Lauda wants cars with big tires and 1200hp

Lauda, the cantankerous old grandpa of F1, speaks the truth.  

I would wager 99.9% of racing fans want to see a Formula 1 that not only represents the pinnacle of technology but also the pinnacle of driver skill.   That, as Herr Lauda explains in a post qualifying interview on SkySportsF1, is currently not the case,

"These cars are easy to drive, they are like Formula 3 cars"

Niki's solution?

"Wide aggressive tires, huge wings, 1200 hp so that when you drive through Eau Rouge you (pucker)...,  we have to change Formula 1"

And that is, insert famous Austrian accent here, no "bullshit"!

Red Bull confirms Sebastian Vettel will not drive for the team in 2015

Red Bull Racing confirmed the four  time World Champion Sebastian Vettel will leave the team at the end of the season.    The dominoes are starting to fall.

Here is the full statement:


Saturday 4 October, 2014

NEW TEAM DRIVER LINE UP FOR 2015

Sebastian Vettel has advised us that he will be leaving Infiniti Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 season.

We want to warmly thank Sebastian for the incredible role he has played at Infiniti Red Bull Racing for the last six years.

Since joining the team in 2009, Sebastian, together with Infiniti Red Bull Racing, has scored 38 wins, 44 poles and eight World Championships, including four Drivers’ titles and four Constructors’. If you include Sebastian’s success at Red Bull’s second team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, the Red Bull total increases to 39 wins and 45 poles.

As we wish Sebastian well in the next stage of his career, we also look to the future with excitement, as the vacancy makes way for the next generation of Red Bull racers.

The Red Bull Junior Programme has developed some proven talents in recent times, including Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, who has excelled in the RB10 and become a three-time Formula One race winner in his first season with the team.

We’re pleased to announce that Daniel will be joined in the team for 2015 by another rising star from the Junior Programme, Daniil Kvyat.

Typhoon Alonso hits F1 in Japan

Alonso will leave the Scuderia, Sebastian Vettel will take his place in 2015.

The storm had been in the forecast for a long time but nobody was confident enough to predict its path. No, we are not referring to Phanfone, the meteorological phenomenon which has put this week end's race in some doubt but of Fernando Alonso's divorce from Ferrari.

As much as anything can be definite in F1, you can consider this a done deal. Ferrari cannot guarantee Alonso a dominant car for next year and Alonso has no incentive to spend the next couple of seasons developing a car he will ha likely have to hand over to a younger driver. At 33,  he does not want to risk the same treatment Schumacher got at the end of 2006.

Official announcements aside, confirmation comes from a piece Pino Allievi wrote for Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport today.
Simply put, Allievi would not have written that piece if he was not solid on it.

OMG, he's not Joe Saward, can we trust him you say? Yes, he knew Montezemolo was leaving before everyone else and he was the one who broke the Alonso phone tap scandal in the Mclaren spy gate days. It's happening.

The other bombshell in the article is Vettel in Fernando's seat right from 2015.

This was also the rumor of the last few months and an accepted career path for the German for the last few years. What's different is that it was not supposed to happen for one more season.
If that what was to be inevitable then perhaps everyone realized the change might as well happen sooner rather then later.

James Allen points out how Bernie's hand might play a role as it did in getting both Schumacher and Hamilton at Mercedes.    One could argue to that there was an effort made by F1 to make sure Mercedes was happy and in the best possible position to win and stay in the sport.  The new bosses at Ferrari are bit of an unknown for F1, they showed they are willing to make drastic changes. It is not unthinkable an effort would be made to set the Scuderia on a path to success as quickly as possible.

Vettel's incentives are the challenge of winning with a different team and making sure the new car is developed in a way that suits his tastes.

Alonso has two paths: Mclaren and Red Bull. Allievi. in the article. mentions Ferrari had also targeted Hamilton but in the end preferred Vettel.
Hamilton's only reason for leaving Mercedes would have been if he were to have a major hissy fit after losing the championship to Rosberg anyway.

Red Bull, you might think, has no need for Alonso with Ricciardo driving very well and Kvyat in the wings.  But careful. that driver combo, while fast would leave RBR without the prestige of a world champion and top driver behind the wheel unlike all major competitors. That's not something to be underestimated.  For similar reasons, Ferrari would not be happy with a Raikkonen-Bianchi lineup, even if temporary.

Mclaren Honda is the other path but can anyone imagine Alonso and Ron Dennis in the same room? Mclaren seems like a chilly place to begin with, that would make it positively arctic. On the plus side, Fernando would have plenty extra cash to keep his Dasha in Chanel.

Presumably, at some point, Ferrari would lose Banco Santander's sponsorship and a major opportunity will open up for branding. Finding out who'll pony up to put their stickers on certainly the most prestigious side pods in F1 will be interesting and a measure of F1's health.

It's all not confirmed of course and not likely to be until after the big FIAT-Chrysler's Wall Street debut on October 13. Sergio Marchionne will officially step in for Luca di Montezemolo at the helm of Ferrari and it will be a whole new chapter for the Scuderia.

So you thought Top Gear invented caravan racing?

So did I actually until I saw this home movie from Roy Pagliacci's collection of a caravan race at Silverstone in 1974!

Granted, Top Gear's version was more entertaining and ultimately satisfying since everyone hates the damn things but,  who knew some used to strap their 68 fastback to a caravan and go rip?

"Qualify Driving" at Suzuke with Ayrton Senna

Post by Axis of Oversteer.

Watching this video I thought of all the talk about making current F1 more of a challenge for drivers... Basic aero, three pedals, a stick and super sticky tires anyone?

Here is Honda's F1 power unit...maybe

Honda released the first official picture of the F1 Power Unit that will be at the back of the Mclaren in 2015.
Before you get too excited, remember the pictures Mercedes first released  of its engine last year turned out to have been designed to deceive.  Renault and Ferrari did the same of course.

The scuttlebutt is that Honda is running late in it's development, that its initial assessment of the best compromise between the various components had to be re-evaluated in light of Mercedes success and that it's this delay that has caused Alonso to hesitate in jumping ship and go back to Woking with a suitcase full of cash.

I'm not sure I buy all that.

It will be interesting to find out where Honda will end up in their power unit compromise,  if their technology guide is any indication, one might guess they like the Mercedes MGU-H heavy solutions

"Unlike the MGU-K, F1 regulations do not place energy usage restrictions on the MGU-H. Based on thermal energy from the turbocharger. Electricity generated by the MGU-H may be fed directly into the MGU-K, effectively bypassing the MGU-K restrictions and tapping the full 160PS, highlighting the importance of developing a system to fully utilize the MGU-H. The new F1 power unit heavily depends on how effectively the MGU-H performs."

Ferrari and Renault (and Mercedes of course) will have the ability to to change a fair bit of the engine over the winter.    There is an Engine freeze but it's a gradual freeze and as you would expect with everything F1, it's not a straightforward process.

By the technical regulations the engine is divided into 42 items.  Each of these 42 items is give a "points" value:  the water pump is 1 point,  Valve geometry is 3 points. The total "points" value is 66.

Three items are frozen now:

Upper/lower crankcase (Cylinder bore spacing, deck height, bank stagger),
Crankshaft (Crank throw, main bearing journal diameter, rod bearing journal diameter)
and Air valve system (Including compressor, air pressure regulation devices)

Five more will be frozen for 2016 and so on towards a total freeze in 2019.

Still with me?

The 2015 frozen items leave 39 items to alter, worth a total of 61 "points".
Teams however are not allowed to change all 39 items because they only have 32 "points" to spend.  On top if that they cannot modify more than 48% of the  original "weighted" components.  

Confused yet?

Teams will need to choose wisely because those points will add up fast.

In the meantime,  Honda has announced it will be taking part in the test in Abu Dhabi after the final race of the season.





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