2009 Formula 1 Pre-Season Thread

And BMW has sunshine...that's not good...
 


Every time he opens his mouth, he never fails to make me angry.


It's reading articles like this, that reminds of these pictures taken at Ferrari's recent Wroom event:

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2009/01/20/3200524511_e7d4212f09_o.jpg
https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2009/01/20/3198967475_362798b053_b.jpg


... and i look to the skies and ask the big man up there why didn't he just make bernie fall off the side of the mountain.
 
@Joco: Bloody hell, thanks for the information, though!

I respected Bernie for a long long while, but he really is beginning to test my patience now.
 
I respected Bernie for a long long while, but he really is beginning to test my patience now.

Bernie deserves a ton of respect for making F1 the global phenomenon that it is now... or used to be when they were racing in North American and France. :mad: But he deserves two tons of disrespect, sh*t which hit the fan and is propelled into his head, and swearing (2 tons of each) for what he's doing now.
 
well mugello is raining still and it will continue for the next few days according to forecasts.

I bet bernie made ferrari give him that ducati jacket and shoes.... as a "gesture of good will." He seems like that kind of prick.
 
What Bernie is completely overlooking here is that a bigger share of the pie going to the teams would encourage teams to fill the 6-car void on the grid (the maximum now is 24 cars). And it would also go some way towards preventing the sad fate that befell Super Aguri before Turkey. He's just interested in more money going to his pocket, when that cash is supposed to go, most significantly, into the pockets of the independent teams.

F1 needs to set up an "Independent Fund" to keep that kind of team afloat at ANY costs. I'm pretty sure there was such an idea back when those Italian minnows were around, sometimes punching far above their own weight.



EDIT: The only witty response that came out of Bernie's mouth on record, when asked by Murray Walker "It's been 17 years since you've bought McLaren, you've had some good times and some bad times, what do you remember best?"

"I don't remember buying McLaren!"
 
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I respect Bernie hugely for what he's done in the past to build F1 to what it is, but seriously he needs to gtfo, all he's doing now is making a play for his own wallet and to hell with the sport.
 
"We don't need to pay more. We've got to give them less," Ecclestone told the Financial Times. "In what I call the good old days, all we had to do was have a chat with the people who had all the money... but now they come along and they've got lawyers and masseurs and they can never agree on anything."
You mean like, say, you? Seriously, I'm struggling to think of a time that Bernie has put his foot in his mouth more than he's just done.
 
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Oh yeah BMW ran 67 laps for the shakedown. No official times, but somebody has stated that the fastest lap was around 1:14.3.
 
"For starters, the exhausts are being reported as illegal. While the other cars revealed so far have inboard exhaust pipes, the Ferrari's protrude from the bodywork in contravention of new aerodynamic regulations."

anyone heard anything about this?
 
Yes.

I think if you look at the BMW that is about as much as the exhaust can come out..I guess it has some sort of effect on the car.
 
Here is today's F1 test session in Portugal, it even includes footage of the hail.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnJHvuADvlE[/YOUTUBE]
 
The paint would be ruined, which means a huge amount of work as it has to be super smooth for aerodynamics. And they would end the lap with four flat tyres...
 
Thank god

And in other news, Ferrari tried a helmet cam during their Mugello Testing:
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj9rmrJ-SMs&eurl=http://sundayafternoonclub.blogs.topgear.com/2009/01/13/onboard-with-massa/[/YOUTUBE]
 
^ Freakin. Awesome.

Seems to be mounted on top of the helmet, rather than inside it - if that's the case there's zero chance of it being used in competition, which is a huge pity as that point of view is brilliant.
 
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