OT: Racing 2015 (Spoiler Alert)

[F308GTB]

OK, while nothing to do really with the 2015 season (though perhaps with the '17 season) I saw this over at racedepartment.com and just felt a sudden flashback to playing the F1 games on the Playstation and Murray Walker in all his glory.

And it's GO GO GO!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkEp49ypDH4

[Rodster]

A $2.5-3 million street legal hybrid race car



Vettel gives Ferrari FXX-K a spin in Fiorano - VIDEO
http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/191333.html

[pk500]

At the risk of Maranello blasphemy, that car is pretty ugly, especially the appendages sprouting from the rear quarter panels. The new Ford GT is far better looking.

[XXXIV]

Its not great looking but I wouldnt say ugly.

Of course I live in fear of Ferrari's goons.

[Rodster]

I think it's one badass looking race car and that's its basic purpose. It's not a touring car.

[GB_Simo]

I think they as a whole are better off without him even if he's the best driver on the grid.

Why?

Seriously. Newb question.

Adam may disagree with me but there are many reasons they are better off without him. He's disruptive, he's not a team player although he plays the PR game to his advantage and makes others think he is. When he arrives to a team, it's all about him and therefore the car is designed around his driving style so if his teammate has a different style like Felipe or Kimi, both are up sh*ts creek without a paddle.

Kimi complained to Ferrari that he likes a car with a lot of front end bite into the corners and a predictable rear end coming out of the corners. The car they produced last year was the opposite so Kimi suffered the most. James Allison who is the new technical director at Ferrari realized what the problem was last year and supposedly fixed it in the 2015 car. Supposedly "Finger Boy" and Kimi have similar driving styles which is why Vettel suffered last year with his car. The first two days saw Vettel top the times charts. It doesn't say anything other than the car suits his style and if Kimi does the same then Ferrari is headed in the right direction. The only other thing they need is a little bit more horsepower.

If Alonso was still on the team, nothing would have changed and the previous mgmt would still be in charge. So yeah, Ferrari is better off without him but that doesn't take away from his talents.

It's worth highlighting that Ferrari underwent two changes of management last year while Fernando was still in residence and that his attempted manoeuvrings within those changes led to Mattiaci's, "It's not my job to keep Fernando Alonso happy," quote - the changes were the catalyst for Alonso's departure, not the other way around.

Would I disagree with your assessment of Fernando's personality? No, probably not. As a driver, though, the bloke was in a class apart for most of his Ferrari stint. I don't think the gap between Fernando and Felipe/Kimi/whoever is necessarily a case of designing a car around his driving style (if it was, you'd have to figure that a driver as good as Alonso would actually win something every so often), more a case of Fernando being more able to adapt to whichever set of circumstances his car presents him with. Compare and contrast:



Spain 2003, at the wheel of a Renault R23 with a very positive front end. Fernando can place the front wheels wherever he wants without any particular effort and his smooth, unhurried control inputs reflect this. Fast forward a couple of years, though, and you get this...



Renault's R25 had a greater percentage of its weight towards the rear of the car, with the aim of boosting traction and acceleration at the expense of front-end grip, while the Michelin tyres in use that season had higher peak grip than the rival Bridgestone tyres but were harder to switch on and keep within their operating window. Alonso used an early turn-in and rapid, dramatic steering movements to exaggerate the car's natural tendency towards understeer, sliding the front end towards each turn's apex knowing that by the time he arrived there, he'd have generated enough temperature in the sliding fronts to bring them into their operating window. This allowed him to carry high mid-corner speed before taking advantage of the R25's terrific traction on corner exit.

The driving style required to get the best out of R25 is entirely different to the one used in R23 around the same piece of track, but the man is capable of adapting to the car. Look up footage of him in the 2007 McLaren and you'll see a different style again, smoother than either of the videos above. When you write it down, it almost sounds like anyone in the world should be able to do it. Not so.

In the other R25 that weekend was Giancarlo Fisichella, a Formula 1 race winner. Watch this and have a look at the difference between Alonso, who's understood what the car needs from him and knows how to work with it, and Fisichella, who's decided to have an argument with it instead. Giancarlo works the front tyres much less aggressively and gets absolutely no payback, missing apex after apex until 1:04, when he's so spooked by the lack of front end that he begins to turn in to the hairpin a good 80 metres before arriving there:



For Fisichella, read Massa, read Raikkonen. All of them sensationally quick in a car that's exactly how they like it, all of them less able to adapt to cars that either don't suit them or are flat-out bad pieces of kit. That's not a criticism of those drivers - if it was, you'd also have to criticise a huge number of very talented world champions - but it goes some way to highlighting just how good Alonso is.

[Rodster]

I certainly don't question his level of skill. My point has been that Alonso was the teachers pet and the instructor was Montezemolo. Once he was gone, the needed changes were made such as Pat Fry and Tombazis the chief designer both being shown the door. I've always been of the impression that Luca Montezemolo thought all he needed was minor tweaks and that was it.

I recall Stefano and his replacement Marco both saying regarding Ferrari's trouble that "the car was lacking in all areas and we must put our heads down and push forward". It became excuse after excuse, year after year. I'm also of the thought that Ferrari had put way too much emphasis on Alonso to make up for the cars weaknesses.

It's similar to Ducati and Casey Stoner who was the only rider to get the most out of the Ducati regardless of who replaced him.

[Rodster]

Apparently several teams have made public their F1 concept cars for the future. I believe McLaren and Red Bull have done so although I haven't seen any pics of their concept car. Ferrari just released a pic of their F1 concept car. Looks pretty radical.

[Rodster]

Sauber added some color to the front of their car. Still looks boring but better than before.

[GB_Simo]

There's no way of knowing exactly what's going on yet, of course, but I'd suggest that the pace of Lewis Hamilton today can safely be filed under Ominous. Compare his best effort on mediums to that of a Red Bull on softs, then consider that he was quicker throughout a hard-tyred long run than Ricciardo's run on mediums.

McLaren remain an unknown quantity and will doubtless maintain that status until all the bits within the Honda work at once, but the car doesn't look bad on track. Then again, any car operating below its full potential is bound to look composed. We shall see.

[Rodster]

There's a rumor gaining traction (ESPN F1) that Renault is looking to come back and assemble a team. There's another rumor and not a serious one, that Audi is exploring the possibility of F1.

As far as McLaren, I agree with Adam that they are an unknown quantity. The car is not running at max power and they were putting up respective lap times albeit limited. The question is whether the car will be reliable enough.

It looks like more and more teams in the paddock are beginning to notice the lap times of Ferrari, like Nico. Last week Dani Ricciardo and Felipe said if Ferrari is putting up similar times as in the first test then their progress could very well be legit. Still too early to tell about the red team.

I'm just hoping it will be a lot closer for everyone so it's not just a fight between the Mercs.

[DChaps]

Scary 24 hours. Kyle Busch breaks leg last night in a very hard hit, and Fernando Alonso is airlifted to hospital following an incident in testing at Circuit de Catalunya. Looks like he is ok. A lot of Nascar drivers on Twitter angry about the lack of safer barrier on that wall. Hard to believe that today is Jeff Gordon's last Daytona 500. You know your old when you have followed a Nascar drivers career from start to finish. Let's hope the Nascar season gets off to a safer start today.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/02/kyle-bu ... er-barrier

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117773

[GB_Simo]

Ronspeak 101: you are not "unhurt," Fernando. You are "devoid of all injuries," in the same way as Ron is devoid of the ability to optimise his approach towards meeting pre-arranged targets relating to a reduction in his overall level of verbosity.

[Rodster]

Just goes to show you can't put too much into preseason testing. Yesterday Massa drops a 123.500 on soft tires. Nico destroys that by a little over 1.2 secs on the same tire.

[GB_Simo]

There are whispers from within the F1 paddock that Rosberg didn't use DRS. If so, I imagine he might win the odd race here and there.

The time, of course, was set on a track that's more rubbered-in than yesterday, and were the track temps the same, and were the fuel loads comparable, and did Massa turn the engine up? Come to that, did Rosberg? It's the unknowns that make it hard to do any more than get a general idea of the rough pecking order, though if anyone doesn't have Mercedes at the top of that order, they're probably in for a bit of a shock.

[Rodster]

Finger boy says his Ferrari is a massive step up from his RB10 http://en.espnf1.com/ferrari/motorsport ... 92857.html

I don't know who I dislike more, finger boy or Capt Morgan? Oh wait i'd like to see finger boy holdup his index digit before Capt Morgan does.

[XXXIV]

Love the F1 vitriol!

[GB_Simo]

I updated my blog last night. Don't be alarmed. I think the link is still in my signature if anyone fancies a look.

The current plan is to try and keep it regularly updated as I used to years ago. That'll probably last about a week.

[Jimmydeicide]

You should deffo spend more time with the blog and less on Forza 5 Rivals, Don hasnt set anything up so may as well huh?

[Rodster]

For someone who has been declared devoid of all injuries, Capt Morgan will miss the Australian GP.

[pk500]

For someone who has been declared devoid of all injuries, Capt Morgan will miss the Australian GP.

Bummer. He's not my favorite driver, but I'm also not a member of the growing worldwide Alonso Grudge Club.

[Rodster]

I'm certainly not a fan of the little prick but I would have liked to see him at the first race. My comment was more in the vain of Ron Dennis' attempt at Washington DC's spin speak.

[pk500]

Yeah, McLaren has set a new bar for being disingenuous. "Fernando is fine, but he cannot race because of concerns about secondary-impact syndrome."

So, Ron, is Alonso's career over? What lessens the chance he will crash, say, at Spa instead of Melbourne?

[Rodster]

Yeah, Ron Dennis has set a new bar for being disingenuous.

There fixed it for you. Maybe this was RD way of getting back at Capt Morgan for the $100 million fine back in 2007.

[pk500]

McLaren and The Ron are one in the same, Rod. Just ask Martin Whitmarsh.