Formula One - 2016

Yawn.

I miss the old system and the thrill of the flying laps at the end of Q3. That was typically the best part of the whole race weekend.

No comments on the race? Im in NY with no tv but I've looked up the results. Sounds like Hammy had another bad start then got hit and sustained damage and had to fight back to the podium. Vettle's engine went kablamo on the parade lap meaning 2 races and 2 dead prancing pony's. So Hollywood got lucky again and was unchallenged in the lead. Don't know much about the ice man's run. More points for Hassan and a good drive by Stoffel VanDorn (SP?) and a blow up for JB.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Thats no excuse, there are places here you could have watched it.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: No comments on the race? Im in NY with no tv but I've looked up the results. Sounds like Hammy had another bad start then got hit and sustained damage and had to fight back to the podium. Vettle's engine went kablamo on the parade lap meaning 2 races and 2 dead prancing pony's. So Hollywood got lucky again and was unchallenged in the lead. Don't know much about the ice man's run. More points for Hassan and a good drive by Stoffel VanDorn (SP?) and a blow up for JB.

Pretty much summed it up. Bottas went for a pass he shouldn't have at the start. He had a hell of a start, though, so adrenaline was probably running high. Punted Hamilton in the side, dropping Hamilton back about 8 slots. Supposedly, MB said that the damage resulted in about a second of a lap loss. He was still able to recover and make it to third, so if the second a lap is true, that's impressive.

Kimi got caught behind the Bottas/Hamilton fiasco, but still drove a strong race to second.

I'm impressed with Haas. Although Gutierrez's motor blew, Grosjean had an impressive race. They used all three sets of super softs to keep him up close to the front. Aggressive, but it worked well. Had a bit of a kink in one of the pit stops, but I don't think it would have gotten him to fourth.

His after race interview with Will was awesome. He had a big E36 M3 eating grin on his face the whole time. Although he tried to stay cool saying stating that this isn't an indication of future performance and that they still have work to do, you could tell he was pumped (as he should be!).

Lots of passing, lots of bumping, lots of guys pushing hard. Yeah, it was a Mercedes/Ferrari podium, but the race was still exciting.

Hopefully, you recorded it!

Edit: Forgot about Stoffel Vandoorne. Never driven the car until Friday, studied all the controls/engineering notes on the flight and put it in the points. Impressive, to say the least.

-Rob

Wall-e wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: Thats no excuse, there are places here you could have watched it.

Chaparoning 80 high-school orchestra kids. Being a responsible adult and ship like that! I'll catch up when back in civilization next week

Vandoorne should get driver of the day. That was stellar.

The whole race was good. Passing, bumping, drama, etc. made for a fun race to watch.

God, the idiocy of the NBC announcers. You'd swear they think Haas is made of random dilettantes who just decided they wanted an F1 team one day. Haas is a championship winning team and they've hired some great people. I'm really glad to see them getting results. And what results - they're fifth in the championship!

NBC also cut to commercial every time it looked like something interesting was going to happen. Tip: don't watch the live timing at the same time as the NBC show, it's bad for your blood pressure.

Kimi drove a good race. Glad to see him doing well.

I don't think Hamilton's start was awful, it was average. Problem was that Nico was slightly faster and then he got booted by Bottas. That was a bummer. I'm pretty sure he'll get the starts sorted out, and we'll see a series of Hamilton wins. He did a good job to get the car up to 3rd.

Looks like Channel 4 in the UK (Channel4.com) has live streaming and replays of the races. You need to have a UK IP address. I haven't confirmed the live stream (found out about it after the race) but it's worth checking. The race replay isn't working at the moment but the practice/quali streams are.

Keith Tanner wrote: God, the idiocy of the NBC announcers. You'd swear they think Haas is made of random dilettantes who just decided they wanted an F1 team one day. Haas is a championship winning team and they've hired some great people. I'm really glad to see them getting results. And what results - they're fifth in the championship!

I don't take it as them knocking Haas, as much as how impressive a feat like they have accomplished. When you have a brand new team beating legacy F1 teams (Williams), with the serious constraints F1 puts on teams regarding testing, it IS damned impressive. The last one to do it was Red Bull, and it took a while for them to get to the success Haas seems to have already.

Plus (and again, it's what I'm reading into it), they are trying hard to show that it's an American team. The U.S. has been the big black hole for F1 for a number of years. Often times, because F1 is referred to as a "European" sport. I think their constant talk and promotion is an attempt to get Americans more interested in F1 now that there's an American team in it.

-Rob

I was honestly surprised there wasn't a safety car or at least some local yellows to pick up all the broken pieces of racecar that were on the track from all the contact. Guess they'd better get the canopies on there ASAP if they are just going to leave crap all over the race track for them to hit.

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

Wall-e wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: Thats no excuse, there are places here you could have watched it.

Chaparoning 80 high-school orchestra kids. Being a responsible adult and ship like that! I'll catch up when back in civilization next week

80 fake ids would be tough to come by on short notice. Times Square ain't what it used to be.

rob_lewis wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: God, the idiocy of the NBC announcers. You'd swear they think Haas is made of random dilettantes who just decided they wanted an F1 team one day. Haas is a championship winning team and they've hired some great people. I'm really glad to see them getting results. And what results - they're fifth in the championship!

I don't take it as them knocking Haas, as much as how impressive a feat like they have accomplished. When you have a brand new team beating legacy F1 teams (Williams), with the serious constraints F1 puts on teams regarding testing, it IS damned impressive. The last one to do it was Red Bull, and it took a while for them to get to the success Haas seems to have already. Plus (and again, it's what I'm reading into it), they are trying hard to show that it's an American team. The U.S. has been the big black hole for F1 for a number of years. Often times, because F1 is referred to as a "European" sport. I think their constant talk and promotion is an attempt to get Americans more interested in F1 now that there's an American team in it. -Rob

The British Sky TV coverage has a wee debate going on whether Haas is actually a constructor, or a customer team. The part about Dallara building their chassis and Ferrari building their engines has rubbed some the wrong way. The announcers were disputing the "customer" status by pointing out that Haas broke their front wing, and a Ferrari design wouldn't have done that. Faint praise, I guess. I think the whole thing is kind of like Jeremy Clarkson's dismissal of everything American. Penis envy and all that.

It's a legitimate discussion. They have purchased as much as they can according to the rules - but they have done it all according to the rules. There are only three teams that don't buy engines from someone else (up from two in 2015), so you can't complain about that. Having the chassis made elsewhere, well, that's a bit less clear.

Of course, the sport isn't going to survive without customer teams, so bring it on.

With the pre-race talk (I forget if this was Sky or NBC) about the safety of open-wheelers, I'm wondering what it would be like if F1 used the ACO rulebook. Imagine LMP1s built to run a two-hour sprint. They've got the hybrid technology, they've got aero - but they've got a wide range of powertrains and designs along with serious safety and very close racing. The cars can bump and rub without tearing themselves to bits, slashing their tires or launching into the air. I believe they can even run nose to tail without destroying their tires, although there was an interesting point earlier about that being a design decision for the leading teams. It'll never happen, of course. But it sure would be cool to see. I think LMP1 is far more interesting technically than F1.

Lets not forget that this is not Dallara's first time to make a F1 chassis in the last few years. But that team was head strong and thought they knew better- they knew so much that they are no longer in F1.

It's funny that they got criticized for being a "customer" with a wing break. We will ignore all of the wing failures in the past, and assume that this team has all of the data and experience to know what the proper constraints are for every track... The fact that they are doing better than expected does focus a lot of people who think they should suck.

And- while Haas is indeed a championship level racing team, the expectations even withing F1 fans was a lot less than this. Including me. Moreso for haters of NASCAR and ones who can not figure that experience and drive translates well from one racing to another.

I'm still a major fan BECAUSE engineers on this board could go work for them. I think that's so very cool.

BTW, I do call Lewis' start poor. Or at least less than average. If it were average- he should have been equal to Nico. Great race race by Nico- who's biggest drama was to miss the piles of debris left behind from the cars that could not catch him.

In reply to alfadriver: I was very critical of HAAS doing well, nothing to do with NASCAR, because I believe them to be very separate entities, but because in the past new teams have struggled. I think one of the biggest differences, are HAAS has put down some serious cash, Günther Steiner choose talent over country, and Romain Grosjean is driving like a stud. Right now they are matching Toyota F1 that had decent drivers and endless supply of money. It will be interesting to see if they can continue the momentum and if they are able to compete in the middle to end of the season where development becomes critical.

Tom_Spangler wrote: I was honestly surprised there wasn't a safety car or at least some local yellows to pick up all the broken pieces of racecar that were on the track from all the contact. Guess they'd better get the canopies on there ASAP if they are just going to leave crap all over the race track for them to hit.

Yes I thought the same,late in the race the onboard from Vandoorne showed a big chunk whiz by very close to his head.

Scary stuff nearing 200mph.

My impression is that the chunks of carbon fiber are light and fragile -- I'm sure you don't want one to hit you in the helmet, but it's a big difference from Massa's accident with the heave spring.

trigun7469 wrote: In reply to alfadriver: I was very critical of HAAS doing well, nothing to do with NASCAR, because I believe them to be very separate entities, but because in the past new teams have struggled. I think one of the biggest differences, are HAAS has put down some serious cash, Günther Steiner choose talent over country, and Romain Grosjean is driving like a stud. Right now they are matching Toyota F1 that had decent drivers and endless supply of money. It will be interesting to see if they can continue the momentum and if they are able to compete in the middle to end of the season where development becomes critical.

Haas is spending less than Toyota did by a factor of 5 or so ($100M/year, vs $500M) and has better finishing positions (comparing points is hard because the points system is so different -- in 2002 it only went back to 6th).

Toyota is an object lesson in how NOT to start a new team in F1...

I just wish the fat Brit could say "Ferrari" instead of "Scooter REE uh."

Bwahahhaha.

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/10226616/fernando-alonso-confronts-sky-f1s-johnny-herbert-over-retirement-claims

Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene joked: "Perhaps we made a mistake!" "Seriously, of course, I have been impressed by their results," "They have worked very hard and we should be happy, because these Haas cars have Ferrari engines."

As to complaints... HAAS just looked at the rules, and "built" a car within the rules....

What I'd like to know are when/if Ferrari modify the wings, will they share those updates... and will any improvements "found" successful on the HAAS, will they be shared with Ferrari....?????

In reply to oldeskewltoy:

According to an article that I read in Racecar Engineering- they are not allowed to share anything anymore WRT the body/aero.

I think Grosjean is a good, reliable driver. I figured if Haas could put a good car under him that they would do well, but I thought it might take a bit longer to get these results. So far they've been smart enough or lucky enough to avoid the gremlins that often bite new teams in the butt. The FIA looked into Haas' car at other teams request and declared it all legal within the rules, so no issues there. It good to see Raikkonen earning his paycheck. Keep it up. It will be fun to watch Rosberg build up a points lead and then see if Hamilton can claw his way back to the front.

ncjay wrote: .... The FIA looked into Haas' car at other teams request and declared it all legal within the rules, so no issues there.

That's so cool. A car is so quick off the bat that the other teams think they are cheating.

American engineers are not that bad, are they? Maybe all of that FSAE work has gone a long way.

Makes uou wonder who else will turn to dallara for a chassis

alfadriver wrote:

ncjay wrote: .... The FIA looked into Haas' car at other teams request and declared it all legal within the rules, so no issues there.

That's so cool. A car is so quick off the bat that the other teams think they are cheating. American engineers are not that bad, are they? Maybe all of that FSAE work has gone a long way.

It doesn't hurt that they have a 2016 Ferrari power unit and every other piece of Tech they could legally get from. Gearbox would determine rear suspension, which helps sort rear aero, etc.

It's not like they just started from scratch.