Reply With QuoteYay! F1 season is nearly upon us again. Time to catch up on what I missed out during the offseason. Driver changes, rule changes, etc.
I did a search, and didn't yet see a thread for the upcoming 2011 season.
A lot of new cars have been unveiled in the past few days.
Between the teams, the RB7 has the closest thing to the sharkfin engine cover. The rest of the field seems to have adopted an engine cover like previous years.
The Lotus Renault GP (not to be confused with Team Lotus-Renault) has their exhaust ports exiting near the front of the side pods for a (hopefully) increased blown diffuser effect. (source)
And a nice list of links of unveiled cars so far:
Ferrari F150
Team Lotus-Renault T128
Lotus Renault R31
Sauber C30
Red Bull RB7
Toro Rosso STR6
Williams FW33 (interim livery)
Mercedes W02
McLaren MP4-26
Virgin MVR-02
HRT F111
Force India VJM04
Last edited by nKoan; 02-08-2011 at 09:42 AM.
Yay! F1 season is nearly upon us again. Time to catch up on what I missed out during the offseason. Driver changes, rule changes, etc.
Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines.Originally Posted by nKoan
One big change is movable rear wings. This Sauber video shows it in action around the 2:30 mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUaAb-W5ITw
Okay this year I swear I'm going to keep up with F1 after falling out the last 1 1/2 years or so... would be good leading up to 2012 and the US Grand Prix in Austin. Still can't believe that. Already looking forward to attempting to get tickets as soon as they become available.
--- Alan
The new McLaren MP4-26 was unveiled today in Berlin. They started with a half-assembled car, and put the various bits on in front of the crowd (engine cover, front wing, wheels, etc). The shape of the sidepods is pretty dramatic, compared to the other cars this year.
Good pics of the car at launch: http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/v/McLaren/MP4-26/
Studio pics: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-photos/6742//
And autosport has a lot of pics, but you can't see the hi-res pictures unless you are a subscriber
http://www.autosport.com/gallery/index.php/id/2317
They left the front wing in the oven too long and now it's all melted and warped.
Wow, what a freaklish alien-insect looking car.
It's rather ugly, but I think I like it.
These rear wing rules seem really stupid to me. As I understand it, you will only be able to use the lowered wing when you are a) within 1 second of the car in front of you and b) on the one designated area of the track where it's allowed.
Yeah, it seems to be an odd rule to enforce. I'm thinking maybe some of the rules are programmed into the ECU.
Robert Kubica was involved in a nasty wreck in a rally in Andora.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89312
He seriously hurt his right hand, right arm and leg. The surgeon is now saying it'll take a week before the definitive answer about regaining use of his hand.
http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/02/06/w...ubica-surgeon/
Eek. It looks like Kubica will definitely be out for the year. I hope he makes a full recovery and can come back to racing somehow, I really like the guy.He added that it could take a year for the Pole to be able to use his right arm again.
That is awful news. I just really hope he can get better and come back and be as good as he was. This kinda ruined my day. I'm a little surprised at how much it's bothering me.
I couldn't believe it when I heard the news. The grid is full of people I'd cheer for at the moment and Kubica was definitely one of them.
I don't think we'll see him in F1 again if he won't have full use of his arm for so long ... however I was certain that Massa's career was over, or he would return a shadow of his former self after his incident.
I've also seen soccer players suffer horrific leg brakes and come back over a year later to score again and again. I hope Kubica gets the news he's waiting to hear next week.
Last edited by Noterist; 02-07-2011 at 12:10 AM.
Majorly sucks. I like Kubica a lot, and he seems very down to earth. It'll be awhile (if ever) before we see him back... and when he does I imagine it'll be GP2 first I imagine to get him back into the speed of things. But it's going to take a long while. Very unfortunate.
--- Alan
Damn, Kubica seem like a very nice guy. Hope he makes a full recovery.
Today's BBC report:
--- AlanRenault driver Robert Kubica has regained consciousness as he begins his recovery following seven-hour surgery.
The 26-year-old's right hand was partially severed and he suffered arm and leg fractures when he crashed during a rally in Italy on Sunday.
"The doctors have said he has taken important steps forward," said Kubica's agent Daniele Morelli.
Renault said in a statement that Kubica had been able to move his fingers and had talked to his relatives.
"He was briefly woken up by the doctors," said the Renault statement.
"He was also able to move his fingers, which is encouraging for the rest of his recovery process.
"In order to avoid any physical stress, Robert will be put under gentle medication in order to sleep for the next 24 hours at least.
"Meanwhile, the doctors will decide how they will treat his elbow and shoulder fractures. Robert may have to undergo surgery once again for this, but not for a few days."
Yesterday's crash saw Kubica collide with a crash barrier on the outside of a fast right-hand turn 4.5km into the first special stage of the Ronde di Andora rally. It was reported that his Formula 1 career could be at risk as a consequence of the injuries.
"partially severed," yikes! Hopefully it's not the end of his career; he's been good at putting pressure on the leaders and making things more interesting.
This picture has been making the rounds. It shows the barrier going through the entire car.
Also, the in-car video of the car following Kubica on the stage is up on youtube. It doesn't show the crash, or anything grisly, but at about the 3 minute mark you can see the course getting yellow flagged, and the car is pointing the wrong way. The video ends after the driver and codriver of the other car park and jump out to help on the scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALbxMiwf4nw
I think he (and his co-driver) are lucky to be alive.
In unrelated news, the final three teams have unveiled their cars (or in HRTs case, released an official rendering, with pleas for sponsors)
Virgin MVR-02
HRT F111
Force India VJM04
Oh man, bummer. Hopefully he can make a big recovery.
I started watching auto racing in an era where drivers died like flies. I stopped watching for a long time because it simply got depressing: Miles, Donahue, Revson, Bandini, Rindt, Clark, McLaren, Scarfiotti...I was happy when Gurney, Stewart, Hall and Hill retired from racing simply because I liked the idea of them living more than seeing them race anymore.
It can be a tough sport to be a fan at times.
Perhaps even tougher to be a participant.
I spent some time doing corner work for SCCA circuit events, because my budget only allows me to play in Solo, and it keeps me close to wheel to wheel racing. I had just finished a long, scorching weekend working Texas regionals at Texas World Speedway and was busy enjoying the air conditioning, beer, and congeniality at the wrap-up party -- it's amazing how grateful the drivers are to the folks who come out to work corners for them -- when someone broke in with the announcement about the wreck that cost Zanardi his legs.
To say that a cheerful event went somber in a flash would be a brutal understatement.
Haha, I love this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Sg8it4ZbY
--- Alan
Well, it becomes a lot less fun at the 4:00 mark when Senna retires! Unless you are a big fan of Mr. Red Mist.
Awesome racing in the laps involving Senna and Probst though.
Alright, Melbourne next weekend.
Pirelli has announced they will be using different sidewall lettering colors for the various compounds.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90008
Wet - orange
Intermediate - light blue
Supersoft - red
Soft – yellow
Medium – white
Hard – silver
Last edited by nKoan; 03-18-2011 at 01:11 PM. Reason: Repeated myself there
Wish I could get red for my cars in GT5. Heh.
Anyone know how F1 is going to be broadcast in the US? Fox, Speed ? Live and/or tape delay? It always seems a jumbled mess and I only catch 2 or 3 races a year.
It might be the light in that picture, but noone will ever be able to tell those two apart. Even if they only bring either the medium or the hard one, it will be hard to tell which one they brought.
Oh well. I guess that's what the F1 iPad app is for. (Which is excellent, btw.)
Yeah, they skip a compound when choosing for the weekend, so we'll never see a white/silver race. But, yeah, they look almost identical.
It's still on Speed on my DVR's upcoming schedule, both live and a rebroadcast on Monday morning for Australia. No Sunday early afternoon rebroadcast like they used to do, though. (Edit: Maybe that's just because of a conflict with a NASCAR race that weekend, though)
Speed has most of the races. They usually do them live, and then replay them later in the day. I just set the DVR and watch the races on Sunday morning.
I don't know for certain, but I assume Fox will pick up a handful of races (4 seems most likely) and they usually show it as a tape delay and start at 9 or 10am local time on race day. Again, I just set up the DVR and watch the race when I can.
Yea, so you'll just have to determine it by seeing the other tyre, red/yellow and determining if they're using medium or hard.
The only time Speed doesn't air the races live is when Fox is going to broadcast them on delay. Which I hate since I usually catch the race live, also I hate there is no pre-race show. While the purpose of airing it on Fox is try and get more people interested in F1, they bumble it by not introducing any of the drivers or teams to new viewers.
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