Official 2011 Formula 1 Pre-Season Thread

A bright green-yellow helmet in a black-gold lotus car? Ooooh yes!
 
Hehe, didn't actually have that in mind. Just ditch the red paint on the car!
 
wow that car looks much better without the red total front and end plates. fucking total ruined that livery.

Senna was a second slower than Heidfeld. Renault will probably go with the sensible way and choose Nick for his consistency and experience. It's a shame I wanted Senna in that seat.
 
pfrocker said:
wow that car looks much better without the red total front and end plates. fucking total ruined that livery.

Senna was a second slower than Heidfeld. Renault will probably go with the sensible way and choose Nick for his consistency and experience. It's a shame I wanted Senna in that seat.
Click to expand...

agree, senna would be neat but nick is the better drive (so far)
 
Mercury said:
A full second slower in the same F1 car is ages....I'd go with Nick without even blinking.
Click to expand...

Not always... Sometimes a driver doesn't like a particular car setup, look at Massa's performance in most of last year compared to Alonso's, and they're both very talented. If what they were saying about the Renault is true (that it was specifically developed thinking of Kubica's driving style) then whoever has a driving style closest to him will be at ease in that chassis... We'll just have to wait and see I guess.
 
Mercury said:
A full second slower in the same F1 car is ages....I'd go with Nick without even blinking.
Click to expand...
Oh I just read that today it was colder and rained at the end of the day cutting the testing short. A number of things can affect the times.

Even Senna thinks it's the right move for renault to go with experience:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89472
Senna: Team right to want experience

By Steven English and Glenn Freeman Sunday, February 13th 2011, 17:40 GMT

Bruno Senna says he accepts that Renault needs a 'more prepared' driver to stand in as Robert Kubica's replacement from the start of this season.

Senna was named as Renault's first reserve driver during last week's Valencia test, but following Kubica's injuries and likely long absence, team boss Eric Boullier said he wanted a substitute with more experience.

Nick Heidfeld impressed in testing for Renault yesterday, before Senna took over today. But the team denied there was any shoot-out for the drive, with Heidfeld almost certain to take it.

After his day in the car on Sunday, Senna agreed with Boullier's decision.

"I only had one day in the car and it was good, but for preparation you need much more than that - they need a driver that's ready to do it," he said.

"It wasn't a trial. In unfortunate circumstances I was given a great opportunity to drive the car and do some work for the team. Considering that I've only been here for three weeks, it's a great shot for getting some experience with the car and the team. The team knows what they need and it's up to them what they do."

Senna said he was still pleased with his day's work and believes he made a good impression on the Renault team.

"It was brilliant," he said. "It was the second test I had in a Formula 1 car, ever. Considering I raced for a year that's quite incredible. Doing a full test day in a car makes you learn so much as a driver.

"It's been a very productive day, I think the team liked the feedback I gave them. It took me a few laps to get into the KERS and rear wing systems - it's actually quite a lot in the brain. After it becomes second nature it's more straightforward."
Click to expand...
 
I'm still wondering who will pay for the HRT seat? Doubt they will go for talent, Kolles will just go with whoever has the biggest paycheck.
 
pfrocker said:
I'm still wondering who will pay for the HRT seat? Doubt they will go for talent, Kolles will just go with whoever has the biggest paycheck.
Click to expand...

Talent and sponsorship money are not mutually exclusive. Just look at Minardi, who never had any budget to speak of, whose cars never were really fast, who always had to pick their drivers by sponsorship money. They gave some of the finest drivers in F1 their first race seat, for example Alonso, Webber, Alessandro "one hand" Nannini and endurance racing champion Pedro Lamy.
 
Dr_Grip said:
Talent and sponsorship money are not mutually exclusive. Just look at Minardi, who never had any budget to speak of, whose cars never were really fast, who always had to pick their drivers by sponsorship money. They gave some of the finest drivers in F1 their first race seat, for example Alonso, Webber, Alessandro "one hand" Nannini and endurance racing champion Pedro Lamy.
Click to expand...
True, but that is not always the case. There are drivers who are just picked for their sponsorship money they can bring in. Case in point Narain Karthikeyan and Sakon Yamamoto.
 
pfrocker said:
True, but that is not always the case. There are drivers who are just picked for their sponsorship money they can bring in. Case in point Narain Karthikeyan and Sakon Yamamoto.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing this is what you guys mean when you say 'pay drivers'? Those who are there because of what they bring in financially, rather than being there on merit. Do these guys take a part of the sponsorship money as salary, or does it all go to the teams?
 
I'm going to guess they have a Tiny salary - I remember as low as 100k or something just for the image. They obviously get paid mostly through their personal sponsorship directly which goes on to help fund their racing.
 
hahaa...I wonder how much Heidfeld paid Senna to say that.

As for pay drivers, I always thought that they usually drive for free or technically pay to dry via the sponsor, but get a stipend from the sponsor they bring in to live off of. I'm sure it works several different ways, but that's how I've heard it in the past. Technically the team isn't paying them as much as they get a small chunk of the sponsorship money directly from the company.
 
After Force India had toured the Valencia circuit most times at the first pre-season test of 2011, Ferrari achieved more mileage than anybody as Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso lapped the Jerez circuit some 463 times between Thursday and Sunday. Two tests now remain before the start of the campaign, in Barcelona and Sakhir.

The Jerez mileage leaderboard is as follows:


Ferrari 463 laps of Jerez
2,050.2 km / 1,273.9 mi

Red Bull 394 laps of Jerez
1,744.6 km / 1,102.7 mi

Mercedes 338 laps of Jerez
1,496.6 km / 929.9 mi

Toro Rosso 327 laps of Jerez
1,447.9 km / 899.7 mi

Sauber 320 laps of Jerez
1,416.9 km / 880.4 mi

Renault 275 laps of Jerez
1,217.7 km / 756.6 mi

Force India 264 laps of Jerez
1,168.9 km / 726.3 mi

Williams 253 laps of Jerez
1,120.3 km / 696.2 mi

McLaren 233 laps of Jerez
1,031.7 km / 641.1 mi

Virgin 216 laps of Jerez
956.4 km / 594.3 mi

Lotus 198 laps of Jerez
876.7 km / 544.7 mi

Hispania Did not attend
Monza Pirelli test Monday-Wednesday


TOTAL 3,291 laps of Jerez
14,572.5 km / 9,054.9 mi
Click to expand...

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/252754/ferrari-racks-up-most-mileage-at-jerez/

If the Ferrari engines get any sort of trouble again this year, I will publically call them idiots.
 
Last edited:
Exactly. It's more than enough now to have the 056 finally at optimum performance...they have Marmorini onboard, the guru of engines, they did an enormous amount of mileage on it now ( been practically the same since 2007 ) so to me, it must be perfect now.
 
SchumacherM said:
Exactly. It's more than enough now to have the 056 finally at optimum performance...they have Marmorini onboard, the guru of engines, they did an enormous amount of mileage on it now ( been practically the same since 2007 ) so to me, it must be perfect now.
Click to expand...

What's going to be a lot more interesting is their KERS reliability, which wasn't... great... in 2009.
 
Forgot about that little piece of shit...oh crap...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top