Motors The Official bit-tech F1 2011 Thread

Wrong thread. I know your intentions were good, but there's already a thread for Dan Wheldon in General Discussion.

 

Thank you guys, finally I feel at home!

I'm honestly surprised Brundle hasn't lost his cool face and launched an unforgiving rant on Lewis' recent bull****.

"Aww, wittle wace dwiver no happy? Wace dwiver want ice cweam?"

Not so much Coulthard as he's been around in recent F1 races and has probably had the same treatment.

Jenson Button however, he's leagues ahead of Lewis in every single way imaginable, he's been amazing to watch this year. And lets not forget Lewis is a complete and utter rookie standing next to Jenson. Mclaren need to get their game together, excluding Jenson the Mclaren teams seems to be a gathering of people I don't have much respect or admiration for, which is a shame because in the past (excluding Ron Dennis, the little ****) it has been a great team.

 

Yes that's it exactly. 'Strain'. Tbh 18 races in and the whole paddock is strained of seeing each other and doing the travel. I never thought I'd say this but the season NEEDS to be shorter.

Completely agree with you Canon - about Brundle, Lewis and Button. Follow Brundle on Twitter - he doesn't mince his tweets at times! Great personality! Unlike Jake "everyone is lovely".

 

I lean more the other way as far as Brundle is concerned... I sometimes think he and DC must be ready to throttle each other in the commentary box with those jibing remarks they make at one another (mostly coming from Martin and directed at David and other drivers). I think he's the height of arrogance at times, especially when he's under pressure on a grid walk. I know he's under a time limit but it's no excuse for really bad manners as far as I'm concerned. DC seems to take far too much abuse these days. He's a wonderful guy with a really nice personality and has proven to be a valuable commentator, so people poking fun at him about his career at times isn't fair at all. Jake probably takes the "everyone is lovely" thing a bit too far at times, but then that's just his extremely friendly personality coming through. I think he's a pretty hard guy not to like, especially in the paddock where most/all of the teams and their members get on very well with him.

I totally agree about the tension being evident towards the end of the season. I think Korea being such a disappointment from a track/infrastructure/fan base development point of view this year put a real downer on everyone. The rain all through Friday didn't help spirits either. I think they'll all be glad to get the last few races over and done with and get on with preparing for next season.

I've really gone off Lewis this season. I'm still a fan, but half of being a successful and popular F1 driver is about image and personality - most of the fun of watching the sport is seeing how much fun the drivers and teams can have doing what they do, and especially interacting with each other and having some light hearted banter every now and then - that's the sort of thing we all want to see. JB is a prime example of the perfect F1 personality at the moment. His "Cake" interview and "Hi Mum! Hahaha" clip are a couple of prime examples of his great outgoing personality and his interviews are always truthful and straightforward. No glancing sideways at his PR assistant for approval before answering a question or any of that sort of thing. If Lewis doesn't have the good spirit to say "Thanks Seb, I appreciate it" or something to Vettel after he congratulates him on getting pole, then he doesn't have the personality for the sport. Not at the moment anyway. I'd put Jenson over Lewis in the team right now, not only based on his demeanour and attitude, but based on driving as well. Jenson has had some incredible drives this season. With a competitive enough car in 2012, I feel another WDC coming on for JB

 

I am completely on the fence between JB and LH, TBH.
Button seems to be a great person and a super mature driver. He has hoever shown that he is not as good with a car that's not perfect.
It was evident a couple of times this season that lack of Friday running hurts Jense more than Lewis.

Lewis is CRAP at PR, and has made a few bad choices this season. However, when he's good, he's incredibly good. Case in point: holding off Webber in a MUCH faster car for 27 laps without resorting to Schumacher Tactics.

 

Hamilton's PR ability is a bit off to be honest. But He's a great driver if he gets his mind on it. Button's capable, but he needs alot of team support.

Hamilton's 16th to 5th finish in Singapore was pretty impressive to be honest. He blitzed the field.

 

I think that was more car than driver, tbh - he was able to get on the throttle out of Turn 1 way better than Webber.

 

Quote Button: "I couldn't get closer to them than I was"
Quote Martin Whitmarsh: "we lost about 10 points of downforce on the front wing int he opening laps"

The Red Bull was substantially quicker through sector 3 than the McLaren. On one of the later laps, Webber pulled back about half a second in that sector alone.

Vettel closed the GP by dropping the best lap time by close to a second without even pushing really hard.

Driver definitely had an impact there (especially considering that Mark Webber is the king of wheelspin), but maintaining that gap to Lewis showed that Webber was constantly looking for a gap.
Had the cars been more evenly matched, he'd have backed off just a bit to preserve tyres, fuel and get a bit more clean air.

Webber also had DRS after turn 3/4 all the time, yet couldn't make it stick thanks to the McLaren's straight line speed and Lewis not putting a single foot wrong.

The one time Lewis slipped up, he immediately recovered and caught Webbo again thanks to DRS and a perfect reaction.
Lewis's driving in Korea was spot on, and noone could have done better than him.

Vettel would have pushed wide, Schumacher would have used eveery trick in the book. Alonso and Button could have defended like that, but both would have given up eventually and let Webber through.

Call me a fanboy, but that enduring defense without being a cock about it was beautiful.

Elton also mentioned his recovery from 16th to 5th in Singapore.
The way Lewis closed on Alonso in Monza once he could actually see the possibility of catching the red car was also AMAZING (that, for the record was close on 2 seconds in 3-4 laps)

 

Fair enough.

Regarding Webber's failed overtake, was it silly? I think so. He was the closes he'd been (and would get for the rest of the race) but he threw it away by taking Hamilton before the DRS zone. Too short-sighted.

 

That's Brundle's JOB. If you think of all that nicey-nicey PR talk I actually find it refreshing he doesn't give a ****. Yes he gives DC far too much **** these days - that's his undoing I agree - DC does not deserve it, but then again Jake seems to be getting in on it too. Jake is a sports presenter, not a journalist like Brundle is trying to become.

Totally agree. JB is the polar opposite of LH. Infact LH is more like Schumacher in earlier 00s

 

Rookie fault by Webber, IMHO.
But at the same time defendably by the mistake Lewis made while entering the turn.
It was a great (probably the best of the race) oportunity for an overtake on Lewis, which Webber took. He then lost traction out of turn 1/2 (as he always did), which was the Macca's one strong area on the track. That allowed Lewis to pull in REALLY close to Webber.
If you watch the replays, Lewis's timing is impeccable there: He comes down the straight really close to webber, pulls out JUST before DRS point, and opens the wing. offsetting the lack of slipstream with the DRS perfectly.

But yeah... it was a bad spot for Webber to overtake, but at the same time the only mistake that would allow him to get past.

 

Would have, could have, should have. It's easy for any of us to say we know, but he didn't have to because he put his car on the P2 spot and drove outstanding from start to finish.

Not making a call on anything one of you guys has said but my personal view on racing in general is that it doesn't matter if a team and driver dominate a season, it's not boring because that's what every team would like to do, if they're able to do it, then it shows they're all putting in the effort they need to achieve it and to me that means they deserve it. Also, I think it's just as enjoyable to watch someone drive away at the start and hide, because I know that really the driver is trying as hard as anyone else, putting the car in the right spot on every corner and trying to carry momentum to build up a gap. I think it's just people that would rather see someone else in that position that call it "boring" and "unfair".

If you havn't guessed that in this instance we're talking about Vettel....catch up

Formula 1 is a bunch of physics, wrapped around some chemistry, which sits behind a biological being, which has control over the chemistry and can alter the physics to a certain degree. If you find a person that can use it efficiently, whilst being spatially aware, you're winning. Imagination helps too, if you can imagine how all those things interact and visualize them then it makes it a hell of a lot easier to find the sweet spots.

 

I don't know about other people but I think this season has had the most exciting set of races for a very long time. Sure, the championship's pretty much been wrapped up since the first half dozen races but it was when JB won his championship, when Schumacher won most of his, etc.

The only dullness has been the predictable way in which Webber loses places at the start.

 

Yeah that does seem to be the case, I really wish the best for Webber next season, and even for the races at the end of this season, I think he really deserves a win and I think I can see him getting a bit fed up in the interviews, saying the same thing over and over, in the first half of the season he was quite chirpy, congratulating Seb then getting into the details about his own race, he still is pretty upfront and when there's an incident or highlight he does go into it but just doesn't seem so happy.

I noticed so many people coming to F1 for the first time this season, fans that is. So it couldn't be that boring, surely.

 

Despite it being a one horse race this year I've thoroughly enjoyed it. Look back at the 2000-2006 era and you'll see really boring racing. The only real difference I see between this years and JB's title was that JB had to fight for it at the end and did so in a truly stunning drive at Interlagos, Seb hasn't had to fight all that hard but has proved that he can overtake when required to, just look at the pass on Alonso at Spa; only Webber's pass through Eau Rouge could possibly be outshining it for me and that's purely for the balls.

In some ways I see Webber as providing proof that it's not all down to Newey genius, they've had the same car all year and yet Webber has been consistently slower. As has been said before put Button, Alonso, Hamilton or maybe even Schumacher in the sister Red Bull and I seriously doubt Seb would have had it so easy. But that's not the case and Seb has gone out and claimed the title with a series of supreme drives and thoroughly deserves it.

On to next year and I think things will even up a lot due to various reg changes but I sincerely hope they are sensible with those changes. One from this year which annoyed me was the removal of the adjustable front wings. This gave the drivers more versatility and when combined with the return of KERS and the new DRS it could have really shown those who know their car inside out and how to get the best out of it in multiple situations and could also have evened up things when set up time was reduced due to weather. The more a driver can do the better as far as I'm concerned; I'd love to see DRS being free at all times just like in FP and quali but it's too dangerous and could never be condoned.

 

As a long time watcher of F1, the MB and DC partnership in the commentary box is fantastic. If you know anything about their friendship at all you'll know that they go back a long way.

All your hearing is banter, pure and simple. It can be cutting at times, but I think DC gives as good as he gets. Anyway, I give you a sample from www.brundlequotes.com

SINGAPORE
“Did you know you can change gear in a Formula 1 car fifty times faster than you can blink your eyes? You do now!”
David: “Thank you very much! I’ll have you on my Trivial Pursuit team.”
Martin: “And Rubens Barrichello has a job that’s not trivial at all, and that’s getting the Williams through into the second part of qualifying.”

“So they’re still on the yellow-marked tyre. I know a lot of you know this, and don’t groan – we do have new viewers coming to Formula 1 all of the time.”

(Martin’s new campaign – to get David to pronounce Vettel’s name properly.)
“Vettel as in ‘kettle’. Jenson Button second ... Jenson Button laughs [at] the way I pronounce his name for some reason.”
David: “You never said my name right!” ... (later) ... “Mark Webber was using more [kerb] than Vettel ... or Vettle. (He says it in a mockney accent, not sounding the ‘t’ properly) Where does that make me sound like I’m coming from when I say that?! Just doesn’t sound like I’m coming from the south-west of Scotland!”

David: “It can’t be right to have chicanes like that. That’s not a proper corner.”
Martin: “I don’t know what else they could do apart from knock the Houses of Parliament down or whatever they’ve got there. ... Oh, I’m just hearing in my ear it’s a golf club and a cricket club, so they could knock them down, then.”

“We watch Michael Schumacher hop, skip and ... leap across the kerbs.”

(Discussing the fact that a five place grid drop isn’t much of a punishment if you’re already last on the grid)
“Well, what can they do? They can’t do anything, can they, really, other than – I dunno – take the keys to his rent-a-car or something.”

“Picquet Corner, just there.”

Rosberg’s engineer (over radio): “So, Mix 1, Torque 8, Harvest 7.”
Martin: “Of course it will!”

Martin: “Just a quickie, ’cause I’ve gotta go as well.”
Jenson: “I don’t wanna keep you!”
Martin: “I’m not looking forward to two hours of commentating – it’s gonna be hard work – let alone driving these things!”
Jenson: “Yeah, it’s tough, isn’t it, Martin, up there in your air conditioned box.”

“There are three city states in the world, two of which have Grands Prix – that’s Monaco and here in spectacular Singapore. The third city state is the Vatican City but we’re not anticipating a Grand Prix there any time soon.”

“When you’re travelling at two hundred miles per hour a few millimetres above the ground, a bump becomes a mountain.”

“Alonso trying to peer over the top of that Ferrari. I always say it’s like laying in the bath and looking out across the taps.”

“Does he need this, David? Does Michael Schumacher need to be flying through the air in the middle of the night and crashing into barriers?”
David: “Michael would tell you he does.”

(Rosberg’s engineer rattles off a long list of driver positions and tyres)
Martin: “You’d need a notepad to remember all of that!”
David: “I think he’s trained in shorthand.”

(Martin wonders whether anyone finds it harder to come up and overtake a driver who is also a good friend)
Martin: “I ran my best mate Blundell off the road once and it didn’t stop me at the time.”
David: “I was just gonna say that the way you dealt with it was you never had any friends!”
Martin: “Thanks mate ... and I’ve just discarded one I thought I had as well.”

“Twinkle-toes himself, Jenson Button, up there in second.”

“The single digit salute – the thrill goes on, and on ... and on.”

(To Martin Whitmarsh of McLaren) “How are you gonna catch Red Bull; can you catch Red Bull; please catch Red Bull!”

 

Brundle's hilarious. And DC's a pretty good commentator himself.

Honestly though, LH is getting his game back, amazingly quickly too, I really really look forward to the next season.

Webber on the other hand, he's not a bad driver, but I don't or rather can't see him winning too much, he's just not that great of a driver, given he's not bad, but at best he's average. Put Button or Hamilton in his car and I think we'd see quite a fast drive. Not that Webber is bad, just that compared to the other top guys, he's not quite as good.

Irvine's got some awesome dress choices too.

 

Oh I know they go back a long way but it just seems a tad more spiteful now. There's no laugh afterwards to brush it off.

 

You mean Jordan?

 

I've not seen Eddie Irvine in a dress, nor Eddie Jordan for that matter. Is this a private party thing?