Soldato
Oh dear. What awful noise. Cringe.
Malaysian Grand Prix 2015, Kuala Lumpur - Race 2/19
- Thread starter Shimmy
- Start date
Associate
I'm sure FOM is ecstatic to hear of Jennifer Becks' pending return to the paddock. 
I'm sure FOM is ecstatic to hear of Jennifer Becks' pending return to the paddock.
It's the only plus to Sutil to returning.
Soldato
Don't Williams already have 2 additional drivers in Alex Lynn and Susie Wolff? Can't understand the need for Sutil, obviously don't have much faith in their current reserves.
Soldato
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- 7 Feb 2011
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It'll get even more fascinating once Alonso gets into the car and starts thinking it's 2001 and he's driving for Minardi.
Man of Honour
More inclined to believe the driver when theres a car issue. Also doesn't seem surprising that McLaren would try to deflect issues away from the cars fault.
Soldato
I thought that the only reason McLaren said it wasn't a problem with the car was because they didn't have any data from the steering, not that they were trying to cover anything up.
Soldato
They should have data from any steering input though and various other sensors around the car that tell them what it was doing. Good work Alonso, already calling your team and teammate a liar. No wonder Ferrari were so happy to see him go and have improved since then...
Caporegime
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- 18 Oct 2002
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Sutil is a giagantic ****. He crashes more than Maldonado, he crashes more than almost anyone else. He constantly ruins peoples races but hitting people, holding people up or generally being a ****. He also got all uppity at his friend Hamilton because he wouldn't appear in court and lie for him after he assaulted someone in a club, something had he not been rich and famous he would have and deserved to do jail time for. Of all the drivers around he is the most entitled and awful driver on the grid. Fast but dangerous shouldn't put you on the track and he's not even very fast.
Maldonado and Grosjean are almost as bad crash wise, I don't think either deserve a seat although Grosjean being younger maybe has time to prove he can have a season without hitting everyone(last year doesn't really count as they weren't fast enough to get tangled up with people).
There have been plenty of bad pay drivers, Chilton showed no pace, no real quality but he had money, helped a team run and didn't hit everything that moved. Sutil/Maldonado should have been shown the door years ago regardless of how much money they could bring. What I don't understand is why Maldonado gets big backing sponsorship wise, he's seen as a joke and an embarrassment is that value for money sponsorship wise? Can't their money just buy a sponsorship on any team they want without involving Maldonado or giving him any money?
Maldonado and Grosjean are almost as bad crash wise, I don't think either deserve a seat although Grosjean being younger maybe has time to prove he can have a season without hitting everyone(last year doesn't really count as they weren't fast enough to get tangled up with people).
There have been plenty of bad pay drivers, Chilton showed no pace, no real quality but he had money, helped a team run and didn't hit everything that moved. Sutil/Maldonado should have been shown the door years ago regardless of how much money they could bring. What I don't understand is why Maldonado gets big backing sponsorship wise, he's seen as a joke and an embarrassment is that value for money sponsorship wise? Can't their money just buy a sponsorship on any team they want without involving Maldonado or giving him any money?
Caporegime
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- 18 Oct 2002
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Maybe the most important part of the press conference was where Alonso seemed to say they had a bunch of changes on the steering rack and maybe steering wheel just for Alonso that he asked for when he joined. He said they had since gone back to the standard layout that had been used for a couple of years.
As lots of people said at the time, it was an odd crash, there was no reason for Alonso to just steer into the wall, the data suggested little to no braking or steering after he got down to 3rd gear, he didn't try to steer away from the wall. There were always two options to those not blinded by well Ron speak and fanboyism. Either Alonso was unconscious and couldn't steer away from the wall or the car failed and prevented Alonso from steering away from the wall. The latter seems the most likely. The only thing we now really don't know is did the failure come because Alonso was being a fussy and demanding his own parts which didn't work well, did a part on the Mclaren that is common to both fail which could potentially happen again, or was it a freak failure of something much like Hamilton's spark plug, where 1 in a million fail with little way to predict or avoid the failure.
Custom parts on Alonso's seems fairly strange and would be effectively new to the Mclaren and they've gone back to the standard parts. Points to the non normal part failing or just they hope/assumed it was one of those parts that failed.
The whole custom steering parts for Alonso has horrible echoes of the whole steering column thing with Senna at Williams in 1994 
It is a very odd situation. If Alonso's comments are to be believed, then my guess would be that the power steering failed and/or went haywire and ignored or even worse overrode his steering inputs.
It is a very odd situation. If Alonso's comments are to be believed, then my guess would be that the power steering failed and/or went haywire and ignored or even worse overrode his steering inputs.
Maldonado is Venezuelan and is sponsored by the state owned oil company PDVSA. Seems obvious to me why he has such wealthy sponsorship. I'm sure Williams got somewhere in the region of $29 million when he was there in 2012. A team like Lotus would be daft to turn that down.
Link. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5H2Hvttw9Bg/TzJJibJ9ICI/AAAAAAAAB1U/j6wwymKUE-k/s1600/maldonado-2012.png
Soldato
The high tech world of F1 and it all comes down to a sanitary towel.
To be fair he does suffer from excessive sweating while racing. I guess you just gotta do what you gotta do to make the best of it.
Sounds pretty smart actually, a lot of money and research has gone into making them as absorbent as possible. Should do the trick nicely.
Was quite a funny reveal though, almost as if he was punking the interviewer.
Caporegime
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I know, my point was what does Maldonado provide for that money to PDVSA that they couldn't get by directly sponsoring the team, without paying Maldonado at all? If he was genuinely good it would be positive to effectively give him a big wage and back him to get him a drive but he doesn't. He's widely hated, crashes constantly and makes a **** of himself constantly. Ultimately they can get PDVSA written all over Williams or now Lotus without paying or having Maldonado there at all.
He's Venezuelan but brings negative press to the name more than he brings positive press. The logo could be all over the car regardless of Maldonado's involvement. I can understand giving him a shot and backing him for a time if he looked like he had potential as a young driver but for years it's been clear he's a complete ****.
Soldato
Let me know what time you get on the simulator.Heading down to Williams HQ with a mate to see this one
Come on Williams!
Don
If I have a go! What track did you go on?
Soldato
Its a custom track from what I remember. You start off going down a good size start finish straight into a left hander with a bit of a high speed chicane in it. I can't remember the rest of the lap after that. I could type out what I think I remember, but it would probably be wrong.
Its a good flowing lap though, I remember that.
Its a good flowing lap though, I remember that.