In reply to trigun7469 :
So you don't remember all of the drama around who got Force India? Ok.
Given the connections, I would wager there was a good chance F1 and the owners helped find Darlton for Williams.
And the disdain for Mike will find it's way to interfere with Alpine.
I would like to point out an important distinction.
The FIA is one group that controls F1. They ARE usually involved in team changes, buying / selling name changing.
Then, there is the F1 "owners group". This is the group that sticks its nose in everyone's business. This group is traditionally known as F1. It's the owners and (currently) liberty media.
The FIA approved Andretti to become an 11th team. The owners group did not.
Also, the force India thing was a court case not involving f1. The team was in "business administration". The administrators decided who got the team.
However, the FIA and F1 (owners group) did need to approve the new team name (since only the assets were sold, not the actual "charter").
They approved it immediately, but withdrew any points from force India from the 2018 season.
I don't believe that the F1 owners group would have any say in who buys a team that is in good standing and not involved in a legal battle.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
I'll continue to think that F1 had some say in who can buy teams. Given they have rules to add teams, they clearly ignored them for AA anyway.
alfadriver said:In reply to wvumtnbkr :
I'll continue to think that F1 had some say in who can buy teams. Given they have rules to add teams, they clearly ignored them for AA anyway.
The FIA approved AA. F1 (the teams and liberty media) did not.
There are no specific rules for the teams and liberty media to make any ruling one way or another. They get to vote without guideline as to whether it is in their interest or not.
At the end of the day, if you wanted to buy an F1 team that was in good standing, you can. F1 (teams and liberty media) be damned.
In fact, that's why toto Wolfe and other vocal persons from the paddock keep saying that Andretti should just buy an existing team.
wvumtnbkr said:The FIA approved AA. F1 (the teams and liberty media) did not.
Exactly my point.
Some more pre-F1 brake info from Brembo. (And should I keep sharing this info or not? I get the e-mails so hoping/figuring they interest you all.)
THE FORMULA 1 SEASON MOVES INTO ITS FIFTH EVENT, WHILE STAYING IN ASIA.
By popular demand from the local audience, Formula 1 returns to China after its absence since 2019. It once again takes place on the circuit designed by architects Hermann Tilke and Peter Wahl, whose layout reflects the Chinese character "shang," meaning "upwards." The circuit was constructed on a marshy area in the Jiading district of Shanghai in just 18 months from the start of construction, with an investment of 450 million dollars.
The GP data
According to Brembo technicians, the Shanghai International Circuit, measuring 5,451 meters in length, falls into the category of circuits that are moderately demanding on brakes. On a scale from 1 to 5, it earned a difficulty index of 3, despite the braking at turn 14, at the end of one of the longest straights in the entire Formula 1 World Championship, approximately 1.2 km long. Drivers apply the brakes for 16.6 seconds per lap, which is equivalent to 18% of the GP.
The toughest turn
The most challenging turn at the Shanghai International Circuit in terms of braking is turn 14, where the cars decelerate from 318 km/h to 72 km/h in 2.66 seconds, covering a distance of 113 meters. The drivers also face considerable effort: they experience a maximum deceleration of 4.7 g and exert a pedal load of 174 kg on the brake. The braking power amounts to 2,450 kW.
Chinese presence in F1
Guanyu Zhou is the only Chinese driver to have competed in a Formula 1 Grand Prix. The 24-year-old from Shanghai has started in 48 GPs, with two fastest laps, in 2022 in Japan and in 2023 in Bahrain. His best qualifying result is 5th place at the 2023 Hungarian GP, while his best race finish is 8th place at the 2022 Canadian GP. However, the first Chinese to participate in a race weekend was Ma Qing Hua, at the 2012 Italian GP when he took part in free practice with HRT. In the 2014 Abu Dhabi GP, Fong Adderly participated in free practice with Sauber.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Please continue! It's great stuff.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Love that kind of stuff!
So this bitumen coating thing....why was it a surprise to the teams upon arriving at the track? The FIA had to have known because the circuit (I imagine) would have had so undergone a re-evaluation that it could safely hold a formula 1 event.
So why did the fia not communicate this change to the teams? Maybe it's not mandatory to communicate that, but I would think it should be
Articles i've seen indicate the FIA didn't know about the coating. They were under the impression that parts of the track were resurfaced. Looks almost like the stuff they use to seal asphalt parking lots.
EDIT: Article from The Drive -https://www.thedrive.com/news/f1-drivers-surprised-by-china-track-thats-been-repainted-not-resurfaced
Another EDIT: This article says the FIA knew about the coating, and it is a type of sealant. https://speedcafe.com/fia-explains-chinese-gp-track-paint/
So, perhaps there was a communications breakdown between the FIA and the teams? At this point who knows..
Weird set of practices and qualifying with the grass catching fire a couple of times.
Sprint qualifying was fantastic with Q1 and Q2 being dry followed by a storm coming down for Q1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwclYvIarH0
In reply to wae :
Sounds good. As I get them, I’ll share them.
Thanks for the feedback.
That qualifying was exciting, the mention of Rotax kart on slicks by the commentators was awesome.
During my karting years, our local track was "repaved" with similar stuff used in China and it had decent grip unless it got rained on, then it went to near zero. I won a race by putting two wheels over the track limits lines (where the coating was not applied) before I hit the brakes and it worked a treat. After a summer of being worked in, the coating was acceptable on the racing line even if it rained but go off line and there was still nothing. I was yelling at the TV screen advising my F1 driver how to drive on that surface, not sure if he listened to me
So, toxic waste as paint for dead grass, planted in a thick layer of coal dust and plastic particles?
I presume there's a few flammable particles coming off a race car, but this seems very odd.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
You have to admit how funny it was to see a grass fire on a wet weekend.
I'm a big fan of rainy race weekends. Not super wet, just like today.
Kind of a blown opportunity for Lando in the Sprint. I don't think he would have held off Max, but he might not have fallen back quite so far.
E36 M3 that Red Bull is fast. Heck of a sprint race. Hamilton drove the wheels off the Mercedes to hold on to second, if Perez could have cleared Alonso and the Ferraris sooner it would have been another Red Bull 1-2
Fernando kinda deserved the flat tire, but that was quite a lap from the 3rd to 7th group.
I thought for a minute or two I wouldn't have to put a sticky note over P1 on the leader board to make the race fun.
Bummer to see Hamilton have a great sprint result, and then get ousted in Q1 for the main race.
While it's great that Fernando fought and made it entertaining, situational awareness should have yelled at him to give up the spot to retain a position.
Wow, Max pulled 13 seconds in roughly that many laps over the field in the Sprint race.....
Max should be required to use whatever engine mode he had at the beginning from now on. Made the race a lot more exciting until he figured it out. Then two DRS drive-bys and he's gone.
The Ferrari/Perez/Alonso battle made for some real excitement. That was fun.
Interesting thus far.........I've also learned something new........I don't like Rosberg as a commentator.
Tom1200 said:Interesting thus far.........I've also learned something new........I don't like Rosberg as a commentator.
He is a whiney drama queen. I refuse to listen to him. He is more irritating than Danica.
You'll need to log in to post.
