This thread picks up where the last one left off ( 2012 Formula 1 discussion).

Our thanks to RaceTripper for being the steadfast steward of this thread and here's hoping that he will drop in from time to time...

So let's keep this thread going and hope to see you all post-up with your comments and thoughts on what looks to be a very promising and competitive F1 season.

 

Anybody got on thoughts on Timo's sudden departure from Marussia? Not that it will have much of an impact on the grid...

 

Money seems to be the prevalent theory. They lost 10th place to Caterham, and the prize money. They can get quite a bit in sponsorship with a newer driver.

 

This year is looking very interesting, its going to be close between Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren. I'm leaning towards Alonso for the championship because he has a number 2. Webber will take points from Vettel. What Hamilton can do for Mercedes is going to be interesting.

 

The BBC has an excellent article on the 2014 shift to the V6 and the new ERS - apparently unlike DRS, ERS will have so much energy that it will be available for 33 seconds a lap as opposed to DRS which is only available for 7 seconds a lap.

Ignore that Lewis is mentioned in the headline - it's not a Lewis article, I think they just used his name as linkbait... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21016926

 

The linked article now does seem to be an article about Lewis. (And nothing about ERS.)

 

Fixed

 

Interesting, they're introducing a fuel limit per race. Also the ERS will be able to keep the turbo spinning to eliminate turbo lag.

So when is someone going to put one of the 1.6l engines in a MINI?

 

Well the return of turbocharged engines to F1 will prove to be interesting along with the intro of ERS. I've never been a fan of KERS and I assume that ERS will be held to the same parameters as KERS (i.e. zones where it can be activated in conjuction with DRS making for contrived passing) so even though the technology is fresh and relevant to today's automobile industry and it makes for increased overtaking during a race, I still cannot deal with the artificial nature of its impact on the race itself.

I suspect that the coming of the new engines will cause alot of consternation for designers/engineers concerning heat management within the engine bay as turbos, the engine itself and the ERS will all conspire to make it hellish in that space behind the driver. Look for more engine failures as the new 1.6L powerplants go KERBLAMMO due to heat exhaustion!

On a different note there is speculation that there might be a U.S. presence on the F1 grid...

Scorpion F1 team could rise from bankrupt HRT team

January 30, 2013

A new formula one team could rise from the ashes of the failed Spanish outfit HRT.

Reports – including in the Spanish newspaper AS – claim a group of investors from the US & Canada want to enter this year’s world championship with an evolution of HRT’s 2012 car, featuring a Cosworth engine and Williams GP Engineering gearbox.

The team is reportedly called Scorpion Racing, and the Press Association said it would be based at Silverstone and operate with equipment bought from HRT.

But there could be an issue with getting up and running for 2013, given that the official entry deadline for this season’s championship closed last November.

Bernie Ecclestone is quoted as saying: “I’ve spoken to them and told them to get in touch with the FIA and ask for an entry.

“They want to buy all the bits from HRT, then form a company and ask for an entry, but I personally don’t think it will happen. It’s all a bit too late. Maybe they could do it for next year.”

The Press Association said the FIA did not want to respond in detail until it receives more ‘concrete’ information from Scorpion.


Well lets hope that these folk do not go down the same path as the USF1 equipe! Time will tell...

 

Only DRS is limited to specific zones, KERS is available as long as the system is charged. Also KERS is available regardless of conditions, whereas DRS isn't available when intermediate or wet tires are fitted. Race marshals can disable DRS but I don't believe they have the ability to disable KERS...

As for Scorpion - it would be cool, but I doubt we'll see them before 2014. Even if the sale is completed in time - why rush a team that was non-competitive back onto the grid with a car that will only be raceable for 1 season? Better to lay off for a year and come back in 2014 with a new car instead of recycling somebody's trash...

 

Earlier this week Bernie was saying that the German GP wasn't going to be at Nurbergring - however now it looks like the race is on...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105335

So the next question is what's happening on July 21?

 

+1. I just saw the same thing here http://en.espnf1.com/germany/motorsp...ory/99532.html

No clue as to the mid-July slot though.

 

You're correct mbabischkin and that was what I intended to say... my phrasing was poor.

The gist of what I was trying to convey was that (wether it is KERS or ERS or whatever acronym they employ) this feature, along with the DRS makes for an artificial contest. The racing is contrived rather than being based on driver skill (and innate car design).

A Push to Pass button allowing for overtaking, coupled with areas where drivers can activate reduced aero effects to allow for easier passing (DRS) make for false racing in my opinion.

With these (KERS/ERS & DRS) in place it is not a driver's racecraft that allows for overtaking a rival on track, rather artificial aids that coupled together grant the ability to make a pass on a competitor.

In essence we have diluted the competition for the sake of the show. Does it make for better racing? Well that all depends on your point of view and is something that will be discussed for saecula saeculorum.

 

Say now, for those of you whom are fans of Kamui Kobayashi (2010-2012 Sauber F1) here's some news concerning his current plans for 2013.

I gotta tell you, when Kamui was on he was exciting to watch! All the bravery of a samurai and sometimes the recklessness of a kamikaze!

Hope he makes it back onto the F1 grid in 2014.

Kobayashi F1 career switches to Ferrari sports cars

12 February 2013

Kamui Kobayashi looks set to continue his motor racing career in Le Mans-style sports car racing.

After three full seasons in F1, the popular and exciting Japanese lost his Sauber race seat for 2013 and failed to find refuge elsewhere.

Media reports say he will test for the Ferrari-linked AF Corse sports car team in Spain this week.

The reports say Kobayashi, 26, is under consideration for a seat in the FIA’s world endurance championship, driving a Ferrari 458.
With Sauber opting for Telmex-linked Esteban Gutierrez for 2013, Kobayashi attempted to stay in F1 by asking his fans to contribute to his sponsor purse.

Ultimately, corporate Japan failed to back him.

“Yes, it is surprising when such a pleasant person like him cannot get any support from such a motorsport-loving nation like Japan,” Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn told F1′s official website.

“This again should be a sort of warning that we maybe need to change something,” she added.

 

Really ashame about these pay drivers making inroads to F1 while there is such talent stuck on the outside.

That being said, can't wait to see how the new Ferrari stacks up to red bull/ Mclaren after the first test. Guess it'll have to not catch fire first tho.

 

With the rules structured the way they are, I don't see this changing anytime soon... Lets face it it takes a LOT of money to field an F1 team, and with the rules as such that there is little that can be developed for an F1 car that can be transferred to road cars, it means that other than the marketing value of the team an F1 team is just a money pit. This becomes even more of an issue when you're a back marker team struggling for Constructors Points and the resultant prize money. Sadly those teams (and even some of the mid-pack teams) need every $ they can get in order to field even a marginally competitive team - and as a result the need for paying drivers as opposed to paid drivers.

I haven't been an F1 fan for long, so I don't know the history of why the rules have shifted in the direction that they have. But I think F1 teams have to be able to get more money from other sources in order to cut down on the number of paying drivers...

 

I've felt that the issue is the huge disparity in funding from top teams to the bottom. Once some of the top teams started investing in wind tunnel development. The back markers couldn't keep up and the split continued to grow. Instead of limiting total funds each team has available, since the top teams fought that idea, they have signed a concord agreement that instead limits testing days.

Very different from some older times when you could try new designs and have an opportunity to test them. I haven't been an F1 fan for terribly long but you can see enough of the change over even just the past ten years. This is a vast change from the days where anyone could race so long as it qualified.

 

I also think some of this is the result of Bernie's schizophrenic management style of the sport. One day he's embracing the entry of the current back marker teams and encouraging the resurrection of HRT, the next he's complaining that there are too many cars on the grid and that he'd rather see just 10 teams (as long as one of them is Ferrari, because Bernie also panders to Ferrari whenever he can)

We hear this mantra that F1 needs to cut costs, but as a sport with such a global reach, and which requires such a large support structure to follow it around the globe - F1 will always be an expensive sport. I think if F1 wants to continue to make itself out to be the pinnacle of auto sports then it needs to continue to be an expensive sport as a way to ensure that only the cream of the crop are competing.

But on the other hand as much as I'm a fan of F1, I also don't understand why any company would want to field an F1 team under the current rules. Other than the cache of fielding an F1 team what other benefit does a company see from F1? And what is the true value of the cache? At least with the DTM, LMS, WRC, and even NASCAR success on the track can boost sales because the cars fans see on the track can be purchased (in a de-tuned form of course) in the showroom the next day. Research for success in these series can be adapted for the consumer cars of the future. The technology in an F1 car doesn't transfer over to consumer development nor do the cars and an F1 car looks nothing like anything available in any showroom. Then you add in that Lotus is Lotus in name only as they run Renault engines and the team is actually owned & operated by a VC firm, and what exactly is a Marussia anyway?

If you're a successful team, you can at least recoup some of those costs through merchandising as you'll build an enthusiastic fan base. Obviously even merchandising isn't a huge money maker for the teams though because seriously - have you looked at how much McLaren wants for a stinkin' t-shirt? And the back markers - how many Narain Karthakayan ball caps do you think HRT sold?

 

Couldn't agree more on your point about Bernie. He's a complete nut and I think his crazy fees are also hurting the chances to make money in the sport. There is a constant Catch-22 in F1 where you need to spend a lot of money to make it back (as you mentioned in an earlier post about the money associated with accumulating constructors points). The non-manufacturer based teams have a lot of trouble with this. Look at how quickly BMW entered and then left the F1 circus (as a full race team, not just an engine manufacturer), even when they were one of the better teams at marketing and generating interest. They quickly found how difficult it was to sustain this model and dropped it, so what chance does a non manufacturer have? And other teams resort to getting a Narian Karthikeyan on the payrole who won't generate merch sales, but is backed by Tata...so they'll get sponsorship dollars and no points money since he can't drive, just keeping the cycle of not-winning alive.

Part of this definitely follows your point about it not translating into car sales. This is why Porsche has always maintained that they will only enter racing series where their cars are somewhat close to those that you can buy from them. There is that direct link that doesn't exist with F1, but F1 does create a lot of technology that makes its way into road cars...traction control, carbon fiber monocoques, carbon fiber brakes, sequential manual transmissions/direct shift gearboxes, flywheel energy storage... McLaren even has an applied technologies division whose sole focus is to take F1 technology to real-world applications. This will hardly translate into money for many teams, especially the back markers. These non-manufacture backed teams have no additional revenue source, which needs to change to keep more teams involved. I think it's really Bernie keeping way too much of the race holding fees and not distributing enough back to the teams.

 

...it doesn't look like I'll be able to afford the stay. Looks like Montreal it is again.

http://en.espnf1.com/usa/motorsport/story/101631.html

 

NJ in 2014?

 

Yikes! In the article they had a post that read:

Austin hotels priced out of F1 market: http://www.espn.co.uk/usa/motorsport/story/101631.html … True dat. Got quoted $1000 PER NIGHT for a flat that's in $100pn non-GP week,

For the race week in 2012 the average daily rate for Austin hotels was $393.69, while San Antonio hotels were averaging $184.20.


WOW! The hostelries in Austin are out to make the $$$$ ...

I had hoped to get down Texas way to check out COTA & F1 but if this mentality is prevalent I guess I will be doing my spectating in front of the TV...

I hope that in time people will come to realize that gouging the fans is not good for promotion of COTA and F1 in the Austin area!

 

Those rates aren't going to last - there's no way that they're going to get the occupancy levels to support those rates...

 

It's killing me that the organizers/venue couldn't get things together for this year as was planned. The race is going to be held only 5 minutes away from where I live and I was really hoping to hear those V8 engine sounds echoing off of the cliffs along the Hudson. I'll have to wait another year and deal with turbo sixes. Just not the same. Wish they would go back to 12's....but that's just a dream.

 

From what I saw on the "teaser" video that was making the rounds last year - there was still a long way to go to get the streets track ready...

And did I see that correctly - are they running the track through a neighborhood? It looked like there were houses along the side of the proposed track...