I'm expecting a strong year from Mercedes. Unfortunately I'm going to miss this weekend's GP, which is a shame because at least half of the cars will retire.

Good to see the opener back in Australia.

A hard hitting overview of when Formula One was more dangerous that should be interesting to those not old enough to have witnessed it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00z8v18/Grand_Prix_The_Killer_Years/

Hopefully the new tyres can deliver more intense racing this season, though I won't hold my breath. Most people can only be watching out of habit these days.

>>3198

It's crazy to look back on. When you think about the weekend when Senna and Ratzenberger were killed and how it immediately made everybody demand that the sport change for good, it boggles the mind to think that people back then would just accept deaths and carry on regardless.

>>3198
Saw this and it horrified me. I actually uttered the phrase, "thank god for health and safety." I shall never utter it again. Ditto on a praising a Scotsman.

>>3181
But back to the point.

DRS just seems a bit pointless, and absurdly overcomplicated rules-wise. I'm disappointed. But then I shouldn't have let myself get excited. It certainly won't massively increase overtaking as promised. KERS on the other hand, I'm actually quite happy to see back. Though I'm intrigued by what's going on with Red Bull and their system.

I'd guess a complete whitewash by the Red Bulls, and another disappointing season for Ferrari, BUT I've actually got some serious hope for McLaren.

On the tyres, I think they'll only make a difference for the very few cars for whom it massively alters their number of pitstops - can't remember who it was in Melbourne who only pitted once, for example.

But unless something really changes very soon, I really don't see why Vettel can't keep the title, and Red Bull the Constructors' cup.

Pretty good race at Sepang I thought. Shame about Hamilton dropping off in pace, I thought he could take it to the german lad. Button 2nd, can't complain.

Also, lol at Petrov trying out the flight capabilities of his car.

>>3221
Vettel was just cruising, I don't think he was ever in real danger of being caught.

Good races for Heidfeld, Button, Kobayashi and the Force India's.

>>3222
And when (if) they get KERS going, Red Bull are likely going to be pretty much unstoppable, even if McLaren and Ferrari get their issues sorted.

>>3221
I though so too - far more interesting than Melbourne. Looking forward to China now, and I wasn't before. Especially good to see some proper hard battling out going on. Dare I say even that the DRS might have had an effect?

>>3224
>Red Bull are likely going to be pretty much unstoppable
I think they'll lose a fair bit of their advantage when they get to Europe.

Button is so dissapointing when he doesnt get 7 races given to him for free on the back of a momentus technological advantage.

Typical brit driver happy to settle for second.

>>3227

>> ferrari fan detected

Also, butthurt much? Button looks faster and more comfortable than Hamilton at the moment

Anyway, looks like it's Vettel's to lose this weekend... again. I hope one of the Mclarens can mix it up with him. I don't care about the moaning Aussie git.

>>3228
>I don't care about the moaning Aussie git.
He had a great race today, fuck knows how he managed to end up on the podium.

I was expecting Vettel to storm to victory after the first round of pit-stops after it seemed McLaren had ballsed-up their tactics yet again.

>>3229

Yeah Webber was immense today, as was Hamilton. Really showed Button who is boss at Mclaren, I have to say.

Quality race though, was on edge for most of it.

Can't believe Hamilton played the racism card about his penalties today. They were deserved and, funnily enough, helped sabotage Button's chances of winning the race.

He's been a right whiny cunt recently.

>>3352

>>He's been a right whiny cunt recently.

Quite.

Button drove a helluva race today. In fact, the top 3 were a class above.

>>3352
That was an Ali G joke that went wrong.

Shows how dominant the Red Bulls are right now, managed to fuck up completely two pit-stops and still win.

>>3355
>joke that went wrong.
It's probably because he has no charisma. He tries to play off this cool image, but he has the charisma of a shrivelled turd.

Hamilton has absolutely lost it.

>>3380


As have race direction. After a 3 hour break, why is the safety car still fucking out? I swear I'm losing my mind watching this shit

>>3382
Oh sweet suffering fuck, does this never end?

https://www.youtube.com/v/4MhrExzbkDM

Mad bastard. Unusual to see Vettel choking under pressure...

>>3384

I saw this and lol'd hard. Poor guy must have panicked.

And Button drove so well today. Top class. Let's just hope he doesn't get penalised post-race..

Hamilton's forced smile while everyone else in the McLaren paddock was celebrating was fantastic.

>>3385

Button is magic when it starts to rain, mabe something to do with him being British. Schumacher was always the same.

A great race although I am puzzled as to why they started under the safety car. I understand that the tyres were new but it seems that Health and Safety has been taken a bit too far.

On another note has anybody seen the new Senna film?

>>3387
Not even a racing fan but just got back from 'Senna' with many a tear in my eye

First time Vettel hasn't finished on the podium all season. IIRC out of Vettel's 16 race wins there has been only one, last year's Malaysian GP, where he wasn't on the front row of the grid.

SKY TV, BITCHES

Fuck everything.

Hamilton confirmed for Takuma Sato in a fast car.

>>3459
I love reading every F1 blog on the BBC website because the neverending butthurt about the Sky deal is a goldmine.

>>3527

>> neverending butthurt

I am still pretty butthurt over the entire deal.

Also, what on earth is going on with Hamilton? I really think he is regressing as a driver, becoming more clumsy. I know you could say Hamilton has been unlucky, but who would have thought Button would be showing the way at Mclaren? It seems that way now...

>>3528
err. I did. no really, IMO Mclaren are trying to develop Hamilton as a driver, so he can preform well consistantly: Button is a tactician and smooth driver in all weather: they want this to rub off on Hamilton... doesnt excuse Hamiltons driving of late though.

So, how many times has Hamilton hit Massa this season?

>>3576
I think this is the third time in four races, but this is the first time it was Massa's fault.

I think they need to get rid of the quickly degrading tyres for next season. It's made it even easier for Vettel to pull away from the front row and dominate races.

>>3577
I don't even think it was Massa's fault. I couldn't believe it when they gave him the penalty. Hamilton came from too far back and just dove into the side of him.

Shameless bump.

First GP this weekend. Mclaren looking good.

>>3790

Kudos to Button for taking first and holding it all the way. Bloke is pure performance.

Anyone know a reliable way to watch decent quality footage during the Sky weekends? English not strictly necessary.

The cost of subscribing to Sky Sports F1 through Virgin is fucking ridiculous and it's not even HD.

>>3796
Depends what you mean by decent quality. I watched qualifying this morning with firstrowsports.eu; it's not broadcast quality but the text is legible. When you first open the stream you'll get a couple of ads but then it shouldn't interrupt you for the remainder.

Hamilton and Button front row tommorow, looking forward to it.

>>3796

Isn't it included in the Sports package?

That's ridiculous.

>>3796

Get Sopcast, and watch BloodZeed's channel. His streams are excellent (basically as good as Sky Player or other official services), and while he mostly does Football, I think he said he's going to do F1 when it's exclusive on Sky.

Basically, point sopcast at this address:

twitter.com/BLoodzeed

And you're good.

>>3803

Pic related: it's the stream as it looks like right now.

Force India team members were forced to flee as petrol bombs were hurled over their vehicle on their way back from the Bahrain Grand Prix track.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17767985

This weekend could be quite eventful.

>>This weekend could be quite eventful.

Really wouldn't be surprised if the race doesn't go ahead.

Force India were blanked out of coverage of the qualifying yesterday for skipping the last practice session.

Anyway, this season could shape up quite nicely if Lotus and Mercedes can keep it up.

>>3847
Red Bull were very careful to cover up some new change to their car this weekend, I have a horrible feeling they're just going to take the championship from here. Mercedes have the special DRS thing which only gives them an advantage on circuits with big straights, so I don't imagine they'll be on the podium much more this season.

RAIKKONEN 2013

http://vimeo.com/73215350

Shell wont no wots hit em.

>>5005
Oh, nicely done! I was wondering what people were laughing about (but not enough to check, obviously).

>>5006
The second one being unveiled made me titter.

Last week Giancarlo Minardi said that Vettel's car sounds like they're using illegal traction control.

http://www.minardi.it/international/news/singapore-whats-inside-newey-and-vettels-magic-hat-see-more-at-

Red Bull have responded by saying they're not cheating, they just have a system that mimics the effects of traction control exactly.

http://www.f1-fansite.com/f1-news/vettel-red-bull-enhance-traction-system/

I expect more booing when Vettel wins tomorrow.

>>5091
>I expect more booing when Vettel wins tomorrow.
There will be booing in pubs, but the Korean circuit is a shitty track in the middle of nowhere that gets very low attendance.

>>5091

Racecar Engineering are implying that it's a KERS trick - using torque from the KERS regen to balance torque from the engine. If this is their solution, then it is both utterly brilliant and completely legal.

The ECU rules are extremely strict and engine torque can only be controlled proportionally by the accelerator pedal. No such rules apply to KERS regeneration - you can harvest energy using KERS whenever you like. This obviously creates the opportunity to regulate torque at the rear wheels by tapping off torque using the KERS system rather than reducing torque output from the engine.

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news/red-bulls-traction-secret-revealed/
http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regulations/technical_regulations/8699/fia.html

>>5093
It's a bit cuntish not to give it to Webber, though.

someone bought me quite a nice polo shirt that has F1 written on it, therefore many people try to talk to me about it when I wear it. Since I know nothing, can someone teach me a couple of good phrases to reply about current racing stuff? Someone along the lines of "Nasty crash that ____ had" or "_____ is doing well in the new ______" would be great lads.

>>5095
"Vettel won again last night - he'd be nowhere without Newey's genius engineering".

"Really hurts to see McLaren in this shape, I hope they get it together again before they get the Honda engines in 2015".

>>5096

Also, just pick any random driver you like and say that he really needs to work on protecting his tyres more.

Fuck the tyres and traction control.

All they need is POWWWERRRR

>>5095
Marussia need to adopt the 4-4-2 formation of the older teams if they're ever to match their pace.

>>5097

Apart from Webber, that is.

I'm so glad I got up at 6am for that race. Holy shit.

>>5099

Did you see that ludicrous oh fuck it you know what I'm going to say

https://www.youtube.com/v/Ahg90HABOy4

>>5166
Definitely senile.

>>5167

It's a smokescreen. He's always acted like a mad bumbling twat, to disguise the fact that he's a Machiavellian genius. Boris Johnson plays exactly the same game.

RIP Schumi.

>>5297

Calm down lad, he's not dead yet.

>>5298
They've said he's had a brain haemorrhage, is in a coma and his condition is deteriorating. He's not coming back from that. There's meant to be a press conference at midnight.

>>5299
Yeah doesn't look good.

He can't even ski as well as he once could. Maybe it's the right time.

>>5304

>Earlier yesterday the director of the resort was quoted as saying the injury was "not very serious". Christophe Gernignon-Lecomte said: "It was a pretty heavy fall at 11.00 while skiing off piste.

How piste was he?

Strange to see an injury like this happen when relaxing in retirement after a career of dangerous driving on the track.

>>5305
He was completely off it.

^Sorry.

>>5306

It's not that uncommon. Modern motorsport has become remarkably safe, because of car and track design. If you crash an F1 car, 99% of the time you'll walk away without a scratch. There hasn't been a death in a grand prix since Senna in 1994. Racing drivers are natural adrenaline junkies, so when they're not racing, they tend to do dangerous things in environments that aren't nearly as controlled as a racetrack.

Mark Webber has never been seriously injured in a racing accident, but he has missed several grand prix due to two serious bicycle crashes. Same goes for Sebastian Loeb - never seriously injured in a rally car, but smashed his shoulder to bits in a mountain bike crash. Colin McRae survived a long career in rallying unscathed, but died due to his reckless piloting of a helicopter. Adrian Sutil missed the 2012 F1 season because he stabbed the owner of Lotus-Renault in the neck.

Racing drivers are mad bastards and it's a miracle that any of them make it to old age.

It might sound weird but Schumacher was kind of a childhood hero for me. Sad news.

>>5309

I get that. My dad is a massive Mclaren fan, so naturally my wee contrarian self had to back Ferrari.

All of the cars for this season look arsebackwards.

>>5360>>5359>>5362

Genuinely made me laugh. Why do they all look like beetles?

>>5363
It's a safety feature apparently, meant to reduce chance of cars taking off or t boning other cars cockpits.

Why do they all have penises on the front?

>>5365

It's a poorly-drafted safety rule.

For aerodynamic reasons, teams want to push as much air as possible under the car, so the designers want the nose to be as high as possible. This trend got so extreme in 2011 that the FIA were worried that drivers might be hit in the head by these super-high nose tips during a side-on crash, so introduced a maximum nose height of 550mm forward of the front wheels. In F1, there really isn't such a thing as the spirit of the law, so most teams interpreted letter of this new rule to their best advantage. To keep the nose as high as possible and maximise the airflow underneath the car, they simply had a flat section and a steep step, making the nose as high as possible within the rules.

The FIA were still worried that the high noses were causing cars to launch over the rear wheels of other cars, so they introduced further restrictions on nose height for the 2014 season. These regulations were quite complicated and intended to prevent a workaround like the flat noses in 2012, but they had a significant loophole. The rules require that a 9000mm^2 cross-section of the nose be no more than 185mm from the ground. Several teams realised that they could build a conventional high nose, with an extra protrusion just big enough to satisfy that height requirement, therefore leaving a lot of space under the main nose to allow air underneath the car - these are the 'finger' noses used by most of the teams.

Ferrari and Mercedes have opted for a slightly different solution, using the two vertical pylons that attach the wing to the nose to steer air under the car. How well that works in practice is yet to be seen, but aero development probably won't be the key issue this year; The teams are having terrible trouble developing the complex hybrid engine systems mandated by the 2014 rules, so this year's championship will probably be won by whoever can get the reliability issues sorted.

How fast could modern F1 cars go without all these restrictions and things designed purely to try and make the race more exciting (KERS etc.)

>>5366 the FIA were worried that drivers might be hit in the head by these super-high nose tips during a side-on crash

AIUI, they also wanted the nose height to be less than half the tyre height, so a nose-on-rear-wheel impact would just push the following car back, rather than launching it.

I'm assuming that the nose gear is all outside the homologated section, so we'll see a slew of thing being tried, and probably a consensus sooner or later.
That's once fripperies are sorted of course, like ensuring that cars can actually start their engines and make it round a track.
It's going to be an interesting year, so naturally the BBC canned their only commentator with any technical clue. Wankers.

>>5367

F1 cars aren't incredibly fast in a straight line, topping out at about 200mph. Where F1 cars excel is in the corners. The aerodynamic surfaces on an F1 car trade straight-line speed for cornering speed, by pushing the car down into the track for more grip.

F1 performance is limited almost wholly by the drivers. On a fast corner, an F1 car will be pulling close to 5g, which is about the limit of human endurance. F1 drivers have massively thick and muscular necks and novice drivers often have to rest their heads on the side of their cockpit towards the end of a grand prix, because they just don't have the strength to hold their head up.

The other big constraint is cost. Many of the restrictions in F1 are about managing development costs to keep teams competitive. Without those rules, you just end up with a contest of who can spend the most. The leading F1 teams have fairly similar budgets, but Red Bull are dominant because their technical director is a genius.

If F1's rules were much more liberal, you'd have a £200m radio-controlled car doing very quick laps of an empty circuit.

>>5368

>I'm assuming that the nose gear is all outside the homologated section, so we'll see a slew of thing being tried, and probably a consensus sooner or later.

It'll be slightly tricky. Everything forward of the front bulkhead is outside of the homologated chassis, but the nose and floor are designed as a package, so any radical change to the centre section of the wing will require a massive redesign of most of the aero surfaces that depend on that flow, from the tea tray through to the sidepod exits. It would be very difficult to switch from a Ferrari-type solution to a finger nose or vice-versa.

Unless a team realises that they have a really poor design, they'll probably be better off developing their existing design than switching completely. I don't expect to see a repeat of the double-diffuser or the F-duct situation and don't think that any one solution will have a major advantage. I think that most of the teams have designed a nose to work well with their existing aero package rather than trying to maximise their advantage, with the possible exception of Lotus. Most of the development effort will have gone into the new power train and the very difficult packaging requirements that come with such a complex hybrid system.

After the fiasco that was the first day at Jerez, I think that major aero development is still a long way off.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of Bernie forcing through a rule change if there's a big backlash over the cosmetics, in which case all bets are off.

>>5369 The aerodynamic surfaces on an F1 car trade straight-line speed for cornering speed

F1 with moveable aero devices, active suspension to manage the ride height and rake would be a sight to behold. Of course, cars spearing off into the not-armco because the aero failed in a braking zone would be a bit of a downside, as would the detached retinas from repeated 10+g braking...

https://www.youtube.com/v/i_xWhHmS9ao

Welp.

>>6299

It looks like the roll structure took a fair amount of the energy due to the angle of impact, but I imagine his injuries are still pretty horrific. Frankly, I'm surprised that Bianchi made it to hospital.

There really needs to be a thorough FIA investigation, but I don't imagine Bernie will be keen on more red flags and safety car laps. Perhaps there is an opportunity to look at the design of recovery vehicles - this incident would have been much less severe if there was a low impact structure on the tractor.

After this and the Massa incident, I think F1 seriously needs to think about closed cockpits. A jet-fighter style canopy wouldn't be terribly ugly, could add a good degree of driver protection and shouldn't pose a significant problem in terms of driver extraction if pyrotechnic bolts are used.

As a side note, I imagine Alexander Wurz hoped for a slightly gentler start to his role as GPDA chairman.

How many of the ads at F1 circuits are real? Come to think of it, how many ads I see on anything televised are real?

>>6307
F1 is all an illusion. The tracks are filmed empty and the cars are inserted in post-production using fancy computers.

>>6307

Wha... what?! Did I put on the glasses from They Live this morning? What's going on!? I'm so afraid! I feel like a Mail reader!

>>6310

They *colorised* us!

Looks like Jules made it back to France finally. He's still got a long road ahead, as he's yet to awaken still. I'm still disappointed that the officials didn't stop the race when conditions began to worsen.

In regards to Abu Dhabi, the cards seem to be playing out for Hamilton, though I have a slight inkling that he'll slip up or Rosberg will be the dominant one in the end.

>>6425
>he'll slip up or Rosberg will be the dominant one in the end.
Even if that is the case though, Hamilton will likely finish second just because the car is so far ahead of the rest of the field. What I'm dreading is a mechanical failure, with a sudden cut to Crofty during the race screaming "OH NO WHAT IS THIS HAMILTON IS GOING SLOWLY"

http://gifsound.com/?gif=fat.gfycat.com/ClumsyNervousFrogmouth.webm&v=SJ8dDQLgEA0

Red Bull is said to give you wings.
Too bad it gave their F1 team formidable wings that they got penalized this weekend.

Another shit season appears to be on the cards.

I didn't mind the Formula E race on ITV4 yesterday, I'm tempted to see it when it comes to London if the tickets are cheap.

I'm finding Formula E very hard to love. Spec cars, slow cars, terrible circuits.
Maybe when it opens up into a proper development formula, so I can get my engineering geek on. Until then, F1 will do, with 750MC RGB for actual spectating.

>>6815

I'll be following WEC this season. The technology is more interesting, and the racing is more competitive. A dominant team still has to work for a victory, because they have to pick their way through the GTEs. There's almost always an interesting battle going on in one of the classes. Last year was a bit dull due to lack of entries, but there's a packed field for 2015 - fourteen P1 cars, eleven P2s and sixteen GTEs. Nissan have brought something suitably mental to the table, but this time they're seriously gunning for race wins. Roll on Silverstone.