“Who cares why we are overtaking?” – Rosberg

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round–up: Nico Rosberg defends DRS, saying “In the end, who cares why we are overtaking?”

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

DRS zones to be adjusted for 2012 (Autosport)

Rosberg: “DRS is a great thing. In the end, who cares why we are overtaking?”

What’s your view on DRS? Have your say and cast your vote here:

Valencia in drive to cut Formula One costs (FT, registration required)

Bernie Ecclestone: “What’s been talked about more is that Barcelona would like to alternate with them. Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe it’s the way to go.”

Ecclestone Hid $5 Million Payment to Gribkowsky, Adviser Says (Bloomberg)

“‘Ecclestone told me to transfer $5 million of his money to Mr. Gribkowsky by using a special company so his name wouldn’t appear,’ Andre Favre, who worked as an adviser to Ecclestone, told a Munich court at Gribkowsky’s bribery trial. ‘All Ecclestone told me was that he owed Gribkowsky the money.”

2011 Hamilton’s Year Of Growth (Speed)

“There’s no doubt that Lewis [Hamilton] has been continually disappointed by McLaren’s consistent failure to start the season with a truly competitive package.”

Liuzzi: HRT still searching for budget (GP Update)

“The biggest problem is that the team has no budget. They’re still looking at whether it is possible to have two drivers on the payroll this year.”

Reebok reveals global brand strategy (Marketing Week)

“Reebok is preparing to launch a global brand strategy to position itself as the world’s primary fitness brand, and will feature sportsmen including Lewis Hamilton and cricketer MS Dhoni in a campaign to support the new direction.”

James Roberts via Twitter

“For the ten races the BBC aren’t showing live this year, commentary will still be recorded live, rather than ‘made-up’ over the highlights.”

Charles Pic via Twitter

“Back at Marussia Technical Centre in Banbury today meeting with Engineers. Pre-season training going well – though very cold outdoors.”

Comment of the day

Topdowntoedown on Ron Howard’s forthcoming F1 film Rush:

A film about ’70s F1 set at the Nurburgring? Brilliant!

Directed by Ron Howard? Happy Days!
Topdowntoedown

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Fernando Alonso drove the MP4-22 – the only McLaren he has ever raced – for the first time on this day five years ago.

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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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115 comments on ““Who cares why we are overtaking?” – Rosberg”

  1. Yeah, I bet Nico didn’t care Vettel overtook him so easily in the middle of the straight at Spa either.

    He must’ve thought: “ooooh, that’s a neat overtaking move right there! Good job Sebastian!”

    (of course, Seb then showed true grit going round the outside at the backstraight, but that’s another matter and has nothing to do with DRS!)

    1. nico knew that his car was.fundamentally slower, and that drs or not, he was going to get passed.

      1. Of course, but he could’ve at least had a better chance to hold on, though

        1. If I were Nico, I’d have dropped behind Vettel at La Source, and stalked him up Eau Rogue to get the DRS + combined straight line speed..

          1. and then he would have been passed, again, a few corners later .

      2. @Hairs

        Gilles’ car was fundamentally slower. But there was no way he was letting a car by.

        1. Here we go again. Right, once more for the cheap seats…

          1. Cars in the 70s and early 80s did not work in the same way. You might as well compare what happens in a motorbike race and complain that “more of them can go through the corners”.

          2. The cars were more varied and unpredictable. Two chassis from the same shop floor might be tenths of a second different in lap time. The driver was far more of a factor in how the car performed.

          3. I’ll ask it again: Why is years of turbulence robbing us of classic battles not as big a deal as something like drs? Or has everyone forgotten? Because in 2009, Gilles would not have held anyone behind in a wheel to wheel battle – nobody would have been within a second and a half of him.

          1. Well, in hindsight, I wish I would’ve never filled in those questionaires from FOTA. Because I truly think all old rules were better. Yes, I was astounded by China this year but DRS makes me long for those days where overtaking was à scarce Achievement, which made me stand up from my sofa.
            Just like in football (soccer): à goal means something, and they don’t move those goalposts.
            Turbulence is and was only part of tha ‘problem’, circuitdesign is tha biggest factor.
            I could live with à temporary solution and in some races – notably Barcelona – I liked DRS. But now it’s going to be permanent I feel …. Let’s just say robbed.

          2. Goals in football mean something because they occur so rarely – if there were only two overtakes in a 90 minute race then most people would get bored. I know I would and I am a massive F1 fan. An overtake is more like a long pass; sometimes they are difficult and impressive but other times they are routine and barely register, just like an overtake made without DRS and one with DRS.

            I can see where Nico is coming from, although I am still unsure whether I would prefer F1 with or without DRS. What I do care about is the aerodynamics rules being overhauled so cars can follow each other through corners without being massively disadvantaged.

      3. @hairs, in fact on the straights it was the RedBull that was “fundementally slower”.

        1. And it made up the difference, and more, in the corners.

        2. @hohum actually with drs open on both cars, vettel was 4kph quicker than rosberg on the straights. source: http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2011/858/6889/speed_trap.html

          1. @sato113 Speed trap in Spa means nothing. It’s located in the middle of Raidillon. It says nothing of end of straight speeds; really.

          2. @raymondu999 oh yeah. i thought it was weird how fast the red bull’s appeared to be.

          3. @sato113 don’t forget too – DRS doesn’t make a difference at all in the Spa speed trap. DRS (even in qualifying) was only allowed to be activated after the speed trap.

    2. Yeah, I bet Nico didn’t care Vettel overtook him so easily in the middle of the straight at Spa either.

      He must’ve thought: “ooooh, that’s a neat overtaking move right there! Good job Sebastian!”

      Rosberg probably didn’t think that at all. Because was, you know, busy driving a racing car.

      1. Yeah you don’t have to think at all to drive a f1 car flat out, apparantely they just do it themselves while you enjoy the ride ;-) good point for sure, oh wait…

  2. Alternating the Spanish GP between Barcelona and Valencia felt obvious right from the start. It’d free us from that hideous street circuit every other year too!

    1. thatscienceguy
      17th January 2012, 7:35

      And it saves us from that hideous barcelona circuit every other year too.

      Wait, what?

      1. Well, only one hideous track a year instead of two (if you discount all the other unpopular ones anyway ;))

        1. get rid of both tracks and have Jerez or some new track.Valencia and Barcelona are awful tracks

  3. Erm, I care why overtaking happens and whether it’s because of true skill or the ability to press a button. I’m pretty sure most serious F1 fans feel the same.

    Regarding F1 on Virgin Media, great news! Just a shame I’ll have to pay for all the Sky Sports channels when all I’m interested in is the F1. Will of course ring up threatening to leave but I doubt it will achieve much as they know I would have to pay even more if I went to Sky :/

    1. I think the drivers like DRS because it means they don’t have to take as many risks when trying to pass another driver. If they had it their way, they’d make the DRS even stronger, I’d imagine.

      1. This would make F1 even more artificial. I fear that drivers these days don’t care that much for the sport rather than what would make their lives easier. I agree that certain things need to be assured like safety, but overtakes shouldn’t be done with a touch of a button.

    2. Totally and utterly agree with you mate. A lot of the DRS zones last year made it to easy to past and took away the skill of defending. If you pass someone wwho can’t defend due to lack of speed is like boxing someone with no hands you can’t class as a REAL win/overtake it makes it look cheap and takes quality away for quantity.

  4. Liuzzi must be drinking absinthe if he thinks HRT are having any sort of debate at all.

    And I’m pretty sure I read that reebok story last year… not on here though . Exciting stuff.

    1. I guess him having a contract means it makes sense to speak about it for him @hairs, as he clearly signals that he wants to either drive the car or they sould find someone to fund both the team and his payoff!

    2. Just had a look at the article, seems Liuzzi is pretty much of the same opinion there @hairs – look at what he says here

      “At the moment I am still completely involved in developing the new car, but I do realise that that could change at any moment. Contracts are almost worthless in Formula 1. If a young driver with a big wallet comes knocking on the door, I lose my seat. That’s how it is.”

      Sounds like he doesn’t expect much of a debate either!

    3. Who plays cricket outside Commonwealth?

      1. Netherlands, Zimbabwe, USA, Denmark and apparently Argentina too…

        1. + India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kenya, Singapore and just a few others…..

  5. Does anybody actually know for sure yet whether the BBC non-live races will be highlights or full re-runs?

    1. “Extended highlights” is the bullplop marketing term they’re using to try and fool people into believing that showing less than full race distances is the same as a full re-run.

      1. I thought so, but then I swear I heard people saying that full re-runs were happening. Oh well, illegal streaming it is!

        1. I dont know if it helps, but teh hungarian national television (m1) got back the rights to air the GP-s (for 10 years it was RTL-klub’s). Which means, you can legally watch the FPs Qs Rs in HD via “Astra 1KR” & “Amos 1” (but the commentary will be hungarian :D)

      2. Grand Prix of the day ! (I’d like Gary Lineker analysing a slow mo of Vettel taking a curve :D)

  6. Good news on expanding Amazon support to the US! I buy things on Amazon from time to time. I’ll try and search through this site for sure.

  7. Ahh Nico, Nico! You disappoint me!

    Not why – how!

  8. My answer to Nico’s question – Me.

          1. And… oh never mind

          2. And me? Or is that one too many…

          3. Its not too many @f1alex!

            Add me in as well. I also care

          4. Add me to this “And me train” :).

          5. And me! No wait, it’s already been said…

    1. me seven!

      1. “I don’t care I get paid 5M Euros a year for this. Let them eat DRS!”

    2. we need an ‘and me’ button

    3. To make things easier is there anyone here who doesn’t care? :D

      Oh count me in too.

    4. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      17th January 2012, 15:45

      and ME

        1. Yep me too

  9. “The biggest problem is that the team has no budget. They’re still looking at whether it is possible to have two drivers on the payroll this year.”

    They kind of need two drivers on the pay roll – every team is obligated to run two cars at every event.

    1. I assume they mean having one paid, and one paying.

      1. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
        17th January 2012, 2:35

        Thats what I assumed as well, one being paid a salary and one paying to be able to race.

        1. PM knew that too, he was just providing flame bait.

          1. To his credit he is quite good at it :D

          2. PM knew that too, he was just providing flame bait.

            No, I wasn’t actually. Between the need to take a paying driver, reports that they may start the season with the F111 because the move to Valencia has left them desperately short of time to complete the F112, and the complete lack of actual sponsors, it could be that the team discover they only have the budget to run one car at all events and that the price of a second car would be too much for them to charge a pay driver.

  10. Happy Birthday to Ads21, Bev, gabal and Gerdoner. Enjoy the day all.

    1. I fall in with this, Happy birthday to @Ads21, Bev, @gabal and @Gerdoner!

      1. Happy birthday guys! And it’s also @Portugoose‘s birthday today. I hope you all have fantastic days.

        1. Oh, yeah. Happy birthday to you as well @portugoose

          1. Also Happy Birthday to @@portugoose

    2. Thx guys :)
      Happy birthday to @Ads21, @portugoose, @gabal, and @Bev!

  11. So if one day Rosberg is in the lead, or going for a 3rd place and then there’s a radio message saying that “Schumacher is faster than you” and suddenly Schumacher overtakes Rosberg, there is no problem. Who cares why Schumacher is overtaking him…

    1. there’s a radio message saying that “Schumacher is faster than you” and suddenly Schumacher overtakes Rosberg
      That won’t happen. Team orders are legal, but if a team decides to use them, they must be up-front about it. Using coded messages will only get them in serious trouble. And before you say that Red Bull told Vettel to slow down in Brazil, the stewards were satsified that he had a gearbox problem when they checked during post-race scrutineering.

      1. @PrisonerMonkeys I doubt Nico would be pleased about team orders being used to his disadvantage though, unless there’s evidence to suggest he loves being a number two driver.

    2. Well, I really don’t like what Rosberg says there @paulk, but If you actually read the article the rest of what he says puts it a bit into context –

      “It is better for it to be too difficult than too easy. If it is too difficult then at least the pressure is there – like in Barcelona [last year] when it was still exciting with Lewis [Hamilton] and Sebastian [Vettel].”

      – about optimising the zones. I’d say this is pretty reasonable, if one accepts the fact that DRS is there in the first place.

      What I find more supprising is something they also write in that article –

      Although critics believed the concept made overtaking too easy, DRS was widely praised as having helped improve the spectacle of F1.

      The only ones I saw / heard heap praise on it were the teams themselves (the ones who invented it to save them the burden of rethinking aero completely).

      Even on TV here in the Czech Republic it was more talked about as “oh but he used DRS to get by” and the thing making many races confusing (remember those journo’s tweeting about it at the start of the year?)

  12. Happy B-day Ads21!

  13. Happy birthday @Ads21 !

    1. Ditto. Happy Birthday @ads21

  14. From the sentence that’s in the headline it seems that Nico’s seriously insulting the fans. However, if you read the whole article, it’s not that bad. Anyway, it’s hard to understand Nico’s stance. DRS makes it even harder for teams like Mercedes to score podiums. Nico obviously thinks that he’ll get the best car in a couple of years anyway, good luck to him then.

    1. I see you wrote more or less the same as me @girts, after actually reading the article, should have seen your comment before posting!

      1. @BasCB I think you actually explained the situation very well. I also don’t believe that it is correct to say that DRS has been “widely praised”. I’ve read a lot of opinions from journalists, fans etc. and the reactions have been very diverse.

        I’ve also noticed that I sometimes perceive non-DRS overtakes as DRS ones, particularly those passes that are not shown on TV. A couple of days ago, I expressed my dislike for the fact that backmarkers are now almost always easily passed by everyone else just because of the DRS. Then I surfed the lap charts a bit and found out that Kovalainen was sometimes overtaken already before the DRS had been enabled. Maybe I’m a bit a DRS-phobic but I think the problem is that the system has devaluated the worth of a pass in F1 in general.

    2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      17th January 2012, 15:54

      yeah @girts Mercedes lost a well-worth podium (or possible podium for the syntax fans who once told me “so you can see the future Pepper?) when Schumi did one of those fabulous starts and gradually had to make room for the other ones, which race was it? I don’t remember the racewhen he was running third for a while and then lost place due to DRS overtakes

      1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        17th January 2012, 15:58

        Canada!!! he was running second!

        1. Yeah I think that might be an example such that NR might be talking about where MS was made to look ‘silly’ or like he was standing still…that said, MS also got to where he was that day by using DRS on someone else. Not to mention the whole race was affected due to everyone having DRS.

          Nice to read that NR is at least open to DRS being tweaked and that he says passing should still be difficult.

          1. Fail sorry, DRS wasn’t enabled for most of that race due to the damp conditions, only towards the end when MS was overtaken by other drivers using DRS.

  15. Electrolite – exactly what I thought :)

  16. I know the court case is against Gribkowsky, not Ecclestone… but could all this lead to Ecclestone also being charged and sent to jail if found guilty?

    1. That would really depend pretty much on how the payment is viewed. If its a deemed a bribe, then it is possible that it would lead to a trial for bribery against BE.

      But I would not say its that likely, and even if it will rather be for the purpose of others trying to claim money from him than lead to any jail sentences.

  17. Haha, my first COTD.

    I’d like to thank Tora Takagi, Yuji Ide, and above all Jean-Denis Delatraz. :)

    1. Yeah, those are the ones that makes us feel involved!

      Congratulations on the COTD

  18. We care Nico, we care. We want to see real F1 but it seems that this is not going to happen anymore.

    People like Newey seem to the be the real bosses of F1 as all teams and institutions involved are inventing artificial elements like the DRS or introducing these ****** tyres instead of reducing the importance of aerodynamic.

  19. I do sometimes wonder whether drivers genuinely like DRS. After a few races last year, some drivers were saying how they prefer to pass without DRS. But now we are getting many drivers defending it. I did once read that drivers are not allowed to speak negatively about DRS, but I’m not sure whether that was true or not.

    1. I loved how Jenson Button once said he didn’t like having to use the DRS to overtake because it was too easy and boring for a racer. So i’m sure the drivers can say what they feel.

      I’m quite suprised by Rosberg saying this. As a racer like Button i’d have though he would also crave the excitement of real race overtaking, and not motorway overtaking.

  20. Rosberg: “DRS is a great thing. In the end, who cares why we are overtaking?”

    To quote Tiff Needel: Let’s start with about 90% of the fans shall we Nico ..

    Happy birthday Bev, gabal and Gerdoner and a special happy birthday to @Ads21 who is without doubt one of my favourite fanatics and a truly great guy. I hope you’ve fully recovered from the tonsillitis and are able to have a perfect day!

  21. Bye Rubens

    http://en.espnf1.com/williams/motorsport/story/68089.html

    Sad to see him go after so long really…

    On a side note looks like i saw this story before Keith lol *does a small jig*

    1. I’m not doing a story on it until it’s official. The rumours were mentioned on here days ago.

      1. Fair enough lol

  22. Very odd statement from Nico.

    If we go with his view, why not ditch DRS and make it so cars must overtake X amount of times per race? Just slow down and let the other person through. Must cheaper and easier!

    ……. No?

  23. Rosberg underestimates the intelligence of an F1 fan.

  24. Duhh, wat do thos wingss do?! wow dey move!!

    :)

  25. A pretty poor choice of words from Rosberg but I do agree that if/when they get it right, it will make for a better experience with DRS.

    My main fear is that getting it right one year does not mean you will get it right the next. The variables are so large over just one race, over one season they’re unfathomably huge.

    It wouldn’t surprise me if the races we complained about last year will be heaped with praise in 2012 and the races where DRS was perfect in 2011, turn out to be a massive miscalculation.

  26. “Who cares why we are overtaking?” – Rosberg
    “I do. Most of the rest of the F1 fans out there do too” – Me

  27. I don’t care how they pass each other, as long as they are. I Think if there comes a time when their is to much passing, I think we should cross that bridge when we come to it.

    1. I don’t think many would argue that there’s “too much” as such, I more think it’s the lack of skill needed to produce the overtake.

      Go back and check out how DRS can ruin a race – Turkey.

      I’m not a ‘hater’ when it comes to DRS, but it needs a fair bit of tweaking before it properly ‘works’ for this fan.

      I always thought the idea was to recreate the slipstream effect that we’ve now lost. My idea would require better technology (which i’m 99% sure F1 could do). It’d be:

      DRS activates when:
      *A car is within 0.75 seconds of the car infront (sounds complex but bare with me)
      *And it’d need to be in the slipstream of the car. I’m sure there’s sensors sophisticated enough to read when a car is behind another
      *It can be on any lap, at any time (bar in the pits, obviously)

      The key being that the wing only opens to half of what it opens now.

      If we kept the same angle that the wing opens to now, passing would become ridiculously easy, and you’d risk drivers intentionally falling behind the guy infront to gain an advantage.

      By decreasing the effect of the DRS in half, it’d offer a much more discrete ‘boost’ for the car behind (rather than what we see now).

      Aslong as they could get the sensor right, it’d work a treat.

      Plus, you could forget trying to explain where the designated DRS zones are and confusing the public even more so.

      1. I watched the race in Istanbul. I did’nt care that they were passing each other. I enjoyed it, and in the context of the entire season I think it worked quite well.

  28. Rosberg: “DRS is a great thing. In the end, who cares why we are overtaking?”

    Well if that is the fans’ attitude then lets get the water sprinklers asap and a few self-puncturing tyres they can give to the championship leader if there is a need to spice things up a bit.
    Maybe a “race leader” engine map, which restricts their engine torque by 10% or something. And with DRS available all around the track, maybe with an added restriction on KERS so that a driver can’t use it if a car behind is within 1 second..
    That would at least make for a good Hollywood movie..
    “In a world….”

  29. The other question is whether people would prefer overtaking using DRS or seeing overtaking happening in the pits (when refuelling was legal). Personally I’d much prefer overtaking on the track than the pits, and while I would also prefer non-DRS overtaking, I won’t discredit DRS completely – perhaps where they’re positioned could be questioned and whether certain tracks need it or need two is a matter of question.

    If DRS was available in 2010 I think the WDC would’ve been Alonso. Alternatively, if had the final race been held at a more overtaking friendlier track then I believe Alonso would have also been 2010 WDC.

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