happen in either case? I remember the radio chatter about turning down Schu's Ferrari engine by half point of the race.

because his engineers were afraid he was going to be penalized

In reply to ncjay:

Loads of fun, actually. We do that in the SLM invitationals here- two top qualifiers can go to the back for a $1000 bonus if they win. Its actually a reasonable deal, because we start 20-24 cars on a 1/3 mile, invert on the roll of a dice from 7 to 12 cars, and run 150 lap features. The rear 10 or so cars are usually fairly easy to get past, then you have 125 laps left to pass the rest.

So now that Manor are getting Mercedes engines for 2016, Mercedes are looking to place Pascal Wehrlein the current DTM leader in one of the cars for next year, like they did a few years ago with Paul di Resta. Did you count Jim as a factory or a pay driver?

http://planetf1.com/news/pirelli-admits-they-could-also-quit-f1/ This is stupid on a whole new level. I can't run or manage my race team properly, Red Bull can't win races anymore, so I'm taking my ball and going home. Talk about spoiled brats. McLaren hasn't done squat in a few years, but I don't see them threatening to quit. Maybe Mateschitz should get a clue on how to act like an adult from those guys. It's also interesting to see the Michelin supporters making their moves.