Of the 3 new F1 teams this year - who is your favourite?

Charlie-Bravo

Out of the 3 new F1 teams (Lotus, Virgin and Hispania Racing Team) who would you support?

Just curious. Vote is public.

Sheeps

Could not give a s***e about them

voted all options

johnnysmack

Could not give a s***e about them

HRT are so bad its not even funny anymore, virgin never seem to get much screen time so you'd hardly ever think they were at a race which leaves lotus winner by default!!

Havermeyer

Could not give a s***e about them

Lotus for me.

But I'm enjoying how open the driver's championship is, more so than any of the new teams.

RayM

Could not give a s***e about them

Lotus. Their car might be a bit of a shed, but they had far less time to design and build it. They have potential - particularly now that they have the Renault engine. Although they probably won't be Lotus Renault next year, sadly. In what can only be described as a meaningless rebranding exercise, Renault will be Lotus Renault instead. Confusing. It took me years to stop calling them "Benetton". Next year, on a point of principle, I think I'll call them "Proton" instead. "Proton Lada".

Hispania shouldn't be in F1. That they were chosen ahead of Prodrive and Lola was pretty scandalous. An utterly corrupt selection process, which - to the great shame of the F1 press corps - never received anything approaching the scrutiny and castigation it deserved.

Likewise, Manor/Virgin are a waste of space. The sooner Branson loses interest (and he will), the better.

amacachi

I've often wondered why a country's tourism department or agency has never been a big sponsor in F1, I mean if they were to buy a team's name it'd be huge publicity. Expensive, yes, but I can think of few ways to get a country mentioned as far and wide.

The whole Renault/Lotus thing strikes me as more than a little bit silly.

EDIT: Also I don't really care about the new teams. At a couple of tracks they've gotten lucky and close-ish to the back of the field, but overall I think they've let themselves down more than a little. They can use the excuse of not having enough time but that was partly of their own making. The selection process was absolutely ridiculous as well.

frostie500

amacachi wrote: »

I've often wondered why a country's tourism department or agency has never been a big sponsor in F1, I mean if they were to buy a team's name it'd be huge publicity. Expensive, yes, but I can think of few ways to get a country mentioned as far and wide.

Do you mean in terms of track sponsors like you see with "Visit Spain" at loads of MotoGP rounds or in terms of on car sponsorship> Visit Malaysia was a big backer of Stewart GP and Bord Failte backed Jordan in 91.

amacachi wrote: »

The whole Renault/Lotus thing strikes me as more than a little bit silly.

I think its great to see Lotus looking to move up from the back of the field. Virgin and HRT are doing very little to show that they deserve their place on the grid. HRT have no money whatsover, or else Yamamoto would not get a look in, and their talk of taking over Toyota is a load of hot air so I'd be very surprised if they are on the grid in a couple of years time.

Virgin have done nothing to impress either and with the lack of cash being punped into the team from Branson I would also question their long term future. Neither Virgin or HRT own any facilities or even equipment so I think that shows their long term committment.

Lotus may be far from perfect but they have made smart decisions since getting the grid slot and using Renault engines, gearboxes and hydrolics shows that they are determined to be more than just a backmarker, unlike the other new teams.

rua1972

Could not give a s***e about them

I like the Lotus team, but next year will be strange because another team will be called Lotus. Lotus -Renault to be precise. Now Proton has seen the impact of the name in F1 they want to use it themselfs i guess. Still a weird story al together. But for Petrov it will be tricky, Proton doesn't need russian sponsorship. More likely malaysian.

Ghost Train

Could not give a s***e about them

I like the lotus drivers and the team seem to have the right attitude whenever they're interviewed. Might just be that they get more air time on the BBC and the ex-lotus connection

Charlie-Bravo

Could not give a s***e about them

Ghost Train wrote: »

I like the lotus drivers and the team seem to have the right attitude whenever they're interviewed. Might just be that they get more air time on the BBC and the ex-lotus connection

Lotus do seem to have a lot more coverage than the other two teams. It's obvious this stems from the fact that Mike Gascoyne and Eddie Jordan have good history and sure it's in Lotus's interest to get as much air time in Britain. Mike is one of the better Technical Directors (or Cheif Technical Officer) in the Pit Lane, a likeable guy.

And the reason I lean towards Lotus is because I like Jarno; especially when he was at Renualt - a bit like Webber - he didn't get all the support from the team when Alonso was becoming a world champion, then Jarno went onto Toyota, which is and still will be my favourite team (the two cars I drive will tell you that). So naturally I sort of followed Jarno to Lotus.

***Edit: Oooh, maybe we could see Jarno back at (Lotus)Renault!?

amacachi

astrofluff wrote: »

Lotus do seem to have a lot more coverage than the other two teams. It's obvious this stems from the fact that Mike Gascoyne and Eddie Jordan have good history and sure it's in Lotus's interest to get as much air time in Britain. Mike is one of the better Technical Directors (or Cheif Technical Officer) in the Pit Lane, a likeable guy.

Ghost Train wrote: »

I like the lotus drivers and the team seem to have the right attitude whenever they're interviewed. Might just be that they get more air time on the BBC and the ex-lotus connection

frostie500 wrote: »

Do you mean in terms of track sponsors like you see with "Visit Spain" at loads of MotoGP rounds or in terms of on car sponsorship> Visit Malaysia was a big backer of Stewart GP and Bord Failte backed Jordan in 91.



I think its great to see Lotus looking to move up from the back of the field. Virgin and HRT are doing very little to show that they deserve their place on the grid. HRT have no money whatsover, or else Yamamoto would not get a look in, and their talk of taking over Toyota is a load of hot air so I'd be very surprised if they are on the grid in a couple of years time.

Virgin have done nothing to impress either and with the lack of cash being punped into the team from Branson I would also question their long term future. Neither Virgin or HRT own any facilities or even equipment so I think that shows their long term committment.

Lotus may be far from perfect but they have made smart decisions since getting the grid slot and using Renault engines, gearboxes and hydrolics shows that they are determined to be more than just a backmarker, unlike the other new teams.

Frostie, that sums up what I think of Lotus. Looking the last 5 races if you leave one aside then Lotus and Virgin are level, with Lotus beating the two Virgins in the other one.
As much as I like Mike Gascoyne I don't like how the BBC for some reason seem to have decided to back Lotus over all the rest, seems the tenuous link to the old name is coming through.

What I was saying about sponsorship, banners are one thing, but if the commentators have to say the name of the team the whole time then that's excellent advertising.

Ghost Train

Could not give a s***e about them

I think next year should be good, theres potential for the new team to partner with the more established teams and should be a lot closer if the small teams can work out the finances. Will be an achievement for the three teams if they're on the grid for a second season

EvilMonkey

Could not give a s***e about them

LIGHTNING wrote: »

Its no surprise that Lotus are the fav amongst the new teams. The name itself certainly helps, plus HRT seem to be a bit of a mickey mouse outfit.

Their also the one that wasn't hand picked by the FIA.