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

F1 Crashes... Usually spectacular, yes?

Watch this:





http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/83289

I'd love to see footage of how he got up there - he got some serious air!

 

you can just about see in the rear view - he rides up over the rear wheels of a car in front of him

 

A better angle, less shocking though

 

UK TV times ahoy!

Friday 7th May 2010
Spanish Grand Prix Free practice 1 8.55–10.35 (BBC Red Button and online)
Spanish Grand Prix Free practice 2 12.55–14.35 (BBC Red Button and online)

Saturday 8th May 2010
Spanish Grand Prix Free practice 3 9.55–11.05 (BBC Red Button and online)
Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying 12.10–14.15 (BBC1, Red Button and online) (Qualifying starts at 13.00)

Sunday 9th May 2010
Spanish Grand Prix 12.10 (BBC1, Red Button and online) (Race starts at 13.00)

Here's Webber in the RBR simulator to preview the Circuit de Catalunya:


(not sure if the embed is working, here if it isn't)

 

Practise 1 so far "the usual", with the exception of Schu seeming more at home in his new Chassis than Rosberg. Substantially so, in fact.
Anyone's guess right now, and we won't know who closed what gap until Tomorrow after Q3.

Catalunya has been won 9 consecutive times (AFAIK) from pole, so with the weatherman reporting good weather, the onyl thing that could make the race not be a procession is Tyre wear. The circuit is known to be hard on the tyres.

Either way, top 7 racers in pretty much a 1 second spread looks like the quali will be interesting.

 

Ive lost touch with all the cars who are getting upgrades >.> I'll wait till qualifying to judge whats working and whats not. Still have to remember tho that Ferrari and McClaren always seem to do better in the race.

 

Agreed about quali.
Prac 1 breakdown the way I see it (big teams/changes only):

RBR: No HUGE upgrades, and pacing as normal. Competitive for sure, and they only show true colours in quali so far this year. Definitely competitive, though

McLaren: Practise-fast. Good pace, even on not brand new tyres. Competitive, but we'll have to wait and see

MercGP: Schumacher out-practising practice-king Rosberg? That's interesting. New chassis for both drivers, new "radical air box" as well, that should reduce drag. However, Merc is normally fairly on-pace in practise. It's race pace they have been lacking so far.

Ferrari: Completely unrepresented in P1. They are testing their new f-duct systems and stalling rear wings. With that in mind, they haven't shown the effect of their new engine (THAT decision by the FIA I don't quite understand - WHY?) properly yet. Wait for P3 or Q1.

 

My understanding is that the Merc's weight distribution has been fundamentally wrong so far - too far forward which has induced lots of understeer which really doesn't suit Shoemaker's driving, but did suit Nico quite well. The biggest upgrades this weekend are likely that the front wheels have gone forward and the gearbox shortened to move the rear axle forward as well. This moves the overall distribution back, leading to a pointier car that Michael will like a lot.

Oh, and the new airbox is definitely radical:

 

Could mercs not run 2 cars then Rosberg in the old, Schumacher in the new?

what decision did the FIA make, I seem to have completely missed it >.>

 

the FIA allowed Ferrari to change their engine mid season, due to a reliability issue.
Now - don't get me wrong. I understand some such decisions - for example allowing Virgin to change their car drastically, due to the fuel demands that were changed late.
However, an engine? reliability issues?
Isn't that part of F1? If they had said "We can't finish GP's with this engine", I would've been fine with it, but the fact is that they CAN, and that the engine WAS competitive.
Next thign you know, Merc GP goes "Yeah... we need to change the engine, because Big Schu hates the way it sounds between 8 K and 9500 RPM. Oh, and it's actually too slow for us to win GP's".
The call (imho) should've been "Tough luck. Make Do. All cars have weaknesses".

But then, I am no mechanic, nor does anyone (besides the boys and girls at Maranello, and probably Bernie) know what exactly changed about the engine.

 

The process is that if you can prove a sub-par component exists within the engine, i.e. you have physical and photographic evidence of failed said part, you can go to the FIA and ask to modify that part. The component doesn't have to fail in a race though; you can put the engine on a dyno until it breaks and produce that as evidence.

Following the request to the FIA, the other teams have a set period of time in which to object to the proposed modification. In theory that's ok, but in practice nobody objects because it's likely any modifications they might want to make in future will be objected by the team they objected...if that makes sense. So nobody will say no to Ferrari, for fear of Ferrari saying no to them in future.

 

Reaks of the usual Ferrari favourtism when put that way tho reading the article it seems like a minor tweak rather than an overhaul. If they keep the same amount of engine allocations till the end of the season then I can't see a problem with it.

Also means they would have to have seen and had prior knowledge of the said part to object in the first place

 

FP2 is just starting if anyone else is around:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8663370.stm

 

Pretty dull qualifying I thought, those Red Bulls are ridiculous - a whole second faster than anyone else.

I hope tomorrow isn't going to be a boring procession... (fingers crossed for rain!)

 

Holy cow, the updated RBR is a complete rocket-ship in qualy trim. Are we going to see a RBR in pole for every single race this year?

 

Its looking like a possibility, i knew the redbulls were quick but not by that margin!! its been a long time since ive seen a pole sitter almost a full second from the next team!


Once again though i cant help but feel a little sad as im once again hoping for rain, and i shouldnt have to hope for nature to create an interesting race

 

The Red Bulls have definitely taken another step away from the rest of the field but I don't think the margin will always be this big - the car has more raw downforce than the rest which makes it ideally suited to Catalunya's fast corners.

Not an amazing quali, can't see the race being a classic but it should be interesting between McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.

 

Did you guys catch Alonso's "look, no hands!" moment when he was using his F-Duct thingy and adjusting brake bias at the same time? Pretty mental...

 

Argh that was so frustrating! Quite a boring race topped off with a no-score for Lewis

 

Some drama, but no overtaking ruined the day again as did single stop strategies. Turned off half way through and then watched the last few laps to find I didn't miss anything.