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I held that view about Hungaroring too but last few races there changed my mind. Especially that is the case if someone of top drivers gets caught either by mistake or technical problems in qualifying or has a bad start and then has to fight through the field. When you see them under the pressure to get good result they will fight and make place for overtaking where you think it is not possible (for example we saw few overtakes on the outside of T6 track map for refference)
 
Not sure what I think about the new protection Red Bull tested today in the free training session with Ricciardo:

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well, looks quite good when seen from side, while it looks a bit odd looking from front. But if it was introduced car would be designed with it in mind so it might look better.

I think it was Hamilton who said that if they are adding something like that then why not go all in and add jet-like canopy. It would look better at least.
 
I'm being serious when I ask this;

What happens when that screen gets dirty?

Does it have (manual/automatic) wipers?
 
I guess they'll work on that once it is decided which of all proposed designs will be used.

In WEC for example, both GT and LMP cars have some amount of transparent tear-offs covering the whole windshield which are then removed by pitcrew during pit stops. They don't tear them off in every pit stop as they are racing for, for example, 24 hours so it would take far too many tear-offs to do the whole race so if windshield doesn't have too much dirt on it they just wipe that off. Here is an example of Audi pit crew removing a tear-off from one of their LMP1 cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uszjd5E-E3Q
 
I don't think they really looked at that problem at this point of time. That will probably get looked at once final decision is made on what system will be used (which is sometime in July if I remember correctly).



From Spanish GP on Max Verstappen will drive for Red Bull instead of Daniil Kvyat who will continue at Toro Rosso in Verstappen's place.
http://www.formula1.com/content/fom...5/red-bull-replace-kvyat-with-verstappen.html
 
Daniel Ricciardo has secured his first ever F1 pole position for tomorrow's Monaco GP. Rosberg will be next to him in first row with Hamilton and Vettel taking 3rd and 4th.


Pirelli has shown prototype of 2017 tires with new sizes
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FIA has also confirmed that a bit modified version of HALO cockpit protection trialed out by Ferrari at last winter test will be used in 2017 with aeroscreen trialed by Red Bull at Spanish GP as a possible replacement in 2018
 
That were my thoughts exactly when I saw those pictures. But there seems to be consensus that when they are fitted on to the 2017 car the will look better.

We could see that quite soon actually as Ferrari will be ready to provide Pirelli with their 2015 car modified to represent what 2017 cars should look and work like to test those new tires by the end of June. Test will be conducted at Ferrari's Fiorano test track so we might get some photos from fans around the track. Red Bull is said to be ready to provide Pirelli with car to test tires few weeks after Ferrari, while Mercedes will provide one later in the summer.
 
Can they stop changing the rules every year for the F1? It takes so long just to prepare for a season to learn all the new rule changes and limitations set.

Why can't they just let the drivers race and let the companies put the best car out there?

I try my best to follow F1...I don't follow it as closely as basketball or football, but all these stuff makes it really hard for me to follow...
 
They keep changing the rules on the basis to try and make the races more exciting.

But unfortunetely until Bernie Ecclestone visits the heavens F1 will remain boring.
 
Rules were quite stable until mid 90s...then it all started
- new safety rules because of Ratzenberger and Senna deaths
- slowing cars down, due to safety, by introducing groowed tires
- trying to make overtaking easier by shrinking the cars down from 2m wide to 1,8m wide

Then early 2000s came, Ferrari started to dominate and spectators numbers started to go down, so they started to mix the rules over and over just to "improve the show" and "cut costs" though this 2nd part is a bit stupid when you force teams to adapt to new rules every year or two.

And now for 2017 they are throwing away what they were pushing in those last 18 years when narrower cars were introduced and downforce cut down almost on yearly basis to make cars slower...sorry, safer. Now they are widening the cars back to 2m, increasing downforce to make them faster...
 
There is a rumor that started spreading today according to which Sergio Perez's father said that Sergio will be replacing Raikkonen at Ferrari for next season and maybe even later in this year.


EDIT: There is also rumor that Nasr (who will be out of contract with Sauber at the end of 2016) will together with his personal sponsor (Banco do Brasil) move from Sauber to Renault.
After one year out of F1 Pastor Maldonado has been quoted that he plans to come back in 2017. Apparently, he is in talks with Sauber.


For Canadian GP this weekend Ferrari will be bringing new turbo for their PU which should finally solve their reliability problems and allow them to run turbo at its max capacity helping with energy recovery on the straights. It is rumored that that change should get them about 0.5 seconds per lap. They will also be bringing new rear suspension in Canada, while there are also some rumors that they have finally managed to pass mandatory crash tests with a nose design that was planned for use in Melbourne but wasn't used until now because it failed those crash tests over and over again.
 
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Today's European GP was in my opinion the worst race of this season. In all races up until now we had at least some action, being it great fights or two drivers catching one another. Today we saw nothing of that. Top 5-6 spread out over the track while other were in trains for most of the race just changing positions at that long main straight.

In two weeks time it is Austrian GP, I hope there we will return to what we had in previous 7 races


EDIT: Williams had fastest pitstop time again and they are now 8/8 in this season. But this time they even managed to get all 4 tires changed in less than a 2 seconds
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EDIT2: Replay of Williams' fastest pit stop in Baku. If some reports that I have read are correct this was a new record pit stop time, few thousands of a second faster than previous record set by Red Bull at 2013 US GP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VCYBtx6h4g
 
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some good news regarding next season...support for introduction of HALO cockpit protection device is falling with Red Bull and Force India admitting openly that they will vote against its introduction.

Also, just today Pirelli's motorsport boss Paul Hembery has revealed that for 2017 they will ditch fast degrading tires they had from 2011 up until now.
 
some sense from F1's strategy group...
- HALO cockpit protection device introduction has been postponed to at least 2018
- ban on radio communication has been lifted. Teams are now free to discuss whatever they want/need with a driver, except in the time between start of the formation lap and start of the race. They are also required to give full access to all radio communications to FOM so that those can be heard in TV coverage
 
Pirelli has started with testing of tires for next year. Today Vettel will test wet weather tires at Fiorano on the modified 2015 Ferrari car to simulate higher downforce levels expected from next year cars. He did 2 installation laps on dry weather tires after which track will be sprayed on with water by sprinkle system at Fiorano.
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Some news from last couple of months:

Bernie Ecclestone is no more!!! Rights to F1 were sold to Liberty Media group and they removed Ecclestone from his top spot. Now there are 4 guys who are each specialized in one part of managing F1 and those are:
John Malone (chairman, Liberty Media) – The reclusive billionaire at the summit of the vast Liberty empire, the 75-year-old is also the largest landowner in America. Nicknamed ‘Darth Vader’ by former US vice-president Al Gore after hiking up US cable subscription rates.

Chase Carey (chairman and CEO, Formula One) – Instantly recognisable by his extravagant twirly moustache – apparently designed to hide the scars from a car accident – Carey is as tough in business as they come, having served as vice-president of 21st Century Fox and negotiated a £1 billion NFL rights deal.

Ross Brawn (managing director, motor sports, F1) – Uniformly respected in the paddock, having had a hand in 20 F1 world titles, the former Ferrari technical director, has been given a remit to try to enrich the on-track spectacle and to make the sport more financially viable for smaller teams.

Shawn Bratches (managing director, commercial operations, F1) – Among the central figures in turning ESPN into the sports and entertainment behemoth it is today, Bratches oversaw every aspect of the channel’s advertising, sponsorship and licensing efforts. Making F1 more engaging for a digital audience will be one of his leading priorities.
Click to expand...


All drivers for 2017 F1 grid have been confirmed:
Mercedes: #44 Lewis Hamilton, #77 Valtteri Bottas
Red Bull: #3 Daniel Ricciardo, #33 Max Verstappen
Ferrari: #5 Sebastian Vettel, #7 Kimi Raikkonen
Force India: #17 Sergio Perez, #31 Esteban Ocon
Williams: #19 Felipe Massa, #18 Lance Stroll
McLaren: #14 Fernando Alonso, #2 Stoffel Vandoorne
Toro Rosso: #55 Carlos Sainz Jr., #26 Daniil Kvyat
Haas: #8 Romain Grosjean, #20 Kevin Magnussen
Renault: #27 Nico Hulkenberg, #30 Jolyon Palmer
Sauber: #9 Marcus Ericsson, #94 Pascal Wehrlein


Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa have retired at the end of 2016, but Williams has convinced Massa to postpone his retirement for another year because they let Bottas go to Mercedes to fill in for Rosberg


We have lost another team: Manor Racing Team is no more. Team's parrent company went into administration and as they couldn't find new owners for the team it has folded. One thing we got from that is an early chance to see how new cars will look like in 2017 because after it was confirmed that Manor will shut down pictures surfaced of theri wind tunnel model for their 2017 car:
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And there is a drawing of that model in teams 2016 colors
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Confirmed dates of car launches are:
21.02. Renault
22.02. Force India
23.02. Mercedes
24.02. Ferrari, McLaren

Others don't have it confirmed and will probably show their cars in Barcelona at the start of testing
 
new dates for car reveals have been confirmed:
20.02. - Sauber (pictures will be released online, car will be driven few day later at Barcelona to film promotional footage)
26.02. - Red Bull, Toro Rosso (Toro Rosso will show the car in the pitlane at Barcelona, Red Bull will probably do the same)

Only Williams and Haas are left to confirm their dates.
 
Haas will reveal their car on 26th

Only team that has not set the date for car reveal has just revealed their.
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Williams is just a 3D render of a model they used during development. It is also missing some of the stuff we have seen on older cars as well as on new ones (like cutouts in the floor in front of rear tires for example). True nature of their paintjob we'll know when they roll the car out in Barcelona next week.

Renault had matt finish on their car last year too so they are probably continuing down that route.



Force India
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EDIT: Sauber did their allowed 100km of promotional filming today in Barcelona so now we have a chance to see for the first time new generation of F1 cars on track
 
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