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

Cracking race with an equally cracking result. I was dancing around the living room like a loon when Alonso crossed the line.

 

During the red flag the Lotus twitter account was asking what ice cream they should get ready for Kimi.
They went up in my opinion as they were good fun all race.

 

You know, the more I think on it, the more I don't want Perez to be put into that Ferrari. Alonso, despite my dislike of his perceived character (because we really don't know these guys at all just from watching this circus), he's one of the greatest drivers ever to touch the sport. Imo he's absolutely peerless in being able to mask the difficult nature of a car, even dragging the F2012 up to 5th last week was an achievement, and he's absolutely annihilated Massa by being so ruthless. This weekend he was more than 90 seconds ahead at the end of the race.

 

I still want to see Kobayashi in a Ferrari. I don't really know why but his flashes of brilliance/lunacy would put some excitement into a team that seems very stale. A Japanese driver in a Ferrari would surely be a merchandising win now there are no Japanese teams in F1.

 

I'm a bit here-nor-there about Kobayashi - he was brilliant to start with, but has toned it down a lot now (no doubt at the nagging of a team principle, front wings are expensive after all ), and being in a Sauber these past couple of years we hardly see anything of him. Here's hoping they're a bit more in the spotlight this year and we get to see a bit more brilliance.

 

Kobayashi made one good pass in Oz, whcih reminded of his overtaking in the hairpin in Japan.

Other than that, he's up and down so often that I have mentally written him off.
When he's good he's borderline brilliant, and other times his teammate takes him out with one hand tied behind his back.

 

Brilliant drive from Perez, Senna and Alonso. It's interesting to see Hamilton not nearly as competitive as he used to be.

Walldonaldo threw away another race, which was jarring and annoying. Thank goodness Senna scored a damned good finish (shows how good the Williams car is...which makes Rubhino's absence even more tragic).

I pity Massa and I do really hope that Perez doesn't get a ferrari seat because it's really clear that the F2012 is actually slower than the Sauber. Button looked really put off by the end, poor guy but he took the loss royally and for that he earns my respect just because he wasn't whining about it.. But that was edge of the seat racing. Great thing.

Also I'm very glad Kimi's doing relatively well and Lotus are back on their groove. Although I have a feeling Grosjean is just cursed, being taken out then ending up in the gravel. Still at least Ice-cream-manwhich is doing a good job getting points for Lotus.

And finally, the Mercedes can qualify, but tire degredation is miserable.

 

I find it hard to imagine that Massa will be a Ferrari driver in 6 moths time, whereas Perez could very well be.

 

I don't like him, but an engine failure isn't really his fault.

 

Fair enough. But still it's annoying to see given that Williams needs all the points it'll get. Which already at this point it's done better than previously. So that's good news.

In other news, I was surprised HRT made it to the grid.

 

Williams are off to a cracking start - the constructor's battle in the midfield will be insane this year.

HRT need to go home unless they've got a huge budget pile coming. They're getting nowhere near to beating Caterham/Virgin in raw pace, and occasionally manage to luck ahead of one of them, but it's not enough.

 

It's even more frustrating when you consider we could have had Prodrive.

 

I'm not sure they'd be able to spend enough to be competitive these days, they're not exactly flush.

 

Prodrive/Lola would ahve been a good addition to F1 - better than HRT.

That being said - from not starting to making it race distance, some ground has been covered already.
And while I'd love to say that they'll be making progress, the sad truth is that they're unlikely to make next year due to finances.
3 years without a single point and being dead last is not financially feasible.

In other news, NK has stood up against Vettel, saying that name-calling is not what one should expect from a double world champion.
Well said, NK. +1 to you.

 

NK needs to shut up and learn how to drive, tbh. As long as he's blocking a seat from someone with actual talent I will not have a single good thing to say about him.

 

HRT should cut their losses and quit while they're [very much] behind...

Not making the grid for the first race when you're a new team is somewhat forgiveable... having the same thing happen 2 years running and having to go begging to the stewards to be allowed to race because their car is that slow... that's embarrassing...

 

Pre-Qualify practices at 107%, and Qualify Q1 at 104%, job done.

 

I agree, he's completely right. You can talk all day about whether or not HRT should be in F1 (and who they have driving for them), but the fact remains you can't go around calling other drivers idiots just because you've had a bad race... Especially when your the current champion.

 

Whether or not NK should be in the sport is a completely different matter. I normalyl take no note of him until someone collides with him or he retires.

^^ that. Seb is behaving like a 12 year old, rather than a double world champion.

 

Bad news Spa fans (me included), according to le Parisien the Belgian Grand Prix will be alternating with a French GP from next year

http://www.leparisien.fr/sports/for...u-grand-prix-de-france-29-03-2012-1929617.php