The 2011 Formula One Season

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chet
Gav - just had to check whether i said radical or not :p

I don't mind people who know something (ie most of us posting in this forum) calling something radical, it's the stereotypical armchair British-supporting Brits who couldn't possibly like anyone else, and think something which looks different must automatically be 'radical'.

The blown diffuser, although also done decades earlier, was by modern standards radical. The zero-keel. The twin brake pedals. The double-decker diffuser. The f-duct. The front-exit exhaust. All relatively small things (barring the brake pedals, which I think was brilliant), but they have a big effect.

What McLaren have done is moved the radiator entry holes slightly and shrunk the bodywork in a different place. It's just a different take on getting more flow to the rear wing and lower extremities of the rear of the car - it's the same as every other team but which looks different. I do like that the car looks different, and wished all the cars looked less similar, but externally at least, it's not radical. It's like calling the 2010 Mercedes air-box radical, when in reality it was just a slightly different take on the same idea and done for a similar reason as the 2011 McLaren has the reshaped 'pods.

If I were a McLaren fan, it wouldn't be the pace or the look I would be concentrating on, but what's going on under the bodywork. By modern standards, even Red Bull modern standards, it looks extremely fragile. McLaren fans can only hope they're intentionally testing the margins (temperatures and such) in testing so they're prepared for the warmer races, as currently it's showing the reliability you'd expect of one of the new teams. This isn't normally what McLaren are like at the start of a season.

They're reminding me of the early 2000s Renault at the moment - good car, bad car, good car. Good 2008, bad 2009, good 2010... what follows for 2011? A bit simple (at least Renault had an excuse with their twin junior design teams), but McLaren need to get some more laps in if they're going to have a strong early season.



PS, just noticed this comment on the BBC text stream, which sums up exactly what I mean about the McLaren fanboys.

Chris, bored at work in Manchester: "In regards to McLaren's lack of pace, could it be that because the design is so advanced that the drivers have been told to run at 90% throttle max while they make sure everything else is bed in? Thus, come the final test, we see McLaren let rip?"

* repeatedly bangs head against desk*

I think it seems radical to people who dont follow the sport constantly because the sidepods are different to what is common these days.

If Luizzi signs for HRT all he is doing is extending his F1 career by a season in the knowledge that nobody else wants him. (Unless HRT having something amazing that he has seen...)

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Waiting for March.

To be fair, Liuzzi is better than anyone else HRT could of possibly attracted. It's a good deal for both of them if they can get the money together (which appears to be the only sticking point).

I'd prefer to have Chandok in the seat, but that's only because we all love Karun. :D

Gav, you are right about how radical is now judged, but with such strict rules defining bodywork, for the most part the teams have generally stuck to a similar concept throughout, so anything slightly different is now classified as radical. I dont think ive termed it as radical, certainly different... if so then i do take it back :p

This year so far has looked to be great for different approaches. Williams gearbox and differential perhaps the most amazing. STR's fully undercut sidepods, and of course Reanults exhaust solution. Im sure some of you heard the wonders of the Williams gearbox. For 2011 the gearbox's now have to last 5 races and the each gear now has a defined min thickness of 12mm (after Williams using 8mm last year!!!). Williams have somehow managed to create their smallest gearbox despite that.

Also, that comment has to come from a Lewis fan new to F1 from 2007 as you say :p.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

The thing is, no one is mentioning the lack of a Williams rear end, or the Renault exhaust system, or whatever - it's all "OMG, McLaren have L-shaped sidepods! They're on the cutting edge!"

Grr. I hate fanboys.

As you say its just fanboys....they are oblivious to the anything else.

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Waiting for March.

As you well know I would say at least 50-50% of posters on most forums (this one one of few exceptions where you generally cant tell which poster supports which driver/team) will be either Lewis fans or Mclaren fans. Usually a younger group too. I like to read the Atlasf1 forums, they usually make me laugh, they take the Lewis/Mclaren love to another level.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

In these troubled times of McLaren fanboyism, I just post this:



":O RADICAL SIDEPODS LIKE THE MCLAR...wait what? It was @#$%&?"*


*Obviously apart from that awesome sounds Lambo V12, but that's not part of the point that is being made here :P

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I am a Mclaren and Lewis fan but admit when they mess up. So far testing is not going well and anyone that thinks it is is a bit silly.

The only 2 teams doing well are RBR and Ferrari they rest are miles behind in terms of laps completed.

Not all us Hamilton/Mclaren supporters are fan boys you know!

Hamilton has made his fair share of mistakes over the past 3 years, testing hasn't been going to well for us and I personally think the new car looks like a bargeboat! (Not that I mind it it turns out fast ).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2011 08:45PM by mika19b.

I just look at a photo of it(Like Mika's sigpic for example) and am immediately reminded of the 1995 Benetton and the '95 and '96 Ligiers plus the '97 Prost. I don't get how it can be seen as radical or even unusual, just slightly cosmetically different. Also, the air-intakes somehow remind me of a crab's eyes.


"In regards to McLaren's lack of pace, could it be that because the design is so advanced that the drivers have been told to run at 90% throttle max while they make sure everything else is bed in? Thus, come the final test, we see McLaren let rip?"

LMAO! Epic spot.

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The McLaren sidepods makes me remind the 1996 Ferrari because the uglyness

Well, seems that Rosberg time was set with a similar configuration to Petrov´s time, so, Renault and Mercedes have moreless the same qualifying performances... or Renaults better than Mercedes and appears 2 thenths behind them because its Petrov

Also, Team Lotus seems to be improving, Trulli destroyed the other one-year-old-teams (althought dunno if Lotus was on very low fuel and the other 2 teams didnt tested under those circunstances)

McLarens seemingly biggest problems are time management and innovation.

They launched a week later than most of the other teams, which is fair enough, you can see why they've done that. Now however, one of the biggest applications of the year is the positioning of the exhaust outlets. McLaren therefore have got two solutions on the go to see which works better.

The problem is they simply don't have the time to muck around with exhaust positioning and evaluating which works best. The biggest issue with this is the simple fact it takes ages to change the exhaust layout, so the car spends most of the time in the garage in bits.

This really does look like the EBD fiasco of 2010 all over again. Spending ages trying to get an innovation working correctly, while losing overall ground to rivals. I don't know what it is with McLaren over the last few years, but if they haven't thought of something, they take a long time to get it to work correctly.

They need to either get it working, or pick something they know that works, and start getting the miles on the car. At this rate, they're going to turn up with a car that doesn't direct the exhaust gases correctly, with average performance and can't even finish a GP. Which is it going to be?

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Regarding Trulli and his form(this isn't aimed at you Frantic, just noticed that the subject was brought up previously) - he's enigmatic, always has been, and apart from the first half of 2004 his form always has been too. He can be awesome, crap, or anywhere in between and it seems to depend completely on where his head is. He reminds me a lot of Carlos Reutemann - just not as good.

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Well the HRT is still last seasons car though.

If the Bahrain test is not replaced we could see HRT drive their new car for the first time at the first race like last year.

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Waiting for March.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2011 10:21PM by nvooght.

Quote
nvooght
Well the HRT is still last seasons car though.

So is next years apparently.

The Ferrari F150th Italia (formerly F150) has Ferrari World branding on its nosecone:



Click here for the original gallery

And more pictures of support for Kubica:





Finally, some general test pictures:













Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2011 12:44PM by alexf1man.

I just noticed Giorgio Mondini had a go in the Hispania, and he set a lap quicker than Karthikeyan's best and 1s down on Liuzzi's best. And seeing that he's not driven an F1 car since 2006, that's not a bad job.

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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

Reading reviews many are saying the williams rear is planted to the ground and the grip they are getting is probably the best out there, they just need to stop breaking down.

And this is what Brundle says.

Martin Brundle gives his take... "Drivers will bitch like crazy but I'm really liking what I'm seeing out on track. They are really having to drive the cars, loads of mistakes

"Mercedes has poor traction, McLaren looks shocking as if on cold tyres, Red Bull+Ferrari+Renault Lotus Lada+Williams all pounding round"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2011 03:37PM by marcl.

The race is now officially off and there are rumours that it will now host Round 18 between India and Abu Dhabi

[news.bbc.co.uk]

Interested in managing an F1 team? Sign up for the Grandprixgames F1 Manager game here





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2011 05:13PM by Twigster151.