F1 2010

[mrkrinkle]

I'm suprised nobody has made an F1 thread sooner than me.
Anyways, formula one in my opinion has gone to hell this season. With new teams joining and trying to build cars to comprete with Ferrari, merc, and red bull. Why the hell has the FIA allowed these newcomers into the sport? In this case you could have Shumy behind the wheel of a lotus and still run 10 seconds off the pace.
Its ridiculous. Formula one is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsports not a beginners series. Make the new teams run in gp2 or something.
On another note its amazing the new teams have come as far as they have with designing, building and racing the vehicles they have. And with such a small testing period.
It will be interesting to see how the new teams evolve and maybe by the end of the season they are competitive.

Anyways, share your opinions. I hope red bull tears a new asshole in Ferrari and merc this year.

[jungle]

what the hell is up w/ this weekend's race (China) not being shown?!?!?!
I try to get to the Masserati dealer, as they have open house during races.

[TJ914]

what the hell is up w/ this weekend's race (China) not being shown?!?!?!
I try to get to the Masserati dealer, as they have open house during races.

Its on at 1:00 pm on speed according to tvguide. The time difference probably makes for a really awkward live showing.

I missed Australia, which sounded entertaining, but Bahrain was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

I don't know if I even have a favorite team anymore, but it is nice to see someone out of the box like Red Bull hand it to the more established teams. It'll also be interesting to see how/if Schumacher rounds into form as the season goes along

[madeurotuner]

So far I am very disappointed in Red Bull's reliability... I really want to see Vettel win WDC.

[mimalmo]

If RBR has put the reliability issues behind them they will do extremely well this year.

[John2.0T]

looks like qualifying will be on "tonight" at 1am with formula 1 debrief at midnight.

race at 1:30 sunday AM

As far as the current state of F1, in my opinion its still very entertaining! There is a bit of a mix up with new teams and such, but all of the YOUNG talent is ridiculous.

I really like the changes that they made with the cars in the last 2 years. Trimming down the cars and throwing slicks back on really shows the driver skill and how they are fighting the car right on the edge.

[mrkrinkle]

Watching qualifying right now live on speed.

[mrkrinkle]

I think this season has much to offer. The only thing that doesn't make much sense to me is the no refueling during the race mixed with narrowing the front tires by I believe an inch. Wtf was the fia thinking? Let's add 400 lbs to the cars, and then limit mechanical grip...
Whatevs.

[mrkrinkle]

Just finished watching the Japanese grand prix.
Results were 1. Jensen Button 2. Lewis Hamilton 3. Nico Rosberg.

Lewis drove like an absolute madman, he made some rather bad moves one being passing Sebastian Vettel on the pit in, outside of the white lines. That was ridiculous and I was suprised that he wasn't penalized for that. After the tire change he drove on the inside of Vettel and touched wheels on the exit. He should of at least given a drive thru for that. He was wayy to aggressive. But the stewards thought different.
Definetly the most exiting race of the 2010 season by far due to the spontaneous rain. One lap it was raining, the next it was dry. In the first couple laps the field was going through intermediate tires in 2 laps. The last 40 or so laps were mildly wet.
My favorite part of the race was seeing Vitaly Petrov passing Shumy in the closing stint of the race. A rookie passing one of the greatest formula one drivers of all time. Especially in the wet where Shumy is one of the greatest wet drivers or all time. I think Petrov is the best rookie driver in F1 today.
Can't wait for Barcelona, should be a great race. Assuming the drivers/teams get home with the icelandic volcano eruption.

[joaquinggomez]

Fernando Alonso (ALO) FTW

[mrkrinkle]

Agreed. Not a big Ferrari fan myself but alonso can drive like nobody else. Did you catch the malaysian grand prix where this transmission would drop to neutral at every corner? He fought that car the whole race and almost podiumed. Too bad Ferrari motors blow this year! He's already on this 4th out of 8!

[TJ914]

I'm curious to see how Schumacher progresses now that they're headed back to Europe and will be on tracks he's more familiar with. I don't think he would have raced Bahrain and China before, and he had incidents outside of his control at Malaysia and Australia. That being said he got killed by his teammate in qualifying at all four places.

I think Lewis was lucky to get away with the pit entry pass...as a ruling on that could have easily gone either way.

[mrkrinkle]

I think shumy isn't happy with the car he's driving. He is an oversteer driver and the car he's in has a tendency to understeer. Confidence in your car has a huge effect on how well one performs. I would love to see him out perform everybody as he did with the v10 monsters. But 3 years can do a lot to a driver especially in formula 1.
Hamilton should have at least been given a drive thru if not black flagged for the pit in block and the exit block. The FIA has brought former formula 1, and DTM drivers in as the stewards this year and I would bet that if it was last year he would have been penalized. I think the reasoning behind his aggressive driving was a result of button getting the first win for the team. I've never been a fan of Hamilton. He is too cocky for my liking.

[colandr3]

Agreed. He's spoiled and still being behind button again has made being on the same circuit with him dangerous. He's so young and doesn't seem to have regard for the other drivers.

[mrkrinkle]

I think Hamilton was frustrated with china simply because he made an ass out of himself when he beached the car on the pit in his rookie year. He would have won the championship if it wasn't for that. Maybe he wanted some redemption? but that still doesn't excuse his aggressiveness. We still may hear of a fine or penalty come Barcelona.
I bet with the 3 week break the teams have had there will be huge developments with all teams especially the newer ones. I would love to see the newbs do well this week, but my money is on alonso for this week and a close red bull second. Alonso does excellent under pressure and has always done well at his homecoming.

[mrkrinkle]

Its onto Monaco. My favorite race next to spa. I was suprised to see mark webber on the pole. I was more inclined to see shumy or kubica as Monaco is %100 a drivers track but webber really proved himself with the pole lap, and after watching that lap I bet he could of pulled another tenth out of it. Anyways what a suprise to see alonso start from the pit after his crash in Saturdays practice. But what an amazing drive he has made. I'm currently watching the race (taped on my dvr as I don't wish to wake up at 630 am to watch a race) and alonso has made it from P24 to P6 in just 35 laps. That is unbelievable considering the last person to win Monaco from the pack was in the late 1970s and he won from gua start position of P4! As much as I dislike Ferrari as an F1 team, Alonso has my money for the 2010 championship. we'll see how he comes out. My guess is P5 since mclaren has just told Lewis Hamilton that he has exessive front brake wear.
On that note Lewis responded back after mclaren told him to change the brake bias to rear or look after the fronts with "we're nearly halfway through the race here, what the hell, do you want me to race these guys or look after the car?". Fuck Lewis Hamilton. That's racing, yeah there will be problems. It will not be perfect every race with every component that is given to you. Be a racing driver and cope with the cards that have been dealt. Ill step off my soapbox now.

Discuss.

[TJ914]

Yeah, I couldn't help but think the same thing about Hamilton. The announcers certainly didn't let it go either.

I was definitely happy to see Webber win it, he more than deserved the victory, especially in light of the number of safety cars that kept nullifying his leads.

Interesting conversation on Schumacher's last gasp pass of Alonso, which ended up costing him a 20 second penalty that dropped him out of the points. Sounds like there was a little more to it than Schumacher just being a bonehead...either way their argument about the rules didn't pan out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/05/why_schumacher_broke_the_rules.html

[famouSSTAR]

I dont think Bob really liked the way Hamilton was acting during the race. and he is right. hamilton is acting like a little bitch. glad to see Webber and Vettel get the 1-2.

[mrkrinkle]

double post

[mrkrinkle]

Formula one is coming back to the USA!! A permanent track that will have a 10 year contract with F1 has been approved to be built just outside of Austin Texas. Awesome. I cannot wait for this and I guarantee I will be at the first race at the proposed complex.

Anyways, onto the Turkish grand prix. This is prob the most useless complex in all of F1. It has some of the lowest attendance of any formula one race. Anyways, I quite like the track at this circut, excellent elevation change mixed with challenging corners. should be an interesting race. My predictions would be a Ferrari pole as they have updated their "f duct" that has a claimed .3 of a second advantage. I think red bull drivers vettel and webber will continue their dominance at this facility with a podium finish for both.
I also think Mercedes GP, and mclaren Mercedes have been so uncompetitive this year. They have been dominating in the last few years, why not 2010? Especially with 2 recent world champions behind the wheels.

[mrkrinkle]

This race was pretty intense. The red bull mclaren battle was classic. downforce vs speed is always a good bet. With the higher downfore redbulls vs the less downforce mclarens it was exciting, all up until vettel decided he would make a run on webber. I think webber could have given more room but I give the fault to vettel as he swerved right a bit (my guess to get out of the washboard area of that corner.) anyways exciting race. Montreal should be a wake up call for Ferrari and mclaren. I might be at this race, I'm not %100 sure yet. Its only 2 weeks away, but we'll see. I hate to miss E4...

[mimalmo]

Hamilton on the radio at the end of the race sounded like the biggest kissass. Sure, everyone thanks the team but the difference is that they sound genuine and Hamilton's comments sounded like he rehearsed them.

Oh and Vettel, WTF were you thinking??? Are you trying to throw away both the Driver's AND the Constructor's Championships? Stupid move of the year award.

[mrkrinkle]

Hamilton on the radio at the end of the race sounded like the biggest kissass. Sure, everyone thanks the team but the difference is that they sound genuine and Hamilton's comments sounded like he rehearsed them.

Oh and Vettel, WTF were you thinking??? Are you trying to throw away both the Driver's AND the Constructor's Championships? Stupid move of the year award.

I agree with the asskissing at the end of the race. I would like to hear the teams thoughts about that. I'm sure they all rolled their eyes.

vettel on the other hand handled the situation very professionally. Did you catch the shot of vettel and another team member walking into the teams trailer after the crash? 2 reporters pounced on him as vettel approached and the second team member shoved them aside quite aggressively? That was awesome. I understand the reporters want to get an interview but vettel clearly didn't have any comment. Whatever, that's the media for ya.

Anyways, off to the canadian GP. I was going to go to this years race, but I couldn't miss E4 :D there's always next year! Besides the trip would have been about 3-4 grand round trip per person. So instead I bought myself a new clutch, sway bars, motor/tranny mounts, and rolled my fenders. I say its a fair trade!

I would like to see redbull step it up and take another 1 2 finish, but in formula one anything can happen as the last race proved. I have to mention the inner team rivalries, Hamilton against button, vettel against webber, massa against alonso, and the newest rivalry kubica against petrov. The 2010 season has been the best season I have seen in a long time. I hope it only gets better!

[mrkrinkle]

Is formula one dead now? Am I the only person who follows this series?

[mrkrinkle]

That or I'm the only one whose smart enough to have a Dvr and record the races rather than watch them live.. Lawlz

Anyways, the past couple weeks have been pretty boring with the usual mclaren and red bull guys doing well. Wtf happened to Ferrari? I guess the amount of money they spend nowadays (all said and done 10 million a lap) isn't enough! Good, Skrew Ferrari. They're like the Yankees of formula one.

What's up with the red bull guys at eachothers throats? I mean come on, would you rather put both cars at risk of crashing out on the first corner than hopefully getting a 1 2 finish and make points for the team and drivers championship? If I was the team manager for red bull I would kick both guys in the nuts and take their egos with me. They have already hit eachother and crashed out, and this past week at silverstone they nearly did it again! Cmon red bull, show some team management and get these guys under control!

[mrkrinkle]

Right. So I skipped the last race as Ferrari dominated (BOO!) as red bull should have taken the win.. Is it just me or should Ferrari take a major penalty as they CLEARLY gave team orders to allow alonso to pass massa in the closing laps?! In the FIA rules NO team orders shall be given to pass another teammate. Wtf? Ferrari was once again given the benefit of doubt and not penalized. My guess is they paid off the dirty ass FIA with a bagillion dollars and then the FIA turned the other cheak.

Anyways, onto the Hungarian GP. Twas an exiting race, almost.. Vettel gave the race away.. Again, and webber capitalized on the opportunity, again.. I'm going to make a prediction now, honestly I would put money on it. Webber will be the 2010 formula one champion, by far as long as he drives the way he has done the last few races. Second coming to either vettel or alonso. In third coming to Hamilton or kubica.

The 2010 season has been extremely unpredictable. Is that a good thing? In my opinion, yes. Its what the FIA regulations have been striving to create with changes doing from slicks, rev restrictions, no refueling, arerodynamics, and so on..

[mrkrinkle]

Discuss..

[JPB]

I hope mark webber takes the whole shebang. He has been a journeyman and always a sideshow. I can'tstand his driving sometimes (reminds me of dirty schuey) But i am giving him the Coulthard/Rubens vote: git er dun, mock webba!

[mimalmo]

Let's see... front aero drama, team orders, Schumi nearly taking out his old teammate, lead changes for the constructor's championship...


At least its not a boring season.

[mrkrinkle]

Speaking of team orders.. What bullshit was that? I'm sure Ferrari didn't "order" massa to pull over and give the lead to alonso. I'm sure Ferrari has some special light, or "secret signal" to get around this rule. That or Ferrari has again been given special treatment from the FIA. I love how massa made it so obvious that he pulled aside to let alonso by. Classic.

On the front aero drama, I think ferrari and red bull's way around the new front wing is pure genious. Engineering a wing to purposefully flex at speed its awesome. Better than the "double diffuser" controversy. In formula one you need every advantage you can get. Can't wait to see what they think of next. Possibly some clever ride height adjustable suspension to compensate for the fuel?

[mimalmo]

http://content.topgear.com/Bernie.jpg

[bailey611]

one week to go ! :)