A thread to comment, question, discuss, root for your favorite teams and/or drivers and all else having to do with The 2009 Formula One Championship. Live race comments included.
Some useful links for those following along.
General Info:
**The Official Formula One Website **
Teams, drivers, specs, principals:
This Season:
Opening GP
Ladies and Gents, start your posts!
The one thing I love about Formula 1 is that I can check out for 2 years or 10 and just know that when I come back it’ll be McLaren, Ferrari, Williams, and a bunch of “who?”
I suppose Sauber has been around for a while now, and Renault is more or less still Bennetton.
The best part is that all the new teams come in with these high hopes and are usually gone in a couple of years. I’ve been around long enough to watch Simtek, Pacific, Forti, Stewart, Jordan, Dallara, Fondmetal, Andrea Moda, BAR, Coloni, EuroBrun, First, Jaguar, Lambo Modena, Leyton House, Super Aguri, Onyx and probably a dozen other teams whose names I’ve forgotten come and go within a 5-year span.
Then there’s Tyrell, Arrows/Footwork, Brabham and all those other teams who were around for a while but folded.
It’s the same way with the drivers, too. Rubens Barrichello is a sort of second coming of Gerhard Berger- a man genetically engineered to play second banana for ever and ever.
Whoa there Big Fellow!
You’re correct in saying that Bennetton is now outright Renault – but in both incarnations they belong at the top. Remember, Shummi won twice with Bennetton, and behind Ferrari, I’d would argue with good reason, that Renault is the second best team of the current decade – and looks to be in the running this season as well with Alonso if not Piquet. So they certainly deserve mention with the other staples of F-1.
I missed a lot of races last season, I’ll be back into it this year. I usually devour all the technical stuff; it’s my favourite aspect of F1. TV coverage has been dodgy here since Villeneuve left, have to rely a lot more on finding other ways to catch the races.
Yeah… I didn’t include them with the others just because they changed names.
Welcome aboard, HongKongFooey, hope you stick around as it’s always great to have someone who can digest all the technical minutia in F-1 and dumb it down for the mechanically-impaired such as myself. I admit to getting glassy-eyed when trying to scrutinize some of new tech scrolls that FIA puts out on a regular basis at the start of almost every new season – never mind the tome that accompanies all the changes in affect for this season.
In fact, if you’re up to it, there’s homework to be done already and the season’s yet to start. There’s a big controversy brewing ahead of the Melbourne GP as we speak – so much so that the press has already given it a name: F1 diffuser row threatens to overshadow Australian Grand Prix – my bolding.
Now, I can understand the basic physics behind the function of the diffusers, namely, channeling away air from the rear of the car and the resulting influence on both downforce and straightaway speed. Hell I can even understand how the size and shape of same can have all sorts of different effects on same. But is rather beyond what it is, exactly, that the Brawn (main culprit so to speak), Toyota and Williams have done with theirs that is so radically different as to have Red Bull, Ferrari, Renault, McLaren and the rest of grid – if not as vocally – already threatening, depending on race results if it’s allowed, to appeal to the stewards first and if not successful then go straight to FIA’s court for a ruling.
So if you could shed some light into Diffuser Row, I know I’d be grateful. And most likely wouldn’t be the only one.
Here’s an up to date Google news account on the matter: Diffuser Row.
Thanks in advance.
PS-Obviously this is hardly an assignment, but if anyone else wants to help clear up matters, that’d be great as well.
Bit Torrent is the way to go. Commercial-free, superior coverage downloaded and watched at your leisure.
Update on Diffuser Row:
‘Diffuser three’ may have to run under appeal
:dubious:
In other news it looks like McLaren still have a lot of work to do:
The MP4-24 on arrival in Melbourne.
I’ll be watching every race as always. I don’t really understand a lot of the technical stuff other than what makes a car go faster. One of the things confusing me this year is the new ‘KERS’ system.
Basically it’s an 6.7 second, 80bhp afterburner that can give a 0.3 second a lap bonus and aid in overtaking. The extra weight of KERS isn’t a huge problem because it’s only around half of the weight currently used as ballast. Right? It sounds like something which could play a huge role in the cars as the technology improves. Will it put a further strain on the engines, which now have to last 3 races?
I’m looking forward to the new season. I’m sure we’ll all be up to speed after the first couple of races…
“Afterburner” is a bit oversimplified. It’s a regenerative braking system- energy from the brakes is transferred to a flywheel or battery, which is coupled to the engine for extra oomph when the driver wants it.
Right now everyone is plumping for the battery because it’s proven technology (the Prius has one, for example). The flywheel is the way to go, though- much, much lighter (somewhat counterintuitively)
I’ve never owned a car. When it comes to the mechanics of F1 cars, ‘oversimplified’ is just about how I like it, heh.
That’s pretty much my plan right now. I’m traveling several hours a day for a while and could use some good podcasts. Can anyone recommend some good ones?
I’ve been listening to Sidepodcast for a few weeks now. It’s got good production value and is put out by serious F1 fans. They get into all aspects of the sport. The season preview shows have been helpful for me, as a new fan, to get into it more. You can get it on iTunes or at sidepodcast.com. They also put out a video podcast occasionally. eg
I’m totally pissed that there won’t be a race in Canada this year: the reasons are still elusive to me, but holy shit the Montreal race has been a staple for my entire adult life really. I have attended 6? 8? races there over the years.
Take this with a pinch of salt as anything else Bernie says, but it appears we might have three additional teams for next season and one of them will be US funded/based. If true, I’m pretty sure the North American leg of the season will be put back in place. FWIW, I actually loved the Canadian GP as well – always a lot a drama and tight racing there. Hell the Wall Of Champions itself is worth the price of admission; what a thrill ride to watch cars barely scrape by it…when they don’t eat it that is. OTOH, I also hope the US will offer something less boring than an oval track.
Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone says circuit will have 26 teams in 2010
Good to see we’re getting more and more speed addic…er, racing fans coming out of the woodworks.
Here’s hoping for yet another scorcher of a season.
Last year’s finish and the backing down over the new points system (even though this may be temporary) has actually inspired me to try to watch F1 again this season. I’m currently debating with myself whether or not to get up at 6am on Sunday to catch the opener - I have to be up at around 8.30m anyway so I wouldn’t be having a long lie-in anyway, but I may be going out the night before so it looks unlikely!
Can anyone convince me why I shouldn’t miss this race?
It appears that the teams with diffusers are being allowed to race.
There will be an appeal (Red Bull, for one, has said they will) but the teams won’t have to modify their diffusers to race.
Here’s a nice little summary of the diffuser controversy - until I looked it up, I had no idea what the specific complaint was about the Williams, Toyota, and Brawn diffusers. I thought perhaps it had something to do with turbulence behind the cars, making overtaking more difficult. As it turns out:
(The editorial italics are mine.)
I also thought it interesting that BMW is running one car with KERS and one without. Heidfeld is running it, Kubica isn’t - I think it will be interesting to see what sort of difference there is in their races on Sunday. The article says Kubica is bigger, so does not have the extra weight of the KERS gear in his car.
I haven’t gotten much into the history of each driver though. Has either of them been noted as a particularly aggressive driver in the past? Do you think having KERS onboard will get Heidfeld to drive more aggressively than usual? Will he post faster lap times than Kubica because of it (and/or would he do so without it)?
Finally, I noted that both of McLaren’s cars will have KERS. From what I’ve gathered they’ll need every extra horse they can wedge into their MP4-24. Anybody with more experience watching F1 suspect McLaren of holding back on purpose during early testing? I’ve been reading a lot of opinions saying they’ve been sandbagging throughout testing and should show strong this weekend.
Lots of questions indeed. Don’t have much time at the moment, but will throw in my $0.02.
Think of Kubica as you would Alonso. Besides being good friends they are quite similar in style – though being a two-time WDC you’d have to give Nando the edge for now. They are both aggressive when need be, but unlike Lewis for instance, they are also very good at defending position (see Kubica holding off Kimmi’s faster Ferrari at Japan last year for illustration) and very consistent. Both also extract the most from their equipment.
KERS: We won’t actually know the difference until seeing it in action for a couple of races (duh, I know, but still). However with or without, it remains true that heavier drivers have less ballast to play around with; so their set-ups are not always as optimal as they could be for a given track.
McLaren: I don’t swallow the sand-bagging bit. The fact that during winter testing they used luminescent paint in their cars to actually see the effects of their aerodynamics, says to me that there are real problems to contend with. However, that’s not to say they can’t or won’t catch up with the head/s of the pack. Obviously it’s crucial they do so ASAP or they’ll be out of contention by mid season.
Also of interest is to see what Lewis can do running in the middle of the pack – something he’s never had to do in his two years in F-1. Already mistake-prone (though no doubting his speed) we’ll see what happens when surrounded by “monkeys” as he brashly called the back markers in an interview.
Race predictions, anyone?
For now, I’ll just say that if the Brawns hold up I expect one or both on podium.
This diffuser row… Is there anyone who doesn’t think they’re clearly ignoring the spirit of the law? I think they should be slapped down, hard.
This might be a disappointing season for Lewis fans. His performance in practice has been terrible and he’s started to complain that he’s seated too low. Whilst I do consider myself a fan of his; I’ve been following F1 for over 10 years and I’m just hoping for exciting races (with no adverts this year!).
