The F1 Thread

[Nando]

He's been able to move his fingers today apparently, which is great news.

Boullier thinks it will be a matter of months rather than a year, but there's absolutely no need to rush him back.

 

[waggy on the wing]

Massive blow for him, i think he would have won this years F1, at least his hand has been saved. Will he ever race again

 

[The Bear]

They've released footage from the car that went after Kubica today. They come across him about 40s from the end. That rally stage looks damn narrow!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALbxMiwf4nw


edit - can't get this damn video code to work.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I was wondering how on earth the barrier had ended up sticking straight through the car from what looked like a head on impact in the first picture but after seeing that one i guess he must have got off line and drove straight onto the end of the barrier and then the cars spun around as its come to a halt. Must have been terrifying hurtling towards the end of the arcove barrier not knowing where it was going to go when it got into the car.

 

[Nando]

He's very lucky, it could have been considerably worse.

Hope to see him back as soon as possible, hopefully one day alongside Fernando at Ferrari.

 

[Law's Bus]

The Bahrain GP is officially off, as of about 10 minutes ago.

No word yet about whether that means "cancelled" or "postponed until later in the season", but it's the only sensible decision possible right now.

 

[Nando]

I'm unsure if we'll see it back on the calendar again. It's the correct decision though.

Dissapointed to see the last test at Barcelona again, I'd love to see an F1 car around Portimao. Cracking track.

 

[waggy on the wing]

well they re-arrange a grand prix to another circuit

 

[yabbadabbadoo]

Looks like Bahrain might be rescheduled to after the Abu Dhabi race and Brazil put back a week.

On a tangent, I also read that Ecclestone has some whacky idea to introduce water sprinklers to make a track wet at some point during a race to make it 'entertaining'. What fekkin planet is he on if he really thinks putting drivers at significant risk of serious injury is 'entertaining'? Sometimes that bloke is almost as big a prat as his perverted mate Mosley.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

he is trying to introduce overtaking, and wet conditions bring out the best drivers when a lot of machinery is fairly equal (although it is clearly more dangerous).

if he wants F1 to be more exciting he should fuck tilke off and pay someone decent to design all the circuits.

 

[Psychowolf]

So the new season is almost finnally upon us. Anyone else excited?. Will be trying my best to catch the practice sessions this weekend to see how the cars are looking.

Hoping for a good season for Mclaren although their car wasn't as good as as it looked during tested. Apparently they have scrapped their exhaust design for Australia too so could be even further behind if that doesn't work out for them.

Also glad to see Di Resta get a seat this year and hope he manages to put some points on the board

Can't take too much from the testing sessions but Red Bull and Ferrari are both looking solid for the season. The new tyres seem to be working as required and should help produce some exciting races with predictions of upto 4 pit stops per race. The rear wing however hasn't seemed to have done much from what i've read. Will find out at the weekend for sure though. Only 3 days to go.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Last season was awesome.

Any news on how Schumi has done in testing?

 

[Kenny]

Mercedes had a nightmare early on in testing and were miles behind the rest and had some serious issues. Haven't seen if they have addressed them yet.

 

[Psychowolf]

Pretty much as Kenny says. Although pretty sure i saw an article that suggested he still felt he could challenge for race wins as their recent upgrade package is supposed to bring some good improvements. Testing was pretty average for them though on a whole. Miles behind at the start but slowly got upto speed towards end of testing basically.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Don't underestimate his ego! He will be hating the fact that Vettel is the new poster boy in my old homeland. He will want one last tilt at glory, I am convinced of it, though as you say, Red Bull will probably be too strong.

 

[Psychowolf]

I hope his cars good enough for him to atleast be in the challenge, whether u love or hate him no one can deny hes a great driver that really pushes to the edge. Last year wasn't great for him and Rosberg pretty much took him to the cleaners, but as you say he should have that bit of fire in him as Vettel is the new poster boy and i can't see Schumi just accepting that. I'd rather one of the Mclarens win races, but a Schumi towards the front of the pack will only make exciting races, his move on Rubens last year shows just how brave you have to be just to overtake him when hes fighting for position.

 

[Nando]

Mercedes set the fastest time of anybody at Barcelona, they brought their final package to the final test, whilst Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren are bringing further updates for Australia.

Can't wait for the weekend, the Red Bull's look imperious again with the Ferrari's not too far behind, although there are rumours Red Bull have not run with less than 80kg of fuel in any test. Frightening if true.

McLaren have looked piss poor so far, but they've designed a whole new concept in comparison to the evolutions of last years cars by Red Bull and Ferrari. It will take them a while to understand and get every last tenth out of what they have. I expect them to be competitive, but not fighting for the win this weekend. Their biggest worry is reliability, they've not completed a full race simulation in any of the tests.

Toro Rosso look promising this season and I'm excited to see the young pairing at Sauber.

 

[Psychowolf]

Mclaren weren't even in the same ball park during testing . Their reliability really is a worry for me, last couple years they've had a pretty reliable car, so its going to be a tough season for them to deal with the issues. Least they've started by scrapping their exhaust design to a simpler one to help with the reliability.

Wouldn't be suprised bout Red Bull not running less than 80kg atleast in barca. They had similar times in both sessions and went from fastest in first test to middle of pack in second. Would seem they ran similar weights while most teams went pretty light in second test. So fully expect alot more speed to come from Red Bull, which is scary.

Also, the green stripe is gone from the tyres this season so should be much easier to see what tyres drivers are on. Pirelli will be colour coding their logos on the tyre as Silver - Hard, White - Medium (think they could prove hard to distinguish between though), Yellow - soft, Full wet - orange and intermediate - light blue

 

[Nando]

No problem with the silver/white as they won't be used at the same meetings.

 

[Psychowolf]

haha good point.

Any predictions for the season? obviously be easier to predict after seeing the cars in a race but im going to go with another title for Alonso this year. Ferrari looking good based on testing, Alonso is always there and very consistant driver. A good car from the start and reckon he'll be good bet for title given Red Bulls reliability issues in last few season and although he won it last, back to back titles aren't easy so im not sure about Vettel (even though he is a very good and talented young driver). Mclaren looking well off the pace for atleast the start of the season and will need to catch up and keep up quickly. Mercedes latest package has atleast seemed to bring them upto pace but can they keep up with the other 3, last year they seemed to always take 1 step forward and 2 back everytime they tried to keep up.