Formula1

Kvyat, Magnussen and Ricciardo were impressive today! Vettel lost the luck of being free of any technical errors over the last seasons and got them this time, otherwise the Red Bull aren't as bad as some may have expected after the test (although we haven't seen long-runs over a full race distance yet). Hülk as strong as last season. Biggest surprise as a team was Toro Rosso, who silently sneaked into the top ten, and -to a lesser amount- Williams after that catastrophal last season.

BUT and I have to say that so clearly, these cars are looking like shit. Thought McLaren would've handled the nose problem nicely, but on track it looks stupid. Same goes for the Force India, Toro Rosso, Sauber and Williams. Best looking are Mercedes, (*shiver*) Ferrari and Red Bull.
 
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Australian GP results:
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Vettel had issues with ERS-K (previously known as KERS) and because of that he had about 160HP less so they retired him.
Hamilton had a miss-firing cylinder which he later described as "driving on 5 cylinders instead of 6" so they retired him to prevent further damage to the engine.
Both Lotuses were doing OK but had some problem with engines so they retired just like Hamilton to prevent further damage
Both Ferraris had electrical problems for the whole race and couldn't go flat-out
Massa was taken out by Kobayashi at T1
Bottas was doing great but caught up with a wall at the exit of T10 and damaged his right rear wheel. He recovered well.


EDIT: Ricciardo is under threat of being disqualified because of breach of technical regulations. Post-race inspections showed that his car constantly exceeded maximum fuel flow rate allowed (100kg/h) and because of that FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer has referred this findings to race stewards.

"During the race car number 03 exceeded consistently the maximum allowed fuel flow of 100 kg/h," read a statement issued by FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer. "As this is not in compliance with Article 5.1.4 of the 2014 Formula One Technical Regulations, I am referring this matter to the stewards for their consideration."
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It is official now. Daniel Ricciardo is excluded from Australian GP results because his car consistently broke article 5.1.4 from technical regulations which says that fuel flow rate must not exceed 100kg/h.


Also it was said that FIA has warned Red Bull about this during the race and asked them to adjust engine settings so to comply with regulations, but Red Bull haven't reacted.

The FIA technical representative observed thought the telemetry during the race that the fuel flow was too high and contacted the team, giving them the opportunity to follow his previous instruction, and reduce the fuel flow such that it was within the limit, as measured by the homologated sensor – and thus gave the team the opportunity to be within compliance. The team chose not to make this correction
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....Red Bull is steering towards the Ferrari attitude of the early 2000s, "F*ck 'em, we do, what we want to". :(

Race itself was nice, not as spectacular as I expected, but still good, great to see Magnussen drive onto the podium in his first race, this boy might become a big one, if the car helps him, same goes for Bottas, if he hadn't thrown his car away against the wall so early he might have been on the podium as well.
 
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Just WOW! I haven't really watched F1 since 2006 or so and decided to start anew. My team has always been Williams and I also have a soft spot for Kobayashi so I honestly thought my day was ruined right at the start. Bottas, however, delivered a smashing run way beyond my expectations. Beforehand I figured anything better than 8th place is bonus for Massa which I thought was sensible hope. Having Bottas climb up, lose a tire, and climb back up to 6th place was simply fantastic.

Very nice that Ricciardo got 2nd place at home as well. It didn't bother me that Vettel didn't finish. This is a very good start of a F1 season and I hope it's much more even than previous years.

EDIT: Ricciardo disqualified? Oh well...
 
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Cuky said:
Tobacco sponsors are not present on the car mostly because in EU tobacco is not allowed to appear on cars on TV even if they are driving in, say, Japan. But Ferrari is still sponsored by Marlboro (around 200M $/year) and they are not denying it. When in 2007. they couldn't put Marlboro logos on cars anymore they replaced it with barcode logo. Through 2010. they forbade them usage of that logo too, so in 2011. they came with new team logo that is clearly shown both on their cars, shirts, suites, helmets and equipment and which looks like half of Marlboro logo. And you have to admit that even their teamwear last year looked like they were wearing big Marlboro boxes on them.

Alcohol is still allowed on cars. Force India is sponsored by Kingfisher (beer if I am not mistaken) and Fly Kingfisher (air transport) when they are in countries where alcohol is prohibited. Williams is now sponsored by Martini and that is about it as far as I know.
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Thanks Cuky.

50039-Kristen-bell-drinking-vodka-gi-kHbd.gif


Now they can celebrate... :))
 
Solid start to the new season, looking forward to lots of interesting storylines.

Nico Rosberg was buzzing after the race.
 
even Lewis who had to retire was quite happy after the race. They have great car and they know it.


And news about Ferrari
PitLaneTalk ‏@pitlanetalk 2m
F14-T will receive a software update expected to optimize ERS and boost power by 30%. Ferrari will apply remapping in Bahrain. #F1 #Formula1
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So the engine (or power unit as it's called now) is allowed to be remapped during the season, while the gearbox isn't? These rules might understand who wants to, I don't get them all.
 
I thought the race was pretty dull to be honest. Plus the cars look bad and sound bad. Now Bernie has come out and said he's not happy with the way the cars sound. The man just doesn't have a clue.

Feel sorry for Ricciardo. As much as I dislike Red Bull I think he is one of the most likeable drivers on the grid.

I don't get the rules either S-NipE. Mappable engines but fixed ratio transmissions? Urgh.

BTCC starts again on the 30th March. I'll get my fix of proper racing there.
 
Jamezinho said:
BTCC starts again on the 30th March. I'll get my fix of proper racing there.
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Agree, F1 is there for the glamour atm, better racing is shown in the touring car championship or the GT series. Waiting for the DTM and, even more, for the ADAC GT Masters to start soon. Even though these two also changed rules over the last years, they didn't messed them up so badly with fixed transmissions and limited fuel usage. I get their point in forcing the team to work more efficient on using fuel, but come on, this limit is a joke.
 
S-NipE said:
So the engine (or power unit as it's called now) is allowed to be remapped during the season, while the gearbox isn't? These rules might understand who wants to, I don't get them all.
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Engine mapping is done with software that is run by ECU (Engine Control Unit). Engine mapping determines the things like amount of fuel and air in mixture that is than injected into the cylinder, timing for spark plugs, usage of recovered energy etc. They can even change different mapping settings on a fly by few clicks on a steering wheel buttons as they have a dozen of different maps stored for different cases (wet, dry, softer tires, harder tires, damaged wing, fuel saving, overtaking). On the other hand, any hardware change to the PUs is prohibited unless it is proven to FIA that there is a major reliability problem that needs fixing. Than PU manufacturer has to present full documentation of a problem and what they plan to do to the PU to the FIA. If FIA is satisfied and change is allowed than that documentation is made available for other PU manufacturers so to make cheating harder.


Software which controls usage of gearbox can still be changed and updated as teams wish. Thing that they can't change is ratios between gears. Although, for 2014. only one gear ratio change is allowed during the season as this is the first season with fixed ratios and they want to give a chance to teams to fix mistake if someone finds out that they have chosen very wrong ratios.
 
S-NipE said:
Agree, F1 is there for the glamour atm, better racing is shown in the touring car championship or the GT series. Waiting for the DTM and, even more, for the ADAC GT Masters to start soon. Even though these two also changed rules over the last years, they didn't messed them up so badly with fixed transmissions and limited fuel usage. I get their point in forcing the team to work more efficient on using fuel, but come on, this limit is a joke.
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I'm a big fan of the DTM as you know, but even that is trying to emulate elements of F1, namely DRS which I despise. To be honest, the DTM is moving further and further away from what traditional touring car racing should be about. More like a purpose-built single-seat race car underneath with the recognisable Audi/BMW/Merc body dropped on top for marketing purposes.

I think BTCC will be my main focus this year. It's one of the few top-level racing series that focuses on very close, flat-out racing from start to finish on historic tracks with lots of character. If there is a way of watching it in Germany then I highly recommend doing so.

ADAC GT is a series I enjoy watching. Motors TV screens the race highlights in the UK. It's a pretty good series. I love all those exotic GT3 cars.
 
Well, the rules seems to apply for everyone this year. It wouldn't be unheard of Ferrari or Red Bull to not be disqualified for breaking a rule like the one Red Bull did in the past.

Some of the rules may be stupid but at least they're the same for everyone so the races will be exciting.
 
Jamezinho said:
I'm a big fan of the DTM as you know, but even that is trying to emulate elements of F1, namely DRS which I despise. To be honest, the DTM is moving further and further away from what traditional touring car racing should be about. More like a purpose-built single-seat race car underneath with the recognisable Audi/BMW/Merc body dropped on top for marketing purposes.

I think BTCC will be my main focus this year. It's one of the few top-level racing series that focuses on very close, flat-out racing from start to finish on historic tracks with lots of character. If there is a way of watching it in Germany then I highly recommend doing so.

ADAC GT is a series I enjoy watching. Motors TV screens the race highlights in the UK. It's a pretty good series. I love all those exotic GT3 cars.
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Agree on the DTM part completely, especially on the DRS part, that was completely unnecessary to introduce. But we shouldn't forget that they see themselves as a series with a field of prototypes with a chassis that is similar to regular production cars. They let down that touring car motto after the end of the STW at the end of the 90s and since shifted their focus towards what it is now. Positive is that races are still interesting, negative is that a lot of the original character is lost.

Wish I could watch the BTCC and MotorsTV here, sadly our free TV programme has no segment on foreign race series and we don't have either satellite or pay TV to get that stuff. That's why I found the GT Masters, which is shown on one of the less popular stations (and the one of the few series that is viewable on free TV alongside F1 and the DTM), but nevertheless provides lots of fun for me every race. Really like the GT3 cars, too, they're looking like a great racing car should look like. Do you know, if there is possibly a legal and free stream showing the BTCC races?
 
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Well, for DTM: They are not on their own anymore as they are trying to adjust technical regulations together with Super GT (Japanese GT Series) and GranAM (USA & Canada GT Series) so that manufacturers from any of these can easily switch to other series as well with little to no redesign needed on cars.

I haven't really been able to watch DTM (mostly because I don't speak German and only streams/satellite channels I had were in German) but I am very interested in that competition. Same goes for WTCC and World Series by Renault (Formula Renault 3.5, Megane Cup, Clio Cup).

One of competitions that I just love to watch is FIA WEC (World Endurance Championship). Maybe that is one of the reasons I am not that disappointed with sound in F1 as engines from WEC P1 class and F1 are almost 100% interchangeable (and that has been stated as reason why Ferrari is considering to enter P1 class with car based on their LaFerrari road car with F1 engine). But P1 class is not that interesting with Audi dominating almost every single race with their E-Tron Quattro, while Toyota is firm 2nd unless something is broken on Audi. GT Class is where WEC really is great. And them racing on great tracks like Silverstone, Spa, Le Mans, Fuji, Interlagos, CoTA, Sakhir is just a bonus.
 
Malaysia, FP1
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Malaysia, FP2
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Ferrari is a big surprise, others are more or less where you would expect them, and Lotus is still smoking all around the track
 
It was just laughable how long they waited until the Qualifying started. Why there are full wet tires available if they wait until it's perfectly dry for intermediates.
 
They made the right decision, the track wasn't drivable even with the full wets and it was definitely too wet for the intermediates. All those that drove out on them came back into the pits one or maximum two laps later as it wasn't possible to drive with them.
 
Malaysia, Q
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The main problem I see with wet driving is car setup. They are not allowed to change setup between qualis and race, except when whole weekend is done in dry conditions and race is wet, than they can tweak just few bits to adjust for water. Because of that cars are usually set for dry track and that works OK on damp surface. But when there is lots of standing water like we had today car's underbody floats on that water and tires loose contact with surface resulting in drivers loosing control.


EDIT: Bottas got 3-place grid penalty for impeding Daniel Ricciardo
 
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and also Ricciardo qualified for Q3 anyway so it's not like he was affected by this supposed blockage, im looking forward to this race though, hope there is a bit of rain but not so much that red flag need to come out.
anyone see Vettel was asked by journalist "what do you think about the sound of F1 in 2014?"

simple reply "it's shit":LMAO:
fucking hilarious!!
 
Sure it is "shit"...if he was winning than it would be "just fine" like tires last year. When they were beaten over and over by Ferrari and Mercedes tires were shit, they couldn't push...later when tires were changed mid-season and they dominated tires were "just fine" while everyone else complained.

Malaysia, Race
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poor ricciardo. things couldn't have been worse for him today. hülkenberg did a great job on the other hand.

the difference between the first five and the rest looks seriously worrying.
 
Kanouté said:
poor ricciardo. things couldn't have been worse for him today. hülkenberg did a great job on the other hand.

the difference between the first five four and the rest looks seriously worrying.
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Fixed. I think it depends heavily on the Force India, what Hülk is capable of achieving in a race, as the team hasn't the best image in terms of constantly good results. It's incredible what he delivers with it and the Sauber last year, a pity none of the "bigger" teams signed him yet, I think he could be a good contestant for the title with a faster car.

Found the race itself not too spectacular, the Williams showed their potential again, with better starting positions they surely can drive for a win.
 
Aaaand we have more stupid penalties:
*Bianchi got stop/go penalty in race and 2 penalty points on his superlicense for crashing out Maldonado
*Magnussen got 5 second stop/go penalty in race and 2 penalty points on his superlicense for puncturing Raikkonen's tire
*Daniel Ricciardo got 10 second stop/go penalty and 10-place grid penalty on next GP for unsafe release

Now, I can somewhat understand those to Bianchi and Magnussen, but why on earth are they punishing Ricciardo for a something his team (mechanics) did wrong. I understand that if car is in breach of regulations (like in Australia) than by excluding a car from results you exclude the driver who was driving it. But today his car didn't break any rules and only his team did stupid thing by letting him out of pits without left front wheel being screwed on correctly
 
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