2011 F1 thread
 

Don't see one yet, and since 4 of the teams have revealed their cars (at least "virtually" coughteamlotuscough) I figure it's time we had one.

So far, Ferrari will be campaigning a pickup truck, Sauber slapped some Mexican sponsorship stickers on its car, Team Lotus is the green and gold team and Renault Lotus GP's livery is kind of a throwback, but the car has an identity crisis.

http://planet-f1.com/

At this point it looks like it should be really competitive, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and maybe Renault Lotus fighting for wins. I'm a little worried that may not be the case and Red Bull might come out and dominate again. I'm hoping that's not the case, I'd like to see 8-10 cars really close together so we can find out which driver's really are the creme de la creme...

Compared to Mclaren and Ferrari, RBR are a smallish team. I'm hoping they focused a little too hard on 2011 and will give Ferrari or Mclaren a chance. They dominated a little too much last year for my tastes. If it weren't for a few mistakes and breakdowns, they would have dominated in 2010.

Can't wait for the season to start, I watched some last year but I plan on getting into it this season.

I will watch it from my balcony whilst smoking a mediocre cuban cigar and sipping the best generally available lite american bear. i mean beer.

So far the RB7 and "F150" are the fastest, RB7 fastest the first day and "F150" the second. Turned like 108 laps, too.. so I guess Ferrari has their reliability sorted out. Fuck.

The rest of everybody seems to think they're all going to be mid-pack too, lol.

Sounds like Kubica is out for the year which is a damn shame. I've always liked him and was hoping to see him dicing it out at the front.

I wonder who Renault might put in his car? They've got Bruno Senna and Grosjean (sp?) already on the books but I wonder if they might go after Hulkenburg or Heidfeld...?

Hopefully they give Bruno a shot. I want to see what he can do in a decent car.

As long as Alonso loses I'm happy.

lololol, yep. Him and Hugo Chavez. The whole Williams team, matter of fact, for selling out.

If they suck again this year Frank needs to hang it up before he completely destroys his legacy.

I'm not going to even bother making predictions, because I was so wrong last year. I was glad though, because it made for a very entertaining season...first time in a while.


This. I love seeing that fucker pout.


Subscribed for more TRB family fuedin'.

My prediction is the results will be very similar to last year:
- Vettel will win the Driver's Chamionship unless something goes very wrong.
- If Vettel does not win it, it will be Hamilton.
- If not Hamilton, then either Alonso, Weber, or Button
- Red Bull will win the Constructor's Championship unless McLaren makes some more phenomenal advances.
- I am not sure Braun or Ferrari are going to do well unless Ferrari and Alonso make a late season comeback again.

Other notables
- I think Kobayashi is going to finish well this year. The man has skill, and now he might have the car.
- I want to build and install a movable wing on my track car :D
- Also disappointed not to see Kubica back this year. I think he really could have fought for a top spot.
- Massa is going to lose his ride unless he gets a lot faster.
- Pro Drivers buy their way into a seat all the time. It is part of the business.

If you really want a good look at what is going on with the cars get a subscription to Racecar Engineering. Expensive but worth it if you are into racing car technology. Not a light read. They had a good article on what Pirelli had to achieve to get their tires ready in 6 months. Pretty amazing.

FTFY.

I was about to post in this thread. A few thoughts of my own.

1. I love the movable wing, much more noticeable than I thought it'd be. I don't think I ever noticed the movable front wing last year. I am however, waiting for one of them to double tap the button. They're hitting it with the pedal, if they mess it up, it'll already be too late.

2. The ground effect design going with the exhaust and under carriage is epic. The announcers said it reminded them of a time when cars were literally sealed to the ground with a rubber sill around the entire car. The comparison sent chills down my spine.

3. The Pirellis look like shiny plastic barrels with very wide rubber bands around them. Anyone else see this?

I think 2011 is going to be epic, cannot wait.

This sounds kinda shitty but I sense a death this year.

Looking at Kubica's crash in '09 (I think) and Webber's last year, these things are pretty safe. If there is a death, it's going to be horrific. Like cutting car and driver in half some how.

In the list of impressive upgrades, we forgot to mention the throttle system. To keep the exhaust gases flowing under the car and on the diffuser, they're apparently running throttle plateless.

Wait what? I'd imagine they have some sort of magical F1 voodoo that I don't understand to make that work, but as I understand it if you get rid of the throttle plate then you still must control airflow into the engine some way (by altering duration, etc.). How are they doing it? I'm intrigued.

I figure if you're trying to not see F1 results, you're not coming in this thread anyway, sooooo... spoiler alert!

K.E.R.S and new teams and active wings...oh my. Kinda surprised, Petrov had a nice finish. So did the rookie Perez.

Great race! I really enjoyed that. I agree that the adjustable rear wing and KERS really worked in my opinion. It was just about right in that it helped, but also did not let the overtaking car easily overtake the lead car on the front straight. The overtaking driver still had to work at it.

So the deal as I understand it is they are keeping the throttle open at 90%+ all of the time and controlling power with fuel and spark presumably with a throttle-by-wire type approach. The idea is to maintain a high flow rate through the exhaust so that the (exhaust) blown diffuser can continue to work when the engine is not making lots of power, like through a corner. That is the Achilles heel of typical blown diffusers. They lose effectiveness when the throttle is lifted apparently to the point of being dangerous.

Diesel engines do not have throttles. Power is regulated by controlling the amount of fuel injected.

This sort of technology is why I love F1 so much. It is phenomenal really. Those cars are so incredibly fast through the corners. You can tell just by watching their in-car videos compared to just about any other race car's in-car video.

YES I saw that in the Racecar Engineering article. Very interesting. I wonder if they are doing it for cosmetics just to have a completely different look from the Bridgestones? Or maybe it is to improve airflow over the sidewall? Or maybe it is the result of some trick technology they use in the molding process? I will have to go back and look if it is discussed in that article.