from october 8th 2008

Quote from tinvek :

one of the problems currently is that the engine manufacturers have gone from being suppliers of major components that teams could choose between to being the most important group with controlling interests in teams. when they first began investing heavily it was pointed out by a few respected jounalists that it might not be ideal for f1 to find itself in a position where it was "scared" to introduce changes that were unpopular with the manufacturers currently involved incase they decided to either leave or start their own rival series, something which they have since threatened till they won concessions. the balancing act comes in recognising this but also the risk that eventually f1 may go the way of the dtm, ie. become so expensive that only a couple of manufacturers remain as others find that investing £ x 00 million a year to be beaten by rivals is not good for car sales, at what point does the average car buyer start to noticed and be affected by the fact that the car in front is one of 6 in front of a toyota ? that honda engine expertese is slower than toyota's and renault's ? and that mercedes powered cars are obviously better driving machines than BMWs ultimate driving machines? BMW has an understandable history of pulling out when they are consistently not winning and feel that they can achieve better results elsewhere, so do mercedes and toyota, renault and honda have both walked away from f1 in the past whilst being at the top.

BMW recently announce a 44 % fall in pretax profits for april to june 2008, in 2007 pretax profits fell by 6% despite an increase in sales of 9%, to a figure of 3.1 billion euros. if the 2008 quater figure is reflected over a year that will become 1.7 billion euros or approx 2.3 billion dollars. a f1 budget of 366 million dollars reflects about a 15 % increase in profits if it is cut out.toyota's profits are about 4 times as large but have fallen 28% in the same quarter. honda onthe other hand after failing to meet profit targets in recent times finds its profits are up, an achievement it feels is due to its small economic car range and also a favourable exchange rate with the us market which comprises half its non motor cycle sales. renault's profits have also risen but having anounced 5000 redundencies and possibly more to follow may face increased preasure in france about expenditure. mercedes have had their profits fall but still expect to make 11 billion dollars and ferrari's have risen to 59 million euro's in the first quarter this year. if these trends continue then you may find that companies such as bmw have to reconsider their position, that honda may still be affected due to their reliance on the us market and that renault may come under increasing domestic preasure. ferrari need to be in f1, it's their original reason for existing and it would be almost unthinkable for them to pull out, mercedes and toyota have such large profits that they probably can ignore any savings a reduction in commitment would bring them. torro rosso are already looking for a buyer for the end of the 2009 season due to rule changes and they will require a major investment to comence making their own cars again.

obviously team budgets are to a large extent paid for by sponsors but it should be remembered that in the economic down turn of the early 1990s fi team numbers fell from 18 in 1991 to 10 in 1996.

i honestly take no pleasure at all in whats happened or possibly happening matching this

Last edited by tinvek, Tue 28 Jul 2009, 23:39.

lotus after tomorrows update (12.55 gmt for about 4 hours) jetta on 17th august

Quote from doc_90 :

What do you guys think about the new Suzuki Swift Sport?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Swift#Swift_Sport

got a good review and finished 2nd on fifth gear in their "hot hatchlette" test this week. they all said it was the most fun to drive but the fiat 500 abarth beat it because it was faster round the track despite being less well balanced purely because of the power.

i really need to do some ovals this week, i've "cheated" my way to a class b oval licence next season just by doing TTs as i hate short ovals ( probably an age thing, find them too busy and confined when there's more than about 6 cars). i'll do a few at michigan before the end of week 13 to try and get used to them and then pick a few next season in class B when they're pretty quiet

just manged my first race for ages. did a mixed race, went ok finished 6th out of 17th helped by half the field being taken off track by a pro licence holder at T1 !! thought he'd catch me by the end but he decided to ram the car between us rather than wait for a gap

last 4 laps were a struggle as the swine flu's left me rather week and the old legs were trembling

Quote from spyxter :

Why not replace that brat with Bourdais? He's French and Renault is French. Wouldn't it be a great combo?

can't see it happening which is a pity in one way as it would be good to see if it was just the driver or a driver and car / team thing with torro rosso

common sense would be that if a driver misses 2 weeks they are excluded. that gives them a chance for last minute problems etc. if they need time off for holidays etc, they should be have to PM iracing and declare which weeks in advance so reserves can drive those weeks. also all pro licence drivers should have to PM to confirm they are going to contest the series before the end of week 13. that way it would keep the levels of drivers up

glad they sorted the prolicence bug out early it was quite ashock to see those black licences in the practice results. closest i'll ever get to them is when i hit one of them

BTW do the DP drivers have little pictures of the SRF that they stick on the side of their car everytime they run one over at laguna ?

loving the mixed martial arts practices already, never seen so many cars at once and love the traffic jams when you get 2 SRFs side by side

Quote from Mustafur :

The KERS effectively makes a 2 tier championship.

no its a single tier championship, its red bulls choice not to run with KERS same as mclaren could quite legally run without a rear wing. they'd be slower than everyone else but would you say it was unfair that the other teams fitted a rear wing?

Quote from Mustafur :

sorry but Mclarens situation was much worse, they stole data from ferrari.

and renault were found guilty of "technilogical espionage" when they gained possesion of data disks that belonged to mclaren but escaped without any fine

why not have a penalty available which says that in the following X number of races you're pitstops must last a minimum of z seconds ? and use it for incidents like renaults or for unsafe release of the car

(going slightly off the current topic but still on thread topic)

Toki have to say you have a really nice national anthem (thats honest btw no wind up) nice tune to it, nicely paced not too gloomy

can you imagine what torro rosso would say if bourdais got the drive and did a good job ?

wouldn't go that far, both have raced in the past with minardi and given their equipment were gernerally praised for their results and racecraft, being reasonably quick and they have the ability to stay on a track lap after lap thats why they got their jobs. plus given the testing ban, they are familiar with the team and the car, its systems and capabilities. given that ferrari like most teams are in the process of giving up on this season it might actually make a lot of sense to let one (or both depending on how long massa is out ) have the chance to experience the car in race conditions to help with the development of next years car

i feel sorry for him but, assuming he was speeding, lets remember he didn't break the speed limit, he broke the buffer on top of that limit. you have to wonder why with a 5 sec lead he felt the need to use the 5mph allowance on top of the limit, what's the point of building a lead if you don't use it to avoid problems like this

no doubt after the appeal this will turn into a suspended suspension (must be a better way of saying that ) and probably a fine. it's just the officials giving the teams a little slap to wake them up about possible saftey concerns. as said before it's for them not informing alonso more than anything else.

lets face it if drivers throughout the history of F1 had not been allowed to try and get back to the pits we'd never been treated to this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNJ-1frbzZA

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Got to love some peoples logic, why does a bit of suspension falling off an F1 car that's flat out have to stop dead in the exact position it fell off? It will be going at well over 100mph, bouncing all over the track, go a lob a chunk of metal down a hill and see what it does, it's not predictable.

agree with that but judging from the clip of the brawn, it fell off in the corner precceeding the straight and as such you'd expect it to have followed a straight(ish) path off the track and possibly into any spectator are on the outside.

looking again though that path would have taken it off to the left and it could then have bounced off something and back onto the track from massa's left further on also it's hard to judge the objects path so whilst it appears to come from the direction of the man at the side of the track it could actually have been travelling past him

i'd assume so, and they've amended the schedule (typo problem) it starts at road atlanta (short) now

jetta championship (class D ) starts august 17th at road atlanta (full)

if the replay they showed of the bit coming off the brawn is correct then it didn't even happen in the same are of the track, the brawn was durring a corner yet massa was hit down a straight with no other car in sight

Quote from 5haz :

Pig Cold only really seems to get ya if you have a weakened immune system, so if you're perfectly healthy there is no cause for concern.

seems about right, i've certainly felt worse in the past. biggest pain is this business about staying off work till the cough / sneezing / runny nose pass... i know it sounds odd but i'd prefer to be in work if i felt up to it

Quote from BlueFlame :

And if you don't it means Swine Flu is 100% bullshit.

shouldn't that be pigshit ?

Quote from anttt69 :

whats wrong with this years car?

nothing but next year it will be " like so last year "

put it on it's side and roll it home

personally i think all trampolines should come equiped with a slim well endowed person in their early twenties to demonstrate it (repeatedly) gender of person to be decided by personal tastes / preferences

Quote from DSElement :

Sister just had it, now my mum has it... I'm next

look on bright side, they say it's only really dangerous for one in three........... ah i can see a problem