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

My predictions for the season -

Winning constructor: McLaren, with Ferrari and Red Bull close behind.

Winning Driver: Lewis Hamilton, with Button, Vettel and Alonso taking places 2-4 (altho not necessarily in that order).

Rookie of the year: Have to go with Kobayashi, after his performances at the end of 2009 he's definitely a man to watch out for.

Let down of the year: Schumacher, think he might start the season fairly well but by midway through will be nowhere to be seen. He's too old, past his best imo and is driving against drivers who are younger, faster and more aggressive. It's a completely different dynamic to when he was at his peak and I think it's going to show, mid-table season finish for him at best.

Most likely to retire at end of the year: Webber, Barrichello and Schumacher.

 

Agreed - I reckon this might be Massa's peak season after all that extensive training through the winter, as well as his obviously decent determination to get back out there. If he was going to retire anytime soon I reckon last season was it after such a near-death experience.

I can see Schu packing in at the end of the year if he really can't compete, I don't think he's the type to stay in a field which is consistently better than him.

Chandhok is like most of the other unproven rookies in there, he might stay or he might go. In the meantime he's sure to be entertaining anyway.

One thing that I don't get is why the jump from GP2 to F1 is so big. The GP2 cars are 800+hp cars with pretty decent downforce, what makes an F1 car so much more alien that there are so many rookies who can't hack it? I know it's obviously a jump up if only in the sheer R&D terms, but even so I'd have thought it wasn't a deal breaker for these obviously talented types.

 

I would be inclined to go for

Constructors:-
1. McLaren
2. Redbull
3. Ferrari

But for the Drivers I can see Button and Hamilton doing what Webber and Vettel done last year and costing one of them the drivers, most likely Hamilton.

Drivers
1. Alonso (Great driver who can adjust to a new car and I think Ferrari will be good )
2. Hamilton (either Hekke was really bad last year or he done amazing with what he had. 3rd season so expecting great things)
3. Vettel (Red bull will be fast, probally the fastest but reliability issues from last year will ruin his championship)
4. Button (First season in "Lewis's" team and while a very consistant later season drive last year would worry)
5. Webber (unluckiest man alive lol)
6. Massa (Never been a massa fan and his consistancy has never been perfect. Alonso will surely be favoured over him too and I just think other drivers will be better)


I think it will be tight tho and all it takes is for one drivers head to go down or team orders to decide things. I donno where to place Schumacher. He will be a dark horse. If on form he'll put in a good drive thats for certain, but if he is getting past it or the car lacks too much funding even he could get sucked into mid field especially with 3 strong teams already there. He'll definatly outperform Rosberg and possibly be the deciding factor in the championship (A driver drops points by DNF but he gets a head of next title contender forcing them to drop points).

Summary Hamiliton, and Button, will all share wins while Alonso will be more consistant than both of them with Vettel and Webber stealing the limelight but not as often due to reliability. Mass will play second fiddle but will ultimately be outclassed by a very strong field.

 

Massa - i just dunno. I'm not convinced he'll stay for too much longer - but you might be right. He might have the season of his life this year... I just reckon he might be getting frustrated by starting the season on really high spirits, and then getting bested by the "titans" on the field.
Pure speculation/gut feeling, though... based on nothing at all

 

I dont think Button will be that a strong a contender this year. Last year he was lucky with the car but i believe quite a few of the other drivers would have easily won the championship if they had been in the same situation. His confidence will be high and i wish him luck but i think he will be completely outclassed by Hamilton.

 

This is what frightens me about this year. I hope he's wrong, just as he does himself, but I think we need plenty of crossed fingers.

 

I disagree slightly with what he says, but it has got me a little concerned. I think the starts now are more important than ever having such a heavy car, and the first few laps should still be as hectic as ever because the extra weight should help those that can get on the power a fraction earlier.

It will be a case of can the season live up to the hype, but hey its looking more promising than the last few seasons.

 

"same kind of dread as watching GPs from Hungary and Valencia back to back"

Hungary has had some great races. Schumacher's (and Jenson's first ever) win with the unorthodox 3 stop strategy were both examples of extrordinary drives, and tremendous strategy.

"Now that refuelling is banned, pit-stops will be limited to changing tyres only and so teams will be able to predict very accurately how long each stop will take and where it will put them on track."

The smallest mistake will cost dearly. The difference between 3 and 3.5 pitstops could change the result entirely like it did for a time in the 90's when we had no refuelling. Pitstop strategy will be more important with wider variations in strategies. Driver skill will be more important. Being able to eek out a tenth a lap without increasing tyre wear dispreportionatley will show who the real drivers with innate natural talent are.

Narrowing the front tyres, while increasing the weight of the car, like when they went to slicks and didn't increase the diameter or thickness of the brake disks, these are the things that will and have spoilled the racing. Limiting or reducing the areas that can enhance overtaking, especially with the insane move to more low speed corners where brakes and front end grip are more important for overtaking than in high speed corners where downforce and engine power (the 2 things they keep trying to reign in) are more important.

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh!! Sorry guys rant over. Can't wait for tomorrow morning and the first practice session.

 

We'll see how it goes.
I am afraid that the no refuelling rule makes the car more important than before, making it harder for a lower budget team to have a fighting chance.

I think the "case of the Sandra Bullocks" is a bit pessimistic, though - the starts will undoubtably be critical. But so will weight, and, let's not forget the Q3 tyre rule, which means that everyone behind 5th has potentially got a couple of extra laps before they have to change tyres.
Which is, one might argue, not necessarily that big a disadvantage, but I am sure that this will be a couple of tracks where Tyre wear is extreme, and the front starters will have to switch more than the others.

The effect of wight and tyres is so extreme That red bull sent their pit crew to train with the olympics for a while... just to now be able to claim sub-2-second tyre changes...

Edit: Oh, and +1 for "Can't wait for tomorrow" - Hope F1.com shows the live timing. No BBC here sucks el fatto...

 

Something else useful from the ever lovely Auntie Beeb - you can download an ICS file to add all the races to your Outlook/Google Calendar/iCal calendar. Genius:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8562692.stm

 

Awsome! cheers for that!

 

+rep, awesome find man. Now my phone can bug me whenever the practise is on

 

So... Friday Prac today.
McLaren got the green light for their rear wing from the FIA yesterday.
Button and Hamilton seem to get along great, ...for now.
DAMNIT... START already...

 

Good rundown of the new rules over at F1.com

 

And the season has started!! Yeah!!

 

Yeh... looking like typical running, really. Everyone waiting for newer teams that need more practise on the track to run in the racing line first.
For some reason, i can't see Forumla1.com's live timing - some java error that I really CBA to check out now. There's commentary at Autosport as well, though - but no timing i can see there..

Will be interesting to see how the new tyre changes affect practise. First set of hard rubber needs to be handed in after this session

 

No sign of either Virgin and Bruno Senna has only done a solitary installation lap...on the plus side the menopause car doesn't look all that bad in cold hard daylight - quite a bit darker grey. Great to finally see the cars in motion, the onboard shots are looking especially good. Apparently all of the video is being shot in HD this year but the FOM feed is downscaled to SD - full fat HD should be broadcast from next season.

Oo there's a Virgin finally.

edit - here's something that may be especially useful for you Bent, McLaren are running their own live feed with real-time(ish) telemetry from both cars: http://mclaren.com/home

 

Thanks, Alastor... have rep for that one!

 

wow some serious butthurt from Bob Bell today

 

I can see Bob Bell's point completely. If they've had a gentleman's agreement in a Tech Working Group not to pursue wing stalling then McLaren do, it opens a whole new ballpark where the other teams have to have a new homologated chassis made up, including the incredibly expensive crash testing.

Whatever the situation with the clever McLaren, 2010 is off and a suitable smiley would be