The 2010 season

[teabagyokel]

Doubt Cosworth are playing the same game as the other three engine builders.

 

[Brogan]

Is race 7 a turning point in the season?

There are talks of an internal rift in Red Bull with the team favouring Vettel, despite Webber winning the last 2 races and most likely 3 in a row if he hadn't been taken out by his teammate.

Reports of Red Bull having to make changes to their suspension due to the design being illegal - is this why McLaren were able to close up?

Ferrari seem to be going backwards.

McLaren are leading the constructors' and both drivers are within 9 points of the drivers' lead.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I think there is plenty more to come from this season yet. We can't discount the fact that Mercedes are still chasing hard to join the front runners.

The goings on at RBR and Ferrari will be interesting. I have a feeling that whatever happens this season Webber may be looking for another drive next year. Had it not been for the fact that his performances against his team mate have been good I would have put money on him hanging up his hat at the end of the year but he's in with a strong shout of picking up another drive somewhere if he suddenly finds himself "less equal than others" at RBR. The trouble is, after last years driver merry go round I don't see an opening at a front end team for him to go into.

That said, it definitely seems that the pendulum has swung in Mclarens favour. The next question is which of the two drivers at VMM will seize the day.

What a great season it's turning out to be.

 

[Brogan]

Definitely far more interesting than last season which basically saw Jenson Button win the championship by Turkey.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Definitely far more interesting than last season which basically saw Jenson Button win the championship by Turkey.

I thought he was in a Brawn Mercedes?

 

[Brogan]

I thought he was in a Brawn Mercedes?

 

[Enja]

What a great season it's turning out to be.

Abso-bloody-lutely.

If you imagine Bahrain didn't exist, the actual standard of the dry races, in my eyes at least, has actually improved. It seemed to me that Barcelona was better than normal (alright, still not great), while Monaco had it's fair share of incidents.

A fantastic track coming up next week where we always get an eventful race, and look where we were after Bahrain. It's splendid. Things are brewing juuuuust nicely.

 

[snowy]

It's a quite extraordinary season with all sorts of twists and turns, intrigues, unexpected, unpredictable events, outstanding driving, heineous driving, powerful rivalries and intra-team competition, overtaking by the bucket load.

Had they listened to me back in '94 we could have done away with that whole downward spiral brought about by refuelling.

Reports of Red Bull having to make changes to their suspension due to the design being illegal - is this why McLaren were able to close up?

Is there any substance at all to these reports? Only McLaren appears to have made any inroads on the Red Bull qualifying pace. Ferrari were at one time within .5 of a second in qualifying.

 

[Brogan]

Is there any substance at all to these reports?

We've been discussing it here: Adjustable ride height - legal or illegal?

 

[snowy]

Yet another element of Red Bull's pace-setting RB6 had to be modified ahead of last weekend's Turkish grand prix.

After Monaco, we reported that McLaren had identified a part of the 2010 Red Bull's rear diffuser that did not conform with the regulations and had to be altered in the Principality.

Germany's Auto Motor und Sport now reveals that an element of the rear suspension was changed at Istanbul Park last weekend.

The report said the elements in question, hidden behind six burly Red Bull mechanics on recent grand prix grids, were aerodynamically shaped and at a 20 degree horizontal angle rather than the allowed five.

In response, Adrian Newey's design team reportedly shrouded the parts with round tubing in order to nullify the downforce-producing effect.

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-137132.html

 

[snowy]

Is there any substance at all to these reports?

We've been discussing it here: Adjustable ride height - legal or illegal?

I better get over there then hadn't I?

 

[Brogan]

Just thought I'd post the standings based on the last 4 points scoring systems again.

Driver			2010	2009	2002	1990

Mark Webber		93	36	30	28	

Jenson Button		88	35	28	26	

Lewis Hamilton		84	34	24	23	

Fernando Alonso		79	32	23	22	

Sebastian Vettel	78	32	24	23		

Felipe Massa		67	26	14	14	

Robert Kubica		67	27	16	16	

Nico Rosberg		66	26	14	14	

Michael Schumacher	34	13	7	7		

Adrian Sutil		22	7	2	2	

Vitantonio Liuzzi	10	2	0	0		

Rubens Barrichello	7	1	0	0		

Vitaly Petrov		6	2	0	0	

Jaime Alguersuari	3	0	0	0		

Nico Hülkenberg		1	0	0	0	

Sébastien Buemi		1	0	0	0	

Kamui Kobayashi		1	0	0	0

Constructor		2010	2009	2002	1990	

McLaren			172	69	52	49

Red Bull		171	68	54	51	

Ferrari			146	58	37	36

Mercedes		100	39	21	21	

Renault			73	29	16	16

Force India		32	9	2	2	

Williams		8	1	0	0	

Toro Rosso		4	0	0	0	

Sauber			1	0	0	0

 

[Brogan]

So Canada was the first race of the season with all 24 cars starting on the grid.
It was also the first time Red Bull did not qualify in pole position.

It had the highest finishing rate so far with 19 drivers classified.
No safety car too which is unusual for Canada.

Mark Webber is the only driver to have scored in all 8 races.

The top 3 drivers in the WDC are all over 100 points and each of them has 2 wins and 4 podiums.

Mark Webber is the only driver with 8 top 10 finishes.

McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari each have 14 top 10 finishes.

Taken from: F1 2010 Standings & Results

 

[Brogan]

Previous seasons points comparisons.

 

[Brogan]

Am I the only one posting in this thread?

Anyway, after just the 8th race of the season, there has officially been more overtaking than in 2009, 2008 and 2007.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Am I the only one posting in this thread

Apparently you are.

Oh wait, Now I have, so you're not.

I'm confused.

Aren't Lotus doing well. Will they firstly out qualify an established team on pace before the end of the season and better still, will they manage to score a point?

 

[snowy]

I used to post on this thread but keep on being directed to threads that have been dealing with what I thought was new news!

 

[snowy]

Anyway, after just the 8th race of the season, there has officially been more overtaking than in 2009, 2008 and 2007.

And the trend has the same upward curve in the dry as it does in the wet!

Unfortunately the d*ck brains of F1 have homed in on the gap between the tyre compounds and Bridgestone's poor tyre choice as the key factors, ignoring a whole plethora of other factors - not least the abolishion of refuelling. I still believe they'll bring it back if only to spite me!

 

[Brogan]

There is a glimmer of hope...

Formula 1 chiefs have been urged to learn the lessons of why the Canadian Grand Prix was turned into such a spectacle.

After tyre dramas in Montreal helped deliver one of the most exciting races of recent seasons - with 60 overtaking moves during the event – leading figures within the sport believe F1 should take into consideration exactly what the factors were that made it so good when it comes to framing new regulations.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner reckons that Canada showed perhaps too much focus had been spent worrying about aerodynamics having the biggest effect on the racing.

"There was this myth of aerodynamics being the root of all evil – but in Canada you could quite clear see tyres have a much bigger influence on car being able to race each other," he told AUTOSPORT.

"In fact, you could say now it has a bigger influence than perhaps aero does."

As a lot of people have been saying for a while now, it's all about the tyres.
Hopefully it's not too late to reverse some of the sillier decisions made for next year (GPS guided adjustable rear wings for example) and introduce new rules relating to tyres.

I wonder where Autosport got their overtaking figure from...?

Some recognition for all the work Galahad and KekeTheKing do would be nice.
Our figures have been mentioned by the BBC at least 3 times now and not once have they credited them.


P.S. Tyres for Hockenheim will be Super Soft & Hard - at the extreme ends of the range. That could be interesting. All the tyre allocations are here: F1 2010 Standings & Results

 

[FB]

I know the team principles and drivers have to offer positive opinions on how the rest of the season will turn out but both Mercedes and Ferrari seem to think they are still right in the middle of the title battle:

Brawn on Mercedes

Alonso on Ferrari

Ferrari are probably the best of the rest, after Red Bull and Mclaren, but Mercedes? Does Ross Brawn think the other teams are just going to sit on their laurels and not bring any upgrades?

Ferrai also seem to be sneaking in some test laps under the guise of "filming for promotional purposes". In a huge raspberry at the FIA Ferrari's own website states "you have to make the most of any opportunity in this era of the testing ban!". How blatantly do they have to flout the rules before the FIA hand down some sort of punishment?

http://www.ferrari.com/English/Form...ges/100618_F1_day_on_rack_Alonso_Fiorano.aspx