Formula 1 2014: General Discussion Thread

Going Strong

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Anybody else find it weird that F1 seems to be more of an endurance series now that the actual endurance racing series?? Saving fuel, saving engines, retiring to get a free gearbox changes etc.

But surely that's just the FIA trying to implement a policy of preventing a spending war by mandating long-life components? The teams will never agree to a spending reduction by themselves so the only answer, according to the FIA, is to impose one on them. The whole 'green' thing is a fig leaf for the engine manufacturers to trot out to their shareholders.

Myrddin

logik wrote: »

Exactly mate, thats my point. Who are they trying to fool, all while damaging the sport. The amount of fans that I know have lost complete interest this year because of the changes is unreal.

There is an element to it though I do agree with. I think the hybrid-tech being used now is fantastic, really amazing & efficient. It took me a while, but I now 'get it' But this is motorsport, the cars are being reigned it too much. They're what, 10+ seconds slower on race day than the 2004 cars (at least the tracks that are left to compare on)...

Daniel S

freestyla wrote: »

Cost Spending talks could be now concentrated in reducing teams size - for example max 400 employees per team.

They'll have chefs/lawyers/accountants/cleaners with degrees in engineering if that happens!

Daniel S

OSI wrote: »

It wouldn't happen. They'll just do what they do now and "outsource" operations to sister companies that have no limitations on them.

Like Red Bull Technology Centre etc?

Robbo

Daniel S wrote: »

Like Red Bull Technology Centre etc?

Complicated yokes, them drinks cans.

SamAK

Gillespy wrote: »

Cost saving is another matter, no tyre warmers next year, how much will that save?

Don't know, but I look forward to seeing people re-joining the track on cold tyres with all that torque

allybhoy

Long time formula one fan, dont really post in here that often, but i was wholey disheartened by Malaysia, and what ive read lately in here. I recorded the race last sunday and cleared my afternoon to watch it, after the first 15 laps i found myself fast forwarding something i dont think ive ever done before. Melbourne was exciting but im thinking now that was down to the weather and the unreliability of the cars. Dont have much hope for a decent race in Bahrain its going to be more of the same, race hardish until the first set of pit stops, then turn the engines down, conserve fuel and nursing the car home, sorry but thats not racing IMO. F1 has lost its way, its a corporate circus with expensive billboards trundling around a shiny track paid for by some billionaire with plenty of paddy the plasterer money to get the race to his country..

The fuel regulations are really really annoying me, i know F1 is meant to be the pinnacle of engineering, but its also a sport, and i think they have lost a lot of the "sport" over the last few years. An F1 car should be able to redline at its max rpm, not operate at 70% less due to fuel restrictions, who are they kidding, this isnt Le Mans think of the global fuel savings they could make if they swapped just one race (Canada and Russia) below...

May 25
Monaco Grand Prix

Jun 8
Canadian Grand Prix

Jun 22
Austrian Grand Prix
13:00
9
Jul 6
British Grand Prix

Jul 20
German Grand Prix

Jul 27
Hungarian Grand Prix

Aug 24
Belgian Grand Prix

Sep 7
Italian Grand Prix

Sep 21
Singapore Grand Prix

Oct 5
Japanese Grand Prix

Oct 12
Russian Grand Prix

Nov 2
United States Grand Prix

Nov 9
Brazilian Grand Prix
16:00

PopePalpatine

The problem there is the Canadian winters.

greedygoblin

PopePalpatine wrote: »

The problem there is the Canadian winters.

Wouldn't mind seeing an F1 car having to deal with a bit of ice and snow.

Anyone remember this with Mika Hakkinen a few years back?

aphex™

I hope he was driving in a high gear

SnowDrifts

The Mercedes turbo clip shown on Sky. Very clever.

http://www1.skysports.com/watch/video/9250473/mercedes-engine-special

Gillespy

Not so exclusive, Sky F1, Scarbs covered it a few weeks ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anLDCVD6v1s&feature=youtu.be

_rebelkid

Very annoyed at Sky RE their "exclusive". Racecar Engineer wrote about it way back in Jerez, with both Craig Scarborough and Matt Somerfield writing and talking about it not long after. But still Sky call it an "exclusive". It's not like they haven't done this before either: Smedely and Massa moving to Williams was broken by Autosprort, and Sky claimed an exclusive. Kimi moving to Ferrari was broken by a Finnish journalist, and Sky again claimed that Mark Hughes and they had the "exclusive". It's disrespectful to the rest of the journo's there that actually use their own work as their own, and will credit other sources is something breaks.

GTE

_rebelkid wrote: »

Very annoyed at Sky RE their "exclusive". Racecar Engineer wrote about it way back in Jerez, with both Craig Scarborough and Matt Somerfield writing and talking about it not long after. But still Sky call it an "exclusive". It's not like they haven't done this before either: Smedely and Massa moving to Williams was broken by Autosprort, and Sky claimed an exclusive. Kimi moving to Ferrari was broken by a Finnish journalist, and Sky again claimed that Mark Hughes and they had the "exclusive". It's disrespectful to the rest of the journo's there that actually use their own work as their own, and will credit other sources is something breaks.

This is the main issue with Sky, tis quite sensationalist and "Foxy" at times but it will be a while before we are quite as dumbed down as the states in the television side of things.

PopePalpatine

Has anyone paid attention to the engine cover fins? My attention drifted to them and now I can't stop thinking about them.

GTE

On a somewhat separate note, David Croft is getting more annoying by the race. I didn't mind him on BBC 5 Live but he seems to have taken an ego trip since moving to sky.

Some of the blatant rubbish speculation he comes out with when something happens like saying how the front nose may have been the cause of the Sauber flip at Bahrain when, even from a small screen it was clearly the contact between the wheels which caused it.

I was also taking a look at this #AskCrofty stuff after the race and when the answers are not a rewording of the question to make it seem answered, he's very condescending.

There was a very negative tweet in that aspect when someone asked if all Mercedes had the split Turbo, Croft got it wrong and was pompous about giving the answer.

And to end the rant, the damn nicknames they use on Sky. Crofty now annoys me (cause of the other stuff) and "Pinky"?

The BBC coverage has not been as good as it was but Skys is certainly not a benchmark in all areas for me.

Donnelly117

bbk wrote: »

On a somewhat separate note, David Croft is getting more annoying by the race. I didn't mind him on BBC 5 Live but he seems to have taken an ego trip since moving to sky.

Some of the blatant rubbish speculation he comes out with when something happens like saying how the front nose may have been the cause of the Sauber flip at Bahrain when, even from a small screen it was clearly the contact between the wheels which caused it.

I was also taking a look at this #AskCrofty stuff after the race and when the answers are not a rewording of the question to make it seem answered, he's very condescending.

There was a very negative tweet in that aspect when someone asked if all Mercedes had the split Turbo, Croft got it wrong and was pompous about giving the answer.

And to end the rant, the damn nicknames they use on Sky. Crofty now annoys me (cause of the other stuff) and "Pinky"?

The BBC coverage has not been as good as it was but Skys is certainly not a benchmark in all areas for me.

He is a knob, I hate when it gets to the last 5 or so laps and he goes ballistic. I wish he would shut up and let Brundle get a word in. He talks so fast he gets all the names/positions wrong anyway so he might as well not bother
I noticed the tweet about the Merc turbo and his BS answer too, he should probably double check before he posts compete ****e on the internet.

GTE

Donnelly117 wrote: »

He is a knob, I hate when it gets to the last 5 or so laps and he goes ballistic. I wish he would shut up and let Brundle get a word in. He talks so fast he gets all the names/positions wrong anyway so he might as well not bother
I noticed the tweet about the Merc turbo and his BS answer too, he should probably double check before he posts compete ****e on the internet.

What annoyed me about the twitter thing is that he cleared it up from a separate account to what the AskCrofty question and answer was run on so it looks like its a general correction and he didn't apologise to the original question poster either.

Myrddin

bbk wrote: »

And to end the rant, the damn nicknames they use on Sky. Crofty now annoys me (cause of the other stuff) and "Pinky"?

Noticed this too, more so about the drivers. K-Mag & Danny Ric....oh ffs leave that crap to Hello! magazine please :rolleyes:

Gillespy

DC and EJ say hi.:p

I'm not a fan of Croft, I think Brundle and Anthony would be good together. Brundle did okay the year he was lead commentator

counterlock

It's the equivalent of tabloid f1 coverage imo. The dedicated f1 channel is lip service to the inevitable back lash of it moving from free to air. Prior to them getting the rights you'd be lucky if they gave thirty seconds coverage on their news channel

Gillespy

They're like that with everything they don't show, FA Cup, Tour de France, Six Nations, IPL.

That was a perfectly good piece, cut the world exclusive crap. F1 fans are a bit more clued in than that. Glad I have the channel though.

flazio

First time having to use Setanta this year and they weren't too bad. No ad breaks and just about stayed for the podium interview. Only complaints are that the live Italian soccer match made making the start very tight and the sound from the FOM feed (team radios and car noises) were low.

Top Dog

First time watching Sky coverage and have to agree with the above comments about Croft. Switched to CNN early on as had a bad feed but went back to Sky when CNN had an ad break. Cringed every time he called a driver wrong - it was like being back in the days of Murray Walker with all the mistakes!

Jordan 199

Two new teams set to join F1 next year.

ZiabR

Jordan 191 wrote: »

Two new teams set to join F1 next year.

Yeah, was reading about this alright, its great news. Bernie did say that they will "accept" a number of teams next year to enter the sport.

PopePalpatine

Who could have imagined Chilton has beaten Bianchi in all 3 races so far?

Jordan 199

PopePalpatine wrote: »

Who could have imagined Chilton has beaten Bianchi in all 3 races so far?

Indeed. Had a look at the standings and Chilton is 18th while Bianchi is 22nd :eek: Never expected that.

_rebelkid

So Nico Hulkenberg is 3rd in the WDC, and Sahara Force India are 3rd in the Constructors... shows what continuity can do.

lolie

_rebelkid wrote: »

So Nico Hulkenberg is 3rd in the WDC, and Sahara Force India are 3rd in the Constructors... shows what continuity can do.

Force India are 2nd so even better, really happy for Perez yesterday after all the praise that Hulk got.
Looking back though Williams should be in 2nd but between rain, bad luck and a few errors they missed out on a lot of points which could be costly come the end of the season.

Daniel S

Jordan 191 wrote: »

Indeed. Had a look at the standings and Chilton is 18th while Bianchi is 24th :eek: Never expected that.

He's doing well to come 24th out of 22 drivers! :pac:

_rebelkid

Extended cut of the "Brundle and Bernie Interview".

ZiabR

_rebelkid wrote: »

Extended cut of the "Brundle and Bernie Interview".

Great stuff. Love Brundle, he just asks what he wants and fair play to Bernie, he will answer everything.

Jordan 199

Daniel S wrote: »

He's doing well to come 24th out of 22 drivers! :pac:

Noted and post edited sir

MS.ing

Deleted User wrote: »

Kinda comes back to what I was thinking about last year, Red Bull and getting the engine to do funny things.

Personally, as I said last year, I'd prefer one or two limitations then "have at it". So I'm not a fan of the max fuel-flow rule, but if Red Bull win the appeal it sets a very dangerous precedent.

there is no way in hell that is going to happen, you either follow the rules or you dont, they havent got a leg to stand on, but they have nothing to lose, theyd be commercial idiots not to try and win, its just games really, they know they have no chance but they have to be seen to put up a fight.

Jordan 199

Two day testing begins in Bahrain today.

MS.ing

Jordan 191 wrote: »

Two day testing begins in Bahrain today.

I would have thought the drivers would be falling over themselves to get more milage under their belts and to grips with new changes (given how far they are down on mercedes and winter testing miles. period (especially RB). seemings like vettel cant be arsed though

very strange..

GPupdate.net wrote:

Bahrain's testing line-up is as follows:

Red Bull
Tuesday: Daniel Ricciardo
Wednesday: Daniel Ricciardo

Mercedes
Tuesday: Nico Rosberg
Wednesday: Lewis Hamilton

Ferrari
Tuesday: Fernando Alonso
Wednesday: Fernando Alonso

Lotus
Tuesday: TBC
Wednesday: TBC

McLaren
Tuesday: Kevin Magnussen
Wednesday: Kevin Magnussen

Force India
Tuesday: TBC
Wednesday: TBC

ZiabR

Red Bull know they have a fast car, Vettel himself has said the car has the speed, they just need to get the power unit sorted with Renault. Vettel has not just lost it over the winter and he proved that in Malaysia. I am not sure there is much Vettel would learn from the test to be honest. Red Bull will be working mainly on the power unit.

flazio

I presume due to the new rules that the engine manufacturers can only tweak with the engines already in the car? They can't just take it out and replace it with a new better power unit?

gally4

i think the engine may be made better when the engine is out of the car ,it is one of loopholes the teams found.

Bugatti

PopePalpatine wrote: »

Who could have imagined Chilton has beaten Bianchi in all 3 races so far?

Yeah, Bianchi has cost a lot of people in the Last Man Standing games! Seemed like one of the safest bets to regularly beat his teammate...but that racing for you!! In fact I think Alonso, Chilton and Grojean are the only 3 drivers to have beaten their teammates in all 3 races.

v3ttel

MS.ing wrote: »

seemings like vettel cant be arsed though

very strange..

Yes, of course, that's exactly right. He simply could not be arsed. It's most definitely a reasonable and logical conclusion to come to, given that he has a reputation for being complete disinterested in anything other than showing up on race weekends and trying to spend as little time as possible working with the team away from the track. It should be pointed out that the other 6 drivers not taking part, are actually arsed, but just have better things to be doing.

Now I know this may be a ridiculous suggestion, but maybe in one of the three remaining in-season tests, Vettel will drive both days, so just as in pre-season testing, both drivers share the test time equally. No. That's highly unlikely actually. He's definitely just not arsed.

Gillespy

Seb didn't want do this test when Kimi wasn't going to be there is what I heard.

SuperTortoise

It's something new for Vettel to deal with, he's been in the best car on the grid for the past four years, so this represents a new challenge for him.

Top Dog

I would have thought the typically dis-interested Kimi would have been there for at least one day given that he's been beaten by his team-mate in the first 3 races of the season.

Not saying he has no interest this time - just surprised he won't be there.

SamAK

bbk wrote: »

On a somewhat separate note, David Croft is getting more annoying by the race. I didn't mind him on BBC 5 Live but he seems to have taken an ego trip since moving to sky.

Some of the blatant rubbish speculation he comes out with when something happens like saying how the front nose may have been the cause of the Sauber flip at Bahrain when, even from a small screen it was clearly the contact between the wheels which caused it.

I was also taking a look at this #AskCrofty stuff after the race and when the answers are not a rewording of the question to make it seem answered, he's very condescending.

There was a very negative tweet in that aspect when someone asked if all Mercedes had the split Turbo, Croft got it wrong and was pompous about giving the answer.

And to end the rant, the damn nicknames they use on Sky. Crofty now annoys me (cause of the other stuff) and "Pinky"?

The BBC coverage has not been as good as it was but Skys is certainly not a benchmark in all areas for me.

.....don't you think you're taking a bit too much interest in silly little details? So he calls Pinkham 'Pinky'....so what? Everyone calls him Crofty. Does that annoy you?

I just got to watch Bahrain and really bloody enjoyed it. Good fun, and the way the last three races have gone is showing that a lot of the pre-season doomsday predictions made by some were nothing but hot air.

Whenever I come on here I see people determined to poke holes and find fault with what seems like every single aspect of F1, be it the racing, the rules, the noise, the noses, the presenters and their nicknames....blah blah blah, and on it goes.

Is it supposed to be perfect?

ZiabR

SuperTortoise wrote: »

It's something new for Vettel to deal with, he's been in the best car on the grid for the past four years, so this represents a new challenge for him.

Not to mention that his team mate has done better than him this year so far.

mickdw

Ya I saw bit where someone asked about the customer mercedes teams getting the same tech re turbo as the works team.
He said no they don't and made it sound like a very silly question and basically said that this is what sets the Mercedes works teams apart.
Very poor stuff.

Santan

Guys Im sorry but 1 race, a season does not make. Granted that was one of the better races in the last 2 seasons but i think that is what is wrong now, look at how excited we get, even when lets be honest we knew, at least what team was going to win the race before it even started, having grown up with this sport over the last 30 odd years, seeing cars going so much slower than free practise, I cant remember the last time i saw a driver get out of the car and have a drop of sweat on him after 60 odd laps, well it most be one of the only sports other than chess, that doesnt have the participant pushing his body to the limit at times, that to me is sport, not coasting around for all those laps and just pushing for the first 2. I love this sport but it is getting harder every race.

GTE

SamAK wrote: »

.....don't you think you're taking a bit too much interest in silly little details?

No.

SamAK wrote: »

Everyone calls him Crofty. Does that annoy you?

Nicknames don't annoy me, but I believe there is only so much informality that should be used in broadcast environments.

SamAK wrote: »

Whenever I come on here I see people determined to poke holes and find fault with what seems like every single aspect of F1, be it the racing, the rules, the noise, the noses, the presenters and their nicknames....blah blah blah, and on it goes.

The determination seems to be perception or assumption and the "blah blah blah" is a bit disrespectful but for the sake of conversation, there are many users here who contribute and when their opinions are combined there is a wide range of issues covered. I don't understand why you would combine these issues and then assign them to users like you have. By having an issue, one is not subscribing themselves to supporting all the separate issues raised by others.

SamAK wrote: »

Is it supposed to be perfect?

A national/international broadcast should. I would be pretty shocked if perfection was not a project aim for any group of people, regardless of what the job is. It is unattainable but should always be an aim in my opinion.

For example, one could argue that the sound issues from the Melbourne should not have happened given that there was a lot of pre-season testing where we knew exactly how quiet things would be on track, relative to last year.

For an average punter and as an audio engineer, I understand these expectations perfectly and the world feed provider and/or Sky & BBC have addressed this pretty quickly so people were on the ball in addressing that problem for the most part but I would wonder how the issue happened in the first place from a production planning point of view so there is something in that issue in my areas of work and interest.

What I am getting at fundamentally is that it looks like you are taking your own personal interests and opinions and assigning anything which goes against them as wrong, silly and little. This is a forum with a very large user base, so I think this way of going on is a bit silly in itself - especially when you are confronting someone who works in areas broadcast production about how silly and insignificant their opinions are. :rolleyes: