I’m at Brands Hatch for the DTM race today so if you;re heading there do leave a message below or say hi via Twitter. Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
Korea GP venue ‘in need of work’ (BBC)
“Formula One’s governing body says “a lot of work remains to be completed” before the Yeongam venue is ready for the inaugural Korean Grand Prix.”
Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri SA06 F1 car for sale (eBay)
The car – based on a 2002-spec Arrows – Yamamoto raced four years ago.
Force India F1 car being prepared for Aero test (Youtube)
Possibly from the team’s straight-line aerodynamics test at Kemble on Thursday.
Formula One diary: Belgian Grand Prix (The Daily Telegraph)
“One of the day’s two F1 sessions is briefly interrupted because two lads have been spotted climbing a trackside fence: I have to do likewise in the afternoon, because someone has locked the access gate at Eau Rouge. It’s not unknown for the Belgian police to set dogs on photographers who fail to adhere to the sometimes pedantic local protocol, but my disobedience goes unsavaged.”
Peter Sauber Q&A: Team funding well set for 2011 (F1)
“I only can say that I am confident, or rather I am convinced, that the team will have proper financing next season to give us the chance to race on the level that we want to.”
Comment of the day
RobR thinks the aesthetic appeal of F1 cars has been undermined by the rules:
The visual appeal of F1 has always been a big attraction. And we live in such a shallow age, so it’s more important than ever. Surely you would think the F1 teams would realise this and say something.
And another silly thing about it of course, is that there are far more accidents because the wings extend so far out, it’s far too easy to knock your wing off on someone else’s front wheel.
The reason given for the changes was to improve overtaking, we can see the changes haven’t done that much in that regard, so I don’t understand why the regulations haven’t been reverted.
Watching F1 has been a less enjoyable experience for me in these last two seasons because of these regulations. I don’t admire these cars the way I used to. Only the Red Bulls have been anything like good-looking.
Thinking about it, I’m really just stunned that they haven’t changed the wings back yet. Sadly, at this point it’s already far too late to change the regulations for next year because the teams will already have their designs well-advanced, or completed.
RobR
From the forum
Steph has rounded-up some videos of F1 drivers racing in other series.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Maciek!
On this day in F1
Jochen Rindt was killed in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix on this day 40 years ago. A separate article about the Austrian driver, who won the world championship posthumously in 1970, will be on the site later today.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
5th September 2010, 1:07
Happy Birthday Maciek, José Baudaier, and myself!
Scalextric
5th September 2010, 1:37
Sakon Yamomoto’s e-bay car has no engine. Otherwise I’d obviously buy it as a birthday present for one of you.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
5th September 2010, 17:48
It’s the thought that counts.
José Baudaier
5th September 2010, 20:37
Hey, thank you and happy birthday for you too.
gDog
5th September 2010, 2:42
personally I’ve got used to the looks of the current cars,and the number of front wing loses has been less than I was expecting when the current regs were introduced (be interesting to see stats on that vs previous seasons), but that super aguri is uuglee! I was so glad to see the end of all crazy extra appendages the cars had, it looked like they were growing warts on every surface.
nik (@nik)
5th September 2010, 15:23
Fondness for the past, and believing things were better, are a very common psychological condition.
Fact is that the past two seasons have been the most exciting in possibly the history of the sport. At no other time has the sport had as many capable drivers and teams – to the extent that the top 8-10 drivers are covered in the order of a second.
Pull up a wikipedia page from any race in the 80s and 90s and note the qualifying times.
If this guy hasn’t had much fun watching F1 in the past two years because the cars don’t look good, then he is watching the sport for the wrong reason.
The cars aren’t perfect, but damn, the racing has been spectacular.
John H
5th September 2010, 16:17
nail on the head.
Mike
6th September 2010, 0:00
I’ll second John’s agreement :D
bosyber
6th September 2010, 9:55
I tend to agree – although I have come to like the “clean” lines of the current cars: the ’08 cars now look overfull, squat and messy to me. I used to think the F2008 was a great looking car, and yes, the nose does look good, but a head on shot of any of those cars is really ugly to me now, with those quadrupled layers of front-wing all over them :) This year, the extra length seems to help the current cars look more elegant to my eyes, instead of being a bit cut short at the back as they used to look (esp. the McLaren of last year!).
Macca (@macca)
5th September 2010, 4:27
I disagree, I think the cars we have now are some of the best looking cars we’ve had in a long time. They are a 100% improvment on what we had in 2006 – 2008.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
5th September 2010, 12:20
Same here. Compare:
http://blog.thegulfrun.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/mclaren-f1-profile.jpg
with this monstrosity:
http://duwex.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/lewis-hamilton-driving-for-mcclaren.jpg
Patrickl (@patrickl)
5th September 2010, 15:53
Yeah, the 2008 cars were by far the ugliest cars of the last couple of decades.
Sure a few tweaks could make the current cars look even better, but I really don;t understand what people are complaining about.
HounslowBusGarage
5th September 2010, 16:05
Good grief! How quickly one forgets how ugly they were.
bosyber
6th September 2010, 9:57
Good comparison, that. As my post above shows, I am of the same opinion. Those ’08 cars were awesome for their ingenious use of wing everywhere, but now looking back, beatiful is not the right word for them.
Scribe (@scribe)
5th September 2010, 4:38
Facinaiting interveiw with Sauber that, the man is rather a great guy to listen too. Can’t say I disagree with a single thing he said.
Good luck to Sauber and Kobayashi.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
5th September 2010, 18:02
I’m a little confused by his top speed comment. Kobayashi has been second only to the Force Indias and/or McLarens at a number of races this year in the speed traps. I’d say their top speed is pretty good. Maybe he means high speed cornering.
Hamish
5th September 2010, 5:54
Why does the digital readout on the Force India steering wheel say “poos”?
GeeMac (@geemac)
5th September 2010, 6:04
Super Aguri for sale…where did I put that spare £99,000?
Weasel Chops
5th September 2010, 8:34
Yeah, I actually really like the the cars we’ve had for the last two years as well. Looking back at the cars in 2006-08 they now look so fat and messy with all their aerodynamic aids.
daykind
5th September 2010, 9:27
“I only can say that I am confident, or rather I am convinced, that the team will have proper financing next season to give us the chance to race on the level that we want to.”
But what are they aiming for? What level do they want to race on?
GeeMac (@geemac)
5th September 2010, 10:22
I’m kinda hoping they aren’t aiming for the level juuust ahead of Lotus, Virgin and HRT, they are too good a team for that.
BasCB
5th September 2010, 10:12
happy birthday Maciek! and US_Peter as well, congratulations.
Richard S
5th September 2010, 10:44
I have to say (and risk of offending a few people, but what the heck) in reponse to all this whingeing about “the look” of the current generation of cars, I can only assume that most of these people are not engineers. In my book F1 cars by definition are things of great beauty simply because their looks are almost completely defined by their function (within the constraints of the rules). Amongst other things, they have 4 wheels, a driver and an engine and they go bloody fast without flying off the track on every corner. What more do you want?!
They are the pinnacle of engineering excellence because we don’t allow daft as a brush architects, graphic designers, accountants, hairdressers etc etc anywhere near the rules and long may it stay that way.
Oh and despite all of the doom and gloom mongers out there, the front wings haven’t been tumbling off all season because they have been ENGINEERED to last the race because the designers know that they are vulnerable and have made them strong enough to take a few knocks and still get through to the next pit stop in one piece, and possibly further. it’s no different from years gone by I think.
If you want to watch aesthetically pleasing racing machines then go watch Indy Car.
http://indycar.com/var/photos/175241/NEWS_DETAIL.jpg
or maybe West Coast Customs might float your boat?
http://www.westcoastcustoms.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Friday-Flick-1-011.jpg
Anyway can’t disagree more with the comment of the day. Assume that was the intention.
John H
5th September 2010, 16:15
While I’m completely with you on pretty much all of this, we have seen a lot of punctures these last two years – an unwanted by-product of the large front wings that could lead to a big accident one day perhaps.
jabg
5th September 2010, 10:47
If the races are good what the cars look like is not important- I think this seasons been the best in years.
Calum
5th September 2010, 12:13
Thankfully the front wings are strong enough to take bumps because it happens more regularly than some people realize:
In Spa, sparks flew when Rosberg’s wing endplate came off against Schumacher’s front tyre.
Jenson Button was told by engineers his front wing was damaged, presumably from a shunt.
Seb Vettel received a rear puncture when Liuzzi’s wing sliced the tyre.
In Silverstone Lewis Hamilton sliced Vettel’s rear tyre at the start.
Fernando Alonso in Turkey gave the Renault a puncture when his front wing collided with the rear tyre.
These are mainly overtaking maneuvers going wrong when the front wing slices the rear tyre, and thankfully the wings are strong enough to stay attached in these circumstances. Because the endplates are so far out, it leaves them vulnerable, and lots of endplates are coming off this year.
Just watch in Monza how many midfield drivers have to pit for new wings (mainly STR) and how many punctures are caused in the chicanes because of the wings.
Calum
5th September 2010, 12:36
The 2007 car’s rear wing looks all wrong now I am used to the high thin new ones, however I must say I bad a strong dislike to the 2009 Mclaren’s nose – round and bullet like, the flat wide 10 nose is much nicer.
Jack Peekoc
5th September 2010, 15:29
I find it interesting that when ever Ferrari have a test, such as the aero test, everyone writes articles about it. When other rest of the teams have tests, we dont even hear a peep about it?
Patrickl (@patrickl)
5th September 2010, 15:56
I think we’ve heard about aero tests and “promotional events” from many teams.
Maybe you only pay attention when you read about something referring to Ferrari?
John H
5th September 2010, 16:13
My memory is full of Red Bull tests and promotional events to be honest, not Ferrari.
BasCB
5th September 2010, 16:38
We did hear a lot about the Lotus run with 16 year old Jefrys (not sure about the spelling) last week.
And we had a bit of information on one done by FI before. It’s not like nobody is interested in those at all.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th September 2010, 21:55
The same reason that any story about a team is automatically of more interest if it involves Ferrari – because Ferrari are by far the most popular team.
More prosaically, in this case, Ferrari announced their test, Force India kept quiet about theirs.
John H
5th September 2010, 16:10
It’s an interesting comment by RobR. At least they look better than 2009 to me, that’s how I console myself! But I don’t think F1 should ever be about making beautiful looking cars, that should be a by-product.
Once again though, there is this:
“The reason given for the changes was to improve overtaking, we can see the changes haven’t done that much in that regard, so I don’t understand why the regulations haven’t been reverted.”
I don’t get this. Cars are able to follow easier than in the recent past. You hear less and less drivers complaining about this. Slicks and smaller rear wings HAVE had some affect, although not enough for some if not most. We should definitely not go back to where we were. Let’s see how the DDD-less 2011 will fair first.
I always sound like a broken record on this, but we are having great seasons lately in F1. Why we want more overtaking is beyond me, we will just devalue what an overtake in F1 actually means. It is not NASCAR, or formula ford, or DTM. This is Formula 1.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
5th September 2010, 18:12
Everyone seems to be forgetting about that. I don’t think we’re going to just have more overtaking instantly, but it will definitely have some positive effect on the wake of the cars and therefore make it slightly easier to follow…
Joey-Poey
5th September 2010, 16:12
“The reason given for the changes was to improve overtaking, we can see the changes haven’t done that much in that regard, so I don’t understand why the regulations haven’t been reverted.”
Which season has he been watching this year? Seems like a fair bit of exciting overtaking has been going on.
BasCB
5th September 2010, 16:27
the interview with Peter Sauber is very nice. This guy seems to knowing what he is doing and no PR talk involved.
RobR (@robr)
5th September 2010, 19:33
Okay, a fairly hostile reception so far…
I seem to remember when we first saw the ’09 wings, most people were aghast.
Now some people are saying “well, we’re used to it”.
F1 is supposed to be entertainment. We shouldn’t have to “get used” to it. You get used to a job you don’t like, you don’t have to “get used” to something which is supposed to be entertainment.
Yes I have enjoyed the racing of course, but I’ve enjoyed it through squinting eyes and a mild headache. That has never been the case before and I don’t see why it should continue. When I looked at the leading cars of before, like the 2008 McLarens and Ferraris, I saw Concorde (actually, I agree the winglets were getting way out of hand, and we are better off without them, but even then, they somehow managed to look okay on the McLaren). Now I look at the Ferrari F10 and I see an Airbus A380. A lot of people said these cars were ugly when they first rolled out, I don’t see why they should stay like that. Surely all those people haven’t really changed their minds – they’ve simply said “well, that’s what F1 cars look like now, just get used to it”. A sport with so much cash should aim for better than simply “well, whatever”. Seriously, where’s the passion?
I think the regulations which define these cars are overwrought and muddled and the result is ugly cars, and we need to go back to having proportional wings, and wider cars too, I’m sticking by that. And if anyone calls me “nostalgic”, I don’t care. That’s just ridiculous really. It’s so easy to be a cynic and just say “Well, just get used to it”, the easiest thing in the world and it’s not the attitude that built the sport (in fact it has never built anything).
Mike
6th September 2010, 0:26
About the wings… anyone know the fans reaction when they first came in to the sport? I imagine it was much the same as with the new style wings…
I like this years cars, They aren’t the most beautiful, not by a long shot, but my sense of beauty in F1 mixes it up with nostalgia, so I often find the 97 cars to be some of the best looking…
I’d very much rather what we have now than a few years ago for many, many reason, one of which is in fact visual appeal.
I think the view that less regulation will make for better looking cars is, a little bit naive… Much in the same way that people look to past regulations when deciding what will look best, we don’t actually know what the teams will come up with do we? It may not actually turn out to be an improvement.
I’m just worried about 2013 to be honest…
LewisC
6th September 2010, 11:59
F1 cars have been going downhill since the Maserati 250F and the Vanwall in my opinion. :D