The 2014 Formula One Season

I'm more intrigued into how Albers will fare as team principal - a position taken with immediate effect. Pretty sure he's had no experience like that - last such driver-principal I remember was Prost?

Also, with Kolles involved in that Romanian Forza Rossa thing, I have to admit - I'm slightly confused as to his working with both parties

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

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EC83
How recently, out of interest? The 2013 VJM06 was supposedly a complete redesign of the previous car, is that when the transition happened?

No-one seems to know for certain, but with the lowered front-end for 2014 it probably needed enough of a change to require a new design of chassis anyway. I'd guess it was around 2010/11 myself.

The chassis, in design terms, is just the backbone - so long as it's solid enough and the mounts are in roughly the correct place, you could get away with using it until it indefinitely. I presume that didn't happen in Force India's case - they would have moulded new chassis, but to the basic design of the old Jordan one. You could design a whole new car, but so long as the bodywork fitted on top of the chassis, you could get away with keeping it. The chassis isn't, performance wise, the fundamental part of the car it used to be. I'd imagine the safety changes required of the chassis itself have been fairly minor too - the crumple zones around it have obviously changed an awful lot, but I doubt the chassis has required significant changes.

Incident 2k9 Wrote:
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> marcl Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So Caterham have been sold to the idiot Colin
> > Kolles, they probably wont be around much
> longer
> > with him running things.
> >
> > [www.bbc.co.uk]
> >
> > They will probably try and use the same car for
> > the next 10 years and just run the team into
> the
> > ground.
> >
> > Then when things get tough try and blackmail
> other
> > team bosses.
>
> Firstly, the team was sold to Swiss and Middle
> Eastern investors and NOT Kolles himself. Kolles
> only acted as an advisor in the sale.
>
> Secondly, Kolles is no idiot. He had absolutely no
> money whatsoever to work with at HRT, and managed
> to keep them alive when most expected them to go
> belly-up. Only when he left the team before 2012
> did things start to go belly up. The "using the
> same car" is a bit of a misinterpretation; the HRT
> chassis was the same for their cars, granted, but
> that's only the monocoque itself. Most of the
> bodywork had been updated, as had the internals.
> Force India until recently were still using the
> old Jordan monocoque, for example.
>
> Please get your facts straight in future.

So it's ok for him to blackmail Wolff then? Sorry to me the guy has only been involved in failed attempts and this in my view will be the next one.

He will be part of the setup of the team, yes he's not running it directly but he will be keeping an eye on the running and will be at races.

Yes hrt had little money, neither did virgin but through good management they kept going.

To me the guy has no place in f1, you cannot go round trying to blackmail other team bosses for money. So in my view he's not a nice guy and not the right man to advise people.

[www.f1zone.net]

He's been trying to worm his way back into f1 for years and as normal through others investment.

From what was said earlier in the year force India are still using the old Jordan tub and won't have a new design until next year. Caterham are also meant to be using the same car they started with but with different body work etc.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2014 11:28PM by marcl.

I don't condone blackmail, but that's in the past. By that logic, we shouldn't allow Gene Haas into F1 because he was accused of tax evasion and Adrian Sutil shouldn't be in a seat because his champagne glass appeared to enter Eric Lux's skin.

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marcl
Sorry to me the guy has only been involved in failed attempts and this in my view will be the next one.

HRT only failed after The Dentist left, and Midland's owner Alex Shnaider refused to put his money where his mouth was. It's all circumstantial.

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marcl
Yes hrt had little money, neither did virgin but through good management they kept going.

So did HRT under Kolles! From what I've heard, HRT had a running budget around $10m less than Virgin. When Kolles left, HRT forked out on their base at La Caja Magica and subsequently faded. Another increase in HRT's expenditure in 2012 was the manufacture; Kolles preferred Holzer since they were cheap and built the car quickly. When Perez-Sala took over, he felt that Carbotech provided superior build quality and hired them to build the aborted F113. However, this came at an inflated price and sent the team further down their death knell.

Sure, his management style isn't pretty, but it's effective on a shoestring.

Quote
marcl
To me the guy has no place in f1, you cannot go round trying to blackmail other team bosses for money. So in my view he's not a nice guy and not the right man to advise people.

This is all "to me" and "in my view". However, the facts dictate that he's shown he's an able team principal and he's run many race teams apart from those in F1. Whether he's a nice guy or not is irrelevant. The world isn't all bubblegum and unicorns.

We don't know how Kolles fits into the running of the team, so this argument is pointless right now. Again though, I don't think you can judge who should and shouldn't be in F1 on past indiscretions. Pat Symonds fixed a race and he's allowed back in the fold, so I don't see how this differs much. It's not like he's killed a man.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2014 12:07AM by Incident 2k9.

I think Kolles only 'brokered' the Caterham sale as he's still otherwise involved with one of the other proposed new teams.

If so then I have misunderstood whats been said on twitter etc.

I am under the impression that Kolles brokered the sale and will be giving his friend Albers some advice

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

FRIC suspension systems have been declared illegal: [www.autosport.com]

What the fric? Are the FIA seriously as dumb as to ban a fundamental component of several cars (I believe Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren and Williams) mid-season? You know what happened with the mid-season ban on blown diffusers in 2011...

...here's hoping that the teams pull together to get this ban delayed

In other news, I read that Red Bull are pushing for Sainz Jr. to be placed in a Caterham race seat later this season - Red Bull obviously have quite a nice relationship with Mr. Kolles!

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2014 09:55AM by smoglessbutton4.

It should be easy to get the rule delayed as it will affect all the main teams that provide engines for everyone else lol.

I just hope they all agree anyway.

Testing Pirelli's 18-inch tyres, hope they'll never ever introduce them.

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Some mods
F1 1996 | F1 2002 | F1 2007 | F1 2011 | F1 2013 | F1 2015 | F1 2018

why?

kedy89 Wrote:
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> Testing Pirelli's 18-inch tyres, hope they'll
> never ever introduce them.
>
> [pbs.twimg.com]

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

Those rims and low profile tyres just look plain odd on an F1 car.

For me the rear wheels look fine, with their deeper bin, but the fronts do stand out a bit too much much.

I'm sure we'd get used to it though - we've had hundreds of different combinations over the decades and they all serve to add their own character to their era when looking back.

Actually saw them unveiled yesterday in the Silverstone pit lane. Some initial ums and arghs, but the general consensus is hell, we'll get used to it.

To be honest they look fine once they are on the car, look a touch silly when side to side with the old 13-inch wheels though.

Still, at least it has some road relevance.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

Reminds me of those cartoons of cars with the huge baggy flared wheels.

I'd be in favour of it. The sport is constantly evolving and changing and the look of the cars should too.

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Iirc Michelin already suggested that type of rims a couple of years ago.
I wonder in what way the handling of the cars is changed by these tyres. The slip angle should be quite different imo.

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld

Michelin said they'd only consider a return to the sport if 18-inch tyres - like the ones they use in Formula E - were mandatory.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

n00binio Wrote:
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> Iirc Michelin already suggested that type of rims
> a couple of years ago.
> I wonder in what way the handling of the cars is
> changed by these tyres. The slip angle should be
> quite different imo.

According to preliminary reports, the handling is a lot more nervous and abrupt. It's hard to know if that would persist with properly developed tyres, instead of the current early concept prototypes.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Morbid schrieb:
-------------------------------------------------------
> n00binio Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Iirc Michelin already suggested that type of
> rims
> > a couple of years ago.
> > I wonder in what way the handling of the cars
> is
> > changed by these tyres. The slip angle should
> be
> > quite different imo.
>
> According to preliminary reports, the handling is
> a lot more nervous and abrupt. It's hard to know
> if that would persist with properly developed
> tyres, instead of the current early concept
> prototypes.

I see, thanks for the information. I think that makes sense, the huge tyrewalls on the small rims probably soften abrupt movements of the tyres a bit.

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld