The Official 2017 Formula One Season *Bahrain Results*

At least there's more Martini red and blue than is usually the case...

There's the usual rather inevitable lot of negativity about these cars on the social networks. I'm not sure what people were expecting to be honest.. it's been clear for ages the changes were a slightly wider car with mainly asthestic positioning changes to the wings. Oh and of course wider tyres. We've had reasonably good graphical representations for ages and yet it still seems that people envisaged a complete revolution in the laws of physics and aerodynamics.

Mind you.. It's the same every year.. that and the usual plonker with a cracked copy of Photoshop and a Twitter account who's decided that they're the expert on livery.

Personally I think the Williams, McLaren and Renault are nice looking. The Ferrari is the same 'meh' it's been ever since 1996. I'm not too keen on the Sauber and the Force India seems to have merged of all the annoyingly ugly appendages which had so upset everyone for the past decade. The Mercedes is not the prettiest but it does appear to the most 'elvolved' which is not that surprising given that they still have 99% of all the big named designers.

There's also the usual buzzwords flying around 'radical' 'aggressive' 'innovative'... these people need be slapped for these innovative features they point out always have visual precedents from the cars dating back as far as the 70s which I'm sure anyone with the knowledge of how to use google and share a picture on the Internet is only too pleased and eager to prove.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2017 04:45PM by J i m.

J i m Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There's the usual rather inevitable lot of
> negativity about these cars on the social
> networks. I'm not sure what people were expecting
> to be honest.. it's been clear for ages the
> changes were a slightly wider car with mainly
> asthestic positioning changes to the wings. Oh and
> of course wider tyres. We've had reasonably good
> graphical representations for ages and yet it
> still seems that people envisaged a complete
> revolution in the laws of physics and
> aerodynamics.
>
> Mind you.. It's the same every year.. that and the
> usual plonker with a cracked copy of Photoshop and
> a Twitter account who's decided that they're the
> expert on livery.
>
> Personally I think the Williams, McLaren and
> Renault are nice looking. The Ferrari is the same
> 'meh' it's been ever since 1996. I'm not too keen
> on the Sauber and the Force India seems to have
> merged of all the annoyingly ugly appendages which
> had so upset everyone for the past decade. The
> Mercedes is not the prettiest but it does appear
> to the most 'elvolved' which is not that
> surprising given that they still have 99% of all
> the big named designers.
>
> There's also the usual buzzwords flying around
> 'radical' 'aggressive' 'innovative'... these
> people need be slapped for these innovative
> features they point out always have visual
> precedents from the cars dating back as far as the
> 70s which I'm sure anyone with the knowledge of
> how to use google and share a picture on the
> Internet is only too pleased and eager to prove.

I really disagree about the Ferraris being 'meh' since 1996!
The 1997 and 98 cars are absolute stunners, with such beautiful, sleek lines. (Disregarding the brief use of tower wings)
The A1GP rear wings of this year's cars, coupled with the horrible noses, front wings with way too many planes, all that carp on the sidepods, dorsal fins, and the floors that now protrude so much that the cars look like they've been left on a minichamps stand, combine to make this years offerings the worst I can ever remember. They developed too many aero pieces in 2008, the regs did the right thing in reducing them for 09, but now it's even worse than 08 levels..

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Tahitian GP Circuit
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Easter Island Circuit
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For me the best era for Ferrari Beauty was late 80s upto and including 1995.

It's really not worse than 2008 levels.

Case in point:



That being said, I think I stand alone when I say that that Sauber was the most beautiful F1 car ever made post 2000.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2017 11:14PM by Laton.

Is it just me or is there somebody else thinking the Williams presentation pics are still no actual shots but just better renders?

I mean, look at the lighting and the shadows ... I'd swear this is a render! Which is funny because so far all car magazines I checked took them for real pictures. But to me it just looks like a render our great Spidey could throw in here any time as well.


GPGSL : Team Owner of 'Maverick Track Performance' (MTP)

That '08 McLaren was hideous :-/

JohnMaverick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is it just me or is there somebody else thinking
> the Williams presentation pics are still no actual
> shots but just better renders?
>
> I mean, look at the lighting and the shadows ...
> I'd swear this is a render! Which is funny because
> so far all car magazines I checked took them for
> real pictures. But to me it just looks like a
> render our great Spidey could throw in here any
> time as well.

I thought that. I do not think it is a render, but I think something strange is going on (at first I though they'd delayed the launch to wait on JCB) because the images they have released aren't giving much away in terms of detail. I wonder if they have something on there they don't want anybody to see... it still doesn't feel "launched".

I too thought the later Williams pics were renders as they simply do not look photographic.

Looking at the Ferrari around Fiorano, the theme this year is going to be braking deep into the corners with a hint of trail-braking (not quite GPL-style trail braking of course!).

Think how they braked into the second hairpin at Magny-Cours - that looks like it will be more common. I don't think we're going to see too many Verstappen lunges.

That Ferrari looks mighty fast. Some people are thinking 2-3 seconds over last year track dependant (remember the benchmark was 4-5 seconds over 2015, not 2016), but it wouldn't surprise me if they aren't stupidly quick by the end of the year.

video: [www.youtube.com]

Midland returns.

The new Bull is out also... look just like last year's care updated for the regs... on first glance.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2017 01:19PM by Laton.

Funky little details on the front wing... hard to see in the image but is that a hole in the end of the nose cone?

I can't say I've seen a nose like that before. Presumably just a very obvious s-duct.

It looks very basic otherwise. Just a basic livery launch or are they and McLaren both heading down the low drag route? It seems odd they would just do a dumbed-down livery launch yet leave that nose on the car, so I don't imagine it will look too different when it takes to the track in Melbourne.

Masses of rake on the McLaren in their filming day when Alonso ran this morning (with no obvious problems yet given that Vandoorne is running this afternoon).

Unlike the new Renault ERS which pegged it after 6 laps, apparently.

Feel like they've evolved from HRT into Midland now. It looks a lot sleeker, but again... no real corporate identity, poor choice of colours, there's just very little thought gone into a number of these liveries this year.

Regarding the strange duct. I'm guessing journalists know more than us, but it's hard to tell if that is an actual opening or a square face.

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2017 06:14PM by IWE.

Love it!!!!

What a gorgeous car.