29 replies to this topic

[rahul_rn]

Well lets talk about one of THE MOST BORING MOTORSPORTS..
Formula 1 in the recent years has gone too dependent on technology.. Drivers ability comes later, rarely does a driver overtake the one in front and all we just have is a bunch of cars going around a track, and to top it all vettel has made it even worse as there is no one who overtakes him.. The bulls have been on a roll last couple of years while the prancing horse has not been able to do anything about it..
But since its a MOTORSPORT, anything related to it has to come up on motoroids, for which someone has to do the dirty work..

Vettel the youngest double world champion who also holds a lot of other records as well is incidentally the defending world champion. This is the first season which will be seeing the largest number of current and former world champions, with the return of Kimi that number is now six with prominent names like the seven times world champion Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and finally the current reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel.


Technical changes..
This year is F1 did not have much technical changes as last year, with the off throttle diffuser and the ride height adjustment being banned..
(P.S Do not ask me for what does an off throttle diffuser mean)
Other changes made the nose to be reprofiled to a shorter one, resulting in a "platypus" nose by many companies..

Australian GP Qualifying..
The two Merc's were leading the qualifying followed by the Renault-Lotus driver Romain Grosiean.. 4th on the grid was the seven time world champion Schumacher followed by the two bulls of Webber and Vettel.. The prancing horse had one of the worst qualifying, Alonso who had spun off during qualifying in Q2 finished 12th and Massa 16th.. while both the Cosworth cars were not allowed to race since they did not make the 107% mark..

1st race..
Well today the 18th march 2012 was scheduled to be the first race of the season, and the 2 Mclaren's had the front row of the start line.. Lewis hamilton on pole position followed by his team mate Jenson button.. As all the 5 light's turned off the Brit blasted off the line overtaking his team mate and leading the pack in the 1st corner..

After which there was a lot of change on the grid, Romain fell to sixth and Schumi went up to third. Alonso also made his way up the order from twelfth to seventh. And later due to an gearbox issue for Schumi went up to sixth position. Later Petrov’s car was out resulting in a safety car coming out due to which many people pitted and Vettel took secomd place from Hamilton. Maldonado also decided to have a go for Alonso’s place due to which he hurried into a apex hard which rocketed him into the opposite wall.
Later Senna and Massa decided that they want to have a crash and so they did, both of them carried on for some more time before their punctures gave in. Senna was able to stay out long enough to complete 90% of the race which finally gave him sixteenth position.

At the end of it all Button was able to maintain his lead followed by Vettel, Webber and Alonso to complete the top five, most of them rather had a lone race at the end. All in all it was a rather eventful race and not a stupid boring one as I had mentioned earlier. Next week its Malaysian GP, have to see if button maintains his lead or people like Vettel, Alonso or his team mate Hamilton had to say something about it

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos    Driver Points
1   Jenson Button 25
2    Sebastian Vettel 18
3    LewisHamilton 15   
4    Mark Webber 12
5    Fernando Alonso    10   

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos    Constructor Points
1   McLaren-Mercedes 40
2    Red Bull-Renault 30
3    Sauber-Ferrar 12
4    Ferrari      10
5    Lotus-Renault 6

[NikhilB]

rahul_rn, on 18 March 2012 - 11:27 PM, said:

Well lets talk about one of THE MOST BORING MOTORSPORTS..
Formula 1 in the recent years has gone too dependent on technology.. Drivers ability comes later, rarely does a driver overtake the one in front and all we just have is a bunch of cars going around a track, and to top it all vettel has made it even worse as there is no one who overtakes him.. The bulls have been on a roll last couple of years while the prancing horse has not been able to do anything about it..
But since its a MOTORSPORT, anything related to it has to come up on motoroids, for which someone has to do the dirty work..

Rahul, just a piece of advice.
I don't think anyone is forcing you to post anything about F1. If you don't like it then don't post about it, simple.
I find it especially odd that you opted to write the quoted first para after you admitted that "the race was a rather eventful one".
(You might respond to this comment of mine, but I will not be replying to it as it is not the topic of discussion)


Coming back to the topic...

Off-throttle Exhaust blown diffuser is a very simple technology.
When you brake for a corner the air-flow over your wings reduce. Thus reducing your downforce and consequently your grip levels.
What some teams did was when the driver went off-trottle to brake for a corner, the ECU squirted some fuel into the exhaust systems. The high temperatures ignited the fuel and the exhaust gases thus produced were directed towards the diffuser (an aerodynamic part in the car) to produce more downforce than before. Resulting in faster corner speeds and very valuable second a lap.

It is banned because it is considered as a "driver-aid". Meaning changing levels of downforce while entering a corner is less of a headache to the driver due to the exhaust blown diffuser.

F1 cars, for the same reason, do not even have traction control (which even your base model Ferrari road cars have). Because traction control prevented oversteer and was a driver aid.

If F1 was not about a driver's ability, what explains Webber winning only one race last season while Vettlel wins a record number of races in a season?
If you ever thought a F1 race is not about a driver's ability just take a look at Alonso. Even though the current Ferrari handles like a truck, he would have still brought it within the top 10 qualifiers if it wasn't for his faux pas. What did Massa do in the same car?


Racing lines are very precise in F1 because of the width of the car. In most of the tracks, you cannot have more than 2 cars running side-by-side safely. Due to these 2 reasons you see less overtaking than say MotoGP.
Incidentally, have you seen Kamui Kobayashi's overtaking moves? He practically borders on insane.

I personally feel Pirelli has made F1 very interesting as there is quite a bit of strategy involved around the tire changes.

PS: HRT didn't make it to the final race because of the 107% rule, there is no team called Cosworth...

[rahul_rn]

i dint say that its all down to the car if you read more clearly i have mentioned that since Vettel's era no one can touch him. I said that car is more important part these days then talent. Alonso and Shumi today need a better car according to me, both have the ability to give Vettel a run for his money but the thing is that they unfortunately don't. And about the difference between team mates is that every driver has a different driving style, each driver demands a different setup's which again might be the difference maker to SOME EXTENT.

The boring part well you will understand what i meant if you have watched earlier F1's i.e. the level of aggression of drivers.

And i just said Cosworth just because HRT uses their engines (although if want to really have a debate on this then i am sorry as Marussia also use their engines so you might get confused which actual team it was)

[NikhilB]

What I believe that a car is essentially the same for both the team-mates.

By the setups you can probably change it according to the driver's style. You dial-in more oversteer, slightly different gear-ratios, response under braking, etc.

But essentially the car is the same. Same engine, same chassis (with slightly different settings) and same aerodynamic bodywork.

Whatever a driver's driving style, the lap times matter.And the closest like-for-like comparision you can make is the team-mate.
And Rosberg performed very well against Schumacher last season. I think he has passed his prime. He is "probably" no longer as good as say a Vettel or a Hamilton.

Coming back...
So which team/driver do you support? Are you a Tifosi?
I watch the races for the sport. Don't root for any particular team. But I break into a smile whenever Button or Webber win

[pulsurge]

Damn F1 already started....I didn't know

[rahul_rn]

well i too don't root for any team, i like it when Vettel, Alonso win as i feel those two deserve it. People say that Vettel got the best car on the track and he never earned it but i say if he deserves it then why not, while Alonso who was better on Renault but since then he is slightly not on top of his game nor he got the best of car's..
P.s I too like it when Button wins but not his team mate..

pulsurge, on 19 March 2012 - 08:24 PM, said:

Damn F1 already started....I didn't know

Well yesterday was the first race at Albert park Australia, it was just on again on ten sports, and the next will at Malasiya next week so do not miss that then..

[NikhilB]

This season Vettel has an opportunity to answer his critics (I'm one of 'em).

He doesn't have the best car, just one of the better ones. Let's se how he performs this season.

Alonso is pure class! He will qualify in the top-10 even in a Bullock cart

[rahul_rn]

NikhilB, on 19 March 2012 - 08:38 PM, said:

Alonso is pure class! He will qualify in the top-10 even in a Bullock cart

Agree to that part hands down..

[pulsurge]

rahul_rn, on 19 March 2012 - 08:32 PM, said:

Well yesterday was the first race at Albert park Australia, it was just on again on ten sports, and the next will at Malasiya next week so do not miss that then..

Means STAR Sports doesn't have the telecast rights this year? And by missing out on the telecast, I guess it shows my lack of interest in F1...if it would have been MotoGP I wouldn't have given it a miss

[rahul_rn]

pulsurge, on 19 March 2012 - 10:20 PM, said:

Means STAR Sports doesn't have the telecast rights this year? And by missing out on the telecast, I guess it shows my lack of interest in F1...if it would have been MotoGP I wouldn't have given it a miss

Sorry about the Ten sports part (not sure as i was going through the sports channel suddenly saw it and kept on watching) I too don't remember which channel. I too would have missed but i suddenly remembered the dates a couple of dates ago so i was waiting, i was afraid that my college timing would not allow me to watch but i guess i was lucky and i did get to watch..

[rahul_rn]

Hamilton on top again, followed by team mate Button, Schumi was third with this being his best since his return and fourth on the grid will be Mark Webber completing the 2nd row, while current world champion Vettel was placed sixth due to a gearbox change from Kimi will gain a position which meant that Kimi will loose 5 grid places. Romain Grosjean will start from sixth and Nico Rosberg was placed seventh. The prancing horse didn't improve much over the last qualifying but still Alonso managed eight and Perez will start ninth.. The HRT guys this time did manage to get their time in the 107% of the fastest time..

[rahul_rn]

2nd race
was started with the 2 Mclaren's on the front of the grid again this season with a good launch by both of them soon the rains kicked in and everybody had to stop.. After a long wait the race was restarted and a few dash in and out of the pits meant that the Spaniard was on top and with a come back by the prancing horse with a stunning victory from Alonso today.. Alonso was showing great pace today as he raced pretty well on the wet tyres and opened up an 7 second lead but when everyone switched to intermediate one's he dropped drastically and his pace wasn't good enough even when compared to anyone in the top 10.. This meant that Sergio the rookie who showed an he was a lot capable last year was gaining ground by almost a second every lap on Alonso and almost got down till his neck but the experience helped the Spaniard to stay focused as around 50th lap Perez overshot a curve meant he fell back over 3 seconds and gave Alonso the victory today..

Hamilton who stared the race on pole position came 3rd, he lost some time during pit stop which took somewhat longer then usual.. Followed by Webber, Kimi, brono, di resta, vergne and rosberg to complete the top 10.. 7 times world champion and the current world champion were placed 10th and 11th respectively..

This meant that there is a new leader of the 2012 season..
1 Fernando Alonso 35
2 Lewis Hamilton 30
3 Jenson Button 25
4 Mark Webber 24
5 Sergio Perez 22

Constructors
1 McLaren-Mercedes 55
2 Red Bull-Renault 42
3 Ferrari 35
4 Sauber-Ferrari 30
5 Lotus-Renault 16

[NikhilB]

Very interesting race.

Lots of overtaking (by F1 standards). And a wet race is always fun.

I wonder what would have happened if Button hadn't bumped into Karthikeyan's rear

[rahul_rn]

I guess wouldn't have made that much difference, the position changing events were at pits and the slide.. Both luckily favoring Alonso..

[NikhilB]

I meant would Karthikeyan still finish last?
Don't think so, but it would've certainly given him an opportunity to prove himself.

And Perez overshooting the corner was a bummer. Would've been a tasty contest.
Catching up to Alonso is one thing, but passing him is an entirely different ballgame.