Arena FIA Formula 1 Racing

I don't know; I really love COTA (though if you get out of shape between turns 3 and 9, you lose so much time!) and looking at the Road America track I just can't see it being as challenging. I will concede it does appear to offer some good overtaking opportunities though.

 

End of an era. Still, very proud of Mark and his results.,.

 

I'm laughing so hard at that red Bull pitstop

 

Brazil ALWAYS delivers. Love that circuit.

 

Stunning how the season seemed so wide open at the beginning, then turned into one of the most one-sided ever. Amazing team effort by Red Bull.

 

Sorry to double post, but a rather frightening statistic I felt I needed to share: Vettel led 444 of 508 laps this season.

 

Well, in a blow designed to empower shorn apes world-wide, Pastor Malretardo has bought a seat at Lotus F1. Malretardo ook'd that he could get that drive on talent, however the presence of talented drivers like Hulkenberg suggest no, Pastard, you bought it. You bought it.

 

I think Grosjean's really improved to be fair, but he and Hulk would have had so much raw talent. That's the key for the top 5 teams - Red Bull have Ricciardo and Vettel. Mercedes have Rosberg and Hamilton. McLaren ditched Perez for a new driver expected to be the next Lewis. Ferrari put Kimi and Fernando together. Lotus should have been on par but now? Not.

 

The schedule for 2014 is out, very nice to see Austria back on.

 

Re. Winning championship in India:

I was so done with the ******* doughnuts by the end of Austin. It felt like Vettel had finally found something that makes him popular, and is going to do it to death now. However, sort of nice that the drivers - as Webber and Massa have joined in - have discovered this loophole in the rules, that no-one minds as long as you eventually return the car into park ferme, no one minds.

So, Ender, that Joe Saward site you put me on to - many thanks - listed the prize money for teams, and either it, or somewhere else mentioned how much the new power trains are going to cost, and it makes me worried for Lotus in spite of their Maldonado cash, and F1 prize money.

Just one of two tranches of the prize money gets them £35m, and the engines alone will set them back £40m! Plus PDVSA delayed the deal to get assurances that their sponsorship will go to develop the 2014 car, not to pay off old debts.

Makes me pessimistic that they can afford to pay Kimi his salary.

 

What the hell is this nonsense?

I know one-driver dominance is a problem consistently plaguing this sport, but if that is to be addressed at all, it should be through systematic changes, not transparent gimmicks like this.

 

I'm yet to see one fan who thinks this is a good idea.

It's moronic

 

Vettel said it's idiotic, but then again - he would.

But having said this... I agree.

I do like the idea that drivers can keep their number though. Reminds me of a certain moustache and a red number 5 on the car...

 

Saw this double points nonsense in the paper today. Farcical to say the least.

 

It makes the "medal system" idea from a few years ago seem positively brilliant.

 

I feel like maybe if there was something more to the last race that made it more challenging, some reason beyond it just being arbitrarily the race that ended up being the last in the season maybe it would make sense.

I haven't followed F1 for very long, but from what I've seen I feel like overwhelming fan outrage is unlikely to cause any change on this. Am I right?

 

Dr Helmut Marko told a German paper, Bild perhaps(?), that the original idea had been to make the last four races double points, but that had been voted down.

Also, there has been speculation elsewhere that this last race thing has been because it will be Abu Dhabi, next year, and the organisers wanted reassurances the Championship would not already be over by then.

Anyway my reason for posting - driver updates:
Perez to Force India

Sutil to Sauber

The Saward site mentioned a complicated idea in the article "Meanwhile in India (Part 42)": with concern over the financial affairs of Force India's two main sponsors, Vijay Mallya and Roy Sahara, if Lotus eventually do get the money from Quantum, then the now F.I.-driver Hulkenburg could get switched out to Lotus, with Force India taking Maldonado and his bucks!

As we keep being told, anything can happen in Formula One.

 

Yeah I was pretty disappointed that di Resta didn't get a drive. He doubled Sutil's points, stabbed 100% less people in the neck that Sutil, but Sutil got the drive. Meh.

 

Hey guys.

Agreed on the last race getting double points being a bad idea, especially if they're just doing it to keep the season interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if a driver or team that worked very hard during the season gets screwed over and loses places because of this.

Of course, I didn't like when they changed the original 10 points for a win system so I'm a bit biased.

 

Welcome to the thread!

Autosport did a feature on what years it would have changed; obviously 2012 was one of them.

So, I'm more in favour now...

 

Thanks!

I'll look that up. I would guess 2008 as well. Massa won the Brazilian GP and Hamilton barely finished fifth to win the WDC

 

Yep, 2008 would also be affected:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111810

 

Thanks Again. I forgot how close KR and MS were in 2003.