Posted on 08/05/2009 7:57:45 PM PDT by Chode
This will be a general purpose thread for F1 news and pings that really don't require a thread of their own.
broken link...
use
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/headlines/2017/7/formula-1-announces-f1-live-in-the-heart-of-london.html
and
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-to-hold-london-street-demo-on-wednesday-929347/
Live From London!!!
see post 2422 complements of Lockbox
so does this replace Silverstone?
I think this was the 1st major promotional event F1 could hold for an upcoming race. F1 plans to turn the races into a week long activity for each country. But the timing could not have been better since Silverstone broke the contract. Now London announced that it would look into a F1 race.
Hamilton closed to within a point of Ferrari's championship leader Sebastian Vettel with victory, and said the Silverstone weekend was the first where Mercedes had mastered its set-up. "This weekend we've been able to exploit the full performance of our car, particularly on both cars, more so than any other race so far this year," he said. "It's a great showing and puts us in a good position and gives us a strong platform to start from for the second half of the season."
and............
Hamilton's 0.547-second advantage in qualifying was one thing, Ferrari knows it's usually on the back foot on Saturdays. But when Hamilton put the hammer down for his only sustained attack of the race from lap 18 to 23, he extended his lead over Kimi Raikkonen from 4.3s to 10.6s - that's an advantage of a fraction over one second per lap. Ferrari's defeat was total, even before tyre problems turned a bad weekend even worse.
The problem is FIA 2017 FORMULA ONE SPORTING REGULATIONS has notification dates for engine suppliers in Appendix 9, SUPPLY OF POWER UNITS FOR THE 2017-2020 CHAMPIONSHIP SEASONS. The engine supplier must notify FIA if wishing to supply a team or ceasing to supply a team:
a) As part of the homologation procedure of Appendix 4 of the Sporting Regulations, any Power Unit Manufacturer wishing to supply power units to a team must : i) notify in writing the FIA of its intention to do so no later than 6 May (or such other date as agreed in writing between all of the Power Unit Manufacturers and the FIA) [Note: 1 January in 2017] preceding the year during which such power units will be supplied ;
e) Ceasing the supply of the power units. Any manufacturer of a homologated power unit wishing to cease the supply of power units must notify the FIA of its intention to do so no later than 1 January of the year preceding that in which such power units will no longer be supplied.
and...........end contacts and options....
4. The New Customer Team shall provide a warranty that it has no binding contracts or option(s) in place with another power unit manufacturer for future supply of power units. The New Customer Team shall be required to terminate any such contracts or option(s) which do exist in so far as they conflict with any part of the period of the contract being entered into with the Power Unit Manufacturer.
So I have not read where Honda has notified the FIA that it is leaving or that either Mercedes, Ferrari or Renault has notified FIA that they are increasing the number of teams supplied.
Time for popcorn!
http://www.fia.com/file/56346/download/18817?token=3tFsAJzj
If you ask Alonso, I think he would prefer bicycle pedals to a Honda power unit in his cars. How many races has his Honda power unit let him down, including his IndyCar Indy 500 effort?
I ran out of fingers to keep count, it’s a shame that he could not even finish Indy.
love it... and back when tires where wider than they were tall
The Domination Game
This following article appeared in the July 2002 issue of MotorSport
Nigel Mansell and Williams blitzed their opposition throughout 1992, yet ended the year in acrimony. What went wrong?
by Adam Cooper, Paul Fearnley and David Malsher
He had a reputation for not being keen on testing. But there he was pounding round Estoril, in February. At seven days, this was the longest pre-season evaluation Williams, the most fastidious of teams, had ever done. For they had a very big decision to make: passive or active?
Nigel Mansell was beginning to dig the latter suspension, having been one of its sternest critics. But whatever the decision, he knew this would be his best chance of righting the 1986 Adelaide wrong.
He was fighting fit, extolling the virtues of his new Florida lifestyle - and he was on it. Every session. He'd often downplay the advantage he possessed in the shape of Adrian Newey's FW14B. But when he was in it, he couldn't help himself. He loved it. Revelled in it.
David Brown, race engineer: "Nigel was gagging for it at the beginning of the season. He'd obviously primed himself over the winter, and never let up. The active car was quick immediately. There was obviously an advantage in it, and as ever with Nigel, if there was an advantage, he'd adopt it and get on with it."
Adrian Newey: "Nigel quickly realised we had a very good car, and that his most likely rival for the title was going to be Riccardo [Patrese, his team-mate]. So he set about systematically demoralising him."
David Brown: "We had the ritual weigh-in at the first race [South African GP, Kyalami], and Nigel was determined to be lighter than Riccardo..."
Adrian Newey: "I remember something about a dummy helmet..."
David Brown: "There were all sorts of shenanigans. No stone was left unturned in this effort for Nigel to be lighter. And he was [76kg to 78]. He was chuffed; Riccardo got extremely Italian about it."
It was about to get a lot worse for Riccardo: his pole-sitting team-mate was 1.5s quicker in qualifying and romped to a 34sec victory...
Adrian Newey: "The car looked competitive but, as always, you're never quite sure where you are until that first race. To qualify on pole by a big margin and then win, without any serious reliability problems through the weekend, was really something."
David Brown: "Kyalami was a bit of a surprise - it was certainly a surprise to Riccardo how much quicker Nigel was."
Patrick Head: "In 1991, Nigel and Riccardo were close on performance, but in '92 Nigel stepped up. The main reason for this was the feeling and feedback from the active system. Nigel worked out that, if you persuaded yourself to trust it, it would be there once you had got into the corner. He adapted; Riccardo always wished it was a standard car."
Adrian Newey: "Nigel definitely outpsyched Riccardo, but I think he would have outdriven him in any case. The active car was suited to his style - aggressive, throw it in, have belief in it. You had to muscle it because it was generating so much downforce. In the high-speed corners, Nigel was much quicker; it didn't have power steering, which it should have done in hindsight, and Nigel has tremendous upperbody strength."
Riccardo Patrese: "Nigel also benefited more from the traction control than I did. The year before, exiting slow corners, I was always able to carry a little more speed because I controlled the power and traction better. In 1992, the computer controlled it."
Frank Williams: "Spain in the wet is the race that stands out for me. Nigel just disappeared at the start. When Michael Schumacher began pulling him in at about two-thirds distance, and we thought there was a problem. But when Michael got within 2sec, Nigel pulled away again at 2.5sec a lap."
David Brown: "We were all right in the dry, but when it got very wet, Schumacher started to reel him. We were all wondering what was going on; talking to Nigel after the race, so was he. He couldn't understand where Schumacher was getting his times from. In true Nigel fashion, he decided he must be doing something wrong and so started driving on all the weird bits of the circuit, off-line everywhere. He found a load of grip that way and went faster again."
On the track at least, it seemed Mansell had it all under control - and some of it under wraps... Adrian Newey: "He developed a couple of things that Patrick and I were slow to realise. There were various knobs in the cockpit that allowed you to change things such as ride height and the suspension settings. What Nigel would do was put them in one position, which is what would go down on the set-up sheets because, when you looked in the cockpit, that's where they were. (We didn't actually record those particular channels on the telemetry). Then he'd go out and, with David Brown's blessing, change them on the circuit. This developed to the point where Nigel and David would have a communal debrief as normal, them on one side of the table, Riccardo and his engineer on the other, but whatever they talked about was a load of rubbish mainly designed to fool Riccardo. Then they'd go away and have their proper debrief. From a team point of view, it was not constructive; from Nigel's point of view, it was quite smart."
David Brown: "We often discussed the car in relaxed circumstances out of hours. I don't think it was to the detriment of anybody in the team. Nigel required a bit of personal attention, and if that's what it took to get the best out of him as a driver, then I was happy to meet him in the evening. As far as debriefs are concerned, there was a structure and we adhered to that structure."
Adrian Newey: "What Nigel was doing was running the front much lower. He'd get a fair bit of performance out of it, though it would make the car more difficult to drive. Then in the debriefs Riccardo would say, 'I think I'll try going lower at the front', and Nigel would say, 'You don't want to do that, it's much quicker if it's higher.'"
Mansell was up against it in Magny-Cours, Patrese leading the early stages. Rain caused the race to be red-flagged, which is when Riccardo's season was turned on its ear...
Riccardo Patrese: "I think it had been decided at the beginning of the year that I couldn't go for the championship. But it was never said clearly to me, before Magny-Cours, that I had to be second. In my mind, I thought I could go for the title. That moment was a very sad one for me, because I was driving well and I could have won. But when they stopped the race Patrick told me. I think it was hard for him to say because he was always for me, but I realised I had to come down from my cloud."
Silverstone was next up - Mansell's Cloud Nine. Critics said his performance there proved he'd been holding back; believers said he'd just dug extra deep. Whatever, he pulled out a pole lap of apocalyptic proportions, almost 2secs faster than Patrese, 3sec ahead of Senna...
Patrick Head: Silverstone qualifying was pretty special."
David Brown: "The car was quite soft, and it used to move around a bit. Riccardo found it difficult at places like Copse Corner to put absolute faith in the car, whereas Nigel would just get on with it. He just had the confidence. Riccardo walked into the truck, came up to Nigel, looking very stern with his hands on his hips, and said, 'Stand up!' I thought, 'Oh my God, he's going to hit him!' Nigel stood up, and Riccardo stuck his hand out and said, 'Show me the size of them!'
By the time of Hockenheim, Prost was said to be a shoe-in for Williams. Mansell railed against this. He made it known he would be happier to have Senna alongside.
Riccardo Patrese: "I would have been happy to stay at Williams for 1993, but I thought there was no room, because Nigel was the champion and Prost was coming. It seemed to me incredible that an English driver could win the championship with an English team then leave for America. I was sure they'd find a compromise. I couldn't wait any longer and signed for Benetton."
Just hours before the Italian Grand Prix, though, Mansell announced his second retirement from F1; Indycars would be his focus in 1993.
Patrick Head: "It was rather a pity we weren't able to run Nigel in 1993. As it was, leaving enabled Nigel to win an Indy championship which probably meant more to him than another F1 title. The process we went through wasn't pleasant though."
Frank Williams: " Over the years the team had quite a few rocky moments, and Nigel didn't hesitate in expressing his disappointment in his own well-known way. But in 1992 things went well - for most of the year. Nigel had a winning car, but by that time he'd developed into an unstoppable driver. He was almost in a class of his own that year. We couldn't have won without him."
Or he without them. But modern F1, sadly, isn't all about winning.
https://www.riccardopatrese.com/the-domination-game/
Ferrari's F1 Team May Be at a Disadvantage for the Rest of 2017
Ferrari may have started 2017 with a bang, but their momentum could run out.
BY JAMES GILBOY JULY 20, 2017
The first third of this season of Formula One made Ferrari look almost unbeatable. Between Australia and Monaco, their two cars, piloted by Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel, took three wins and five other podium finishes. Combined, this totaled 196 points to Mercedes's 179. After Monaco, however, performance dropped off, and the two Ferrari drivers have since managed only a pair of podium finishes over four races. Mercedes has taken three wins and three other podium finishes in the same period. Sebastian Vettel still leads the World Drivers' Championship, but only by a single point, with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas a close two and three—and Vettel's teammate Räikkönen fifth, behind Ricciardo.
While the last few races have not been stellar for Ferrari, their performance could be reasonably chalked up to bad circumstances...and decisions, if we're to be fair. From here on out, though, Ferrari has some worrying factors to take into account.
Earlier this year, we reported on the possibility of grid penalties facing the team, as they were going through engine components like your uncle goes through Fireball. As of yet, no such penalties have been incurred, leading us to believe many of the components, such as the turbocharger, may be salvaged. Unless the Scuderia feels like putting their race finishes at risk, they may have to bite the bullet and install new parts.
Their once-staggering pace, which could only be foiled with flawless race strategy, is now faltering due to two factors. For one, the setup problems of the rival Mercedes W08 are all but fixed, which have ensured Mercedes three wins from the four races since Monaco. The other problem for Ferrari? Their chassis and engine no longer pair well. F1 Analisi Tecnica reports that Ferrari started the year with a brutish aero package, made effective by an engine that burned oil along with fuel in its combustion chamber. After the oil-burning controversy, however, they say Ferrari was forced to revise its engine, and is again behind the Mercedes in terms of power. That, combined with a less efficient aero package, is partially to blame for the reduced competitively of the SF70H in the last few races. The power boost they received in Britain did not seem to claw back much of the gap to Mercedes.
Ferrari needs to rebuild a championship lead with upgrades to the SF70H before they find themselves at risk for grid penalties late this season. With half the season gone already, time is fast running out.
good stuff both! thx...
Nice story about Mansell and Patrese. I remember when Mansell came to Indy in 1993; it was as big a thing as Fernando making a run this year. But when Mansell came back in 94 or 95, he’d gone to seed. He could barely fit in the car.
That must be some very interesting oil. Can burn without fouling the plugs, generate more horsepower and still lubricant the move parts of the engine for the race.
I remember watching Mansell pushing his broken race towards the finish line in 104 deg weather. That’s all I needed to see to know he had ‘no quit’.
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