Formula 1 - 2020 Season

pharma

Legend
Aston Martin: F1 billionaire owner leads rescue deal
A consortium led by billionaire Lawrence Stroll will put in £182m, with the rest of the money coming from existing investors.

Mr Stroll partly owns the Racing Point Formula 1 team, which will be branded Aston Martin from 2021 under the deal.

Meanwhile the Canadian billionaire will be able to put an Aston Martin badge on his F1 cars - opening up new opportunities both to burnish the brand and to exploit its petrol-scented cachet.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51323241
 
Did anyone expect different? RBR and Ferrari put up the occasional challenge last season but both couldn't complete at every race. And last year was better than previous years. Mercedes still has a lead.

In other news, racing point is driving around in last year's Mercedes and while not F1 related, the sad news is that Aston Martin will not take the Valkery to LeMans. They cited changes to the hyper class rules (will be combined with IMSA rules) as one of the reasons.

Really sad because I would have loved to see that car race. The class itself also sounded very interesting.
 
First day of testing in the books, signs not looking good for an exciting season.

If Hamilton wins in Australia, may as well cancel all the other races and hand him the title there.
First day of testing isn't really representative, none of them will have been pushing the car. Ferrari won't be 9th fastest in Australia, for example.
 
Ferrari have taken the Mercedes approach to testing, at least yesterday, which is validating the data from the simulator.

It could just be they ran the tanks full all session. There hasn't really been a good break down of yesterday explaining how long each run was etc.

Being so far behind running similar programs is not good.

Let's hope today is different.
 
Being so far behind running similar programs is not good.
I think being so far behind on the first day of testing is completely inconsequential. If they've got a program to run and they can get the data they need at the speeds they did, why would they need to care what speed the other teams were doing?
 
Testing is under way and here's all the relevant stuff:

Teams & Drivers:
  • Mercedes - Mercedes
    • 44 Lewis Hamilton
    • 77 Valtteri Bottas
  • Ferrari - Ferrari
    • 5 Sebastian Vettel
    • 16 Charles Leclerc
  • Red Bull Racing - Honda
    • 23 Alexander Albon
    • 33 Max Verstappen
  • McLaren - Renault
    • 4 Lando Norris
    • 55 Carlos Sainz
  • Renault - Renault
    • 3 Daniel Ricciardo
    • 31 Esteban Ocon
  • AlphaTauri (ex-Toro Rosso) - Honda
    • 10 Pierre Gasly
    • 26 Daniil Kvyat
  • Racing Point - Mercedes
    • 11 Sergio Pérez
    • 18 Lance Stroll
  • Alfa Romeo - Ferrari
    • 7 Kimi Räikkönen
    • 99 Antonio Giovinazzi
  • Haas - Ferrari
    • 8 Romain Grosjean
    • 20 Kevin Magnussen
  • Williams - Mercedes
    • 63 George Russell
    • 6 Nicholas Latifi

Calendar:
19-21.2. PRE-SEASON TEST 1, Barcelona
26-28.2. PRE-SEASON TEST 2, Barcelona

15.3. AUSTRALIA, Melbourne
22.3. BAHRAIN, Sakhir
5.4. VIETNAM, Hanoi
19.4. CHINA, Shanghai - Cancelled at least for now
3.5. NETHERLANDS, Zandvoort
10.5. SPAIN, Barcelona
24.5. MONACO, Monte Carlo
7.6. AZERBAIJAN, Baku
14.6. CANADA, Montreal
28.6. FRANCE, Le Castellet
5.7. AUSTRIA, Spielberg
19.7. GREAT BRITAIN, Silverstone
2.8. HUNGARY, Budapest
30.8. BELGIUM, Spa-Francorchamps
6.9. ITALY, Monza
20.9. SINGAPORE, Singapore
27.9. RUSSIA, Sochi
11.10. JAPAN, Suzuka
25.10. UNITED STATES, Austin
1.11. MEXICO CITY, Mexico City
15.11. BRAZIL, Sao Paulo
29.11. ABU DHABI, Yas Island

--

Also, there's already some possible controversy cooking up.
Mercedes' steering wheel now moves along the z-axis too, apparently controlled by driver they push it "in" in corners and pull it back on straights.
Finnish F1 broadcasters expert (ex-F1 Engineer Ossi Oikarinen) suspects it affects the toe/tracking of front wheels to either increase the toe in corners further than it usually is or to decrease it from the normal slightly outwards toe on straights to improve speed.
Could this be seen as illegal moving aerodynamic part?


(edit: also no idea if toe is the right word, never knew it meant something other than a body part)

edit2:
(Apparently it is the right word there)


https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech
Some analysis/guesstimates on it

From another forum, no link to source:
Such a system would breach Article 10.2.3 of the technical regulations which stipulate that "no adjustment may be made to any suspension system while the car is in motion.

"With the steering wheel fixed, the position of each wheel centre and the orientation of its rotation axis must be completely and uniquely defined by a function of its principally vertical suspension travel, save only for the effects of reasonable compliance which does not intentionally provide further degrees of freedom.

"Any powered device which is capable of altering the configuration or affecting the performance of any part of any suspension system is forbidden."
 
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There are theories that they are just running this system for testing to allow them to easily test a number of configurations without having to return to the pits
 
There are theories that they are just running this system for testing to allow them to easily test a number of configurations without having to return to the pits
If they do it always the same way (push in for corners, pull for straights) that theory doesn't work really
 
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Allison insisted that Mercedes has no concerns over whether the new device complies with the regulations due to keeping an open dialogue with the FIA during the development process.
“This isn’t news to the FIA,” he explained. “It’s something we’ve been talking to them for some time.

"The rules are pretty clear about what’s permitted on steering systems and we’re pretty confident that it matches those requirements.”
...
The so-called 'dual-axis steering' system allows the driver to alter the 'toe-in' of the front wheels - or their angle to the longitudinal axis of the car - while driving.

World champion Lewis Hamilton said: "We're trying to get on top of it, understand it, but safety-wise no problem today and the FIA are OK with the project.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/51576106
 
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