Formula 1 - 2015 season

[tongue_of_colicab]

KR wasnt close to passing Ric at any point in the race.

Looking forward to what rbr has to say about verstappen not letting sainz pass. Both had a great race btw, coming back from last and second to last all the way to 8th and 9th.

 

[Lightman]

Rossi had no radio at all so team couldn't tell him to get a move on ... Considering this was his first GP he did well.

 

[Bludd]

Eddie Jordan claims VW is going to buy Red Bull Racing, running Ferrari engines while VW can get their own engine programme up and running in the car for the 2018 season.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/34297046

Looks like this is a long shot now that the VW stock is getting reamed in the markets and they are being investigated by German authorities. Winterkorn may be on his way out.

 

[DJ12]

On the contrary, what better way to rebuild your brand than being in f1 and doing well.

 

[Davros]

Except they will probably enter as audi and most people see them as different companies

 

[Mariner]

They should go in all guns blazing as Skoda!

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Except they will probably enter as audi and most people see them as different companies

The problem isn't really with peoples perception but with the board of directors. I believe the current guy is pro F1, but the guy that is most likely to succeeded him if he gets kicked out is mates with the previous guy leading the company that didn't want to be in F1.

Aaaanyway, looks like I'm going to Suzuka this weekend if there's still cheap tickets that don't have you looking at a fence. I've been to the circuit before but never to the GP. At least getting there should be a lot less painful than Spa

 

[Mariner]

You'd have to say that entering a team in F1 is fundamentally a very expensive PR stunt. Quite possibly exactly what VWAG needs at the present moment or in the near future once the shit has really hit the fan!

 

[Bludd]

According to Joe Saward, Winterkorn is not into F1 but more into football and that he was not the one driving the F1 interest at VW.

The only reason for VW/Audi to enter F1 is that they can claim they are making amends by making an efficient engine for the new engine formula which is 30-40% more efficient than the old formula. Other than that, they would have to justify spending money on a team and on an expensive engine programme.

Who knows, business logic is not always logical.

 

[DJ12]

Winterkorn has already resigned so the next guy (Handelsblatt) is supposed to be pro f1 isn't he?

 

[Bludd]

Winterkorn has already resigned so the next guy (Handelsblatt) is supposed to be pro f1 isn't he?

Handelsblatt is a German trade paper. The rumoured new boss of VW is Porsche boss Mathias Müller. Don't know if he's into F1 or not.

 

[DJ12]

Lol misread that bit then, but yeah it was the Porsche guy

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

But Muller and Piech are all buddy buddy and Piech is the one that didn't want to enter F1 because of some kind no feud with Bernie or whatever.

Anyhow, got my ticket for Suzuka. At ~150 bucks for the ticket (D2, S corner) and another 100 or so for transportation the damage isn't too bad. With a bit of luck my seat is even high up enough to look over the fencing Though no big screen available so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for decent 4G coverage if I actually want to have half a clue whats going on during the race.

 

[Lightman]

Is your ticket for a weekend or just race day tongue_of_colicab?
I've paid £350 for Silverstone weekend pass this year and with all the other expenses it almost doubled.

It's a bit counter intuitive if you can spend less going to races far away instead of your home GP

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Saturday is included though I'm not going. Not sure about Friday.

Races in Europe are expensive. When I went to Spa a couple of years ago I spent something like 300 ~ 350 on a standing ticket.

For 700 pounds you can almost fly to Japan, stay at a crappy hotel and buy a ticket to the race.

Mind you my seat probably isn't that good though. The pretty decent ones are 250 and up.

 

[Lightman]

Still a lot cheaper than UK or most of the Europe!

If I'm going to another F1 race then for sure it will be one of the long haul races or Hungarian GP (this one I can tight in with family holidays )!

Have fun out there and I will be honest, I envy you being in Japan!

 

[DJ12]

Pretty boring race after the first lap. Rosberg schooled again, yet afterwards he says he could've won if Hamilton hasn't mugged him at the start.

Not sure if he's deluded or having a laugh, either way there was no way he was going to win the race. Hamilton's fastest lap was over a second faster than Rosbergs, 2 laps afterwards his so similar conditions.

 

[Rurouni]

Having faster time is good, but actually overtaking someone is something else. If Rosberg was ahead after the first lap, I'm sure he could've won it. The thing is you can pretty much do the lap you wanted in free air but following someone in current F1 can affect the car badly. And we aren't sure whether Rosberg and Hamilton fastest lap was set in a similar condition. Hamilton might get DRS advantage or use different engine mode or maybe Rosberg wasn't really trying. So I don't think you can use fastest lap as an indication that Rosberg couldn't won it if he was in front. What I can say is that I don't like Hamilton pushing Rosberg out of the track. If he can't manage to give Rosberg a car width, then he was going too fast. The way the track flowing, the guy in 2nd would get an advantage because he will get the inside line thus if he drove like nobody on the outside he could hit the apex better and carry more speed into the corner.

 

[DJ12]

It was a full second faster, we aren't talking about a small advantage here.

I'm pretty sure both were in clean air (drs is not going to make anywhere near a second difference, maybe a tenth if that at any rate) but we will never know as apparently Bernie is punishing Mercedes for not giving red bull an engine next year by not giving them any tv time.

Again it's Rosberg's lack of race craft that made him lose places not Hamilton being overly aggressive. He knew Hamilton had the inside line and would be quicker round the corner, he could've backed off much sooner and kept second and maybe had a go back in the next few corners. Not that it made any difference he still finished second.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Hamilton had a new fresh set of tires on his fastest lap, Rosberg didn't. Hamilton's second fastest lap was 1.7 seconds slower than the fastest, not that he had any reason to drive faster, but this full second quicker isn't really representative.