Motors The Bit-Tech F1 2016 Thread - Season Complete

Given the focus on Aero to an absurd degree next year I'm expecting the cars that are blue, red and yellow to be winning everything now that Renault have sorted the engine out.

 

Great race today.
TBH I put it down to Lewis having rotten luck more than anything. Last year nothing went wrong and he dominated. The season before he had some rotten luck as did Rosberg. Maybe it is the mechanics not being totally up to snuff, maybe it is Lewis being harder on his engines but it definitely not sabotage. The first two can be easily fixed ie new crew or going over the data and helping Lewis adjust.

Great race for Bottas, Raikkonen, Alonso and Palmer. Palmer finally getting his luck and skill to last a full race and getting points. He has been getting stronger over the last few months tho I still don't rate him as quick a driver as Magnussen. Both FI had a quiet race and finished as "expected". Kyvatt had another bad race and Haas looked not only bad but highly amateurish with their failures today.

 

I will be honest I have bearly watched a race this season, And this forum has been really quiet in comparison to previous seasons.

F1 needs the changes to give a much more open fight and the reality is another 1 team domination will make even more fans leave the show.

I also heavily question the way the TV deal will be in a few years. Only on Pay TV is a big mistake ( I have full sky sports package and do get F1 with that ) Just limits viewership too much and you go from 4-5million to a few hundred thousand that sky are getting.

If the goal is bigger viewership we need to go back to more exiting venues. As fun as Monaco is to drive it sure as heck is a boring race for example.

Todays race if Lewis engine did not explode would have 0 comments. His engine explodes so people talk about it.

The race itself was a uneventful affair after the first lap. RBR did not even let riccardo and Verstappen race at the end. If the engine did not blow up Lewis would of won by 25 seconds + which is a massive margin that mercedes have in reality.

 

Indeed.

But the problem is that with all the development restrictions it just comes down to who does the best job in the factory over winter, then the restrictions effectively ban anyone else from catching up.
And they can't get rid of those restrictions as it would send costs through the roof.

 

I think this is a fallacy.

Teams will spend what they can raise from sponsors and they will always try to outspend each other. Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mclaren all spend over £350 million per season, if you count Toro Rosso as well then Red Bull spend well north of half a billion pounds every year on F1.

In the mid to late nineties £45 million was enough to fund a championship winning team, now mid-field teams are spending three times that amount.

Spending is already completely out of control, the only way F1 would ever get it back under control is if the FIA directly controlled the budget of every team, which would delight everyone except the big four. Removing development restrictions would change nothing, all four big teams have mad science divisions working 24/7, they just have to pick and choose what they actually fit to the car.

The only change to me would be safety. The 2004 cars had to go because drivers were starting to black out in corners. The same as the old ground effect F1 cars, Group C and LMP1 sports cars started to do. 2017 might be about to see a return of that scary phenomenon anyway.

 

I think the easiest way to increase competition would be to add some extra weight to the cars of whatever team is leading in the constructors championship.

This year they've been scratching at or beating absolute track records in various places already, so yep, safety could indeed become a problem with the whole "make the cars faster" approach for next year.

 

Once more for those in the back, and the new owners...

'Faster' was never the problem, overtaking is the problem... and with a trend towards narrow street tracks like baku, making the cars wider is only going to make the problem worse imo...

Beating lap records is all well and nice, but if they cars can't get close to each other without ruining their tyres... only to not be able to get alongside the car in front because the cars are so wide/tracks are so narrow... then frankly what's the point?

 

Well, they have and they haven't. The FIA only counts laps that happen under race conditions towards a lap record.

At Monza the pole position lap was within a few tenths of Barrichello's 2004 race lap record, but in the race Alonso's fastest lap was four seconds down.

At Spa the fastest race lap was six seconds down on Kimi's 2004 record. The 2004 qualifying was wet, but in the dry 2002 Quali Hamilton's 2016 pole lap (1.51) would have put him dead last on the grid by three seconds and eight seconds off Schumi's pole. That's with the re-profiled and faster Eau Rouge and Bus Stop too.

Commentators are using some really, really weasly metrics to declare some 'fastest ever laps' this year. In real terms the 2014-16 F1 cars are nowhere near the speeds of the 2001-2004 machines.

 

Didn't know the commentators where "cheating" in regards to that, now I look like an idiot, thanks Sky

 

Nah, I'd say it makes you look like you have a life

 

I think its difficult (without the telemetry data) to tell who is harder on their engines, like you say, it may come down to style. I don't know if Lewis is a left foot braker or toe/heel but to say that he abuses his motor compared to the all the other Merc shod motors is a bit far fetched.

Each engine/turbo/ERS/KERS/motor generator has a life cycle, each component gets recorded for mileage/use. I would imagine that throughout a race weekend, each driver would put a very similar amount of use/abuse through their respective motor.

 

BBC and Sky say when you drive as fluidly as he was driving there is less pressure than what Nico did to the car for example.

Its just pure bad luck.

The rumours are Merc could run the engine 24/7 in qualy mode and have zero issues as an example of just how much performance they have in hand. They did so in testing for pre season.

 

The media loses it's head

If it was any other driver, it wouldn't have been news worthy..... I guess there were more important news stories that needed burying today?

 

IDGAF about the snapchat images - harmless fun - but I do have an issue with Lewis playing with his mobile during the drivers' press conference.

He gets paid plenty, and it isn't asking much for him to put the fcuking thing down for 20 minutes. Then he says the fans should be asking the questions? So this was a petulant protest at the format? WTF?

 

"Under fire". He can do whatever the f he wants. But a load of 40-something old men in the room expect attention. Boo hoo. I've been on the receiving end as well, get over yourselves guys.

Media are there to spread the word but his reach on social is WAAAY beyond that of motorsport mags who ask similar questions week in week out, and to a demographic no one else attracts, that's why Bernie loves him. If he wants to control his own exposure through social he can do. He is in control. His place in F1 is the most guaranteed. He doesn't need media, just like he doesn't need to be friends with other drivers, that's what he's concluded. Yea it looks like it takes the piss but .. so I feel good on him - at least social is FREE unlike all the paywalled media questions.

 

No team could fire Lewis Hamilton, His brand image alone is worth the hassle he brings. Why do you think Merc came out and said he can say what he wants.

He is worth way more than they pay him to Mercedes Image.

Sky Sports and BBC have both went at him this season, For his off the track activities. My guess he just does not care what they have to say and is happy to ignore the 2 of them.

 

Who cares. He's a big boy who can choose to obey someone else's dictated social etiquette or not. Let's face it after a shitty week how many people would actually want to sit in front of a group of people who know no limits and will tear every statement you make to write **** about you. I can think of many other places most people would like to be.
Lewis sunk at McLaren with Ron practically tucking him in each night. It wasn't until he learnt to let go, blow off steam and come back get on with things that he succeeded. Things go wrong on a Saturday you know Hamilton will still fight back. A few seasons before joining Merc, a bad Saturday left you wondering if Hamilton would even make of to the track to race nevermind challenge for points

 

Lewis has now basically told the media to go screw themselves, Will not do media interviews, Mercedes happy to pay the fines. All interaction via social media.

Well played Lewis I hope he sticks to it.

Will give the media less to talk about as his fans will know nothing they write is from him.

 

I fail to see the problem.

He has won multiple F1 championships and he is a millionaire, who cares if he is a bit of an eccentric on top of that?

 

Still makes him more talkative than kimi...