I like McLaren and Button, but Hamilton is essentially the Kanye West of F1.

From having his father/manager at the track every race (within our F1 watching circle it was widly speculated that the Senior Hamilton was official fluffer and golden chain recepient pre and post race), to his antics of expected race victories with HIGHLY questionable moves/blocks......

The list can keep going on. But he was on pace to be the epic douche nozzle that is Michael Schumacher. It seems to have mellowed out a bit since Robert Pattinson and him started hooking up. Funny that!

 

I just read that usf1's tub & nose went for under 8 grand if I had known I might have put a bid in and made it a coffee table or something lol. I pbet it would have sold for more had it been turned into something useful

 

I could not see exactly what happened at the chicane in Canada but it is noteworthy that he was 18th on the grid and made some good moves to get to 9-10 spot before he jumped the curb; the fact that he appologized to Sauber after the race suggests he made a wrong move or boxed himself in; at least he is trying to get into the points.
That said, I, to, am disappointed with Sauber's performance, to date, but still feel the drivers have not been the primary cause.

Later, Ken

 

Everyone this year scambled to develop their own F-duct to copy that of McLaren. Recently they all agreed to ban same for the '11' season. I was curious as to why they would do this since it is an interesting tech innovation and definitely improves the straight line speed.
The reason as it turns out is the change in regulations. Specifically, a movable rear wing will be allowed in '11'. If one can manually flatten the rear wing down the straights, then you are accomplishing even more than stalling a fixed wing with the F-duct. Perhaps the agreement to eliminate the F-duct was the addition of a movable rear wing?...chicken or egg propostion.

Later, Ken

 

^ you can blame Alonso for that.

 

Sauber can't just blame drivers it's a mix of luck ,Ferrari engines, improper wind design , & improper nut torque then the drivers their season just hasn't made out the way most thought I figured theyed at least be competitive with Williams .

 

Agreed, Sauber drivers weren't given a chance to show what they can do for the season really, the C29 was based on BMW engines so maybe that is contributing to the reliability factor of the Ferrari engines as i haven't seen Toro rosso have any problems with it.

 

Well there is an old saying, "Don't get mad, get even". Martin Whitlash, head of Racing team indicated (http://www.thef1times.com/news/display/01388) that James Fry, their design head should take a break from racing and that this was a good thing for him to leave McLaren and allow some younger people in to replace him....in short, suggesting work fatigue. Well we now know that this was all BS for Fry has just joined Ferrari thereby providing all the design plans for McLaren's 2011 car. So the actual story here is Fry was pissed about something management did or was going to do and quite, then decided to get even.

Later, Ken

 

How far along was McLaren in the design of their 2011 car? A few weeks maybe? There's something like 8-9 months before the 1st race of 2011, so even if they had to start over, or at least revise their design plans, then I think they'll be able to find the budget/resources to be able to do that. Plus, McLaren's F-duct design is probably the one thing that Ferrari previously would have wanted to know the most, but as stated by you, F-ducts are banned for 2011 anyway, so that info is useless. I guess I just don't see this as being as big a deal as when Stepney was selling out Ferrari's design secrets to McLaren unbeknownst to Ferrari.

 

The design for the new cars has been well under way (months) for next years cars and many of the new design features listed earlier are all new (e.g., design issues as a result on increasing in minimum weight to make KERS competitive, driver adjustable rear wing, design w/o double diffuser, other aero designs, etc). By getting Fry, Ferrari will know exactly what McLaren has been up to in great detail since Fry ran the whole performance upgrade portion of McLaren...it is, in fact, similar to what happened to Ferrari with Stepney only it is not "stealing". I guess my point was McLaren should have considered the consequences of not addressing the issues , whatever they were, Fry was concerned about to make him leave, not for retirement but to join their chief rival.

Later, Ken

 

I get what you're saying. There's no doubt that McLaren is going to have their work cut out for them. I guess I just have faith in their ability to adjust and adapt quickly, so I'll be surprised if they're still not quicker than Domenicali's team again next year. The funny part to all of this is that Alonso will end up on the receiving end for the 2nd time in a row.

 

^ and agree McLaren will probably be able to better Ferrari next year although it will be more difficult....both, however, have to focus on RB or rather to better Newey's magic.

Later, Ken

 

I dunno... RB have had mechanical or race management gremlins for a while now... that is a tough monster to slay.

Perhaps next year will be a bit of a "throw away" year if the engine formula changes vastly from current and teams put resources into having a peak engine going into another engine freeze period?

 

Looks like the 107% rule is back for 2011, along with a ridiculous movable rear wing rule. Sometimes I really wonder WTF FIA is thinking ... if at all. 107% rule is going to kill the new teams. With the lack of in-season testing, the races play a significant role in collecting data on an F1 car. If a new team can't qualify for the race, they've effectively lost 25-50% of their testing time.

And the new rear wing rule "only to be activated if the car is following another car by 1 second or less" ... I can't wait to see the arguments on this one.

l8r)

 

that is the craziest thing i have ever heard! will the drivers have to ask the pits for permission to use this and wait for the go-a-head?

i am sure they will change the wording, or change the amount of time you can use it per lap or something that can be controlled electronically.

i had no idea this thread existed on mnet.

my view from last weekend...