The F1 Thread

[manhattan project]

Easy win for Vettel. Not an exciting race, but I enjoyed watching Alonso

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I thought it had a lot to enjoy. Alonso was great. Sadly Vettel was up the road after a lap and that was it.

 

[Nando]

That's why the top two are the best in the business. Both superb.

Great stuff from Vergne and the grumpy Scot.

 

[Nando]

Oh shit, a marshal was killed in the recovery of Gutierrez's car. Awful news.

 

[FrankMunro-371]

Oh shit, a marshal was killed in the recovery of Gutierrez's car. Awful news.

Terrible news. I did not know anything about that at the time. I did not even realise there had been any problems during the recovery.

 

[Carrotdude]

It sounded horrible, ran over by the crane that was recovering the car as he tripped and fell under it and the guy driving couldn't see him. Really sad news.

 

[Stan Hullis]

Have to feel for the crane driver as well - horrible accident.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Vettel signs extension to stay at Red Bull until 2015. Bye bye Webber I guess.

 

[Nando]

He'll be off at the end of this season I reckon.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Webber's knocking on a bit now anyway. I can't see them promoting Vergne or Ricciardo - so who to poach? Button? Bottas?

 

[Nando]

Kimi, apparently.

Vergne has come on leaps and bounds this season and Ricciardo is performing better too.

 

[Nando]

No you go first, no, you go first....

Hamilton trying to outsmart Alonso into the DRS detection zone.

 

[broughtonwolf]

Murray Walker diagnosed with cancer. Apparently been caught early, so hopefully treatable.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Not F1, but just to point out it is Le Mans this weekend. Love this race. Very cool if knackering to try and follow.

 

[broughtonwolf]

The FIA hearing into the Pirelli / Mercedes testing is getting decidely tetchy.

There is an awful amount of corporate power at play here. Would Mercedes really pull out of F1 if they felt their name had been impugned?

Plus I believe Pirelli are fitted to all new Mercedes sold in the USA which is going to amount to a not insignificant sum.

 

[Kenny]

Mercedes have been banned from this year's young driver test and received a reprimand for taking part in a controversial Pirelli tyre test.

..

 

[Law's Bus]

Probably the right result. Its a classic example of two different rules saying different things, with Pirelli's FIA contract saying a third. If Mercedes were guilty, then theoretically, so were Ferrari. Which would have been pretty stupid.

 

[The Bear]

It's a bit of a stretch to say Ferrari were guilty. They didn't break any sporting regulations, Mercedes did.

 

[Law's Bus]

It's a bit of a stretch to say Ferrari were guilty. They didn't break any sporting regulations, Mercedes did.

Actually, they did - Article 22 of the regulations, talking about the in-season test ban reads (my bold):

Any track running time not part of an event undertaken by a competitor entered in the championship, using cars which conform substantially with the current Formula 1 technical regulations in addition to those from the previous or subsequent year.

There's no argument that 2011 cars conform substantially with the current technical regulations. If it doesn't cover 2011 cars, then it would be perfectly legit for a team to build a car that is, say, an inch too wide for the regulations, claim that it's not their 2013, 2012 or 2014 car and so go testing with it.

Mercedes certainly took the mickey and deserve their punishment, but for Ferrari to be banging on about it does them no favours.

The real big problem is that Pirelli don't have an up-to-date car to test with, and it's difficult to see how that can be sorted out without agreement between the teams.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Why don't they just have a generic "test car" anyway?