2011 Formula 1 Season - Official Discussion Thread

[sleenster]

some sources say that Renault made their choice -Heidfeld

http://www.bild.de/BILD/sport/motorspor ... nault.html

http://www.speedweek.de/art_17744.html

Personally, that would have been my choice too

[Vorull]

Nice to see teams running "get well soon" messages

[Ali]

Ferrari already changed the name:

F 150th Italia

http://www.ferrari.com/English/Formula1 ... talia.aspx

[Ferrariman60]

Ferrari already changed the name:

F 150th Italia

http://www.ferrari.com/English/Formula1 ... talia.aspx

Wow. Ferrari must still remember when Ford tried to buy them back in the 60's.

By the way, they could have gotten away with the F150 name by simple using the Italian word for 150 (centocinquanta, making the car the F-Centocinquanta) versus adding the "th" for an ordinal number, which I think looks dumb in the name of a car.

[sdutt]

I'm a big fan of Ford, but in this case I think they're in the wrong. If Ferrari were to make an F150 truck, then they'd have grounds to sue, but I feel an F150 F1 car is a different enough product that they shouldn't sue.

Couldn't agree more with you. Then Lotus is to sue every shampoo company that uses lotus.
May word, if three numbers and a letter are copy protected, then we might as well stop speaking.

i agree, and actually numbers cannot be copyrighted, atleast thats what used to be the case (ofc not sure about letter-number combo)

Thats why a company such as Intel tsopped having 80286-386 and then went to pentium

[TwistedArmco]

If they don't pick Senna, then I'll completely lose faith in the team.

If you have a reserve/test driver, they were chosen because the team has them as their 3rd driver - ie, to be used when the 1st driver or 2nd driver is unable to compete. Eric Bouiller said last week that in the case of either of their race drivers being unable to fulfil their duties, Senna is the best placed candidate.

Not choosing Senna would be a disgrace.

I disagree. I feel they're different quantities. Heidfeld is a known quantity, and not hugely exciting, but he'll be solid, whereas Senna could either crash a load or set the pace for Petrov. So it merely depends on how far Renault are willing to gamble. I think people are pining for Senna mainly because of the name. I don't hear many people baying for say di Grassi to occupy the seat, despite being a pretty much equally capable and equally jobless driver. I can see the practicalities of Senna. He is their test driver after all. But Renault might be thinking about who will bring the points in in the short term. My choice would be Heidfeld.

[TwistedArmco]

Talking of which, is there any prevailing rumour about who's going to fill the other HRT seat? I've been a bit out of touch lately.

[phil1993]

F1Zone Interviews: Toro Rosso pair Sebastien Buemi & Jaime Alguersuari
http://www.f1zone.net/site/?p=1134

[SilverStar]

To be honest I don't get this whole Kubica thing. Now that Kubica is thankfully out of danger, and the good news is that they think he even has a good chance of a full recovery, I’ll say this.…to me he has unnecessarily put himself – to say nothing of his team and the new Renault 2011 car, which will have been specifically designed around him this winter over a period of months at a cost of tens of millions of dollars – in serious jeopardy. I mean what exactly is the point of F1 continually aiming for the highest possible safety standards in the sport (there hasn’t been a fatality for 17 years, and it now seems to have become virtually impossible for a driver to die in an F1 car during the season) if the drivers are allowed to just go out and do whatever the hell reckless/life-endangering thing they want during the off-season? It makes no sense at all. Teams will have to ban extracurricular activities such as rallying. The board at the Renault parent company will be totally livid by this, with their lead driver out for the rest of the year due to something that was totally 100% avoidable, their whole business plan/target for the Renault F1 team for 2011 has gone right down the toilet. Kubica is such a fine young driver that everyone is agreed that he had a great chance to be a champion driver with some team or other in years to come, but it won’t matter who Renault replace him with this year, they will take a massive hit in points in 2011, and with also a possible knock-on massive hit in prize money, and maybe even sponsorship, THAT’S how expensive this will be. But I hope he's back soon and can drive in F1 again, he's a talented guy, him and Schumi and Kobayashi are the three drivers out there who you never know what to expect, which makes them fun to watch.

[James B]

Talking of which, is there any prevailing rumour about who's going to fill the other HRT seat? I've been a bit out of touch lately.

There was speculation about Albers but there's been nothing concrete about anyone. Various drivers were linked there (Teixeira, Valsecchi, Razia etc) but the majority have found seats or positions with other teams (those 3 are at Team Lotus). And the longer they leave it, the more likely it'll be someone who's driven recently, because there won't be enough time to get a superlicense on testing mileage. Liuzzi or Klien seem the most likely but Hispania need money

Perhaps some of the other teams might want to contact Hispania to ask how they manage to keep their secrets, given that they're so good at it - Chandhok was a well-kept secret and surprise, as was Narain, and likelihood is the 2nd driver will be too

[TwistedArmco]

Talking of which, is there any prevailing rumour about who's going to fill the other HRT seat? I've been a bit out of touch lately.

There was speculation about Albers but there's been nothing concrete about anyone. Various drivers were linked there (Teixeira, Valsecchi, Razia etc) but the majority have found seats or positions with other teams (those 3 are at Team Lotus). And the longer they leave it, the more likely it'll be someone who's driven recently, because there won't be enough time to get a superlicense on testing mileage. Liuzzi or Klien seem the most likely but Hispania need money

Perhaps some of the other teams might want to contact Hispania to ask how they manage to keep their secrets, given that they're so good at it - Chandhok was a well-kept secret and surprise, as was Narain, and likelihood is the 2nd driver will be too

Cheers. I quite like Valsecchi from GP2, but I do wonder how good an F1 driver he'd be. I'd complain about them going for a pay-driver if it wasn't fair enough. So I'm alright with whoever, but I've been a long time moderate Lucas di Grassi fan, so it would be nice to see him get a drive.

[swca92]

Di Grassi was the dullest driver I've ever seen I think - not very good but not with enough crashes and overall farce barring that crash before the race in Suzuka to make things interesting. Not sure anyone will have noticed him last year.

[sdutt]

Talking of which, is there any prevailing rumour about who's going to fill the other HRT seat? I've been a bit out of touch lately.

There was speculation about Albers but there's been nothing concrete about anyone. Various drivers were linked there (Teixeira, Valsecchi, Razia etc) but the majority have found seats or positions with other teams (those 3 are at Team Lotus). And the longer they leave it, the more likely it'll be someone who's driven recently, because there won't be enough time to get a superlicense on testing mileage. Liuzzi or Klien seem the most likely but Hispania need money

Perhaps some of the other teams might want to contact Hispania to ask how they manage to keep their secrets, given that they're so good at it - Chandhok was a well-kept secret and surprise, as was Narain, and likelihood is the 2nd driver will be too

IMO, press are not too interested in them, hence they've managed to get away with. Surely, they are not as closely monitored as top teams

[phil1993]

Kubica's manager said that he had 1 litre of blood left after the crash. Wow.

[SilverStar]

Kubica's manager said that he had 1 litre of blood left after the crash. Wow.

He's wrong. That's a medical impossibility. The human body of a male contains about 6 litres of blood, if you lose half of that, your body goes into shock, your heart stops working, and you die. If Kubica had lost 5 litres of blood, leaving only 1 litre, he would be dead.