The F1 thread

FX_Munkee

stickyfiddle said:

Fretwired said:

Red Bull and Aston Martin team up. New road car planned and Red Bull will have Aston Martin logos of their F1 cars ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-3496673/Red-Bull-Aston-Martin-team-build-2m-supercar.html

So the Fizzy Drinks Company  have a partnership with Aston Martin who are part-owned by Mercedes Benz while running F1 cars with engines branded by a watchmaker that are really Renaults? 

I think someone missed the "Simplicity in Branding 101" class...

I do love the irony of Tag Heuer branded engines. So much like their own watches.

Fretwired

sweepy said:

Speed in Winter testing generally means very little, reliability does and so far the Merc clocked up a lot more miles

We'll see .. with the Merc boys fighting each other Vettel has a strong chance of picking up wins. He did it last year in an under-performing car and I'm sure Ferrari have closed the gap.

Heartfeltdawn

The Aston Martin/Red Bull supercar project has been talked about for months. The situation with Mallya and Force India has been all over the place and nobody sensible would get involved with things as they are. Joe Saward summed it all up very pithily as ever yesterday. 

https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/the-names-bond/

Fretwired

Junk Bond ... :-)

chillidoggy

Anyone know how much sugar is in a Red Bull?

stickyfiddle

chillidoggy said:

Anyone know how much sugar is in a Red Bull?

Garthy

stickyfiddle said:

I think it's probably more interesting to ask who will be the slowest team?

Manor - current titleholder, Merc-engined shitbox.

McLaren - upgraded-but-still-Honda-shitbox

Renault - old, established shitbox with shitboxier engine than last year

Sauber. No money so mostly using last year's shitbox.

Haas - shiny and new, all-Americky unknown. Great potential-to-be-a-shitbox...

Manor - six seconds faster per lap than last year, strip away 1.0s for tyres and another 1.0s for the cold temperatures and you have a 4 second improvement in raw pace not just with the Merc lump but a 2015 chassis instead of an old lash up. They certainly won't be circulating on their own 4 laps down on Sunday. May still be last.

Mclaren- they are fucked, they seem to think the laws of thermodynamics do not apply to them. I think they'll finish 10th in the WCC.

Renault- the engine is a vast improvement over last year's shitbox, the A-spec chassis may not be up to much but they'll catch the midfield hand over fist if the rumoured B-spec arrives in mid season.

Sauber- skint, undeveloped but may finish ahead of Mclaren.

Haas- essentially a 2015 Ferrari with a 2016 engine and all the extras, once they find their feet I think they'll be straight up to the midfield and may trouble STR/FI.

fretmeister

New Quali format is shit.

stickyfiddle

It's good that F1 now has a Facebook page just in time for everyone to tell them precisely how shit new qualifying is. I can't see it being in place for the next race.

What a bunch of dicks

Fretwired

fretmeister said:

New Quali format is shit.

You're being too polite .. it has to be scrapped.

Vettel is a good place though with an extra set of tyres.

siremoon

Agree the new quali was awful.  It *might* be a little better if you were allowed to complete the lap you're on when the timer runs out so you know you have to give it everything if you're the one facing elimination.  No way it can stay as it is though.

stickyfiddle

siremoon said:

Agree the new quali was awful.  It *might* be a little better if you were allowed to complete the lap you're on when the timer runs out so you know you have to give it everything if you're the one facing elimination.  No way it can stay as it is though.

That would be a start for fairness, but I think would become horrendous to understand while watching. 

It would work if they had quali tyres that were gripe but bombproof and could a=only be used for qualifying. Preferably made to get half a tenth quicker per lap to counteract heavy fuel-loads. AND they need to make the cutoff time something like "last year's pole time + 10 seconds" rather than a flat 90 to make sure that anyone on a lap can finish it in that knockout period.

Then the incentive for drivers would be to keep hacking around from start to finish rather than just stick in the best single lap you can do and sit in the garage saving tyres and hoping you don't get knocked out in the first half. No tyre changes, no nonsense.

fretmeister

BBC saying it will be scrapped, but that Bernie doesn't want to go back to the old one either.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/35850766

sinbaadi

There is no perfect format. I like super pole, the true format, just one do-or-die lap for the top ten, but introduce changeable conditions and that's awful.

People watch qualifying to see who is fast this weekend, but primarily for that "can he beat the time set by......?" moment at the end of the session.

They replaced a few minutes of excitement at the end of the session, with no excitement for the whole session.

Literally farcical. I mean did they not simulate it or think to test it somewhere first? Highly arrogant but no surprise there....

Heartfeltdawn

I had a really odd nightmare about an ex-girlfriend punching me in the face repeatedly in a greenhouse at 5am. Couldn't sleep again, went downstairs to have a fag, and found my housemate camped out on the sofa straddled in blankets staring at the screen. So my whole 'not watching it this year' plan went up in smoke

Qualification was so badly inept, it felt like it had been realised by the Pakistan Cricket Board. 

fretmeister said:

BBC saying it will be scrapped, but that Bernie doesn't want to go back to the old one either.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/35850766

No, he wants to go to his shit notion of time penalties for winning. 

fretmeister

Might as well bin Quali and just have grids that are the reverse of the previous race result.

hotpot

What on earth was all that about with these new rules! I think if I'd paid £100 or whatever they charge for a ticket over there to watch that I'd be a bit miffed

Garthy

I'm surprised the Aussies didn't kick off, I would have been fucking livid if I had paid for tickets on Friday & Saturday with next to no running on both days. It's bollocks.

Heartfeltdawn

Garthy said:I'm surprised the Aussies didn't kick off, I would have been fucking livid if I had paid for tickets on Friday & Saturday with next to no running on both days. It's bollocks.

Two years ago there were complaints that they weren't loud enough. They were even quieter for nearly half of Q3. 

stickyfiddle

I've only seen the live text from autosport but sounds like a great race. Looking forward to watching it properly later.