I didn't see any of the Formula E, but that sounds crazy and awesome and terrible all at the same time. What I did manage to catch of it last season was pretty interesting, some good racing and nice to see a few old favourite faces too, not least The Professor himself, Alain Prost.
F1:
Changeable conditions almost always make for a brilliant race and this one was no exception. Felt a bit old-school with all the retirements.
But Lewis winning the WDC... I dunno, it feels anticlimactic somehow? It's not that it was this early in the season, because I remember the Mansell-mania in 1992 and that was earlier.
Anyway. The race itself was great. Often chaotic, but great. And no foregone conclusions either, which was nice.
Everybody started cheering & clapping at that. It was awesome to watch.
It was such a fun race. All the drama at the front of the pack, tire strategies, Vettel coming from way back, Rossi making a good showing (best finish for Manor this season)...
The weather was kind of a downer earlier in the weekend, but the race was great!
So we're up and running in Mexico for the first time in 23 years.
First up, the worst-kept secret is finally announced, and to no-one's surprise Esteban Gutierrez will be Grosjean's teammate at Haas next year.
Manor bosses John Booth and Graeme Lowden, who have headed up the team since it debuted as Virgin Racing in 2010, are quitting, apparently due to significant disagreements with the direction the team's new owner wants to go. That's a damn shame, they're top guys.
The track is already proving faster even than Monza. The fastest speed recorded through the speed trap in FP1 was 362.3km/h, or 225.1mph. This despite the cars running full downforce configurations to optimise the mid-speed corners in sector 2 and the slow ones in sector 3. The air's just so thin at 8,000 feet above sea level that there's much less drag.
This isn't the first we've heard of Aston Martin coming in but it's definitely the first I've seen of it being Force India that gets the rebrand. That'd be great, I'd love to see that team with a bigger budget and thus able to push harder.
Apparently it's not looking great at COTA; how's things with our Austin residents in the thread? I hope you guys are alright.
8th and 9th in FP2. Definitely moving in the right direction!
Also:
The Red Bulls are snapping at the Mercs' heels. Rosberg fastest, Kvyat second, Ricciardo third, Hamilton fourth. This could be good times if they can put up a fight in the race, but it bodes well even if the good racing continues to be from third place down.
@Jazz We had some very very heavy rain this morning, registered about 14 inches out at the airport (near COTA). Lots of flooding down south of the city, closer to San Marcos, and we're supposed to get more rain overnight.
I drove in to work this morning, and it was a shitshow... went about 15-20 mph for a good chunk of it, there was so much water on the road. I left work early at noon-ish, and conditions were similar then.
Not quite as bad as two years ago (when we first moved here), but pretty damn close.
Who's excited for Rosberg to completely blow the start/5 laps in, get pushed out by Hamilton, totally give the place away, and then maaaybe hold of Vettel 'till the end of the race?
Also, I may be wrong, but I think that if Vettel secures one 2nd place in the next 3 races(without Rosberg winning), and then they HAM-ROS-VET for the other two, Vettel wins 2nd for the WDC by one point.
Was the team trying to not advance through to Q3, or has Kimi just given up by this point?
He only got 4 laps in fp3 and then his engine caught fire so they had to replace the whole power unit before q1, during q2 he reported a problem with braking, so he boxed before trying a run on softs.
He probably could of hit q3 if he went of softs at the start, but they wanted to get some runs on the mediums because he didn't get any in fp3
Raikonnen really didn't leave much space for Bottas back there. Happy to see that he could make it to the end, because I didn't expect the suspension to last.
First time since Australia 2006 that both Ferraris have failed to finish the same race. That's not a stat they'll look on fondly.
I'm really glad the event's proved to be such a huge success. F1 should never have left Mexico in the first place, in my opinion. But it's nice to have a new race (well, a "new" race) somewhere with a brilliant atmosphere where the grandstands are jam-packed with genuine and enthusiastic fans, not somewhere in the middle of nowhere with half-empty grandstands that we're only in because they'll happily gave Bernie his absurd shitloads of money.
As soon as I saw a Raikkonen v Bottas showdown coming I immediately went "Oh fuck, they're gonna kill each other"
Well I was close.
Vettel going out was a shame. Also apparently he had the record for most number of races in a row without having a race-ending crash. Well I guess still has it, but it's not growing for a while now.
I'm hoping that maybe Ros/Vet do a standard 2/3 in Brazil, and in Yas Marina Vettel pulls out a win while Rosberg's car fails or something.
As soon as I saw a Raikkonen v Bottas showdown coming I immediately went "Oh fuck, they're gonna kill each other"
Well I was close.
Vettel going out was a shame. Also apparently he had the record for most number of races in a row without having a race-ending crash. Well I guess still has it, but it's not growing for a while now.
I'm hoping that maybe Ros/Vet do a standard 2/3 in Brazil, and in Yas Marina Vettel pulls out a win while Rosberg's car fails or something.
Does that mean crash literally? Because Spa was a thing.
I really, really want for Rosberg to find a way to overcome his, well, predisposition to throw races away with one horrible mistake, if only to give Hamilton an actual fight (who very much knows how Rosberg is and continues to throw the car at him in order to rattle him. I'm really not liking him much lately :P )
Still, it would be a good guess that Ferrari will bring the fight to them next year, so let's see if we can change it a bit from Formula Merc.
As soon as I saw a Raikkonen v Bottas showdown coming I immediately went "Oh fuck, they're gonna kill each other"
Well I was close.
Vettel going out was a shame. Also apparently he had the record for most number of races in a row without having a race-ending crash. Well I guess still has it, but it's not growing for a while now.
I'm hoping that maybe Ros/Vet do a standard 2/3 in Brazil, and in Yas Marina Vettel pulls out a win while Rosberg's car fails or something.
Does that mean crash literally? Because Spa was a thing.
I really, really want for Rosberg to find a way to overcome his, well, predisposition to throw races away with one horrible mistake, if only to give Hamilton an actual fight (who very much knows how Rosberg is and continues to throw the car at him in order to rattle him. I'm really not liking him much lately :P )
Still, it would be a good guess that Ferrari will bring the fight to them next year, so let's see if we can change it a bit from Formula Merc.
The way it was phrased when I saw it, it means crash as in he hit something and it ended the race. So it doesn't count mechanical failures, or something like Spa. And it doesn't count crashes where he managed to limp back to the pits and go back out, even if he was effectively out of the race(So like what would've happened here if he hadn't crashed out).
He's had plenty of DNFs(though actually Spa he was classified), and he's had crashes and scuffles, but in terms of a crash that caused a DNF, this was the first in something like 115 or so.
Just thought some of you might enjoy this: Race Team Simulator released a demo of their not-F1 management game that includes a race in not-Silverstone. Had some nice fun with it, thought someone else might have their fun too.
not confirmed but sounds like Red Bull might of sorted out an engine for next year at least.
Basically Red Bull buys a bottom end(everything below the cylinder head) from Renault, then develops the rest from that. Clearing both parties of any contractual nonsense as the engine won't be labeled as a Renault.
Bleh, it looks like the strategy group is pushing for even more aero downforce for the 2017 season to make cars faster.
The big problem with this is that it makes it impossible to pass as when a car drives in turbulent air behind another car they lose all that downforce the closer they get.
So we get faster cars racing in the roughly same order they qualified in and a boring race.
What they need to do is have less aero than this season, grippier tires, and more horsepower.
Bleh, it looks like the strategy group is pushing for even more aero downforce for the 2017 season to make cars faster.
The big problem with this is that it makes it impossible to pass as when a car drives in turbulent air behind another car they lose all that downforce the closer they get.
So we get faster cars racing in the roughly same order they qualified in and a boring race.
What they need to do is have less aero than this season, grippier tires, and more horsepower.
Won't this increase the effect of DRS through? Assuming the can get close enough to pass on the one or two places it is enabled.
Esit: Not that I'm ever going to disagree with displacement of mechanical grip.
Bleh, it looks like the strategy group is pushing for even more aero downforce for the 2017 season to make cars faster.
The big problem with this is that it makes it impossible to pass as when a car drives in turbulent air behind another car they lose all that downforce the closer they get.
So we get faster cars racing in the roughly same order they qualified in and a boring race.
What they need to do is have less aero than this season, grippier tires, and more horsepower.
Won't this increase the effect of DRS through? Assuming the can get close enough to pass on the one or two places it is enabled.
Esit: Not that I'm ever going to disagree with displacement of mechanical grip.
no because they are going for body and a bigger front wing for aero, which is heavily affected by turbulence.
Like you can already see how heavy aero effects passing with Hamilton/Rosberg in the last few races, Hamilton can get real close but if he does all his downforce drops away and he has to back off.
Hamilton's said it's all about reducing the wake off the car ahead, and he's right. If the boffins can figure out how to create more downforce and reduce the wake, great. But I doubt it. Hopefully if the increase in mechanical grip in the new regs is high, that might compensate enough. We shall see.
Funny how there was no talk here about Brazil. Not that there was much to talk about. Rare for Interlagos to give us such a dull race.
Regarding aero changes they need to shift the balance more towards coming from under the car. Also simplify the front wing a lot.
Also fuuuuuck these tyres. Yes occasionally a guy on 5+ laps newer tyres will make some overtakes, but the bigger more common impact on the racing is that following a car close enough to pass is not only difficult but also potentially race ruining.
Bad mistake from Ferrari, but at least it will be interesting to see how high Vettel can climb
If it were me I'd elect to start from the pitlane and set the car up to be an overtaking monster. We've seen Vettel claw his way up from last to third before now; he might yet provide a lot of entertainment tomorrow.
This is going to be the dumbest thing in the best way
All electric with all the same base cars sounds slow boring.
Well it is great from the standpoint that it will put all the emphasis on the AI programming. Which will be interesting. Right now with a lot of the road car AI, is dealing with how to make the safe driving car aggressive enough to actually deal with how we actually drive on roads. That problem has some funny moments, but going at it the other way....that's going to be great.
I like this move. After all my contentious with F1 is that it doesn't let the engineers really push cars to the max because killing drivers all the time is "bad". Get rid of those over payed meat bags-we all hate a bunch of them anyways-, and build a car that can make a 9g turn.
This is going to be the dumbest thing in the best way
All electric with all the same base cars sounds slow boring.
Well it is great from the standpoint that it will put all the emphasis on the AI programming. Which will be interesting. Right now with a lot of the road car AI, is dealing with how to make the safe driving car aggressive enough to actually deal with how we actually drive on roads. That problem has some funny moments, but going at it the other way....that's going to be great.
I like this move. After all my contentious with F1 is that it doesn't let the engineers really push cars to the max because killing drivers all the time is "bad". Get rid of those over payed meat bags-we all hate a bunch of them anyways-, and build a car that can make a 9g turn.
That last bit is why I find racimg AI driven cars interesting, and why this implementation seems so weak. They will have a smaller performance envelope than current race cars.
Posts
F1:
But Lewis winning the WDC... I dunno, it feels anticlimactic somehow? It's not that it was this early in the season, because I remember the Mansell-mania in 1992 and that was earlier.
Anyway. The race itself was great. Often chaotic, but great. And no foregone conclusions either, which was nice.
Steam | XBL
http://blackflag.jalopnik.com/walls-at-the-united-states-grand-prix-cant-contain-kimi-1738574627
Also, that was the best race I've seen yet. Facebook spoiled me on the end before I got a chance to watch and it was still a brilliant race.
I also finally got to celebrate McLaren when Button pulled that brilliant pass!
Also also, Hamilton is a douche for the turn 1 shenanigans he pulled. Boo-urns I say!
Steam | XBL
Everybody started cheering & clapping at that. It was awesome to watch.
It was such a fun race. All the drama at the front of the pack, tire strategies, Vettel coming from way back, Rossi making a good showing (best finish for Manor this season)...
The weather was kind of a downer earlier in the weekend, but the race was great!
There, that's all we really need.
First up, the worst-kept secret is finally announced, and to no-one's surprise Esteban Gutierrez will be Grosjean's teammate at Haas next year.
Manor bosses John Booth and Graeme Lowden, who have headed up the team since it debuted as Virgin Racing in 2010, are quitting, apparently due to significant disagreements with the direction the team's new owner wants to go. That's a damn shame, they're top guys.
The track is already proving faster even than Monza. The fastest speed recorded through the speed trap in FP1 was 362.3km/h, or 225.1mph. This despite the cars running full downforce configurations to optimise the mid-speed corners in sector 2 and the slow ones in sector 3. The air's just so thin at 8,000 feet above sea level that there's much less drag.
Steam | XBL
Which would be pretty cool.
Because I'm already cheering for McLaren and Force India, so rebranding makes the teams line up with my favourite two car manufacturers.
Now if only Lamborghini ran an F1 team.....I'd get the trifecta of awesome. :P
Lambo have never run their own team but they have been an engine supplier in the past. I'd love to see them come back as that, but I want to see more engine suppliers in general.
This isn't the first we've heard of Aston Martin coming in but it's definitely the first I've seen of it being Force India that gets the rebrand. That'd be great, I'd love to see that team with a bigger budget and thus able to push harder.
Apparently it's not looking great at COTA; how's things with our Austin residents in the thread? I hope you guys are alright.
Also, regarding McLaren:
Also:
Steam | XBL
I drove in to work this morning, and it was a shitshow... went about 15-20 mph for a good chunk of it, there was so much water on the road. I left work early at noon-ish, and conditions were similar then.
Not quite as bad as two years ago (when we first moved here), but pretty damn close.
Steam | XBL
Who's excited for Rosberg to completely blow the start/5 laps in, get pushed out by Hamilton, totally give the place away, and then maaaybe hold of Vettel 'till the end of the race?
Was the team trying to not advance through to Q3, or has Kimi just given up by this point?
He only got 4 laps in fp3 and then his engine caught fire so they had to replace the whole power unit before q1, during q2 he reported a problem with braking, so he boxed before trying a run on softs.
He probably could of hit q3 if he went of softs at the start, but they wanted to get some runs on the mediums because he didn't get any in fp3
And he made it to third, too!
First time since Australia 2006 that both Ferraris have failed to finish the same race. That's not a stat they'll look on fondly.
I'm really glad the event's proved to be such a huge success. F1 should never have left Mexico in the first place, in my opinion. But it's nice to have a new race (well, a "new" race) somewhere with a brilliant atmosphere where the grandstands are jam-packed with genuine and enthusiastic fans, not somewhere in the middle of nowhere with half-empty grandstands that we're only in because they'll happily gave Bernie his absurd shitloads of money.
Steam | XBL
Well I was close.
Vettel going out was a shame. Also apparently he had the record for most number of races in a row without having a race-ending crash. Well I guess still has it, but it's not growing for a while now.
I'm hoping that maybe Ros/Vet do a standard 2/3 in Brazil, and in Yas Marina Vettel pulls out a win while Rosberg's car fails or something.
I really, really want for Rosberg to find a way to overcome his, well, predisposition to throw races away with one horrible mistake, if only to give Hamilton an actual fight (who very much knows how Rosberg is and continues to throw the car at him in order to rattle him. I'm really not liking him much lately :P )
Still, it would be a good guess that Ferrari will bring the fight to them next year, so let's see if we can change it a bit from Formula Merc.
He's had plenty of DNFs(though actually Spa he was classified), and he's had crashes and scuffles, but in terms of a crash that caused a DNF, this was the first in something like 115 or so.
Bottas qualified 2nd, and then proceeded to completely botch the start, end up in 8th, and then when I told him to push before pitting, lost 2 places.
Touche game, touche.
not confirmed but sounds like Red Bull might of sorted out an engine for next year at least.
Basically Red Bull buys a bottom end(everything below the cylinder head) from Renault, then develops the rest from that. Clearing both parties of any contractual nonsense as the engine won't be labeled as a Renault.
Steam | XBL
Also Daniel Ricciardo will run the upgraded Renault lump in Brazil.
Steam | XBL
The big problem with this is that it makes it impossible to pass as when a car drives in turbulent air behind another car they lose all that downforce the closer they get.
So we get faster cars racing in the roughly same order they qualified in and a boring race.
What they need to do is have less aero than this season, grippier tires, and more horsepower.
Won't this increase the effect of DRS through? Assuming the can get close enough to pass on the one or two places it is enabled.
Esit: Not that I'm ever going to disagree with displacement of mechanical grip.
no because they are going for body and a bigger front wing for aero, which is heavily affected by turbulence.
Like you can already see how heavy aero effects passing with Hamilton/Rosberg in the last few races, Hamilton can get real close but if he does all his downforce drops away and he has to back off.
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/11/27/plan-for-more-downforce-in-2017-the-worst-idea-hamilton/
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/11/16/somethings-got-to-change-drivers-urge-f1-bosses-to-improve-the-racing/
Funny how there was no talk here about Brazil. Not that there was much to talk about. Rare for Interlagos to give us such a dull race.
Steam | XBL
So.
Robot
Electric
Racing
This is going to be the dumbest thing in the best way
I'm pretty sure we can all get behind G1A3Z2-86. At least against K34-67 MkII, that guy's a shitbag.
Steam | XBL
K34-67 MkII's nickname is M Rossi, right?
All electric with all the same base cars sounds slow boring.
Regarding aero changes they need to shift the balance more towards coming from under the car. Also simplify the front wing a lot.
Also fuuuuuck these tyres. Yes occasionally a guy on 5+ laps newer tyres will make some overtakes, but the bigger more common impact on the racing is that following a car close enough to pass is not only difficult but also potentially race ruining.
Steam | XBL
I like this move. After all my contentious with F1 is that it doesn't let the engineers really push cars to the max because killing drivers all the time is "bad". Get rid of those over payed meat bags-we all hate a bunch of them anyways-, and build a car that can make a 9g turn.
That last bit is why I find racimg AI driven cars interesting, and why this implementation seems so weak. They will have a smaller performance envelope than current race cars.