F1 2012 - General Discussion Thread

[muppet42]

Trulli was overrated, make no mistake. His reported "issues" with the power steering in the Lotus last year were the main excuse for this lack of pace but at the same time I never got the impression he had the motivation. In the past, he could almost step up to Alonso in Renault but even then, if he had any good results it was due to Fernando faltering.

Heikki got a raw deal to an extent at McLaren, a team that demands results and as such can put added pressure on its drivers to be consistent. Heikki broke under that pressure and though he did get a win with them he never delivered compared to Hamilton and as a result got bumped down a division or two, despite the promise he showed. Team Lotus (now Caterham) allowed him to thrive and as such he's shown what he's capable of. However, I'm not so sure he's just going to be one of those drivers who never gets the car that allows him to get onto the podium again. So many talents have been glossed over in that manner, Anthony Davidson springs to mind.

Either way going into their third season they're still probably the front runners of the bottom teams, a grouping I reckon Williams will hopefully break away from, though with their driver line up I'm not entirely sure.

 

[mrcinquecento]

i come with better pics of the car i have christened "caterduck"...Caterham have released studio pics of their '12 car....by jings its big and ugly :laugh:

i detect that car losing its front wing very often this season :laugh:

 

[mrcinquecento]

oh, and in other '12 news, HRT have passed their crash test, Marussia havent, so will not do any testing before the first race of the season

wouldnt expect much from them tbh, not only are they generally very slow anyway and their car hasn't had any testing, but they are inviting anyone to apply for a job with them as an aerodynamicist :laugh: can't ever see Mclaren, Red Bull or Ferrari taking that approach :laugh:

im vaguely tempted to apply tbh, i have qualifications in 3d animation, modelling and design and have watched f1 long enough to know the caterduck Marussia are competing against isn't going to cause any surprises or win any fans for it's sexy design :laugh:

 

[mrcinquecento]

last 2 official car releases, the marussia

and the hrt

 

[mrcinquecento]

we begin this weekend

free practice 1 done already, free practice 2 im watching as i type, quick summary so far

The Mclarens look stupendously good. quick, consistent, the cars just look so planted and driveable, so far the team to beat IMO. Red bull hard to judge, the car looks planted but they seem just a touch off the Mclarens pace, which is a huge, huge surprise, i suspect they are sandbagging and not showing what they can do just yet however.

Ferrari look bloody awful, the car is relatively fast over one lap but well off the Mclarens and Red Bulls on a longer run and handlinq wise...shopping trolly with a wonky wheel seems to come to mind, it's all over the place. would say the Mercedes cars look faster than Ferrari generally

roll on Qualy

 

[imported_richard33dees]

A red platypus?

from Scuderia Ferrari via twitter

 

[mrcinquecento]

A red platypus?

from Scuderia Ferrari via twitter

it handles like one....horrendous car

Massa 16th on pace! no problems, thats just how slow it is :laugh:

Alonso 12th, spun off trying to tame his unruly Ferrari to try and get into a corner and ended up hitting the grass under breaking then beaching it in the gravel.

told everyone the Mclarens looked stupendously good, they are first and second on the grid for the race, Romain Grosjean in a tremendous third for lotus, Raikkonen could only manage 18th after he slid off on his final lap.

the red bulls are off the pace, vettel and webber 7 tenths slower than the McLarens

1	Great Britain	L Hamilton	McLaren
2	Great Britain	J Button	McLaren
3	Switzerland	R Grosjean	Lotus
4	Germany	M Schumacher	Mercedes
5	Australia	M Webber	Red Bull
6	Germany	S Vettel	Red Bull
7	Germany	N Rosberg	Mercedes
8	Venezuela	P Maldonado	Williams
9	Germany	N Hulkenberg	Force India
10	Australia	D Ricciardo	Toro Rosso
11	France	J Vergne	Toro Rosso
12	Spain	F Alonso	Ferrari
13	Japan	K Kobayashi	Sauber
14	Brazil	B Senna	Williams
15	Great Britain	P Di Resta	Force India
16	Brazil	F Massa	Ferrari
17	Mexico	S Perez	Sauber
18	Finland	K Raikkonen	Lotus
19	Finland	H Kovalainen	Caterham
20	Russian Federation	V Petrov	Caterham
21	Germany	T Glock	Marussia
22	France	C Pic	Marussia
23	Spain	P de la Rosa	HRT
24	India	N Karthikeyan

 

[mrcinquecento]

btw, if anyone spots a car pointing in the wrong direction at any point during the race, theres an 80% chance it will be a Ferrari :laugh:

words cannot express just how bad that thing is...seriously, anyone reading this will probably think im exaggerating but i'm not, the cars flaps and slides around that much, theres an argument to say it's actually dangerously out of control at all times IMO :laugh:

 

[muppet42]

I'm watching both BBC and Sky's F1 coverage and the latter's is...okay. I think the established presenters are probably what helps that along BUT they're too bloody corporate, which considering the BBC has "corporation" in it's title is rather ironic The "new" presenters are a bit hit and miss too. Damon Hill's decent enough, always liked the way he came across but the main presenter I've seen so far who'll I'll call "Not-Jake" is a bit wooden. Obviously doesn't have the iPad holding technique down either since he uses a case with a grip on the back to make sure he doesn't drop it :laugh: Then there's the default "attractive" blonde who looks like she dresses in the dark and applies spray tan in the same method...she's no Lee McKenzie :laugh:

The actual commentating Sky does though is as you'd expect from Brundle and Croft, perfectly fine though. I like the way they work so far though they haven't got the banter match him and DC had. Plus they keep wheeling that lame "Skypad" (really Sky, that's what you decided to name it?!" every second they can, which is useful but massively over the top for what it's meant to achieve.

Just watching the BBC coverage on iPlayer the now and it's almost like an old friend, which is the best way I can describe it. I mean, they started with a Bob Dylan-esque sum-up of last season - Sky would never do something like that. They just have personality and know how to have fun in a way Sky doesn't seem to. The first race hasn't happened but I'm a little torn as to which of the full race coverages I'll actually watch.

There's also the Setanta option though I think that has added James Allen, which is never a good thing. They get their race commentary from the BBC though, so that could well be a selling point. Anyway, enough about my coverage critique...

The McLaren's look awesome And thankfully, they actually go like they look. Mercedes look strong too, which is great of course and the Renault also seems like a player as well with Grosjean on the second row. Found it quite funny watching the Ferrari's lumber around and Red Bull on the back-foot though it'd be nice if Mark had a shot at the championship this year. People say he's over the hill at 36, but look at Schui and bare in mind Damon Hill won the '96 championship at the same age and carried on racing and winning for a few seasons after that.

Won't be staying up for the race as I'll be back to bathroom building tomorrow but I'm certainly looking forward to it. Australia's always a brilliant race

 

[muppet42]

Damn that McLaren looks good in motion - best looking F1 car in years I reckon

Looks like it'll be a really competitive season as well, wish Webber had gotten on the podium though and McLaren's bad luck with the strategy hadn't let Vettel through. Oh well, 3/4 wins for Jens in the past GPs of Oz is a pretty good record I think

 

[imported_Jodie]

The McLaren looks daftly quick. Pretty impressive to be honest.

Not paying for hte sky channel so im only on the highlights on the BBC but by the sounds of it i dont think im missing anything, by not having the channel at the moment.

Not sure what on earth they've done with the ferrari's but they appear to have gone backwards.

 

[mrcinquecento]

the red bull is concerningly quick in the race though, looks like over one lap the Mclarens are very, very good and by far the fastest car, but the red bull can put in quick laps more consistently during a race meaning the difference between the two teams is nowhere near what youd imagine when you see qualifying times...i would cautiously say Red Bull will be secretly delighted at what they saw in Australia on race day and Mclaren secretly very worried, they know their car is good but even without the lucky safety car, Vettel and webber were hanging on no problem to Hamilton and not far off Buttons pace in the race.

yes, for the first time they have a strong challenger from the start of the season, but they are potentially only one really good update away from having a car at worst on a par with the Mclaren in qualifying and better in the race, still, at least we dont have a situation where everyones trying to catch red bull up all season, that could be the difference

 

[M21MFS]

Started watching the qualifying highlights on Sunday morning after work but didn't last the build up.

There's always the next race...

 

[muppet42]

I'm hoping that they carry on the speedy development they have done in previous years on the McLaren, which as you say Mark's normally playing catch up on the RB. Was cursing the telly when the safety car came out, always seems to be the case that RB and Vettel in particular will get the lion's share of the good luck in a race - Hamilton looked gutted.

Does put us in good stead for the rest of the season though hopefully. Tyre wear doesn't seem as lessened as some people thought which is a good sign and with many of the teams so close and the many of the new drivers being on their game so quick, the mid-field battle especially could be intriguing. Roll on the next race I say

 

[Andi9386]

Anybody hear about this??
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/13052012/58/nine-hurt-fire-guts-williams-garage.html

 

[Venters]

Schumi started the fire.
On a side note. Best season so far ever.

 

[mrcinquecento]

what a bizzare season this is, every race a different team shows up with a really quick car :laugh:

the only team who have been relatively consistent are Lotus, always around the podium places on pace in qualy and race pace

 

[muppet42]

Was a decent race, still mildly annoyed with the penalty Lewis got but guess that's the luck McLaren's been getting. Still not been converted to a fan of Maldonado but good on him on getting Williams' first win an age. Glad no one was seriously hurt in that fire afterwards, looked really serious :/

 

[bad_boy_cinq]

I missed it as i was down in huntington , at a Ford show ( please dont ban me ) but its been recorded .. im gona watch it soon

 

[Andi9386]

Now there's been talk of doing another street race in the UK.
How good would this be to watch?
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/london-grand-prix-look-130959647.html