F1 Silly Season 2011

[Nick Koan]

Infiniti barely has a presence outside of the US right now, so by doing this they are trying to expand into new (and new to them) markets with the global presence of F1.

The sponsorship deal ends in two years when the current RBR Renault engine supply deal ends and coincidentally right before the new turbo era begins in 2013. Infiniti could possibly begin to supply engines (rebranded Renault engines, most likely, unless Renault fully pulls out of F1). But, yeah, they really aren't going to offer much to RBR, except money.

[Bob Danger]

Originally Posted by sperry

Datsun isn't going to supply squat.

Renault owns a controlling share of Nissan. Nissan is the parent company of Infiniti. Renault puts Infiniti stickers on their F1 engines. People that don't know better buy Infiniti because they think they have something to do with F1. Renault makes more money.

It's basically a scam. Though, maybe in a few years if the economy gets better, Nissan/Infiniti might actually start up an engine program or something. They could use the engineering challenge to get some new ideas in their cars if they want to compete with Ford's renaissance.

I had no idea Renault was the majority share holder.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Bob Danger

I had no idea Renault was the majority share holder.

Remember when all the Nissans suddenly started looking like each other and kinda fugly... that was right after Renault stepped in to save Nissan from bankruptcy. Renault has "minority control"... so while they're the controlling owner of the company, they don't have over 50% ownership.

Found an old article, says Renault bought 36.8% of Nissan in '99:
http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/Ar...leID=262&vf=24

[Nick Koan]

According to the Wikipedias, Renault owns 43.4% of Nissan, and Nissan owns 15% of Renualt as of 2008. And Carlos Ghosn is the President and CEO of both companies.

[Nick Koan]

Ferrari has realized that the 'Ferrari F150th Italia' is a dumb name, but not quite dumb enough. It will now be called the 'Ferrari 150° Italia' (but I guess the ° symbol in Italian reads like the equivalent of the 'th suffix in English)

Ford also officially dropped the lawsuit.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89741

[Nick Koan]

Also, I can't wait for the inevitable photoshop of when either Massa or Alonso spins the car and ends up being pointed 150° from the race direction.

[Nick Koan]

Yup, Vitantonio Liuzzi will be the other driver at HRT

http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/03/09/h...s-liuzzi-seat/

[Nick Koan]

HRT officially shows the world their real car... and um... they kept all the "Your Logo Here" and "Cool Spot" placeholder art in their livery.

http://www.formula1blog.com/2011/03/...-in-barcelona/

I didn't think that would seriously make it onto a real racecar.

[Nick Koan]

Pirelli will be color coding their lettering for the various compounds.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90008

Wet - orange
Intermediate - light blue
Supersoft - red
Soft – yellow
Medium – white
Hard – silver

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Nick Koan

Pirelli will be color coding their lettering for the various compounds.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90008

Wet - orange
Intermediate - light blue
Supersoft - red
Soft – yellow
Medium – white
Hard – silver

Not one compound is green, and yet they have white and silver that will be indistinguishable unless they're right next to each other?

[Nick Koan]

Oh yeah, a race with white and silver would be nearly impossible to distinguish at speed. Luckily, though, since they skip a compound when choosing compounds for the weekend, we'll never see a medium/hard race.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Nick Koan

Oh yeah, a race with white and silver would be nearly impossible to distinguish at speed. Luckily, though, since they skip a compound when choosing compounds for the weekend, we'll never see a medium/hard race.

Sure, but it would be nice to see "oh, those are the hards at this track"... rather than just "oh those are the harder of the two compounds".

I guess for the average fans, it's better for the two harder tires to look similar so you don't have to remember that green means medium and orange is soft. If it's not a color, it's harder, if it's a color it's softer.

[Dean]

It would have been nice if they followed the spectrum which at least some of the population knows by heart. ROGBYV Put White on an end if you want.

Or Green yellow red, Ummm... white blue?

[Kevin M]

Originally Posted by Dean

It would have been nice if they followed the spectrum which at least some of the population knows by heart. ROGBYV Put White on an end if you want.

Or Green yellow red, Ummm... white blue?

F1 does things based on logic and reason?

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

It would have been nice if they followed the spectrum which at least some of the population knows by heart. ROGBYV Put White on an end if you want.

Or Green yellow red, Ummm... white blue?

Well, I think they specifically picked colors that will be obviously different when on track at the same time.

For example, blue and purple make more sense for the wet/inter tires IMO, but then at a wet race as conditions start drying, it's potentially hard to tell which cars have made the switch from wet to intermediates since the colors are similar. But with orange and blue, it's super obvious that two cars are on different tires. And it looks like they were careful about two similar colors ever being used at the same time... like red and orange: it would be rare for drivers to go from full wet to soft without going to inters in between. And like Nick mentioned, the white/silver issue is moot since those two tires will never be used together on a race weekend. Same goes for red/yellow for that matter.

My earlier point about not using green at all is that last season's tires have used a green stripe to indicate soft, and they didn't bother to use green at all in the new color scheme.

Personally, I would have gone with:

blue/wet, green/inter, red/supersoft, orange/soft, medium/yellow, hard/white

That's more logical and sorta follows the rainbow, and it avoids any similar colors on track together:

Wet race: blue/green
Soft race: red/yellow
Hard race: orange/white

But like Nick said, I don't know that there was a lot of thought put into the decision. Or perhaps there were some other dumb F1 issues, like maybe Bridgestone has the copyright on green decorated tires. That would actually make more sense than anything else we've been making up in here.

[MikeK]

Button "shaves" 18 seconds off the Bathurst lap record

Linky McLink

[MattR]

Originally Posted by MikeK

Button "shaves" 18 seconds off the Bathurst lap record

Linky McLink

Awesome promo...love that they put the F1 car on Bathurst... My favorite quote from Jenson which terrifies me...

"but he also admitted with a bit of practice, the top of the mountain, widely regarded as one of the most daunting stretches of racetrack in the world, could be taken flat out."

[MikeK]

A link someone posted on nasioc:

Eau rouge corner comparison

[Nick Koan]

Holy fuck

[MattR]

Ah! the happiest place on Earth...Love me some Eau Rouge

[Kevin M]

So, F1 cars are fast. Duly noted!

[sperry]

Originally Posted by MikeK

A link someone posted on nasioc:

Eau rouge corner comparison

I was showing that to Lisa over the weekend.

The best part is that the street cars in the video are actually some damn fast cars, and yet they still look pathetically slow.

[Nick Koan]

Kimi Raikkonen to go racing in NASCAR.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90331

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Nick Koan

Kimi Raikkonen to go racing in NASCAR.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90331

Following in the footsteps of Karthikeyan? Maybe one day, Kimi too can turn some experience in the Camping World Truck series into getting to watch an F1 race from the HRT pits!

[Nick Koan]

The pits are probably the best place to view the race!