Formula 1 2018-19 off season threadFormula 1

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Apparently Ted Kravitz got canned because the new head of Sky (Scott Young) doesn't like him. I watched his qualy and race notebooks all the time, Young is a dip****.

No he's not and a ton of people didn't like Kravitz, Kravitz was quite biased. Most of the info he provided could easily be found by others with better backgrounds on Formula One's own website and other similar sites. Also most of what he said during the race is typically said by other pundits commentating anyways. I don't see this as some significant loss. And it's quite an extreme view for you to take up, but I thought similar when you went about the way you did in the Supra convo.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

For me you could replace the word "Chandhok" with "Ebola", "Detonation" or "Taking my own eyes out with spoons" and it would still work. Gutted they've re-hired him.

In other news... the Mercedes already looks heavily revised from last week's test - given the short amount of time since it last ran I think we're seeing something closer to the intended 2019 spec than we did last week.

Yeah last week was a spec A that they said wasn't too far off for Melbourne and pretty much what you'd see in Melbourne, this spec B was supposedly planned back in early January to be test and run during the second test. So it could be tested and get more wind tunnel time in before hand, but this is the Melbourne car. They said they had no plans to release any updates in the build up to Melbourne. Nor is this a reaction to Ferrari as some might be quick to jump to.

Here is also more on the Honda and RBR front:

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de...ter-ferrari-technik-upgrade-zweite-testwoche/

 

[Dotini]

According to more than one report, Mercedes are distressed over balance/understeer issues, belatedly realizing they are behind all the other teams in the front wing concept and that their hoary formula of long wheelbase/low rake may no longer be suitable for the new aero rules regime. I'm tempted to think they may have been caught with their pants down. 1,500 new parts installed all at once sounds like panicked shotgunning. Whatever, they are shuffling their feet hard as they can.

McLaren are said to be bothered by a twitchy rear end. I'm moving my bets to Alfa.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

According to more than one report, Mercedes are distressed over balance/understeer issues, belatedly realizing they are behind all the other teams in the front wing concept and that their hoary formula of long wheelbase/low rake may no longer be suitable for the new aero rules regime. I'm tempted to think they may have been caught with their pants down. 1,500 new parts installed all at once sounds like panicked shotgunning. Whatever, they are shuffling their feet hard as they can.

McLaren are said to be bothered by a twitchy rear end. I'm moving my bets to Alfa.

Sounds like how they said it, originally planned updates to put on the car, that needed more wind tunnel fine tuning while the Spec A was collecting data. I think people want Ferrari to run away with the title or at least RBR and Ferrari and Mercedes either not in the convo or playing from behind, simply because they don't like the status quo of the past five years. I'd question how many of those people have watched F1 over the decades

 

[Dotini]

Sounds like how they said it, originally planned updates to put on the car, that needed more wind tunnel fine tuning while the Spec A was collecting data. I think people want Ferrari to run away with the title or at least RBR and Ferrari and Mercedes either not in the convo or playing from behind, simply because they don't like the status quo of the past five years. I'd question how many of those people have watched F1 over the decades

I've watched F1 since the sixties. Each passing era has seen more and more domination by fewer and fewer drivers. Instead of one, two or three drivers running up their scores, I'd prefer four or five.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

I've watched F1 since the sixties. Each passing era has seen more and more domination by fewer and fewer drivers. Instead of one, two or three drivers running up their scores, I'd prefer four or five.

That's great, my statement is a general statement to those rushing to find something that gives credence to Mercedes faltering, other than you know waiting for the season to start. We saw six worthy winning drivers last season that seems to fit your quota.

 

[Dotini]

We saw six worthy winning drivers last season that seems to fit your quota.

Not really. Vettel and Hamilton have dominated 9 of the last 11 championships, winning the great bulk of the races. Only the Schumacher era was worse. Give me Piquet, Prost, Senna, Mansell and Lauda all going at it hammer and tongs, and I'll be happy.

The only thing that makes Mercedes falter is a WWII or LeMans disaster. Their organization, engineering, resources and determination are superior, it seems. But hope does spring eternal. Back in the 30's Auto Union occasionally sneaked in a win against them, as did Maserati in the 50's. So they are not completely unbeatable.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Not really. Vettel and Hamilton have dominated 9 of the last 11 championships, winning the great bulk of the races. Only the Schumacher era was worse. Give me Piquet, Prost, Senna, Mansell and Lauda all going at it hammer and tongs, and I'll be happy.

Sounds like old man nostalgia to me, and even then that era was only salvageable if you're going to use the same lengths of measure. And the only reason it's saved is because of a factor that is bygone most weekends, being mechanical failures.

You also said you wanted to see more drivers winning races be it 4 or 5, and that is a quota that has been actually achieved and beyond.

The only thing that makes Mercedes falter is a WWII or LeMans disaster. Their organization, engineering, resources and determination are superior, it seems. But hope does spring eternal. Back in the 30's Auto Union occasionally sneaked in a win against them, as did Maserati in the 50's. So they are not completely unbeatable.

My issue is why is there hope in Merc getting it wrong, when the hope should more so be that everyone get it right and do their jobs. Too often do I hear excuses and wants because a group figures out how to use their resources and interpretation of the rules better than others. As for your 30s and 50s memory lane bit, I don't really see how that much matters to today's era where the rules were highly open.

 

[Dotini]

Sounds like old man nostalgia to me, and even then that era was only salvageable if you're going to use the same lengths of measure. And the only reason it's saved is because of a factor that is bygone most weekends, being mechanical failures.

You also said you wanted to see more drivers winning races be it 4 or 5, and that is a quota that has been actually achieved and beyond.



My issue is why is there hope in Merc getting it wrong, when the hope should more so be that everyone get it right and do their jobs. Too often do I hear excuses and wants because a group figures out how to use their resources and interpretation of the rules better than others. As for your 30s and 50s memory lane bit, I don't really see how that much matters to today's era where the rules were highly open.

Heh heh, I willingly plead guilty to the sins of nostalgia and romanticism.
But as fun as conversations about GP racing history are, I must now be off to my fencing class. So goodbye until tomorrow. 👍

 

[TheElbows]

I like seeing a chink in any major competitor's armour - though I don't really think that's the case with Mercedes. If they are on the backfoot, awesome. Gives a potentially more engaging story to follow through the season.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Vettel straight into the barriers at Turn 3, he's uninjured. No pictures/video yet but observers suggest mechanical failure of some kind.

 

[TenEightyOne]

A photo of Vettel mid-shunt, quite an impact.

 

[Dotini]

A photo of Vettel mid-shunt, quite an impact.

I saw his face as he sat in the rescue vehicle. He had a very dazed expression. The impact destroyed so much of the car that it was impossible to determine exactly what failed. Likely related to something with the left front suspension or wing. They got it running again within the final 5 minutes, Leclerc putting in one lap. Ferrari has had a poorish week so far, what with Leclerc down for 2 hours with a cooling systems checkout yesterday.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

I saw his face as he sat in the rescue vehicle. He had a very dazed expression. The impact destroyed so much of the car that it was impossible to determine exactly what failed. Likely related to something with the left front suspension or wing. They got it running again within the final 5 minutes, Leclerc putting in one lap. Ferrari has had a poorish week so far, what with Leclerc down for 2 hours with a cooling systems checkout yesterday.

Yeah it's a wonder why people went all in on claiming victory for Ferrari just because of week one of testing. Hell even Merc have had issues this week and are supposed to be the most bullet proof of all.

 

[Dotini]

Gasly spun and majorly wiped out his car near turn 9. Red Bull will likely need an overnighter to run tomorrow.

Leclerc is quickest and nearly down to the 2018 pole time, with Albon 2nd quickest. Mercedes still focusing on putting in laps on harder tires.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Gasly did a Hartley.

Hopefully no more "Formula 1.5". Hard to read into pace, Ferrari look confident but hope Lewis wins WDC again. Sounds like Mercedes will unleash the Kraken today so might see 1:15's. Still really impressed by Renault's speed since day one first week of testing, they seem to be able to pull some mega sector times with a lot slower top speed.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Footage of Vettel's crash, looks like a tyre or rim failure.

 

[TenEightyOne]

And Gasly's crash on Streamable.

 

[Dotini]

Preseason testing is now done.

My personal take:
- Ferrari is quick but has stopped on track numerous times.
- Mercedes is just as quick, but a lot more reliable.
- Red Bull has issues, probably fairly serious.
- The midfield is tightly bunched and maybe Renault is poised for 4th.
- Williams is lagging fairly badly.
- All the engines seem very reliable.
- The front wings on all of them look too huge and likely to cause problems at the start of every race.
- The 2019 rules do not particularly appear to have accomplished their objective.

 

[Jimlaad43]

-Haas breaks down all the time
-Toro Rosso seem to be showing some genuine pace
-Gasly likes backing his car into the barriers
-If the air temperature is cold, someone will chuck it in the gravel on an outlap due to the new rear tyre blanket temperatures.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Preseason testing is now done.

My personal take:
- Ferrari is quick but has stopped on track numerous times.
- Mercedes is just as quick, but a lot more reliable.
- Red Bull has issues, probably fairly serious.
- The midfield is tightly bunched and maybe Renault is poised for 4th.
- Williams is lagging fairly badly.
- All the engines seem very reliable.
- The front wings on all of them look too huge and likely to cause problems at the start of every race.
- The 2019 rules do not particularly appear to have accomplished their objective.

What objective is that? What are the serious issues RBR has?

 

[TenEightyOne]

- Mercedes is just as quick, but a lot more reliable.

Not so sure about that, while the fastest times of all were minutely close Ferrari did far better with the tyres on long runs and did a stonking medium compound run which, extrapolated to their performance on the softer tyres, puts them 0.5s ahead. Everybody seems to think that Mercedes are sandbagging while Ferrari are constantly hell-for-leather, this year I'm not so sure that's the case.

What are the serious issues RBR has?

I can't answer for @Dotini but a friend at Racing Point tells me that the word on the street track is that the gearbox is once again causing issues. Last year Renault (supposedly) felt that their PU was blamed when the RBR gearbox overheated/broke, this year the issues are showing signs of being repeated with a Honda PU bolted onto the front. Personally I think it's far too early to predict season-long weaknesses after a few hundred miles for each of the 2019 prototypes.

 

[Dotini]

What objective is that? What are the serious issues RBR has?

You shouldn't take my opinion too seriously, as I'm sure yours is better informed. But since you asked politely enough, I would say the objective of the rules change has been mainly to assure closer racing and more passing by heavily reducing the front wing outwash around the outside of the front tires. If I had been trying to make that rule change work, I would simply reduce the wingspan by 12" on each end. As is, the engineers are too smart for the rule maker's half-measures. I will also suggest those grotesquely huge wings will cause big problems at the starts.

In re Red Bull's issues, I would humbly suggest two: reliability and the #2 driver. Their pace is distinctly unimpressive, but hey, this is only testing, so I'm not counting that right now. All that notwithstanding, I think they are still a good bet for #3 in the pecking order by the end of the season, and I'm placing my bets accordingly.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

A bit of side tracking but a thought just popped in my mind: if Ferrari is switching to matte paint to reduce weight, has any team ever tried not painting their cars and just left it bare carbon with sponsor stickers? I know Mercedes in the 50s used to do that which earned their nickname Silver Arrows, but is there any specific regulations in the modern era preventing that? I imagine teams which already have dark cars like Haas would benefit. Teams with strong traditional colour associations like Ferrari are probably better off keeping their colours.

 

[TenEightyOne]

A bit of side tracking but a thought just popped in my mind: if Ferrari is switching to matte paint to reduce weight, has any team ever tried not painting their cars and just left it bare carbon with sponsor stickers?

I think Red Bull did that in early tests before they started applying matte paint for their race liveries.

I know Mercedes in the 50s used to do that which earned their nickname Silver Arrows,

The "bare metal because the paint was too heavy" story is a motor-racing myth.

 

[DesertPenguin]

But also, how much lighter is matte paint compared to normal paints? And if it's so damn light why didn't they think of this sooner?

 

[Saidur_Ali]

Fastest lap of testing:



In other news, Kimi still knows what to do.

 

[sems4arsenal]

Red Bull haven't shown their true pace yet. Still think Mclaren are in a bad place.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

The "bare metal because the paint was too heavy" story is a motor-racing myth.

Very interesting story, thanks for the link 👍 I'm still surprised though that in the super competitive world of F1 where every gram and millisecond matters not more teams run paintless. Which brings me back to my original question: is there any specific regulation that states teams MUST paint their cars?

 

[Dotini]

Very interesting story, thanks for the link 👍 I'm still surprised though that in the super competitive world of F1 where every gram and millisecond matters not more teams run paintless. Which brings me back to my original question: is there any specific regulation that states teams MUST paint their cars?

I find that international colors were first required by the rules of the Gordon Bennett Cup races (1900-1905), specifying blue for France, black for Italy, green for Great Britain, white for Germany, etc. When the first Grand Prix at LeMans was organized in 1906, the Automobile Club of France did not specify international colors, but the cars were still required to be made entirely in the country of origin. I can surmise that the ACF eventually reimposed the color requirement, but that would require more research to nail down exactly when, and how Italian black became Italian red.

Ref:
TASO Mathieson, Grand Prix Racing 1906-1914
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Bennett_Cup_(auto_racing)