Motors The Official bit-tech F1 2012 Thread - Post season

Care to elaborate ?

 

Whilst not claiming to be able to read canon's mind i'll hazard a guess...

The Move to Sky [and associated changes such as commentators]
Wholesale Driver Changes
The move to Sky...
Rules changes
The move to Sky...

 

Maybe you shouldn't doubt your mind reading ability...

 

I have to agree on all points but more specifically rule and driver changes. I would be thoroughly pissed off if I was Algersuari or Buemi right now. The both did reasonably well last season, Algersuari more so than Buemi, and put STR right in the fight several times only to be hoofed out to have some newbies take their spot whilst people like Massa, Maldonado and Trulli did relatively nothing in their respective teams.

The rules changes, as already discussed, are particularly bad with the whole 'can't move back to the racing line after defending' thing. I think we'll see literally dozens of drive throughs in the first few races. I'd love to see the rules open up the other way personally. Free use of DRS at any time over 70% throttle and 15-20 seconds of KERS would really give something back to the driver to be able to make a difference based on ability and balls instead of being car limited.

 

Whilst the move to Sky can be seen as disappointing to many who currently don't, or intend to, subscribe to Sky, and as a result live viewing figures will obviously drop, I think given the state of the BBC (financially) the compromise is not all that bad.

You will be able to view 10 races live on the beeb, with full length delayed runs of the other 10.
I'm also glad Sky made the choice to make available the F1 channel without the need to subscribe to the other Sports channels, you just need an HD subs. (Sky HD is subscribed to in roughly 1 in 4 homes at the moment, just under half of Sky's total subscriber base)

Rule changes, well I'm not too pleased by the one move rule clarification, I enjoyed Schumacher vs Hamilton last season - Hammy trying to get past whilst Shumi did all he could within the rules to prevent him.

The driver changes at Red Bull 2, sorry Toro Rosso, that was their business and to be perfectly honest neither Jaime or Seb were overly exciting.

 

Not surprising about Toro Rosso - both are good drivers but they aren't 'exceptional' talent, and TR are all about their new driver program. If a guy is clearly driving better than the car - he'll eventually replace Mark Webber. It's unfortunate the 2011 TR drivers don't replace old nobbers like Truli and the back marker drivers, but ho hum.

 

"If in defending his position a driver leaves the racing line, he will not be allowed to retake it"

I can't say I'm a fan of this rule and i don't really understand the need for it.

If anything it sounds a bit dull, i want to see drivers fighting for position, this rule sounds like it could reduce that happening.
the Lewis-schumacher battle for position during the Italian grand Prix, was one of highlights of the race.
Admittedly schumacher was defending a bit too aggressively, but still it was entertaining to watch and i don't want to battles like this being impaired because of more meddling from FIA.

 

As Bindi said: STR is a feeder team for Red Bull specifically, but also for other teams.
Neither Buemi nor Alguersuari were particularly amazing throughout the season. I was expecting to see Buemi go either for a while now. Alguersuari maybe less, but after Vergne's impressive showing in the Tests and with Ricciardo hiving Dr Marko backing, the whole shuffle was to be expected in a way.

I don't mind. Red Bull is looking for the next Vettel, and STR is the place to do that.

 

I was speaking to my farther Wednesday evening, apparently there is some talk on an av forum about getting a feed from a German satellite. Commentary from R5L.

Trulli's a funny one, he's had excuses for most of the year, and Mike Gascoyne loves him , so he's not going anywhere soon.

As we were mentioning safety earlier I thought it may be of interest that the preliminary incident report for Las Vegas has been released here. Pages of interest are;
10 - Start of incident dissemination,
12 - #77,
13 - pictures,
14 - fence post & forces,
15 - chassis inspection,
48 - telemetry

It was pretty gentle, with down at 165 mph at launch. The only concerning thing was the penetration of suspension into the cockpit.

 

Lee Mckenzie just tweeted (twote?)

 

Good to see Nico back, hopefully FI can give them a better car this year. That only leaves two seats left (Williams and HRT) and plenty of drivers to fill them.

 

Now that we're in to 2012 officially, there's only 34 days to go until testing begins

McLaren are the first to announce their car launch details, with the MP4-27 breaking cover on the 1st February, well before the Jerez test. Mercedes however will not be trialling the W03 until Catalunya, which Nico Rosberg believes won't be an issue.

Elsewhere, Andrew Benson reports that Rubens could be back in line to stay with Williams next season, according to his sources. He notes that Patrick Head grew tired of the veteran's complaints, so his departure from the sport has removed at least one barrier.

 

Just a minor correction - no-one's doing any racing for another 74 days...

 

I love Rubens, I really do, but if he gets that seat it virtually guarantees Sutil wont be on the grid, which will be a damn shame....

 

Maybe the Mercedes will be racing against each other? No? Alright then

 

The final straw for Alguersuari in his TR seat?


For those unsure the grey-haired guy is Helmut Marko, master and commander of RBR/STR.

 

You would honestly think Vettel was Marko's son and he was an zealous overprotective father. Even when Vettel and Webber connected at Turkey in 2010 he was straight onto throwing all the blame Webber's way.

 

Its Friday Practice so I don't think he is obliged to jump straight out of the way, they don't even use the blue flags on Friday do they?

Why didn't the finger just back off and give himself some space? Being World Champion does he think that the number 1 on his car means that everyone should just jump out of the way?

Helmut by name, Helmut by nature.

 

He brings in the money and the glory. He's the poster child. F1 is the least fair 'sport' to its 'sports people' in existence.

 

The money would still come in if he wasn't there, you could have put anyone in the Redbull last year and they would have done just as well (i'm not saying any better as he did trounce Webber but I don't really rate him either). Don't get me wrong, I am slowly starting to like him more as a person, he's a funny like-able guy. By all means, rage at a slower car in qualy/race but there was no need for it in practice no matter who you are.