Formula 1 - 2011 Season

[tongue_of_colicab]

Lol wonder how much Proton paid them to say that. Fernandes is the one who contacted the family and made all the arangements to get the rights to the lotus name and the approvement of the family while Proton has only been trying to strong arm Fernandes out of F1 and talk smack. Seems weird to me that at first the Chapmans are enthousiastic about what Fernades is doing and now they suddenly back the company that makes no effort at all do build up something in a proper way but just trows out cash.

 

[Tahir2]

It is a bit sad that a small team is being pressured and bullied in this manner but we don't know what has been happening behind the scenes.

Just hope that team Tony Fernandes team (whatever it is called) still fights on next year.

The Lotus legacy is probably better off with a large multi-national corporation behind it and with the many years of expertise Renault will bring to it. It is all about winning at the end of the day and not a trip down nostalgia lane.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Well Proton isn't exactly doing that great and the people in the automotive industry don't have much confidence in the plan to turn Lotus into Ferrari/Porsche competition.

I think some kind of deal with Fernades would have been much better. Now the Lotus renault cars arn't even lotusses as lotus is nothing more than a sponsor and the team and the car chassis are still called renault.

 

[Bludd]

Well Proton isn't exactly doing that great and the people in the automotive industry don't have much confidence in the plan to turn Lotus into Ferrari/Porsche competition.

I think some kind of deal with Fernades would have been much better. Now the Lotus renault cars arn't even lotusses as lotus is nothing more than a sponsor and the team and the car chassis are still called renault.

Yeah, it's insane. Dany Bahar must really hate Tony Fernandes.

 

[Bludd]

t_o_c, this is your dreams come true

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/12/formula_1_is_undergoing_a_quie.html

 

[Davros]

yay,
all we need is the return of 24 litre engines like in the 1930's

 

[corduroygt]

Awesome rule changes. Turbo engines rock and F1 needs less complicated aero to make it more competitive...I want insane power + full opposite lock cornering when it gets hairy like in the Senna days. However it's worrying that they are doing it to improve the efficiency of 20 odd cars on 16 weekends...that's ridiculous. Teams already have plenty of incentives to make their engines as efficient as possible, and one flight to Australia or japan for all teams already produces more carbon emissions than all F1 cars racing in a season combined.

 

[Bludd]

Awesome rule changes. Turbo engines rock and F1 needs less complicated aero to make it more competitive...I want insane power + full opposite lock cornering when it gets hairy like in the Senna days. However it's worrying that they are doing it to improve the efficiency of 20 odd cars on 16 weekends...that's ridiculous. Teams already have plenty of incentives to make their engines as efficient as possible, and one flight to Australia or japan for all teams already produces more carbon emissions than all F1 cars racing in a season combined.

The efficiency is all about image, since it is the air freight and travel that has the carbon footprint.

 

[Davros]

1
The Lotus legacy is probably better off with a large multi-national corporation behind it and with the many years of expertise Renault will bring to it.1

I could be wrong here but didnt renault give up the team (at most they may own shares) but the name was kept for prize money reasons

 

[Bludd]

I could be wrong here but didnt renault give up the team (at most they may own shares) but the name was kept for prize money reasons

Renault proper, the carmaker are out of Lotus (Enstone), but the team isn't going to change the chassis name from Renault because the other teams won't let them do it without Lotus (Enstone) forfeiting the Renault heritage prize money (Concorde agreement column wizardry).

So basically the Lotuses will be Renaults next year which is silly.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

t_o_c, this is your dreams come true

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/12/formula_1_is_undergoing_a_quie.html

Uhuhu atleast as far as aerodynamics go. Not so sure about the engines. I think v12's are the coolest engines with the best noise but that isn't going to work these day. Though the superleague formula cars also have v12 750bhp engines @ 12000rpm so I guess with some work a high revving F1 v12 that lasts 3 races should be possible.

Anyway I personally don't mind v4 turbo engines as we know they can get a ton of power out of those things if they want to but I guess rules will probably cap it to around 750bhp which would be a shame because with the new fuel rules I think you should just let teams try the best they can. Though that would require a lot of investments which the FIA probably does not want but given that all the engine builders are also supplying other teams I wonder how expensive that would be.

What bothers me more is the rev limit. It's F1 and the cars should make a ton of noise. 12000rpm engines won't do that.

Another thing I'm not happy about is KERS. Now it seems that there is no way to get around KERS for PR sake but if you are going that way atleast go all out and not limit it by too much rules like now. Just set a rule for the maximum amount of extra power that can be used at any moment but allow teams to recover and use as much energy as possible. That way atleast it would be something really usefull because a good system could potentially be used for a whole lap or maybe be used to use less fuel so cars can run lighter. Now it's just a expensive toy that all teams use at the some moment so it's not going to really help anyone. In that case just give all the teams some small useless electric motor and have them put it in the car for the sake of looking green and save the money millions in developing a half assed system.

Btw, I dont understand why F1 is so hung up on kers anyway. Something like the le mans series would, imo, be a much beter place to introduce tech like this.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Considering one of their stated goals was to improve efficiency of the cars, then KERS automatically becomes a necessary piece of the puzzle. Regenerative braking combined with KERS will allow for either more speed at same fuel efficiency or same speed at greater fuel efficiency.

And if efficiency really is the name of the game, I see no reason why they would want to limit the use of KERS. Just make sure that the only source of power for KERS is from regenerative braking or some other form of energy reclamation.

Regards,
SB

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Yeah but thats not whats happening. Just like last time KERS can only be used for a x amount of time every lap.

 

[Bludd]

Are you sure, t_o_c? We are talking about 2013 here. I think KERS will be greatly expanded by then.

 

[Bludd]

First post in 2011 and I just want to say this: I think this year is going to be special. Movable rear-wing, KERS and new tyres.

• Will Virgin step up their performance and vindicate an all-CFD development?
• Will Lotus (or whatever they will be called) utilise the Red Bull rear-end and Renault engine to go straight into the midfield?
• Will Red Bull maintain their car advantage?
• Will Ferrari and McLaren bounce back?
• Will Sauber be inflated when testing starts as they were last year and will the cars be white again?
• Will Hispania show up with last year's car? Will it be developed at all from last year or will it just be a dog as it was this year. They are getting Williams rear-end so that should help, somewhat, but aero is still king.
• Will all teams have KERS?
• Will all teams have a movable rear-wing?

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

1. No. All the top teams have large CFD systems right? Maybe even more capable than what wright engineering has. If you really wouldn't need a windtunnel we would have know by now. If we get the new aero rules than it could work I think because it wouldn't be so complicated as now.
2. Probably. But if the midfield is the same as this year the midfield is rather large so that doesn't mean a whole lot. But without a doubt having a half RBR car won't hurt but they need to fix the rest of the car too. Though getting half a Mclaren helped FI a lot so I think they should be able to beat some of the existing teams on occasian or even better.
3. I think so. They have the best base to improve on.
4. Probably. Atleast Ferrari will as the car was the second fastest by the end of the season. If they will be faster all round than RBR remains to be seen.
5. Didn't they do a big sponsor deal with telemax or whatever that mexican company is called?
6. DId they do a williams deal? Didn't know that. Assuming they make it to the grid, it can't be worse than this year. Though the car wasnt all that bad. It had zero development so all the improvements they did were on set up only but it seems that relative speaking of all the new teams they made the biggest improvement.
7. Isn't that requirement? Ferrari, mclaren/mercedes and renault already had one so only cosworth needs to design one but they already did/are doing that I believe.
8. Again, isn't that a rule for next year? I believe all teams will have one because without one you will have a serious disadvantage and I don't think a movable rear wing will be that hard to design.

 

[Bludd]

I don't know if KERS and movable-rear wings are requirements, but I should check the regs.

I forgot about the Telmex sponsorship for Sauber, but when I think about it I don't think it is super large.

 

[Bludd]

I have perused the 2010 tech. regs.:

Movable rear-wing is not mandatory. The regs state that the flap may be adjustable. (art 3.18.1)

I don't think KERS is mandatory either. Here's the reg:
"5.2.1 The use of any device, other than the 2.4 litre, four stroke engine described in 5.1 above and one KERS, to power the car, is not permitted."

 

[V3]

Damn that's vague. So they can run no KERS again like last time ? But don't they increased the min weight of the car this season ? so no KERS might be too much of disadvantage ?

 

[Bludd]

Damn that's vague. So they can run no KERS again like last time ? But don't they increased the min weight of the car this season ? so no KERS might be too much of disadvantage ?

On its own it is vague, but when you read the other articles, you see how the engine is supposed to be and how the KERS is supposed to be. The weight limit is increased to 640 KG.