F1 - GP (General Purpose)

Chode ^ | 8/5/2009 | Chode

[Chode]

This will be a general purpose thread for F1 news and pings that really don't require a thread of their own.

[Chode]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20657102

Red Bull offers own track for Austrian GP return in 2013

Red Bull has offered its own track in Austria as a potential venue for a 20th grand prix in 2013.

Formula 1's governing body the FIA has shuffled next year's schedule to open a slot for an extra race on 21 July.

It had been expected that this would be filled by a return of the Turkish race, but it is not clear it could be funded.

Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko told an Austrian newspaper: "We have made the FIA aware that the Red Bull Ring has a fully updated Formula 1 licence."

Red Bull, whose F1 team has won the drivers' and constructors' titles for the past three years, owns and has redeveloped the track that hosted the Austrian Grand Prix in various guises from 1970-87 and 1997-2003.

There are, however, a number of potential problems with the Red Bull Ring hosting a grand prix.

These include the shortage of hotel accommodation in the mountainous Styrian region, an agreement between Red Bull and the regional government to host no event with a crowd of more than 40,000, and the lack of facilities and organisation to run an event of such magnitude.

But Marko told Salzburger Nachrichten none of these was insurmountable.

On the race fee, he said: "There is the province of Styria, the Republic of Austria." And in response to the suggestion that few European governments could justify funding a grand prix in the current times of austerity, he said: "Let's wait and see."

He said objections over the limited accommodation were "nonsense", adding: "It managed in the 1970s and 1980s." He pointed out that the city of Graz, 50 miles away from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, had more than enough hotel rooms.

And he said that the media centre, which struggled to cope with the capacity required by a German Touring Car race this year, could be extended, and an organisation to run the event imported.

A final decision would rest between F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone and Red Bull co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who is on holiday in Fiji until Christmas.

The two men are friends and it is conceivable they could come to an agreement if the Austrian did want to host a grand prix at the Red Bull Ring.

Meanwhile, it remains unclear whether Turkish authorities will be able to fund the return of a race in the country.

On Thursday the country's sports minister said the government would not contribute towards the fee for the race - a day after the chairman of the Turkish motorsport federation said state money would be needed to revive the race.

The 2013 calendar initially ran to only 19 races - one fewer than in 2012 - after the mooted New Jersey Grand Prix had to be postponed because the track overlooking Manhattan was not going to be ready in time.

But on Wednesday, the FIA moved the German Grand Prix to 7 July, a week after the British race, and opened up its previous slot of 21 July for what it referred to as another "European" race.

[Chode]

when will this POS achieve room temperature???

Bernie Ecclestone says Formula 1 still has too many teams

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20717038

Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone believes the sport still has too many teams despite the departure of HRT.

F1 will have 11 teams next season after the Spanish outfit's failure to enter the championship following an announcement they were up for sale.

But Ecclestone told Reuters he would be happy to see another team drop out.

"It's just that 10 is easier to handle, for the promoters, for transport," he said. "We'd rather have 10, so long as we don't lose Ferrari." Ecclestone said he had heard that HRT had gone into liquidation. Asked whether he believed it was possible a buyer would be found, he said: "I wouldn't think anyone would want to."

British-based Formtech Composites said in a statement last week that they were owed a substantial amount of money by HRT, the ownership of which they believed had been transferred to a Luxembourg-registered fund.

Formtech added that HRT had initiated liquidation procedures on 12 November, the day they announced the team was up for sale, and had offered to pay creditors 30p for every euro owed.

HRT were one of three teams to enter F1 in 2010 following attempts by Max Mosley, the former head of governing body the FIA, to introduce a budget cap .

The budget cap was never introduced and none of the three teams - which also include Caterham (formerly Lotus Racing) and Marussia (formerly Virgin) have scored a point since their debut.

Ten teams - 20 cars - is believed to be the minimum number F1 can have under new commercial contracts before a clause that could allow teams to run third cars is activated.

Ecclestone said the 2013 season would likely be 19 races, despite his shuffling of the calendar last week to make room for a 20th.

But he did say there was still the possibility of Turkey taking the new 20th slot on 21 July.

"I don't know - I'm waiting for a response from them," he said.

The Turkish government ruled out contributing to the race fee a day after the country's motorsport federation said such funding would be required.

Ecclestone told Reuters categorically that Austria would not happen. Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko said at the weekend that the company had reminded the FIA that it had a track with a full F1 licence, the former Osterreichring/A1-Ring which held the Austrian Grand Prix on and off between 1970 and 2003.

He added that France appeared to be no longer in the running for a race.

[Chode]

90 days and counting...

[Lockbox]

I think Bernie has a hard timing counting beyond three....

Ferrari, McLaren and now Red Bull.

[Chode]

ain't that the truth...

[truth_seeker]

A billionarre above 80 years of age doesn’t need to color his speech to be polite.

He runs the sport, so judge the results.

I concur that too many teams running too slowly is perhaps not a good thing.

He doesn’t want Austria for reasons that are known.

He’ll be gone in a few years, and hopefully the sport will be in good shape. I think it is in good shape today, under his direction.

[Chode]

nobody is over 107% so they aren't running that slow, and why doesn't he want Austria???

going GREEN is NOT a good direction to go nor is pushing 4cylinder engines like he did, six is bad enough

if they had to phouk with the engine formula, which i DO NOT agree with, they should of left it with 8cylinders and lowered the displacement and i think even THAT would be a bad move...

3L is is about right, but that's just me

[truth_seeker]

I respectfully disagree. Audi went fron 12 cylinder to 6 cylinders for their Diesel sLeMans eries dominating cars.

The cars reach 200 mph, like F1 cars.

A 4 cylinder turbo F1 car can reach horsepower and speed of current V8s, as well.

The drivers, fans and owners are not clammoring for faster cars.

I like the idea of auto racing as a lab for improved technology on all fronts; fuel economy, safety, new technologies.

Audi TDI came first last year, followed by Audi TDI+hybrid in second.

Those technologies transfer over directly to VW/Audi’s consumer product lines.

[Chode]

i will never argue performance... it's heritage and tradition and esthetics and street sales, win on Sunday sell on Monday!!! nobody sells street cars based on how bad their four cylinder is... especially Ferrari!!!

and as to technology, safety is fine, the only reason i care about fuel consumption is in regard to whether the rules say you can refuel or not for pit crew safety, racing is racing and at the pinnacle of racing, fuel consumption should NOT be a factor... leave that to the other formulas

but then again, that's just me... i never heard of NHRA or NASA worrying about fuel consumption

[truth_seeker]

“...nobody sells street cars based on how bad their four cylinder is...”

Well Suraru has been, and now with everybody going turbo four, they will too.

BMW, AUDI and Mercedes now use turbo four on their entry gas engines here in the USA.

And since turbo makes it easy for huge increase in street car power, the race cars become more relavent to street cars.

The courses can only handle so much top end speed. What does it matter how the power is made, to reach 200+ MPH?

[Chode]

first i don't look at Subaru's as performance cars which is really what i meant as a selling point

second, i personally am death against owning a turo-street car... in fact one of the reasons i bought my Hyundai is because it didn't have one where the Cruze did, they are something else to maintain and go wrong and only make horse power at high RPM's

and BMW etc putting it on their "Entry Level" cars simply means their engine is too small

third, like i said before, heritage and tradition and esthetics still count... at least to me they do

when McLaren, Ferrari, Lamborghini etc start putting micro-motors in their cars it will because people WANT them there and not until then... and i don't see that anywhere in the future near or otherwise

give the fans, spelled ticket buyers, what they want... if they all start screaming for micro-motors THEN give it to them but don't try to force feed them something that just might kill ticket sales in the name of the Green Religion of Globull Warming

YMMV

[henkster]

I can’t discuss some things at the level you guys do. I’m more a casual fan. My sons are much more up on the technical aspects. But....

I do despise Eccelstone. I’m saving up a really good vitamin-asparagus pee just for his grave.

There are a lot of things that have improved in F1 in the past few years. The DRS system has to be at the top of the list. Passing, once considered a lost art, is now a regular feature thanks to DRS. Tyre rules have brought back an element of strategy, and caused teams to concentrate on their pit stops. I don’t like the fuel rules; I think they over-reacted to the danger of pit fires. I believe refueling should be part of race strategy.

Some of the new tracks like Texas, Abu Dhabi and Singapore are terrific. Some places like Bahrain I can do without.

I like having more teams. It adds a challenge to the race. Sure, the HRT’s were little better than “fahrende Chicane” but I attended a USGP at Indy that featured six cars. More cars are better, trust me. Just because Narain Kartekeyan drove a crappy HRT doesn’t mean all back markers are bad drivers. Having a good ride also doesn’t automatically make you a good driver. Exhibit A: Pastor Maldonado, Exhibit B: Roman Grosjean. So I disagree with Bernie about the need for contraction, and have another reason to think about that piss stop on his resting place. Not that I’m storing it up in jars in the basement or anything...

How much of the good things in F1 are attributable to Bernie and how much he takes credit for the work of others, I don’t know. I do know the past two or three seasons have featured some of the best racing in decades. I do cringe any time anyone other than a toxic waste recycling center says they are “going green.” We’ll see what happens. I trust in the F1 engineers to work around whatever restrictions get in their way. It seems that whatever is left of drive, ambition and innovation in Europe found its way into F1.

[Chode]

agreed on that DRS was good, the KERS, not so much...

also agreed on the tyre rules and yes refueling should be part of the strategy

i also like the current number of teams even with the “fahrende Chicane” aspect since you have to have a pool of drivers with F1 experience to move up to Class-A teams as the slots open without dipping into the lower Formulas

and again YES, they will never be able to keep grass on his grave, they might as well pave it over and paint it green...

i still don't know why he is against Austria having an F1

[henkster]

“i still don’t know why he is against Austria having an F1”

I’m guessing the local restaurants suck.

[Chode]

LOL... wouldn't surprise me

[henkster]

When the USGP was in Indy, Bernie stayed in Chicago. He said Indy didn’t have any good restaurants. He obviously never tried our haute cuisine at the “Chateau Blanc.” There’s one right outside IMS at 16th & Lafayette. You do the translation...

[gura]

Here’s my idea: DON’T CHANGE A DAMN THING. After 20+ years of being an F1 fan it always seems about the time teams get a grasp of the regulations and the racing gets close Bernie f*cks everything up.

[Chode]

How to make an F1 car, Part 1: the conceptual design stage

When the Formula 1 season ends, the wider public probably believes the teams can have a few weeks' well-earned rest. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since long before the final race of last year in Brazil, all the teams have been hard at work on the car they will be campaigning with in 2013. That work, already deeply concentrated, takes on a new level of intensity once one season has been dealt with.

In the weeks leading up to the first pre-season test, we will be giving you an insight into the long, complex and intricate process that leads to a new Formula 1 car hitting the track in Spain in early February.

First of all, we will examine the first steps in the design of a new car. And it might surprise you to know that the work on the cars you will see for the first time in the next month or so started as soon as their predecessors hit the track at the same time last year.

[Chode]

How to make an F1 car - Part 2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20847718

[Chode]

The Russian Grand Prix in 2014 is set to debut at the Black Sea resort city of Sochi