BAHRAIN GP Race Day ******SPOILER******

+1

 

-1

Go watch touring cars or somthing!

 

+1

For me, Kimi's pass on Alonso in the pits and the look on Ron Dennis' face after Heidfeld passed Alonso were the highlights of the race.

 

I found the race very exciting in a suspenseful manner. Most of the time I was think :

Is Massa going to crack and make a mistake?
Is Kimi going to pass Fred or fall asleep?
Is Quick Nick going to catch Kimi now that he is past Fred?
What's up with Coulthard and his fast car?
Is Barrichello's Engine going to blow up?
Is Fisi going to start crying ?
Is Scott Speed going to make it around for one lap?

Now that is action!

 

They never showed Ron's face after Alonso got passed. Are you thinking of Dr. Mario Thiessen, BMW Motorsport director?

 

Sorry but that is not a pass, that is but a position change. A 'pass' has to be real and on the track.

Man I wish they would ban pit stops so we forced the drivers to be men and pass on the track.

You young guys that have never seen a F1 race without pitstops missed so bloody much. I actually feel sorry for you.
Pete

 

i think your missing the whole point here. while i mentioned there was some passing on the track, especially the midfield area, i was saying that the front runners aren't passing on the track at all.

Malaysia was the same, and so was Bahrain. i think u misunderstood my whole point. have a nice day

 

My local daily reported today that FA has totally 'no confidence in his Mclaren' for Bahrain. so, the whining starts

 

brilliant.

 

Does it really matter? No.

 

I agree with you. It's just a change of position and not a pass. Btw, I started to watch F1 back in '01 when BMW started to settle in with Williams (their 2nd year). When did F1 not have pitstops?! That's awesome! How long were the races? Tire changes?

 

Absolutely!. One is exciting the other is boring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Races were a similar length, and no tire changes or fuel stops ... if you wanted to get infront of the guy ahead of you, well you had to pass the guy!

The only negative was that FIA imposed a fuel tank limit and thus we had a few races where cars ran out of fuel in the last few laps ...

I think it was the 90's when Bernie enforced fuel stops on F1, to artificially make racing more exciting (? ... WTF). Most of my mates were not happy at all, but then we did not expect drivers to turn into whimps and wait for a pitstop like they do now (but ofcourse it makes sense).
Pete

 

Both depend on how they're done. If someone goes off track and another car sails on by, it might be exciting to see the error, but the pass is boring. If a driver lays down sizzling fast laps between pit stops in order to come out of his pit stop ahead of the car that pitted 3 laps earlier (remember Schumi?), that can be exciting.

I remember those days -- early '80s, if memory serves -- no spec engine config either: a mix of 8s and 12s. Cheever's 12c Alfa was always short on gas at the end. And Benetton was a sponsor, rather than a team.

If I remember correctly, you could change tires. So it was a trade off of whether new tires would make you fast enough to make up for the time to change them. The no in-race refuelling was imposed as a safety measure.

I also remember when they inflicted "pop-off" valves on the turbo cars ... and the FIA valves were the least reliable part on the car.

That was back when ESPN2 had the races in the US. (And those announcers couldn't even pronounce the drivers' names.)

 

wow....how long have u been following F1, Pete?

 

Well, I remember some races of the late 80´s and early 90´s were there were no pit-stops (well, they sometimes pitted to change tires only) and there wasn´t so much overtaking. There was more than now, that´s for sure, but not so much, we were always complaining about the lack of action just like now. I suppose that the main problem is not in the pit-stops, but in the cars. Too much aero, too much brake power, etc...

 

Well my memory is of very exciting racing, Lauda versus Prost in McLarens and then later Senna versus Prost pushing each other of the road ...

We have to remember that back then they were not probably producing the same down force as nowadays ... but still we had MORE top flight drivers in any one season. To have only 1 WDC on the grid is pathetic

I'm not sure when I first watched, because I've read so much also, but it would surely be from atleast aged 14 on, thus 82 on ...
Pete

 

Thats an interesting way to look at it.....

(regarding LH smoking engine)
Well, it was doing it the whole race, not just at the start like toyota. I wouldn't be surprised if his motor doesn't make it through spain.

well said

I'm going to have to jump on the bandwagon and say its too early to tell. Its likely, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Lewis or Massa took it down.

However, I do believe Lewis will finish with more points than Alonso

 

Someone mentioned to much aero on these cars, and I agree. Brakes, tires, all of that is pretty transient, but the aero is not. They have basically engineered them into slot cars. Driven fast enough the cars will not slip or slide and will go wherever you point them. Take the aero loading off the cars and make them squirrely and it falls back on talent. I think its much more exciting to see drivers drifting through corners than cutting through with scalpel like precision.

But the fuel limits wernt so much to incorporate pit stops and screw up the race as they were an attempt to make the cars safer by not carrying so much fuel onboard. Especially when the fuel tank is a stressed member between the forward chassis section and engine.

Regarding the turbo cars, the blow off valves were just another attempt at leveling the playing field so that the unsupercharged cars had some remote advantage. Some were appraoching 100 psi of boost! But the turbo cars just kept getting ever and ever more powerful no matter what FIA came up with to neuter them.

I recall an article in R&T speaking of the issue, that FIA was proposing dropping the displacement of the turbo cars to 1.2 liters to drop thier dominance against the 3 liter NA cars. It was theorised that at 1.2 liters they would see three cylinder engines, and that with lower pumping losses they would actually make even more power, perhaps 1000 hp per liter. Turbos were finally banned shortly after I read that.

 

I am with you on someof yoru thoughts. I posted on several threads that if the FIA removed the front and rear wings, it would not only make for closer racing and passing, but also force the constructors to concentrate on mechanical grip and electronics. F1 should not only be about racing but also a technology showcase. If we really need to know who the best driver is, then only a spec car/tire combo with no pit stops would tell us.

I would let them go crazy with electronics also. As for the engine size, again I would not limit it. There are human and physical limits. If a team wants a bigger engine let them have it. At the end of a straight into a turn they still have to slow that beast down which could mean earlier braking, bigger brakes, etc... where another team with a different size engine, may brake later and actually have a little more speed through the turns. The fuel consumption would also be effected making pit stops random. A limit in the fuel tank size would also force the constructors to maximise fuel efficiency.
I like these ideas because all that research will find itself into our street cars where all those little winglets hanging off the sides of cars may not. So it really comes down to "What is F1 racing ?" Semi-spec racing ?

Currently F1 research and is like the US Tax Code. All the research work is done is in the grey area where the law is left up to interpretation Find a good loop hole and exploit it.