Formula 1 2009: The Launch Season

[Metar]

The way I've always seen it is that the first car he produces under new rules has been pretty conventional. It's the subsequent cars that have given him the reputation because he's familiar with the rules. But that's just the way I've seen it.

Again, as said, it's almost always the exact opposite. You mentioned the same thing before, and I gave you the 1998 and 2005 examples for a dominant Newey-produced package after rule-changes.

Of course the first car on new regs is slightly conventional - they have to be, if you want to get the baseline straight - but Newey is famous for making these "new-reg" cars fast, and for his unique interpretations of the rules and unique ideas. The 2005 McLaren, the MP-4/20, seems conventional next to the MP-4/23, but they're essentially the same car, and one can clearly see the similarities - it's simply more evolved, thus more "complicated" and less conventional.

 

[Alex.]

Would you rather it be on the timing sheets?

I think that'd even make his own father hate him.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

DofE?

CLAIT sounds like a nasty infection you might pick up in a red light district, and I don't mean a closed pit lane!

There could be more meaningless titles around. About the only thing my name warrants is a CLfPBS: Chorus Leader for Pub Bus Songs.

 

[Famine]

CLAIT is "Computer Literacy and Information Technology" that they forced us to do in Year 10.


And yes, I also thought it was a little odd - but ultimately wise - to put a letter in to signify the "and"...

 

[Sureboss]

I'd be amused if you had one of those after your name. Make the postman grin that's for sure.

 

[KSaiyu]

Well Argued! I was not intending to defame Hamilton: an MBE is still quite an acheivement. But it is like buying a 1.8 TT, and loving to tell people about it, until one day you are talking about your TT to someone and they say "Oh yes, I've got the 3.2. Lovely car eh? Which one do you have?" For the sake of Hamilton's ego, I hope that he doesn't have this happen...

 

[Blake]

I had that thought.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

On a completely unrelated note, I've always though Jackie Stweart looks just like my uncle.

 

[SUPER NUMBBER]

Your uncle looks like some woman??

Who is she anyways?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Your uncle looks like some woman??

Who is she anyways?

Who is Jackie Stewart? Are you serious? He was the 1969, 1971 and 1973 World Champion, and he owned Stewart Grand Prix.

 

[NapoleonMikey]

Your uncle looks like some woman??

Who is she anyways?

lol that reminds me of the episode of Top Gear where james may gets lessons from jackie stewart.

 

[Ardius]

Testing at Jerez has started this week!
Fastest lap at Jerez so far this year:
(1st March) S Vettel 1.19:055

So far we have:
Hulkenburg - 1:20:013
Barrichello - 1.19.808
Alonso - no time recorded (crashed straight into the tyre wall)

Currently they've taken a break for lunch after the session was red flagged because of Alonso's incident.

Anyone interested can watch live testing time updates here:
http://directo.thef1.es/tests/

 

[Only_in_f1]

19.2 for Rubens

 

[PeterJB]

Alonso - no time recorded (crashed straight into the tyre wall)

 

[Alex.]

What, as in drove straight out the pits into the nearest wall?
edit:

Whole front end is buggered.

 

[Ardius]

What, as in drove straight out the pits into the nearest wall?
edit:

Whole front end is buggered.

No, apparently he did 4 laps (probably recorded a time but they didn't publish it).
Position / Car no. / Driver / Team / Best time / Time difference / No of laps

1  /  19  /  Rubens Barrichello  /  Brawn GP  /  1'19''236  /      /  89
2  /  9  /  Nico Hulkenberg  /  Williams  /  1'20''013  /  0''777  /  54
3  /  7  /  Fernando Alonso  /  Renault  /  1'20''329  /  1''093  /  19

 

[Famine]

Whole front end is buggered.

You're not kidding:

Just look at it!

 

[Alex.]

👍 It's probably an improvement, post-crash.

 

[Ardius]

Alonso cuts the difference down:
Position / Car no. / Driver / Team / Best time / Time difference / No of laps

2  /  7  /  Fernando Alonso  /  Renault  /  1'19''819  /  0''584  /  33

 

[Only_in_f1]

This is intresting. From GPupdate:

 

[Alex.]

As I said on msn, the inscriptions are 2 three letter words, one of them being 'TWO'. Is it possible theyre using illegal fuel mixtures? Or just using a different filler cap for testing...

 

[Ardius]

Or something they need to remove when they are going to use the car? Without context we will never know. It could be simply a safety precaution when the car is first brought out.

 

[Bram Turismo]

As I said on msn, the inscriptions are 2 three letter words, one of them being 'TWO'. Is it possible theyre using illegal fuel mixtures? Or just using a different filler cap for testing...

I spotted "PWO" or "PWD" rather than "TWO"

Interesting filler cap indeed...

 

[NapoleonMikey]

my guess is its just a cap used to make sure no one fills the car before transporting. i think you guys are reading to much into it with out other pictures going along with it.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Possibly to prevent contamination of the fuel tank?

 

[The Outlaw]

my guess is its just a cap used to make sure no one fills the car before transporting. i think you guys are reading to much into it with out other pictures going along with it.

I would have to agree that everyone is reading into the BGP fuel cap issue a little excessively 👍 This is taking place on others forums (planetf1) though, and is quite annoying. Everyone loves trying to play the detective, even though they have absolutely no valid information to base their judgments off of, other than Brawns GP's impressive pace But that's to be expected in the silly season, especially considering this season will be one of the most anticipated and loopy F1 seasons EVER So of course people have nothing better to do than speculate. Bring on Melbourne!!!

 

[Ardius]

I think the most amusing part of all this is people are "suspicious" and "surprised" that teams such as Brawn, Toyota and Williams have all developed different diffusers and managed to make competitive cars (maybe not in Williams case) and that teams such as Ferrari and McLaren are perhaps lagging behind.
Did people forget that perhaps McLaren and Ferrari didn't focus on this year till the last minute? And the opposite for the other teams?
In the larger picture, it makes perfect sense.

 

[The Outlaw]

Well I wouldn't say that Ferrari is lagging behind, as they look to be quite competitive with all of the top tier teams (Toyota, BMW) except for BGP, at least when going by the limited data we are given. Also, McLaren supposedly had 18 months of development into the MP-4/24, which is a massive amount of time given Macca's resources. Although I doubt all of their focus was on the development of the new car, especially toward the later part of the last season when they introduced their multi-million dollar aero changes at Brazil, in an all out attempt to trump Ferrari...which they barely managed Macca has been known to be off the ball when major regulation changes have occurred, so it's know real big surprise that they missed this one either, especially when you don't have any clue what the relative performance is of the other teams until you show up to the initial off season testing.

To me it seems like Macca has some type of on track problem that was never realized in the wind tunnel/cfd testing. I will say this, don't count McLaren out this season nor at Melbourne 👍 They have the most resourses in all of Formula 1 and can likely turn things around quicker than any other team on the grid. They have some new parts on the way that should be tested at Jerez tommorow (that were supposed to arrive today)...I wouldn't be suprised if they top the charts, although I'm not saying that will hapen, I won't be suprised if it does. 👍

 

[Bram Turismo]

I think the most amusing part of all this is people are "suspicious" and "surprised" that teams such as Brawn, Toyota and Williams have all developed different diffusers and managed to make competitive cars (maybe not in Williams case) and that teams such as Ferrari and McLaren are perhaps lagging behind.
Did people forget that perhaps McLaren and Ferrari didn't focus on this year till the last minute? And the opposite for the other teams?
In the larger picture, it makes perfect sense.

This is actually a strong point, and while we're on the diffusers of Toyota and Williams; Where there ever actions taken against those "illegal" diffusers since they were placed too high (or was it too low?) or were they declared legit?

 

[Tired Tyres]

Pre and post race Scrutineering could be interesting in Melbourne.