The 2012 Formula One Season

ding a ling!






Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Not a huge fan of Marko. He needs to remember that Red Bull is a different team to Toro Rosso



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2012 12:36PM by loque.

Can we have a new car launch schedule please?! :D

Wish Williams would get their ass in gear and announce Maldonado's teammate. It can't be long before the car launches start, as just alluded to, and they'll look a bit stupid if they launch their car and start testing before they've announced their second driver. Maybe it's time Frank Williams found a good buyer for the team and then joined Patrick Head in retiring - the level of disorganisation in that team has been increasingly noticeable, and it's clear to me that Frank's refusal to step down is holding them back now, big time.

I know HRT haven't announced their 2nd driver either, but... they're HRT.

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Frank won't leave, he be there until he dies or until he's forced out by a some sort of extreme health issue like Ken Tyrrell.

And I don't think Frank is the problem either, you don't win 7 drivers and 9 constructors championships by having even the slightest potential to be disorganised. Of late it's been the people around him, Sam Michael, Head losing interest, the team's dependency on backers and their input and demands of it combined with a general lack of funding and major player driver at a time when they needed both the most. See what happens with this Saudi investment.

Maldonado can take a hike though.

loque Wrote:
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> And I don't think Frank is the problem either, you
> don't win 7 drivers and 9 constructors
> championships by having even the slightest
> potential to be disorganised.

He is the problem in that he's out of touch with the times and with contemporary F1. It's a different sport now to what it was when Williams last won a title, but Frank just keeps on running the team the same way. It worked back in the day, and for a long time, but it doesn't work now. That's where disorganisation(amongst other things) creeps in. You'll only have a team that's fully organised if you're completely in touch with the sport and with its requirements. Williams have been on the slide since 2003, and that can't be coincidence. It's not like he's useless now, but he's clearly lost whatever used to make him an outstanding team boss. He's too old school now.

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The biggest single problem to sort out at Williams right now is budget and Sponsorship. AT&T didn't renew their contract (I don't think they were too impressed with PDVSA) so they've effectively lost their title sponsor.

There are various talks going on with businesses (mostly in Qatar). I assume they're hoping to secure something soon so they can cherry pick the best available driver option on performance instead of simply their sponsorship portfolio alone.

I'd say it's still finely poised between Barrichello and Sutil, the performance potential they bring would be fairly even (in the short term) though obviously Sutil would probably bring more sponsors. Bruno might bring more than the pair of them but as has been routinely pointed out he wouldn't be the best candidate to put alongside Maldonaldo.

As much as we don't rate Maldonaldo, he's staying because Williams currently reley heavily on PDVSA funding. It sucks, but it is what it is.

Just on a tangent...WHY HAVE I NOT SEEN THIS UNTIL NOW?

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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

LMAO! Awesome :P

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EDIT

Yeah that was a pretty bad thread hijack, don't know what made me post it here. Sorry!

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2012 04:01PM by flat tyre.

flat tyre Wrote:
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> I know this is off topic, but I wanted to post
> this somewhere without starting a new topic...

= thread hi-jack.

Don't do that man. It is not cool.

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

When Bahrain does finally return, I wish they'd use the Outer Circuit for the race. It's on the short side but it would be way more exciting than any of the racing there has been so far.

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Looks like Sutil won't be getting that open Williams seat. He's going to be prosecuted for the nightclub incident and could be facing a year in jail, that's surely too much of a risk for Williams to take, the possibility of losing a driver midseason.

ESPN-F1

So, Barrichello or Senna then

The Sutil camp are confident that they'll be judged innocent, though it's still damaged his chances because the association and poor image puts off sponsors, though Mike Coughlan is still technical director :P

The current line of thought is that Bruno has emerged as favourite largely due to the significant amount of sponsor backing he can reputedly bring. This is all making Adam Parr very horny because he's clearly desperate to use the OMFG SENNA - WILLIAMS RETRO FEVER *cough um commercial possibilities he thinks it'd bring.

I guess Gui might be moderately pleased as well and imagine banned former of old "Bruno" will already be proclaiming Bruno as 2012 world champion, the Williams race team as in the engineers, mechanics etc still favour Rubens. Because lets face it they need now more than ever before a reliable driver.

I have nothing against either Bruno nor Maldonaldo persay, they've been relatively respectable considering the conditions they've had and I'm sure with a proper pre-season of testing behind him that Bruno would be as competent as any other of the midfield group... it's just at this point in time in their careers with their level of experience with Williams in the state that they are in a Maldonaldo - Bruno lineup would be bonkers.

its a tough call.

The team knows what its getting with rubens(solid if unspectacular), but then maybe thats the problem?

he might have 1 more year left in him but he hardly set the world on fire towards the end of last year(ok the car was a big part of that) but maybe they just don't feel he's the man to take them forward in the long run and instead that their best chance of getting to where they want to be is to take a gamble on the line up.

if Sutils out of the picture, Bruno showed flashes of speed last year and this would be a make or break chance for him. one i guess williams would hope he'd grasp with both hands

To be fair, Senna's never had a full pre-season of testing prior to the first race. With HRT, he turned up to drive a car that hadn't even been driven and started in the Renault halfway through last season. If he gets the seat then it's his chance to prove whether Ayrton was right about him as a kid.

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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

you can never correctly judge whether ayrton was right about bruno. the latter stopped all of his training and motorsport involvment after the tragic incidents of his father and his uncle, that had taken place just within 1 year !

mitadumapaga Wrote:
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> you can never correctly judge whether ayrton was
> right about bruno. the latter stopped all of his
> training and motorsport involvment after the
> tragic incidents of his father and his uncle, that
> had taken place just within 1 year !

You can if he's successful...

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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

Bruno is a good enough driver for Williams to take a chance on, so it's up to whether they think the calculated risk would be justified or not. Definitely a tough call - they know they have Rubens available too, who's the opposite of Senna - a proven long-established driver with massive experience, but one who'd be solid rather than spectacular.
If there's one driver I wouldn't really mind Rubens stepping down in favour of it would be Bruno.
There's a lot of emotion involved here too. Rubens up against the nephew of the guy who had such a massive influence on the early stages of his career in order to keep said career going. And if Bruno got the drive, the thought of Senna in a Williams Renault... Dunno about anyone else here, but that would get me pretty emotional on first sight.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2012 09:40PM by EC83.

After giving it some thouht, and considering F1 to be my religion.

The loss of one man, Ayrton Senna, never has impacted so much on any venue. Similar to Jesus and the Catholics...

Perhaps only Enzo has had a bigger effect on the sport!

Schumacher, Alonso, Hakkinen, Hamilton, Coulthard, Massa, Barrichello, Webber, Trulli & Brundle state he was number 1.

This is not my opinion, these are FACTS!





To see Senna's name on the Williams Renault would be the closing touch to the 2012 season.

For Rubens, F1's dearest friend, I wish him an F1 seat either at HRT or any other team during the year.