Formula 1 thread

[tifosi77]

Long Beach 2008 was the final Champ Car race (*sniff*) and it was also the only standing start I've ever witnessed in person. It was highly amazing.

[dodint]

For some reason CNBC-World did a 30 minute show about how F1 teams acquire car and driver data during an F1 race. Pretty nifty.

[tifosi77]

That sounds like prime DVR fodder. Do you remember the name of the show?

[dodint]

One Second in ... F1 Racing

I thought it was a one-off IT feature, but they did a bunch of stuff. The presentation isn't super technical but had some cool facts and interviews. The one I watched was IT & Data.

[tifosi77]

I love technology. Still at work, but I just set my DVR to record the series. We live in splendid times.

[dodint]

Yeah. I was driving up I-81 with my wife, heading to see some family for the holidays. She started complaining she forgot to record some Peanuts specials we don't have on DVD, so I had her dig my laptop w/aircard out and login to my DirecTV channel guide. Point, click, record.

Like I said, those specials aren't super insider stuff. I just liked the tidbits (F1 teams generate 25-50GB data/race) and the interviews were interesting. As a big BMW F1 fan it was bittersweet listening to Monisha Kaltenborn talk about the transition from Mario Theissen to the new regime.

[tifosi77]

Dr T was the man.

[tifosi77]

This is kind of a big deal... Montezemolo announces Ferrari exit

Luca di Montezemolo departures as Ferrari's long-time president after 23 'marvellous and unforgettable years'.

Luca di Montezemolo has ended the intense speculation about his future by announcing his departure as Ferrari's long-time president.

In a media statement on Wednesday, the 67-year-old said it is the "end of an era" for Ferrari ahead of the floatation of the Fiat-Chrysler group in New York.

(the typos in the excerpt are in the story.... felt oddly compelled to explain that)

When Schumacher, Brawn and Todt all left the F1 team, Luca D said he wanted to make a concerted effort to bring the Italian influence back to the team. He always bristled at the persistent criticism in Italy that the glory years of the 2000s were delivered to Maranello by a German, and Frenchman and (worst of all) an Englishman. La Gazzetta Dello Sport used to have an English language page that I stopped reading because they were so OTT. The appearance to many influential journalists was that Luca D did not have faith in his fellow Italians, this being somewhat bolstered by his previous association with the Niki Lauda years (he was the F1 team boss in the 70s) who also was famously not Italian and disrespected the Old Man by quitting mid-season after winning the title in '77. (Never mind that he quit because the Old Man questioned Lauda's manhood after the Austrian retired a healthy car in Japan the year before, you know two months after he was BREATHING FIRE at the Nürburgring)

Well.......... this is what an Italian-run Ferrari looks like. They are a complete and utter mess right now. Shambolic. The structure of the team completely disintegrated in seven years. As a lifelong Ferrari fan, it is painfully reminiscent of the doldrums between the end of the turbo era and the arrival of Herr Schumi. The team scored 28 points in 1992, and went without a win from Spain 1990 to Germany 1994 - 58 races over nearly four years. The difference is back then their drivers were Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger. Useful guys, sure, but not world beaters. Fernando Alonso is one of the best drivers of my lifetime. Raikkonen won one world championship and lost out on another only because of reliability, altho he's clearly lost a tenth or two. They are simply wasting their time. The Ferrari fan in me is glad they're there, but the Alonso fan in me wants him in a different car.

[dodint]

I came to the sport in Ferrari's dominance (2005ish) and hated them for it. Now it's just kind of sad and I've buried that hatchet with them, so to speak. I'll never be a Ferrari F1 'fan' but I quit rooting for them to fail a while ago. I've heard the rumors that it was the Italian workforce poisoning Ferrari and it's a shame. I'm a fan of their GT program(s) and would really love to see them in an LMP program, but with the F1 piece out of sorts I doubt it'll come anytime soon. Boo.

I was both surprised and not surprised to see him step away. Oh well.

(Lauda could've stayed on course and maybe scrapped up enough points to win that championship without pushing 10/10, btw, I feel he gambled on principal and lost)

[tifosi77]

If he had stayed in the race he would have been a mobile chicken and hazard. It was hurricane raining, and he couldn't blink his eyes to clear the water. Actually, that's inaccurate - he had no eyelids to blink. I think he did the right thing, and I've always respected him for it.

[dodint]

You're a dreamer, tif. A real sentimental fool.

[tifosi77]

You're a dreamer, tif. A real sentimentalfool.

More accurate.

[CBear3]

Goodwood Revival Broadcast
[youtube][/youtube]

You're welcome

*Also, the FIA bans basically all none safety related radio transmissions from the pit wall*

[tifosi77]

Goodwood, Le Mans, Monaco, Spa

#BucketList

[tifosi77]

BTW, thank you for that share. That was tons of fun.

The FIA is once again meddling into intrateam politics by banning practices that are really none of their business regulating. Although, I do confess to being stupefied at how open the engineering dialog has been with the Mercedes drivers. Sharing braking points, bias percentages, engine settings..... that's a bit much, imo. But that's up to Mercedes to sort out, and the fact that they are doing it indicates they have no problem.

[dodint]

Formula E, in with a bang:

[youtube][/youtube]

Hindsight says: that curb is in a bad spot. Also, don't mess with a Prost.

[CBear3]

Holy crap! S-U-S-P-E-N-S-I-O-N

[tifosi77]

OMG, if I were Heidfeld I'd have bashed Prost's face in with my helmet. That was a truly awful, awful piece of driving.

[tifosi77]

On second thought, those things are expensive. I'd have bashed Prost's face in with his own helmet.

[Sigwolf]

That finish was not at all indicative of what a horrible race that was... boring, rare overtakes, and that horrendous whine. I also didn't read enough going in to realize that the "pit stops" would consist of the cars driving into the garage, at which point the drivers then get into a different car! If the technology has not gotten to the point that the battery can last the entire race, or can be swappable in the car in a pit stop, then what is the point of this?

Needless to say, I was not impressed.

[dodint]

Yeah, Formula E is the epitome of corporate social responsibility going haywire. Trying to paint any kind of racing as a Green endeavor is going to end up with weird stuff like the two car thing. That really takes the cake for me. Part of racing is attrition, getting a completely new car halfway through is bonkers. They should've at least made the batteries swappable even if it took 2 minutes or so.

[dodint]

The FIA is once again meddling into intrateam politics by banning practices that are really none of their business regulating. Although, I do confess to being stupefied at how open the engineering dialog has been with the Mercedes drivers. Sharing braking points, bias percentages, engine settings..... that's a bit much, imo. But that's up to Mercedes to sort out, and the fact that they are doing it indicates they have no problem.

I didn't know what you were getting at when you wrote this, but just read about the radio ban. The amount of stuff an F1 driver is responsible for is akin to a fighter pilot. If they want less team intervention then ban all the crazy settings they have to manage while also hitting their marks. What they do now isn't really racing in the romantic sense but the days of a driver having to rely on his wits and a pit sign board alone are over so why institute such a vague and confusing rule? If they don't want radio traffic, take away the radios or make them one way.

[tifosi77]

This new ban is a reaction to what I consider to be the over-sharing of information by Mercedes between the two sides of the pitwall. We've had a number of instances where one driver would ask where they were losing time in relation to their team mate, and they'd be told "Hamilton is braking five meters later for turn 1" or something like that. Their engineer would tell them when their team mate was switching engine modes, etc. To me, that's proprietary, or something that should be reserved for the debrief. Handing over mid-race is not kosher. However, if the team chooses to operate that way, that's their business.

All the FIA are doing is making an already too-complicated sport slightly harder for the drivers to manage. Ordinarily, I'm all for anything that puts more responsibility in the driver's hands. But the current generation of cars are simply too complex; like you said, they are handling processing data, and managing on-board systems like a modern fighter pilot..... all while maintaining situational awareness, and - you know - driving. I actually think the complexity of the cars has increased the safety risk of F1 to a degree. Maybe a bad example because, well, he's who he is, but look at how many times Maldonado has simply driven off the track this year when he's gone head down to reset some widget. I think that why Sutil (or was is Hulkenberg?) spun exiting the final turn in Hungary.

[dodint]

F1 silly season went full ****** with amazing speed.

Vettel took Alonso's seat. That right there is a ton to grasp. But then the ripples are significant too, is Button out of F1 now or relegated to backmarker status? What about Kimi? Vettel is betting his legacy that Ferrari gets it right and that's a tough wager.

So much to consider, I'll have to digest it all and come back to it later.

[CBear3]

Mind = Blown
Shocked Kyvat was confirmed so quick at RBR.