Japanese Grand Prix 2014, Suzuka - Race 15/19

which is a lot considering the relative performance of the car to others around them, they're probably the 5th or 6th fastest car at the moment... it's also under half what Jenson Button has in the same machinery.

Exactly.

So what if Kevin Magnusson is in his rookie year. Lewis Hamilton nearly won the WDC in his rookie year.

These are the best drivers in the world who have spent their entire lives karting/driving in formula series and driving competitively to beat other racers around them.

Kvyat is a rookie but he's been much more impressive than Magnusson and now got a seat at Red Bull for Heaven's sake.

I don't buy the "well he's a rookie he's allowed to be ****" theory one little bit.

You could also argue that Button isn't at his peak anymore so being almost double the amount of points ahead of Kevin is another massive slap in the face from that point of view. Even people on here brand him as "the old man" and "past it" yet for the past few years he's either matched his team mate or ruthlessly knocked these "golden kids" for six.
 
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Sat here wondering what was going off on the F1HD channel as there is no listings. Then a broadcast come on to say sorry and that it is because of a serious accident that happened today.

Just googling it now. Hope Jules pulls through :(
 
End of an era of that's true, I'm sure that's one of the longest, if not THE longest sponsorship deal in F1 history.

I want to say that they recently (i.e. in the last couple of years) got the record for the longest Motorsport sponsorship deal?

It was. Started in 1981. Longest continuous sponsorship of it's type iirc.

Turns out it was announced in July, and was pretty much ignored then. I just spotted this earlier.

http://instagram.com/p/tm5gT7r08X/
 
Hardly surprising, with Honda being the title sponsor or even more behind closed doors.

It's the maim reason they struggled to find a sponsor this year, everyone knew it was for one year, big sponsors are not interested in a one year deal.
 
Massa "screaming" for the race to be stopped..

Im "screaming" for him to be replaced at Williams.. idiot
Massa never had much bottle for the wet even before his accident (spinning like a washing machine at Silverstone, "Felipe baby stay cool" in Malaysia etc!). These days somewhat understandably he's always whining about danger the minute it gets a bit damp!

The conditions themselves weren't even that atrocious but a combination of drivers on worn inters and conditions changing to the cusp of wet/inter weather made for a dangerous mix.
 
How many vehicles are normally needed dotted around? Could Formula 1 have a load of attachable skirts they transport around (or a couple of sets for when flyaways send stuff by sea and all that).

There's probably 20 or 30 or so. They are also all different types at different tracks, and as has been said, often borrowed or hired.

I'm not saying its impossible, its just not as easy as just bolting some bits on due to it being, for the most part, out of the FIAs direct control. I think its something worth investigating however.
 
The same Jackie Stewart, the apparent driver safety advocate, who simply continued racing while another driver desperately and fruitlessly called on his peers to help save another from burning alive?

If you are referring to Rower Williamsons death at Zandvoort, the reasons for the drivers (not just Stewart) not stopping are well documented.
 
Keeping the loaders off track and using cranes to cherry pick a car up from behind barrier maybe? Tbh hitting a loader with a skirt on it would still be pretty serious.

yes, but less serious than going under it, that is the real danger and what maybe happened here, a car getting wedged underneath.

Think back to Silverstone, there was metal there but the danger was because one impact opened a hole, the next car may get wedged in it, with open cockpits any kind of car going through something like that can lead to heads coming off, literally.

Realistically it's again more about making an area safe. I'm about 98% certain that even if Bianchi went off and smashed into Sutil's car the damage/danger would have been a fraction of what has happened. The main difference is the momentum involved, Sutil's car wouldn't be so heavy it would just stop a car dead and both would have gone into the barriers absorbing much of the energy, a ridiculously heavy truck/tractor/whatever just stops a lightweight f1 car dead, no energy absorbed by materials that give way or attempt to deflect the impact to allow the car to bounce away, nothing. Hell, a huge heavy machine that stays behind the barriers with a winch that marshalls attach and simply drag the car around, may damage cars more but would be less dangerous.

The safety car is almost irrelevant, it wasn't 100% safe to leave Sutil's car there, but hitting Sutil's car vs hitting a JCB of any size or shape is night and day. Putting the JCB out without a safety car decreased safety massively in a known corner that is often a problem when it rains and at a time when rain was worsening, track was worsening you have the highest peak of aquaplaning and danger. Under those conditions the JCB, with skirting installed or not, should never ever have been out there.
 
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