Today In F1

[Insider 0]

Di Resta and the Hulk conformed at Force India Sahara is excellent news. They have a good chance of finishing 4th or 5th now, I feel.

[Insider 0]

I see Sauber have announced a date for the launch of the C31. Have they cleared this with Maranello?

[Massa 0]

I personally think Hülkenberg is the most overrated driver in a very long time. Which isn't to say he's not good or that he'll never get better or that he doesn't belong on the grid. I just don't think he's the future WDC everyone says he is.

I also didn't think much of Vettel back in 2007-2008, though, probably out of a bias for wanting his teammates to destroy him.

Bruno Senna's pondering a move to NASCAR, something Ayrton was interested in as well. I give Bruno tremendous respect for saying that he would never go straight to the Sprint Cup Series, and would start at the bottom and work his way up "like going from F3 to F1 again." A lot of open-wheel (not just F1, Indy too) drivers come in to stock cars with a lot of arrogance and a belief that they can just walk into whatever ride at the highest level because of their accomplishments in open-wheel. It doesn't work like that, and it's laughable for anyone associated with open-wheel (fans included) to believe one of their drivers can just step into a stock car and win, whereas if a stock car driver wanted to do F1 or Indy it would be an immediate reaction of "well no, that's not fair to the guys in GP2, this guy is a total joke, he needs more experience in lower categories." It's the same both ways. I consider F1 and NASCAR to be equal, but completely different. It's always back to the soccer/football vs. ice hockey analogy. Both sports have goalkeepers, but if you think a GK from either is going to go to the other and not make an utter *** of himself...

So I respect Senna a lot for realizing that you have to pay your dues or else the stock cars, the tracks, and the drivers are going to kick your ***. Look what happened to a guy like Dario Franchitti when he decided to invite himself to Sprint Cup without climbing the ladder. Hell, Montoya's been a complete waste, and I know part of that is equipment, but a lot of it is that he didn't have enough experience, and even once he did and had his one good year, he loses out on the little things. There is so much more adversity in NASCAR because of both the length of the races, and the style (less reliability, more incidents, more pit stop issues given less crew members and a lot of the cars pitting at the same time in a very tight space). But it's also adversity that you have to overcome in NASCAR...errors that put you out of an open-wheel race don't put you out of a stock car race; those cars are tanks and there are so many more laps and caution periods to get back into it. Montoya isn't used to that, coming from open-wheel, and when something goes wrong he just gets flustered and never recovers because he's used to just pulling it into the garage and trying again next week. Even once you learn the cars and the tracks, and that will take a few years as it has for everyone who has tried it, even once you can communicate with your crew effectively...then you have to learn how to control a 500-mile race, and a 40-weekend race season.

It's such a huge adjustment either way. Refreshing to see Senna be realistic about that, rather than bringing a load of douchebaggery and quitting on everyone when he fails (hi Dario, hi Kimi, etc). Piquet has done a similar thing and I respect that, too, and while Speed did bring a load of douchebaggery, he also started low and got rushed up too quickly by Red Bull (hey, same thing happened in F1), and totally failed...buuuut he hasn't quit yet and is actually earning his place by starting-and-parking some low-buck ****ters owned by teams that can't afford tires to run more than 20 laps in a race.

[F1 FANatic 1]

Di Resta and the Hulk conformed at Force India Sahara is excellent news. They have a good chance of finishing 4th or 5th now, I feel.

Time to dust off the old Total F1 account and post something again.

Good news about Nico H. two years ago he drove for a team which he should now be thanking his lucky stars for dumping him. Their complete implosion in the last year, from on track performance through a wholesale reordering of the management would have cost him his career I think. Rubins never had to worry about the future. He can walk away after 17? seasons (he has been around so long i can't even remember). He might like to but can say he did a good job. Pastor can get a ride anywhere along the lower third of the grid as long as the wells don;t run dry. But had the Hulk been in that car he would have looked foolish. Anybody in that car would have looked foolish. Lewis or Alonso or Vettel would have looked foolish in the Williams of this year (and somehow they thought Kimi would join them?).

But Nico is a really good driver. His stats in the lower formulas only tell part of the story. If you watched some of his races you could see that he knew how to handle a car not just because it is the fastest on the grid. And he apparently is very dedicated to learning from the team. I do think that in part it has to do with the "Schumacher Effect". The young drivers now grew up with Schumi dominating so much that they want to emulate him. Look at Vettel. He stayed the entire race in Abu Dabi on the pit wall learning. And I think for the German drivers it is an even bigger effect just because he was the only German World Champion. The British drivers can look at so many of their own but the German guys just have this image and the stories of Schumi driving to get Pizza for his engineers at midnight so they could work longer and driving 12 hours a day on the test track to get the maximum out of the cars. Of course many of the young guys have this image but I think for the young German drivers Schumi is the giant measuring stick that they all want to measure themselves against even when they say they don't.

Will Nico blaze into the lead? Of course not. Let's be realistic. He will start his second year as a race driver after spending a year as "test driver" in a sport that allows no testing. No matter how much you believe otherwise, a year out of the car will dull the skills. But they can be sharpened and honed back to where they were and beyond. I think the first half of the year will see Paul have the advantage just because he drove last year. But I think by mid season and toward the end the two of them will be on roughly equal ground. Hulk is staying with the same team so that is a hurdle he does not have to overcome. He knows the guys around him and they know him.

As far as I can tell, Sutil and Glock will probably not race next year so F1 will actually move away from becoming Formula Germany. (remember the good old days when we had 20 cars and 5 German drivers?). Even as a german I have to concede that some of them only made it onto the grid because Germany was the big market for everybody to fight over. Oh Markus Winkelhock, how we dearly miss you leading the German GP in your jordan/midland/spyker crapbox.

[Massa 0]

A gentleman named "dansanfy" who designs a lot of IndyCar vehicles posted this F1 concept on his flickr. With closed c[size="2"]o[/size]ckpits being investigated, it's vaguely relevant.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dansanfy13/6539243251/

Beat the word filter, too.

[HandyNZL 1]

Doesn't quite look right...kind of looks like a Hover Car Racer (see Matthew Reilly books)...I like the Lotus Indycar though in his photostream. Numbers are not quite right, but we'll let him pass.

[Massa 0]

Bruno Senna apparently pulled the $27,000,000 out of his *** (or the media pulled that figure out of theirs) and signed with Williams. The "Earnhardt fan" equivalents of the F1 world have a collective boner, I'm sure, but pardon me while, as nice of a guy as he may be, I am very underwhelmed by Williams' lineup. I know it was all about money, but Sutil/Petrov give you a better lineup and bring cash (albeit not as much). Senna was a waste at Renault. He beat Chandhok at HRT, but, uh, Chandhok sucks. Senna has never won any championship beyond karting ever. Then again, neither has Mark Webber (if we see Mark Webber as good. I don't know if we do after last season or not; I see him as a guy who certainly never finishes ahead of where he should, if not behind it), so I guess he could be competent at doing some kind of something sort of.

In other words, it's not very interesting, but no signing Williams would make would have been that interesting. An overrated team based on their performance decades ago partnering with an overrated driver based on his uncle's performance decades ago.

[JHS18 0]

I don't give F1 credit for much, but their new "one move" blocking rule (if you move off the racing line to defend, you can't cut back) is absolutely perfect for open-wheel racing. I wish that was a universal standard in everything that doesn't have fenders (if a guy blocks in stock cars or touring cars, you just move him out of the way). So good on them for getting something right.

On that basis, Lewis Hamilton could be a pretty good touring car racer.

Bruno Senna apparently pulled the $27,000,000 out of his *** (or the media pulled that figure out of theirs) and signed with Williams. The "Earnhardt fan" equivalents of the F1 world have a collective boner, I'm sure, but pardon me while, as nice of a guy as he may be, I am very underwhelmed by Williams' lineup. I know it was all about money, but Sutil/Petrov give you a better lineup and bring cash (albeit not as much). Senna was a waste at Renault. He beat Chandhok at HRT, but, uh, Chandhok sucks. Senna has never won any championship beyond karting ever. Then again, neither has Mark Webber (if we see Mark Webber as good. I don't know if we do after last season or not; I see him as a guy who certainly never finishes ahead of where he should, if not behind it), so I guess he could be competent at doing some kind of something sort of.

In other words, it's not very interesting, but no signing Williams would make would have been that interesting. An overrated team based on their performance decades ago partnering with an overrated driver based on his uncle's performance decades ago.

I agree with you. Senna/Maldonado = most underwhelming driver line up on the grid. To be fair a Maldonado/Sutil line up wouldn't really be any better.

I've never really thought Bruno's been anything that special. He got beaten in GP2 by Pantano (enough said) and I think most of what he's achieved is more to do with having the Senna name than being that special a driver.

However, for some illogical reason, I started to like him towards the end of this season. I was actually (quietly) cheering him on for the last couple of events. He comes across as a really great guy who has to put up with so much press attention because of his Senna name. I guess the Earnhardt annology works. He also gained a lot of respect from me about his comment re: NASCAR racing and how he wouldn't just straight into Cup.

Don't get me wrong, it'd be nice to see him on the grid again, but over an Alguersuari or a Petrov (another guy I came to be quietly supporting by season's end) - I'm not sure. Besides, it's kind of tragic about hearing about a Senna having to find that much sponsorship...

Nice guy but F1 calibre? Not bad, not great...owes a lot to his surname.

Cruelly ironic that not so long ago Williams was considered a good seat, now it's a left over for a guy who's career has taken a dive and doesn't want to leave F1 just yet.

[Rainmaster 7]

If true, it is no doubt a financially necessary but underwhelming line up, for an underwhelming team. Maldonado isn't terrible but he seems to lack finesse, and there isn't much going on in that helmet. Bruno has shown glimpses of potential (in what you'd have to admit are difficult circumstances, with the poorly managed Renault team) but his ceiling probably isn't that high either. I don't think he is overrated though, at least not by the paddock, sure fans like him 'cos he's a good guy, and we want him to do well because of that name. But I doubt Williams are under any illusions in terms of what they're getting performance wise.

Sutil? Easily better than either but does he always push hard? I get the impression his performances pick up when it's contract time and I hardly see him being motivated in a shoddy Williams. At least Williams will know Pastor and Senna will be trying hard. Petrov? Also probably better than both - at least he showed some good race-craft and speed. Although, not much going on upstairs there either, I feel!

As you can tell, I value a bit of intelligence in the racing driver.... which brings me to Massa...

Nah, but Williams' line up could be better, could be worse. I don't think the drivers will be as bad as the car, shall we say.

[Insider 0]

It would appear that behind a solid season for the impeccable Fernando Alonso, emotional turmoil was raging on the home front. I would have thought that it was a heart-wrangling decision for the Spanish, Catholic double WDC to divorce his pop star, Spanish, Catholic wife. Nando's performances on track were nothing less the competitive to my eye. Lewis would do well to find the sort of focus the Ferrari champion apparently employs in his work.

[dribbler 6]

It would appear that behind a solid season for the impeccable Fernando Alonso, emotional turmoil was raging on the home front. I would have thought that it was a heart-wrangling decision for the Spanish, Catholic double WDC to divorce his pop star, Spanish, Catholic wife. Nando's performances on track were nothing less the competitive to my eye. Lewis would do well to find the sort of focus the Ferrari champion apparently employs in his work.

I thought precisely the same.

Fernando knows how to keep his career and private life separate. Lewis thinks they should be interlinked, soap opera style.

[yurp 0]

I thought precisely the same.

Fernando knows how to keep his career and private life separate. Lewis thinks they should be interlinked, soap opera style.

Kids today

Merry Christmas everyone.

[Massa 0]

I have often (and by often I mean once, for a few seconds, just now) wondered if Lewis Hamilton should date Kim Kardashian. She's much older but then again, so was Nicole Scherzinger. There's a strong auto racing connection there, if you don't know. Her "father," Bruce Jenner, was involved in NASCAR broadcasting decades ago. Her sister's children's father, Scott Disick, wanted to be a racecar driver but "started too late." Kim herself has sponsored Mike Bliss in NASCAR, and her body was on the sidepod of Graham Rahal's IndyCar back in 2010 (it was later removed for being mean and bad and offensive). I doubt Lewis would make her move to Lake Minnetonka, MN like "husband from Hell" Kris Humphries would, nor do I think he'd want to do terrible things like reproduce as Humphries wanted to (and Kim refused; only to break down post-marriage about how she thought she'd be married with kids at 30).

[Caesar 0]

IS THIS WHY HE LOST HIS SEAT?

[riseofstars 0]

Quite possible.. I hate Marko.. Get him out of F1..

[HandyNZL 1]

Hardly "furious"....some journo's need to go back to school and learn the meaning of words. Stern, perhaps. Furious, no. And it was only practice FFS.

[HandyNZL 1]

It would appear that behind a solid season for the impeccable Fernando Alonso, emotional turmoil was raging on the home front. I would have thought that it was a heart-wrangling decision for the Spanish, Catholic double WDC to divorce his pop star, Spanish, Catholic wife. Nando's performances on track were nothing less the competitive to my eye. Lewis would do well to find the sort of focus the Ferrari champion apparently employs in his work.

And already he has a girlfriend, and so early from the announcement. The reason Lewis was upset was his heart must've been in it...another part of Alonso was in someone else, so he obviously acted in another way. And her name is Tschumi...me thinks the lad has a crush on someone in a red helmet

[Quiet One 15]

And already he has a girlfriend, and so early from the announcement. The reason Lewis was upset was his heart must've been in it...another part of Alonso was in someone else, so he obviously acted in another way.

Alonsos's "other" part was here:

Which explains his speed. He just wanted to finish the races as quick as possible to get back to her. Can you blame him?

And her name is Tschumi...me thinks the lad has a crush on someone in a red helmet

Nah, probably he just enjoys buggering Tschumi

[Argento Reloaded 1]

...me pareció ver un lindo gatito... (i think I saw a nice kitty...)

[f1rookie 0]

Hi this is my first post - useful link for 2012 F1

2012 F1 cars launching dates

http://www.formula1onlive.com/2011/12/2012-f1-cars-launching-dates.html

[F1 FANatic 1]

Looks like this whole "we want to fight for #1" and "we will make significant progress next year" talk from Merc WAS all just hot air. Having your new car ready to go only by the 3rd in season test is rediculous. They might as well not show up at all. I see how the lower 3rd of teams need to do this because they have no money to do so earlier. But for a team like Merc that wants to win NOW, this kind of action is just shooting themselves in both feet and a knee.

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Looks like this whole "we want to fight for #1" and "we will make significant progress next year" talk from Merc WAS all just hot air. Having your new car ready to go only by the 3rd in season test is rediculous. They might as well not show up at all. I see how the lower 3rd of teams need to do this because they have no money to do so earlier. But for a team like Merc that wants to win NOW, this kind of action is just shooting themselves in both feet and a knee.

I hate to state the obvious but clearly they must know something we dont....

seriously, only the 3rd test? I thought it would be the 2nd?????

[BradSpeedMan 6]

U made me check it out...Is there any updated news besides this?

http://www.totalf1.com/full_story/view/403623/Rosberg_Missing_test_no_problem/

[Caesar 0]

U made me check it out...Is there any updated news besides this?

http://www.totalf1.c...est_no_problem/

actually Merc 2012 F1 car is being tested secretly, but my secret source in F1 world gave me the video of the test recorded with hidden cam.

[Caesar 0]

Lewis Hamilton has new.... "fashion style" ?