williamjm Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 The Caterham. Kill it! Kill it with fire! I'm assuming that in the grand tradition of Robot Wars the front is actually a flipper which rises up that they'll use to up-end the car in front (assuming they can get close enough). The first day of testing didn't really tell us much apart from that half the cars aren't really ready yet. It's saying something when Lewis Hamilton seemed to have one of the best testing experiences despite his car's front wing apparently falling off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Hamilton seems to have gotten his head down and worked really hard on how the new cars work (Button as well, and I suspect Vettel will have been putting in homework). The fact that Kimi seemed to have a total balls-up session suggests he's done his normal, turn-up-and-ask-where-the-ignition-button-is routine :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 A better look at the Caterham. Still looks horrible though. After Hamilton's long running yesterday, Rosberg did the best stint today. Mercedes can probably feel very happy with themselves. Meanwhile, Vettel's turbo system failed and Perez's car apparently came close to bursting into flames on the track. Overheating is a huge problem for all the teams. Testing and the season can be very different, but it certainly looks like the teams in the mix this year will be Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. The big question mark is over whether McLaren can get themselves back into contention. Also, Boullier is now in at McLaren as Racing Director, but not Team Principal. It appears that McLaren has, like Mercedes, ditched the Team Principal role and will share responsibility between several people. McLaren has created a Chief Executive Officer role above the Racing Director but below Ron Dennis as chairman, which is currently vacant. Scuttlebutt is that Dennis wants Ross Brawn for the CEO role, but Brawn has said that he wants to take this season off and won't be discussing his future until the summer, when the season is halfway over. One possibility is that Boullier will work as effective Team Principal until Brawn can be inserted into the CEO role. It's been speculated that Brawn would only stay in F1 for a couple more years anyway before retiring, so that would position Boullier to take over from him with a couple more seasons under his belt. Lotus, meanwhile, were apparently sounding out Whitmarsh as Team Principal there, but team owner Gerard Lopez has taken over the role, possibly due to a lack of money to pay someone to fill the role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvo Attano Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Merc and Ferrari are both looking on top of things, which may have something to do with the fact that they're the only teams who build their own engines.Toro Rosso have cast doubts over the E22 nose, but Nick Chester (Lotus' replacement for James Allison) its definietly legal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvo Attano Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Also, Boullier is now in at McLaren as Racing Director, but not Team Principal. It appears that McLaren has, like Mercedes, ditched the Team Principal role and will share responsibility between several people. McLaren has created a Chief Executive Officer role above the Racing Director but below Ron Dennis as chairman, which is currently vacant. Scuttlebutt is that Dennis wants Ross Brawn for the CEO role, but Brawn has said that he wants to take this season off and won't be discussing his future until the summer, when the season is halfway over. One possibility is that Boullier will work as effective Team Principal until Brawn can be inserted into the CEO role. It's been speculated that Brawn would only stay in F1 for a couple more years anyway before retiring, so that would position Boullier to take over from him with a couple more seasons under his belt. It seems like McLaren are following Mercedes' lead with the three-pronged management system. Now all they need is a retired driver to take an executive position. Alain Prost anybody? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 The Marussia is reasonably nice-looking, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 so ecclestone is just trolling fans now, right? double points for the last 3 races. Why don't they just pay Vettel a small fortune to drive for Caterham if they want an exciting season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 After every 4th race, driver's swap teams; top 3 in the rankings automatically swap straight with the bottom 3; everyone else is plucked as names from a hat.Chief designers to do the same every solstice, leaving all their plans behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 After every 4th race, driver's swap teams; top 3 in the rankings automatically swap straight with the bottom 3; everyone else is plucked as names from a hat.Chief designers to do the same every solstice, leaving all their plans behind. They may as well. They could also call it formula wacky races. For every driver you overtake your score is multiplied unless those drivers are outside the top 3 and not your team mate.It's an utter farce. The whole point of them increasing the points for a win was to apparently encourage drivers to win races rather than play safe and win a championship through consistency. Now they are crying because it allows a driver who can easily win races to bag a season with several races to spare. Go back to the old scoring system. Vettel will still win - it'll just take him longer to do so. That way it's still fair.The most stupid thing is that it won't change a thing if one team/driver has the dominant package. The claim that it will keep viewing figures up is also one of diminishing returns as viewers start to view it as a false victory and lose interest in the sport overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Why don't they just pay Vettel a small fortune to drive for Caterham if they want an exciting season? If Red Bull can't sort out their reliability problems soon then we could be in for an interesting season. I'm sure at some point they'll get on top of the issues that stopped them doing more than a handful of laps in four days of testing, but if Vettel has a few early season retirements then he might be forced to fight hard to catch up later in the year (although Bernie's silly double points plan could help with that). It's difficult to draw many conclusions from testing so far (other than you should set off for any long journeys with a Renault engine) since the cars are probably all so far off their true pace. I was amused by the contrast in how different drivers explained what they needed to adapt to this year with the new regulations, Lewis Hamilton reels off a long list of things that have changed while Kimi shrugs and says that it isn't that different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvo Attano Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 After every 4th race, driver's swap teams; top 3 in the rankings automatically swap straight with the bottom 3; everyone else is plucked as names from a hat.Chief designers to do the same every solstice, leaving all their plans behind.This points system is a better idea than Bernie's latest schemes..Why not just do away with qualifying altogether, and make up the grid by reversing the finishing order from the previous race. Also, allocate additional ballast according to the current championship positions. Like they do in the BTCC, and it makes it a hell of a lot more exciting. They need to shake up the points system again, make it more like the BTCC or Indycar series - both of which are infinitely more exciting than F1. From what we've seen at Jerez, it looks like McLaren have been fastest and Mercedes the most reliable, but the tests this year are probably even less representative than they normally are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I can see this happening: Red Bull struggling at the start of the year, getting on top of things by mid-season as usual and then Vettel winning the championship only because of the new points system. That would be incredibly frustrating, but also deeply hilarious :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Bernie's best batshit idea has still got to be his suggestion of sprinkler systems at all tracks, throwing up "random" wet laps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvo Attano Posted February 1, 2014 Author Share Posted February 1, 2014 Bernie's best batshit idea has still got to be his suggestion of sprinkler systems at all tracks, throwing up "random" wet lapsor that one about two mandatory stops per race Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 If Red Bull can't sort out their reliability problems soon then we could be in for an interesting season. I'm sure at some point they'll get on top of the issues that stopped them doing more than a handful of laps in four days of testing, but if Vettel has a few early season retirements then he might be forced to fight hard to catch up later in the year (although Bernie's silly double points plan could help with that). That's what annoys me. A team rarely stays dominant forever, especially when major rule/design changes occur. They didn't need to pull this stunt double points thing - they just needed to wait a while. I can see this happening: Red Bull struggling at the start of the year, getting on top of things by mid-season as usual and then Vettel winning the championship only because of the new points system. That would be incredibly frustrating, but also deeply hilarious :) I'd love that. It would serve them right. I noticed how Horner was more open to the idea of the last 3 races being double points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvo Attano Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Bumping this thread.. Lotus have been to Jerez for a filming event/shakedown of the E22, and it appears to have been more reliable than any of the other Renault-powered cars. Maybe missing out on the first text wasn't such a bad idea.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 According to Renault, Lotus's running was down to an upgrade they've installed, so in theory the other teams should do better with it as well. However, some commentators have been saying Red Bull's problems are more down to their own chassis design. Guess we'll see at the next test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvo Attano Posted February 16, 2014 Author Share Posted February 16, 2014 Williams will be known as Williams Martini Racing, and they are bringing back the classic Martini livery. :bowdown: :drool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Simona De Silvestro has been signed by Sauber as an 'affiliated' driver this year (not a reserve, as they already have one, but a reserve reserve?) with a view to actually putting her on the track next year. Interesting. It's been a little while since we last had a female driver on the actual F1 grid (Susie Wolff not looking like she's going to make the jump any time soon). This also means that Sauber already have an alternate driver line-up for 2015, so Sutil and Gutierrez will be under real pressure to perform this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvo Attano Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 Bumping Susie Wolff will do two FP1 sessions with Williams At the moment, Mercedes & Williams are probably looking the best in terms of both reliability and pace, with Mclaren & Force India not far off them (yep, that's all the Mercedes-powered teams) although a lot of people reckon Ferrari (which means potentially Sauber as well) are keeping some of their performance on the down low for just now. Red Bull haven't improved much - today, they managed four corners on their first attempt before the car broke down, and didn't even make it out of the pits on their second attempt. I'm also doing this, If anybody who isn't a forum games regular wants to join in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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