Ignore new engine “scaremongers” – Domenicali

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali advises against listening to criticism from opponents of the new engine formula.

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Domenicali cautiously confident (Ferrari)

“In this situation, it’s best not to rush to draw any conclusions, and play into the hands of those scaremongers, as a propensity for self-destruction serves no purpose.”

Tost: F1 won’t turn inside out in 2014 (Autosport)

“I don’t expect a big change, especially now after the regulation change because they have the financial resources and the manpower to be flexible to make any changes, which you have to make with a new car.”

Toro Rosso: chiuso il rapporto con Furbatto! (OmniCorse, Italian)

Toro Rosso’s chief designer Luca Furbatto, who joined the team in 2011, has left.

Quick news: Lamborghini Huracan orders; Toyota Prius recall (Autocar)

“Caterham Group cars boss Riad Asmat has stepped down. Asmat joined Caterham as part of the firm’s F1 team in 2009, and is leaving to ‘seek new challenges’.”

Scams happen in every sport: Vijay Mallya (The Times of India)

“Playing down Justice Mudgal committee’s report on corruption in the [Indian Premier League cricket competition], Royal Challengers Bangalore owner Vijay Mallya on Wednesday said scandals were a part and parcel of the every sport and the brand value of the cash-rich event remained unaffected.”

Ferrari 126C2 (Modena Motorsport)

This Ferrari of the same type Gilles Villeneuve drove during 1982, his last season of competition, is offered for sale.

A Great Way to Celebrate the 35th Formula 1 Race in Montreal (Circuit Gilles Villeneuve)

“Nearly 30 cars, including Gilles Villeneuve’s 1980 Ferrari 312T5 will be entered in the two races scheduled for the inaugural weekend of Montreal’s ever festive summer season.”

Un volant a temps plein pour Villeneuve (Le Journal de Quebec, French)

Jacques Villeneuve is to compete in the FIA’s World Rallycross Championship.

Freeze the Speed (The Telegraph)

“Freeze the Speed, the work of motorsport photographer Rainer Schlegelmilch.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

A counterpoint to yesterday’s Comment of the Day from Chris.

I don’t really see what’s so bad about it, I mean it can be a bit pedantic sometimes, like reminding them to drink, but they’re just that: reminders. The driver doesn’t necessarily have to drink that second. They know if they get thirsty they can take a sip.

If I were a driver last season with those ridiculous tyres, I would also want my engineer giving me as much information as possible as to how the temps and wear rates were happening. Because they have access to a lot more info than the driver.
Chris (@Tophercheese21)

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On this day in F1

Toro Rosso launched their second Formula One car, the STR2, on this day in 2007. Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed were the team’s drivers as the season began.

However Speed was dropped at mid-season and replaced by the driver who the following year gave Toro Rosso their first and so far only win – Sebastian Vettel.

Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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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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42 comments on “Ignore new engine “scaremongers” – Domenicali”

  1. I would be very disappointed if they stopped driver radio broadcasts. They are tremendous entertainment, which suits ‘the show’ we are told they are always trying to improve.

    “Just let me drive, man”

    “Just leave me alone I know what I am doing”

    “Yes, yes, yes, yes, I am doing (that) all the time”

    “You have leave the space, all the time you have to leave the space”

    1. Anything but “Thats what I’m talking about!”

      1. Or “rrrrriiiinga-ding ding!”

      2. My personal favourite is “yes boys!” @skett :P

        1. “yes buys,.. yes!”…” thats what im talkin about”…

    2. To which I reply;
      We’re not racing him, let him go”
      Fallback to save your tyres, suggest 2 second gap
      and
      Reduce power to setting X, it’ll be different this time,promise.

      1. This is exactly why I don’t like team to driver communication. I don’t care if they remind them to drink water. It’s when they instruct them on how to drive that bothers me.
        Where to use KERS and for how many seconds, how to apply the throttle, how to apply the brakes, when to maintain a gap, when to close the gap, when to overtake.
        They’re the best racing drivers in the world, they should use their instincts and their understanding of the car’s behaviour and adjust the settings or their driving accordingly. Sometimes it feels like the drivers aren’t the ones driving the car anymore, they’re just a means of delivering input from the team to the car.

        I’d happily sacrifice the moments of entertainment that the radio broadcasts provide for the drivers to have to drive the cars themselves again. I remember once Hamilton said it felt like driving blind when his radio wasn’t working. Let’s give the decision making back to the drivers and let them use their brains again.

        1. Let’s give the decision making back to the drivers and let them use their brains again.

          This

        2. They’re the best racing drivers in the world

          @metallion Are they?? Some of them are, but Max Chilton, seriously?

          1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
            13th February 2014, 9:47

            It’s weird, I mean I could be wrong here, but I thought Sebastian Loeb is better than Chilton :/

          2. @noob
            Maybe I should have written that they’re supposed to be the best racing drivers in the world. Obviously some are of questionable standard. However, I think you’re missing my point if that’s what you’re focusing on.

          3. @noob I think there are several drivers, who deserve to be in F1 more than Chilton. That said, if we had 30 cars, Chilton’s presence on the grid would most probably be justified. Even though I make jokes about Chilton’s “slowness” now and then, I would say that he still is one of the best racing drivers in the world, even if Frijns or Glock could go quicker in that Marussia.

      2. “do not overlap braking/accelerating”
        “why is that?”
        “fuel consumption is on the high side”

        1. he’s pressing both pedals at the same time, which is very bad for fuel consumption but allows you to brake very late.

    3. “Sebastian, do not overtake, must save fuel, I repeat hold position and save fuel”…5 laps later, Vettels retires from race out-of-fuel….#yeapitsgonnahappen

      1. and I would salute him for that, if I was a racing driver I would tell them to stick it because i would not be there to save fuel, i’d be there to race. It should be up to the teams to regulate fuel consumption and not the drivers

    4. @calum my personal favorite was Lewis telling his race engineer “I can’t go any slower”

  2. That Lotus tweet isn’t actually a picture, it’s a video of the car stationary, broken down mid-run in Jerez. It seems Pastor Maldonado doesn’t have to have any other cars on track to cause an incident ;)

    1. @frankjaeger haha true, they even moved the camera a bit to fake an action shot :)

  3. That photo of Jochan Rindts wife is absolutely heartbreaking!

  4. Regarding the “on this day” fact about Vettel replacing Speed, the contrast between the two is astonishing. In one and a half seasons, Scott Speed had 0 points, 11 retirements and his best finish was 9th. In Vettel’s first one and a half seasons as his replacement, he had 41 points, 8 retirements, and a win. I was so excited when Scott Speed entered F1 because it had been so long since we’d had an American, but God was he awful.

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      13th February 2014, 6:54

      Great name… Not a great driver.

        1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
          13th February 2014, 9:44

          Cheers mate :)

          And thanks to @KeithCollantine for bestowing the honour upon me :)

    2. The guy certainly did not live up to his name @dc!

      1. I know, he isn’t a Scot

    3. I’ve read that in China there used to be a superstition that you provoke demons when you give your child a too optimistic name (“rose”, “beauty”,…), so more cautious parents would name their children like “ugly” and such. Never been to China to confirm, but this Speed case suggests that there might be something to it :-).

      1. Shikhar Dhavan
        13th February 2014, 8:01

        Been there, lived there. Not true!!

      2. @pH Insert your Chinese name examples here … <>

    4. @dc Oversimplify much? The cars Speed has driven were not as good as the car Vettel has driven in 2008. Vettel was in the points only once with that 2007 car which is the only thing you can compare. In the rest of the races he finished no higher than 16th, and overall STR scored only 8 points that season(in only one scoring race-China towards the end of the season when both SV and Liuzzi had scored). The 2006 car which was a disaster scored 1 point all season, so it’s unfair to bash Speed on basis of that either

      He wasn’t the next Vettel, but he wasn’t awful either. Your “balanced” post on the other hand…

      1. No, Speed was awful. I’m not trying to be mean, but it is the truth. He won a couple of times in Formula Renault, and after failing in the big leagues only managed a couple of wins in NASCAR feeder or support series. He never would have made it to F1 except that Red Bull was desperate for an American for a misguided marketing strategy. Is he even still racing? I think the last time I heard his name was when he failed to qualify for the Indy 500.

    5. @dc
      Not trying to compare Speed to Vettel because the latter is miles ahead of the former, but it should be noted that the STR was pretty much a backmarker when Speed was driving it but in 2008 it was a midfielder… or it can be argued that Vettel made it look like a midfielder despite being below average, or maybe Bourdais was just downright abysmal.

  5. There’s nothing wrong with the new engines. I don’t care how big they are and if they have eight, six or four cylinders as long as they don’t make the cars slower. The 2014 cars might be a bit too slow at the moment, partly because of the increased weight of the engine and the ERS. But I’m sure that the teams will soon find ways to claw back the lost seconds and that the reliability issues will get resolved, too.

    As for the sound of the cars, I believe the old engines were too loud. F1 cars should sound impressive and perhaps even a bit scary but you shouldn’t have to wear ear plugs to avoid “a splitting headache by lap three”, as described by this guide. There’s no need to switch to Formula E engines (yet) but this is a step in the right direction. Moreover, ~99% of the viewers watch the race on TV and will not be able to tell the difference anyway.

    1. I don’t care how big they are and if they have eight, six or four cylinders as long as they don’t make the cars slower. The 2014 cars might be a bit too slow at the moment, partly because of the increased weight of the engine and the ERS. But I’m sure that the teams will soon find ways to claw back the lost seconds and that the reliability issues will get resolved, too.

      I would think that a lot of people (most even?) would agree with that notion. And I would love F1 to find a way to have teams/constructors find out on track which of those concepts is the best between them!

      As proposed earlier by many, just limit the energy input and leave it up the the competitors to come up with the best package. What I like best so far, is that we see enough different approaches (even within the tightly regulated scope allowed) to make it interesting, shame we couldn’t have even more diversity!

    2. @girts agree on some of what you said. Most of the lap time lost is the wieght and aero-losses. At least the aero-losses will be quickly eliminated if past experience of F1 teams proficiency, is anything to go by.

      Disagree on the “too loud” part though. F1 must wow and impress and scare. Screaming engines did that very well and I’d enjoyed them very much as a spectator. The V10’s that is. The V8’s sound was not that impressive to me, apart from noise level. That’s why I don’t mind the move to V6 turbos at all-their sound is more complex, more impressive overall. However, I would still take the V10’s over these any day. Most impressive sound I’d ever heard, and I’ve been to fighter jet airffields as well.

      And 1 more thing: step towards silent horror Formula hEresy is a step in the right direction? No, I think not. Even without the question of who will pay tickets to watch silent cars(live not on TV), as it’s an important factor. This isn’t even a right step for road cars so how can that be a right step for racing? IMO the moment the hydrogen cars will come of age, the electric ones will be forgotten and left to rot in a museum, much earlier than internal combustion cars, and this Formula E with them. Battery packs are just an impractical way to move about, and the electricity also comes from somewhere, aint it?

      1. Keeping in mind too that we haven’t even heard the whole grid, let alone at full song, which is why I thought it was silly for BE to criticise the ‘quiet’ engines when few cars were even running at one time at the FIRST and only test so far, let alone was anyone running at their top capacity.

  6. Any news on the Forums? @keithcollantine

    1. I think the noise was a HUGE part of F1 and now that has gone, I am totally gutted. I agree that most of the audience will be watching on TV, but we now have engines where people at the circuit can make phone calls whilst the cars are on track, which is not very F1, is it? I suspect that the GP2 cars will be much more impressive whilst at the circuit, which is rather embarrassing for f!…………

  7. You tell em Domenicali! It’s all just scaremongering, but mid-way through the season I doubt much will be said about them, in the same way the nonsense about ugly cars will die down after Malaysia, as it always does. Fans just need things to complain about I guess.

  8. Great to hear that the historic GP is back in Montreal. And it sounds like they will have more cars than ever this year. Perfect place to judge which engine note you prefer. There is a wide variety of engines from the Ferrari V12 to the crazy turbos from the late eighties. Some years I’ve enjoyed the historic race more than than the F1 race. As a huge fan of the history of GP racing it’s a dream come true to see the cars of past heroes.

  9. Can someone tell me if it is true that the current f1 engines will not likely hit 15,000rpm? i read somewhere, but cant find the link, that the cars in jerez hit maximum power at 12,000rpm, so changed gear in that rev range, as no point revving higher. I think the locked gear ratios will be a big issue as the year goes on, some teams will gear for the race starts and jump 5 cars in melbourne before turn 1, and then play hold up for 40 laps with quicker cars behind them. it will be an interesting element.

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