F1

[Pete.M]

Bizarre end to the qualifying session. Kinda gutted, wanted Lewis to be on pole.

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

Hopefully Lewis being in 6th will make for a slightly more interesting race...

[JJ Leigh]

To me f1 isnt proper racing, you cant overtake team mates, so its more like follow the leader for some drivers, hence why f1 drivers leave f1 but still race other things. anyone else see that?

[JD™]

No.

I could elaborate, but you've already made up your mind, and that's fine.

[Mark W]

Another weekend, another 0.5-1sec slower pit stop for Hamilton compared to Rosberg...

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

Looking good for Lewis now though... Currently hoping for Alonso and Vettel to take each other out to huge applause from the Silverstone crowd.

[Mark W]

Can't believe the bitching going on on their team radio - would be kind of surprised if there's no investigation into some of their driving though (mainly the track limits shit).

Glad Lewis won though, especially with Nico retiring. Spices the championship up a bit more...

[Pete.M]

Didn't see that coming. As you say, great for the championship battle.

[JD™]

Real shame for Button though, although I feel he didn't really push early enough...

[Mark W]

Posted this in The Car Thread but I guess it belongs here really:

Lotus have been trying some 18" Pirelli setup:

Looks pretty fruity. Pirelli have done a little promo video for them too:

Also, some dodgy shit going on by the FIA (presumably because Mercedes have been a bit too good, and Vettel isn't doing as well as Ecclestone would no doubt like...):

Today, the FIA have written to the Formula 1 teams informing them they believe that a number of the (FRIC) Front-and-Rear-Interconnected-Suspension systems may be illegal.

Charlie Whiting issued a technical directive today stating. “Having now seen and studied nearly every current design of front-to-rear linked suspension system, as well as reviewing future developments some teams have shared with us, we are firmly of the view that the legality of all such systems could be called into question, particularly with respect to compliance with Article 3.15 of the F1 Technical Regulations.

As these systems, in one form or another, have been in use for some time we are inclined to permit their continued use for the remainder of the current season, however, we feel we would need the agreement of all participating teams to take this approach. We would therefore be very grateful if you could indicate whether you may be in a position to agree with such an approach.

Failing this, we would have to consider making a report to the stewards about the non-compliance of any car fitted with a system which appears to allow the response of the suspension at either or both of the rear corners to drive the response of the suspension at either or both of the front corners (or vice versa).”

Article 3.15 is being cited as the regulation in question. It makes illegal any part of the car that influences the aerodynamics that is not “rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car.”

Indeed as Charlie states, FRIC systems have been in existence for some time. Adrian Newey had a form of FRIC in use back in the day at Leyton House back in the early nineties. More recent iterations are credited to Renault in 2008, and Aldo Costa is believed to have masterminded the Mercedes system, which has been under development for some years.

Put simply, this system links the front and rear suspension to maintain a constant ride height and reduce pitch and roll.

Under Ross Brawn, Mercedes took FRIC to a whole new level, such that a TJ13 article in December 2012 described the system as akin in its advancement to “spaceship technology”. At the time Mercedes were under performing badly and one commentator quipped that ‘no trophies were being awarded for space ship racing’.

Scarbs revealed to TJ13 in the past few minutes that all the teams have some form of FRIC system, though behind Mercedes…. Lotus, Ferrari, Red Bull and Marrusia have the most developed mechanisms.

Whilst Whiting does state, “all such systems COULD be called into question,” clearly one team has a lot more to lose with an interuptus to the status quo. Mercedes.

The biggest effect of losing FRIC will be that ride heights would increase with a subsequent loss of down force.

The shocking part of today’s communication is that the FIA have challenged the teams to make a unanimous decision; to in effect decide upon a regulation allowing FRIC to the end of the year. Failure to do so will mean the consequence will be one team’s suspension system will be open to protest from another in Hockenheim.

When were the F1 teams in unanimous agreement over anything? And surely at least one team with a relatively basic system will seek to leverage their position over this.

The timing given for compliance gives this technical directive the appearance of being a political act – and the evidence for that is in the timings allowed for teams to comply. The Renault teams who were drilling into the fuel flow sensor earlier this year, were given several weeks to desist and then use only unmodified versions of the sensor. A fairly simple process.

There is less than two weeks to Hockenheim and the ramifications could be enormous.

Let’s speculate a little….

Charlie Whiting has been a close friend and supporter of Ecclestone for many years, harking back to the days of Brabham.

To suggest Ecclestone and Stuttgart are not exactly on the best of terms, would be the understatement of the millennium.

One of Max Moselys’s last acts as president of the FIA (at Bernie’s behest) gave Charlie a long contract as Formula One Race Director, Safety Delegate, Permanent Starter and head of the F1 Technical Department – just before he handed the reigns over to Todt.

Todt was not amused to have Bernie’s pal practically running F1 from the FIA’s perspective.

The fact that Whiting’s contract is shortly up for renewal by Todt is impossible to ignore.

As an attempt to cause deep division between Mercedes and F1 this could easily be viewed as resembling some sort of scorched earth policy one would associate with none other than Ecclestone himself.

Of course other conspiracy theories are possible as to why this bizarre technical directive has been issued, and why particularly now.

That quote is taken from TheJudge13.com in case anyone wanted to read more.

[AndrewEH1]

New wheels look terrible...

[Mark W]

Bit more on the FRIC ban: http://m.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114890/analysis-the-implications-of-a-fric-ban

[Tom Booth]

Vettel is a racer, through and through.

Senna and Prost were no different, still two of the best drivers in history. Senna was infamous for throwing his toys out the pram, refusing to race and causing people to change legislation, rulings, team orders and structure for him. He also happened to always have one of the best cars on the field.

High horses and all that jazz, but I don't see how Vettel is any different to any world class top performing sportsman.

I'll agree with Prost, but Ayrton is a different kettle of fish.

Ayrton delivered when he didn't have the tools for the job. Look at his results in the toleman years, catching Prost in the rain who had a far superior car. Even in his practice years he was quicker then Mansell and Prost! His lotus driving was some of the best racing ever in my opinion, he dominated in the mclaren but lost his flare.

He spat his dummy out due to the constant shit from Balestre. Which I can't fault him for. If I was the best in my field and weren't rewarded or appreciated for it and just faced bullshit at every turn I'd wonder why I bothered too.

Prost on the other hand was a mardy Frenchman who was lucky. When he weren't winning it was Ayrtons fault, tyre problems, car problems (hence why ferrari sacked him of LOOOOOOOL.)

To compare Prost and Vettel is bang on, to compare those to senna is nonsense.

[TOMTRIALS123]

^^^ I agree

for those who don't just watch the documentary 'Senna'

[Mark W]

Favourite thing about Vettel this year is how Horner was sucking him off the whole time going on about how "quickly he picks things up" and about how he can learn to deal with the car no matter what, yet he hasn't been able to deal with the lack of their blown diffuser at all. He might have been "quick to learn" to deliberately drive 'badly' (which is essentially what he had to do to get the blown diffuser to work it's best - accelerating really hard really early in corners because it generated more downforce which in turn gave more grip), but now that they've lost that massive advantage and he's having to control the car with more finesse he appears to be coming undone.

He's been unlucky during races, but Ricciardo's outqualified him 6-3 and despite Red Bull sacrificing his podium finish in Australia just to try and prove a point to the FIA, Ricciardo's still raping him in the championship.

[Mark W]

First 15 laps of this race - daaaaaamn son.

[HippY]

New wheels look terrible...

since there are penises on front of several cars, I would say that if they get better performance then go ahead

[Mark W]

TEAM RADIO

Lewis Hamilton's team engineer: "We need to go to menu magic for pit stop." Hamilton: "I have never heard of that switch."

Had to happen sooner or later with the amount of shit they've got going on...

[Mark W]

That race. Holy shit.

[JD™]

Yep.

[Mark W]

"Why isn't he letting me past?"

Because you're a second behind him, dipshit.

[bing]

"Why isn't he letting me past?"

"Because we've just had 4 years of a smug German fanny, and we don't want another load" should have been the answer

[wilf]

Bloody square head.

[Tom Booth]

That was beautiful. Hamiltons last defensive was perfection.

[Mark W]

I watched the whole race live - for the last 10 laps it was horrible just seeing how fast Rosberg was closing, how much Alonso/Hamilton/Ricciardo were holding each other up and so on. Some tense shit! Was so glad that he managed to hold Rosberg off though, especially squeezing him out like that. I kind of assumed Rosberg would be crying about that but it seems like he's saving that for the de-briefing this time rather than doing it more publicly.

Niki Lauda has come out and said they shouldn't have issued that team order to Hamilton, incidentally. No shit.