Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Rossi seems better than either Manor driver with Stevens the worst out of all of them. Gutierrez, a Ferrari driver, has said he's got a big announcement coming up this weekend or next week. There is a lot of linking with the Merc test/young driver Werlein with Manor after the engine deal was done.

I suspect Guti will be announced for Haas with Ferrari basically putting him in the seat, Werlein and Rossi at Manor with a half decent engine.

Actually I hadn't really considered it before, aside from the Merc putting them much closer to the back of the second slowest team next year, if due to safety car, pit strategy or a good start(where speed/car don't count as much as luck of positioning/traffic through the first corner) while slow in the corners that Merc engine and little downforce down the straights could help them protect their position. I can't see them moving forwards but they might do a not bad job of keeping people behind them. If they get say into 15-18th off the start, cars like Sauber could have a tough time passing a Merc powered car.

Palmer, a bit disappointing, afaik he took four years to win GP2 and he's bankrolled by daddy dearest. He may have some talent and some pace but you look for young drivers who are blitzing GP2 as it shows their potential is high and they can learn quickly. If you're taking 4 years to master GP2 it doesn't scream that you're going to come into F1 and do anything special. Better than some choices for sure but I do think there are better options. I don't agree Vergne is one of those options as so many people seem to though. He got soundly beaten by Ricciardo in 2013 and Kvyat after a slow start in his rookie year took over as the much stronger qualifier from the 8th race till end of the season and they were fairly even in race finishes. Vergne lacks raw qualifying pace, something you tend to have or not when you show up. Race craft improves with experience where pace doesn't. Vergne was average in race craft and meh in qualifying, he wasn't improving nor looked anything remotely special.
 
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I'm glad for Palmer, like you guys say its good to see the GP2 > reserve > F1 route work and glad there'll be another Brit on the grid but I have to admit I was never hugely taken by him in GP2, I think there's better drivers who don't have a chance at a seat.
 
Not sure if it's been covered here, but Pirelli are introducing a new softer than Super Soft compound for next years' F1 season, currently dubbed 'Ultra Soft'.

This means a new colour which they're letting fans vote on, news story here: http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id...fan-vote-decide-ultra-soft-f1-compound-colour

I quite like the purple in the twitter post, but also thought a light blue/turquoise would stand out nicely :)

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Skeeter said:
Saying "maybe we might possibly think about considering it" is still a mile better than the complete disinterest they are showing now.

Mass car makers have zero interest in a turbo V6. I'm almost certain an I4 would have seen Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, and at least one or maybe 2 Japanese manufacturers and possibly VAG in F1 by now. It would definately not have been any worse than now because Ferrari were never going to leave. There was that Pure company too, although I'm not sure how serious they were.

I don't think F1 needed multiple engine formats to work, it just needed one that was vaugly relevant to the commercial interests of those making them. You can't pop to a dealer and buy an F1 car, its all about marketing by association, which is a billion times easier when the race car bears even the slimmest connection to your products.
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Using an inline four cylinder is actually not that easy. It was considered previously but discounted. At the moment the V6 is part of the car, a stressed member. The engine is attached to the readrof the tub and the gearbox attached to the engine. F1 has been like this since the late sixties or early seventies.

With an inline four there's nothing to connect the engine, tub and gearbox together. There's just not enough 'engine' to use it as the stressed member. This would necessitate some sort of frame or other contraption to allow the car to remain rigid. All the designers said it wouldn't be feasible and so when The engine spec was decided it was a V6.

I also heard talk of Bernie trying to bring in a 2.2 litre twin turbo V6 in time for the 2017 season and offering engines direct from him, built by either Cosworth or Ilmor.
 
MissChief said:
Using an inline four cylinder is actually not that easy. It was considered previously but discounted. At the moment the V6 is part of the car, a stressed member. The engine is attached to the readrof the tub and the gearbox attached to the engine. F1 has been like this since the late sixties or early seventies.

With an inline four there's nothing to connect the engine, tub and gearbox together. There's just not enough 'engine' to use it as the stressed member. This would necessitate some sort of frame or other contraption to allow the car to remain rigid. All the designers said it wouldn't be feasible and so when The engine spec was decided it was a V6.

I also heard talk of Bernie trying to bring in a 2.2 litre twin turbo V6 in time for the 2017 season and offering engines direct from him, built by either Cosworth or Ilmor.
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That's the Tosh that was wheeled out as an excuse, but its rubbish. So what if it needed a frame? Build one.

The rules were published as an inline 4. They were then changed after complaints from Ferrari and Mercedes as they have no interest in making that format of engine. Mercedes were already well into R&D for the I4 before it was changed, and that Pure company had started up with plans in progress for an I4.

There was no technical barrier to the 4 cylinder, there were political barriers.
 
Haas guy just said they are announcing second Haas driver at Mexico City and also said you can guess what that means. So Gutierrez confirmed as Haas driver.

Pretty much every team finished off except Manor now. Actually I'm not entirely sure what the Ericsson and Nasr deal is, are they confirmed for next year yet?
 
Yeah a bit lol.

I can't see that 2017 engine idea working. It seems to make the manufacturer engines kinda pointless if this customer engine will be more powerful and cheaper. Surely it would just drive Renault, Honda, Mercedes and Ferrari away?

The core issue is a team being able to block a rule passed by the FIA though. That's just a ****ing retarded way to run a sport.
 
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