F1 - 2018 season discussion

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Agent_Smith

Agent_Smith

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A valid point or sour grapes?

Force India, McLaren want Haas ‘magic’ investigated

Force India and McLaren have called on FIA to “closely” look at Haas’ relationship with Ferrari after the American team’s fast start to this season.

Despite only being in their third season in Formula 1, Haas showed incredible pace in Melbourne last weekend.

Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean locked out the third row of the grid and were running fourth and fifth before pit stop issues resulted in a double DNF.

“I don’t know how they do it, it’s magic,” Force India chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer told Autosport. “It’s never been done before in Formula 1.

“I just don’t know how it can be right that someone who’s been in the sport for a couple of years with no resource could produce a car… does it happen by magic?

“If it does, I want the wand.”

Force India and McLaren have both questioned Haas’ relationship with Ferrari.

The Scuderia not only supply Haas with engines, suspension and other listed parts but also allow Haas’ chassis partner, Dallara, to use their windtunnel.

The two F1 teams, though, are not allowed to share information on parts that they are expected to build themselves.

McLaren’s Zak Brown wonders if they are keeping to the rules.

“We all know they have a very close alliance with Ferrari and I think we just need to make sure it’s not too close.

“There could be some influence, there’s certainly some parts of the car that look very similar to last year’s car.

“But that’s for the engineers and the FIA to look at more closely.”

Szafnauer added: “All the aerodynamic surfaces have to be your own. If they’re not, I don’t know how you can tell unless you start investigating.

“Scrutineering only tells you that it fits within the boxes of the regulations.

“Is it yours or somebody else’s [idea]? That’s the real question. And I don’t know the answer to that.

“Maybe it is their own, it’s just suspect – how can you gain that knowledge without history and the right tools and people?”
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caroper

caroper

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Agent_Smith said:
A valid point or sour grapes?
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Probably sour grapes if the rest of the story is true:

https://www.pitpass.com/61323/Rivals-set-to-raise-Haas-concerns-at-Strategy-Group-meeting said:
Charlie Whiting is adamant that he has no concern, the FIA's race director saying at the weekend: "We know exactly what's going on between Haas and Ferrari, which is completely legal.

"Last year we had one team expressing some concerns," he admitted, but we have not seen anything that concerns us at the moment."

At Haas, speaking at the weekend, team boss Guenther Steiner remained defiant insisting that his team is doing nothing wrong.

"They've got their own opinion," he said. "They don't have all the information, and making statements like this without the relevant information is a little bit of a case of before you speak, you should know what you talk about. They can have their opinion, everybody's free to have one. And I've got my opinion."

They see ghosts," he subsequently told BBC Sport. "They say: 'The car looks very similar to a Ferrari from last year.' So should we have copied their car, which is behind us, or should we go with a car that goes pretty quick? Give me an answer to that.

"We have got the same wheelbase as Ferrari," he added. "We have to because we have the same suspension... why would we do it different? It's logic. It cannot be last year's Ferrari because it has the same wheelbase as this year's Ferrari. If they have got a problem with that, I show them the way to the FIA. They can file a protest."

Indeed, the Italian suggests those complaining have their own agenda.

"If you have to justify your incompetence, attack is the best defence," he said. "If somebody has double the amount of money and is behind us, whoever owns the team should be asking, 'what are we doing here?' It's competition. Maybe next year we are last. When you speak, you need to have an argument you can back up, not just assumptions."
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Willie Trombone

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CUDlybunny said:
Seeing that Kimi stuck pretty close to Hamilton who was free out front makes me think the gap is closer between the teams and we expect vettel will be quicker than Kimi.
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It's impossible to tell now that they are being controlled like scalextric from the pitwall. It was said quite clearly by Merc if I recall correctly - one of the driver to pitwall conversations went something like "We'll give you more performance but only for x laps then you have to look after things". They all have to do it - those engines can't go full tilt for a full race.

They need to turn off radio comms and let the drivers make mistakes with the tyres and temps.

We're set for another season where qualifying is key because overtaking looks tough.
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:( I'm preparing for the worst.
 
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caroper

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Mercedes accept responsibility for their timing error and say that Vetted did nothing wrong:

[video=youtube_share;n3-ZQqU8m08]https://youtu.be/n3-ZQqU8m08[/video]
 
thestaggy

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upup said:
I wonder why Williams are not in front with there engine.
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They have serious stability issues with their car at the moment, something they were aware of before the season even started.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/134826/williams-explains-2018-car-limitations

Aero flaws have have been a problem for some time now and it has been worsening year on year as seen by their slide down the grid. Even when they were regularly on the podium in 2015 it was mainly down to the raw power advantage of Mercedes at the time as the minute conditions changed or they found themselves at a track that demanded more from the aero package they had trouble. Now that Mercedes no longer has a significant advantage over Ferrari and Renault, they've been caught and passed by teams that can build better cars.

The inexperienced drivers are likely not helping either in terms of development.

Sad times.
 
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caroper

caroper

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[video=youtube_share;qfNUFEt0M28]https://youtu.be/qfNUFEt0M28?t=142[/video]
 
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Zyraz

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Formula 1 considering sprint race for qualifying

Formula 1 chiefs are weighing up the prospect of changing qualifying to a sprint race in order to attract a wider audience.

According to Auto Motor und Sport, Liberty have proposed a 100km sprint race on Saturday with no fuel or tyre limitations to determine the grid for the main event on Sunday, giving drivers the ability to race full throttle.

Initially, there was a suggestion of creating a reverse grid but that has since been abandoned because of fears that the racing drama would be too artificially created.

The qualification process was last toyed with during Bernie Ecclestone’s reign in 2016, where the controversial elimination system was promptly scrapped.

The current system sees five drivers eliminated in Q1 and Q2 respectively, before a top-10 shoot-out follows in Q3.

But, ahead of the release of the new 2021 blueprint on Friday, Liberty have surveyed each team to get their thoughts on how qualifying should be determined.

There are also potential plans to change FP1 and FP2 to two one-hour sessions on Friday and create time for fans to get a closer look at the cars, making the entry fee a little more value for money.
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caroper

caroper

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Will the grid for the sprint race be determined by the FP3 time or the previous race grid/finish?
With the current aerodynamics it makes no difference how much fuel they can burn, they still can't overtake so whatever determins the sprint race start will likely be the race grid too.
Secondly, will they increase the Power Unit allocation? Who is going to go flat out and risk a PU in a support race when the points are only awarded in the main race.
 
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