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mlittle wrote:

JayVee wrote:If the A version was fastest 3 days in a row then I wonder what will the B version do!!

My thought on this is.........why even worry about designing the B version now when the A version hasn't made it to the track in race condition. Yes, we've seen it in testing and its' been fast, but...remember the key word there is testing. We really don't know what the car'll do until we see it in race conditions, but if it's as fast there as it is now.........look out!

Exactly .... maybe Ferrari made up that rumour just to demoralise Mercedes and McLaren!!

JayVee wrote:

mlittle wrote:

JayVee wrote:If the A version was fastest 3 days in a row then I wonder what will the B version do!!

My thought on this is.........why even worry about designing the B version now when the A version hasn't made it to the track in race condition. Yes, we've seen it in testing and its' been fast, but...remember the key word there is testing. We really don't know what the car'll do until we see it in race conditions, but if it's as fast there as it is now.........look out!

Exactly .... maybe Ferrari made up that rumour just to demoralise Mercedes and McLaren!!

True, but we won't know whether it worked or not until they get to Bahrain and actually start running the cars under race conditions. Until then, anything that happens in testing must be taken with the proverbial grain of salt.

welcome chaps. just read Hekki on his new car. He reckons it's worse that the Minardi he tested several YEARS ago.

And the team principal reckons they'll be 3.5 sec off the pace.

O.K. 3.5 sec./lap X 60 laps = three and a half MINUTES behind at the end of the race!

Welcome to the pinacle of motorsport.

jim watt

Jim Watt wrote: welcome chaps. just read Hekki on his new car. He reckons it's worse that the Minardi he tested several YEARS ago.

And the team principal reckons they'll be 3.5 sec off the pace.

O.K. 3.5 sec./lap X 60 laps = three and a half MINUTES behind at the end of the race!

Welcome to the pinacle of motorsport.

jim watt

Think how much lighter they can run with the reduced fuel load......

Jim Watt wrote: welcome chaps. just read Hekki on his new car. He reckons it's worse that the Minardi he tested several YEARS ago.

And the team principal reckons they'll be 3.5 sec off the pace.

O.K. 3.5 sec./lap X 60 laps = three and a half MINUTES behind at the end of the race!

Welcome to the pinacle of motorsport.

jim watt

Jim, i suppose it depends which column you read, in the interview on GPupdate he says the car is better than expected.

I guess time will tell and the time is near

Gho Gho:

Well, I imagine after he saw in print what he had already said, he may have been notified by his team's public relations person, or his manager, that he might 'reconsider' his position.

Here's hoping they get a little closer to the pace; if not, it will only be a matter of when, not if, one of the four to six moving chicanes at the tail of the field takes out an actual racer!

The only real solution to this would be a return to genuine QUALIFYING for the race (as opposed to moving advert. hoardings guaranteed in exchange for outrageous entry fees!).

I say let anyone come with a crash-tested car that meets the engineering specs: if he can put it in the field, let him race. If not, back on the trailer and go home until you have the speed.

jim

We reported the story of Kovalainen describing the new Lotus as lacking in the aero department - Story

He later posted a message on Twitter stating: "Seen some news from finnish media about lotus/minardi, comments taken out of context, not fair for our team, gonna combat it big time now!"

He hasn't posted anything else on the matter since.

For reference, the fastest lap by the Minardi in 2003 for the Australian Grand Prix was 4 seconds slower than the fastest lap of the race (a McLaren!), in Malaysia it was 3.2 seconds but in Brazil it was close to 6 seconds.

On the last day at the last Barcelona test Kovalainen was nearly 5 seconds off the fastest time.

To be fair to Heikki, going from McLaren to a brand new team doesn't really help!

Thanks, Ed, for the clarification. I guess Heikki thinks everyone twitters so he doesn't need to do any more. Or maybe he's decided to simply shut up. You're right it doesn't help to be comparing his ride to a McLaren!

But to the point: what currently IS the 'cut-off' point for F1 qualifying; that is, how much slower than the fastest car are you allowed by the rules to be?

I guess one way to insure more overtaking would be to allow cars to finish ten or so laps down

jim

Jim, as far as I know the 107% rule was dropped as it had no relevance as the teams got closer to each other with the rules being as tight as they are.
I think that this year particularly we may once again see differences of that magnitude as the new teams sort themselves out.
I believe it was originally introduced as a safety measure, removing those that were a potential danger (the slow ones) from the circuit.

I really do believe, and fervently hope I am wrong, that there is going to be a helluva lot of carbon fibre strewn around the track this season.
If there is it will have far reaching effects on the Championship, that stuff goes thru' tyres quicker than me thru a WT.....

Julian Mayo wrote:I really do believe, and fervently hope I am wrong, that there is going to be a helluva lot of carbon fibre strewn around the track this season.
If there is it will have far reaching effects on the Championship, that stuff goes thru' tyres quicker than me thru a WT.....

Let's see.........no refueling, new teams on the grid, drivers from 2009 w/new teams in 2010 plus the usual political BS that constitutes Formula 1, the FIA and FOM at times.....yeah, it could definitely be a festival of carbon fiber in 2010.

Then again, former F1 pilots Kimi Raikkonen and Takuma Sato have new places to haunt in the motorsports world(the Finn in the WRC this year......Sato in Indycars this year.... .......), so maybe F1 might be the sanest place to be this year........

2011 - Petrov out - Kubica/Raikkonen at Renault

Just a whisper

<T-K> wrote:2011 - Petrov out - Kubica/Raikkonen at Renault

Just a whisper

2011 - Schumacher out - Rosberg/Raikkonen at Mercedes

Just a whisper

Schumaker to "retire with dignity." with 2 races of this season left, citing neck injury as the reason. A quiet roar in the paddock.

So here goes...


Torro Rosso drop Alguesuari and take on Bruno Senna... Renault boot out Petrov who finds a spot at HRT next year taking a large amount of Russian money with him, leaving Renault with an open seat. Ferrari buys out Massa's contract at the end of the year in order to hire a new mystery driver they have been looking at. Massa ends up arriving at Renault to pair up with kub-kub and we all wait in anticipation. Shumacher sits tight for one more year with Rosberg outpacing him race by race only to retire at the end of 2011 with complaints of favoritism. He and Mark Webber have lunch.

Ferrari wait until just before pre-season testing to reveal that they have signed David Coulthard who is wanting to make his own Shumiesque comeback....

Bit speculative?