F1 2012 - General Discussion Thread

[muppet42]

Well, since the cars have been announced over the past wee while and the new season is almost upon us, I figured I'd set up a new thread for those interested

Firstly, Jebus there's a heck of a lot of ugly cars this year... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/16872627 ...though that's obviously down to rule changes. As per, McLaren have designed pretty much the only decent looking car on the grid in my opinion.

Secondly though, who's actually still going to be watching? I know a few folk who'll be actively boycotting due to the Sky debacle, I for one via downloads will be able to see full races either way. I didn't however realise Mr Brundle was heading off to Sky to co-commentate alongside David Croft, whom I reckon's one of the best pundits the BBC had

BBC have shipped in Ben Edwards, though I've never been 100% about his BTCC commentary, it could've been much, MUCH worse if Legard had re-appeared or God-forbid, James Allen :laugh: Though he's doing 5 Live now...booo! Plus of course, we still have the wonders EJ will bring to the BBC alongside Jake, DC and the always the lovely Lee McKenzie who'll be getting more of the spotlight now Ted's buggered off...win ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/16516805

I do have to say though, the Sky team look pretty formidable... http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12433/7356971/Sky-reveal-2012-team ...I'll certainly be giving them an even look for the first few races though I don't think I'll watch 6 hours of coverage per race in some cases :laugh:

Anyway, that's the floor open and hopefully it'll be a great season. And no bloomin German bloke winging it up the front the whole season :laugh:

 

[Venters]

F1 channel in HD Booooooooom!

 

[mrcinquecento]

this years car releases

for those of a nervous disposition....i suggest you skip car number 1....the Caterham (i.e duck thats flown into the back of a bus)

Ferrari, alot nicer than the caterham IMO

the new Mclaren (pick of the bunch looks wise)

Force india...so far the second worst looking car

Lotus (formerly renault) i quite like

sauber

torro rosso

and the red bull (seemingly so bad, they can only give a drawing of it)

 

[muppet42]

F1 channel in HD Booooooooom!

Unfortunately I'm still creaking along with a 28" CRT in standard def...at least it's widescreen I guess :laugh:

 

[imported_richard33dees]

will be giving it a try again, lets hope it retains interest. the stepped nose design is rather interesting and be good to see how it compares to the traditional nose on the mclaren, got to say the pics of the RB8 do look great

 

[muppet42]

To negate the horror of some of those cars...

...note...with safe search off on Google image search, "Lee McKenzie" it seems is not just the name of an F1 correspondent :laugh:

 

[Andi9386]

Anyone think Lotus, are trying the ol JPS Black & Gold Livery again?? see if it works.

 

[muppet42]

Anyone think Lotus, are trying the ol JPS Black & Gold Livery again?? see if it works.

Well, they've had a year of it already and it was only partially successful in bringing a few podiums. Oh what could've been if Kubica had been in the chair...

 

[mrcinquecento]

the new williams

 

[muppet42]

the new williams...

Doesn't look too bad from that angle. Baffling they dropped Rubens in favour of Pastor Maldonado though :/

 

[mrcinquecento]

Doesn't look too bad from that angle. Baffling they dropped Rubens in favour of Pastor Maldonado though :/

not when pastors sponsorhip deal comes into the equation it isn't

tbh i wouldnt have kept Barrichello on either if a decent alternative was available, but Maldonado sure isnt that alternative, someone like maybe buemi or alguesari, certainly not totally conviced about Bruno Senna either, not sure if anyone wathed the practice sessions he drove in but he spent more time off the track than he did on it :laugh:

 

[muppet42]

not when pastors sponsorhip deal comes into the equation it isn't

tbh i wouldnt have kept Barrichello on either if a decent alternative was available, but Maldonado sure isnt that alternative, someone like maybe buemi or alguesari, certainly not totally conviced about Bruno Senna either, not sure if anyone wathed the practice sessions he drove in but he spent more time off the track than he did on it :laugh:

Yeah, understand the reasoning behind it just shocking Rubens hasn't got a drive as of yet Senna deserves a chance to an extent but just not sure Williams are in the position to deliver. Nearest they got recently was when Rosberg was driving for them and before that when they had BMW power. Were leading the championship briefly with Ralf Schumacher even, though that didn't last long :/

 

[mrcinquecento]

another car release to bring to you well it's a teaser video but it all becomes clear...

the new mercedes amg f1 car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTr-G6F1XTc&feature=player_embedded

it soon becomes clear why they filmed 99.99999% of that vid onboard, it looks good...too good infact.. prepare yourself for what it looks outside :laugh: yup, you guessed it, the nose........now i thought Caterham had the worst nose contest tied up long ago, although Force india had a mighty good stab at it, they fell just short, however we have a new contender in the oragami inspired, paper aeroplane thats been stood on and straightend back out nose on the new Mercedes :laugh:

oh my....

 

[mrcinquecento]

oh, and some beter pics of the already released cars..... well i say better, but the noses...jesus

Caterham...maybe its just me, but do they appear to have just built the biggest f1 car ever? it looks about 40ft long! :laugh:

Red bull....planning to cheat by only running half a car apparently, smallest back end on any car ever...compare to the caterham

force india

Lotus (by far the best looking stepped nose car on the grid IMO)

Williams

Ferrari

Sauber

McLaren

oh and a team that slipped through the net so far, HRT

 

[muppet42]

Shockingly, I think the HRT's the next best after the McLaren. And that Merc, while looking like they've nabbed the nose off a different formula car is a beaut compared to that Ferrari by my reckoning. It looks like the front end's been made by Lego :laugh:

Honestly though, I get the reasoning behind them having to lower a certain portion of the nose but have some of the teams just forgotten how to make an elegant but also effective dropped nose without encroaching in the front wing? I mean, they've done it in the past perfectly fine...

I mean Wikipedia words the relevant regulation like this...

Technical regulations for 2012 include the reprofiling of the car's nose. The pre-2012 regulations allow the nose to be as high as 62.5 centimetres (24.6 in) above ground, but the revisions to the sporting code lower the maximum allowable height to 55 centimetres (22 in) 150mm ahead of the front bulkhead.This resulted in cars being launched with a "platypus" nose, as teams designed cars with a visible change in height along the nose assembly of the car.

...so it is there is as far as I can tell no real reason unless something came out in the wind-tunnel for that horrible design to be so popular :/

 

[Andi9386]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the Force India looks like an RC car with the large areial sticking up??

 

[mrcinquecento]

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the Force India looks like an RC car with the large areial sticking up??

yeah, that wont be on the race car though, it's test equipment

 

[Andi9386]

yeah, that wont be on the race car though, it's test equipment

Aaah right, there was me thinking they would be making a 1/1 scale RC F1 car :laugh:

Love the look of the Lotus, best stepped nose, classic color.

 

[mrcinquecento]

wee bit late this news, but finally.....finally! Jarno Trulli has been punted from formula 1, he has offered nothing for about 5 years, for a qualifying expert he was deemed to be, he has offered nothing there either, infact...even though i don't rate him all that highly, Heikki Kovalainen utter destroyed Trulli, how much of that was him being good and trulli being gash remains to be seen

Vitaly petrov takes his seat in the caterduck.....ermm. i mean, caterham. he was improving quite alot at Renault and given his sponsorship package, it's a good move all round IMO

 

[Venters]

No more trulli trains!!!