343 replies to this topic

[BradSpeedMan]

Caesar, on 05 March 2012 - 04:47 PM, said:

who are you kidding, you haven't been listening him since kimi got fired!
stefano is good and safe, he has been hiding somewhere  in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan!

Deja Vu!

Sounds all very familiar does'nt it?

http://www.totalf1.c...ring_our_goals/

[Insider]

In my experience of F1 anything that was overheard by the press was meant to be heard by the press.  Write off Ferrari at your peril. RBR have clearly been reacting to what other teams have brought to the party with their latest incarnation of the RB8.  Do they have a competitive car for Melbourne? They'll probably manage - just! McLaren look reliable, quick in the corners and mighty on the long runs. Mercedes may challenge hard but Lotus will be smoking alongside them.  Then there are a great bunch of cars on their tails, FIS, STR, Sauber and an massively improved Williams. Quali will be nightmarish. I expect to see thousandths rather the tenths separating the grid boxes.  It's looking like a good 'un!

[Caesar]

BradSpeedMan, on 06 March 2012 - 09:56 AM, said:

Deja Vu!

Sounds all very familiar does'nt it?

http://www.totalf1.c...ring_our_goals/

my words exactly

[Argento Reloaded]

Insider, on 06 March 2012 - 10:15 AM, said:

In my experience of F1 anything that was overheard by the press was meant to be heard by the press.  Write off Ferrari at your peril. RBR have clearly been reacting to what other teams have brought to the party with their latest incarnation of the RB8.  Do they have a competitive car for Melbourne? They'll probably manage - just! McLaren look reliable, quick in the corners and mighty on the long runs. Mercedes may challenge hard but Lotus will be smoking alongside them.  Then there are a great bunch of cars on their tails, FIS, STR, Sauber and an massively improved Williams. Quali will be nightmarish. I expect to see thousandths rather the tenths separating the grid boxes.  It's looking like a good 'un!

Agreed, Plus Macca, Ferrari and Red Bull are the only teams in order to improve rather signifintly during the season. The rest -as Mercedes last year- starts to think in 2013 by june!

[HandyNZL]

Williams is actually my dark horse for the season.  I think regular point scores is on the cards for them.  (Might not be double digit point scores, mind you...)

[Caesar]

HandyNZL, on 07 March 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

Williams is actually my dark horse for the season.  I think regular point scores is on the cards for them.  (Might not be double digit point scores, mind you...)

true, this season could show a lot of surprises

[BradSpeedMan]

HandyNZL, on 07 March 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

Williams is actually my dark horse for the season.  I think regular point scores is on the cards for them.  (Might not be double digit point scores, mind you...)

Williams is what Williams is... a no-points scoring machine...

Edited by BradSpeedMan, 07 March 2012 - 12:34 PM.

[JHS18]

Testing always makes things look a lot closer than they actually are. Rest assured, the cream of the crop wiill rise to the top again, and by some distance. Can't really see any big surprises, or any evidence to say there will be any surprises, but I guess that comes from people who've become bored with Red Bull winning.

[HandyNZL]

BradSpeedMan, on 07 March 2012 - 12:31 PM, said:

Williams is what Williams is... a no-points scoring machine...

Let me clarify my position for ya Brad...

Will Williams win a race....highly unlikely, unless a pile up of cars eliminates 9 or 10 of the grid on the first corner, and by some luck they manage to win

Will Williams get a podium....not likely, unless a pile up of cars eliminates 8 or 9 of the grid on the first corner

Will Williams get in the top five....not likely, unless a pile up eliminates 5 or 6 of the grid on the first corner

Will Williams get in the top seven....maybe, but most likely with a little luck

Will Williams get in the top ten....yes, possibly...why?  They have made some pretty major technical and management reshuffles in the last four to six months.  Even Frank has stood down from the board now, and Patrick is at the pub drinking beer.  The technical guys that have taken over from Sam Michael are not the cheapest on the block, have some experience, and the car looks tidy so far.  The major boost for them however is multiple championship winning power in place of the crappy Cosworth.  Renault's grunt will see Williams move up the grid (not really all that hard from last year), and as Patrick Head recently said in a Motorsport Magazine article, that having the engine will mean that any performance fault will lay squarely at the feet of Williams.

I don't rate Senna all that much, and I think he'll only match Maldonado...I honestly don't think either one will get the upper hand over the other.  But at times when the two drivers can not establish dominance / a pecking order, both of them drive out of their skins to try and achieve that, and thus the teams performance goes upward too.  Think Alonso/Hamilton sort of one upmanship...

Anyways, that's why they are my dark horse for 2012

[Autumnpuma]

I agree with what you say except for Senna. I'm in the minority, but I rate him pretty highly. 'course I also rated Wurz and that was the wurz rating I have ever made....

[HandyNZL]

I liked Wurz too....though part of that might have been the shine off his World BMX Championship attracting me too him

He wasn't all that bad, and was, pound for pound, probably better than at least a handful of drivers on the grid this year.

[JHS18]

I entered a competition once to design a one off helmet design Wurz would wear at the British Grand Prix.

I didn't win.

Edited by JHS18, 09 March 2012 - 10:05 AM.

[Massa]

Autumnpuma, on 08 March 2012 - 11:05 PM, said:

I agree with what you say except for Senna. I'm in the minority, but I rate him pretty highly. 'course I also rated Wurz and that was the wurz rating I have ever made....

You're in the minority because you're paying attention to something other than his lack of statistical accomplishments, which is exactly what I judge him on, and you aren't being cynical about how much attetion surrounded him, which I think a lot of people fault him for.

That said I don't expect much from him or Williams.  I just don't trust the management there.  I don't trust the management at Ferrari, either.  You take the same group of guys with one coach one year and another coach the next and it's a whole new team.  I don't think they make big enough changes at either place, even when someone goes, they just bring in the same mentality, or recycle someone who was already put out to pasture for good reason, or hire from within the same structure that's not working.

Or maybe I'm just cynical about how much attention surrounds both of those teams, so I fault them for it.

[HandyNZL]

I'm not judging Bruno statistically....I'm judging him by watching him race and adapt in F1...and he ain't shown much except for an ability to go backwards during a race.  Maybe that was Renault Lotus Genii Clear Anti Dandruff Total Formula One Teams pitwall decisions, but there were too many races in which it occurred to be a coincidence or a conspiracy.