Formula 1 - 2011 Season
- Thread starter Dave Baumann
- Start date
As usual, Joe puts up some good insights into the potential reasonings behind the deal:
http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/team-lotus-principals-buy-caterham-confirmed/
Inevitable I think. He gave an interview a few weeks ago that made it sound like he'd be at Williams till the end of the season, but no more.
It has been a pretty disasterous start for Williams, the car simply hasn't worked at all.
Not sure what you mean. It may well be too little too late, but I'm not sure what the IPO has got to do with anything? They floated the IPO before the season started (which was probably a good idea in hindsight). All that money went to the existing owners of Williams.
Well, I just mean that they have public stock now and as far as I can tell, the share price has dropped since the IPO.
Sam Michael has been with Williams for a long time and they haven't won a race since 2004.
Quali wasn't that interesting, though Kovalainen did well, he was pretty close to be in Q2. Rosberg showed Mercedes' pace and I think Schumacher made a big mistake because he lost over 1 second in Q3. Liuzzi managed to outqualify Glock in his updated Virgin, which is very impressive.
Red Bulls only did one run in Q3 so they saved tyres. Alonso did 2 runs and some others did too (Hamilton, Button and Petrov). Massa didn't run at all in Q3
Top 10
Vettel
Webber
Rosberg
Hamilton
Alonso
Button
Petrov
Schumacher
Heidfeld
Massa
All cars, however, were well inside 107% in Q1, except for Cowboyashi whose fuel pump malfunctioned and he stopped out on track. He has done competitive lap times in practice so he will be allowed to start the race.
Red Bulls only did one run in Q3 so they saved tyres. Alonso did 2 runs and some others did too (Hamilton, Button and Petrov). Massa didn't run at all in Q3
Top 10
Vettel
Webber
Rosberg
Hamilton
Alonso
Button
Petrov
Schumacher
Heidfeld
Massa
All cars, however, were well inside 107% in Q1, except for Cowboyashi whose fuel pump malfunctioned and he stopped out on track. He has done competitive lap times in practice so he will be allowed to start the race.
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Schumi's DRS wasn't apparently working
So much for the "magic lever."
They said on radio that "magic lever is latched", meaning that it won't open.
I didn't understand it like that at the time, but when you mention it, it sounds plausible.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
I'm surprised there are so many problems with DRS not opening. It would seem like a rather simple piece of hardware. Just a piston coupled to a button and some software. Doesn't seem too complicated to the rest of the car.
Ted Kravitz at BBC said that the "magic lever" is some kind of default setting which puts all different things (diff, fuel mixture, etc) in the best setting. Michael said himself that he made a mistake and then overdrove and killed the tyres in his Q3 lap.
It was a very exciting race I think. Vettel was peerless, won without any difficulty. Webber had more problems to get second, but managed to DRS overtake Alonso a few laps from the end. Webber also had fresher tyres which means Alonso couldn't get close enough to DRS Webber back. Alonso drove a great race, good fighting and the Ferrari is making a return to form. Hamilton did well too, but had a slow pit-stop but I don't know if he could have done better than fourth. Rosberg tried hard, but Mercedes disappointed, he was DRS-done all over the place and could only take Button with DRS right at the end. Top 5 did 4 stops, Button tried 3 stops and it could have worked if Button hadn't been stuck behind Petrov, Massa, Rosberg earlier in the race. Button and Hamilton had some fantastic fighting earlier too, really great to watch.
Heidfeld has been slower than Petrov for pretty much all of the weekend, but he managed to get past Petrov in the latter part of the race. Petrov drove well and defended well against Massa and Rosberg both DRSing him. That Renault has impressive top speed.
Buemi did well to finish 9th, good job.
Cowboyashi started 24th, finished 10th, he is a fantastic driver. Best driver in F1 from Japan in history.
Michael Schumacher had a poor race, he fell back a lot and touched a few other cars and wasn't particularly impressive. He finished 12 behind Felipe Massa, who is driving better but had a very slow pit stop where his wheels were turning as the mechanics struggled to fit new tyres. Clutch problem or what?
Barrichello looked like he was going to get into top 10, but struggled in the latter part of the race.
Heidfeld has been slower than Petrov for pretty much all of the weekend, but he managed to get past Petrov in the latter part of the race. Petrov drove well and defended well against Massa and Rosberg both DRSing him. That Renault has impressive top speed.
Buemi did well to finish 9th, good job.
Cowboyashi started 24th, finished 10th, he is a fantastic driver. Best driver in F1 from Japan in history.
Michael Schumacher had a poor race, he fell back a lot and touched a few other cars and wasn't particularly impressive. He finished 12 behind Felipe Massa, who is driving better but had a very slow pit stop where his wheels were turning as the mechanics struggled to fit new tyres. Clutch problem or what?
Barrichello looked like he was going to get into top 10, but struggled in the latter part of the race.
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DuckThor Evil
Legend
The race was quite entertaining eventhough Vettels victory was never in jeopardy. I thought Mercedes would have had better race pace. Schumacher was getting owned in the track, Nico probably got the best possible result. Hamilton and Button had a nice looking battle! Ferrari is getting the pace to good form, but Vettels title looks pretty certain already.
McLaren and Ferrari can certainly try to take it away from him.
As the season unfolds, the pressure will mount and as Jackie Stewart and the history books say, it is very difficult to defend a title; out of 32 F1 world champions, 18 did it only once. Out of the 14 that did it more than once, 8 managed to do it twice in a row. 8 people have managed to win the WDC more than twice and out of those 8 people, only 2 have managed to win the WDC thrice in a row; Fangio and Schumacher and only Schumacher has managed to win it five times in a row. In fact, Schumacher first won two titles in a row at Benetton and then five titles in a row at Ferrari.
So it is very difficult to defend a title once and incredibly difficult to defend it twice.
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Statistically its very hard yes. Though I wonder if the current era doesn't actually makes for a bigger chance to win a WDC twice in a row. Especially with no testing, engine freezes, high reliability and such a large emphesis on aerodynamics it's very hard to close the gap to a team like RBR.
