F1 2014 thread

'Now is the time' for F1 drive - De Silvestro
Simona de Silvestro insists she feels fully prepared to end the wait for a female Formula One driver as early as next season should the opportunity present itself.

Silvestro tested in a two-year old Sauber at Fiorano in April, the first step in what she hopes will be a journey to an F1 seat. Though Giovanna Amati took part in three qualifying sessions in 1992, the last woman to start an F1 race was Lella Lombardi at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix. Silvestro's Fiorano test prompted speculation a 2015 seat was on the cards and the Swiss driver is sure she can make the step up.

"I feel that now is the time," Silvestro told F1 Racing magazine. "I wouldn't have made this jump if it didn't feel right or it wasn't a good opportunity. That's why it felt normal to go to Fiorano, I didn't feel super crazy nervous.

"For me, it's been really important to focus on the racing part, because at the end of the day that's what people are going to judge you on, whether you're a boy or a girl. The most important thing is that when we put on our helmets, we are all the same. We are racing drivers and we try to do the best job that we can in a race car. That's always been my aim."

Silvestro turned her back on a promising Indycar career for her F1 opportunity, after becoming the first woman to secure a road course podium in the history of the series with second at Houston in 2013. Mario Andretti, the 1978 F1 world champion, was a keen admirer of Silvestro in Indycar and has given his backing to her bid for an F1 seat.
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http://en.espnf1.com

Some more 'female driver' news. Wouldn't hold my breath though, we've heard so much and seen so little.
 
Arietans said:
You lost me lol.
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Extract from Wiki on the B194.

The car was very competitive in the hands of Michael Schumacher, for whom the B194 was specifically designed to suit his driving style.[citation needed] Schumacher won six of the first seven races of the season after his main rival, Ayrton Senna was killed at the San Marino Grand Prix. Other teams suspected the B194 was not legal, due to the high competitiveness of such a comparatively underpowered car. The FIA launched an investigation and a start sequence (launch control) system was discovered in the cars' onboard computer systems but no traction control. In the end, the governing body could not prove the systems had been used so the complaints were dropped. Schumacher himself was subject to controversy, after being disqualified from the British Grand Prix and then the Belgian Grand Prix which allowed Damon Hill to cut into the German's points lead and as they came to the final race in Australia, Hill and Schumacher were separated by one point. Schumacher commented years later that the B194 was actually quite a handful to drive, being twitchy at the rear end.
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Also a notable Ford engine.

Curious why they have drifted away like that after such a great history on the sport.

Even their recent Cosworth attempts with HTR and Marussia failed miserably.
 
S1lv3r H4wK said:
Any thoughts on Honda coming back next year?
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Cannot wait.

Merc has a good engine but it seems the relationship with McLaren was going stale.

I expect Honda to be a good contender, albeit maybe not right off the block. Denis needs a few years to repair the damage Whitmarsh did.
 
Polish said:
Cannot wait.

Merc has a good engine but it seems the relationship with McLaren was going stale.

I expect Honda to be a good contender, albeit maybe not right off the block. Denis needs a few years to repair the damage Whitmarsh did.
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I'm wondering how well prepared they will be and how reliable they will be straight off the bat.
 
Polish said:
Extract from Wiki on the B194.
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I'm familiar with the car and the controversy, my point was that I don't get why Verstappen would be proof that the car was 'less illegal' than people made it out to be.
 
S1lv3r H4wK said:
I'm wondering how well prepared they will be and how reliable they will be straight off the bat.
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I agree - reliability could be an issue after a long absence. That said, they might just pull a coup having dedicated time to designing something cool. Honda are pretty good with innovation when they get it right. I'm just glad they're only supplying the engine and not the aero package lol.
 
Raikkonen not expecting big change in Belgium

Kimi Raikkonen is not expecting a drastic turnaround in his fortunes in Belgium despite going into the summer break on the back of his most successful result of the season in Hungary.

Raikkonen recovered from a disastrous qualifying session to finish sixth at the Hungaroring, which represents the best return from his disappointing return season at Ferrari. Despite having four victories to his name in Belgium Raikkonen does not expect his stellar Spa record to count for much with his problems continuing to linger.

"I hope that the second part of the season can be much better than the first one but obviously one little bit of a better day doesn't change an awful lot," Raikkonen said. "It doesn't change the mistakes we need to really improve; we have to make things work better at a team. That hasn't changed, there's an awful lot of things that need to be done to make sure we are where we should be. Hungary was a lot better after Saturday's stupid mistakes."

Despite Raikkonen's obvious frustrations the Finn insists he can work with Ferrari to turn around his campaign in the second half of 2014, as well as putting him in a strong position for next year.
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http://en.espnf1.com

Don't worry Kimi, we don't either.
 
Arietans said:
I agree - reliability could be an issue after a long absence. That said, they might just pull a coup having dedicated time to designing something cool. Honda are pretty good with innovation when they get it right. I'm just glad they're only supplying the engine and not the aero package lol.
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I expect they will obviously have some teething issues but they will come out swinging power wise. I'm curious to know if they have unrestricted testing while developing or are they also bound to the rules current teams use!
 
S1lv3r H4wK said:
I expect they will obviously have some teething issues but they will come out swinging power wise. I'm curious to know if they have unrestricted testing while developing or are they also bound to the rules current teams use!
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good question!
 
Arietans said:
I'm familiar with the car and the controversy, my point was that I don't get why Verstappen would be proof that the car was 'less illegal' than people made it out to be.
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If the car was ezmode due to illegal systems then Lehto and Verstappen would've been regular points finishers and not battling with midfield cars. As with the 2005 Ferrari, which was a dog, he convincigly out performed Rubens, bagging points while Rubens was often in the midfield. The man always eeked every inch of performance out of a car and often dragged it into positions it shouldn't have been in. The 1995 Benetton was also widely believed to be inferior to the Williams, but while Hill seemingly wasted his car, Michael throttled his Benetton. The 1996 Ferrari was also punching above its weight in his hands, as well as the 1997 (the Williams was superior) and 1998 (the McLarens were beastly) versions.
 
Polish said:
Grand Prix week :):):)

Already a better week than any other !
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That's the trouble with these weeks... it's the Monday to Friday that drags!

***Anyone watching the GP on one of the XBMC sport repos? If yes, which do you suggest? I imagine one that does Sky sports or Fox sports is probably a good idea.***

*Edit - looks like Fox sports is part of superrepo http://superrepo.org/plugin.video.fox.sports/
Sky sports is possibly in Buzzy Sports (Mashup repo)
 
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