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.

Enjoyed staying up late to watch the race. Lewis had more pace than I had given him credit for. Way to Go Petrov.

Regarding the engine mapping for the blown diffuser:

They way I understand it is that they still use throttle plates but they only account for about 10% flow change.

The idea is to constantly pump air through the engine, but simply not ignite it when off throttle.

I believe they are using valve overlap and highly retarted ignition when under braking. The effect is that the engine allows almost the same mass of intake charge though to the exhaust but it doesn't create any HP from it. Instead the pumping losses are used as engine braking and to recharge the KERS.

BTW, for sometime just taking your foot off the go pedal in F1 would create something like 2g of braking....the brake pedal force is high because the driver can put 2x body weight on his left foot just by lifting the right one off the gas pedal.

Agreed. Can a moderator identify this as a spoiler thread in the title for those who come in here unawares? I know better but others may not.

Not my section, sorry.

Who's going to use this throttle technology with an MS? Anyone? Sounds baffling.

ZX, if you look at the shot they showed of I believe Vettel's tire from practice (could've been qualifying) where he took a huge chunk out of the tire, you can almost see a second skin underneath. Like they're using the exact same barrel for all tires, then putting a different compounds over it.

It's such a shame about Kubica, he could have really dominated. Although I'm not sure the margin between the two would be the same as last year, if Kubica was racing now.

The technology is just blowing my mind. Last year I couldn't hear the weird exhaust tones they kept talking about, couldn't see the front wings moving, and in 2009 I couldn't tell any difference with cars on KERS. Now everything is just so pronounced and obvious, it's thrilling. All but KERS though, only noticeable in combination with the right driver and DRS.

Other thoughts? Red Bull's dominance without KERS, and HRT's absence.

Well yeah, but that's a Diesel. :) Thanks for the clarification man. That sort of thing is why I love this sport!

The way RedBull was being with their KERS (Interviewer: Are they using it? RedBull: Maybe... Maybe not.)

That answer makes me think maybe they were using KERS but the thing that tells everyone else if and when they were using it was disconnected.

I think that is a fairly standard construction technique. The tires are built up in layers including an inner bladder. They then get vulcanized together but there could still be relatively weak bonds between layers especially if the inner bladder layer has a separate set of cords.

I've seen tires chunk before and they do the same thing. The entire outer layer with the tread can separate and the inner bladder still holds air. However I am not sure if I ever saw that with the Bridgestones.

I wonder what the failure mode was with the Michelin tires in the F1 US GP debacle.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/270320...bull-kers.html

It looks like Redbull is not running KERS...I HATE hybrids. lol

Can you say Ferrari 10x in a row with out stuttering, its a freaking tongue twister

Another good race today! Malaysian GP.

Anybody have a clue to what this big announcement about Austin will be on Tuesday?

No idea. I was going to ask the same question. I could guess but I'll wait. SpeedTV was hyping it a lot but it is in their interest to do so. Best guess, MotoGP is coming.

Hopefully AI running a support race. I know our new leader is talking to Tavo Hellmund about it.

Good race, albeit a little boring. Anyone who wises to challenge Vettel needs to do it in the first corner of the race. Go for the pass, even if it means taking him out. As soon as that 2-3 second lead is established, which is now by the end of the FIRST lap, it's done for without mistakes or breakdowns.

I find a good way to make f1 not boring is to pay attention to the mid pack cars. the BBC guys do this well with updates on lap times and pit stops. For example, this race was boring up front, but there was tons of action 2-10th.

How are you getting the BBC coverage?

teh torrentz!

Watching a different set of cars does not create more crashes.

jk.

not really.

I know the mid pack can be a little more exciting, but part of what I love about F1 is the announcers. Judging from my hobbies, I should absolutely love MotoGP. I've watched all of 5ish races in my life, it's just not interesting. The SPEED announcers make F1 really fun to watch, unfortunately they have their limits in making something boring interesting.

There is something to this. Since BBC is doing F1 in merry 'ol England again (ITV sucked!) Martin Brundle, an old driver, is one of the announcers along with David Coulthard. Listening to two ex-drivers call the race helps to make it more exciting.

Fuck fucking Vettel. I love rooting for the underdog, and I rooted for him last year, but he is no longer the underdog. Yet EVERYTHING went his way this weekend despite making the wrong choice on tire strategy. He should NOT have won. Utter BS, I wanted to see that fight come to fruition.

He got away so easy there. That crash could not have come at a more fortunate moment for him. So the plot thickens :jerkit:

Can't wait to watch Monaco. Haven't seen Spain yet. :)

My dad is awesome. Records the races and sends them to me. I rip them and send them to the only other person in Afghanistan I know who gives a crap about F1.. lol.

I'm just glad the RBR guys kept their cars separate in Turkey..

The Monaco race is definitely worth watching. No spoilers yet. I watched it early this morning on speed.

One thing will say about the Monaco race is I want to make sweet love to the two women that stood on either side of Prince Albert on the 'podium' or red carpet.

Charlene Wittstock
http://royalweddings.hellomagazine.c...arlene-1-z.jpg

Charlotte Casiraghi
http://charlottemaripomeline.web-log...in_paris_3.jpg

consider the alternatives:
Hamilton: I get rich and famous, leave my GF of many years for "pussy cat doll trash", I also drive like a bitch when I'm mid-pack.
Alonso: I'm a ****** and never won a protest any and everything, although I am a stellar driver.

I want to see Lotus/Renault take over some points and really want to see Barichello go to a good team. He must be the most cheated man in F1.

Hahahaha, I just saw Vettel spray the Royal Guard. lolol

fixed

Poor Barichello. On the other hand he has been able to compete in F1 cars since 1993 so his life could be worse. But more importantly, he currently has the top time on the Top Gear F1 drivers board, including beating the Stig.