Shumacher

I will never understand the F1 ban on testing

Quite. Supposed pinnacle of motorsport, and they can't even conduct proper tests of their cars and drivers.

They could run it the way NASCAR does, with most test sessions limited to tracks not on the F1 calendar (which is what keeps Rockingham, North Carolina afloat). That newish track in the Algarve would be okay for it, Paul Ricard could be made available, Ferrari have Fiorano, there's Mugello, Imola....plenty of options.

Will be interesting to see what improvements the revised Mercedes car brings. If we get three races into Europe and Schumacher is still tooling around nowher near the podium, then they really will have to go back to the drawing board.
 
I will never understand the F1 ban on testing

I like it. It was proved last year that didn't really need it. No car I've ever seen has recovered form like the macca last year. With no testing.

I'd like to see more running pre-season though and maybe one test session mid season but in reality they don't need it. The cars are more reliable with this engine freeze.

Testing saves millions.
 
It doesn't matter if you like it or not, stuff is designed virtually, tested virtually/theoretically and then tested for real to make it the best it can be.
 
.No car I've ever seen has recovered form like the macca last year. With no testing.


Testing saves millions.

Do we know roughly how much McLaren did have to spend on computer and factory time to turn that season around? I can't imagine it was a small figure.
 
Millions you say? Wow, so what?
If Bernie paid out more money to the teams then they can run testing without affecting their finances

I found the whole 40mil budget cap idea silly, that's what a footie club pays for 1 top player in transfer fees
 
Millions you say? Wow, so what?
If Bernie paid out more money to the teams then they can run testing without affecting their finances

I found the whole 40mil budget cap idea silly, that's what a footie club pays for 1 top player in transfer fees

football teams generally have much bigger incomes though
 
football teams generally have much bigger incomes though

Ferrari sell a lot of merch, they also use their racing reputation to boost their car sales. They use racing to develop certain technologies and so on.

It is hard to put a figure on F1 derived income that some teams get
 
Millions you say? Wow, so what?
If Bernie paid out more money to the teams then they can run testing without affecting their finances

I found the whole 40mil budget cap idea silly, that's what a footie club pays for 1 top player in transfer fees

Without a budget cap of some sort, no new teams will join F1 as it becomes too expensive & the chances of winning as a new team become too slender due to the top teams superior spending power.

If you have no new teams joining F1 & the manufacture based teams pull out as they aren't winning then it isn't long before you only have McLaren & Ferrari left.
 
If you change the rules to stop aero being the be all and end all then it would be far simpler for new teams to do well, and for smaller teams to do well.
 
Without a budget cap of some sort, no new teams will join F1 as it becomes too expensive & the chances of winning as a new team become too slender due to the top teams superior spending power.

If you have no new teams joining F1 & the manufacture based teams pull out as they aren't winning then it isn't long before you only have McLaren & Ferrari left.

There is no budget cap. Mac and Ferrari are still spending just as much money, albeit without the thousends of testing miles they used to do.
 
There is no budget cap. Mac and Ferrari are still spending just as much money, albeit without the thousends of testing miles they used to do.

Umm...yes there is albeit a voluntary one. If the teams agree to limit spending to £40 million a year they get greater technical freedom.

So far I think only the smaller teams have chosen to do it this way as the likes of Ferrari refuse agree to a budget cap of any sort (I'm guessing they are worried that on an even playing field they may get beaten by smaller teams as they cannot throw the same amounts of money at problems like they do now)

I wasn't actually saying there was an enforced budget cap. I was merely indicating that it isn't such a bad idea because if they don't make F1 cheaper to be a part of then the amount of teams will decline.
 
Umm...yes there is albeit a voluntary one. If the teams agree to limit spending to £40 million a year they get greater technical freedom.

Erm, whilst that idea was bandied about over the winter i'm pretty sure it was never implemented (certainly not for this season) and is pretty unlikely to ever get implemented.
 
Umm...yes there is albeit a voluntary one. If the teams agree to limit spending to £40 million a year they get greater technical freedom.

So far I think only the smaller teams have chosen to do it this way as the likes of Ferrari refuse agree to a budget cap of any sort (I'm guessing they are worried that on an even playing field they may get beaten by smaller teams as they cannot throw the same amounts of money at problems like they do now)

No, there isn't. Ferrari and others objected to the idea as it would create a two-tier Formula. We ended up with one anyway thanks to the new team selection process employed by Mad Max's cadre of course.
 
Erm, whilst that idea was bandied about over the winter i'm pretty sure it was never implemented (certainly not for this season) and is pretty unlikely to ever get implemented.

I'm pretty sure there will be budget caps enforced at some stage as they need to make F1 more appealing to both new teams wanting to join & the smaller teams already in it.

You could say that the limited testing currently in place is actually another way of beginning a budget cap.
 
Anton Zimmerman's take (from here):

As our esteemed editor has pointed out, the British press are revelling in schadenfreud, sometimes to the exclusion of an objective assessment of reality. A perfect case in point is, the normally excellent, Richard Williams' piece in the Guardian last week, which if you read it without having watch the race for yourself would have lead you to believe that Hamilton passed Schumacher immediately upon cruising up on his gearbox. The reality of course is that Michael did an admirable job of holding off the young pretender for several laps while driving a car with a set up for wet conditions which never materialised. Said wet set up is also the reason that Rosberg so comprehensively outpaced him in the race. So to paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the death of Michael Schumacher's career are greatly exaggerated.

Hardly a surprise that someone writing for the Grauniad would gloss over facts....nice one Richard Williams, you just reminded me why I think you're a no-account hack.
 
the normally excellent, Richard Williams
I'd agree with the "normally excellent" part there, his "Last Road Race" is a great read - assuming it's the same Richard Williams (which I believe it is)
 
Meh, cars are slightly different these days, different balance and different feel. With very little testing available Rosberg and other drivers have basically 3 years lead on getting the right feel.

As simple as on this car, Rosberg might feel something in practice and decide the left front tyre needs more pressure and the rear wing needs less down force by a smidge, the problem is, now much in each situation, I would imagine it will take Schumi a while to get those slight changes down to an exact science for him and how he drives the car.

Judging by how Button and Hamilton throw their cars around, you'd imagine their setups are quite different so its not like they could just take Rosbergs adjustments and stick them on Schumi's car and get the right feel for his type of driving.

Personally I think Hamilton has shown time and time again he's easily faster at pushing the car around the track, and only in the last race did his tyres seem to give up early, and it was just one tyre, the other 3 gave up the same time as Button's and he was again faster. Yet Button's winning and avoiding trouble, different driving styles, different setups.

I think he'll get better, but if he has the will to really push himself to the edge, we can't know yet. He could be right on the limit but the car isn't letting him get further for now, or the car is fine and in a year he'll realise he just can't be bothered. Far to early to tell.

To a certain degree, just like Hamilton he's run into trouble in most races while Ros/Button haven't and have in many situations lucked out in the situation.
 
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