Formula1

lol it's like he just forgot about straightening the car up, how this dude won a race a couple of years ago ffs:CONF:
 
China, FP3
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China, Q
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Maldonado didn't qualify because in FP3 they discovered what was thought to be a faulty oil pressure sensor. When they took the car apart they discovered oil leak from MGU-K. When they went to fix it they also discovered an oil leak from V6 engine and they didn't manage to fix that all in time for qualifying. He will probably be allowed by stewards to start from pitlane tomorrow
 
What happened in Q2? These are six drivers that normally should be found in the front of the pack, not the middle.
 
rain...it was a bit inbetween with intermediate and full wet tires, those who didn't go through into top 10 were mostly on wrong tires at wrong time (on wets instead of intermediates)

Also...this year when driver has a grid penalty (like Maldonado who got 5 places for his rolling of Gutierrez) if his starting position is such that full penalty can't be applied reminder of his penalty will be served on his next event (but not furhter)...so if someone has say 10 places grid penalty and qualified as 18th he will start from 22nd but will still have 6 place penalty for next race. Whether he serves it fully on that next race doesn't matter as it will not be carried over for yet another race. Because of that Maldonado will have to serve his penalty in Spain
 
Well, he lost whole FP1 because something was wrong with his car...and he's not feeling comfortable with the feedback he has on steering on his car, the same thing he had problem with in first 6-7 races of 2012 when he joined Lotus.


Also, I might be wrong but for me it looks like Vettel is loosing it in his head (I don't mean he's going crazy, but that he is loosing his composure). He isn't really coping well with Ricciardo being faster than him and he lost it all when in Kobayashi passed him after Koba just came out of pits on fresh tires. Vettel said on his radio:
"Are you kidding, honestly. Tell him to get out of the way. Unbelievable. He's got new tyres, of course he's quicker."
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Agree, Seb is a bit too whiny for my taste lately.

@race: Lotus seems to get better, same for Ferrari, but they'll have a lot of work to do to catch up to the Mercedes and RB. Amazing performance again by Hülk and Bottas. McLaren is disappointingly slow, Christian Danner, the expert of German free-TV station RTL, who I'd rate as best expert Germany currently can deliver for F1, explained it (imo) perfectly, when he said that they were only that good in Melbourne, because the rest was so bad. Seems to be true, when looking at the last races, they're missing pace.
 
McLaren might have a bit of a problem in their switch from Mercedes to Honda in 2015. with Mercedes unwilling to reveal all the little details about their PU to them.

Mercedes currently has 154 points, just 9 less than Red Bull, Force India and Ferrari (2nd, 3rd and 4th team in constructors championship) together. They are destroying their rivals this year and they might finish this season with dominance unseen before or after 1988 and McLaren MP4/4 (just read few day ago that in 1988 only 27 laps were lead in the season by car other than McLaren)


As for race today, results I posted need a little correction. Stewards in China showed the checkered flag at the end of lap 55 instead of lap 56. Sporting Regulations state than if checkered flag is shown before the race should end final results are taken as standings were at the end of lap before flag was shown. So that means that final results are the same as standings at the end of lap 54. and the only change is that Bianchi has finished in 17th instead of Kobayashi.

But it wasn't the only problem with flags today. Lots of times blue flags were shown to drivers when they weren't lapped by the car behind (they were shown to RB's, Rosberg, Alonso...)
 
Cuky said:
Stewards in China showed the checkered flag at the end of lap 55 instead of lap 56. Sporting Regulations state than if checkered flag is shown before the race should end final results are taken as standings were at the end of lap before flag was shown. So that means that final results are the same as standings at the end of lap 54. and the only change is that Bianchi has finished in 17th instead of Kobayashi.

But it wasn't the only problem with flags today. Lots of times blue flags were shown to drivers when they weren't lapped by the car behind (they were shown to RB's, Rosberg, Alonso...)
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In his final lap (L56) Hamilton asked his team what to do because he saw the checkered flag at the end of L55. They told him that they aren't sure what that was and to continue through with that one final lap. About an hour after the race it was determined that flag was shown one lap before it should have been and than that rule was applied.

It is good that nothing really has been changed with that mistake as Caterham is still in front of Marussia in championship because of being better placed in one of the races.
 
Regarding Vettel, Sky F1 raised a good point in suggesting that Ricciardo is adapting to the new car better because of his experience of driving cars with lower downforce.

The pre-2014 Red Bull was known for the phenomenal downforce it generated which gave it such an advantage in mid to high speed corners. It was undoubtedly a more planted car that was easier to drive at the limit.

The difference between the fast and slow cars in F1 is mainly down to aerodynamics. Ricciardo's time at HRT and Toro Rosso will have prepared him well for driving cars that rely on mechanical grip as a result of less aero downforce. Perhaps Seb is out of his comfort zone more than most?

On the attitude subject, Vettel's career so far has been astonishing, mainly consisting of ups and not many downs. Most drivers have some character-building lows during their career. Seb is having his now. It's going to be interesting to see how he deals with this.
 
Jamezinho said:
The difference between the fast and slow cars in F1 is mainly down to aerodynamics. Ricciardo's time at HRT and Toro Rosso will have prepared him well for driving cars that rely on mechanical grip as a result of less aero downforce. Perhaps Seb is out of his comfort zone more than most?
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This is the major point. Ricciardo came to his new team and car with a knowledge of F1 cars that were more similar to the current RB than the ones of the last seasons. Seb on the other knew how to win in those older cars but simply struggles with the new car.
 
but I think that he would have adopted by now if he could remain focused and relaxed. Their season had a pretty bad start at 1st test, through testing almost nothing went as planned and than retirement in 1st race from Ok position. Everyone who enjoyed 5 years that he had from when he joined RB would be devastated by that.


EDIT: I just wandered across some of the older F1 pics...and I can't stress it enough how I miss those pre-2009 rear ends...those tiny wings, those huge diffusers....
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There are reports that Ferrari has a new nose design which has passed the mandatory crash tests and that it will be ready to be on cars for either Spanish GP or 2 day testing that will be held in Barcelona in the week after Spanish GP. There are also reports that Ferrari will bring new PU software, new front and rear wings, floor, diffuser and suspension.
 
So, in short form: A new part for nearly everything important. I have to say I'm really amazed (in a negative way), how much "re-configuring" of a car is allowed under so called "tight" rules, that should prevent exactly that.
 
well...rules are not written in "you can do this, you can't do that" manner. Rules regarding aerodynamics are written in a manner where there are imaginary boxes made of measures written in rules outside of which no bodywork is allowed. Also, to prevent teams from adding lots of bits on their car, like they had in era from early 90s to 2008. there are lots of other rules like what can be seen looking from which axis, minimum radius for curves etc.

Rules are "tight" in a manner that they don't allow much freedom of how you want something to be, but there is nothing preventing teams from developing new parts other than hours they are allowed for CFD and wind tunnel testing. Those restrictions on CFD and wind tunnel usage are new thing (2-3 years) as teams used to have 3 shifts running simulations 24 hours 7 days a week.
 
You guys remember Indianapolis GP track that hosted F1 races?

Track has been changed few years ago for MotoGP race, and it has been changed yet again this year to host first ever GP race at Indianapolis for IndyCar Series next week. Indy 500 will be held 2 weeks later on classic 4-turns oval track

Here is 3 onboard laps with Bourdais from this weeks tests that were held there
YouTube - INDYCAR In-Car Theater: Sebastien Bourdais - Grand Prix Of Indianapolis Test


And comparison between track when F1 was racing there:
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MotoGP version
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And new layout for IndyCar
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Indianapolis always was a dull track to me. I openly commit that I don't get oval racing, but I also found their road course layout uninteresting. MotoGP changed the direction and added a chicane while eliminating another one, but it surely wouldn't fit a four-wheel-race as it lacks overtaking opportunities (apart from turns 2-4 I don't see a real one there). The new IndyCar layout on the other hand seems to make racing there even more "oval-ish" than it already was as all narrow turns are obviously eradicated from the track. Would be interesting to hear if there are actually any good points for overtaking, corners 1, 7 and maybe 12 look like possible spots, but I hope, F1 won't comeback to the course, irrelevant how iconic it may be.
 
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I used to think that about oval racing too, but after I have seen few races (and tried to do few in rFactor) I changed my mind about it. It really isn't that easy to drive 350+ km/h few cm from outside wall, thinking about drafting behind other cars and keeping your position. Add to that that the slightest mistake means, in best cases, falling down at the end of the pack with lap or two behind leader.

As for overtaking positions, I have been watching IndyCar for last 2-3 years and more often than not you see overtakes at places where you wouldn't expect them. That is probably because they are not so strict in punishing contacts between cars like FIA is, they allow occasional wheel banging, nudging etc. so you often see 3 or even 4 cars going side by side in 90° turns on street course.
 
Well, 90°+ turns are near perfect overtaking situations as you can't take them at full speed, every racing class should be able to overtake in one of those corners. ;)
 
might be mistake on my behalf as english is not my native language, but I meant the same thing in both my posts: that in IndyCar you often see more than 2 cars going side by side on places where you wouldn't normally expect that
 
Cuky said:
You guys remember Indianapolis GP track that hosted F1 races?

Track has been changed few years ago for MotoGP race, and it has been changed yet again this year to host first ever GP race at Indianapolis for IndyCar Series next week. Indy 500 will be held 2 weeks later on classic 4-turns oval track
Click to expand...

I knew about this many months back as ISI are creating this track as official content for rFactor 2. Should be out in the coming weeks with the oval, old road and new road courses.

It's not the best track. I can't see F1 ever returning there after the success of Austin.

S-NipE said:
I openly commit that I don't get oval racing
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Same here. I've tried watching NASCAR but I find it very boring. The act of racing open-wheel Indy Cars on oval circuits is sacrilege not to mention inherently dangerous, as poor Dan Wheldon found to his cost.

I need to see braking zones, tight turns, chicanes, elevation changes. Oval racing is not for me.
 
well, Wheldon's accident wasn't that big, but he sadly never came out of it because of that old Dallara car being so unsafe. It had some design flaws, tended to flip over in big accidents and wasn't nowhere near safety standards that are in, for example, F1.

This current car Dallara DW12 (DW in honor of Dan Wheldon who was one of development drivers for it) is much safer, on par with F1 cars, and is better suited for both oval and road courses. Also, Indy have only 5 oval races (if I am not mistaken) from 18 races in total this season. Both spectators and drivers like road courses more and that is why they shifted more towards them, retaining some classic ovals just for sake of not throwing away whole history of sport.
 
There isn't really much to be said about this weekend
Spain, FP1
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Spain, FP2
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Spain, FP3
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Or there is...GP2 pole time would have been placed in 8th place in F1 FP3
 
Man, look at those difference between Rosberg and Hamilton and the rest of the pack. That's ridiculous! Mercedes is vaporising the opponents.
 
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