Formula 1 2012: General Discussion Thread

losthorizon

Put up the link there.

Why dont you email them. I did, and they got back to me after a few days.

frostie500

I went last year to Barcelona with the GA ticket and its perfect. You could stand at probably 90% of the track and on the Friday and Saturday could sit in the stands. I watched the race from turn five, the hairpin at the start of I2, and it was a great spot. No need to arrive too early, the Spanish are pretty relaxed and arrive late enough-not like Silverstone or some other places!I couldnt fault that weekend in any way and for 95 quid you wont go too far wrong

antomorro-sei

losthorizon wrote: »

Put up the link there.

Why dont you email them. I did, and they got back to me after a few days.

Yeah, cheers. I sent them an email there anyway.

frostie500 wrote: »

I went last year to Barcelona with the GA ticket and its perfect. You could stand at probably 90% of the track and on the Friday and Saturday could sit in the stands. I watched the race from turn five, the hairpin at the start of I2, and it was a great spot. No need to arrive too early, the Spanish are pretty relaxed and arrive late enough-not like Silverstone or some other places!I couldnt fault that weekend in any way and for 95 quid you wont go too far wrong

Deadly stuff. Nice one!

Did you drive there, or get a bus or train out?

Jordan 199

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I really dont expect any other than the HRT car to be a massive moving chicane this year. I also expect to see some of the guys at the front having some incidents with them. Hurrah backmarkers causing crashes (most involving Webber)

Mobile chicanes as they call 'em. I don't expect Pedro de la Rosa to cause any problems as he is an experienced driver.

As for Karthikeyan, if he causes problems on the track, I can see the FIA revoking his super licence like they did with Yuji Ide in 2006.

frostie500

antomorro-sei wrote: »

Deadly stuff. Nice one!

Did you drive there, or get a bus or train out?

I just got the train out, much handier from the city. Just go to the Montmelo station and then its a 20 or 25 minute walk to the track

mickdw

Anyone been to an F1 pre season test?
I wouldnt mind going to one

ottostreet

Not F1 2012 related, but I dunno where to put this.

Just finished reading 'Senna vs. Prost' by Malcolm Folley, as far as I know it's a new book. It reads like an accompaniment to the movie, but goes into detail far more on each event. I've read 100s of F1 books over the last 15 years or so, and didn't think I'd read anything new in it, but it was actually excellent. I found myself far preferring Prost after reading it though, which was not what I was expecting. I realise neither of them were angels, but Senna does come across far harder and more aggressive than he does in the movie.

-gilly-09-

Is there any streams for testing today. I have no idea if there is even any networks showing it live. Strange that there is no coverage at all anywhere. well as far as I can see.

vectra

-gilly-09- wrote: »

Is there any streams for testing today. I have no idea if there is even any networks showing it live. Strange that there is no coverage at all anywhere. well as far as I can see.

Testing starts tomorrow doesn't it?

Don't think there are any streams.. Maybe live timing alright but again, bot too sure

-gilly-09-

vectra wrote: »

Testing starts tomorrow doesn't it?

Don't think there are any streams.. Maybe live timing alright but again, bot too sure

Ye it does sorry, my bad.:rolleyes:

vectra

-gilly-09- wrote: »

Is there any streams for testing today. I have no idea if there is even any networks showing it live. Strange that there is no coverage at all anywhere. well as far as I can see.

This is the only thing I can find

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/testresults/1432/formula-1-test-at-circuito-permanente-de-jerez-7-february-2012/

hotwhiskey

-gilly-09- wrote: »

Is there any streams for testing today. I have no idea if there is even any networks showing it live. Strange that there is no coverage at all anywhere. well as far as I can see.

Sky sports news reporting every half hour from the track this morning.

MudSkipper

There's the bbc one too... fi you can handle the mclaren bias

vectra

MudSkipper wrote: »

There's the bbc one too... fi you can handle the mclaren bias

Another one here > http://www.f1today.nl/uitslagen/testsessies/2012/02/07/circuito-de-jerez.


Raikkonen faster than last years times

StephenHendry

kimi going really well, top of the timings so far

potholes84

So day 1 of testing is over. Raikkonen topping the timesheets.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m19.670s 73
2. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m19.772s + 0.102 101
3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m20.219s + 0.549 56
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m20.496s + 0.826 53
5. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m20.694s + 1.024 57
6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m20.794s + 1.124 41
7. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m21.353s + 1.683 106
8. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m21.530s + 1.860 60
9. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m22.815s + 3.145 69
10. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m23.178s + 3.508 28
11. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m23.371s + 3.701 25
11. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m23.676s + 4.006 44

ottostreet

I know it's testing, but what a legend Kimi is. Competitive straight away speed-wise anyway.

frostie500

ottostreet wrote: »

I know it's testing, but what a legend Kimi is. Competitive straight away speed-wise anyway.

Its great to see but its worth remembering that in 2010 Schumi was only a tenth or so off the pace on the first day, if memory serves me right, so even though its encouraging I wouldnt read it as Kimi being straight back and "on it" so to speak.

Great to see him back though all the same and i really do hope its an indication of his competitiveness for the this year

Jordan 199

Well I for one won't be taking those testing times seriously at all. The most important thing on a race weekend is qualifying and the race. That's all that matters.

Top Dog

Kobyashi was a busy man! 106 laps!

Frank Bullitt

Nice to see cars back out there, not reading anything into the lap times, sure Rubens was top of the list this time last year and look what happened there.

vectra

Kimi looks pretty comfortable to be back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlKlKzEG_TI

Ted Kravitz interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0QqXZtiZUY

counterlock

Jordan 191 wrote: »

Well I for one won't be taking those testing times seriously at all. The most important thing on a race weekend is qualifying and the race. That's all that matters.

I used be a massive Alain Prost fan as a driver and supported the team while they were in F1. I got so excited in the build up to the 2001 season with their testing times; after that I swore to ignore testing times.

Same old story, they lost money from Petrov so they are running the car light to get attention/sponsors

Jordan 199

counterlock wrote: »

I used be a massive Alain Prost fan as a driver and supported the team while they were in F1. I got so excited in the build up to the 2001 season with their testing times; after that I swore to ignore testing times.

That's right. Prost lost a truckload of sponsors such as Total, Bic, Agfa, Yahoo, Gauloises at the end of 2000 and they lost the Peugeot engines too, which were free.

They were sending out their cars running pretty much on petrol fumes so they could be at the sharp end of the time sheets.

Arrows did the same in pre-season tests in 2000 so they could land a sponsor, which they did with Orange.

counterlock

Maybe it was just me but it was way better back then. I've really lost interest in it since about 09 or so. The racing just seems to be very artificial. I think since they lost the privateer teams the sport has gone downhill.

Head leaving Williams is the beginning of the end I fear

shamwari

counterlock wrote: »

I used be a massive Alain Prost fan as a driver and supported the team while they were in F1. I got so excited in the build up to the 2001 season with their testing times

I too was a huge Prost Fan and got far too excited on over winter test times that were clearly not realistic or representative of where that car really belonged.

Jordan 191 wrote: »

That's right. Prost lost a truckload of sponsors such as Total, Bic, Agfa, Yahoo, Gauloises at the end of 2000 and they lost the Peugeot engines too, which were free.

IIRC, a big part of the problem was the Peugeot engine, which was considered too heavy and bulky, and not particularly competitive. When Prost got the rebaged Ferrari (Acer) engines in 2001 (which were Ferrari's 2000 engines), the car was still crap but managed to score four points versus the null points of 2000.

All a far cry from their Mugen-powered glory year of '97 when Panis came close close to victory in Canada (before crashing), and ran very strongly in Argentina, and Trulli qualified third in Austria and led for almost half the race. Panis was on the podium twice with 3rd in Brazil and 2nd at Barcelona. They finished 6th in the constructors championship.

counterlock

shamwari wrote: »

I too was a huge Prost Fan and got far too excited on over winter test times that were clearly not realistic or representative of where that car really belonged.

We were a rare breed back then and now almost extinct.

They provided some great highlights even after 97, Nurburgring 99 and Frentzen qualifying 4th (as far as i recall) in Spa. But once Peugeot went on strike at the French GP it was all downhill.

counterlock

And I forgot Alesi's donuts in Canada!

-gilly-09-

This is a bit off topic but I have been trying to get into a bit more technical details on inner workings of F1 cars and the technical details. Does anyone have any decent suggestions on some good places to get information etc. Cheers

counterlock

http://www.haynes.co.uk/redbull/
Service manual for the 10 (i think) red bull