The Official 2012 Formula 1 season..ched

[noshownogo]

Maldonado is reminding me of Ayrton Senna, dude is not afraid to trade paint. F1 no longer tolerates this and he may be better suited for Nascar.

[Victory_Specification]

in the trading paint sense yeah; but I don't think he has the talent to warrant those kinds of maneuvers yet. His team mate is doing alot better than him as well.

I could be wrong thought; maybe he's the next 'juan pablo montoya', but still, NASCAR and Rolex sports car racing to cause even more trouble next.

[adriano7910]

i wish i cld see F1 governing body enforce a law that would restrict the maximum contract length of a driver to 2 yrs. this way it would stop the teams for locking in drivers for so long and also help in kicking out under performing drivers.. it would be better for the sport as every-time a driver changes teams anticipation and hype raises the sports popularity

[roadracer7]

Tech Talk: Hungary shows Lotus getting ever closer
By Eurosport | Will Gray – Tue, Jul 31, 2012 13:06 BST
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Lewis Hamilton's third victory in Hungary may have looked like a cruise — but Kimi Raikkonen's impressive performance shows Lotus have the speed and intelligence to cement their place at the front.
Lotus have been slowly chipping away with their performance this season and, statistically, are looking one of the most consistent teams on the grid — one of only two teams to have claimed two double podiums and one of very few that have shown performance on a wide range of different tracks.
In Hungary, victory was again elusive but they moved a step closer when they finally secured a front row slot. Romain Grosjean qualified second behind Hamilton and, starting from there, they had claimed, they would have the chance to chase down the win.
Indeed, Grosjean was within a second of Hamilton and was matching the McLaren's times until the second set of stops but running in dirty air hurt his ability to protect his tyres. He was the first of the pair to stop and McLaren were comfortably able to cover.
In contrast, his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen may have had to fight through the field having started fifth on the grid, but he was on the attack right to the finish.
Raikkonen dropped back to sixth behind Fernando Alonso on the first lap after which, as you would expect in Hungary, he got stuck until the first round of pit stops. But the key to Raikkonen jumping up through the field was his ability to maximise the length of his tyre stints, as shown in the pit stop strategies below:

Raikkonen's first stop was around 0.4s slower than Alonso's, but it was the fact the Finn stopped three laps later than Alonso that got him past. In those three laps, Alonso had an out lap then ran a 1m29.1s and a 1m28.1s while Raikkonen, who had been right behind the Ferrari, did a 1m28.3s, 1m27.6s and 1m27.7s - plenty to get him ahead.
It was the second stint that played out best for Raikkonen, however. Having come out in fourth with a five-second gap to third-placed Vettel, whose true pace was slowed by the McLaren of Button in front of him, the Lotus driver had the space to manage his pace well.
In the early part of that stint (laps 20-30), all the lead bunch were running in the mid-1m27s but Raikkonen was averaging a little better and also punched in three laps in the 1m26s to close the gap when he had the space to do so without damaging his tyres.
Button moved out of Vettel's way on lap 34, when McLaren opted for a three-stop strategy (which ultimately proved the wrong one to take), and that put the Red Bull driver's speed up dramatically — although Raikkonen was still consistently faster than all three men in front of him, as shown below:

The clean air meant Raikkonen was able to go six laps further than Grosjean and seven laps further than Vettel on his second set of tyres before they started to show signs of fading — and that allowed him to comfortably jump Vettel and narrowly move ahead of Grosjean for second.
It was then on to race for the win.
With tyres three laps fresher than Hamilton's, he could push to close the 4.4s gap and it dropped to just under a second in six laps. But, Hungary being such a difficult track to overtake on, that is where it stayed. Even DRS could not help Raikkonen get that final push.
The satisfying thing for Lotus, however, is that not only did they show they had the race pace they also took a new approach to qualifying that enabled them, for the first time, to hit the front of the grid.
On any other track, victory could have been theirs. Surely, now, it's only a matter of time.http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/will-gray/tech-talk-hungary-shows-lotus-getting-ever-closer-120609862.html

[Rory Phoulorie]

i wish i cld see F1 governing body enforce a law that would restrict the maximum contract length of a driver to 2 yrs. this way it would stop the teams for locking in drivers for so long and also help in kicking out under performing drivers.. it would be better for the sport as every-time a driver changes teams anticipation and hype raises the sports popularity

Yes, I could see it now. Blockbuster television ratings with Vettel and Webber in STR; Raikkonen and Grosjean in Caterham; Alonso and Massa in Marussia; and Hamilton and Button in HRT.

[adriano7910]

i wish i cld see F1 governing body enforce a law that would restrict the maximum contract length of a driver to 2 yrs. this way it would stop the teams for locking in drivers for so long and also help in kicking out under performing drivers.. it would be better for the sport as every-time a driver changes teams anticipation and hype raises the sports popularity

Yes, I could see it now. Blockbuster television ratings with Vettel and Webber in STR; Raikkonen and Grosjean in Caterham; Alonso and Massa in Marussia; and Hamilton and Button in HRT.

apparently u dont realise regular changes with big name signings btn big teams equal for publicity and greater anticipation. thank god your not in marketing or public realtions

[Victory_Specification]

Good job by Button on getting pole.

After the penalty for impeding another driver, Maldonado starts in front of Lewis in 6th.
(hope Maldonado doesn't crash into anyone)

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/9/13729.html


I wonder where Ferrari are though, in terms of the development game. Did Mclaren jump them with Alonso only in 5th?

[Rory Phoulorie]

. . . .I wonder where Ferrari are though, in terms of the development game. Did Mclaren jump them with Alonso only in 5th?

Ferrari were never ahead of McLaren in rate of development. Alonso is just a better driver than either Button or Hamilton. He can drive around the Ferrari's problems.

[Victory_Specification]

. . . .I wonder where Ferrari are though, in terms of the development game. Did Mclaren jump them with Alonso only in 5th?

Ferrari were never ahead of McLaren in rate of development. Alonso is just a better driver than either Button or Hamilton. He can drive around the Ferrari's problems.

Don't fully agree with that.

Alonso's skill and race craft is one of the best in the paddock; but it would be going a little to far to say he's black and white better than button or hamilton. If he was so much better than lewis he wouldn't of had so much trouble in 2007 when he moved to mclaren, and caused drama. If he was better it would have showed and he would have out performed lewis without having to sabotage pit stops etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if Alonso took the championship this year though, it wouldnt be all down to him though; they changed almost everything on that ferrari.

6:04

[roadracer7]

i wouldn't write of the dark/gold horse for the championship

[Victory_Specification]

^ absolutely not. But either way you take it, every driver has a ladder to climb to catch Alonso. These past 3 seasons in formula 1 have been the closest for a long time. I hope it stays that way for the remainder of the season. We should know who stands where by the end of today. I'm so excited for the race! Plus I think BBC has this coverage over Sky F1, looking forward to seeing Eddie, Jake, and DC do the pre race show!

[MG Man]

holy cow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MG Man]

Kimi on the nasty german O_O
WHATAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[adriano7910]

^^^ go sit on something sharp

[jeevdude199]

Maldonado and Grogon keep crashing and no action is taken, Lewis has a 'shunt' and he gets put to the back of the grid. No wonder he's fed up...

[jeevdude199]

[MG Man]

Maldonado and Grogon keep crashing and no action is taken, Lewis has a 'shunt' and he gets put to the back of the grid. No wonder he's fed up...

oh please
lewis is a twat

[Victory_Specification]

Grosjean yuh MC.

Good job by Button though. Might not be all down to Alonso after all

I really think Williams made a mistake trading Barrichello for Maldonado. The man jump the start - what next? Surprised he wasn't the one causing the plane crash at the beginning.

[MG Man]

jeevdede, you can unwind your knickers now....the man got a 1 race ban

[Victory_Specification]

Maldonado and Grogon keep crashing and no action is taken, Lewis has a 'shunt' and he gets put to the back of the grid. No wonder he's fed up...

oh please
lewis is a twat

He shouldn't have tweeted the car's telemetry on Saturday. Very disappointed with that one.

[tiger balm]

He shouldn't have tweeted the car's telemetry on Saturday. Very disappointed with that one.

Agree. I like him as a racer and what he represents as a black man in a traditionally (before anybody jump down meh throat) privileged white man's sport. Always want him to win. However that was a real stupid decision. I don't know how much data other teams can gather from it but as one of his team leaders implied he betrayed their trust and disrespected the engineers and disregarded what their work means to them. He had better apologize to the entire team both privately and publicly (should make sure and use twitter for that too). Mightn't help though.

He has shown that he still isn't mentally strong for F1. Why you have to try to prove to everybody that JB was only that fast bcuz of the Spa rear wing? Could've used the next race, beat JB left, right, front and center and prove that Spa was a one off. But noo. Had to go and tweet with the blood/ panic rushing to his head. So silly. Possibly damaged his negotiations, relations with his engineers and the team etc. and made annoying JB look good.

Such a stupid move on his part. Should get a huge fine for that piece of nonsense and learn to tweet wisely. Very disappointing.

[jeevdude199]

jeevdede, you can unwind your knickers now....the man got a 1 race ban

Not harsh enough of a penalty given the severity of the accident....

[jeevdude199]

btw not a lewis fanboy jus trolling A bit

[plex]

Closed cockpits now appear 'inevitable' for Formula 1 in future

Closed cockpits now appear to be inevitable in Formula 1, with technical chiefs set to ramp up efforts to bring them in following Fernando Alonso's lucky escape in the first lap crash at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Romain Grosjean's Lotus flew over the front of Alonso's cockpit in the pile-up, and it was fortunate that the Ferrari driver did not suffer any impact on his helmet.

The good fortune served to highlight the biggest weakness in the modern safety design of F1 cars, and comes as the FIA Institute and technical figures continue work on closed cockpit concepts.

McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe thinks the first corner crash will serve as a reminder about how important this work is and increase a push being made to change cockpit designs for as early as 2014.

"I think 2014 is intended, as we started the project a year ago," said Lowe, who has been involved in work on the cockpit project. "Personally I think something is inevitable because it is the one big [safety] exposure that we have got.

"You see it time and time again and think 'that was lucky'. One day it won't be lucky. At the same time it is an open cockpit formula so we have to protect that, but it should be technically possible one way or another."

Work on closed cockpits ramped up after the injuries that Felipe Massa suffered at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix when he was hit on the head by a car component, just a few days after Henry Surtees was killed in a Formula 2 race when he was struck by a wheel.

Lowe says that an initial focus on canopy protection has now been abandoned, with tests highlighting that a bar/cage type design is much better.

"We have made a test piece and it has been tested structurally with various impacts, like firing wheels at it, and that was successful.

"So we understand some of the parameters in terms of the angles that are needed and the strength of the pieces. The work that is currently in progress is assessing its visibility, and we've done some work on the simulator with our interpretation.

"Ideally a driver wants nothing in the way, but in the same way as you drive a road car or even the old VW camper van with the centre pillar, you just get used to it don't you? We found that as long as the pillars don't get too big it is something you can get used to.

"So we have some parameters about pillar size, and now we are looking at making something with that pillar size and to the right strength requirement."

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says that work on closed cockpits should not be rushed though, because there are numerous safety considerations needed.

"We were lucky because nothing happened to Fernando on the head," he said.

"We are working with the federation to work on the right system of protection, because on what we are testing and working on, there are also some problems that you may have - like moving the protection in the event of a fire or worse. So we need to be very careful on all these devices."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102213

[Rory Phoulorie]

[Victory_Specification]

i guess this not so farfetched after all.

would love to see 24 of those fighting around spa!

[MG Man]

jeevdede, you can unwind your knickers now....the man got a 1 race ban

Not harsh enough of a penalty given the severity of the accident....

penalties are not handed out based on the end result, but on the action that sparked the incident.......in his defense, he did what MOST of the hot shots do in F1 nowadays anyway, which is to pull on the guy next to you and force him to the edge of the track...something pioneered by the nasty german, and now emulated by all the new twits.......in this case, he was just unlucky enough to bump hamfarthole and spark an incident......

[roadracer7]

inside story: grosjean was clearly in front,hammy didn't want to go out to pasture and because he was sulking about button getting the pole,so he took himself out of the race..................

[MG Man]

lol sounds plausible

[turbohead]

that gt redbull car is the sheit...i took it for a spin and it jus too fast