F1 2009 Season discussion/development thread

NathanE said:
Nodirection you aren't allowed to post comments as outspoken as that... see a few posts earlier... :p
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Cmon lets turn this into a fickle argument :)

On a more boring note, i'll be doing my best to try and head up again Monday or Tuesday to Jerez and see what the ska is.
 
Yet another track where everyone follows the car in front. There's only really one place to overtake on that track (new French track). Come to that Donington won't be much better.
 
Duke said:
Well, it was the track site reporters at the test which were saying that [Heikki lifting on the straights], I guess we will never know really.
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The reporters were probably McLaren fans who didnt like seeing their team fall so far behind the leading car(s).

Nodirection said:
It is illogical for Macca to sandbag at this stage, and to be fair they aren't a ridiculous amount behind, and have been (unsteadily) reducing the gap between them and everyone else*
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I disagree with the part in bold.

Throughout this week, McLaren have consistently been far behind. On the final day, Hamilton finished almost 2s behind the leading car. Based purely on this test (as we have no other data to make comparisons), I would say they are behind by a substantial margin. If they went a full race distance dropping 2s/lap to the leader, Hamilton would get lapped!

I do agree though, that they aren't sandbagging as it serves no purpose whatsoever. Especially when you are so far behind the frontrunning car.
 
Austria was awesome, no track provided as much overtaking as that and it was a Tilke track.

It's pretty obvious it's been the cars rather than the tracks that have hindered over taking.
 
dannyjo22 said:
Austria was awesome, no track provided as much overtaking as that and it was a Tilke track.

It's pretty obvious it's been the cars rather than the tracks that have hindered over taking.
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Possibly safety regulations have also hindered the building of good tracks?

Both the tracks and the cars are to blame for a lack of overtaking. The likes of Monaco, there aren't many overtaking opportunities even if the cars were fast enough to do so
 
sunama said:
Care to mention them? I'm itching to break down each reason you give. ;)
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Could be some sort of testing of airflow or cooling or any other number of highly technical things. Also it might not serves McLaren's testing objectives to set a fast time and they might only need to gather data from other areas. It could also be to hide the pace of the car, though I don't think that is the case. You seem to think F1 drivers ego extents into testing and they must be fastest at all times, I think this is the case when its a Grand Prix weekend and not in testing, to most drivers.

sunama said:
Indeed. That is why I stated that you wouldnt do that if you had access to legal car parts - in McLaren's case, they didnt. The debate was about BrawnGP running an illegal car, even though they didnt need to.
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Why do you say McLaren hadn't had access to a legal rear wing, they were switching between the '09 and '08 rear wings on regular bases. I'm sure the launch pics of the McLaren show a 09 rear wing. And again we don't know why McLaren ran an 08 rear wing, but I assure you it was more significant than you believe and was defintley not because they couldn't run an 09 rear wing.

I didn't get involved in the Brawn car debate because I don't have any information whether they were running with the required wieght or not, I doubt anyone other than Brawn GP team +/- a few experts know that.

I'm also interested in your F1 expierence, as you seem to regard yourself as an expert?
 
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sunama said:
I disagree with the part in bold.

Throughout this week, McLaren have consistently been far behind. On the final day, Hamilton finished almost 2s behind the leading car. Based purely on this test (as we have no other data to make comparisons), I would say they are behind by a substantial margin. If they went a full race distance dropping 2s/lap to the leader, Hamilton would get lapped!

I do agree though, that they aren't sandbagging as it serves no purpose whatsoever. Especially when you are so far behind the frontrunning car.
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Looking at the times though there are several 'bunches' of drivers/teams that are worth looking at:

Barrichello did a 1:18.9xx which is stunningly quick, it was definately a qually run but assuming that was a legal car that's damn good

Next with Rosberg and Glock, close-ish to each other but 8 tenths behind Barrichello and half a second ahead of Vettel,

Next up you've got half a second covering Vettel to Fisichella, 7 drivers/teams, of which Hamilton is 5th, only 3 tenths behind Vettel, and those 3 tenth's include the cars/drivers that most people, you included, are tipping to be championship contenders, namely Alonso, Massa, Kubica and possibly Vettel.

So yes the McLaren is slowl, but to say it's 2s per lap off the pace (eg an utterly huge gap) isn't quite looking at the whole picture, if they were 2 seconds a lap off the pace over the whole race then they won't be alone and that BrawnGP car is gonna win the drivers and constructors championships with ease :p (only question then would be Button or Barrichello? :p)
 
Over Clocker said:
Why does everyone get Tilke to design the tracks, pretty much every track he's done in the last few years has been crap!!
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Mostly that's not his fault, the FIA track design safety regulations are so stringent and detailed (prescribing maximum camber etc) that it's almost impossible to design an exciting track.
 
Atleast if Button does have a run at the title while the mclaren gets to flounder at the back, the attention will switch from Lewis dad back to jensons ;)
 
The best tracks for me will always be those that have evolved over time from basic road way back when. The tracks that have kept there charm and there interesting features, like Spa. Yes they are still cutting out the good bits on safety grounds, but the fact is, no1 in there right minds would build Spa as it is now if it were a new track. Something with corners like that, that is that long, and completely in the middle of nowhere, it just wouldnt happen. All new tracks are similar, and restricted, and It pains me to see the old tracks being ditched and replaced with newly build pancake tracks or boring street tracks... :( I mean, I watched the A1 GP at Kyalami (or however its spelt), that track looks great fun, ups and downs and flowing corners galoor, but F1 ditched that years ago...
 
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