Formula 1 2012: General Discussion Thread

losthorizon

Jordan 191 wrote: »

Yes. Never saw anything like it on the back of an F1 car before.

Didnt the cars in the 50s and 60s have endings like that. Looks magnificent!

Kevski

Just tweeted by Sky Sports...https://twitter.com/skysportsf1/status/175652140512055297

Red Bull are bringing out a new car for the final two days of testing. Full story and interview with Ted coming up...

amacachi

Where is it coming up?!

Jordan 199

Red Bull bringing out a new car for testing, this is big news for sure.

SnowDrifts

Seems like Mercedes will have to put up with another donkey this year. After a few years designing cars that eat tyres, you would think they could solve the issue by now!! :mad:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97809

Michael Schumacher has revealed that tyre degradation is an area where Mercedes must improve, as well as admitting that some of the team's chief rivals were getting better mileage out of the Pirelli rubber.

Schumacher completed 79 laps during Friday's testing, setting his best time late in the day, on the first flying lap of one of several short runs on Pirelli's soft compound tyre.

However, in the same eight-lap stint as the German set his quickest time, he lost almost four seconds, the first two seconds lost within five laps.

While Schumacher played down the Mercedes' tyre usage, he did point it out as an area for improvement before the Australian Grand Prix.

"The best is if you have [no degradation]," he said. "Everybody has some. I don't know where we are compared to the others, but I have seen some can do better. So, certainly, we can improve."

Despite causing two red flags during the morning's running, Schumacher was upbeat at the end of the day, claiming that the team had worked through its entire Friday programme.

"It was a bit of a slow start in the morning," he added. "We stopped twice ourselves, and had other red flag issues, but the afternoon was straightforward. We made most of the work we needed to do, so it's okay."

Schumacher wound out the day eighth fastest, 1.3s behind Romain Grosjean's benchmark time.

vectra

On another note ( Hope I wont be blasted for this

Kimi on Top Gear Sunday night
Wonder will he curse the Liana to death :pac:

SnowDrifts

vectra wrote: »

On another note ( Hope I wont be blasted for this

Kimi on Top Gear Sunday night
Wonder will he curse the Liana to death :pac:

Looking forward to watching that.. it's sunday week though... 11th March

vectra

SnowDrifts wrote: »

Looking forward to watching that.. it's sunday week though... 11th March

Ah,
You are correct
My bad :P

Jordan 199

Red Bull flying out new car to Barcelona.

Red Bull are flying out a new chassis for the final two days in Barcelona armed with a series of high-profile and critical upgrades as the testing season goes into dramatic overdrive.

Sky Sports F1 understands that the World Champion's aggressive new package will include a new rear wing, a new front wing and a heavily-revised exhaust.

The revisions are so extensive that the team have had to bolt them onto a new chassis after round-the-clock work at their Milton Keynes HQ.

Ted Kravitz told Sky Sports News: "It's not only parts, it's a whole new car that's being flown out from the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes.

"So for all these mechanics in this [Red Bull] garage that's the end of work with this particular chassis. This will be chassis number one and rather than fit all the new parts to chassis number two tonight, which would involve a lot more work for these guys, they've decided to fly out the new car.

"Now that's needed agreement from some of the other teams, but what it's going to mean is we're expecting to see a significantly different car when it rolls out at 9 o'clock. So this test is about to to get much more interesting."

Along with the arrival of a new chassis for Saturday morning, Team Principal Christian Horner and Chief Designer Adrian Newey, conspicuous by their absence at the Circuit de Catalunya on the opening two days of the third-and-final winter, are also flying out from England.

"It seems like they've pressed the button after Jerez," Ted added after learning of Red Bull's plans.

With McLaren also planning to bolt on their Melbourne specifications onto the MP4-27 on Saturday, it means that testing for the start of the new season has effectively been condensed down to just two days for both Red Bull and McLaren and explains why both teams have put their drivers - Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton for the latter, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber for the former - on rotation over the weekend.

Ted added: "Ominously for everybody else, Red Bull are bringing more performance to this car which is already, we think over the long runs, the fastest here in testing here in Barcelona...

"It's an ominous sign for McLaren who are just adding piece by piece to their car here at Barcelona.

"I think what we can expect to see is maybe some of these improvements that come to the Red Bull, they'll start bringing much better lap times and that will be a shame as far as McLaren are concerned because they've been working very slowly on these upgrades that they've got for Barcelona.

"They'll bring a new front wing, a new rear wing and we'll really see then where everybody stands. Ferrari as well have been bringing more performance to their car - they tested a new front wing on their last run this afternoon. But they've already brought new exhausts.

"So for Ferrari to be bringing a new exhaust layout at this point with only two testing days to go, is a little bit late in the game. So I think when we get to Australia, we will see Red Bull possibly first and McLaren probably second.

"I think Lotus are looking like they're the third-fastest team at the moment, then Mercedes, and then potentially Ferrari only the fifth fastest as we go into Melbourne."

mickdw

It is basically just a another chassis already built up with all the new parts? Surely they can not be bringing a new chassis design already.

Jordan 199

mickdw wrote: »

It is basically just a another chassis already built up with all the new parts? Surely they can not be bringing a new chassis design already.

It's a brand new chassis they're sending to testing that includes a new front and rear wing and a heavily revised exhaust.

amacachi

SnowDrifts wrote: »

Seems like Mercedes will have to put up with another donkey this year. After a few years designing cars that eat tyres, you would think they could solve the issue by now!! :mad:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97809

Sounds like proper gamesmanship, what someone should be saying. At the same time I can't imagine a tean with both Schumacher and Brawn letting that happen.

mickdw wrote: »

It is basically just a another chassis already built up with all the new parts? Surely they can not be bringing a new chassis design already.

If they're bringing a new chassis then it's worth of HRT-level derision. If it's "just" completely new aero that they haven't revealed til now then it has to be a re-write of the laws if they're confident enough to hold it back until now.
Basically I'm ready to be underwhelmed.

Zagato

By completely new chassis don't they just mean the second chassis, which wouldn't have had a run yet probably, and they've added the new aero bits -that they don't want to give other teams a chance to copy- to this second chassis more efficiently in Milton Keynes, and given the mechanics in Barcelona the night off.

I think we're going to have to get used to this with Sky, blowing all stories out of proportion. Red Bull bringing their other car to Barcelona didn't sound so catchy I guess

Jordan 199

Here is what Gary Anderson said about the RB8 updates on Autosport:

AUTOSPORT's technical correspondent Gary Anderson believes the updated Red Bull Racing RB8 is a big philosophical change from the version tested already - especially with the revised exhaust layout.

"It is March 2 today and that is a whole new package from Red Bull, which is impressive this early in the season," he said. "They had a good advantage last year with the exhaust pipes - and they know how that area of the car operates so they are continuing to push forward in that area."

Anderson believes that the location of the exhausts is aimed at getting the gases attached to the airflow around the rear Coke-bottle area of the car.

"The exhaust pipes are further forward on the outer part of the sidepod," he explained. "They are not blowing anywhere in particular, but there appears to be some idea of getting the exhaust gases attached to the bodywork and being channelled somewhere they don't want to go.

"That is why they have detailed that Coke bottle area much more – plus there appears to be a large duct on the underfloor, feeding the flow between the double-skinned floor, to the diffuser."

The revised front wing on the RB8 features a straighter mid-section, which differs from the curved design the team has run up until now.

Full article on Autosport here.

Jordan 199

Some pics of the updated RB8:

thewheel2.0

Jordan 191 wrote: »

Some pics of the updated RB8:

Wow it looks good. I do like that Caterhams big ass though :pac:

Jordan 199

thewheel2.0 wrote: »

I do like that Caterhams big ass though :pac:

Lol.

More pics of the Red Bull RB8:









I'm fond of those sidepods.

Inbox

Apparently an Aussie spec W03 has landed in Barcelona , will be on track tomorrow.

Jordan 199

Inbox wrote: »

Apparently an Aussie spec W03 has landed in Barcelona , will be on track tomorrow.

Good stuff. And on another note, HRT won't be able to make it to the last day of pre-season testing.

So HRT and Marussia didn't take part in any pre-season tests. Qualifying will be interesting to see if they make the cut for the first race of the season.

Top Dog

Jordan 191 wrote: »

So HRT and Marussia didn't take part in any pre-season tests. Qualifying will be interesting to see if they make the cut for the first race of the season.

Wonder if the 107% rule will be applied this time ... or overlooked/overruled once again :rolleyes:

Jordan 199

Top Dog wrote: »

Wonder if the 107% rule will be applied this time ... or overlooked/overruled once again :rolleyes:

I think the 107% rule should be applied and enforced. If Marussia and HRT fail to get within 107% of the polesitters time, they won't be getting any sympathy from me.

SniperSight

I was watching an update on Sky this evening and Vettel was saying "so far not so good"
He said went off the track that there were front wing problems and he also reported gearbox issues.
Interesting!.

-gilly-09-

Really like the rear end on that RB8, if it didn’t have such a horrendous front it could actually be a looker!

Jordan 199

-gilly-09- wrote: »

Really like the rear end on that RB8, if it didn’t have such a horrendous front it could actually be a looker!

The RB8 does indeed have a nice rear end, just like the Mercedes W03 I think the Merc wins allround as it has a nicer face than the Red Bull.

Daniel S

Jordan 191 wrote: »

The RB8 does indeed have a nice rear end, just like the Mercedes W03 I think the Merc wins allround as it has a nicer face than the Red Bull.

Nicer rear and face on the Red Bulls.

lolie

For anyone like me with no sky sports it's worth looking up mrrealradiofan2000 on youtube as he put's up all the sky f1 test reports.

I noticed on yesterdays report while Ted Kravitz was talkin about the Red Bull sky were actually showing the Torro Rosso

freestyla

Jordan 191 wrote: »

The RB8 does indeed have a nice rear end, just like the Mercedes W03 I think the Merc wins allround as it has a nicer face than the Red Bull.

I think also Merc is on it this year, right with RB and Mclaren- if they manage to preserve tyres more.

Kimi also complained about front left tyre degradation in Barcelona but mentioned that others teams' tyres looked the same.
Lotus is another team to push Ferrari down the field.

Hopefully Merc and Lotus will have enough funds through out the season to maintain strong development and bring us excitement.

RB has enormous amount of money to play with and that's not fair!

freestyla

lolie wrote: »

For anyone like me with no sky sports it's worth looking up mrrealradiofan2000 on youtube as he put's up all the sky f1 test reports...

Another youtube user Sennafani8 is uploading actual F1 videos.. program is on finnish language but some interviews are in english.

Sky is uploading free videos at http://www1.skysports.com/formula1/video/

lolie

freestyla wrote: »

Another youtube user Sennafani8 is uploading actual F1 videos.. program is on finnish language but some interviews are in english.

Sky is uploading free videos at http://www1.skysports.com/formula1/video/

Me laptop gave up the ghost a while ago so i use youtube on the mobile for videos.
Jaime Alguersuari has joined Bbc 5 live as expert summarisier for the 2012.
It might lessen the pain of having to listen to James Allen for 2 hours

Jordan 199

freestyla wrote: »

Hopefully Merc and Lotus will have enough funds through out the season to maintain strong development and bring us excitement.

RB has enormous amount of money to play with and that's not fair!

Speaking of funds, here's an estimate of what budgets teams will have this year. Found these figures online.

Ferrari: €300m
McLaren: €285m
Red Bull: €285m
Mercedes: €225m
Lotus: €185m
Williams €140m
Force India: €135m
Sauber: €125m
Torro Rosso: €140m
Caterham: €150m
Marussia: €85m
HRT: €65-70m