wbjones
PowerDork
11/5/13 4:00 p.m.
alfadriver wrote:
In reply to Adrian_Thompson:
The serious coin that Massa is reportedly getting is PetroBas. Which is interesting since he's been sponored by Royal Dutch Shell for quite a while now.
being that PetroBas is one of the biggest oil companies, now, I think that's why he's the best guess for Williams. can totally pay for his ride.
As for his current driving, which is fast... here are two lines of thought that neither are that great for him.
1) Where has this been for the past year and a half?
or
2) if this is just ignoring the team aspect of being in Ferrari, will he be a good teammate?
2 is much more likley than 1, and probably more acceptable since Alonso isn't exacly known as a great teammate.
I think it's part 1 & 2 plus, I think it's taken him this long to fully recover from his head injury
93EXCivic wrote:
Adrian_Thompson wrote:
Head over to F1Rejects.com and waste many many hours reminiscing over hopeless teams and drivers who never got the break.
That website is awesome. I shall now waste time on it.
Just as a heads-up, that stuff isn't hotlink-thread-compatible 
Adrian_Thompson wrote:
I sort of get your idea of a third driver for the weekend. I like it, but it would make for a busy track with 33 instead of 22 cars on track. The big issue now is the teams that use Friday drivers take valuable time away from their race drivers. I think maybe have two extended Friday sessions for people who haven’t had a full time F1 ride with tires not coming from the teams race weekend allotment. That way as long as they don’t stuff the car it’s practice for them and the team without losing out elsewhere. Also with ticket prices going up and up and up its gives the paying fans some better value for the money. They may need a different car though so it’s not wear and tear on an engine, especially with the # of engines dropping to 5 next year. That may be too much for the fly away rounds; perhaps they could do it just for the continental European rounds to start with.
I should clarify. I don't mean 33 drivers on the grid, I mean a separate race for just those 11 drivers. That way, they're competing against each other and more on equal footing rather than shoved into the shark pit of full F1. Teams could develop a third car or have that third car be more of a test mule for aero/tires/motors, etc. Maybe even open the rules a bit to give the teams more leeway in pushing the envelope. I relate it to the B-Main in karting (yeah, I know, me doing a karting reference? Shocking! 
) In karts, they limit the total number of drivers in the pre-final and final to 36-44 drivers, depending on the track size. Often, there will be double that registered. For the ones that don't get one of the final spots in the last chance qualifier, they have a B-Main where they can all race together. It doesn't count for points or anything (and the third driver in F1 shouldn't either), but gives them a chance to hone their race craft and justify the thousands their parents spent to get them there.
Yes, it'd be more expensive, especially for the smaller teams, but they probably have a third (or fourth) car already and they would be able to do some "real world" testing in addition to developing drivers. It would add value to the spectators, too, to see the cars race. It kinda competes with GP2, so maybe it's only done at venues where GP2 doesn't race?
I came into F1 very late and it was sparked by my kid having aspirations to race in the "big leagues" someday. My parents followed it when I was a wee lad, so names like Stewart, Moss, Fittipaldi, etc. were some distant memories, but the Senna, Prost and early Schumacher years were unknown. Although I kinda recall following Teo Fabi, but have no idea why!! 
Sounds like I need to brush up on my F1 history. Thanks for the link.
-Rob
^Sounds nice, but they got rid of testing because of $$$$$.
Add an element that is even more money dependent and I think it will have the opposite effect you are looking for.
I see no reason why most of the tracks they run (perhaps Monaco exempted) would not handle 33 cars. Have you seen Petit Le Mans lately?
Hulkenberg to Lotus. That leaves a Sauber seat open and closes another door for Massa/Maldonado/Perez.
Hulkenberg to Lotus
The question will be, did his speed these last races come from him or are the rumors that Sauber figured out part of RBR's success and had applied it? I like Hulkenberg and hope he and Grosjean can continue to be a thorn in the big teams sides.
-Rob
ransom wrote:
93EXCivic wrote:
Adrian_Thompson wrote:
Head over to F1Rejects.com and waste many many hours reminiscing over hopeless teams and drivers who never got the break.
That website is awesome. I shall now waste time on it.
Just as a heads-up, that stuff isn't hotlink-thread-compatible
I hotlinked a picture from there..
z31maniac wrote:
^Sounds nice, but they got rid of testing because of $$$$$.
Add an element that is even more money dependent and I think it will have the opposite effect you are looking for.
They got rid of testing because the teams had a complete second team of drivers, mechanics, Engineers etc doing nothing but test full time throughout the season. this would be very different. The biggest issue I see is the extra workload for the poor mechanics who are already running their asses off as it is.
Another unrelated change I'd like to see. 1.9-2.5 second tire changes don't impress me. Go to the Indy system of one guy per corner, and for safety go to air jacks not the current manual jacks.
rob_lewis wrote:
Hulkenberg to Lotus. That leaves a Sauber seat open and closes another door for Massa/Maldonado/Perez.
Hulkenberg to Lotus
The question will be, did his speed these last races come from him or are the rumors that Sauber figured out part of RBR's success and had applied it? I like Hulkenberg and hope he and Grosjean can continue to be a thorn in the big teams sides.
-Rob
HE still doesn't have the contract in his hand though, this has been the state of play for a while now.
In reply to 93EXCivic:
It will show up if you've visited that picture on f1rejects.com, but for those who haven't, it shows up as a broken image tag.
Oddly, it's not enough to have a session on f1rejects; it appears you have to view that specific picture via f1rejects before it'll show it on another page. Their anti-hotlink-foo is strong, and a little weird.
Personally, I'd like to see the last six qualifiers (by time, not by penalty) at a given race get an extra hour or practice at the next event. Pretty tough to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you can't test...
stroker wrote:
Personally, I'd like to see the last six qualifiers (by time, not by penalty) at a given race get an extra hour or practice at the next event. Pretty tough to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you can't test...
More testing is coming next year. Similar to the your driver test that is going on now in Abudhabi, teams will stay on after certain events (mainly in Europe so close to home) so they can test. Pirrelli are demanding more testing before the end of this year for next years tires with the threat of pulling out if not granted.
Raikkonen out for remainder of season to have back surgery
sad trombone noise
http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/9019153/Back-Surgery-Sidelines-Kimi-Raikkonen
Lancer007 wrote:
Raikkonen out for remainder of season to have back surgery
*sad trombone noise*
http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/9019153/Back-Surgery-Sidelines-Kimi-Raikkonen
Damn it damn it damn it. I really wanted to see him this weekend in a Lotus before he goes to the Red purse gang, the team I love to hate. Hope it's a speedy recovery though.
So, Massa is signed at Williams. http://en.espnf1.com/williams/motorsport/story/134577.html Originaly I thought it would be best for him to retire, but now I'm happy about this.
Now I just wish the check would finally clear from Quantum so Lotus can sign Hulkenburg.
Really hoping that Crashonado is left standing when the musical chairs stop.
So, who's going to Austin this weekend? I'm in, so is Tom Spangler.
My son and I are going on Friday and Saturday, but have decided to watch from home (i.e. MUCH cheaper) on Sunday. We were running around yesterday trying to decide what we wanted Raikkonen to sign for us and then found out he wouldn't be there. Although I totally understand him needing back surgery, we were both disappointed. He was the only one we were willing to stand in line for hours to get his autograph. Oh well.
We got tickets in the main grandstand for Friday and just GA tickets on Saturday. We plan on sitting under the walkover bridge between turns 15 and 16 for Saturday, as there's a chance of rain.
For anyone who went last year, any idea if the pits will be open at all to get up close and personal? They were open for the V8 Supercars (the back, not the hot pit) and the Vintage races a few weeks ago, but I kinda figure they won't be for the F1 race. Besides getting closer to the F1 cars, both of us are excited about seeing the Vintage F1 cars up close and watching them race.
-Rob
Adrian_Thompson wrote:
So, Massa is signed at Williams. http://en.espnf1.com/williams/motorsport/story/134577.html Originaly I thought it would be best for him to retire, but now I'm happy about this.
Now I just wish the check would finally clear from Quantum so Lotus can sign Hulkenburg.
Really hoping that Crashonado is left standing when the musical chairs stop.
So, who's going to Austin this weekend? I'm in, so is Tom Spangler.
I'm also glad Massa got a seat, hopefully Brawn will end up there and they can bring the car up the grid. I'd love is Pastor didn't have a ride at the end of the year.
We have quite a few friends going to the race again this year. I figure by the time the race starts I should be on the beach having a drink by then.
Well this pretty much confirms it I guess. It's been open news that McLaren is thinking of replacing Perez next year. But for them to actualy come out and make a statement about it says to me it's beyond a possibility and almost a formality. Link It will be great if Kevin Magnussen gets the drive, but unlike Crashonardo, I don't wish Perez any ill will and would like him to get another shot. Maybe he could go back to Sauber again and replace Esteban Gutierrez who really has done nothing prove he's worthy of being in F1 this year.
Just going to leave this here- http://www.gptours.com/index.php?command=show&what=news&id=11066&utm_source=Monday+%26+Thursday+List&utm_campaign=8c1feeee7b-Raikkonen_to_miss_last_races_of_201311_11_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_02ab9a107b-8c1feeee7b-130152002#.UoEbLPlJN1U
Which may taken even more shine off of this weekend's race.
Minor-blasphemous question: I'm way behind, and I'll never watch the whole season: Any particular races from 2013 I should be watching over others?
Adrian_Thompson wrote:
alfadriver wrote:
Just going to leave this here- http://www.gptours.com/index.php?command=show&what=news&id=11066&utm_source=Monday+%26+Thursday+List&utm_campaign=8c1feeee7b-Raikkonen_to_miss_last_races_of_201311_11_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_02ab9a107b-8c1feeee7b-130152002#.UoEbLPlJN1U
Which may taken even more shine off of this weekend's race.
No loss 
Ugh. Although I'm not an Alonso fan, this concerns me given Kimi's out too. In only it's second year, is F1 already starting to think that the USGP isn't important enough to participate in? Granted, it's late in the season, RBR and Vettel have already won. The rest are scrambling for the table scraps, so I get that it's not as critical as it would be if the championship were still up for grabs. But major drivers not competing means less fans wanting to go, which reduces the importance and loses money and less chance of them coming back next year. I sincerely hope this isn't the begging of a death spiral for COTA and the USGP.....
-Rob
In reply to Adrian_Thompson:
Massa at Williams will be awesome! I really hope they go back to being front runners.
alfadriver wrote:
Just going to leave this here- http://www.gptours.com/index.php?command=show&what=news&id=11066&utm_source=Monday+%26+Thursday+List&utm_campaign=8c1feeee7b-Raikkonen_to_miss_last_races_of_201311_11_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_02ab9a107b-8c1feeee7b-130152002#.UoEbLPlJN1U
Which may taken even more shine off of this weekend's race.
I'll say it again, don't be surprised if Alonso leaves Ferrari for next season.
