F1 2015

Spoolpigeon wrote: All top level drivers are selfish egomaniacs. You pretty much have to be to get to that level. Being the nice guy that everyone likes only worked for David Coulthard and Rubens Barichello And JB, but unlike DC and RB, Button got a championship. Good guys aren't always in 2nd place.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: And JB, but unlike DC and RB, Button got a championship. Good guys aren't always in 2nd place.

Yeah, but JB had RB as his teammate that year. :)

Fun fact: the Mercedes team has carbon fiber handles on the jacks for the cars. Seems excessive, right?

Not so much. Turns out that it costs 7000 UKP to ship 1 lb of weight from race to race over the course of the season. So shaving 1 lb off a jack handle will save over $10,000 US.

Cool,if I was on the team they could pay for a personal trainer,nutritionist and maybe some surgery for me to be all slim and sexy while saving them money.

Seems win win to me.

Yeah, they had an article in one of the magazines about how much time the teams spend just trying to reduce the weight of their pit equipment for shipping purposes. If I remember correctly Red Bull had 3 different sets of pit equipment in transit to different racetracks at any given time.

Yes, there are a number of duplicate sets of gear that get shipped by sea. But the essentials go by air to each race, and I'm assuming that's the stuff that costs the big bucks to ship.

The big computer stations in the garage are basically just a container - install a panel and away it goes. There are power bars bolted to some of the stations so that various things can be plugged in. Being a UK team, the power bar has big chunky UK plugs and runs 220v. They even bring their own conference tables with power (again, 220 UK plugs) and networks, just so they don't spend valuable time on infrastructure. There's a dedicated networking company that sets up high bandwidth networks for the entire paddock at each event so they can VPN back to the mother ship.

And man, you should see the front wings they're using. Unbelievably complex, each vane is basically a doctoral dissertation. There's a little tiny turning vane about 1 cm long on top of one of the layers to...well, to do something. My friend is a power plant guy, the car is just the thing that carries the power plant around the track. The leading edges of the wings are also sprayed with a lubricant so they don't gather debris - basically Pam.

Keith Tanner wrote: And man, you should see the front wings they're using. Unbelievably complex, each vane is basically a doctoral dissertation. There's a little tiny turning vane about 1 cm long on top of one of the layers to...well, to do something.

We got to take a close look at Will Stevens's Manor Marussia car, and I was also blown away by the aero I saw. There are little winglets everywhere on these cars. It's really amazing; they're like sculptures made of carbon fiber.

So next year looks to be interesting.

Red Bull (and it's Italian version) don't have an engine. Mercedes and Ferrari have both said no, and while Honda said they could, McLaren veto'd that. And we all know that Red Bull thought it was a good idea to burn the bridges to Renault. Cosworth?

Yes, things have changed quite a bit in the past few years. Can't forget about Haas' new F1 team finally competing in 2016. My unreliable sources indicate that Red Bull is not too far away from an engine deal. Bernie may be a jackass, but he can make things happen when it suits him.

In reply to ncjay: Toro Rosso appears to be getting a Ferrari http://www.racer.com/f1/item/123094-toro-rosso-engine-deal-within-weeks

alfadriver wrote: So next year looks to be interesting. Red Bull (and it's Italian version) don't have an engine. Mercedes and Ferrari have both said no, and while Honda said they could, McLaren veto'd that. And we all know that Red Bull thought it was a good idea to burn the bridges to Renault. Cosworth?

Not that bad, and there's no time for Cosworth to design and build an engine, although the 'Max and Bernie' show and the FIA are talking about a customer engine from someone like Cosworth in the future that has more capacity, more fuel and a simplified KERS system rather than the full hybrid of the current cars. It would cost less the 1/3 of the current engines to allow the smaller teams to compete on an equivilancy formula.

But for the current situation word is that Minardi will get 15 spec Ferrari engines and Stewart GP will get 15 spec Renault engines despite burning their bridges. The hook is that Bernie is using the fact that Renault want to buy back Toleman yet still get a seat at the big boys table along with the established teams, claiming they are an established team even thought they've been through the F1 door more times than a 2 bit hookers appartment door. Before giving into that claim Bernie wants them to give Stewart engines for next year before the Cosworth customer engine or Ferrari/Mercedes/Honda capitulate and let them have one.

for the newcomers my snide team naming comes from the owner ship over the years.

Toleman begat Benetton begat Renault begat Lotus Renault to give us most recently Lotus, now on the verge of stepping back in time to become either Lotus Renault or Lotus.

Minardi threw a spare Red Bull sign over the door to become first Scuderia Toro Rosso when they carreid over the Cosworth engines from the late stages of Minardi, the Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari, then Scudari Toro Rosso-Renault just two years ago, so they also are probably going full circle back to a prior incantation.

Wee Jackie Stewart and his failed race car drive son Paul (he crashed right in front of where I was sitting once) set up Stewart GP which they sold to Ford as Jaguar F1 who pulled the plug at the end of 04 when Red Bull came along. At least they are the only ones not going full circle as it looks like they've shot themselves in the foot only to be given an immediate reprieve by Bernie. I still think Christian Horner should be given the sack for how this has been handled.

Interesting week so far. Manor lost their sporting director, Graeme Lowder, and their team principal, John Booth. That can't be good. Haas F1 confirmed Estaban Gutierrez as their 2nd driver. Force India will be renamed Aston Martin Racing for 2016. And Nico is still determined to beat Lewis Hamilton. New race track in Mexico City. Hopefully someone can step up and beat the Mercs this weekend, but I doubt it. Maybe it'll rain. Not to forget, both Alonso and Button will be getting new power units and associated parts, so maybe they can factor into this.

One thing that will be interesting in Mexico is how the power units respond to the altitude. Turbos will be spinning faster and cooling everything (ERS systems and the IC unit) will be more difficult. The car will be slippery due to the low air density but will be lacking downforce. Our Merc buddy characterized it as Monaco wing angles with Monza downforce. Apparently Lewis thought there was something wrong with the simulator

So it could shake things up. If Williams is still setting the cars up to be fast on the straights at the expense of the corners, they're going to be rockets on ice.

Along with the history lesson from Adrian - anyone complaining about there being a dominant engine in F1 should look into the DFW era.

Keith, to me DFW says Dallas/Fort Worth … remind me of it's F1 association :)

In reply to wbjones:

I think he meant DFV. As in the Cosworth DFV that was one of just two engines in F1 for a short time. The other powering Ferrari. Maybe not two- but the motor was one of the most amazing units in history.

The DFW engine was a smaller version for down under.

First win w/Clark in 1967

Last win w/Alboreto in Detroit in 1983

Used by everyone but Hippophiles.

Pretty sure Keith's phone thinks this:

Is this:

Nah, Keith just used the wrong acronym. DFV, obviously.

Although there was a F1 race in DFW in the 80s. Won by some guy named Rosberg.

There was a DFW race. First and only F1 race I've ever been to as a spectator.

I just kills me when I see racing photos from the 60's. There would heart attacks all over if there was a photographer standing there unprotected trackside now a days.

anyone have a listing for qualifying ? TV schedule for CNBC shows it being on now … but it's actually "paid programing" …

In reply to wbjones:

NBC Sports website lists 3PM on CNBC. I'm thinking some ijit failed to comprehend the time zone factor and posted it as local time.

yeah …. they listed it at 3p with a duration of 30 min … turns out that it lasted the full time a regular qualifying session should have been … wonder if it was "tape delayed" since this showed it as coming on at 2p … NBC et al don't seem to get this stuff all that well

http://www.locatetv.com/listings/versus

announcers say that the show starts tomorrow at 1:30p on NBC

In reply to wbjones:

Same issue here. FiOS had it listed as 2-3:30 Eastern then oddly when the DVR stopped recording at 3:30pm the on screen schedule changed from some infomercial to the correct Qualifying time of 3-4:30. Luckily I was home by 4:15 so when I realized it wasn't recording I hit the record button and it saved a replay that included int the replay the show back to 3:30.

The race looks the same tomorrow, claims yo be staring at 11am so I deleted that autorecord setting and manually set the DVR to record any program shown on the schedule from 1:30 -5pm.

Comcast has the race listed as 1:30 - 4:00 EST on NBC which agrees with the TVRacer website

Rosberg's on the pole - again. Let's see who has the lead at the end of the first lap.