f1 2013 prediction thread

[pooroldcodger]

Didn't Adrian Newey design mclarens 4 years ago?

Edit: appears he started designing red bulls properly for the 07 season having left mclaren in 06 and was given an already designed car to work on when he got there.

You are surely not suggesting he just turned up in 2006 and then developed the existing car for the next 7 years??
Typically F1 cars are developed by parallel development teams within a team, so that while one team is working on this year's car, the other team is working on the year after's car, but with somebody at the top overseeing overall development.
When Newey arrived he would only have been able to influence the 2007 car at best.
Then Red Bulls of 2007 and 2008 were reasonably fast but very unreliable. It is a major part of the job to not only designs a quick car, but one that will finish, and that means a huge overhaul of the engineering side of things.
Then of course there were the regulation changes to contend with. The huge change of 2009 say the first of the current concept Red Bulls, and that car would probably have won the championship, but for the famous "double diffuser" that Ross Brawn and Williams managed to design and get away with. I am sure that if McLaren had turned up with that, as a major team it would have been banned, but as there was a feeling of supporting the underdogs,, Brawn and Williams were allowed to run it.
From then on Red Bull played catch up, and eventually were quicker by the end of 2009. 2010 onwards are now the stuff of records.

 

[pooroldcodger]

That's an odd sentiment when you think about it..its not like Vettel is an awful person, he is talented and compared to Senna/Prost or Schumacher/Hill he's not been particularly villainous yet I can't stand him lol. Maybe its the way he worked with Mark Webber or the year he took Button out the championship in Spa but no ine not even Schumacher after 5 world titles was getting booed on the podium. Don't like him but dunno why...

I think it is a combination of reasons:
1. Is he twice as good a driver as two-time champion Alonso? Is he much better (as the records would suggest) than Hamilton, Button, Raikkonen?
The fact that he has had the best car and won the championship is hardly a new concept in F1, but to have the best car for 4 years on the trot is very unusual.
Having said that, he has exploited the car brilliantly and made few mistakes.
But, he does seem to work a little too hard at being just a regular guy imo.
I think his true colours came out over the radio the time he told the team to " Get him (Mark Webber) out of the way - he's too slow" (or words to that effect.
That showed contempt for his team mate.

 

[StevenRB45]

You are surely not suggesting he just turned up in 2006 and then developed the existing car for the next 7 years??

When Newey arrived he would only have been able to influence the 2007 car at best.

No my point was the 1st full car he got to design for rb was the 07. 06 was pretty much done when he turned up. Amazing how the form of top teams peaks when he is there, and especially in the case of Williams dies away when he leaves. Not to say he is the only reason for red bulls success but his track record is excellent.

 

[pooroldcodger]

No my point was the 1st full car he got to design for rb was the 07. 06 was pretty much done when he turned up. Amazing how the form of top teams peaks when he is there, and especially in the case of Williams dies away when he leaves. Not to say he is the only reason for red bulls success but his track record is excellent.

Quite right. Even back to the very early days with his first F1 car,the Leyton House March 881. That car from '88 was amazing for a non-turbo, and bearing in mind the Mclaren of that year won all but one of the races, it actually did battle with it on track on occasions.If you look at the concept of that car you can see how much the Williams cars changed from the clumpy FW12 AND FW 13 to the stunning FW14 which was the Newey car. Look at the lines of the front.
It is a pity that neither Frank Williams / Patrick Head at Williams, or Ron Dennis at McLaren realised that Newey was ambitious and wanted to be able to feel part of the ownership and structure of the team, not just a hired hand.
I ams ure that if Frank had treated Adrian in that way, Williams would have not disappeared witout trace after '96.

 

[varesecrazy]

I am sure that if Frank had treated Adrian in that way, Williams would have not disappeared witout trace after '96.

Renault quitting and the poor BMW effort didn't help,

not a fan of SEB , or the whole circus currently,

been more drawn to the 2 wheeled racing for the last 3 years,

even the precession form of this years poor MotoGP has shown proper pace-related racing ,
I just can't see how pit's stops , and "make-that-slow-car-appear- fast" on the next straight can be called racing,

I was quite into F1 back in the mid-80's until @ 2008, ( when making the parts for UK teams)
but I would rather watch decent CLOSE club racing than this shambles of a circus, :bang:

here's hoping the new engine regs have some effect on the actual closeness of the thing,
Charlie

 

[pooroldcodger]

Renault quitting and the poor BMW effort didn't help,

not a fan of SEB , or the whole circus currently,

been more drawn to the 2 wheeled racing for the last 3 years,

even the precession form of this years poor MotoGP has shown proper pace-related racing ,
I just can't see how pit's stops , and "make-that-slow-car-appear- fast" on the next straight can be called racing,

I was quite into F1 back in the mid-80's until @ 2008, ( when making the parts for UK teams)
but I would rather watch decent CLOSE club racing than this shambles of a circus, :bang:

here's hoping the new engine regs have some effect on the actual closeness of the thing,
Charlie

I agree with you.
As much as I enjoy F1, it loses so much of its spectacle on TV (because you don't get any real perspective of the speed of direction change or braking, and of course the incrdible sound), and it is just too expensive for the majority to watch.
Also I think F1 has almost become too clever for its own good. Whatever the regulators do to make the cars less like scalextric, the engineers always find a way to beat them.
Take the tyres for example. After Canada a few years ago, where by a freaky combination of weather, track surface and rubber compound, the race was all over the place due to different wear rates. In short, the teams were caught out and it caused an unpredictable result. Everybody apparently enjoyed that unpredictability, so Bernie asked Pirelli to introduce tyres that would have that effect every race. So what happened? The teams designed their cars around the tyres as usual, but started to run extreme camber levels and very low pressures to get around the short-comings of the tyres. So the tyres exploded!
Also the F1 purists actually didn't want so much unpredictability and having the best cars and drivers dramatically limited by the effect of the tyres to the extent where they are driving around 3-4 seconds off the ultimate pace to make the tyres last.