Motors The Official bit-tech F1 2010 Thread - Post season washup

I am rooting for McLaren this year, again.
This is important, as i WOULD be on the Merc GP side of the field, if they had drivers besides Chinman and prettyboi.

When it comes to underdogs, it's also VR for me, With a smidgeon of Lotus in there. I realyl want Lotus to do well, but can't stand Trulli or Kovalainen.

 

Silverstone to use new Arena Circuit for 2010 GP:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81407

Will add an extra 700 odd meters to the track, and an estimated 4 secs to lap times.

 

Damn... i liked Bridge... :/

 

I'm not convinced on the new layout - I guess it should be alright, I just like bridge too much, seems like a shame to cut it out.

I might be going to the GT1 championships in May, apparently they're using that layout, so we'll see.

 

Ater Jerez Day 2, The obvious questions are "What was wrong with Button's Macca?" and "Will VR get their spares in time and will we see more than 11 laps today?"

Live timing/commentary Here

 

We're off for a nice weekend of fun (and sunshine) at Silverstone!

 

We'd be doing Spa again, but as a group we've vowed to do as many as possible and avoid repeats for a while.

 

It's too damn expensive to actually do any GPs from here, sadly.
You'd be looking at AT LEAST 2 months full salary in order to just get over to any one of them and have the tickets. That's no accommodation, nothing.
Maybe if they add South Africa to the calendar..... or I move to Europe.

Back to Jerez Test 1 Day 3 though:
Is it just me or does it REALLY seem like the STR cars have some serious pace? I mean - those ARE rookie drivers...

 

I'd love to go to Spa this year but wouldn't be able to make my friends drive all that way. Maybe if I've got my licence next year...

 

Or is it just down to low fuel, headline grabbing glory?

 

You could easily do it on public transport imo. Eurostar to Brussels, train from Brussels and a bus/whatever from the nearest city to the track camp site.

Having said that the drive was part of the epic fun - we went in a convoy with some epic laughs along the way, not to mention some *amazing* roads around the track, mostly empty too!

 

20 Laps for Alguersuarui, 20 for Lewis.
Sure, the STR might be fuelled lighter, but the STRs have some of the fastest times of the week. And Buemi was running REAL quick all of yesterday.
Dunno. Pure speculation, obviously, but I am surprised by their pace either way. Even if they're low fuelled, I am sure some other teams have done low fuel runs by now, and none of them are as consitently quick. The only lap quicker than Buemi's yesterday was the (pretty sure that was lightly fuelled) run by Kamui yesterday

On another note: Lotus is launching their car today.

 

That's exactly the reason why I'd want to drive over, bring on the lessons

Here's something I'd never noticed before - next to Jerez is a mini Jerez. And next to that is a mini mini Jerez, awwww.

 

Just be sure you can get insurance for going abroad once you pass - some companies won't insure you until 21.

Mini-jerez, that looks great. I wonder if we could get a normal car around the mini circuit in the same time as an F1 driver gets round the big 'un.

 

Hopefully insurance won't be a problem then as I'm already 22 there was no way I could afford to pay my way in to driving when I was 17 so I just haven't done it yet. Now that insurance might actually be affordable I've got some driving lessons coming my way from Christmas. Should be good fun

 

alastor: that's pretty cool... never knew that.
I assume Mini-Jerez is a karting track... should be about 1km in length...
mini-mini I have no clue about... tricycles for toddlers?

 

Absolutely! I have to say it's very strange driving on the other side of the road, especially in a car that you normally drive on the correct side.

Incidentally I was having a skim through the story about the new Silverstone layout on the beeb and apparently they're moving the grandstands closer to the track! That's what Silverstone really needs imo, that and some infield grandstands. After being in spitting distance at Spa it felt like we were miles away at Silverstone.

 

I can imagine that does feel very odd; sitting in the passenger seat of a Merc E-Class taxi in Portugal was one of the most surreal motoring experiences of my life so far

Unsurprisingly the FIA will not be publishing the starting weights this year, so we won't get an idea of the fuel efficiency of the different engines. Word in the paddock is that the worst could carry up to 15kg more fuel at the start

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81432

On a completely unrelated note, we need some tags for this thread...

 

Done.

 

VR delayed again, as they need to modify the front wing mounting points:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81415

Reports that Wirth was overheard stating 'Damn, I could have sworn balsa wood was the right material - all the computer models said so... Hand me that Duct Tape.' are just rumours.