[Closed] F1 season starting.... anyone else quite excited?

I'm very excited. I'm currently watching a couple classic races that i've recoreded on SkyF1 to get me in the mood, Oz 1994 and then Oz 1999.

Yes. I'm hoping this is a Mercedes / lotus / red bill / Ferrari / mclaren fight to the finish!

Hell yes. Promises to be a close season - new tyres, exhaust & DRS restrictions will level the playing field a bit (lookin at you RedBull), no real conclusive leaders from testing and no dogs in the top flight either. I'm hoping for a Kimi revival, just to see what he says in those cringeworthy podium interviews.

Oh yes! Can't wait!
Will be interesting to see how much sandbagging has gone on in the testing.
Would love to see Ross pull another one out the bag .... He's got the drivers to do it I recon. Can't quite believe they are as quick as they looked in testing though :~

Yep. I am looking forward to it!

First race on BBC?

I really cannot wait to see how the tyres degrade and how the teams cope with this in terms of startegy and pit stops

Can there be a better way to tell who is the fastest driver - I THINK NOT

I am! I've got a niggling concern though that we could have a 2002 (IIRC) type season where everyone thinks RBR won't be dominant but then turn out to be just that...

But hopefully the stricter flexy wing tests will hurt them more than others resulting in a really close season with ebb and flow like last year. It would be brilliant if Hamilton's Merc is somehow up there (and not just in qualifying but through the race rather than chew its tyres up like last year)

Yay, can't wait, and I get to watch it at a sensible time down here. Free coverage in Oz though for some reason the races in the americas are repeated at 11 in the evening on a Monday night, so missed most of those last year.

Anyone know of any sites that show full re-runs for such times?

Rich

BBC iplayer with a UK proxy (ish) - beartunnel for example

I have a dish pointed at RTL (Astra) and listen to R5 commentary. Only problem? They're out of synch by about 5s 🙂

I'm really looking forward to my afternoon snoozes.
Go for ride, home, shower, lay on sofa watching F1, wake up 1.5 hours later. 😀

First race on BBC?

Not till China in April for the whole race live, 'extended highlights' for the rest as last year:
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21682493 ]BBC coverage[/url]

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!! 😛

Kimi + lotus for wildcard bet!

Its going to be a re-run of Hamo's first season in F1- exactly like it was. Firing on all cylinders, off, crashes, storming, all over the place.

Hamo at his talented-rawness 8)

Kimi's going to finish 2nd this year and regail us with more funny one liners.

Vettel is going to be a nice boring driver.

Button is just going to be boring.

Yep, Suzi Perry...

I was at a mates house the other weekend who has a full Sky package, their coverage of F1 is amazing, It was the last Barcelona test and everything was covered including truck polishing and wheel cleaning. Brilliant for anoraks, its a shame but it leaves me a bit cold these days and I am a grade a petrol head. To much politics to many dull tracks and way to much money.

There's been less politics and money in the last couple of years than the years before!

Even some of the really dull (previously) tracks have had fantastic racing in the last couple of years too... Are you sure you've been watching F1 and not MotoGP? 🙂

it feels like they've pushed the reset button.
looking forward to seeing how it pans out.
hoping for a season of off-the-track and on-the-track flouncing, bickering and handbags as well as some epic drives in the rain.
happy now that Schumacher has finally done one.

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!!

Yep, Suzi Perry...

And agree with what brakes said

Fantasy this year? Mrs od won it last year!! 🙂

clubber 😆 MotoGP was dull last year but made up for by Moto2 and Moto3 madness. Things like DRS for me is just awful, it is such an artificial way of manufacturing overtaking. Kimi is great for the sport and his Abu Dhabi performance on the track and on the radio was fantastic. I think the world needs more Maldanado and Grosjean and less Vettel 😆

I don't mind DRS - it's not a guaranteed overtake so I think they usually get it about right and they're tweaking it each year.

I don't think you understand DRS if you find it so awful. That in itself might be a problem for DRS (ie not being able to get an easy appreciation of it) I suppose - but it is pretty well designed, imo and does exactly what it set out to do. If DRS gifted overtakes t cars that did not deserve to overtake then the other car would immediately re-pass the very next lap every time, but they don't.

I can't bloody wait for the season to start though.

I've nothing against DRS. I'm not sure why we expect masses of overtaking in a race format that by design has the faster cars starting ahead of the slower cars.

It does allow some teams to be a bit more adventuress on strategy as they know there is a better opportunity to overtake again if a strategy loses them track position for whatever reason.

I think Vettel will win again FWIW. Be good to see Lewis battling for some wins though

has the faster cars starting ahead of the slower cars

Not always true of F1 though - yes the faster cars in qualifying setup are ahead of the slower cars in qualifying setup but that doesn't always translate to the race. 1 lap performance is not the same as 10/20/50+ lap performance.

F1/the FIA are sort of stuck with the aero situation (and therefore DRS) unless there are wholesale changes down through all the layers otherwise we'll see lower formulae with potentially higher cornering speeds than F1. IIRC the early draft of the 'new F1' rules had major wing restrictions but those have been scaled back to retain a lot of the aero performance, partly because nice big wings are high value advertising spots.

I'm afraid it just doesn't excite me at all.

That's ok. Some people find riding bikes boring.

Just spotted this for the motor sport fans - [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rd365 ]That Petrol Emotion - BBC4, 18 Mar, 20:00[/url]

I don't think you understand DRS if you find it so awful.

Whats to understand?

Actually yes, I quite like the tech and strategy aspects of it. Also, I have automatic access to Sky F1 HD (part of my existing HD package) so it's all there for me.

Only really got into F1 a couple of years ago although I remember watching the nail-biting Hamilton World Champs win and I've seen "one-off" races over the years without being into the whole series.

Whats to understand?

yes! cant wait to see how Hamilton gets on and if Button gets any better 🙂

stuck behind much slower cars because of the aerodynamic effect.

and that is the crux of the problem, you cant overtake because your car is so reliant on its aerodynamics and it wont work in disturbed air. DRS is a crude way around the fact that F1 rules have painted the sport into a corner. Much better to limit the effects of aerodynamics than to introduce a "overtaking gimmick"

Indeed.. but F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport. The problem that they were facing was that by restricting the aero futher, F1 cars would be slower than lower formulas, including Indy.

Clubber Indy cars are faster than F1 cars 😉 well at least when they go round in circles. Arie Luyendyk qualified in 1996 with an average speed of 236 mph for the Indy 500. Going around in circles is a bit dull IMO but then so is a race like Valencia god rest its soul.

I don't hate F1 but I think it has got to change, it wont because the money is to big and the poison dwarf is pulling the strings.

I've always wondered how fast an F1 car would go if they actually did ovals though - eg tiny wings, etc..

The comparison is obviously vs street circuits though.

And F1 has had two of the closest, most exciting championships in the last couple of years with good racing at most of the tracks. F1 needs to change to be relevant and IMO the new engine format is doing that. I reckon it's generally doing pretty well. Only the financial risk of teams going out of business is the storm on the horizon IMO right now.

Such a tired, boring argument that F1 has too much aero and not enough mechanical - heard it all before a million times. Some of the best races are wet or drying - those are the races where the ratio of aero to mechanical is even higher, so that gives the lie to that theory. Aerodynamics is part of the fabulous technology of F1, and the drs pretty successfully addresses one of the pitfalls of that.

Last season was yet another brilliant cliff-hanger with great races all the way throughout the season, more winners than ever and the Championship settled by a scant handful of points in the dramatic final race. Fer crying out loud! What more do you want?

I've always wondered how fast an F1 car would go if they actually did ovals though - eg tiny wings, etc

Iirc BAR ran a side project to set a max straight line speed for a legal F1 car, but were 'only' aiming for around 250mph. I'd reckon an indy car could crack that without as much tweaking, and a le mans car wouldn't be too far off.

Such a tired, boring argument

Hey I am just not a huge fan of the current F1 set up, takes all sorts doesn't it 😀

I've always wondered how fast an F1 car would go if they actually did ovals though - eg tiny wings, etc

Around a "road circuit" Eg Silverstone or Spa an F1 car would eat an Indy car for breakfast. An F1 car has a big power to weight ratio advantage over an Indy car and this would make all the difference.

On an oval track its more about the fact the Indy car is optimised to run in a high speed configuration constantly turning left. You could modify an F1 car to run on an oval but it would be close between it and an Indy Car

Le Man's cars are too heavy to be competitive against either.

I know about the BAR F1 salt lake thing - but that's just straight lining and they had some funny set up - eg no rear wing but a 'rudder' instead.

[img] [/img]

dead annoying. damn noisy, loads of roads are closed, and the council has spent millions on the thing. We leave the city when it's on.

Interesting story about Honda coming back in to F1 as an engine supplier.

1.6 V8 ...1.6 though?????????????? 😯

Next years engines are turbo'd too, containment of the turbo vane is going to be an issue if they go wrong though

How about a 6 cylinder 250 😆

[img] [/img]

Yeah but 1.6 V[b]6[/b] with grunty turbos, KERS AND Thermal ERS. Still 750BHP even before the KERS and ERS kick in!

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/01/24/f1s-v6-engines-2014-numbers/

Its so cute 😀

[img] [/img]

Hopefully it'll be great, I can't wait to see how the Hamilton/Mercedes partnership plays out as well as the potential Alonso/Vettel fight to the death.

I think just behind/with the front-runners there's lots of potential for fun: Button, Kimi, Massa, Hamilton and maybe Di Resta all battling it out - it could be great.

I'd like I see Button do well - I'm a bit of a fan (although maybe a bit misplaced) but I'd like to see some more aggression to go with what I think is a quite intelligent driving style.

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/chris-hoy-to-take-part-in-australian-grand-prix-1-2831296

Back in the day (80's turbo era) Honda produced 1.5 litre turbocharged V6's capable of producing around 1200-1300hp in qualifying trim.

Engine displacement is not really a limiting factor in power output if you have some kind of forced induction

The BMW turbo era cars had so much power in qualifying trim they didn't have a dyno that would read that high. 3 laps and they would be wrecked (info from Prosts book)

there's going to be some seriously clever gubbins - using energy recovery to spin up turbos mid corner off throttle so that there's no lag, etc.

Could lead to some interesting new drivers excuses... 😆

If the anti lag is like the old WRC stuff it will sound like WW3 😆

Not sure I want my turbo spinning up mid corner 😉

Back in the day (80's turbo era) Honda produced 1.5 litre turbocharged V6's capable of producing around 1200-1300hp in qualifying trim.

Don't forget the super sticky qualifying tyres to go with! 🙂

Great days . Read an article once that speculated that had they been allowed to continue developing the turbo engines the cars would have soon become undrivable for having to much power.

Great days . Read an article once that speculated that had they been allowed to continue developing the turbo engines the cars would have soon become undrivable for having to much power.

However with todays driver aids (if they were allowed in regs.) would be able to handle it, think motogp style traction control etc, 'crack the throttle fully open and let the electronics sort it out'.

However, they'd be going sooo fast when it did go wrong the gravell traps would have to be several miles deep. 😉

Let's speculate then - engines producing, say 1500-1800 BHP

Cars would then run huge wings since the engines would be able to drag them along and they'd go round corners so fast that drivers would have to wear g-suits. Crashes would be huge so the regs would have insisted on massively strong tubs but that doesn't sort out the decelleration so some sort of pre-emptive airbags would be needed.

Far out stuff.. 🙂

Article below I thought you guys might like

About Jens Munser is the king of Formula One helmet design/paint jobs

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324178904578339542840296174.html

Let's speculate then

Ejector seats 😆

Then you get to re introducing the ground effect stuff for even more grip 😉

Ejector seats

Not a bad idea 😉

Unless you're upside down 😯

Let's speculate then - engines producing, say 1500-1800 BHP

No more Monaco 😥

Interesting helmet painting article, ta for posting that. Can't wait for Melbourne...

Let's speculate then - engines producing, say 1500-1800 BHP

Should have added, the article reckoned they'd become undrivable within a couple of years (from the peak of the turbo era) so early 90's.... When the cars and circuits were still pretty sh1t from a crash safety perspective

But people say 'undriveable' but really they'd have just been forced to come up with ways of making them driveable, be it some sort of limited slip or mechanical (in those days) throttle/torque dampener

I think they were referring to the G's that could be achieved.
Granted they could wear suits like fighter pilots.....

But more power wouldn't have lead to more Gs in itself - braking pulls more Gs than accelleration afterall - or were you suggesting undriveable based on aero?

There is plenty of room for innovation if they let them do what ever they like with aero.

Completely active aero could easily double downforce. At that point [s]pilots[/s] drivers would need G-suits

ah yes, the dreams of an F1 without limits (except of course for driver safety).

I read somewhere that a gas-turbine type engine would have come to the fore , except for regs imposed.

[url= http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/106037 ]Blimey Lewis- at least wait until the race![/url]

it will be a pattern we will see often i fear this year.

McLaren and Ferrari seem to be struggling....

it will be a pattern we will see often i fear this year.

No as I said earlier in this thread- Lewis's driving style really suits 'dancing around'- he seems to become passionate- drives the bollocks off a car when hes not being a 'Button' (i.e. smooth/to finish etc). yes he he had some good drives last year but he was (probably) told to drive smoother/conservative and not be rash.

Be rash!

Even if it means binning it- hes entertaining to watch when hes on it.

if anyone else is up and doesn't have sky, eplsite.com is a useful link...