2009 Formula One

[Guitarmy 0]

Anyone here F1 fans? Who watched the Australian GP? Won't give away any spoilers, but that was one of the most exciting season openers I have seen in a long time.

Which team/driver are you pulling for? I hoping for Brawn GP and Button to do well. And that McLaren gets their shit together really soon. <_<

[team50 20]

Great race. Big LH fan here and of course superstar Jenson Button.

[crazy-luke-finch 0]

Big F1 fan here, always sit down and watch it with my brother and my dad.

Come on Lewis Hamilton!!!

[pantherfan 0]

Great race. Big LH fan here and of course superstar Jenson Button.

+1 on LH and JB.

Whats the popularity of F1 in N. America compared to the likes of NASCAR?

I imagine it'll only go up once US-F1 sorry, USGPE come in for a spanking. :P

[team50 20]

Great race. Big LH fan here and of course superstar Jenson Button.

+1 on LH and JB.

Whats the popularity of F1 in N. America compared to the likes of NASCAR?

Hard to gauge in Canada. NASCAR is still very popular despite the economic decline typical of all sports today. Personally I prefer open wheel on road style circuits, although I'll watch anything with wheels. I've been to many IRL/CART races and one NASCAR race (Michigan 2007). The IRL/CART racing is great, crowds not so much. Another player is the Americal LeMans series, which is also great to watch.

I attended the last US GP, and I know that my brother has attended the last 5 or so Canadian GP's and last years British GP. For the North American television viewing audience, some of the F1 locations means that the races happen in the middle of the night. I'm still recovering from last nights 2AM--3:30AM race.

Great race. Big LH fan here and of course superstar Jenson Button.

I imagine it'll only go up once US-F1 sorry, USGPE come in for a spanking. :P

The sport needs another Minardi, no?

[Hockeyman11385 1]

Definitely a big F1 fan here. At first I wasn't so sure about all of the new rule changes and the brand new (ugly) cars that they have this year. Now, after the first race, I think it is a good thing because it introduces some parody to the sport. The last couple years have been boring knowing that either one of two teams were going to win. Occasionally Alonso made things interesting but otherwise it was a done deal, Ferrari or McLaren. All that being said, Brazil last year was thrilling to watch.

PS - Still pissed off about Montreal!!!

[Darshu 0]

I think that NASCAR is far and away the more popular form of racing in N. America, certainly in the US, but anyone who's a grassroots racer tends to be a big F1 fan. I love the new regs for this season, it's always a pleasure to see the over-financed manufacturers scrambling for pace after a shake up like this.

I'm also massively disappointed with Bernie Ecclestone for accepting a 2009 schedule without a single North American event. As if he hasn't done enough in the past 5 years to alienate this market already.

PS. Super thrilled for JB this weekend. Nice to see him in a competitive drive!

[Guitarmy 0]

Great race. Big LH fan here and of course superstar Jenson Button.

+1 on LH and JB.

Whats the popularity of F1 in N. America compared to the likes of NASCAR?

I imagine it'll only go up once US-F1 sorry, USGPE come in for a spanking. :P

Give them credit, looks like they've already built a car.

With a driver lineup of Danica Patrick and Ricky Bobby.

Definitely a big F1 fan here. At first I wasn't so sure about all of the new rule changes and the brand new (ugly) cars that they have this year. Now, after the first race, I think it is a good thing because it introduces some parody to the sport. The last couple years have been boring knowing that either one of two teams were going to win. Occasionally Alonso made things interesting but otherwise it was a done deal, Ferrari or McLaren. All that being said, Brazil last year was thrilling to watch.

PS - Still pissed off about Montreal!!!

I still can't get over the ridiculous looking front wings. But if it means better racing, so be it. The KERS system looks to be a dud.

I was planning on going to Montreal this year... but unless that senile midget troll stop giving races to the middle east, we won't be getting F1 in NA for the next couple years either.

[HattrickSwayze 3]

Big F1 fan here too. Not a Savior of Britain (Hammy) fan though. In fact I was really giddy to see him start in 18th. I'm all for Ferrari so I root for Massa and Raikkonen. After this race though the joke's on me. Way to go Ferrari.

It sure is odd seeing the field completely shaken up this year. That's somewhat the unfortunate part of F1, is that the cars play such a huge part in lap times, you never know who's really the best driver and who just has the best car. If you were a new fan to F1 you would think that Jenson Button is better than Alonso, Raikkonen, and Hamilton. It's a little easier to tell in something like WRC where for the most part, it comes down to the driver's talent instead of the car. But, that's all part of F1 I suppose. Nobody wants to see a spec-series (apart from Bernie).

I really don't like the look of the new front and rear spoilers. The rest of the cars look good without all the extra aero add-ons, but the snowplow front spoilers just don't do it for me. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the rear diffuser situation over the next couple weeks. I wonder if the "legal" teams have been developing a different diffuser in the background if the "illegal" diffusers are decided to be legal. I'm not really sold on KERS either. It's too much of a gimmick to me, I think they should just get rid of it altogether.

It does look like the aero reductions have made the racing a little closer. Australia's not the fastest track for sure, but the cars were getting a lot closer than the last couple years. I think it's incredible that with a 60% reduction in aero and the reduced engine revs, the cars were still faster than last years cars. Credit to the engineers and the slicks I guess. Should be an interesting season. I'll be happy if anyone but Hamilton wins the championship. If the Brawn cars keep their speed up, I'd rather see Barrichello win than Button to be honest. Nothing against Button, I just think it'd be nice to see Barrichello get a reward for being in the series for so long. Nice ending to a career.

[Darshu 0]

I don't think KERS is a gimmick or a dud, but the rules were obviously written to make it so the well-funded teams that could afford to develop and run it would have that chance and the other teams that couldn't afford to develop it for this season would be able to compete in '09 without it. I think you'll see KERS become more of an advantage as the season wears on and the teams refine and improve the design.

I actually like the way the cars look this season -- I think some some look more graceful than others -- the Adrian Newey cars and the McLarens in particular look great. Besides, I miss the days when you had a field full of very "different" cars :

[Guitarmy 0]

The cars with the big white front wings like BMW, Renault (and their big honking nose) and Brawn look really awkward. The McLarens, Williams, Ferraris and Red Bulls look much sleeker and aesthetically pleasing.

Maybe KERS will improve as the season goes on, but right now I think the teams are better off having a well balanced car than the extra 80 bhp KERS provides. The fastest KERS car in qualifying was Raikkonen in 7th. (and that's only after Trulli was moved back) Kubica, running without KERS, was way faster than his teammate who had it.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

I think that NASCAR is far and away the more popular form of racing in N. America, certainly in the US, but anyone who's a grassroots racer tends to be a big F1 fan. I love the new regs for this season, it's always a pleasure to see the over-financed manufacturers scrambling for pace after a shake up like this.

I'm also massively disappointed with Bernie Ecclestone for accepting a 2009 schedule without a single North American event. As if he hasn't done enough in the past 5 years to alienate this market already.

PS. Super thrilled for JB this weekend. Nice to see him in a competitive drive!

What is that six wheeled monster?

[Guitarmy 0]

That's a Tyrrell P34 from the 70's I believe.

[Darshu 0]

That's a Tyrrell P34 from the 70's I believe.

Bingo :D

[team50 20]

That's a Tyrrell P34 from the 70's I believe.

"It's a great great day for a motor car race.". Started by Ken Tyrrell in the 50's I believe. Won a championship in the 70's with Jackie Stewart. Bought by British American Racing in the 90's.

By the way, I miss Murray Walker.

[Darshu 0]

"It's a great great day for a motor car race.". Started by Ken Tyrell in the 50's I believe. Won a championship in the 70's with Jackie Stewart. Bought by British American Racing in the 90's.

By the way, I miss Murray Walker.

BAR, founded in '97 (still Tyrell that year, renamed for '98 when Villeneuve signed with them), who were in turn bought out by Honda in 06 and subsequently bought out by Ross Brawn a couple months ago! We've come full circle on this thread :)

[Guitarmy 0]

"It's a great great day for a motor car race.". Started by Ken Tyrrell in the 50's I believe. Won a championship in the 70's with Jackie Stewart. Bought by British American Racing in the 90's.

By the way, I miss Murray Walker.

Actually it was brought by British American Tobacco. The team was called BAR which became Honda and now Brawn GP. (Darshu you beat me to it. :P )

Good to see the BBC is back. Their coverage over the weekend was excellent. I heard rumors that Murray Walker will be making some guest appearances in the booth sometime this season.

[team50 20]

"It's a great great day for a motor car race.". Started by Ken Tyrrell in the 50's I believe. Won a championship in the 70's with Jackie Stewart. Bought by British American Racing in the 90's.

By the way, I miss Murray Walker.

Actually it was brought by British American Tobacco. The team was called BAR which became Honda and now Brawn GP. (Darshu you beat me to it.

You are correct sir!

[HattrickSwayze 3]

I don't think KERS is a gimmick or a dud, but the rules were obviously written to make it so the well-funded teams that could afford to develop and run it would have that chance and the other teams that couldn't afford to develop it for this season would be able to compete in '09 without it. I think you'll see KERS become more of an advantage as the season wears on and the teams refine and improve the design.

I actually like the way the cars look this season -- I think some some look more graceful than others -- the Adrian Newey cars and the McLarens in particular look great. Besides, I miss the days when you had a field full of very "different" cars :

I don't know, I guess when I think of KERS I think of it as a fancy name for Champ Cars push-to-pass. I think the only way it's going to become a clear cut advantage is if they up the power output or find a way to lower the weight. 40 kilos for it is a big amount of weight, especially with how sensitive F1 cars are to adjustment. The guys on SPEED were saying that right now KERS is designed to have the power to overcome the weight penalty, but not make them clearly faster than the non-KERS cars. I just think that with them wanting to cut costs so much, it seems like an unneeded cost. ;

I think the cars (other than the front/rear spoilers) look good too, because now that they're "smoothed" out you can tell the cars apart. I'm not too fond of the cars with the real high noses like the Red Bull car though. I think the Brawn car looks the best out of all the cars, partly because of the low nose. Now they just need to loosen up the engine regs so we can have different sounding cars too. Ferrari needs to bring back the V12, that thing sounded amazing. Put a cap on the amount the teams can spend and regulate the power outputs to be around the same. Other than that, let them do as they want.

[pantherfan 0]

Bring back the superchargers...

[TBLfan 25]

I don't think KERS is a gimmick or a dud, but the rules were obviously written to make it so the well-funded teams that could afford to develop and run it would have that chance and the other teams that couldn't afford to develop it for this season would be able to compete in '09 without it. I think you'll see KERS become more of an advantage as the season wears on and the teams refine and improve the design.

I actually like the way the cars look this season -- I think some some look more graceful than others -- the Adrian Newey cars and the McLarens in particular look great. Besides, I miss the days when you had a field full of very "different" cars :

I don't know, I guess when I think of KERS I think of it as a fancy name for Champ Cars push-to-pass. I think the only way it's going to become a clear cut advantage is if they up the power output or find a way to lower the weight. 40 kilos for it is a big amount of weight, especially with how sensitive F1 cars are to adjustment. The guys on SPEED were saying that right now KERS is designed to have the power to overcome the weight penalty, but not make them clearly faster than the non-KERS cars. I just think that with them wanting to cut costs so much, it seems like an unneeded cost. ;

I think the cars (other than the front/rear spoilers) look good too, because now that they're "smoothed" out you can tell the cars apart. I'm not too fond of the cars with the real high noses like the Red Bull car though. I think the Brawn car looks the best out of all the cars, partly because of the low nose. Now they just need to loosen up the engine regs so we can have different sounding cars too. Ferrari needs to bring back the V12, that thing sounded amazing. Put a cap on the amount the teams can spend and regulate the power outputs to be around the same. Other than that, let them do as they want.

Kubica was doing just fine without KERS until he wrecked, the advantage is minimal, if at all... at this point. The biggest difference maker was the differences in the two tires, which is just stupid.

[dumbpolak9 1]

its was a good race im glad that kubica came in 4th. im a big bmw sauber fan

[HattrickSwayze 3]

Well that's what I mean. There's no real advantage to having it at this point, so it just seems like an unnecessary way for the teams to spend money. Heidfeld's car has KERS and Kubica was decidedly faster. I just think in this whole cost-cutting stage that Bernie is going through, it seems counter-intuitive to the whole idea.

I think the whole point of the gap in tire compounds is to bring the cars closer together when people are on the different compounds. Which I'd say it did when Kubica caught up with Vettel so fast. The problem seems to be that the soft compound tires are always too soft, and have no life span. Even last year it was pretty much the same deal. After a couple laps the tires lose their initial bite, start to grain, and then are pretty much worthless.

[TBLfan 25]

Heidfeld was also running heavy with fuel... but yeah, there's no real advantage at this point. It's the same as everything else, the strategy of using the advantages of running with or without KERS(among other factors) that will win races.

[Darshu 0]

I think you have three motivating factors in the rule change decisions :

Cost control : These are things like minimum weight reg, rev limiting the engine to 18k and making it last 3 weekends

Encouraging overtaking : This is where most of the "stupid" rules come in -- the simplification of the aerodynamics, the change to slick tires, the two-different-compound rules -- it's all designed to make it so you'll have cars whose performance characteristics change drastically over the course of a race and hopefully have more opportunities to pass. This is probably one of the more difficult things to engineer from a regulation perspective, so I'm not as critical of these goofy rules as some. KERS could also fall in this category, but I really think it's more of the last one :

PR with the green party : F1 was having PR problems with being called "irresponsible" and "irrelevant to production cars" for running around with 3L V10s after gas prices had doubled. KERS is partly a way of saying "hey look, we got hybrids" and partly a "push-to-pass" button to encourage overtaking. Either way, I think once the technology becomes more mature and they expand the utilization beyond 80hp for 6 seconds, it'll be a legitimate performance advantage.

Overall I have a very positive view of the changes they've made so far -- the field was truly shaken up, the racing was close and the talented drivers still found a way to make their way to the front, even in poorer cars.