Formula 1-fi (Read the First Post!)

[Eee Pee]

http://news.msn.com/pop-culture/doctor-cannot-predict-schumachers-fate

 

[proton007]

Apparently Skiing is safer than swimming or cycling (statistically). This was just one of the unfortunate cases. Schumacher hit his head on a rock after a fall.

EDIT: Just read he was skiing off-piste, meaning backcountry. The slopes are outside designated skiing areas, unpatroled and quite hazardous.

 

[Exediron]

So what's everybody's thoughts on the current shenanigans at McLaren? As a longtime McLaren fan, the news is very troubling for the 2014 season...
 
I'm still hoping they've thought of something brilliant that just has the unfortunate side effect of making the car fragile, not that they've made another piece of ****.

 

[Muinarc]

It's so early, I don't really have much concern. McLaren is going to have it rough until they move to the Honda engines and those get a few years under their belts anyway.

 

[Eee Pee]

So what's gonna happen to Whitmarsh?

 

[proton007]

So what's gonna happen to Whitmarsh?

Nothing.
He's too valuable to McLaren.

 

[Exediron]

Nothing.
He's too valuable to McLaren.

 
It's either that, or he gets replaced by Ross Brawn as many people decently in the know seem to be hinting. We'll see.
 
I'm not really sure why people think McLaren needs the Honda backing to get back on top - they had the best car last-last year, and they weren't a works team then. I doubt Mercedes is giving them the total bum treatment just because they're moving away next year. I think if everything lines up right this could still be very much a McLaren year - issuing in 5 years of McLaren dominance! Yeah, probably not.

 

[Muinarc]

   
It's either that, or he gets replaced by Ross Brawn as many people decently in the know seem to be hinting. We'll see.
 
I'm not really sure why people think McLaren needs the Honda backing to get back on top - they had the best car last-last year, and they weren't a works team then. I doubt Mercedes is giving them the total bum treatment just because they're moving away next year. I think if everything lines up right this could still be very much a McLaren year - issuing in 5 years of McLaren dominance! Yeah, probably not.

I don't know the logistics of it, but when F1.com interviewed (Dennis or Whitmarsh I don't remember who) about mid season last year, they said verbatim that it's harder if you are not a works team. I don't know if he meant money, access to data or what.

 

[Exediron]

  I don't know the logistics of it, but when F1.com interviewed (Dennis or Whitmarsh I don't remember who) about mid season last year, they said verbatim that it's harder if you are not a works team. I don't know if he meant money, access to data or what.

 
As I understand it, the problem is that a works team like Mercedes (or Red Bull, for all intents and purposes) gets to have the powertrain designed to suit their car and can more easily have changes made to suit development they have in mind - McLaren on the other hand has to take whatever Mercedes gives them and make it work in their car, and if their design direction is dramatically different from the works team for their engine it might not work as well as it could. Since they'll be the only team Honda will be supplying, that should give them a pretty powerful advantage - Honda can basically design their engine for the McLaren car alone.
 
That's how I understand it, at least. So I'm not denying that it's an advantage, I just wonder if it's such a dominating advantage as sometimes portrayed to be.

 

[proton007]

As I understand it, the problem is that a works team like Mercedes (or Red Bull, for all intents and purposes) gets to have the powertrain designed to suit their car and can more easily have changes made to suit development they have in mind - McLaren on the other hand has to take whatever Mercedes gives them and make it work in their car, and if their design direction is dramatically different from the works team for their engine it might not work as well as it could. Since they'll be the only team Honda will be supplying, that should give them a pretty powerful advantage - Honda can basically design their engine for the McLaren car alone.

That's how I understand it, at least. So I'm not denying that it's an advantage, I just wonder if it's such a dominating advantage as sometimes portrayed to be.

Maybe some historical data can help in this regard.
Usually I would say it shouldn't matter much. The engine/drivetrain itself is just providing the power, how its utilized is what matters.

The other perspective s psychological. Getting an engine from a rival team always leaves some doubt, no matter how small.

 

[Exediron]

Maybe some historical data can help in this regard.

 
Hmm, interesting idea.
 
'Works' teams as we think of them are a fairly modern concept, so it's hard to quantify the older data in that regard. But at a casual look through a list of past season winners it appears to me that the ones which were possibly not won by a works team (defined here as the team given top priority by that engine or chassis manufacturer at the time, for simplicities sake, and automatically only the team of that manufacturer if present) are the following 2:
 
2009, Brawn at this time, McLaren was probably the closest thing to a works team that Mercedes had, although considering the purchase and re-branding that followed this might not be the case (also, the Brawn was basically a Honda, which had been a works team)
1995, Benneton Williams was at the time the top Renault team, and so I've classified it as the more 'works' team - but Benetton would go on to become Renault, so maybe not here either
 
In the early 80s and before most teams ran Ford-Cosworth engines, and I'm not sure any of them were given priority status. But this brief look certainly does seem to paint the picture that Constructor's Championship winning cars are very likely (92% in the period from 1990 to present) to be from works teams. So from that perspective, McLaren - a team whose goal is definitely the Championship, not just nebulously 'doing well' - statistically at least appears to be correct that not being a works team is a massive disadvantage.
 
So I suppose I have to admit that from a championship point of view, being a works team is pretty much essential.

 

[oqvist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVWaELcpet0
 
Kimi won´t stand a chance.

 

[Eee Pee]

See the comment, Never knew Fernando trained so hard?  
 
Hahah!

 

[2015071]

Hey guys let's start a debate!!!

Which year is the best F1 year?

 

[oqvist]

last year before aerodynamics