FIA extends DRS zone ahead of first race

F1 Fanatic round-up

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At long last the off-season is over and the first official on-track of 2011 takes place today.

Here’s today’s round-up:

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

FIA wrongfoots teams with late change (Adam Cooper)

“The section of track on which the wing can be operated was set at 600m for race day, on the basis that the figure could be changed if experience in the early races proved that to be necessary. However for the opening race in Australia it has already been changed to over 860m.”

Adrian Newey rejected Ferrari bid to tempt him from Red Bull (BBC)

Stefano Domenicali: “Of course, Adrian is one of the best, if not the best, in F1. We joke a lot about the possibility [of him joining Ferrari] but I have the impression he is happy in England and that he will stay at Red Bull.”

Williams – Lowline gearbox in detail (ScarbsF1)

“Having been obvious at its launch the Williams FW33 has a radical shrunken gearbox case. Now we can see how the case is actually configured.”

F1 Games from Codemasters (Facebook)

“Today we’re pleased to announce that F1 2011 will be coming out on the 23rd September.”

Tourist route gives Paul di Resta right grounding for F1’s hard road (The Guardian)

“OK, [Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have] won world championships but I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve. And I’m not sure I would have wanted to be a Formula One driver at 19. I had four good years in touring cars. I’ll look back and say I definitely enjoyed them. I don’t regret it.”

Australian GP – Conference 1 (FIA)

Mark Webber: “We are just a drinks company but in the end we had a pretty good season last year so hopefully we can build on what we did last year. We have some sensational rivals, like Fernando touched on. The red guys are a phenomenal team, phenomenal history and that’s what gives us great rewards to come out and compete against those guys.”

Anthony Davidson on Twitter

“Using KERS and rear wing adjust on simulator. It’s like a serious version of Mario Kart! Now… Where’s that red shell deployment button?”

Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app

Biggest regret? My Barnet in ’06 (The Sun)

Remember the journalist yesterday who was complaining about not getting to ask Hamilton any F1 questions? Read the questions in this article…

Dan Shutte via Twitter

“Just learned that there will be a moment of silence on the grid Sunday… obviously for those in Japan.”

Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app

Randstad Increases Commitment (Williams)

“Randstad has upgraded its partnership with the AT&T Williams team.”

NEC Mexico is a Premium Partner of the Sauber F1 Team (Sauber)

“With the season opener just around the corner, the Sauber F1 Team is happy to announce another Premium Partner: as from the Australian Grand Prix, the NEC logo will be visible on the side of the monocoque.”

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Icthyes doesn’t expect drivers will be able to make the tyres last long enough to save themselves a pit stop:

I don’t think tyre-saving will be important at all.

Let’s say the best drivers can eke an extra 4 laps out (and that’s being generous). By even the gloomiest predictions, you’d need a 4-stop race to make up enough laps to cover one stint. Then there’s the fact they’ll be going a little slower to save the laps, so it won’t work anyway.

Disappointing, but like I said elsewhere, better than what we had. And it would be rubbish if you could win by saving tyres, but not by maxing them out (as they will probably be driving them near the limit anyway, as Webber, Brundle and Schumacher have all said or suggested).

Can’t wait!
Icthyes

From the forum

Guy puts forward a very radical idea.

Site updates

The updated version of F1 Fanatic Live will make its return today, thanks again to Jamie Atkinson who’s developed it further from the last version that was used.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Marc and Guilherme Teixeira!

On this day in F1

John Hugenholz died on this day in 1995.

Hugenholz designed many famous F1 circuits including Zandvoort in his homeland the Netherlands. He also penned Suzuka, which is little changed today from how it was when it first opened in the sixties.

Other Hugenholz creations used in F1 include the original Hockenheimring in Germany (which has since been heavily revised), Jarama in Spain and Zolder and Nivelles in Belgium.

Image © Renault/LAT

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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48 comments on “FIA extends DRS zone ahead of first race”

  1. Mark Webber: “We are just a drinks company…”
    And you’re just a number 2 driver! :p /jk

    1. I can’t wait to see him drive this season with the number he’s been designated by the FIA.

    2. …a #2 driver for a drinks company…

      …who beat Lewis Hamilton in the championship last year.

      1. Not bad at all then.

      2. Yes Webber beat Lewis last year… TWICE (Australia and Singapore!), he really showed his class against a driver with car 1 second slower.

        Do some maths and you will discover how many points Webber made Lewis lose with those crashes.

        Then get back here to said who was really better…

        1. Take a breather, man. No need for taunting here. Be chill, peace out, you know? Enjoy the beginning of the season : )

        2. I thought Lewis benefited from the red bull crash in Turkey? or was i watching a different race?

          Swings and roundabouts i think you will find. At the end of the season the championship table doesnt lie, and thats from a Ferrari fan.

          1. It doesn’t lie- it tells me that Webber scraped 3rd in the clearly fastest car ;)

          2. I thought Lewis benefited from the red bull crash in Turkey?

            What this have to do with Webber crashing into Lewis twice in a year? And, by the way, in Turkey Webber was involved in this incident which benefited Lewis.

            Oh, now I remember that in the same Australia/2010 was Lewis the one whose avoided other crash with Webber in the beginning of the race:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3X8oJlb2yM

    3. It’s an f1 team sponsored by a drinks company. Before is was sponsored by Ford and Jaguar. If Matschitz gets fed up with it then someone else will pay the bills.

      Does it really matter where the money comes from?

      1. Well they aren’t just a sponsor, they are also the owner. If Marschitz gets fed up with the team, he has to sell it, where as a normal sponsor just walks away.

        Also I don’t think they are really “just a drinks company” these days. At the moment, that’s what makes them all the money, but their brand is powerful. I reckon in 20 years people will firstly consider Red Bull as some sort of extreme sporting organization, a brand of clothes, and then an energy drink company.

        1. I hope you are right about their future sources of income! There has been some very negative observations regarding the sudden deaths of several young athletes tied to the consumption of “energy drinks”.

  2. getting excited…less than an hour and a half to go…glad there’s somewhere i can say that without being mocked…cheers F1Fanatic for giving me somewhere to be “uncool” ;)

    1. haha ditto, I typed my nerdy excitement into a facebook status, and then cancelled it as they just wouldn’t care :( Thanks F1F for letting us free!

      1. haha did exactly the same!

  3. I think the moments silence may extend further than the Japan earthquakes. This part of the world has been nailed in recent months.

    1. You’re not kidding. Floods, quakes, tsunamis, Nuclear spills and many many many deaths.

      1. Amen to that. Give a minute silence for all of that.

  4. Keith do you need Liveblog mods? Haven’t got the usual emails. or is F1F live excitingly new an not requiring. Whatever it is, it’s gonna be awesome. V8!s V8!s

  5. Does anyone knows when that survey from FIA and LG will be online again?

  6. here we go then :)

    I’d just like to thank you kieth and all the F1 Fanatic posters for keeping me and many other fanatics sane over the winter months.

    With all the items such as champion of champions and all the superb launch and testing coverage (and lots lots more), in a way this year I feel as if we’re not ready for the new season as it feels like 2010 never ended!

    Whilst I’m not exactly a regular poster, i do a lot of browsing, reading and considering of all the content, including that of all the comments and it really has been by far the best coverage of a winter ever!

    Thankyou to everyone , and enjoy the new season! on 55 mins to go as i write this! I for one am staying up till 3, then setting my alarm for 20 past 5 (5 mins to make coffee :) )

    1. shame i can’t spell keith

  7. I hope you’re right Icthyes. I want to see drivers wrestling the cars and pushing to the absolute limit not saving their tyres.

  8. 20 mins until FP1 im buzzing!? :D ;) :\ :S :)

    1. hate to disappoint, but it starts at half past :/

  9. Is there a Livechat planned for sessions this year?

  10. Now we can officially say Happy 2011 F1 Season :)

  11. I think the adjustment of the DRS zone is a much more sensible idea to the original plan, even if it is at the last minute.

    1. I think its great its last minute. At least the teams will have to work on track to get it tuned for them.

  12. If anybody wants live streaming – legal live streaming – OneHD (Australia’s dedicated sports channel) is webcasting every session this weekend, and they’ll be doing it for every race.

    Not sure if you need an Australian IP to access it, though.

    1. Shame I saw that only now. I’ll give it a try for FP2.

      1. Also, the V8 Supercar qualifying session is on now. It’s worth checking out if you’ve never seen it before.

    2. When I try to watch recorded footage, you need an aussie IP. I guess the same will apply to the actual streams.

  13. Happy Birthday to Guilherme Teixeira.

    Happy to see that Live Update is back it helps many people who can’t see the practice.

    I don’t think Newey needs to go to Ferrari,as he have made a team around him already.

    More good news foe Sauber as they are bagging more money before the season starts.

  14. Is there any site where I can see both practice sessions on line?
    Here in Venezuela local or cable TV doesn’t show practice

  15. anyone see the item by mark hughes on the BBC website? Was a bit shocked that he claimed Felipe Massa to be the moral victor of the 2008 championship, seems a tad biased with no evidence to support it.

  16. im still having problems getting here. I usually have to double click the links because it takes a lot of time to enter…!

    HELP!

  17. Over 1100 comments on the live blog. Looks like it got through the stress test as well.

    Wonderfull job.

    And a happy birthday to both Marc and Guilherme Teixeira, the season set off for real on your birthday sounds pretty solid for a start.

  18. Not too bad a job on that interview with Lewis, given the limits to what they were allowed to talk about!

    A bit strange though, read not a single word about F1 in a Hamilton interview.

  19. A COTD on the first proper day of the season? Best random present ever!

    Happy birthday Marc and Guilherme Teixeira!

    And of course, Happy Greek independence Day!

  20. In response to Icthyes’ COTD, I think it’s missing a reasonably big factor.

    Even if you can’t save an entire stop, saving laps with these tyres seems like an equally valid strategy. If you can make your tyres go 4 laps a stint longer and you do three stops, it will mean you tyres are 12 laps younger than someone elses. And with these tyres, that’s a vast difference that over a few laps can add up to a vast amount of time.

    Coupled with DRS, I think you’ll see “tyre management specialists” do very well out of this.

    1. I think 12 laps younger is a bit of a mis-reading. They will be 4 laps younger in each stint, not 12 laps younger going into the last stint – the effect won’t be that big. Then you are going slower by saving your tyres, so you have to use those 4 laps to make up the time – but you’re supposed to be saving them, so that won’t work.

      The advantage in F1 with these rules is to the guy who pits first. So long as you don’t have to make en extra stop, that will always work in your favour, because the guy who stops last won’t be able to make up the eventual time deficit in the final stint. You’ll have 4 laps at the end of the race, so even if others are on dying tyres, it’s too little and too late. that’s how i see it.

  21. Someone posted a picture of the DRS zone on Twitter and I did think they were being generous…in a good way!

  22. Let’s say the best drivers can eke an extra 4 laps out

    The number of stops is only one part of it, they should all do pretty much the same. What is far more important is the drop off in lap time. Drivers that eke out 2 – 3 seconds per lap for a few laps before the stops could gain mountains of time.
    e.g 2 per lap x 4 laps x 4 stints = 32 seconds advantage

    This happened in the late 1980s.

    1. Not sure what you’re getting at.

      A driver saving their tyres will be going slower. As soon as the quicker driver’s tyres start going off, they’ll pit and then be much faster because of his fresh rubber. Four laps later the other driver will have faster rubber, but nowhere near as much of an advantage in speed, especially since he’s trying to save them. The tyres will have to drop off at an incredible rate for the gap to be closed and if it’s that bad the driver will just make an extra stop and breeze past their tyre-saving rival.

      1. No, I do see what you’re getting at. But this is being generous with our numbers. To make these tyres last an extra 4 laps they’ll have to be going so slow that those 32 seconds won’t be enough at the end of the race.

  23. Best helmet for Trulli in years http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=10150184524763465&set=a.10150184318428465.348363.292309963464&theater

    It really looks great and serves a purpose. Nice move Jarno.

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