Formula 1 2009

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (somedamnwriter @ Feb 26 2009, 07:08 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>ah, silverstone. I'm somewhat jealous. but seeing as this is my first Formula 1 race, i shouldn't be. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for sepang

I like the circuit. If you get seats on the front and back straights your view is a bit limited of the track, but you still get to see an F1 car at full throttle.

Ummm... because promoters who are inept, we have no Grand Prix's in North American this year, but I might join you Tom in Silverstone.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hayden Fan @ Feb 26 2009, 01:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>but I might join you Tom in Silverstone.

Good ...., roll the weather dice and bring every combination of clothes you have, i think i almost froze to death last year.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Tom @ Feb 26 2009, 09:14 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Good ...., roll the weather dice and bring every combination of clothes you have, i think i almost froze to death last year.

Oh... I've been there three times already.

From what I have concluded about Silverstone is that it is a place in the world were any form of weather can happen at any time in the year. You had 2006 and the sun and heat. I loved my trip there, but packed a bunch of sweaters to find they were not needed. Any sunny trip in 1999, marred by the Michael Schumacher accident. Then the 2002 sprinkles.

My favorite Grand Prix to attend. I like Monaco, but everything is crowded and cramped. I think the GP is becoming to big for the city. It is Britain. The Brits there love the Grand Prix, and if you forgot your umbrella or rain jacket, some have extras. If you find yourself next to an elderly Scotish couple, be nice to them. As the husband, Richard, about ripped a guy's head off who was trashing the McLaren team. I zipped up my jacket to hid my Ferrari t-shirt over that.

LINK

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE <div class='quotemain'>The former Honda Formula One team has been saved and will race this season as Brawn GP under team principal and new owner Ross Brawn.

Britain's Jenson Button and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, last year's Honda line-up, will continue to drive for the British-based team with the first race in Australia little more than three weeks away on March 29.

Brawn GP, whose change of name is subject to the agreement of the governing FIA, will use Mercedes engines under a deal with McLaren's partners.

No financial details were given.

"Honda Motor Company Limited and Ross Brawn are pleased to confirm that they have reached agreement to secure the future of the former Honda Racing F1 Team," the statement said.

"With immediate effect, Honda will pass ownership to Ross Brawn, team principal of the new Brawn GP Formula One Team."

Brawn, a former Ferrari technical director, looked forward to the new season after months of doubt about the team's survival following Honda's announcement in December they were pulling out due to the credit crunch.

"The past few months have been extremely challenging for the team but today's announcement is the very pleasing conclusion to the strenuous efforts that have been made to secure its future," he said.

"I would like to thank Honda for the fantastic co-operation and support we have received throughout this process, particularly those members of the senior management who were closely involved with concluding our agreement, and for the faith they have demonstrated in myself and our team."

The team said Nick Fry, the former Honda Racing chief executive who attended a news conference held by the Formula One Teams' Association in Geneva on Thursday, will remain as part of Brawn's senior management team.

However the Brackley-based team, formerly the sport's biggest spenders, are likely to shed a considerable number of their 700 employees.

They are due to hold a private shakedown of the new car at the Silverstone circuit in England on Friday before travelling to Spain for their first test of the year in Barcelona on Monday.

They will also hold a final pre-season test in Jerez.

Barrichello is F1's most experienced driver with a record 270 starts and his partnership with Button, reported in the British media to have taken a significant pay cut, represents a combined total of 423 grands prix.

Brawn's move, effectively a management buy-out, rescued both men's careers with 36-year-old Barrichello out of contract while Button was facing a year on the sidelines with all other teams completing their line-ups.

With the team's survival, Formula One will start the season with 10 teams - one fewer than at the beginning of 2008 before Super Aguri folded.


Still will probably get lapped, but at least another team stays on the grid. Good luck to them.

I'm very happy the team will go on. I think Brawn is a smart guy and can get this work somehow. Not expecting them to be in the top, but they can hardly be worse than Honda was last year. I'll be rooting for them.

The 6-wheeler is the coolest F1 car ever.

Too bad no-one ever had one with 8 wheels like in the late 70s Japanese anime Grand Prix .

Great to hear that.

Both drivers are far too good to not be driving this year.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Wander @ Mar 6 2009, 11:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>The 6-wheeler is the coolest F1 car ever.
Never been much of a fan of the P34 myself.

I always thought the old Lotuses looked best, especially Rindt's 49C

It's true that Lotus cars almost always looked great. Were really fast too way back when...

But come on! The P34, I think, was an amazingly brave innovation and the sad thing is that it really DID work, but was simply ahead of it's time and had too many things against it (Undeveloped tyres, weak engine, the technology being too raw to solve all the problems etc.).

Now wouldn't it be cool if 6 (or even 8!) wheels would be allowed again?

...And this is the coolest anime series ever done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtY6sQV1vyI...feature=related

And the later version of the F1 car "Todoroki Special" that appears on the series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_iDuH8Ao3o...feature=related

That one is just ....... crazy! Only Japanese could come up with that...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Wander @ Mar 6 2009, 09:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>It's true that Lotus cars almost always looked great. Were really fast too way back when...

But come on! The P34, I think, was an amazingly brave innovation and the sad thing is that it really DID work, but was simply ahead of it's time and had too many things against it (Undeveloped tyres, weak engine, the technology being too raw to solve all the problems etc.).

Now wouldn't it be cool if 6 (or even 8!) wheels would be allowed again?
It was definitely innovative - I just think it looks really ugly.

The only thing I can think of that comes close is the Brabham 'fan car'. That thing really worked well - winning by over 30 seconds first time out. It's a shame Bernie scrapped it after only 2 races.



Pity we'll never see these kind of cars again in F1

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Wander @ Mar 6 2009, 09:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>...And this is the coolest anime series ever done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtY6sQV1vyI...feature=related

And the later version of the F1 car "Todoroki Special" that appears on the series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_iDuH8Ao3o...feature=related

That one is just ....... crazy! Only Japanese could come up with that...
That looks awesome - though I'm not too sure about the music.

The car looks almost as good as Kaneda's bike in Akira.

Yeah... the fan car, now that's another thing... But really, wouldn't F1 be like 250 times more interesting if there were no limits other than the power of the engine?

Btw. It was later proved that a 6 wheeled car is faster than a 4-wheeler, but the trick is to add another pair of (normal sized) rear wheels. Williams had such test car in early 80s and it was instantly faster than normal cars. This is when the rule of maximum of 4 wheels was introduced.. ....... sucks! Imagine F1 grid with nothing but 6 or 8-wheeled cars!

Then again, the corner speeds would have evolved into something crazy. But who cares! I want a real Todoroki special!

E: And don't you dare to say anything bad about the music! You're just missing the nostalgia value! When I was a kid, I had many cassettes of this series dubbed in Finnish. Still have a couple.. But anyway, I think the composition of the theme is actually great, the melody and all. The singing is just a bit weird.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Wander @ Mar 7 2009, 10:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>E: And don't you dare to say anything bad about the music! You're just missing the nostalgia value! When I was a kid, I had many cassettes of this series dubbed in Finnish. Still have a couple.. But anyway, I think the composition of the theme is actually great, the melody and all. The singing is just a bit weird.
Well I never heard of it before so it's hard to get all nostalgic about it.

But I know what you're talkin about though - I just spent the last half hour on Youtube watching the old He-Man cartoon.

If you allow 6 wheels, fans, skirts, unrestricted aero etc. you'll end up with cars that'll be able to corner so fast drivers will faint due to the excess of lateral G force like in fighter jets.
And they would be affected by the aero disturbance of the cars half a mile ahead so much they couldn't overtake ever.

The rules in F1 are moving towards the right direction, no electronics, single tyre, KERS etc. Should make for better racing and more useful (for road cars) engineering.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Teomolca @ Mar 12 2009, 06:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>If you allow 6 wheels, fans, skirts, unrestricted aero etc. you'll end up with cars that'll be able to corner so fast drivers will faint due to the excess of lateral G force like in fighter jets.
And they would be affected by the aero disturbance of the cars half a mile ahead so much they couldn't overtake ever.

The rules in F1 are moving towards the right direction, no electronics, single tyre, KERS etc. Should make for better racing and more useful (for road cars) engineering.

+1, well said. we actually could see better racing in F1 in the forthcoming seasons with lot of unknowns.

Testing has been interesting this week. Brawn are obviously hunting lap times for publicity but regardless the car seems impressively quick, Honda must be kicking themselfes. Mclaren are looking in not such great shape, and what they bring to Oz will be facinating. It's wide open

I guess Honda is so used to make lemons in F1 that they probably expected this year to be crap also. Guess some heads will roll. Lesson for next time, find out how much it's worth what you're selling before selling it lol.

The car is pretty damm quick despite no KERS, they've done a GP simulation running on the mid 20's low 21's in Montmeló that's WITH fuel load. So IMO unless they're running without ballast the car is really quick.

Ferrari seems quick too (but a bit unrealiable), BMW and Toyota also look good. I don't really know where Williams, Red Bull, Renault and Toro Rosso stand some days they're up some days they're down.

Force India is slow but ... they can at least beat McLaren with the same engine hahahaha

It's crazy how far Mclaren is. Will be interesting to see if they are in the top when the season starts.

I'll get my yawn in now!
I predict qualifying will be better than any race - Bit like motoGP really.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Wander @ Mar 12 2009, 02:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>It's crazy how far Mclaren is. Will be interesting to see if they are in the top when the season starts.

Everyone is waiting, its brilliant