F1 2011 season news / pre-season updates

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Ceryndrion said:
From what I understand, Petrov is on a very short leash at renault, enough that according to my semi-inside source, if he makes a pigs ear of things early on, then Jérôme d'Ambrosio is likely to jump from Virgin to replace him (apparantly 'Custard' as he is known, has been on the renault radar for a while now).
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I think Petrov has a new 2 year contract because of the money he brought in, though not sure if that is confirmed.
 
robbiemc said:
Rosberg commented that he (and others) weren't too happy about the movable rear wing.
He mentioned that it was controlled via a button, but was unhappy at the ramifications of the button not working as you enter a corner (and chucking you off due to reduced rear downforce), and also mentioned the unknown 'lag' of pushing the button and waiting for the wing to then move.

I can see this all ending in tears when a wing fails to move which results in a heavy accident :(
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"Williams technical director Sam Michael, meanwhile, made an interesting comment on the time taken to activate the adjustable rear wing, “With a hydraulic system, we’re down to a few milliseconds to activate,” he said. “When the driver comes off the button or applies the brakes it returns to the high downforce position. While testing the system in the simulator, we asked the driver to hold the button down and allow the system to automatically bring it back when applying the brakes, but there were certain situations where you want the driver to bring it back before he touches the brakes.”"

(Taken from http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/02/valencia-test-day-2-ferrari-and-alonso-step-up/ )

Sounds like the 'lag' is a known quantity that can be driven round pretty easily.
 
Tweaker said:
I think Petrov has a new 2 year contract because of the money he brought in, though not sure if that is confirmed.
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Yes, Petrov has a 2 year contract, but from what I remember, there are a lot of conditions on it regarding his conduct and performance, and it really wouldn't be the first time that a driver has been dropped for being useless.. But, as I said, its only what I have been told by a source of mine.
 
Dutch Guy said:
If the wing takes some time to return just release the button a little earlier, bunch of whining girlies
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Awwww...if only it was that easy.

I suppose drivers should come off the throttle a little earlier too.
While we are at it, during an overtake, the driver should also brake a little earlier too.

People are making out that pressing buttons is as easy as pie. Pressing buttons is easy, but getting the timing right is not.

Just as pressing and releasing a brake/throttle pedal is easy, its the timing of the press that makes a lap time fast/slow.

When you increase the number of things a driver needs to do during the course of a lap (or corner), then mistakes can happen and this is where you lose time. For this reason, my belief is that the drivers who excel at multi-tasking are those who will do best. Hamilton seems the best at this. For whatever reason, he was the one driver who was able to extract the maximum out of his KERS than any other driver in 2009.

But, before we start arguing over this, lets just wait for the season to start. I'm sure that many teams will be making alterations to their systems and processes regarding the way that they work their KERS and rear wing buttons. Drivers will also need to get a hang of the use of these buttons, in live situations, so there may be a learning phase for a few races.
 
Why is it a bad thing that drivers who are good at doing lots of things at once are going to have a small advantage?

Each year the regulations change, and the drivers have to adapt. Its the same for everyone. If a change suits a drivers skill-set, then they will do well. If you take all the buttons away, the drivers without those skills will fair better.

The F1 champion each year is the driver who makes best use of the equipment available to him, and beats the other drivers.

I see this is as no different to (for example) changing the tyre supplier, one driver may find the Pirelli much suits his driving style better than others this year. Its F1, its sink or swim. Adopt/Adapt/Improve...
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
Why is it a bad thing that drivers who are good at doing lots of things at once are going to have a small advantage?

Each year the regulations change, and the drivers have to adapt. Its the same for everyone. If a change suits a drivers skill-set, then they will do well. If you take all the buttons away, the drivers without those skills will fair better.

The F1 champion each year is the driver who makes best use of the equipment available to him, and beats the other drivers.

I see this is as no different to (for example) changing the tyre supplier, one driver may find the Pirelli much suits his driving style better than others this year. Its F1, its sink or swim. Adopt/Adapt/Improve...
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Will it still be fair, when Lewis's car has the steering wheel replaced with a ps3 controller?
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
Why is it a bad thing that drivers who are good at doing lots of things at once are going to have a small advantage?
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I don't think anybody in this thread stated otherwise...did they?

The only people who have complained about having to do too many things in the cockpit are the drivers themselves.
 
Ceryndrion said:
Will it still be fair, when Lewis's car has the steering wheel replaced with a ps3 controller?
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If you look at the McLaren steering wheel, it has around the same amount of buttons as a PS3 controller, so in effect, what he has now is an old style steering wheel with a playstation controller attached to it.

And is it fair...yes. Because everybody else gets similar equipment.
 
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utajoker said:
The track designer?
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In an interviewer with Tilke, he stated that the new track designs are restricted by many safety rules. if track like Spa, Monza were being designed in 2011, they wouldn't pass the safety rules.

It would appear that Tilke is doing as a good a job as he can reasonably be expected to do.

In saying that, the 2 middle eastern tracks are terrible. The facilities though, are top notch.
 
sunama said:
How many buttons did he have in 2010.
And how many buttons does he have in 2011?
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I really doubt pushing one extra button is going to make a significant difference this year in who comes out on top.

Last year there was the operation of the F Duct to worry about, some drivers even had to do this whilst taking their hand fully of the steering wheel. This left the other hand to steer, control brake bias and any other settings on the wheel.

I'm sure drivers will cope fine.
 
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