Formula 1 - 2011 Season

[Davros]

I thought the way hrt treated Karun Chandhok was disgraceful
not much better than the way I was treated by benetton

 

[Bludd]

Kimi got the boot out of F1 this year in a very similar situation. What was Saward's take on that a year ago? The precedent has been set, dunno why goes so emotional on this...

Kimi didn't care about F1, he got paid handsomely and got to go rallying too.

Chandok was shafted by HRT. They needed money, Yamamoto's family is rich, end of story. Now they have Karthikayan and if Liuzzi can go there (according to Joe Saward, they want him), HRT can be somewhat good shape.

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/meanwhile-in-germany/

Mallya needs to pay for him to go there, but that may be cheaper than paying damages to Liuzzi. It is very interesting. Although I like Liuzzi and would like him to stay in F1, I also think di Resta is talented. He deserves a seat, but so does Liuzzi.

 

[Bludd]

The 2011 car launch season has started:

Ferrari F150
http://www.ferrarif150.com/app.html#/en

 

[Bludd]

Here's a blog post by scarbsf1 regarding 2011 design trends
http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/2011-trends-and-solutions/

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Vettel fastest in first test of 2011

World champion Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time on the opening day of Formula 1 pre-season testing at Valencia.

Eleven of the 12 teams hit the track today (with Lotus joining tomorrow) and the Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari spent much of the day around the frontrunning pace.

Vettel was first to dip below the 1m14s barrier this afternoon and his only company there was Force India's Nico Hulkenberg. The German took the early stint in the team's interim car and matched the quick-lap pace of the leading teams. His average longer-run times were more than a second slower though.

Gary Paffett ended the day third-quickest for McLaren, jumping Ferrari and Fernando Alonso 45 minutes before the end. Paul di Resta took over the Force India for the afternoon's running and promptly made his way up the timesheet as well, relegating Alonso to fifth.

Alonso brought the day to a slightly premature end when his Ferrari stopped out on track at Turn 3 with just a couple of minutes remaining. The session was red-flagged while he restarted and cruised back to the pits, and time had expired by the time he arrived.

Kamui Kobayashi was sixth for Sauber, running for 68 laps, while Jerome D'Ambrosio kept an impressive pace earlier in the day as the interim Virgin car completed 71 laps.

While those teams running 2010 cars had largely trouble-free and competitive days, there were a few teething troubles for some of the new cars.

Mercedes was the first casualty of the day when Nico Rosberg stopped on the start/finish straight with a hydraulic leak. Michael Schumacher brought the repaired car back out later in the afternoon to complete 15 laps. Schumacher's best time of the day was a 1m16.450s, while the best of Rosberg's nine laps was a 1m19.930s.

Renault made a slow start to 2011 with Vitaly Petrov doing just six laps before a long break for the R31 - featuring a radical design with the exhausts exiting the car at the front of the sidepods. He too was back out later for another 22 laps.

Toro Rosso also took a long break from running while extensive checks were made to its car, Jaime Alguersuari eventually finishing 10th on a 1m17.214s.

Williams had a delay early on as well, due to a problem with its KERS, but Rubens Barrichello had done 78 laps by the end of the day - the best of them a 1m17.335s.

Narain Karthikeyan completed the runners on his first day in an HRT, doing 45 laps and a best of 1m18.020s in the team's 2010 car.

Pos  Driver              Car                   Time       Gap       Laps
 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault*     1m13.769s            93
 2.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes  1m13.938s  + 0.169s  71
 3.  Gary Paffett        McLaren-Mercedes      1m14.292s  + 0.523s  91
 4.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes  1m14.461s  + 0.692s  28
 5.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari*              1m14.553s  + 0.784s  97
 6.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari*       1m15.621s  + 1.852s  68
 7.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Virgin-Cosworth       1m16.003s  + 2.234s  71
 8.  Vitaly Petrov       Renault*              1m16.351s  + 2.582s  28
 9.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes*             1m16.450s  + 2.681s  15
10.  Jaime Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari*   1m17.214s  + 3.445s  19
11.  Rubens Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth*    1m17.335s  + 3.566s  77
12.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth          1m18.020s  + 4.251s  45
13.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes*             1m19.930s  + 6.161s  9

All timing unofficial
* 2011 car

Source: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89215

 

[Bludd]

Times don't matter much at this moment. Some are running 2010 cars and the 2011 cars don't have the full aero update yet.

What is interesting though is Renault's FEE - forward exiting exhaust. They are routing the (secondary?) exhausts through the sidepods and down to create more mass flow.
http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/renault-r31-front-exit-exhausts-fee-explained/

 

[Lightman]

Times don't matter much at this moment. Some are running 2010 cars and the 2011 cars don't have the full aero update yet.

What is interesting though is Renault's FEE - forward exiting exhaust. They are routing the (secondary?) exhausts through the sidepods and down to create more mass flow.
http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/renault-r31-front-exit-exhausts-fee-explained/

Really innovative solution. I wonder how big advantage it gives compared to normal blown diffuser.

Can't wait for final tests to find out

 

[Bludd]

Really innovative solution. I wonder how big advantage it gives compared to normal blown diffuser.

Can't wait for final tests to find out

I have heard McLaren will have it too, and most teams will probably copy it if it proves beneficial.

 

[Lightman]

I have heard McLaren will have it too, and most teams will probably copy it if it proves beneficial.

We will see about Macca tomorrow but there are conflicting leaks about FFE on their car.
Besides copying it will not be as easy as it might seem. Renault built their car around it from day 1 starting a year ago, others will need to solve plenty of engineering challenges to get it working not to mention reliability.

I'm sure though that if FFE gives significant (0.3s) lap time gain they will copy it fairly quickly.

Anyway testing is over and Kubica quickest in Renault

 

[Kaotik]

wth, look at those mclaren sidepods or whatever they're called

 

[cjo]

I saw a claim that the shape of the side pods allows more air to get to the rear wing, improving downforce.

 

[Bludd]

Yeah, these p-shaped sidepods (I propose we call them peapods) are weird-looking. From that shot Kaotik posted, they look like the sides of The Joker's mouth.

 

[DarthShader]

The silver moose!

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Fucking hideous thats what it is Looking at the history, ugly cars never did very well.

 

[Kaotik]

Fucking hideous thats what it is Looking at the history, ugly cars never did very well.

The sideprofile is quite nice though - it only gets ugly as soon as the camera angle shows the true nature of the sidepods

 

[Bludd]

The sideprofile is quite nice though - it only gets ugly as soon as the camera angle shows the true nature of the sidepods

Maybe McLaren wants induce puking in other drivers when they come up from behind? Maybe that is a better overtaking strategy than a movable rear-wing.

 

[Dave Baumann]

I saw a claim that the shape of the side pods allows more air to get to the rear wing, improving downforce.

It an extension of the trend Red Bull created in 2009. They used pullrod suspension to tighen up the packaging around the rear of the car to enable more airflow over the beam wing of the rear wing assembly. McLaren have done the same, but extended that through to the front of the sidepods to further gain airflow over there.

It'll be interesting to see what exhaust configuration they actually turn up with next week, as well.

 

[Bludd]

It will also be interesting to see if the Ferrari will continue to be so conservative. I hope they will bring something innovative to the first race.

 

[Gerry]

Kubica Injured in Rally Accident

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Seems he got hurt pretty bad. Italian media says they might need to amputate his hand. Though its Italian media so we probably need to take that with a grain (more like a kilo) of salt. But he did hurt his left arm before and got a whole bunch of bolts in it so that might complicate things. Also it seems he got bone fractures in his left leg so that pretty much means he won't be in a F1 car anytime soon.

Hope he makes a full recovery. Renault is screwed though. The whole operation is depending on Kubica because I don't see Petrov ever becoming more than a average driver and while I don't know what to make of Senna yet, after one season at HRT he isn't going to save the day either. They got Grosjean but there is a reason they kicked him out before.

So I guess that would leave them with either Heidfeld or Liuzzi? Hope Liuzzi gets a chance than. Heidfeld is old.