Formula 1 2015

[sombrio]

Hi all,

I'm embarrassed to admit this on a car site, but I completely missed the beginning of this F1 season, and apparently a great deal of offseason drama with McLaren as well. I followed about 70% of last season, which generally seemed like a weird mirror-universe version of when I watched in the early 2000s. It seemed like for most of the season, Mercedes was dominant and the only question was how big the lead would be and which driver would win (at least that part was better than Schumacher/Barrichello circa 2002). I thought--or maybe just sort of assumed--McLaren-Honda would resurrect the success of the old days. Then I was reading a Reddit football thread the other day about the 49ers' disastrous offseason (sorry, 49ers fans) and someone compared it to McLaren's offseason this year. I had no idea! Apparently there were testing woes all offseason, engine problems, lack of mileage completed, and finally a weird crash where Alonso may or may not have been shocked into unconsciousness by the engine's electrical system. Weird stuff!

I've looked up some of it but basically what you see above is all I've gathered, and then of course McLaren had one DNS and one last-place finish this past race in Australia. So--if anyone on here is still a F1 fan--what the hell is going on with McLaren? Obviously people overreact to Week 1 results, in F1 as in any sport, but it seems so far like a legitimate disaster of an offseason. And what have I missed with the other teams? And... maybe I'm superficial... but... do the engines sound any cooler this year?

[Talon]

McLaren are dumb. They had the best engine on the grid (Merc) since the 1.6T switch... and out the blue they switch to Honda who haven't been in F1 since the Senna days (if I recall). And as one would expect, there have been a lot of teething issues. I think having a car finish Oz-land was almost a win for them. One didn't even make the grid and even though Button finished 11th, that sounds respectable until you realize only 11 cars finished. I am hoping Alonso races in Malaysia but we'll see. But, as far as McLaren's woes in the off season, you pretty much got the gist.

After the first race, it seems Mercedes will again dominate and get all one/twos so long as their cars are reliable... which is unfortunate. The other teams seem to be racing for third. I am very stoked about Ferrari this year as I feel that they have a very good car. I think they will be contending with Williams for P2 in constructors.

[Talon]

Changes for the other teams, other than doing what they can to upgrade the cars:

Vettel is now a Ferrari driver which I'm okay with. As bad as Ferrari did last year I was surprised he went there. RBR had their issues, but still finished P2 in constructors and RIC finished P3. Anyway, I never liked Seb much, especially after he dominated in 2013. But, after watching him struggle last year (and lol'ing all the way) I am okay with him moving to Ferrari and actually pull for him now. Ferrari are my favorite team, mainly because Raikkonen is my favorite driver.

Sauber have two new drivers (Nasr and Erikson) and seem to be much better than last year.

Kvyatt is now with RBR after Vettel left, so STR has Sainz Jr to take is seat. Verstappen, also with STR is 17 and change... youngest driver in F1 history.

Caterham is gone and Marussia is now Manor Marussia after financial troubles. They [MM] missed the first race.

The new engines might sound a little different, but hard to tell. Would have to hear them side-by-side.

That's about all I know.

[thewalrus]

I've really fallen off of F1. I remember back in the heyday of AF - undergrad, law school... I was watching every race. Getting up at 5:00 AM, or earlier, to catch the start. Attaching myself to teams and drivers (always wanted Scott Speed to do something). Watching the rankings. Following the news.

About (holy shit) 8 years ago I just stopped. Didn't stop loving cars. But F1 didn't do it for me anymore. Not a lot of racing did. And now I just have a hard time getting back into it - lot of new names to learn, new teams to look into, new technology to get updated on. Plus, it's not as though I'm hearing great things from the people who do watch it - competitiveness is low, racing intensity is down, parity between teams is down, the historic courses are being eclipsed by these new, boring track designs, etc. etc. etc.

I might get back into it at some point - but there'd have to be some changes to the sport before I think I could really follow it again.

[thewalrus]

[Les / Vipers Rule]

McLaren and Honda will get up to speed sooner than one may think. Honda is 1 year behind in the Turbo 1.6 era but they had a great relationship with McLaren back in the day and I trust they will again. McLaren did not like being a customer to Mercedes. Call it pride or what have you. They are the second winningest team in F1 history and being seen as not a top dog is not their thing. Surely they know it will take time to mature a relationship with Honda and get the engine up to speed. I don't like seeing them struggle but it will soon pay off with Honda. My biggest beef with McLaren for 2105 was them keeping the same basic paint colour. While with Mercedes I could see silver being a part of the scheme but I was so hoping for a more retro red and white scheme akin to the old Marlboro days. Yes, yes I know they can't have any type of cigarette advertizing scheme (B.S. as tobacco is still legal and no I don't smoke the shit nor recommend anyone doing so) But I was hoping for a fantastic McLaren red and white colour scheme. Maybe next year.

F1 in general. OMG talk about not seeing the shit storm coming. Having only 8 teams on the grid in Aussieland and 2 of them only having one car each was BAD! Marussia (Manor) were there but did not run a lap on the weekend. BACK MARKER ANYWAYS! They probably would be 4-5-6 seconds off the pace. But F1 needs to get its financial shit in order. But the top dogs Ferrari being most political and influential followed then by Mercedes, Red Bull, a lesser extent down to McLaren, Lotus and Williams are all too myopic. Monies earned must be better distributed among all teams even the small ones.

Mercedes will need rules adjustment to be reigned in or people will stop watching. I normally do not like too much messing with rules especially during a season but right now Mercedes is by a long shot the best engine, car and team and F1 has made rules adjustments in the past to bring the top of the grid closer together. They need to do so now

My bigger beef is the general rules and such of F1 today. Too many of these pissy regs, too many side show type rules, and not enough money watching regs. Too much of this faux green idealism and not enough about MOTORSPORT! Leave the faux green shit to dopes who buy Priuses and shit like that and leave green racing to Formula E where likely soon nobody will care to watch anyways.

F1 is about TOP DOGS! TOP ENGINEERING, TOP DRIVERS AND TOP TRACKS! OH YEAH AND YES! SOME DANGER! The drivers today drive more like idiots because there is little risk to injury now with all these Herman Tilke designed tracks which are FOR THE MOST PART DAMNED BORING! The great tracks, what few are left are where it should be, not these OVERLY SAFE, OVERLY PROCESSIONAL, OVERLY BORING TILKE DESIGNED TRACKS!

[Les / Vipers Rule]

[Les / Vipers Rule]

Oh yeah I still hate the Podium interview but Arnold Schwarzenegger doing it in Australia was cool. But how many here feel he did not know or failed to recall Nico Rosberg's and Sebastian Vettel's names? He never called either by their names. Lewis he knew and they hit it off well together. The "I'll Be Back" thing was cool between the two of them. BUT REGARDLESS, I STILL HATE THE FUCKING PODIUM INTERVIEWS! TALK ABOUT CHEEZY AND AMATEURISH! Please go back to the studio post race interviews F1.

[Talon]

[Talon]

[Pennzoil GT-R]

[Les / Vipers Rule]

[sombrio]

[Les / Vipers Rule]

Bingo, Boom, Chakalaka, YOU NAILED IT VERY WELL Sombrio!

I agree with what you posted.

I too think the best way to keep a sport like F1 interesting and viable for many and/or more teams would be a budget cap. Yes, there would be some cheating but if F1 got a lot of serious accountants to look over how, who and when books are looked at, it would be better than the crap we see today.

OPEN UP THE RULES once a budget cap is in place. Yes, we need rules and such but allow a diversity of engine options, and other stuff. Keep car requirements and measures to an enforced minimum. Allow creative designers and engineers to work within a prescribed budget cap. If Team "A" plows more money into engine and transmission at the expense of other things, but Team "B" puts more into chassis and suspension and say Team "C" maybe doing it all more balanced we would see much more interesting cars and racing.

The rules should not be "A" weighted to corporate idealism and marketing in any direct way as you have written. By all means allow corporations a place but it should be about the sport not corporate marketing.

Monies earned through FIA must also be more equitably shared by all teams.

[tut]

I know not much about f1. but i'll drop my 2c in anyway: fuel flow restrictions are shit. you get to the finish in one tank, with enough left over to sample, then why on earth do you need fuel flow restrictions? ricci should've won that race last year.


also, I saw ricci win in spa last year. which was cool.


also, I've noticed, GP2 is heaps more exciting than f1. and sounds better, too. and all the drivers are really giving it their all, to show they're f1 material



they should really do one of 2 things. either give everyone the same car, and let the better driver win, or give teams a guideline about dimensions, general performance minimums and rough budget, and let the, sort out whatever they want. if they want an oddball supercharged 660cc car, or a twin turbo v12, as long as it fits the budget rules, why not.

[ryguy79]

I don't think I've watched F1 since V10s went away. They sounded AMAZING at Indy.

[Turbojett]

I honestly haven't been paying very much attention lately myself. probably for about the past couple years. I dunno why, but I'm just not feeling it anymore.

[Talon]

Les, why are you so against driver safety? You really want the cars to be less safe so more drivers get hurt/killed like the old days? The drivers are going to push their machines to the absolute limit regardless of how safe they are. I'd be curious to see what the Bianchi family thinks about your 'the cars are too safe' rant. Maybe you should disconnect your airbags and never use your seat belt again... you'll probably drive safer that way.

I am also not a big fan of the 1.6T motor, but there is more to it than just "look at use, we use less gas and stuff!!!" Eventually this technology makes it way down to normal civilian cars. There are probably thousands of innovations on today's every day street cars that have come from racing, in one form or another.

All that being said, there is a general 'problem' with F1 in that the rich get richer and the poor... well, die. Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes probably spend more in a week than Marussia spends all year. However, I don't want F1 to become the next NASCAR or Indy car where all the cars are 99% the same. That'a boring. I like the team/company individualism. There are haves and have-nots... but that's not so different than life sometimes, yea?

[Les / Vipers Rule]

Talon, I'm not against driver safety, the cars are exceedingly safe. But the point is the tracks are engineered to a point where drivers now drive more like idiots because if they wind up off track there is often little care that they will beech or wreak their cars. This makes them more dangerous to other racers who often get caught up in such idiocy. My point has been voiced by many F1 drivers of experience as well as those in the F1 industry.

I'm not saying make cars dangerous but stop making the tracks so easy to get out of driving trouble with. Paved run offs that go on for hundreds of feet makes an idiot behind the wheel get his proverbial get out of jail free card. Surely you have seen more and more newbie F1 drivers drive more and more idiot like a times. Why should they worry? If they make a mistake and go off track they probably just slow down and drive right back on. BUT! in the mean time they may have forced another driver off track, maybe he may have crashed as he was unaware of such idiocy by the other driver and /or be put out of place and such.

The Bianchi issue was a regulations mistake and enforcement of car removal gear on track in a down pour. It was a tragic event.

I say do away with paved run offs, return to gravel traps and put up better crash engineered barriers to run into if a car goes through the gravel trap and then hits the barrier. This way a driver knows that if he is an idiot on track and causes himself to run off he's probably going to be out of the race.

Same with the run off strips that drivers use going through corners. My God, they get right off the track now and simply drive through these curves. The artificial grass is just a run off strip. Thankfully in wet it is as slippery as ice but then it's wet and drivers slow down and do not go off into these run off strips in corners.

I just watched yesterday on DVD the Canadian GP of 1989. The CHAMPIONS WALL before the start finish did not have the strip of run off. The cars, including drivers such as Senna, Prost, Mansell etc. STAYED AWAY FROM THE RUMBLE STRIP! In other words they slowed down heading the warning that any off will put them in the wall and as such chose a smarter driving line. Once Montreal added the run off (early 2000's) is when we started seeing drivers use it and as such at times run into a side swipe on the wall. WHY? why must that be a part of an F1 track? All too many F1 tracks today have run off strips on corners that drivers then just use as if they were all extensions of the track. It just creates STUPID DRIVERS! It does not increase value to the sport nor reward the smarter and safer drivers.

[sombrio]

Talon - I understand the argument that the haves and have-nots are a natural part of life, but shouldn't we keep that out of sport? Is it fun for anyone but fans of Team X to watch Team X buy its way to a championship? For example, I'm a huge (American) football fan these days. The league has a salary cap and the overall competition is better for it: the salary cap makes the overall level of talent between teams roughly (ROUGHLY!) equal, which means the competition is more about how teams utilize their resources and less about how many resources they have. If what we really wanted were to watch the rich succeed and the poor fail, wouldn't we all be watching investment banking on national TV? I think F1 could use a lot more of the "any given Sunday" aspect that is present in the NFL.

Les - Just to play devil's advocate, wouldn't what you're suggesting result in even less passing? It seems like you're against DRS, "push-to-pass" systems, and all that kind of stuff in general. So suppose you're in charge of a racing league that implements these rules. If you have unforgiving tracks and no DRS, won't you end up with processional races like what we saw in the early 2000s? You could address that by getting rid of some of the aerodynamic stuff, but now your fans are outraged because "the cars are slower than they used to be" and "it's not real racing if you're making rules to slow down the cars." What do you *do*, maaaannn?

Fun discussion. It's been a while since I had anyone to talk to about F1! I am definitely going to try to follow this season.