Motorsport On Monday: 27/1/2014
F1 2014 should be about the tech but we can't help a bit of sniggering at the Ann Summers bodywork
Team dynamics are going to be interesting...
Remember when the taller, narrower rear wings were introduced a few seasons ago? They looked appalling at first sight, but once the racing proper got underway most of us, I suspect, stopped noticing them. I'd love to believe that the same will be true of these new nosecones, but for the moment I just can't.
A racing car should, of course, be the very definition of function over form, so it's quite understandable that aesthetic merit didn't figure on the designers' lists of priorities. There is a fairly significant consequence for racing fans, though; if what first makes a racing car iconic for decades to come is success on track, second is surely the way it looks (or perhaps third after the way it sounds, depending on your own preferences). That, to me, means that none of this generation of 'you ain't got no alibi' F1 cars will ever be pin-ups years from now.
New turbo engines sound pretty brutal
Moans aside, I for one cannot wait for the new season to get underway, which it does - in a sense - tomorrow, with the first of the four-day pre-season tests at Jerez in Spain. The weather forecasts suggest most of the week will be dry, with a chance of rain on Wednesday. Watching Lewis and Kimi wrestling their unfamiliar, torque-rich machines in the wet could be an awesome spectacle.
This week's test session will almost certainly be used by the teams as little more than a systems check, given all the new and complicated technologies, and we really should wait until the first qualifying session of the year before we reach any conclusions as to the relative performance of each of the cars. I do not doubt, however, that when a Marussia has the legs on the Ferrari after day one, I'll be as vocal and excitable as everybody else on social media. That's just the fun of pre-season testing, though, isn't it?
Brits on the podium at Daytona in post-ALMS age
Away from F1, it was great to see a Briton standing on the top step of the podium at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Porsche factory driver Nick Tandy co-drove his 911 RSR to victory in the GTLM category, narrowly beating the BMW Z4 GTE of fellow Brit Andy Priaulx to the flag.
The Daytona 24 was the first round of the new Tudor United Sportscar Championship - TUSC for short - an amalgam of the American Le Mans Series and Grand Am. With 12 further races to come this year at North America's most famous circuits, including Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca, there is much to look forward to, not least because Britain looks set to be well represented throughout. I counted some 18 Britons on the Daytona entry list, including the likes of Tandy, Priaulx, Darren Turner, Oliver Gavin and Richard Westbrook, as well as young guns Oliver Webb, Sam Bird and Alex Brundle. Many of that 18 won't contest the full season, but we will still have more than a handful of home-grown drivers plying their trade in the series this year. With Tandy and Priaulx performing so well at Daytona, perhaps we'll be celebrating a British championship win come the end of the year.
Mercedes teases F1's turbo age with a little sound clip...
I was predicting the return of something along the lines of the Williams FW26 walrus nose, and sure enough Lotus have gone with a two-prong nose, but one of the prongs has to be longer than the other to meet with the regs.
Ferrari have, as is typical of them, failed to be innovative and creative with the radical changes to the regs and just gone for a severe downsweep on a traditional nosecone, leading to the car looking like it has a vaccuum cleaner extension on the front.
That is if it is an actual F1 car and not a test mule? Or a computer generated thingy?
they have certain things they can and can't do.So the cars that get launched tomorrow should be uglier still. And, knowing Adrian Newey to be the master of function over form, KERS battery placement aside, the RedBull should look particularly hideous
The chrome effect paint work could be looking a bit dull because of the lighting, or the fact there aren't huge swathes of bright red paint to contrast against. (NB, the lack of title sponsor is slightly worrying. Let's hope Honda don't convince them to go down the 'earth dreams' route of '08)
A mate of mine dropped me a message on Facebook on Friday, after the 4/29 launch to show what a semi decent paint job could do to lift the car's looks. Admittedly, it's retro livery, but it gives you an idea. Photo from
http://wtf1.co.uk/retro-livery-mclaren-mp4-29/
That is if it is an actual F1 car and not a test mule? Or a computer generated thingy?
they have certain things they can and can't do.Only one photo of Rosberg, sitting in the cockpit, could be found. Also read that Toro Rosso also 'filmed' at Misano.
So what are the rules on testing/filming this year?
Ladies and gentlemen. So far, the F1 cars launched this year have had their nose cones described as "penile", "vaginal" and "...like a prolapsed rectum."
These cars don't look like normal genitalia. If you lady-bits of man-bits look like this, GO AND SEE YOUR GP
"Each competitor will also be permitted to carry out two Promotional Events (PE) with the above cars which will not be considered TCC. A PE shall be defined as an event in which a competitor participates purely for marketing or promotional purposes. No such test may exceed 100km in length and only tyres manufactured specifically for this purpose by the appointed supplier may be used."
If you're an F1 geek (like me), you can read the regs here
http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules_and_regula...
I still think it's sad that F1 has lost it's uniqueness now to the general spectator (sound).
Yes, that clip sounds ok, but it could be any generic race car.
I had pretty much decided that last years British GP would be the last for me.
Why on earth would I want to pay £200 for a ticket to watch cars go round a track that look and sound just like a lower formulae?
I will still watch on TV (as long as it's not as boring as last year), but my days of going to a gp are over unfortunately. :-(
if someone was to drive side on into another car, a very realistic scenario, whats to stop the car sliding up the newly profiled death ramp and clouting the driver?
I think the new car looks okay from the side, +1 to painting the nose as suggested above.
if someone was to drive side on into another car, a very realistic scenario, whats to stop the car sliding up the newly profiled death ramp and clouting the driver?
I think the new car looks okay from the side, +1 to painting the nose as suggested above.
Also Daytona saw the 24hr debut of a young british driver featured on the site recently (in the Radical RXC piece). Bradley Smith was in car 31 and came 11th in class due to car issues but showed great pace through the race
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff