Abu Dhabi GP: Race

Agreed.

The big teams, Ferrari, Renault and BMW in particular were caught out by the superdiffuser and could do little to retrofit their cars. But they will have addressed that issue in their 2010 cars.

I expect a much closer battle for the front and Red Bull/Brawn loose some of their dominance. I don't expect a step back to the old days either, but we can't just extrapolate from today's race into 2010.

The fact that the fuel tank has to be twice as big will change the innards of the cars tremendously. They still might look a lot like today's cars, but they will be built from scratch anew.

 

There's no way you can double the fuel capacity (in both volume and weight) and not have to make major design changes. F1 cars are designed with highly optimized parameters. Change one aspect and everything else must be modified to suit.

 

True.

Add to that how tightly packaged they are on the inside (remember when Matchett did a REAL RPM segment with a REAL team and they showed how neatly all is fitted underneath the cover?) and twice the tank volume has huge consequences for packaging and weight distribution.

 

My point exactly.
Just expressed better

 

It would have been nice to see Hamilton/Vettel have at it, but it looks like their decision to use two different brake manufacturers left them wondering which one failed them. Formula 1's Kobi was entertaining as hell, and I wish more drivers would engage like he did Button following JB's pit.

Other than that and JB vs Webber at the end, it was pretty much a processional. Nice track, but still no real racing.

 

The master of tactics will be at the head of his own team still. Ferrari and McLaren have struggled in that area.

 

Good point.


...while the Dark Master of Tactics watches on from the Bench how his Renault pawns are doing...

 

BTW, Fatna said "Yes".

 

All I wish for is the points to go back where the were...

1st 10
2nd 06
3rd 04

fourth, three, two, one...


I can dream

 

Say what you will about Kimi but Lewis beat him by a single point.

 

You're singing to the choir. You have to have a big enough pts gap between 1-2-3 and the rest. Otherwise you have drivers settling for 2nd since it is not worth throwing the race for an extra 2 pts when you already have 8 in the bag.

With the old pts system you would push for 1st since a win was approximately as good as 2 podiums. Hell of an incentive that they had from the 9-6-4-3-2-1 system and the 10-6-4-3-2-1 system. A few wins and you were right in the championship hunt and could make up ground on your competitors.

A smart driver now will settle for the points and "manage" a championship by points finishes instead of striving for several brilliant drives.

A win sure doesn't mean what it used to in terms of a championship challenge. Not to mention that it makes it VERY hard to make up ground...

 

Andreas, thats what u said after his first win in Hungary..

Anyways, whats the deal with Jaime? I've never seen someone that failed that bad in a long time. Driving into the wrong pit crews? LoL...i could only imagine the surprise of the RB pitcrew..

 

Is this season over yet?

Wake me up when I care again....

 

This season has been really dull, IMO. SO much for the 'best season in years'. It was the same BS. No overtaking, silly rules, ugly cars...nothing great to remember.

 

It was just a bad dream.

 

This has been a horrible season for the tifosi to endure...

Wait til next year!

 

Did I say that? Oh well, I was wrong.

I thought early on when Button appeared in F1 that he had it, but then as time wore on I lost my faith in him. Suits me well, that he got the title after all.

 

Yeah, I am REALLY old-fashioned. I'm still ticked off that they changed the points system from 9-6-4-3-2-1. Ten points for a win? Newfangled nonsense. And what's with all these "pit stops?" In my day the team patted their drivers on the helmet before the start and said "Off you go, lad, see you in 200 miles."

That all sounds like a parody, but I am deadly serious. Worst travesty of all: forcing everyone to be on the wrong tyres for a third of the race. Is that rubbish going to continue next year? I would really like to see pit stops eliminated entirely. We have two race engines and four race transmissions; let's have four race tyres.

Sound stupid? Think about it. Hard tyres mean less grip, longer braking distances, and thus more overtaking opportunities. Isn't that what we want?

Better still would be to legislate away downforce, but wings are such valuable billboards that it will never happen. Besides, F1 has to be the fastest series, so wings stay.

Best F1 cars ever:
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Well they finally found a japanese driver with enough talent.
I wonder if F1 still wants one as much as they once did?

 

Yeap.

However, i agree with ur post, few pages back i think. Regarding how big names like Ferrari and Mclaren got caught out on the diffuser issue. I think we'll have the normal names battling it out next year.

Interesting to note that Sir Frank believes that the Cosworth will be the best engines for next year.

 

I tend to agree and disagree on certain parts. I think pitstops should be allowed, but banning refuelling is a good idea. Safety wise, it's not good for 1 set of tyres to last the entire distance. I agree with the idea of getting rid of the nonsense prime and option tyre. It was one of the FIA's ideas to spic up overtaking, which didn't work.

There's 2 main reasons why overtaking is so limited these days :

1) the way the cars are built, aero wise.

2) the lack of 'final drive power'. Nowdays, the engines are limited to just 18k rpm, and Felipe commented back in 2007 i think (when it was limited to 19k rpm), he mentioned that it would definitely affect overtakings. Guess what? he's right.

FIA tried to introduce KERS, as a substitute thing, but it's really expensive, and in my book, it's a failure.

I miss the good old days of V10s, and better looking cars.

 

+1000

Excellent points, and I wholeheartedly agree with all. We need to go back to the old F1 rules. With all the new-fangled rule changes over the past three decades, F1 has sadly declined from its former glory.

 

I agree. Kobayashi was probably my highlight of the year. Regardless of where he's from - he was excellent entertainment. Banzaiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Er, why? What a load of rubbish.

They just have to design them to suit. It will return racing to the track and everything snakeseare said is correct, ie. lower grip, etc.

I've been watching F1 since the early 80's and the worst thing that ever happened to F1 was enforced pitstops. That is when passing on the track just stopped.
Pete

 

I thought he had it very early on too, but he hasn't, and it is just wrong that he has a WDC to his name.

Damon Hill was a far harder fighter and yet everybody on this site cr@ps on him, but heck Damon fought hard and against way stronger opposition. JB only won because his car was atleast 50% better than everybody elses and RB is way past his used by date.

Yes F1 is about the car but you should only get the good car after proving yourself, not just by being lucky. Now yes this has I'm sure happened before ... though.
Pete
ps: I really wish he would go to McLaren so LH could lap him in each race and thus put him firmly in his place.

I'm now also disappointed that Kimi won a WDC too, because he hasn't got it either. I wasted all those years rooting for him, against my wifes view and quite frankly he's just not hungry enough and Massa, while not as fast, is an all round better driver and unfortunately he will never return ... and unfortunately he is simply not as good as Alonso, LH and Vettel, etc.