I’ll be keeping an eye on the BTCC race from Rockingham today as suggested by Allan yesterday.
How are you spending your Sunday? Let us know in the comments. Here’s today’s round-up:
Links
“It is understood the contract with Ecclestone, for 10 years with an option for a seven-year extension, will cost the BRDC 300m.”
Also Jeremy, who wrote about his visit to the Chinese Grand Prix for us, asked me to give a shout-out for a forum he visits which you can find here.
Comment of the day
Maciek thoroughly debunks the arguments for reverse grids:
I have to say I don’t understand the argument about having the fastest cars start at the front being detrimental to racing – hasn’t it always worked like that, even in the high-overtaking ’80s? Cars set up for qualifying pace aren’t necessarily quickest over a race distance – and this becomes all the more true without refueling when a car’s handling is subject to changes due to weight fluctuation. (Unless you figure out a not so clearly legal way to circumvent that, but I digress). Reverse grids are an even worse concept than Bernie’s shortcuts.
Site updates
I had an email from Peter yesterday saying the RSS feed wasn’t working properly for him in Outlook 2007. Has anyone else got this problem and can shed some light on it? The feed is working fine for me.
Happy birthday!
No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.
On this day in F1
Two poignant anniversaries today: Gilles Villeneuve started his final Grand Prix at Imola on this day in 1982. He was killed in practice for the next round at Zolder.
And nine years ago today former F1 driver Michele Alboreto lost his life in a crash at the Lausitzring in Germany while testing Audi’s Le Mans car.
Biggles209
25th April 2010, 1:11
RSS feed is working fine into Windows Live Mail
macahan
26th April 2010, 1:18
RSS feed works in FireFox as well
MPJ1994
25th April 2010, 3:48
The full list of guest international co-drivers for this years Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercars race has been announced. 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villenueve and 17 other drivers from around the world will pair with one driver from each team for two 300km races around the Gold Coast Street Circuit this October.
A full list of International drivers can be found here http://www.v8supercars.com.au/dixon-heads-home/tabid/70/newsid/9939/default.aspx
Macca
25th April 2010, 6:32
WOW. What a driver line up. I can’t wait for this event now.
This is why the V8 Supercars is the best tin top catagory in the world.
W154
25th April 2010, 10:55
What a waste of talent! All driving on the most boring race circuit in the world. Now 18 good international drivers competing at Bathurst or Phillip Island…….THAT is a headline worth seeing!
Macca
25th April 2010, 6:16
I will be spending my Sunday watching the ANZAC Day blockbuster between Essendon and Collingwood at a soldout MCG. :)
MPJ1994
25th April 2010, 6:32
Are you at the game Macca?
Go the Bombers!! Although I did tip Collingwood…
Macca
25th April 2010, 9:05
Yes I was. A fullhouse at the ‘G’ is just awesome
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
25th April 2010, 23:18
What kind of racing is that?
MPJ1994
26th April 2010, 1:28
Its not racing Keith. Its AFL which stands for Australian Rules Football.
Alexf1man
25th April 2010, 7:30
It’s Felipe Massa’s 29th Birthday today!
steph
25th April 2010, 8:14
Indeed it is. Happy birthday Felipe. It’s a bit of a more cheery ‘on this day’ than the others…
Sush Meerkat
25th April 2010, 8:40
Happy Birthday felepe baby!
John K Waggener
25th April 2010, 12:35
That would be Felipe
LookingSpiffy
25th April 2010, 19:34
Or Felippe, if you were to believe the BBC Sport 2009 F1 season review book.
Enigma
25th April 2010, 9:23
RSS for posts is working fine in google reader, but I’m not sure about comments. I subscribed for comments on post ‘What should f1 be?’ and I received about 70 comments, there were made about 90. But maybe it’s just a bit slow.
hawkfist
25th April 2010, 10:17
Over the last week or so the RSS has been updating slowly for me in Outlook 2007.
I don’t miss any posts, but if I get in from work at night and click on the daily roundup posted that morning (the only item for the RSS feed in my inbox) there’ll often be another 2+ articles I can see in the box on the site that haven’t been updated to my RSS yet.
Not an issue I’m having with any other sites. I never miss an item, they’re just really slow arriving sometimes.
K
25th April 2010, 10:28
Nice one Maciek ;)
Maciek
25th April 2010, 15:16
Cool. I could have added that lapped backmarkers automatically getting out of the leaders’ way was an unnecessary change that took a natural obstacle out of the way, allowing leaders to just progress unhindered. Having to work to lap cars used to allow those who were better at it to close up on those who weren’t. Rethinking the automatic blue flag is, i think, one ingredient in making the racing better. Race leaders shouldn’t just have nothing but qualifying laps ahead of them.
Peter
25th April 2010, 12:57
The problem I’m having is that the internal URLS embedded in the feed items don’t work; by ‘internal’ I mean links to other F1Fanatic pages, not links to external sites e.g. Autosport etc. The URLS in the body of the feed all start with ‘http://feeds.feedburner.com/2010/04/24…etc’, and result in a ‘not found’ error, whereas the equivalent links on the live page point to a completely different location – ‘https://www.racefans.net/2010/04/24…etc’.
In other words, in the feed I receive, ‘www.f1fanatic.co.uk’ is being replaced with ‘feeds.feedburner.com’… Weird… I’m fairly sure Outlook 2007 isn’t clever enough to change these itself!
sato113
25th April 2010, 14:57
which red bull car model is this?
http://en.espnf1.com/PICTURES/CMS/3200/3261.jpg
looks like the nose is a cross between their thin and wide one.
Icthyes
25th April 2010, 15:12
Looks like an RB5 to me.
VXR
25th April 2010, 17:19
Forget BTCC. I just watched two fantastic WSB races on Eurosport. Six different manufacturers (BMW,Ducati,Aprilia,Yamaha,Suzuki,Honda) all standing a chance of winning the race right up until the last half lap, and all using different engines and chassis on bikes that are not too far removed from the ones you can buy in the showroom. Now that’s what I’m talking about!
VXR
25th April 2010, 17:52
Gas turbines for F1 in 2013?
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=40589
BasCB
26th April 2010, 7:00
Personally i think that is just what F1 needs, different engine formula competing.
On the other hand the challenge for FIA and FOTA will be keeping some check on resources used.
PatrickL
26th April 2010, 14:33
macieks quote doesn’t debunk anything. Especially not now the cars start exactly the same setup as they use for qualifying.
Starting the cars in order of which one is fastest reduces overtaking. 100% fact.
The question is if we should want to change this, but having a reversed grid (again) with 100% certainty will provide more overtaking opportunities.
To debunk this (let along thoroughly debunk it) one would have to prove the opposite.
I understand where Keith is coming from though. He hopes to prove that banning refuelling hasn’t had any negative side effects on the racing action, but of course it has.
BasCB
26th April 2010, 15:00
You are 100% right on these facts as proven at each race where the grid got mixed up so for this year.
I think the answer to your question is NO, we do not want overtaking by reversed grids.
But several drivers have allready staded, that without Refuelling, they have to actually use their skills more than before (Kubica, Alonso and others) to get to the finish.
So maybe less overtaking yes, but each move meaning more and having their skills tested more than before. I think it is for the better.
PatrickL
27th April 2010, 9:41
Answer to what question?
I don’t want reversed grids.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
26th April 2010, 15:29
Not quite. Of course refuelling means we don’t have the easy win of light-fuelled cars ending up behind heavy-fuelled cars, producing overtaking. My point is that doesn’t produce particularly exciting racing. Does anyone remember Hamilton’s pass on Massa for the lead at Istanbul as one of the great moments of 2008? No, because it only happened because Hamilton was on a much lighter fuel load at the time.
But the reverse grid idea is flawed for other reasons. At the moment the rare occasions when the quick drivers mess up qualifying and find themselves at the back are moments to relish. It wouldn’t be special if we had that every race weekend.
And, at the risk of taking the reverse grids idea a bit too seriously, I think we should also consider how difficult it would be to implement fairly. Starting at the front is a big advantage compared to starting at the back, so however you decide the reverse grid order there will always be attempts to game the system.
PatrickL
27th April 2010, 9:45
People keep arguing like overtaking is the holy grail. Then there are 21 overtakes in Bahrain and it’s considered a boring race. So obviously, overtaking isn’t the holy grail.
The races in 2009 where we saw different strategies or even drivers changing strategies mid race were exciting. Maybe there was no overtaking, but it still was a race.
I’d rather see a race with no overtaking than a procession with no overtaking (or even with one or two overtakes more).
maciek
27th April 2010, 13:06
OK – but how about letting at least the better part of this new season go by before deciding what’s good and bad about it? The one season-opening race in Bahrain proves as little about overtaking as have the following races since each was mixed up by various things. Let’s see how the season plays out and what kind of action we get down the line. And for the sake of clarity, let’s admit that there have been boatloads of boring races with refueling.
maciek
26th April 2010, 19:20
Obviously a reversed grids would provide more overtaking. But, as with refuelling, it would be just an artificial way to create what basically amounts to staged entertainment. The point is that even the years with the highest overtaking numbers in F1 history had normal grids, as they always have – so it follows that grids are not the problem and do not need to be ‘solved’.
PatrickL
27th April 2010, 9:51
There is nothing artificial about allowing the drivers to use the best strategy possible.
If anything the opposite is true. Taking away strategic elements from the race or introducing forced tyre changes IS artificial.
It’s pointless to compare todays overtaking stats with those from more than 15 years ago. Everything was completely different. There wer much more cars, cars were breaking down, amateurist teams, they used completely different cars in qualifying from the race (other engines, other setup, other tyres, other fuel load)
BTW I don’t want reversed grids.
maciek
27th April 2010, 10:55
It’s not a question of comparing old and new – it’s just that, in my opinion, once refueling strategy became teams’ prime concern (as was inevitable) they no longer had to figure out how to pass on the track – and I’m sure that in one way or another this was also filtered down into car design, and contributed to moving F1 away from racing cars and towards lap-time machines. I have no problem with refueling as a concept, but if it means that all the action happens in the pits – that’s just not racing for me.
PatrickL
28th April 2010, 15:55
Now we lose the strategic battle and we see slow moving F1 cars because we might conceivably one day have a few more overtakes on track?
Bring back refuelling then.
Again, I rather see a strategic battle than wait for an overtake that will never come in a “Bahrain type” race.
Seriously, the cars are going round at GP2 pace even though they could be the fastest they have ever been.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
28th April 2010, 17:13
I’d rather see them make a serious attempt to fix a difficult problem than go for a third-rate quick ‘fix’, which is all bringing back refuelling would amount to.