Formula 1 2010 Season

[Draco-REX]

Has started! Bahrain this weekend. Friday Practice is done, Qualifying tomorrow, then the race Sunday. Set your DVRs!

[flyinbrian]

Set. Watching practice on DVR now. Cannot wait...no refueling allowed, Shuey is back, Hamilton/Button teammates, Williams fast at the moment....should be a very interesting season to say the least.

 

I love F1.

[mrs.cos]

yay for practice today

[Primera]

Anyone else see Mclaren's little sneaky air duct to remove downforce from the wing? Someone definitely got a nice bonus when they came up with that.

[flyinbrian]

I cannot believe they are getting away with that duct. The rear spoiler is in question as well.

[mrs.cos]

Where the hell is the sound???

[Draco-REX]

SPOILERS!! (Though if you're worried about spoilers, why are you even looking at this thread?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great race, even though my stomach made me miss most of it. The extra weight is going to really push reliability. We're definitely going to see more attrition this year, as everything on the car will feel the weight of that extra fuel. A third of the field retired in this race, and 7 of those 8 were due to mechanical failures. I bet the 8 engine limit is going put the hurt on some teams, and I won't be surprised if it effects the championship.

 

Vettel is going to be a force to deal with this year, if his car will stay together. He and Webber are blazingly fast. If they can hammer out the reliability issues, Red Bull racing could cement themselves as one of the true big dogs of F1. Imagine that, a soda company standing tall with McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari.

 

Alonso is showing why he was a Champion. It's good to see him out of the slow Renault and making a big splash on his Ferrari debut. But as much as he integrated with the team so easily, it looked like he was doing a little showboating when he was in the lead. Massa ran conservatively while Alonso was clicking off fast laps. It might turn out that Massa will prove the more consistent driver in the long run.

 

Speaking of Massa, way to get back on the horse! I know that if I had taken a 30lb spring to the face at 160mph, I'd be a little more gun-shy. Remember, there's barely any testing outside the race weekends and between the seasons. He didn't have a huge opportunity to overcome any mental issues.

 

Schumi. He's still got it. But will it be enough? Considering he took 3 years off, and the cars are so different from what he last remembers, 6th place is really good. He's already stated that he thinks 2011 will the year for Mercedes and himself.

 

The big surprise for me was Lotus though. They put two Formula 1 cars together in 6 months. Half a year! That, in itself, is amazing. And it did show during practice and qualifying with pieces literally flying off the car. But what really amazed me is that, on their first race, at one of the hottest locations on the schedule, they got BOTH cars over the finish line. That's more than some much more experienced teams did (BMW was a double DNF, and Renault had a failure as well). Heikki said to give Lotus 3 years to come up to speed. If they can keep doing what they did today, I don't doubt Lotus will be adding to their great history in 3 years.

 

Who'd have thought I'd see British Racing Green and the Silver Arrows on the track live. I thought those sights were before my time.

 

I'm not so sure about McLaren's stalling wing. I see nothing bad about routing air through the body to the rear to effect the wing. Aerodynamics are just that, dynamic. Just because McLaren thought of it first, doesn't mean it should be banned outright. This isn't NASCAR. However, I do wonder about the driver-actuated flap in the ducting. Granted it's not an external aero device, and I'm sure the driver or pit can control other ducts in the car, but it's a very grey area. One that should be decided on quickly. That or McLaren needs to design out the driver-controlled aspect of it. Otherwise, other teams are going to start "ducting" other aero devices so that they can be made active. But thumbs-up for the innovation; taking a problem from last year and turning it into a ground breaking idea this year. I bet Adrian Newey is kicking himself for not thinking of it first.

 

Can't wait for Austrailia in two weeks! Damn.. two weeks to move a F1 racing operation to the other side of the planet.. I don't envy those crews.

[mrs.cos]

Ok, sersioulsy.. Nathan and I have NO sound for the race except commentators.. are we the only people?

[Draco-REX]

Ok, sersioulsy.. Nathan and I have NO sound for the race except commentators.. are we the only people?

 

Worked fine for me. Watched it on DirecTV

[Smokey]

I've really been looking forward to this season and I can't wait for more.

 

Although I must admit that I'm not a fan of Alonso (Little Miss Sunshine), I guess it gives me a good rivalry to root against. I'm also torn with him driving for Ferrari. I'm very pumped for Massa though I hope he comes back and kicks Alonso's ass this season.

 

Bogey for Vettel, but I think he showed a lot holding on to 4th place. I think he's going to be a force this year and a strong candidate for the championship.

 

Schumi will get up to speed, I wouldn't worry about him. I think he's trying to take it slow, and I'm not so sure that the Mercedes car is quite to the level of the Redbull or Ferrari teams.

[Doug1647545489]

I thought it was a fairly boring race. Only one pass for the lead when sebastion had problems. It looked very hard to pass for the front running teams. Maybe they should just remove the rear wing and all rear aero grip. That would be interesting to see

 

Pit stops are a joke. Steve was raving how quick they were, but there's no skill involved anymore. Very little oportunity to make mistakes. Atleast when we had refueling the attachment would get stuck every so often.

[Draco-REX]

I thought it was a fairly boring race. Only one pass for the lead when sebastion had problems. It looked very hard to pass for the front running teams. Maybe they should just remove the rear wing and all rear aero grip. That would be interesting to see

 

Pit stops are a joke. Steve was raving how quick they were, but there's no skill involved anymore. Very little oportunity to make mistakes. Atleast when we had refueling the attachment would get stuck every so often.

 

True. But the possible issues in the pits have been moved out to the track. And a lot of people think that the race should be won or lost on the track not in the pits. So, yeah, there's less chance of an issue in the pits. But the risk of a fueling issue or a wrench guy fumbling the safety release has been replaced by other risks.

 

• Increased weight from the fuel will cause stress on the entire car. These cars can't be driven like the cars of last year when they are full of fuel. You can't hop curbs, or brake as aggressively. Plus, a lot of these parts were designed for a car that weighs 300lbs less!
   
  
• Greater tire wear as well from that weight. Tires will be under more strain, not just from the weight, but the front are smaller now, so there's less mass to handle heat buildup from braking. The rear has more downforce and the cars are better balanced now. So rear tire wear will be up as well.
   
  
• No refuels mean that the teams have to debate between carrying extra fuel to have flexibility in strategy, or to run the calculated minimum for less weight. Fuel management will be big this year, and you know there will be people running out on the final 5 laps this year.
   
  
• And don't forget the new teams. They are anywhere from 5-8 seconds a lap down on the front runners. Teams will need to deal with lapped traffic more than ever.
  

 

ALL of these things will need to be managed by the driver during the race. The drivers are more involved than ever and that is something which a ot of F1 critics have been clamoring for. A misjudgement on any of the above points can ruin a race. Let alone all of the other things a driver needs to deal with.

 

If anything, I think there is MORE risk this year than in recent years.

[Draco-REX]

Forgo to mention. I agree that some more passing would be nice. But ther ejust isn't an easy way to accomplish that. F1 is the bleeding edge of racing. Every millimeter and milligram translates into real-world results in F1. If you remove all the aero, the teams will still develop the cars to the limit and passing will suffer.

 

Qualifying is as much a part of the race as the race itself. If you're not watching qualifying, then IMO, I think you're missing half the fun. I think of F1 as a two-part series. A test of not just roadcourse racing, but time trials as well.

 

In my eyes, qualifying sets the field. It's the chess match that sorts everyone out. Then race day determines if the teams have the ability to hold onto their spot.

 

Vettel looked like a shoe-in for 1st. But that didn't happen. BMW Sauber looked like it would be a mid-pack contender and Lotus would fall apart in the first corner. But that didn't happen either.

 

Passing is only part of the race. The trophies may be given out on Sunday, but the race starts on Thursday. That's what I love about F1. It's the whole package.

[NOPR]

Good race. The rule changes have made everything completely different per usual. I'm still learing all the new teams and who is on what team.

[Draco-REX]

Good race. The rule changes have made everything completely different per usual. I'm still learing all the new teams and who is on what team.

 

Formula1.com and F1technical.net are both great sources.

[Smokey]

Bump. I was completely happy this morning. The Australian GP was everything I wanted this season in F1 to be. Much more passing, tons of excitement, and differing strategies.

 

I was a bit bummed to see the 2 stop strategy go sideways from the wreck between Hamilton and Webber. I was hoping that Hamilton and Webber both would have passed Alonso. That would have also fueled the idea of using 2 stops in the future, but with Button only running 1 I think it'll continue the thought that 1 is the best.

 

Side note, I hope it rains every race from here on out.

[Draco-REX]

Great race. And I agree, I almost wish it would rain more often. Were the conditions perfect for overtaking? Are the new rules conducive to over taking? Or did the FIA promise a little under-the-table bonus for each pass after the blasting they took for the last race?

 

But even when it was dry, this race really showed that in the first race everyone was being conservative. With so much changed for this year, no team was going to miss out on the data they'd get from the first race.

 

This race is where the engineers have said "We think we've got it figured out, have at it." Unfortunately, some engineers weren't as on the ball as others. Poor Vettel. Twice his car has let him down now. Granted they might have been faulty components, but that doesn't change what happened.

 

The FIA *MUST* reinstate testing.. Maybe in a limited fashion; by capping time, money, mileage, tires, or whatever. But the new teams are being hurt the most by the testing ban, not helped by it. And it's the low-budget teams that the ban was supposed to help.

 

Vettel is the Man, and the RB6 is the Car... If only the RB6 would make it though a race. Hopefully this is the end of Vettel's bad luck. He and RedBull have got everyone scared. But if this trend continues, Vettel is going to lose morale and fall behind. F1technical.net run a poll for each race asking who people think will win. It was Alonso for the first race, but Vettel jumped to the top for this race after his performance in Bahrain. But even after dominating in qualifying and the early race *again*, the poll has shifted away from Vettel. I don't think it's doubt in the driver, but doubt in the car..

 

I may be rooting for Vettel this year, but I won't be unhappy if Massa takes the championship. He deserves it and he shouldn't become one of those "Almost, but not quite" drivers in the history books. A 2nd and 3rd is a good start to the season.

 

Alonso is looking really good... But I get the impression that he's not going to be consistent. We'll see how things go.

 

Button is putting lie to some of his critics. Good job. But he still has a way to go.

 

Hamilton is looking like his old self again with those ninja-like passes. Whether going back to his old aggressive ways is good or bad remains to be seen however.

 

The FIA is going to crawl so far up Sauber's asses that their engineers are going to be shitting red tape. A wing failure in practice is bad, but acceptable. Two is worrisome, so the FIA's inspectors took a look at it. But to have a THIRD in the same weekend let go and cause an accident that knocked three drivers out of the race is unacceptable. Even though it's only 1 week to the next race, I'll bet Sauber shows up with a new wing, or the FIA probably won't let them race.

 

Lotus is still amazing. Of the three new teams, only Lotus has put a car over the finish line in both races. HRT finished this time, Virgin has yet to cross the line. In fact, Virgin has apparently *discovered* that they don't have enough fuel load to finish a race at full speed. How the hell do your engineers miss THAT?

 

This has was a very interesting race. And with the shakeup of drivers and teams, this is looking to be a very interesting season. Can't wait for next weekend!