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Lotus also have RBR hydraulics!
F1 2011 season news / pre-season updates
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Lotus also have RBR hydraulics!
LOL. Where did this information come from? Do you have a link?
I think it was a joke, as the car is CFD designed, not conventionally windtunnel tested and modelled as most teams do.
Just kidding around
But they now have the biggest CFD capabilities of any team in F1, so they must have some serious computer power.
Associate
The majority of last season, if the 107% rule was in effect, the 3 new teams would have made the grid. If you can't make 107%, you don't deserve to be on the grid, and sponsors will drop you if you are that slow anyway. Imagine an average 90 second lap, you would have to be more than 6 seconds off the pace to fall foul of the 107% rule. You cannot possibly argue that a car more than 6 seconds off the pace on a 1:30 lap deserves to be on the grid.
How are the FIA making it impossible for new teams to move up the grid? All they are doing is making sure that the cars are doing a reasonable speed. If a car is as slow as 107%, it is ridiculously dangerous with the closing speeds the faster cars will be catching them at. If a team is that far off the pace, what do you suggest the FIA do to gain them a few seconds per lap?
I'm not quite sure on the last point what you're getting at, teams can run as many laps as they want in Practice sessions. They are just limited by tyres, 1 set of hards on friday morning (which last year could do a full 1 1/2 hour session anyway) and 1 set of each in the afternoon.
And yes, Testing starts next week at Valencia.
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Cruel. Very cruel.
Sponsors won't necessarily drop you if you run slow. They may re-negotiate their contract, but as long as the mobile advertising board (ie. F1 car) is circulating round a track and getting media coverage, the sponsor will be satisfied (bearing in mind that these are not BIG name sponsors). If the car doesn't make the 107% qualifying time, this would be grounds for a sponsor to drop out.
By not giving them any concessions in what they do with regards to testing.
When you have the likes of McLaren with a huge factory, which has all the bells and whistles, how can a small team expect to make up any ground? As the season progresses, they can only lose ground, unless the leading teams make a major screw-up with regards to the direction they choose to take, with regards to their development.
F1 is dangerous. In fact, F1 could be argued as being a little too safe. Drivers should have the skill and ability to navigate around the track and slower cars (of varying speeds). This is F1, not some novice learner series (though Webber would argue against this of course).
The new teams are given no advantage, during the race weekend. They could, for instance be allowed to run extra laps. Perhaps they could be allowed to run on the Thursday, to give them a little extra knowledge of the track, which would allow their drivers to drive the car a little faster in qualifying and in the race.
Even if the new teams ended up gaining an extra 1s/lap, the midfield teams are unlikely to be effected as the new teams are so far behind.
The top teams have sophisticated simulators. This allows drivers to get accustomed to the track before they take part in a GP and hit the ground running. Unfortunately, the smaller teams cannot afford to have these simulators, which puts them at a further disadvantage.
Unless you have a continuous drip of new teams entering the sport, we will never have any other team winning the titles/races apart from the established big teams. RBR (formerly Stewart GP, which debuted in 1997), was a new team. 13 years and a few owners later, they are now world Champions. This is what keeps the sport alive. The more competitors the better. In an ideal world we would have 30 cars competing for 26 places on the grid. This is healthy competition.
Associate
Paul Di Resta has officially got the Force India seat 
!!!
He will be partnering Sutil in 2011
Excellent to have a Scot in the field again! Look forward to his first victory!
http://twitter.com/F1Lite/statuses/30268918568321024
!!!He will be partnering Sutil in 2011
Excellent to have a Scot in the field again! Look forward to his first victory!
http://twitter.com/F1Lite/statuses/30268918568321024
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Soldato
On every aspect of F1 they make sure it is safe, HANS system, runoff areas, limiting engine power, pitlane speeds, no refuelling etc.
If you look at that it makes sense to have a 107% rule in place, last thing you want is teams using a GP for testing purposes by driving around very slowly, just imagine a top team encountering a slow team driving much slower just after the crest of Eau Rouge.
If you go back through the years in F1, I don't believe back markers and safety have ever been connected. The only time this happened was when Webber smashed into Heikki last year. This was down to lack of concentration and nothing else. The slower driver/car was not to blame. Note that no other driver in 2010 had a similar problem.
The new/slow teams need to have some form of facility which gives them an advantage and allows them to (unfairly) close the gap on the established teams. The established teams probably won't mind, as the new teams are so slow that even if they were given a 1s/lap advantage, they would probably still get beaten by the big teams, with ease.
With regards to the situation at Eau Rouge - this is the risk which any driver runs. In fact this would go for any blind corner. Those drivers with BIG BALLS (ie. Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve, Hamilton), can take advantage of this. By removing/reducing the element of danger, the advantage which can be gained by being courageous is being removed from the sport.
For me, the most exciting racing is when you see 2 cars, racing wheel to wheel and repeatedly swapping positions as they move through corners. The people who harp on about safety should perhaps ask that drivers not race eachother so closely, as it compromises safety and may lead to a crash.
Put it another way. Many people rate Senna as one of the greatest drivers of all time. Senna would have found it difficult to distinguish himself from the rest, had safety been as high on the agenda in 1988 as it is in 2010. IMO safety is being taken to ridiculous levels now. Senna was fast (not only because he was technically better than most), but also because he was prepared to take huge risks. On occassions when Mansell was prepared to take a huge risk, you would often see him beat, even Senna.
This is F1. Not some learner driver series. If you can't hack the speed. If you can't hack the danger. If you can't hack the possibility of a 200mph crash, stay out of F1. There are plenty of other (safer) racing formulae out there and those drivers can try those out. They will still earn themselves a fair packet.
The new/slow teams need to have some form of facility which gives them an advantage and allows them to (unfairly) close the gap on the established teams. The established teams probably won't mind, as the new teams are so slow that even if they were given a 1s/lap advantage, they would probably still get beaten by the big teams, with ease.
With regards to the situation at Eau Rouge - this is the risk which any driver runs. In fact this would go for any blind corner. Those drivers with BIG BALLS (ie. Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve, Hamilton), can take advantage of this. By removing/reducing the element of danger, the advantage which can be gained by being courageous is being removed from the sport.
For me, the most exciting racing is when you see 2 cars, racing wheel to wheel and repeatedly swapping positions as they move through corners. The people who harp on about safety should perhaps ask that drivers not race eachother so closely, as it compromises safety and may lead to a crash.
Put it another way. Many people rate Senna as one of the greatest drivers of all time. Senna would have found it difficult to distinguish himself from the rest, had safety been as high on the agenda in 1988 as it is in 2010. IMO safety is being taken to ridiculous levels now. Senna was fast (not only because he was technically better than most), but also because he was prepared to take huge risks. On occassions when Mansell was prepared to take a huge risk, you would often see him beat, even Senna.
This is F1. Not some learner driver series. If you can't hack the speed. If you can't hack the danger. If you can't hack the possibility of a 200mph crash, stay out of F1. There are plenty of other (safer) racing formulae out there and those drivers can try those out. They will still earn themselves a fair packet.
Associate
And how much media coverage do you think a car which is 6 seconds slower will get? It's not cruel, it's fact.
I'm not sure what you're suggesting here, maybe limiting the size of a factory a big team can use? Or maybe the FIA build all the new teams a McLaren sized factor to make it fair? What do you suggest they do?
Of course it is dangerous, but why make it more dangerous than it should be? Yes, the majority of drivers will be able to navigate their way around a slower car, but you are assuming that slower cars will always behave predictably, which is far from the case. With the closing speeds as they would be with a car slower than 107%, both cars have a split second decision of which way to go, they aren't going to get it right 100% of a the time, so why put drivers lifes in danger just to let a slow car circle round for nothing? What is a car gaining from circulating so slowly?
Sometimes I think you just argue for the sake of arguing, surely you can't believe some of the drivel you post? What you basically want is to cripple all of the top teams, just to make it fair? This is F1, it is the highest level of motorsport in the world, if you can not cut it in this sport, you should not have a spot on the grid.
Associate
"This is F1. Not some learner driver series. If you can't hack the speed. "
This is F1, not a learner team series. If you can not keep up, do something about it or give up.
Safety has nothing to do with the speed of a driver, just because a car is safer does not make it easier to drive, how can you say with any authority that Senna would not be as good in a safer car? What a lot of rubbish.
In regard to closing speeds and a car moving out the way I don't see it as any different to when cars are on an in lap after qualy, you don't see problems there
Also drivers will have their teams warn them about slower cars, you are not going to just suddenly arrive on top of a slower car, Webbers incident was an exception, nobody else has struggled
Also drivers will have their teams warn them about slower cars, you are not going to just suddenly arrive on top of a slower car, Webbers incident was an exception, nobody else has struggled
Soldato
That's because they drive off the racing line and are not racing so they are looking in their mirrors for faster cars.
Not always the case and the slower teams are going to warn their drivers of faster cars coming through
I know when I am racing and see a slow driver up ahead of me I have plenty of time to react and move around them, I know it isn't the same speed etc as F1 but I am sure all the drivers are capable of it
Paul Di Resta has officially got the Force India seat
He will be partnering Sutil in 2011
Excellent to have a Scot in the field again! Look forward to his first victory!
http://twitter.com/F1Lite/statuses/30268918568321024
Great news that, took him a while to get a seat so hope he makes the most of it. It is hard to judge how well the 2011 Force India car will be. I used to follow the team closely as Jordan and they weren't too shabby for the size of the team. They have just struggled like Williams being able to keep up recently.
Soldato
Happy for Paul Di Resta 
, Was realy hoping he'd get that seat. Hulkenburg has done well to get the reserve role aswell.
Fingers crossed Chandok gets in with Lotus!
, Was realy hoping he'd get that seat. Hulkenburg has done well to get the reserve role aswell.Fingers crossed Chandok gets in with Lotus!
Associate
Lotus's new steering wheel:
Click to enlarge
They have also added a video of the engine firing up for the first time on their facebook page. No visuals just audio.
http://www.facebook.com/TeamLotus
Click to enlarge
They have also added a video of the engine firing up for the first time on their facebook page. No visuals just audio.
http://www.facebook.com/TeamLotus
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Soldato
Just spotted the engine fire-up video on FB, sounds amazing 
One question I have is if anyone knew how the active rear-wing is controlled? I've heard that the drivers will be able to adjust it via a rotary control on the steering wheel. Similarly, I’ve also read that the angle is dependant on throttle position.
One question I have is if anyone knew how the active rear-wing is controlled? I've heard that the drivers will be able to adjust it via a rotary control on the steering wheel. Similarly, I’ve also read that the angle is dependant on throttle position.
Happy for Paul Di Resta
Fingers crossed Chandok gets in with Lotus!
Agreed with Chandock, i think this could be Trulli's last year in F1, making way for Chandok, like wise with Force India and Sutil, i think he will leave at the end of this year if he does well, giving Hulk a seat.
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