Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Let the fans design a track. Stick up some software, let fans create a design, then choose a winner. The company hired can then just finesse the design. Grandstands and all that can be left for them to deal with.

I vote for a large banked turn like at Indy. Longest straight on the grid and an off camber corkscrew, all in a Suzuka figure of 8 design.

Maximum cambers and elevation that's allowed under the regs, and the track using that rough diamond cut surface like indy.

:)
 
Let the fans design a track. Stick up some software, let fans create a design, then choose a winner. The company hired can then just finesse the design. Grandstands and all that can be left for them to deal with.

I vote for a large banked turn like at Indy. Longest straight on the grid and an off camber corkscrew, all in a Suzuka figure of 8 design.

Maximum cambers and elevation that's allowed under the regs, and the track using that rough diamond cut surface like indy.

:)

So you’ve just picked bits off US tracks (corkscrew from Laguna Seca, steep hill as COTA)
Couple that with no pit stops and we’re well away
/sarcasm
 
Proof is in the pudding for Abu Dhabi, but it can't be worse surely!
I think it will be worse. They've got rid of one of the biggest braking zones on the track where there was occasional passes. The smoothing of the corners in the last sector and the rounding off of the hairpin will have no difference on the racing, just make it look slightly less clumsy on TV.
 
One easy way to slow down pit stops is limit the number of people that can work on the car. There’s one to remove the wheel, one to put the new wheel on and one guy on the gun. Then there’s front and rear Jack man, someone to adjust the front wing if necessary and then one or two to hold the car steady. It also reduced the number of people in the pit lane at any one time reducing the risk of injury. Limit it to one person per wheel or two, one with the wheel and one with the gun. This will instantly increase pit stop times.
 
Not particularly keen on this sprint race idea. More for the coverage. How's it going to work in free to air? Will they even put qualifying up on Friday?
Will they bundle qualifying and the sprint race into one Saturday program?
There aren't going to be many highlights from a 30 minute race. As I believe contractually they are only allowed to show a percentage of the race.
I'm not tuning in on Saturday if it's just highlights of a 30 min race!


Surely everyone is going to want to start on the soft tyre
No one will pit
There will be few if any overtakes

If anything.. Won't it just make the final grid less varied?
It's like a coarse sieve is used in qualifying
Then a fine sieve in sprint race.
Also more points for the fastest car.

Where before if you made a mistake in quali that was punishing. Now it's not so bad because you can recover in the sprint

It'll be bad for the worst teams and great for the best team


Don't mind them trying it. In fact it's a good idea to try new things on a few races. But I'm pessimistic on this one
 
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Guessing that's another two years of no Russell in a Merc then.

Or if he does get a seat, it will be under the condition of not competing for the title.

Wolff says that he hasn't decided between Bottas and Russell yet:

There is no word from the team on the identity of his team-mate next season, with the seat between his current partner Valtteri Bottas and British rising star George Russell.

Wolff said he wanted to spend a bit more time observing the two drivers in F1 this season before making a final call.

But we know Hamilton's preference:

Hamilton has said he sees no reason to change Bottas, but Russell starred on a one-off debut for Mercedes at the Sakhir Grand Prix last year when he stood in for Hamilton after the world champion contracted Covid-19.

Bold is my own emphasis. Because of course he would say that, wouldn't he? The thing that most fans want - Hamilton and Russell at Mercedes in equal cars with equal treatment - is one thing that they'll never get because like almost every other top driver in the last forty years (Piquet, Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Alonso, Vettel...) Hamilton absolutely does not want a team mate who will challenge him for the title. Inconvenient enough having to fight for a title against someone in a different team...
 
.... like almost every other top driver in the last forty years (Piquet, Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Alonso, Vettel...) Hamilton absolutely does not want a team mate who will challenge him for the title. Inconvenient enough having to fight for a title against someone in a different team...

This is a change in tune. You don't have to look back too far on these forums to see plenty of people claiming Lewis would have anyone as his teammate. Has that all changed since his loss to Rosberg?

It's similar to change in the forums around Ralf Schumacher. Go way back and he gets slated for being poor and crashing a lot. Now people are saying he was good driver just below the guys at the very top.
 
This is a change in tune.

Not from me it's not.

You don't have to look back too far on these forums to see plenty of people claiming Lewis would have anyone as his teammate. Has that all changed since his loss to Rosberg?

No, I'm pretty sure it was there before that. Look how his form went out of the window in 2011 when Button got comfortable with the McLaren, for example.

Though maybe Rosberg was indeed the straw that broke the camel's back, both for Hamilton and for his fanclub. From the 'Rosberg retires' thread:

I said:
Chatting about Rosberg’s replacement, Wolff explained that they have to consider the dynamic between Hamilton and the incoming driver.

“He has been a great pillar in the team’s success. When he came, everything changed, so he has played a role. It’s very important to keep him in a good place.,” he said.

Translation: we know Lewis has a fragile ego, and if we can't strike that delicate balance between 'potential challenger to The Messiah™' and 'complete stump' then we're hosed.

:p

IIRC everyone on here seemed pretty sure that Bottas was going in as a solid and unspectacular Number Two driver who wouldn't be challenging Hamilton at all. Possibly the only recorded example of this forum ever getting it right...

It's similar to change in the forums around Ralf Schumacher. Go way back and he gets slated for being poor and crashing a lot. Now people are saying he was good driver just below the guys at the very top.

I've gotta be honest, I hadn't seen that Ralf's reputation was getting better on here. But I've been paying less and less attention to anyone's opinion in the Motorsport forum these last few years ;)
 
This is a change in tune. You don't have to look back too far on these forums to see plenty of people claiming Lewis would have anyone as his teammate. Has that all changed since his loss to Rosberg?

It's similar to change in the forums around Ralf Schumacher. Go way back and he gets slated for being poor and crashing a lot. Now people are saying he was good driver just below the guys at the very top.


I know for a fact, from a source extremely close to Lewis, that Lewis did have in his last contract a clause, whereby his team mate was not allowed to directly compete against him for the championship.

Whether that clause has carried over, I don't know for sure, but do know it was a stumbling block for a good few months, as Toto would, initially, not agree to it in Hamiltons new contract.

Toto wanted two full out racers, both competing for the championship.

Will be interesting to see as to who gave in.
 
I'm surprised he's signed on for 2 more years. I believed that if Lewis had walked this years title he'd have retired on 8. I think because this year is looking like Max is going to take it, barring any FIA rule meddling or Honda engine reliability issues at the end of the season, he wants another chance to clinch the 8th title. Or possibly, Merc may have found a double-diffuser type hole in next years regs and he wants in. Or maybe I'm just being harsh on the guy and, like Kimi, motorsport has been his life since he was 8 and he doesn't to let go just yet.

It's similar to change in the forums around Ralf Schumacher. Go way back and he gets slated for being poor and crashing a lot. Now people are saying he was good driver just below the guys at the very top.
Are you referring to this forum? As I've not seen anyone mention Ralf in years.
 
Can't see Russell at Mercedes next year now; Hamilton has made his feelings on Bottas fairly clear and why upset the harmony in the team?
Another year at Williams? Without leaving the Merc programme I can't see a seat anywhere else for him; Aston will be Vettel and Stroll & McLaren have Danny Ric and Lando signed upp.
 
Would make sense to me to swap Bottas and Russell, Russell is not going to cause conflict with Lewis and it would be sensible to bed him into the team to be the next team leader. After all the only other candidate is Max.
Bottas might get a nice sweetener at Williams and it would be good for them to have an experienced guy.

As people say though, Lewis is happy with Bottas.
 
I'm surprised he's signed on for 2 more years. I believed that if Lewis had walked this years title he'd have retired on 8. I think because this year is looking like Max is going to take it, barring any FIA rule meddling or Honda engine reliability issues at the end of the season, he wants another chance to clinch the 8th title. Or possibly, Merc may have found a double-diffuser type hole in next years regs and he wants in. Or maybe I'm just being harsh on the guy and, like Kimi, motorsport has been his life since he was 8 and he doesn't to let go just yet.

Are you referring to this forum? As I've not seen anyone mention Ralf in years.

Yeah the talk about it in the French GP thread.

Or might it be that different people say different things?

I'm not talking about a specific person, more the general direction/feeling from the forum.
 
Surely the team fabricators and the carbon fibre technicians need to know if it’ll be Bottas or Russell? There’s about 6 inches height difference and George has bigger feet than both Bottas and Hamilton. They need to know to make the chassis and safety cell suitable for Russell.
 
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