UN-Official Formula 1 Thread

[ragged]

LOL, I remember that. Yes I definitely am a fan. I just found out that I have to be out of town race weekend and pissed that I can't find a hotel that carries Speed Well at least there's the dvr. I just have to have patience and not check the results online!

[annunaki]

I have kicked myself for setting an f1 page as my home page on a Sunday morning when I have not yet watched qualy or the race. Thankfully it has only happened once or twice.

I cannot wait for Friday practice & the race weekend!

It sounds like many of those in the paddock are worried about the "Brawn Squad".

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=45262

[ragged]

Oh yeah, everyone is worried and now they have added Brawn to Williams and Toyota Teams, who Renault and Ferrari are complaining the rear diffuser is illegal.

[ragged]

Webber already covering his arse, blaming the car for when Vettel outshines him.

After a promising birth for the RB5, the 2009 Red Bull is reportedly now facing a midfield finish at next weekend's Australian Grand Prix.

At its early tests, the Adrian Newey-penned car looked set to join Ferrari, BMW, Toyota and Renault at the closely-fought front of this season's grid.

But as the reliability of the Renault-powered car improved, the development of its sheer pace was not as good, culminating in a mediocre showing at its last pre-Melbourne outing in Barcelona last week.

Among the most concerned is Australian driver Mark Webber, who has not looked a match this winter for his young team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

After Barcelona, Webber told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport: "The car did not feel bad, and that is the most alarming thing.
”

"The others have developed (their cars) better than we have," the 32-year-old added, claiming that the basic setup of the car suits Vettel's driving style better than his own.

[annunaki]

Great news coming from the FIA conference in terms of opening up regulations for 2010 & beyond. They will be trying to enforce a "budget cap" for all teams at around 30 million Euros but free up floor/underside development, ridding the engine freeze & more. This seems like a good idea. Tracking the budgets will be tough though.

FIA Freedom?

[ragged]

Budget caps in F1 are a pipe dream. There are ways around everything, especially if you have money to spend. Are they going to remove total technical regulation on the capped teams? A 30 mill spend it however you want. I don't see how 30 mill is enough to run a competitive team, salary and overhead alone. I mean didn't Force India spend over 100 mill last season?

Seriously, I'm only interested if they remove all technical regulations for a capped team. Who know, maybe the 6 wheeled tyrrell will make a comeback

[majorloser]

The drivers championship will now be decided by the most wins, not points

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=45278

So with that said, you could win a whole bunch of races early on and sit out the rest of the season. There is no penalty for not starting or finishing a race with this system.

[sploo]

The drivers championship will now be decided by the most wins, not points

Utter madness. I was reading about this earlier today. Someone on the BBC pointed out that a guy could battle his way to 2nd, with a rival in 8th, and it would mean absolutely nothing.

Also, it was pointed out that there's going to be far more sly switching of positions within teams. If your team mate (with more championship wins) is running second to you, and would've previously got healthy points for that place (and would therefore have stayed there), the team are now obviously going to want you to let him through, to increase his number of wins still further - basically because that second place isn't really worth much.

Really, simply, one of the dumbest ideas the FIA has come up with in years. I hope I'm wrong, and it makes for great racing, but I doubt it.

[ragged]

I can get what Bernie is going for, I'm tired of seeing drivers settle for 2nd place to "protect" points. Maybe this will encourage drivers to go for the win, since points mean nothing. On the flip side, I don't think a true champion is built on wins alone, it's those gritty drives from 13th to 3rd, or in Schumi's case, to 1st , that really matter to me. Well, points still mean something as it's a tie-break, so even if you don't win, you still want as many points as possible.

Best solution was to increase the points gap between 1st and 2nd by about 6 points, that would have the same effect I think.

[majorloser]

I agree with increasing the points for a win! Make it really mean something. But getting decent points all year for a reliable car and driver should also mean something. The guy who can consistantly come in second every race would get beat by the guy who only made the podium one time with a win.