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Post by dodgygeezer84 on Apr 26, 2009 9:51:22 GMT
Lewis has gotta good chance of winning the race in Bahrain today considering his grid position
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Post by Doughnut on Apr 28, 2009 9:01:50 GMT
Eddie Jordan has got to go. I'm staggered at some of the rubbish he comes out with. He just doesn't seem to know what he's talking about. I have no idea how he managed to run an F1 team for 14 years. I can only assume he had some good people in the team making significant decisions for him. Either that or he used to know what he was talking about but old age is starting to get to him and he's just lost the plot. I guess Coulthard likes having him around though, he helps make Coulthard look intelligent.
I think the BBC have decided to pair Coulthard and Jordan in the hope that Coulthard will mitigate Jordan's apparent cluelessness and Jordan will mitigate Coulthard's lack of personality. It doesn't work, it just looks bad. I think it's good for them to have Coulthard around, he knows F1 better than anyone else they could have got and has plenty of contacts too (though the most useful to him is the guy who probably got him this job - his manager Martin Brundle). The sooner they get rid of Jordan the better though.
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Post by Doughnut on May 5, 2009 14:52:22 GMT
Gutted about the new budget cap rules. Hope the teams do something about it. Goes against what F1 is all about IMO. If teams want to compete for less money, they have plenty other race series to choose from.
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Post by Peacock on May 5, 2009 17:33:12 GMT
Gutted about the new budget cap rules. Hope the teams do something about it. Goes against what F1 is all about IMO. If teams want to compete for less money, they have plenty other race series to choose from. What would Bernie do if FOTA just said 'no, we're not doing it'?
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Post by Yotes on May 5, 2009 17:58:20 GMT
Fota are ok with it though aren't they? Except Ferarri. Out of interest, what's the current budget for one of the top teams, anyone know roughly?
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Post by Peacock on May 5, 2009 21:17:12 GMT
Fota are ok with it though aren't they? Except Ferarri. Out of interest, what's the current budget for one of the top teams, anyone know roughly? They don't meet to discuss to until tomorrow. From Wikipedia...
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Post by Doughnut on May 5, 2009 21:30:17 GMT
Gutted about the new budget cap rules. Hope the teams do something about it. Goes against what F1 is all about IMO. If teams want to compete for less money, they have plenty other race series to choose from. What would Bernie do if FOTA just said 'no, we're not doing it'? It's not Bernie though, it's Max. It just can't happen. Read the above post then think: who wants an F1 where all the teams have a lower budget than the current back markers? (no, I'm not talking about Ferrari! ) Development would grind to a halt. It wouldn't be F1 any more. The answer isn't for the teams to stop spending money, the answer is to give the teams a bigger share of F1's profits. I reckon it's time FOTA stopped bluffing, they should just tell Max and Bernie where to stick their budget cap. Let the FIA have their watered down Formula 1. Start a new series, how about Formula 1 plus?
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Post by Yotes on May 6, 2009 16:25:07 GMT
Fota are ok with it though aren't they? Except Ferarri. Out of interest, what's the current budget for one of the top teams, anyone know roughly? They don't meet to discuss to until tomorrow. Button was on about it being a good thing though wasn't he? I admit he's not anything to do with Fota, but I'd imagine he does more or less what he's told by RB. BBC link. Ruddy hell, that is a lot. I had no idea they spent those sums. $400m to what, $60m (£40m roughly I think) does seem rather drastic, and as Doughnut says, it's meant to be the pinnacle of the sport, a rich man's game.
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Post by Doughnut on May 6, 2009 18:49:31 GMT
Button would say it's a good thing though wouldn't he. He's in a car that's at the front of the field, probably the best and if not that then at least in the top 2. One of the main reasons his car is so good is because of all the money Honda put into the team, and because they wrote off last season in order to spend it preparing this year's car. His team are likely to have a much small budget next year whatever happens so will be less able to develop it further to defend their advantage. The easiest way to stop the other teams from catching up is to tie their hands behind their backs by enforcing massive budget cuts.
Makes me laugh how people say the FIA are biased in favour of Ferrari. They've spent most of the last 10 years tweaking the rules year on year to cut Ferrari's advantage. Ferrari finally trip up following a rule change and now the FIA want to cap the budgets ridiculously low, which stops teams like Ferrari and McLaran from catching up.
I want to watch F1, not F1 Lite.
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Post by Fraggle on May 8, 2009 13:01:46 GMT
... the current back markers? (no, I'm not talking about Ferrari! ) Ouch - ;D I like Eddie Jordan by the way, in the way I like Murray Walker - gets a bit fuddled at times and rambles on but is like a loveable excentric uncle. Bless em.
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Post by Doughnut on May 8, 2009 14:42:19 GMT
... the current back markers? (no, I'm not talking about Ferrari! ) Ouch - ;D I like Eddie Jordan by the way, in the way I like Murray Walker - gets a bit fuddled at times and rambles on but is like a loveable excentric uncle. Bless em. The main difference between Eddie Jordan and Murray Walker is that Murray doesn't try to be funny but is, and Eddie tries to be funny but isn't.
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Post by Fraggle on May 11, 2009 13:31:54 GMT
EJ's no Raikonnen fan after his comments yesterday - blimey. Poor Barrichello, thought he had the race in the bag, the team then mysteriously switched Jenson's strategy but not his - and Jenson went onto win after dropping one of his sheduled 3 stops. Can see why Rubens is not happy. It must feel like being a Schumi back up all over again! Poor Massa too - had to back off and lose places cos the team didnt' get enough fuel in his last pit stop to finish the race? Mare. Though if he'd backed off when he was first asked to, he may have only lost 1 place...
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Post by rangers on May 11, 2009 13:45:42 GMT
Got to admit I agree with EJ on Kimi - since winning the title he has not looked interested at all. If he lasts to the end of the year, I gas him for next.
Rubens - well I was already saying Ross has to start thinking about backing Jenson (even as a die-hard Rubens fan) - If Brawn are to win both titles. Its a shame Rubi won't have the chance to gun it for the title, but there we are.
I think the Red Bull is actually the quicker car, but circumstance has meant Vettel has not had the chance to use it.
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Post by Doughnut on May 11, 2009 14:01:27 GMT
In fairness to Brawn, on paper the 3 stop strategy was faster than the 2 stop strategy so both cars started on a 3 stop strategy. Button was switched to the 2 stop strategy because they were worried he'd come out and get stuck behind Rosberg - remember Rubens was leading him at the time and he came out just in front of Rosberg. Switching Jenson from 3 stops to 2 should theoretically have made it even more likely for Rubens to win the race. The reason he didn't was that he didn't drive fast enough between his 2nd and 3rd stops - Jenson out paced him on the same tyres and with more weight. Maybe there was a problem with the tyres, maybe they were the wrong pressure or something, but the chance of Brawn doing that deliberately is pretty much nill. Bottom line is Rubens didn't drive fast enough to beat Button when it mattered.
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Post by rangers on May 11, 2009 14:10:16 GMT
Rubi did say he had problems with his tyres in the third and fourth stint, but even at the time we were saying 3 stops with the way the field was spread was suicide..
I think that while a clean race meant 3 stops were better, the safety car period meant the best strategy was 2 stops - but Brawn hedged their bets and split their cars - probably the best option while Vettel was stuck behind Massa.
JB certainly has Rubens number for the first time in a few years.
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Post by Doughnut on May 11, 2009 14:29:56 GMT
Rubi did say he had problems with his tyres in the third and fourth stint, but even at the time we were saying 3 stops with the way the field was spread was suicide.. I thought the same at the time, but with hindsight (if memore serves correctly) Rubens didn't get stuck behind anyone, so the traffic situation wasn't the issue. I think that while a clean race meant 3 stops were better, the safety car period meant the best strategy was 2 stops - but Brawn hedged their bets and split their cars The fuel saved during the 2 laps behind the safety car would have shifted the balance slightly, but only very slightly. The safety car was only out for 2 laps IIRC. I still reckon the main reason Button's strategy was changed was to stop him getting stuck behind the BMW that he would have ended up stuck behind on the 3 stop strategy. Don't get me wrong, I like Rubens and would have liked him to win it, he just didn't drive fast enough. I reckon his time will come though - he's due a race win.
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Post by Doughnut on May 11, 2009 14:44:27 GMT
Got to admit I agree with EJ on Kimi - since winning the title he has not looked interested at all. If he lasts to the end of the year, I gas him for next. As a Ferrari fan I wouldn't be unhappy for Kimi to stay at Ferrari, but I wouldn't be unhappy if he left either. If Kimi left at the end of this year there's a good chance he'd be replaced by Alonso for next year. There are strong rumours that Alonso has signed a fairly long deal with Ferrari for the future. This article strongly suggests that his contract is for 4 years starting in 2011 but with clauses allowing it to start in 2010, and also links these rumours with another strong(ish) rumour that Santader (the Spanish bank that became a McLaren sponsor when Alonso signed for them) are switching to Ferrari next year.
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Post by Fraggle on May 12, 2009 12:31:15 GMT
As a Ferrari fan you have bigger things to worry about than whether Kimi will be in your team next year - like will the team be in F1 next year?!
They are now threatening to take their ball home if the wage cap comes in.
I'm sure they won't drop out and this is just posturing and sulking. I also can't see the wage cap coming in as it is being described now.
Will see by end of May I guess.
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Post by Doughnut on May 12, 2009 13:17:12 GMT
Ferrari will be in F1 next year, and so will the budget cap, but it won't be $40m (that's just Max's opening gambit) and I bet there'll be more things added to the list of things that don't fall under the budget cap's remit (currently the list includes marketing, engines and drivers). I reckon Ferrari should do what Brawn did last year. Forget this season and work on next year's car - spend as much as possible before the budget cap comes in Another solution would be for Ferrari to enter two teams. One in F1 proper and one in what I think I'll from now on refer to as F1 Lite. Ferrari F1 Lite will be under the budget cap so can do as much winter testing as they want - this will allow them to test the engines and tyres, leaving the Ferrari F1 team to concentrate their efforts on their car and share as much of their knowledge and parts as they're allowed to share with the Ferrari F1 Lite team. Ferrari will be in F1 though. Ferrari and F1 both need each other too much. Ferrari wouldn't be Ferrari without F1 and F1 wouldn't be F1 without Ferrari, whatever Max Mosley says.
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Post by Yotes on May 13, 2009 12:51:43 GMT
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Post by Doughnut on May 13, 2009 13:36:24 GMT
Renault, Toyota, Red Bull and Ferrari have all threatened to quit. BMW have also said they're against the plans. That's half the grid, more than half if Red Bull includes STR.
Most of them are complaining more about the 2 tier setup though rather than the introduction of a budget cap.
None of it will come as a surprise to Max though, it's all just politics. The $40m was just the start of the negotiations.
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Post by rangers on May 13, 2009 15:36:31 GMT
I think the cap will remain, but obviously go higher.
With Team USA, Prodrive/Aston Martin and Lola all looking at new entries IF there is a cap, the teams would be mad not to go for it - more teams = more money for the sport.
I think Ross Brawn pretty much confirmed that on the BBC in the pre-race build-up.
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Post by Doughnut on May 14, 2009 8:29:18 GMT
I think the cap will remain, but obviously go higher. With Team USA, Prodrive/Aston Martin and Lola all looking at new entries IF there is a cap, the teams would be mad not to go for it - more teams = more money for the sport. I think Ross Brawn pretty much confirmed that on the BBC in the pre-race build-up. I think you're probably right but remember Ross Brawn isn't exactly a neutral in this situation. Brawn GP stand to benefit the most from the introduction of a budget cap.
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Post by Heanor Lair on May 17, 2009 13:40:00 GMT
I think Ferrari are playing a dangerous game here. Historically they have pretty much had their own way in F1, and whilst not wishing to be contravesial some of the FIA decisions last season were engineered to ensure Massa was in contention for the last race, but as much as I dislike Mosley, I believe he has the moral high ground here.
Renault, Red Bull, etc are just posturing - Renault are about to lose ING as headline sponsor, and sponsors are not fallibng over themselves. Toyota are making inroads after all these years, they wont jepordise that by pulling out.
I think Ferrari will leave, but with Aston Martin, Lola, USGP coming in and teams like Brawn, and Mclaren happy to take the cap, Ferrari will see themselves out in the cold.
HL
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Post by Heanor Lair on May 31, 2009 10:17:07 GMT
So all the teams are now signed up for next season- lets strip away this 'conditional' signing up notion, a lot of teams, Ferrari most significantly, have had to eat humble pie ( whats the joke ' How many reverse gears does a Ferrari have' . Throwing their toys out of the pram hasnt worked. Ross Brawn must be quielty smiling to himself and could obviously see where Ferrari were heading when he stepped down a couple of seasons ago. Schumacher wont be seen to hang around with Ferrari too long - any bets he turns up in the Brawn garage as a 'consultant' in the not too distant future. I actually see this as the beginning of the end of the the most recent Ferrari 'era'. Ferrari will no longer be able to use their influence with the FIA, Mosley has clearly won the battle albeit that the cap wont come in until 2011. HL
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