Formula 1 2019 - General Discussion Thread

El_Duderino 09

Just by pure coincidence I got a message this second from a friend on holidays in Bangkok. He said the trains are covered in Albon advertisements so it can’t hurt to be a big advertisement figure in Thailand.

Cork Trucker

kksaints wrote: »

He's actually the second Thai driver in F1. B Bira drove for 5 seasons in the 1950s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birabongse_Bhanudej

Didn't know that. Having looked at the results of the Bira it seems Albon is looking to become the first Thai podium finisher then.

H3llR4iser

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Just by pure coincidence I got a message this second from a friend on holidays in Bangkok. He said the trains are covered in Albon advertisements so it can’t hurt to be a big advertisement figure in Thailand.

Yeah I'd say it's purely for sponsorship and support reasons - being one of very few young Thai drivers in activity would be a massive help in standing out, as opposed to just be "yet another British driver".

pjohnson

Albon was British when he was at Lotus academy irrc.

El_Duderino 09

pjohnson wrote: »

Albon was British when he was at Lotus academy irrc.

I think it’s not to do with his nationality, it’s on where he registers his racing license.

mickdw

Deleted User wrote: »

Nope.

?

mickdw

mickdw wrote: »

?

I should have elaborated rather than just snark. :pac:
Right now the suspensions are rigid as **** since the tyres allow flex. Running such hard suspensions (which are great for aero) won't be feasible so teams are going to have to come up with adaptable solutions. With the rules as they are they're not allowed movable parts and I think tuned mass dampers are still illegal. While obviously the big teams can invest more it at least allows for changes and innovation on something other than aero which is pretty rare. A team could come up with a solution that'll move them into the midfield or challenge for podiums at certain tracks.

PopePalpatine

Cork Trucker wrote: »

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Yes.

There are also 2 Finns 2 Germans and 2 French.

I think the British would claim Albon if he were on the podium with 2 Brits.

And they’d call it a French podium if LeClerc was there with Ro-Gro and Gasley.

Almost certainly, Thai flag though.

Like that'd stop David Croft & co.

Cork Trucker

PopePalpatine wrote: »

Like that'd stop David Croft & co.

Mentioning that idiot has just upset my lunch break now

skipper_G

Cork Trucker wrote: »

Probably for historical reasons, first Thai racer in F1 and that, something he can never have taken from him so a place in F1's history books. Did he race under the UK flag earlier in his career? i know Nico Rosberg despite being born in Germany and growing up in Monaco raced under the Finnish flag earlier in his career despite admitting he can't speak Finnish fluently, possibly Keke never conversed in the language with him very often as a child.

As far as I know he raced his first season of open wheelers under a British flag and then switched to Thai. He was definitely using Thai in his F3 campaign

uchimata83

PopePalpatine wrote: »

Like that'd stop David Croft & co.

You mean Crofty? Love Sky's coverage, reminds me of the early morning football show on BT with Fletch and Sav. I just hope they can dumb things down for us more in the future

Stevieluvsye

Not sure if this has already been posted but this could work!!!

https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/44817/ferrari-boss-confirms-change-to-f1-qualifying-format-in-2020/

Cork Trucker

uchimata83 wrote: »

You mean Crofty? Love Sky's coverage, reminds me of the early morning football show on BT with Fletch and Sav. I just hope they can dumb things down for us more in the future

I can't detect if you are being sarcastic or serious about Croft. If you're serious you have my deepest sympathy

Cork Trucker

skipper_G wrote: »

As far as I know he raced his first season of open wheelers under a British flag and then switched to Thai. He was definitely using Thai in his F3 campaign

Wasn't just a spur of the moment decision then, i have to admit i never heard of him prior to being selected to replace Hartley

flazio

I think Williams have a good chance of getting out of this slump they are in now. This engine deal should help.
https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/status/1172454717705850880?s=19

mickdw

Deleted User wrote: »

I should have elaborated rather than just snark. :pac:
Right now the suspensions are rigid as **** since the tyres allow flex. Running such hard suspensions (which are great for aero) won't be feasible so teams are going to have to come up with adaptable solutions. With the rules as they are they're not allowed movable parts and I think tuned mass dampers are still illegal. While obviously the big teams can invest more it at least allows for changes and innovation on something other than aero which is pretty rare. A team could come up with a solution that'll move them into the midfield or challenge for podiums at certain tracks.

I think you are missing a lot of the point. The suspension can be stiff now due to flex in the tyre as you say but I think you are on the wrong track thinking that this is great for aero. It would be if the tyres didn't flex and kept the car at expected pitch into the air flow at all times. With the flexible sidewalls, the cars can suffer extreme pitch changes on braking not to mention side to side movement also. The tyres are a spec part and as such not open to design by the teams so they have to attempt to design around the movement in the tyre currently.
With a low profile tyre, there will be less crude movement within the tyre with movement relative to airflow being controlled moreso by suspension.


My point was that Engineers will prefer to have the more of the design of the combined movement of suspension and tyre within there own design control when tyre is more rigid compared to today where they have to take a flexing tyre and live with it and work around it.

El_Duderino 09

flazio wrote: »

I think Williams have a good chance of getting out of this slump they are in now. This engine deal should help.
https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/status/1172454717705850880?s=19

Depends. If those engines cost a fortune then they might be better off with cheaper engines and putting the money into solving the problems. The engine is not the problem and they’re still 2-3 seconds off the pace.

But generally it’s good for them to have a solid engine deal. It might suit them to give Mercedes an option on a seat in exchange for money off the engine. If the car wasn’t a mess this year, they could have had Ocon next year which would be a good solution for everyone involved. But the car is so bad that it wasn’t even discussed.

Faugheen

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

flazio wrote: »

I think Williams have a good chance of getting out of this slump they are in now. This engine deal should help.
https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/status/1172454717705850880?s=19

Depends. If those engines cost a fortune then they might be better off with cheaper engines and putting the money into solving the problems. The engine is not the problem and they’re still 2-3 seconds off the pace.

But generally it’s good for them to have a solid engine deal. It might suit them to give Mercedes an option on a seat in exchange for money off the engine. If the car wasn’t a mess this year, they could have had Ocon next year which would be a good solution for everyone involved. But the car is so bad that it wasn’t even discussed.

I imagine there is a seat option in there in exchange for money off. It suits all parties to have that.

I imagine Russell stays there again next year. Hopefully there’s some progress and they can at least be competitive so Russell can really show everyone what he’s capable of.

El_Duderino 09

Faugheen wrote: »

I imagine there is a seat option in there in exchange for money off. It suits all parties to have that.

I imagine Russell stays there again next year. Hopefully there’s some progress and they can at least be competitive so Russell can really show everyone what he’s capable of.

I hope so too. I'm reluctant to get carried away with Russel yet. He looks good and I hope he's the real deal but we have very little data to compare him. At the moment we have his car which is crap but we don't know exactly how crap and we have Kubica who is not firing on all cylinders either.

So Russell is doing a grand job of keeping the car on track and being consistent but that's about all we can say. We haven't seen him battle for position much because he is so far ahead of kubica and so far behind everyone else.

He seems like a good bloke which I think skews opinions of his driving -human nature to do so.

Faugheen

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Faugheen wrote: »

I imagine there is a seat option in there in exchange for money off. It suits all parties to have that.

I imagine Russell stays there again next year. Hopefully there’s some progress and they can at least be competitive so Russell can really show everyone what he’s capable of.

I hope so too. I'm reluctant to get carried away with Russel yet. He looks good and I hope he's the real deal but we have very little data to compare him. At the moment we have his car which is crap but we don't know exactly how crap and we have Kubica who is not firing on all cylinders either.

So Russell is doing a grand job of keeping the car on track and being consistent but that's about all we can say. We haven't seen him battle for position much because he is so far ahead of kubica and so far behind everyone else.

He seems like a good bloke which I think skews opinions of his driving -human nature to do so.

In fairness when the Williams looked in some way competitive he just missed out on Q2 by less than a tenth so there is a good driver there. However like you said, we just don’t know how good.

El_Duderino 09

Faugheen wrote: »

In fairness when the Williams looked in some way competitive he just missed out on Q2 by less than a tenth so there is a good driver there. However like you said, we just don’t know how good.

That was a great result TBF. I think he has answered all the questions asked of him this season. The only thing is that he hasn't had all the questions asked yet because of his car and teammate.

His stock is pretty high at the moment and I hope he can Continue to impress.

pjohnson

Williams get Russell's engines for free from Mercedes as part of his deal to get the Williams seat. They only pay for Kubica's engine parts. And iirc Belgium qualy is the only time Williams have had an engine issue when Kubica's brand new engine blew up so they mightn't even have to have paid for that either (per Crofty). I dont believe Williams have actually retired either car from a race this year.

Charlie-Bravo

There should be a decent team mate battle next year between Russell and Latifi, should Latifi get the drive. I think Russell is a touch better than Latifi, and with a year's experience more, Russell should be setting the bar nice and high in the Williams. Let's hope Williams are able to contest the midfield next year too (that'll make more interesting to watch).

pjohnson

astrofluff wrote: »

There should be a decent team mate battle next year between Russell and Latifi, should Latifi get the drive. I think Russell is a touch better than Latifi, and with a year's experience more, Russell should be setting the bar nice and high in the Williams. Let's hope Williams are able to contest the midfield next year too (that'll make more interesting to watch).

Doubt Latifi will be much better than Kubica against Russell. He was nowhere near him in F2.

Charlie-Bravo

I take your point, but they haven't been teammates. Russell was with ART in F2 for only one year moving up from F3/GP3 the previous year so not much of a chance to compare. But looking back at Latifi, it's taken a few years to get to where is he is now in F2. I suppose he's only there because of the wad of cash he brings. Russell is likely to beat him, he's that good

Infoanon

pjohnson wrote: »

Albon was British when he was at Lotus academy irrc.

There was a short programme on Sky F1 last night with the British rookies - Russell ,Morris and British Thai driver Albon .

Think it was Johnny Herbert who discovered this new nationality !

recyclebin

Nyck de Vries is off racing Formual E next year. Should they make some kind of rule regarding drafting drivers from GP2 to prevent money getting seats above talent? Maybe a draft type system like they have in American sports? The way it is now money and/or the big teams are controlling too much of the driver market. Talent is only third.

Infoanon

recyclebin wrote: »

t. Talent is only third.

It has always been this way and there's zero chance of it changing

Harika

And he doesn't strike me as talent, winning f2 in his third year with maybe the weakest field in years.

pjohnson

F2 isnt exactly quality controlled either. Raghunathan struggled to just turn his car.