Formula 1 2015

[djr81]

The last time Alonso was at McLaren it ended badly. $100 million dollars worth of bad.

People were surprised when he went back and I reckon he has been pretty dignified this year too - as he usually is. Just don't reckon anyone thought the Honda would be quite so shit to start with, although they are making progress.

[tweety bird]

https://mobile.twitter.com/AussieGrit/status/605623673270206464

[Roy]

Going to grab and have a read .

Oh...http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/video/2015/6/Moving_on_from_Monaco_for_Mercedes.html

Ahh the laughs. It was a cluster of confusion but the interesting thing is how the team apologised to Lewis and has been happy to take all the blame for the incident and shield Lewis from any criticism. Seems to suggest that he takes some grey space management to keep him at his best...so good on Toto and co for putting team-driver performance ahead of assigning blame to cover asses. Shows F1 is a team sport!

[tweety bird]

I'm also likely too read.

So no refuelling and no 18" tyres.

[mickey]

Nice the teams think refueling won't spice things up... At least the cars can run quicker for a majority of the race.

I think the big teams are scared it'll open the door for an average car to beat them on strategy. Cost wise it's not a big deal so why stop it?

[Kinks]

Bring on refuelling. The current lack of racing is bullshit.

[Roy]

Come on Lotus! Love to see Romain on the podium!

[Roy]

I am sick of SKY playing on how kuch "the people" love Lewis and have no connection with Nico etc etc.

He has siunded like a puppet about putting Monaco behind him but moaping around....need to get Dan or Romain back on the podium

[djr81]

Nice the teams think refueling won't spice things up... At least the cars can run quicker for a majority of the race.

I think the big teams are scared it'll open the door for an average car to beat them on strategy. Cost wise it's not a big deal so why stop it?

Bring on refuelling. The current lack of racing is bullshit.

Costs shedloads to build and then transport the refuelling units. Then you start hurting people when drivers drive off with hoses attached. Plus it ruins the racing. Apart from that its great.

And dead.

Thankfully.

[djr81]

Alonso story on newscorp after his blow up on the weekend:

Speaking with emotion during the Canadian Grand Prix, the two-time world champion disobeyed team orders to save fuel and said he wanted to race against other drivers first and economise later.

“When you are in the middle of a battle, fuel is a low priority and you will find time later on,” Alonso explained after being forced to retire from the race.

“After three or four reminders of fuel, I just said let me race and let me have some fun.

“We are like a different category. When everyone passes you so easy like that, you look like an amateur driver and that is not good. We are not super competitive now...

“We have many things to do in our case, but hopefully this weekend has given us some lessons.” Asked to save fuel, during the race, Alonso retorted on team radio: “I don’t want, I don’t want. I have really big problems now, driving with these and looking like amateurs... So I race and then I concentrate on the fuel.”

Better clean all that up then....

Told later that the outburst had been widely interpreted as a demonstration of frustration against the team, Alonso said: “You need to understand I believe in this project — all the program of developing the car is quite positive.

“I know it is difficult for the fans, but they need to be patient and they need to believe because something good is coming.

“We had to save a lot of fuel at this track and right from the first lap I was told to save fuel, but I was in the middle of a few battles.

“We are 35km/h behind Ferrari on the straights, we had to save fuel, we had to save tyres because we were stopping once, and I was fighting with them.

“After two or three message I told them to let me fight now and have some fun and then I’ll save fuel at the end of the race when were are alone.”

Alonso had to retire for the third race in succession and fourth in six races. On a bad day for McLaren his teammate Jenson button also failed to finish.

“It is what it is,” Alonso said. “I know from the outside, they all want to crush us. We are going through a bad streak and we can’t do anything else, but continue working.”

[Kinks]

Costs shedloads to build and then transport the refuelling units. Then you start hurting people when drivers drive off with hoses attached. Plus it ruins the racing. Apart from that its great.

And dead.

Thankfully.

F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of technology. Use compressed air like the V8s do, and once the car is in the air just unclip it and walk away and let it hold pressure. The main lollypop guy now has a big red remote control button to release the car instead. When all the wheel guys are done, the refuelling is done, and nobody else is coming down the pit lane he hits the button, the car drops and it's outta there. OH HEY it's electronic, now we can put a safety in it so if the fuel rig is still attached you can't drop the car. Simple, no more people getting hurt (the safety issue is the big one for me, but it can be solved by technology).

If you want to save money or the environment, f**k off, go home, cancel the race. They are already carting around many sets of tyres, car parts, computer equipment and people around the world and it all goes by air freight. If you want green credentials then just cancel the damn thing. F1 costs money, I agree in principle with keeping a lid on it or it will just be insane but you also have to spend enough to make it the best.

There was an element of "let's pass them during a stop" before but now all I hear is "we're not racing them let them through". Or DRS just gifts them a pass anyway, DRS is so god damn easy to pass that people won't need to wait for a fuel stop to get past. Passing in F1 is now like shitting the bed when you're drunk. Far too easy. So at the moment, refuelling won't hurt the racing because of DRS. I don't like DRS but that's another story.

Alonso story on newscorp after his blow up on the weekend:

Speaking with emotion during the Canadian Grand Prix, the two-time world champion disobeyed team orders to save fuel and said he wanted to race against other drivers first and economise later.

“When you are in the middle of a battle, fuel is a low priority and you will find time later on,” Alonso explained after being forced to retire from the race.

“After three or four reminders of fuel, I just said let me race and let me have some fun.

“We are like a different category. When everyone passes you so easy like that, you look like an amateur driver and that is not good. We are not super competitive now...

“We have many things to do in our case, but hopefully this weekend has given us some lessons.” Asked to save fuel, during the race, Alonso retorted on team radio: “I don’t want, I don’t want. I have really big problems now, driving with these and looking like amateurs... So I race and then I concentrate on the fuel.”

This is why having a fuel-limited formula sucks. ALL the drivers are driving to a time, and it's about 80% of maximum pace. They are conserving fuel, tyres, brakes or all 3. Alonso has already commented he's driving slower than he was 15 years ago. Someone worked out for Malaysia that the 2004? car would have lapped the 2015 car 7 or 8 times. That's f**king bullshit.

I've 90% lost interest in F1. The other week I rewatched a 2006 Hungarian race (which is often a snooze) and it was amazing. They were racing each other hammer and tong from the start to the end.

Anyway, agree to disagree I think the current state of affairs is boring and I feel REALLY sorry for the drivers to get to the pinnacle of motorsport and then get told to drive the car slower.

[djr81]

So much anger. All well and good not worrying about the teams budgets but outside the four big teams they are all struggling and losing money. Dumping yet more cost on them for fuel rigs and transport just makes it harder. Given refuelling makes the racing worse why would you go with it?

Not sure they are driving (Outside the Honda drivers) to a fuel number so much as a tyre number. Canada uses heaps of fuel by the way. Alonso's problem was Honda, not the regulations.

[89CAL]

Its easier then stopping the car from dropping while its still fueling. The gearbox is electronically controlled, not hard to interlock the gearbox in neutral while the fuel gun is still in the fuel flap

[dezz]

This is definitely the most boring year of F1 I've watched, Mercedes dominance aside. Hopefully they can sort it out sooner rather than later

[tweety bird]

I haven't been watching much...

[Roy]

There is nothing wrong with the racing.

I like the idea of refuelling but they shouldn't reintroduce it.

Theybhave just done a stupid thing freezing engine development when a few teams have a big advantage from hp alone. That is what has ruined the racing this year.

[djr81]

It would appear to have reverted to an engine formula again - bit like the mid to late eighties. Difference being the things are now so hideously expensive that the cost controls and development restrictions required have meant MB advantage is pretty much cast in stone. NFI how they are going to get out of this in the next few years. How do you fix it if there isnt any development worth the name allowed next year? Wait until Renault go home and then quit?

Formula is now shit and that is before you get to the dumb restrictions and limitations on engines etc.

[Roy]

I think the permanent freeze is next season. LOL so Renault get one more shot...its going to end in a disparity for way too many seasons. It is BS. you can spend tens of millions on wings and tunnel time but you can barely develop that largest differentiation of performance

[djr81]

Thing that surprised me so much was all the drivers bleating about how a reduced engine performance meant reduced tyre temps and performance which mean their lap time sucked. Gives you some vague hope that a small improvement will give RB or McLaren a dsiproportionate gain but that is probably not going to happen.

Watching the pre race/post race bollocks on Foxtel Bernie just sounded like a numpty. Atleast he is a numpty that appears to be taking the side of WIlliams/Force it India/Sauber instead of shovelling yet more money towards Ferrari etc so they can sell shit cars to those teams sent broke by the lopsided deals Ferrari have gouged out for themselves. The Ferrari manager (cant remember his name) sounded like he had some serious brain power to chuck about, which made a contrast if nothing else.

Oh well there is atleast LeMans on this weekend. Is it on the tellie?

[Roy]

Le Mans is on Fox . No free to air think its worth covering. Probably right

Joe Saward posed an interesting question... "How can a sport that generates $1.8 billion a year in revenues be incapable of supporting 12 two-car teams which race one another on only 20 occasions each year? The only possible answer to this question is that the business model is not a very good one for all concerned, even if for some F1 is filling their pockets, pumping up their egos and making them feel powerful. These people do not really want things to change, unless they see that they can get more money or more power. "

Bernie is siding with Williams and co as its just like when he was concerned FOTA would have too much power...ditto this time around so is throwing his muscle behind the small teams to stop the large teams from getting too much sway