F1 Natter - Split From Sensodrive fan club

[Hell Razor5543]

Williams were testing CVT back in 1993, but it was banned before it got to race, by the FIA rule that the cars had to have between 4 and 7 fixed gears;

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[Northern_Mike]

Williams were testing CVT back in 1993, but it was banned before it got to race, by the FIA rule that the cars had to have between 4 and 7 fixed gears;

Yes, more of their weird rulings. They state, often, that the technology must have some feedback to road cars. What road car has, or needs 8 forward gear ratios, as is mandated now, is beyond me. As they have to specify the ratios pre-season, and can play one "joker" at some point, it led Mercedes to change theirs as they hadn't actually used 8th gear, at all in the first 10 races of the season. One Engineer (Pat Fry?) was quoted as saying it was pointless, as because of the torque of the engine that 4 or 5 gears would be plenty.

[addo]

It's about as "real world" as that silly wrestling business. The antics of Bernie and company put me off years ago.

Street racing's where it's at.

[Northern_Mike]

I like F1. I've not missed a race since 1984. I enjoy the speed and technology. It's amazing stuff really. I admire the skill of the drivers. I don't admire what Bernie has done to the sport in it's entirety but he has done some good things. He's a bit of a wideboy and I dislike his greed and the profligacy of F1. That said, he's still more admirable than most politicians as he started off with nothing and worked his way up.

I believe his motto is "you can have anything you want from me as long as it's expensive"...

World Endurance Car championship is more interesting and open. This year Porsche bear Audi, Toyota, Ferrari, Lola, Aston Martin... etc

Who did Mercedes beat in F1? 2 soft drink manufacturers, an independent racing team (Williams), a manufacturer of very limited elitist sports cars (McLaren) a very poor Ferrari an Indian businessman who plays at racing and a couple of teams ran out of sheds somewhere in Northamptonshire and Norfolk. It's not good for F1 or Mercedes if you break it down like that. WEC has all the big names. That's why many manufacturers don't want to be in F1. There's no commercial gain from beating nobodies and spending €300 million doing it.

[charentejohn]

Do these people use sensodrive boxes ? Perhaps they are too expensive for formula yawn to fix ?
It would be nice to keep this more or less sensodrive related as it may be of use to some poor devil in the future, not sure how we got on to racing. I started this as it was taking another thread off course (unrelated to sensodrive) but this always happens I guess. Be nice if someone started a general thread for the chat though, and moved the unrelated comments to it ?

[CitroJim]

formula yawn

Yes, I'll go along with that, last and previous seasons at least. I've not watched one race this season but of every one I tried to watch last season and the previous seasons I promptly fell asleep and missed it anyway...

It has the same effect on me as televised snooker... Instant sleep

[Northern_Mike]

formula yawn

Yes, I'll go along with that, last and previous seasons at least. I've not watched one race this season

Despite the dominance of Mercedes, this season has been the best for years Jim. Proper hard racing between the top two drivers in equal cars. I'd recommend seeing if you could find highlights of the Bahrain GP. Real wheel-to wheel stuff between the two Mercs throughout.

Much respect to Mercedes for letting their cars race each other all year. If they'd done a Ferrari and had a clear number 1 driver, it would have been a very tedious season indeed with one car trailing the other home every race.

[Hell Razor5543]

I apologise for bringing Formula 1 into the thread, but somebody else brought up CVT, and I remembered a video where David Coultard was driving a Williams race car with a CVT gearbox. I do agree with Mike that this year was a good season though.

[Hell Razor5543]

If they'd done a Ferrari and had a clear number 1 driver, it would have been a very tedious season indeed with one car trailing the other home every race.

I remember a recent race (within the last 10 years, that is) whereby the Ferrari number 2 driver was told to give way to their number 1 driver. On the last lap, still well in front, the number 2 driver trod on his brakes, let his teammate past, and then followed him home to the winning line.

[Northern_Mike]

If they'd done a Ferrari and had a clear number 1 driver, it would have been a very tedious season indeed with one car trailing the other home every race.

I remember a recent race (within the last 10 years, that is) whereby the Ferrari number 2 driver was told to give way to their number 1 driver. On the last lap, still well in front, the number 2 driver trod on his brakes, let his teammate past, and then followed him home to the winning line.

That was Austria 2002 James, Barrichello was leading, he'd been told to let Schumacher past repeatedly and refuses. He'd been told near the end that if he didn't, he'd be unlikely to be in the red car for the next race. The cheating German can be seen accepting his hollow victory at about 4:25 into the following video. It's worth watching the next few mins for the reactions and opinions.

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Of course, at Indianapolis in 2002 , Schumacher was leading and tried to stage a dead-heat finish with Barrichello, but messed it up and lost the race to Rubens by 0.002 of a second.

[Hell Razor5543]

Wasn't Rubens the first F1 driver to beat the Stigs' time on Top Gears F1 Reasonably Priced Car Challenge? And wasn't it Michael who was the Stig during that period? I bet that Rubens felt really happy with that. I recall he had several T Shirts printed off, most for the other F1 drivers who had NOT beaten the Stig, and one for himself. Theirs read "The Stig beat me", while his read "I beat the Stig"!

[daviemck2006]

Yes Rubens was the first to beat the Stig. Was the Stig Ben Collins at that time and they wanted you to think that he was Schumacher?