Motors The Official bit-tech F1 2011 Thread

As others stated, the biggest audience for F1 right now is still Europe, so yes, you have to suffer because of us. Same is the situation with NHL games - Europeans suffer because NHL is targeted at American audience, not some stupid Europeans .

 

The Rumormill (a.k.a Planet F1) are mentioning a "special meeting" about Lewis's Bravado, which Heikki says he won't be attending.

If I were to hazard a guess, people in attendance at that meeting would be: Massa, Barichello (out of solidarity), Nikki Lauda (in spite of only being an ex driver), Kobayashi and Lewis's ex.

People not likely to attend: Alonso, Sutil, Heikki, The rest of the backmarkers, Vettel, Webber, Button.

In more sensible news, JA has a great bit about the considerations for Japan again.

 

Hmm... Not sure if it's real or not, but I don't think it's deserved.

Also in the news:

Original Story

Jense is sticking around at Mac, clearly he's feeling at home and not really worrying about their current performance.

 

Well, Jensen's done very well with the Maccies. They're wise to sign him in for a multi-year contract since he's a pretty consistent driver.

 

They've been harping on how well he's meshed with the team, and how good he is for car development, so it makes sense. I think realistically everyone knew he'd be retained, it was just a question of them working out his salary and sponsorship work.

Good to see him doing well anyway, he's on absolutely stonking form these past couple of seasons, silencing many doubters after years of criticism while he was at BAR/Honda. Definitely my favourite driver at the mo, always been a favourite, but with him fighting at the front he's become my number 1 runner.

Let's just hope next season is a little more competitive at the front. Ferrari are making noise about their risky and adventurous cars again, hopefully McLaren will do the same to try and catch the Bulls.

 

I'm also very happy to see JB staying at McLaren - like Krikkit I'm a massive fan of his and he is my favourite runner in the pack at the moment. I support Red Bull and everything that they do, mainly because Christian Horner and Adrian Newey are a part of the team, and because Newey and his team have been able to continuously design the fastest car on the track. McLaren are still my preferred team though, because of their past achievements and because of the drivers that they have had on board and have currently on board. There's no doubt that Lewis and Jenson are two of the most talented drivers in the field, and on personality alone JB would win my vote as #1 driver every time, never mind his amazing ability as a driver who thinks everything through and gets good results as a consequence.

Hopefully McLaren can make next years car even more competitive and have a good shot at a championship. Along with Christian, I think Martin Whitmarsh is one of the best team principals the sport has ever seen. His attitude, demeanour and decision making process have always impressed me greatly. They're both a great credit to the sport.

 

And so the awesome Suzuka track claims its first victim in Mr Vettel going wide at the first Degna. One of those snappers definitely got his money's worth, every aero engineer down the grid will be spunking their pants looking at this pic (courtesy of PF1):

 

Jense fastest in both sessions, I see.

I guess it's too much to ask for Seb to do an encore during qualy? For the spectacle, of course - and to prolong the fight...

 

I wouldn't think so GOO - I'm expecting a massive gap to the rest of the field in quali. Suzuka is an ideal hunting ground for the RB7.

Interesting to compare Vettel's and Webber's results this year, what really brings it home for me is the table at the bottom of this page.

 

I really hope someone (Ferrari, McLaren?) can keep both RBRs off the podium this race. Practice suggests that it's possible but I'm expecting another mental lap from Seb or Webber tomorrow.

 

Practice times mean nothing - in a sport where the cars can have a weight penalty of 10% just from fuel, and the engines are turned way down to preserve life, there's no meaningful comparisons to be made of Friday times.

The RB7 is the hot lap special this year, in the race it is occasionally compromised, but more often than not it's just the class of the field.

It's so good, in fact, that I'm starting to feel very gloomy about next season - the other teams have a massive deficit to work against over the winter, and you can bet that Red Bull will be working flat out to maintain their lead. I don't think we'll see their domination finished until the next technical workover for 2013/4, even then it's possible that they'll just carry on with the Newey/Marshall/Prodromou domination of the past few years.

 

It still amazes me to think that they'll have that car back on the track for the weekend after a crash, looking like it just rolled out of the factory. F1 mechanics and engineers are awesome! Maaad skills

 

Don't forget Krikkit, that blown difs will be banned next year and I think the RB7 relies on that a fair bit. I am keeping my fingers crossed other teams will be more competitive next season (i.e. Ferrari )

 

The Renault engine uses cold-blowing, which is less effective than the hot blowing used by Ferrari and McLaren. We've only had a taste of how it affected everybody, which was Silverstone, but hardly a fair comparison for a season-long battle. Not to mention the fact that the teams will have 6+ months notice that their aero devices are going to be banned.

 

With regards to Vettels front wing, those uprights look completely sheered, yet the wing is hanging on something. What's the chance Adrian might have used cables of some sort to fix the floppy wing problem? Put them under tension for inspection, and release them for the track?

 

Nothing in the rules to stop you using wire to reinforce the strakes, if necessary. I didn't see it on video, and that picture isn't really clear, but I very much doubt there's any funny goings on in there.

The FIA scrutineers can poke and mess with just about anything on the car, any doubts and they'd have that nose apart to check it out.

 

Tethers. Should be used to hold the front wing on and stop what happened to Webber at Monza.

 

This was nice of Bernie.
http://www.thef1times.com/news/display/04630

 

I read something someplace about the floor of the red bull flexing at the front, but not slightly further back where the test is carried out, could all that scraping be bacause of this?

 

Could be, but Vettel was taking quite a lot of kerb as he came off, which does a fair bit of floor damage.