Formula One

Odian

Well a suggestion has been made to get a motor sport board up,i reckon we use and grow this one.

So to get if off does anybody have any predictions or that about the coming season?


Odian

rymus

I predict that once again Michael Schumacher is going to wipe the floor with *almost* everyone. At this point it seems the only person that poses somewhat of a threat to him is Montoya.

I'd say the podium positions this year will mostly be Schumacher 1, Montoya 2 & 3 is anyones guess...

Williams is starting off shakily - what with Coulthards gearbox woes on Sunday.. (but at the same time Raikkonen is looking good)

Jordan - well... not looking good at all...

Having said that tho Sunday's crash at the start was very much an isolated incident and saw a lot of the lower positioned drivers coming right up into the points (a la Eddie Irvine). I would have preferred to see all the front runners going for it like madmen all through the race but as it turned out half of the more decent drivers were screwed from the start.

Cant wait for Malaysia anyway.. should be an entertaining affair...

Also, I was told that Skoda (yes you heard me, SKODA) are entering an F1 team after buying Prost.. is there any truth to this? Surely something would have been announced!?!

bonkey

Originally posted by rymus
I predict that once again Michael Schumacher is going to wipe the floor with *almost* everyone. At this point it seems the only person that poses somewhat of a threat to him is Montoya.

Given their different driving styles, I dont think Montoya is necessarily that much better than Ralphie.

I expect Schumi snr. to win the season easily (barring accidents or the 2002 car being crap), with Barichello fighting for second place against *both* Williams and *both* McLaren drivers.

Williams is starting off shakily - what with Coulthards gearbox woes on Sunday.. (but at the same time Raikkonen is looking good)

You mean McLaren there m8 I wouldnt put much faith in them having a "gearbox problem" by the next race, and definitely no further.

Jordan - well... not looking good at all...

Yes and no. The car is pretty good and the drivers are a mixed bag (Fisi is, IMHO, superb, and Sato has immense potential). The major problems are that Jordan seem incapable of building gearbox systems more durable than as if they were made of Lego, and the Honda engine needs more power - which we can expect to come soon. So - its really a question of just how dodgy the gearbox is this year. Unlike McLaren, Jordan have a track record at this stage of building "almost reliable" cars - even by late season, they seem to suffer failures. This, once again, looks like the case this year.

Sauber, BAR and Toyota look like they will be in and around Jordan's level. Jaguar, if they've sorted out their front wing problems will be there as well. Renault will start at the same level, but are the most likely to be challenging the big three by the middle of the season. I reckon they'll get fourth by the end.

BAR, Jordan, Sauber, and possibly Toyota will scrap for 5th thru 7th. Beyond that, I'm not sure

Also, I was told that Skoda (yes you heard me, SKODA) are entering an F1 team after buying Prost.. is there any truth to this? Surely something would have been announced!?!

OK - a slightly anonymous group has bought intellectuial and pysical rights to the AP03 and AP04 cars from bankrupt Prost, as well as what was developed to date on the AP05. There are strong indicators that the VW group are behind this.

Speculation is that VW will use this to enter under their Skoda brand this year, using the AP04 chassis, and a 1999-spec consumer engine (a Cosworth?). Yes, it will underperform terribly, but its good publicity for the latest emerging VW brand. In a year or two when they're ready for prime-time, they will then possibly rename the team to Audi, or some other prestige marque from the VW group.

Of course, I think the story is pants. Why? Simple.

Whoever bought the stuff did not buy the Prost team, but only some of its assets. Therefore, there is nothing to indicate that they can or should have the Prost's F1 "license". If they did, it would mean that VW had bought into F1 for about 2 million - a far cry from the $48M "bond" they're supposed to put down on entry. Furthermore, by failiong to appear on the grid in the first race, the Prost license should, in fact, be null and void. Recall last year when Stoddard went through miracles to build a car in three weeks so as to make the opening race, rather than lose his shiny newly acquired team's position.

Yes. Bernie E is mates with the VW big-knob who has been rumoured to be interested in the 12th slot for quite some time. That said, I dont think Bernie or anyone will waive the rules, when Toyota had to stump up the readies last year, and the manufacturers are still making noises about a breakaway series in 2007. Add in Kirch-group's financial predicament and their recent announcement to consider selling some F1 rights, and we see that all is not fully healthy in Bernie's little empire - this is not the time to go pissing off the other major players by allowing a mate a cheap way in.

My personal guess is that VW have bought the tech to shortcut development of a car for next year. Rather than starting from scratch as Toyota had to do, they at least have a lot of bsic groundwork done on modern F1 structure through acquiring teh AP03, AP04 and AP05 intellectual rights. I do not believe we will see VW or any of their subsidiary groups on the grid this season, but I expect them to announce their entry for next season.

jc

bonkey

As a further update, theres an article here quoting Bernie as coming out and having said that these guys paid for some "show cars". They did not, and have not bought an F1 license as part of the deal, and the idea of them appearing at Malaysia (as hinted) is ridiculous.

jc

rymus

yeh McLaren.... I dunno why I said williams... *goes off to get a cat scan*

danbert

Is there ANYONE out ther who can see past M.S.?
Montoya is an absolute genius in a race car! This guy is goina be BIG and all people can do is waffle on about how great Schumacher is, well sorry he's not (I am expectin a lot of death treats after that statement.) Fine he may be an excellent driver but hes not the be all and end all of F1.
That manouvere he pulled past Schuie on Sun was UNBELIEVEABLE, and on cold Michelin tyres!!!! Which everyone knows don't work nearly as well as the Bridgestines do in colder conditions.
Well I've said my piece. Thanx for listenin.

chernobyl

Originally posted by danbert
Is there ANYONE out ther who can see past M.S.?
Montoya is an absolute genius in a race car!

nope, i think you are wrong.
Montoya can be fast but can never sustain that race pace because he abuses his car and tyres and it bites him in the ass.
RS is not a faster driver but will continually beat him unless Montoya learns how to conserve his car, assuming that RS doesnt keep repeating this:-->

Kali

incase anyone didnt notice in that pic.. check out the scrubbed michelin tyres on ralfs car (and coulthards).. compare that to the bridgestones on the ferrari of rubens.

chernobyl

Both types of tyres are heavily scrubbed, but what i notice about that picture is how close RB came to loosing his head.

Kali

err no? the bridgestones there have about two laps done on them.. namely the warmup lap and the much much slower "get onto the grid" lap. the michelins used are most likely one-lap qualifying tyres or fomr sunday morning.

chernobyl

Originally posted by Kali
err no? the bridgestones there have about two laps done on them.. namely the warmup lap and the much much slower "get onto the grid" lap. the michelins used are most likely one-lap qualifying tyres or fomr sunday morning.

[borrowed from Kali]err no?

If you were watching the interactive coverage you would have seen that all teams were put out on new tires and all the top runners did about 10 installation laps before joining the grid.

Schumi was so tight on time cus he did some fine tuning at the very last minute.

Odian

Also, I was told that Skoda (yes you heard me, SKODA) are entering an F1 team after buying Prost.. is there any truth to this? Surely something would have been announced!?!

look here for full report

---

Reports that Skoda is to enter Formula One have been dismissed by high-level sources within the sport.

A Sunday newspaper reported this week that German car giant Volkswagen, which owns Skoda, is behind the recent purchase of the assets of the Prost team by Phoenix Finance.

But high-level sources in F1 have told BBC Sport Online that this is not the case - and that there is no chance of the new outfit racing this year.

And Skoda has denied that it has plans to enter Grand Prix racing. "We have no plans at the moment to go into F1, as far as I am aware," said a spokesperson.

---

Good to see the thread picking up, keep it up

Kali

If you were watching the interactive coverage you would have seen that all teams were put out on new tires and all the top runners did about 10 installation laps before joining the grid.

oh ok.. i didnt realise that, however my point still stands, i still reckon that the tyres on rubens car done a lot less laps than the michelins of ralf and coulthard.
and true schumachers tyres are more scrubbed in than rubens.

chernobyl

And my new desktop looks like:

http://www.boards.ie/members/videogirls/wp-31-hi.jpg

Would it be cliché to say..."houston we have a problem".hehe

danbert

Does anyone agree that that crash was totally Rubens fault?
I meqan he was weaving all over the place, and I thought a driver was only allowed move once to protect his racing line.

bonkey

No.

RB *may* have weaved twice before the turn which caused the accident, but to be honest, I didnt see it that way initially. It looked more like one to me. Even Ralph mentioned that one of the first two was "only a few inches", so I reckon he was trying his arm on that count.

As for the weave where the accident occurred....Barichello was moving on his racing line - not performing a blocking manouever. The "swerve" he took just as Ralphie hit him was him lining up to get the correct line through the corner. Under racing rules, this is not a "blocking manouever", and therefore is perfectly valid. In theory, Ralph is therefore at fault, because he did not give the lead car enough space to take its racing line coming into the corner.

This, incidentally, coincides with the findings of the on-track stewards and the F1 comission.

Had Rubens made it round the corner, there is a small chance he would have received a 10-second stop-go for his "previous" weaving, but the move he made when he got hit was perfectly legal.

Ultimately, as often happens in the first few races of the season, I think the drivers got a little too excited, and a little too aggerssive, resulting in them being a little too reckless.

jc

JohnBoy

Montoya v Ralph:

Montoya is far superior, ralph still manages to make the dumbest mistakes, last sunday being another example, he has improved an awful lot from his early spinny seasons, but he still dissapoints

Montoya v Michael
I love montoya, I think he's a great driver, I've seen him at different points down through the years, in american races and stuff, and I've always been impressed, he's well able to haul a car around a track, but assuming michael has a stable package he'll beat montoya, unless tonka start working for williams, the F1 cars are far more fragile and sensitive to abuse than the american series cars.

Ralph v Rubens
Totally 100% entirely ralphs fault. there was no point in doing what he did, he had made a great start and then proceeded to **** it all up with that stupid move

Sevalis

Does anybody think Ralf should be suspended from F1 for a race or 2, or was it Rubens fault?Michael shold teach Ralf how to use the breaks!

bonkey

Originally posted by Sevalis
Does anybody think Ralf should be suspended from F1 for a race or 2, or was it Rubens fault?Michael shold teach Ralf how to use the breaks!

The official verdict was "racing incident". Neither driver was without fault. Even if it were, F1 does not have the idea of driver-suspension for silly mistakes. Its not a bad idea, mind you, but they dont have it.

jc

Ciaran

Originally posted by JohnBoy
Montoya is far superior, ralph still manages to make the dumbest mistakes, last sunday being another example, he has improved an awful lot from his early spinny seasons, but he still dissapoints

Were you not watching Monaco or Canada last year? Montoya made two of the dosiest mistakes I've seen since Ricardo Rosset drove into a barrier in Monaco trying to turn his car around.

Originally posted by Sevalis
Michael shold teach Ralf how to use the breaks!

I think he broke enough in Australia!

doubledown

Schumi will win the Driver's Championship, no problem.

Williams are Ferrari's only real rivals this year.

Raikonnen is a revelation and will continue to embarass Coulthard.

Toyota and Renault have been incredibly impressive so far and are embarassing Jordan, Jaguar and BAR.

Minardi will continue to be at the back of the grid, but to see them score points in Oz was great.

Ralf and Montoya will probably win a few races each, but will cancel each other out points-wise.

Watch Massa in the Sauber. He's good!

Same for Heidfeld.

Irvine is a pratt.