WELL....maybe I can go back to being a fan of Ferrari & F1...with Luca leaving hopefully they .....THE RED CARS will get back on track....

 

Yes, I'm guessing that Ricciardo is destined to be the next super star of F1. I think that because he is winning in a car worthy of maybe sixth place.

I have accepted that Ferrari has fallen flat in the power unit development race. Nobody really had hybrid experience and least of all Ferrari. They will come back.

I am very pleased with the Williams effort. Maybe it was luck that they bought into the Mercedes power unit, but they are really doing well and I really am a fan of both of their drivers.

The last four years Red BUll had the obviously dominant car which made Sebastian the champ and I was getting pretty bored with the whole thing. Reminded me of Michael driving the Ferrari for all that time racking a record number of championships. Then, Ferrari WAS the dominant car and in my view he was a mean ******* with a lot of good luck. I just got sick of him.

But, from a more objective point of view than I am usually capable of, it is really a great season. Mercedes' dominance aside, there have been a lot of great duels going on and the drivers are all being tested, having too much to do in the cockpit, and the smallish tires plus the weirdness of of the power characteristics of the new power plants so it really is weeding out the back markers.

Finally I am happy about Haas entering into F1 scene, and his partnership with Ferrari. He is a brilliant guy (I have used some of his machines,) and he is successful in every arena that he has tested himself in. Nice to see some American participation.

 

Is it wrong that I like seeing both Ferrari and Vettel suffer? Ricciardo passing Vettel on track, and Massa passing Alonso on track is awesome.

 

Nothing wrong with that. I think that Masa is great and nobody at his level has been screwed around as much. Ferrari never seemed to know what they had in him. I bet the thing that he most enjoys is passing Kimi, the guy who got hired into his old job.

 

I think if a US person can make a "go" of it in F1, its Haas.

I'm excited for 2016.
Anyway, this season has been pretty good with some interesting races. I wish they would allow in-season development on the engines, to allow the Ferrari/Renault engine cars to be more competitive.

 

I like it too.

 

Haas F1 will be fantastic, I'm really looking forward to it. I hope they really try to make it an American team as much as they can and still be competitive. At least one American driver for example, or I doubt they could pull it off but Ricciardo would be fantastic, or hire back into he game Webber, he would be a great development driver and Aussies are as close to Americans as you get in F1.

Love to see Ford get involved to, but don't see a chance of that happening.

Shoot, I have a bad memory but when IIRC Bianchi of Marussia passed Kimi, and they showed the reaction of the Ferrari boss, one of the best moments in F1 this year.

 

Personally I would love to see the V-10s back. Or maybe a flat eight configuration. The hybrids make the cars counter-intuitive to drive. Rather than making the technology more and more complex, deliberately, KISS! Simple is better.

I don't care about F-1 being a leader in hybrid development. If they just want F1 to be different, find some other way. I don't think there is any doubt that the F1 teams are the best in the world. But the rule makers screw them up by foolish rules like limiting RPM. I always considered them to be pretty unbelievable for building engines that turn up 20,000 RPM, and make them last. Incredible. Much more impressive than electric motors.

My other complaint is the rules make any innovation difficult. Every time there is some aerodynamic breakthrough it get's outlawed. And the rules end up making the cars all look the same.

And I do agree that engine development should be allowed during the season. And what's this crap about penalties for changing engines or transmissions? Idiotic.

 

So who else has found the silly season fascinating?

Vettel to Ferrari, looks like Alonso to Mclaren, Button perhaps without a seat, Luca di Montezemolo fired because of "poor performance".


Also, the Bianchi crash was horrific.

 

I have to say that I have found the entire season fascinating. However I never really like it when one team is so utterly dominant. I always thought that Rossberg would be a star, but in a car as dominant as Mercedes I wonder if he has been truly tested. He is only being compared to the highly skilled Hamilton in a season where DNF's are too much of the equation.

The big star, Alonso, has been in a car that perpetually has kept him in fifth. But even there he has provided a measure of the value of his teammate the cagey veteran Kimmi. I am hoping that the Honda power is very successful next season.


I am very pleased with Williams, two great drivers and a very competitive power train. I am sure that Masa is very pleased to be outperforming his Ferrari replacement even though he has not been better than his young teammate who looks like a future super star.

I am pleased that Vettel has been put in his place by being out performed by his younger teammate Daniel. He too is destined for stardom. I do wish Vettel some luck with his next year's ride at Ferrari. I hope that they will provide a greatly improved car for next year.

 

I have been out of this for a long time - I don't even know who the star drivers are.

Can someone provide a run-down on what is happening?

BRUCE is saying that Ferrari is out of the POWER game, but Enzio once said Aero was for those who couldn't build engines....


~ I feel kinda lost here...


And about "Upper RPM Limits", isn't F1 supposed to be about taking it all to the limit? Where did the very edge of racing go?

 

This year was the first for Hybrid powertrains - yes, like a Prius.
They have also implemented this year strict fuel limitations, both in terms of how much fuel you can use over an entire race, but also what the "max fuel flow" you can have.

1.6l Turbocharged V6 engines limited to 12,000 rpm (was 18,000 for the previous V8's).
The Hybrid part is where it gets interesting from a technology standpoint, there are 2 forms of charging the batteries, one from a motor attached to the rear axle, the other from a motor attached to the turbocharger shaft. Both collect/harvest energy under braking/coasting, and then make it available under acceleration by the driver pushing a button asking for more power.


This year, Mercedes have been the most successful team - by far. The other cars that they supply engines too have also been competitive, with suggestions that their engine is able to make around 100hp more than the Renault/Ferrari engines, all while using less fuel. The higher power, and better efficiency is mostly down to how they package their turbo - more detail here: Turbocharger tweak responsible for Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 dominance? [w/videos] - Autoblog

 

Wolfie:

Red Bull, and their driver Sebastian Vettel won four consecutive world championships. But this year they have not been especially competitive, but, point of interest, Vettel's new teammate Daniel Ricciardo has outperformed Vettle much of the season.

The championship this year has been closely contested by the two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Rossberg. Presently Hamilton is up by (?) 13 points. [something close to that.]

McClaren is going to get Honda power units [we don't have engines any more,] and whether they are competitive is anybody's guess... Rumor is that they may have Alonzo behind the wheel. He is considered the most valuable driver in the field right now. He is itching to win more titles but six years with Ferrari has not given him a strong enough car to fulfill his dreams.

Williams is back in the thick of it. They have the Mercedes power units and two great drivers in Botas and Masa.

Ferrari replaced Masa with Kimmi but that was anticlimactic. Now Masa is probably smiling a lot because with Williams he has done better than Kimmi in his old seat at Ferrari. Kimmi, who I always held in high regard has not been able to stay in sight of Alonzo.... who seems perpetually in fourth place with his Ferrari. There have been major shakeups in the Ferrari camp due to the non-competitive nature of their F1 cars.

In any case we will be having some great races, now and in the future because we have several new stars on the horizon and with the new technologies there is nothing that you can count on because things are changing fast.

Mercedes and Honda being major auto market manufacturers have a lot of experience with hybrids and turbos. So that is key since the other guys don't have that background. Renault, who supplies several teams really got off to a shaky start this season but they have improved as the season moved along.

I have had to make mental adjustments, letting go of preferences etc, and now that I have gotten past that stuff, I am truly enjoying the drama of F1's changing scene.

 

I have been out of this thread for quiet a bit...discussed with F1 and its lack of allowing what it has always been ...the cutting edge of technology....now you cannot even change engine parts to catch up with the competition...EXACTLY what F1 is about a new car every two weeks ......it is damn near like NASCAR with its cookie cutter cars


With all that said...and the demise of F1 teams...here is the stuff from Marissia..a team that is in the very bottom...and when you look at this equipment it is amazing how good the equipment is and they are in the BOTTOM of the heap......WOW

Marussia F1 Auction | CA Global Partners

BTW I am very happy my red cars got a new number 1

 

I can appreciate your various positions Tim, but it is what it is and there is nothing to compare F1 to. So I continue to watch and record all the practices, qualifying and races to be certain that I don't miss any part that is broadcast.

I didn't know that you were not an Alonzo fan, I am and have been since he entered F1. My concern for him is that Ferrari comes out with a supercar next year right after he abandons them for McClaren. And I would be really disappointed if Honda fails to produce a power unit that is comparable to Mercedes'.

The cookie cutter accusation is valid. It is something that has been bothering me for quite a long time. I think that the greatest racing is between cars that are the product of great creativity of great racers' minds. We have seen this phenomenon in any number of racing series, when anyone is outstanding, the rule makers find out what the breakthrough is that allowed them to kick some *** and make it illegal!! (How stupid can you be?) I don't know where that idiotic rule about 'not making changes' and thereby handing the whole season to the points leader.... WTH? I never saw that one coming but that has to be the worst idea since the "double points" thingy. Morons.

Also, nobody complains about the tires much. But I really think that the teams should be allowed to choose their own tires, tire sizes and tire compounds and treads. Standardizing the tires the way that they do sucks. I cannot believe that they would even make a tire that has a life of twenty laps or less. I can see limiting the dimensions of the cars because a lot of them have to fit on the track. So the tires can't cause the car to exceed the series car dimensions, but all their tire rules? They should throw that book away.

I think about the CART cars before Tony George threw his wrench in the works. Those were great racecars. And same with the CanAm series. For their time they were really great and extremely entertaining. But back then those rules were pretty clear and relatively simple. I would never consider reading the F1 rulebook. I'd much rather read Smokey Yunich's book on engine building, both for what I could learn and for the entertainment value.

Bruce