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I guess one of the objectives is to improve the ability to overtake. Whilst reducing the aero disturbance will help I think a limited capacity boost button a la KERS sounds favourite. I think the rear wing thing sounds overly complex.
The 107% rule could be interesting. On a normal day it’s not going to give even the slowest teams a problem, but any issue during the early part of Q1 could put a major team out of the race. I predict tears and ranting.
I think there are a few conclusions to draw from the results:
1. Kovalainen is in a different class to the other five/seven drivers. I reckon he’s worth between one and three tenths of a second per lap. I know Trulli has out-qualified him on occasions but Kov is just so consistent.
2. The problems with the Xtrac transmission and hydraulics have hampered progress with all the cars.
3. Chandock and di Grassi have not received the recognition they deserve.
4. The Lotus has been the better car this season, but it’s marginal. Despite the prophets of doom predicting that VR and its CFD approach would fail the VR-01 has remained in the mix with the T127.
5. Lotus quali and race strategy has been better than VR and HRT.
I’d also be interested to see an objective view of relative performance. It seemed (and this is just an impression) that the new teams were closing on the back of the pack but not improving against the front. If so, that would indicate that the gap is being affected by problems at Force India and Toro Rosso rather than progress in general.
Following the Abu Dhabi GP
Group B Drivers Championship
Heikki Kovalainen – 304 pts – 23.4 pts per finish (13 finishes)
Jarno Trulli – 176 pts – 17.6 pts per finish (11 finishes)
Lucas di Grassi – 171 pts – 17.1 pts per finish (10 finishes)
Timo Glock – 165 pts – 16.5 pts per finish (10 finishes)
Karun Chandock – 131 pts – 16.4 pts per finish (8 finishes)
Brunno Senna – 118 pts – 13.1 pts per finish (9 finishes)
Sakon Yamamoto – 54 pts – 9.0 pts per finish (6 finishes)
Christian Klein – 18 pts – 9.0 pts per finish (2 finishes)
Group B Constructors Championship
Lotus – 480 pts – 20.0 pts per finish (24 finishes)
Virgin – 336 pts – 16.8 pts per finish (20 finishes)
HRT – 321 pts – 12.8 pts per finish (25 finishes)
Regards…Paul
I think the downforce split is:
* Front Wing – 25%
* Body (inc. floor and diffuser) – 40%
* Rear Wing – 35%
The front wing has a very big influence on the aero performance of the rest of the car, and small changes can have a big effect. Apparently, a fantastic front wing on one car probably won’t work on another – I guess that’s why the teams don’t copy each other.
The open wheels cause a large amount of varying disturbance that is difficult to model.
Oh I get it. Proton Lotus Nissan Renault like BMW Fiat Scuderia Ferrari.
Joking aside, at least the current team is based in Norfolk. It’s not that I would object to a the team base shifting to Oxfordshire it’s just that using the Lotus name as effectively the name of a paint job that can be slapped on any car doesn’t sit well. Like ogamii says above – you can’t buy heritage.
As a VR fan this is difficult to say but I’d rather the Mike and Tony show continued.
Following the Brazil GP
Group B Drivers Championship
Heikki Kovalainen – 279 pts – 23.3 pts per finish (12 finishes)
Jarno Trulli – 168 pts – 16.8 pts per finish (10 finishes)
Timo Glock – 165 pts – 16.5 pts per finish (10 finishes)
Lucas di Grassi – 153 pts – 17.0 pts per finish (9 finishes)
Karun Chandock – 131 pts – 16.4 pts per finish (8 finishes)
Brunno Senna – 106 pts – 13.3 pts per finish (8 finishes)
Sakon Yamamoto – 54 pts – 9.0 pts per finish (6 finishes)
Christian Klein – 8 pts – 0 pts per finish (1 finishes)
Group B Constructors Championship
Lotus – 447 pts – 20.3 pts per finish (22 finishes)
Virgin – 318 pts – 16.7 pts per finish (19 finishes)
HRT – 299 pts – 13.0 pts per finish (23 finishes)
Regards…Paul
There was also a point where Rosberg stepped through a gap in the pit wall after his shunt with Webber, and Legard said “And there’s Hamilton”. But I must agree with Prisoner, I think he does provoke some interesting comments from Martin Brundle. He also seems to be able to dig out a memory of some relevant past event. On balance I think he’s ok.
Beside, how many gaffs did Murray Walker make? …….. and he’s a legend.
Following the Korean GP
Group B Drivers Championship
Heikki Kovalainen – 254 pts – 23.1 pts per finish (11 finishes)
Lucas di Grassi – 153 pts – 17.0 pts per finish (9 finishes)
Timo Glock – 153 pts – 17.0 pts per finish (9 finishes)
Jarno Trulli – 150 pts – 16.7 pts per finish (9 finishes)
Karun Chandock – 131 pts – 16.4 pts per finish (8 finishes)
Brunno Senna – 96 pts – 13.7 pts per finish (7 finishes)
Sakon Yamamoto – 54 pts – 9.0 pts per finish (6 finishes)
Christian Klein – 0 pts – 0 pts per finish (0 finishes)
Group B Constructors Championship
Lotus – 404 pts – 20.2 pts per finish (20 finishes)
Virgin – 306 pts – 17.0 pts per finish (18 finishes)
HRT – 281 pts – 13.4 pts per finish (21 finishes)
Regards…Paul
If you take the points and divide by the number of finishes (and so roughly eliminating reliability factors) you get the same rankings:
Heikki Kovalainen – 22.9 pts per finish (10 finishes)
Lucas di Grassi – 17.0 pts per finish (9 finishes)
Timo Glock – 17.0 pts per finish (9 finishes)
Jarno Trulli – 16.7 pts per finish (9 finishes)
Karun Chandock – 16.4 pts per finish (8 finishes)
Brunno Senna – 13.0 pts per finish (6 finishes)
Sakon Yamamoto – 8.4 pts per finish (5 finishes)
Christian Klein – 0 pts per finish (0 finishes)
Group B Constructors Championship
Lotus – 19.9 pts per finish (19 finishes)
Virgin – 17.0 pts per finish (18 finishes)
HRT – 13.2 pts per finish (19 finishes)
No surprise Virgin has least finishes bearing in mind the problems they had at the start of their season but I’m surprised the gap isn’t bigger.
Following the Japanese GP
Group B Drivers Championship
Heikki Kovalainen – 229
Lucas di Grassi – 153
Timo Glock – 153
Jarno Trulli – 150
Karun Chandock – 131
Brunno Senna – 78
Sakon Yamamoto – 42
Group B Constructors Championship
Lotus – 379
Virgin – 306
HRT – 251
Regards…Paul
Cheers guys.
I found highlights of Zandvoort 1978 on Youtube and it was Andretti followed by Peterson start to finish. So it wasn’t that one but Zandvoort is a good idea. You’re right about the sand a Zandvoort, you can see it along the side of the track.
I’ll keep searching.
I made a couple of mistakes in the version above. I also realised that the points should be awarded as classified – e.g. Kov gets points for today (Singapore) even though he didn’t finish. So here is the updated list including Singapore:
Group B Drivers Championship
Heikki Kovalainen – 204
Lucas di Grassi – 153
Timo Glock – 141
Jarno Trulli – 132
Karun Chandock – 131
Brunno Senna – 68
Sakon Yamamoto – 34
Group B Constructors Championship
Lotus – 336
Virgin – 294
HRT – 233
Regards…Paul
Before I start I should confess that I have a split allegiance; McLaren at the front of the grid and Virgin at the back.
I don’t think the difference between Lotus and Virgin is that big now (understanding that the above was posted a month ago). I was at Silverstone last week and the Lotus and Virgin cars were going round virtually locked together.
Virgin’s current challenges are obviously around reliability which has to be hindering development.
A variable that will be thrown into the mix during the second half of the season is the development of the car. I assume Lotus have a single wind tunnel, and they’ll have to take the model of the current car out to allow them to work on the 2011 car. As VR use CFD only they won’t have that problem – they should be able to develop both the 2010 and 2011 cars in parallel.
As a 52 year old guy (Gold Leaf Lotus, Graham Hill and all that), of course I have a fondness for Lotus and I hope they succeed too, but as a IT professional I’m hoping that CFD is able to produce some serious results.
If Virgin Racing (designed by Wirth Research) can pull themselves up the rankings using CFD alone for aero development then this would surely be the biggest advancement for the sport. It’s a big ask, especially as I think they are running on a much lower budget than the other teams, but it’s not without precedent. The Acura ARX Le Mans prototype was designed by Wirth using CFD. In their first ALMS season Acura finished more than a hundred points behind the winning constructor, in their second season they were beaten into second by one point and in their third season they won by 70 points. Last month they won the LMP2 class at Le Mans. If they could mimic that in F1 well…..
