It's launch day yet again, with the RB5 expected at some point today. That will lead on to a week's worth of testing, so it's all go again. If you want to keep up with what's happening, don't forget to check out the calendar on F1 Minute. Meanwhile, here's what we're talking about:
- The possibility of the new USF1 team is starting to look ever more likely, with Grandprix.com posting a fine amount of detail on the subject. Assuming it's all going on, the questions are will they make it in time, and who would they choose to drive for them?
- Bernie appears to have decided that Turkey's future in F1 isn't viable, with rumours abound that he won't be renewing the circuit's contract. We think it's one of the good ones, but would love to hear whether you think this is a good or a bad decision on the part of Mr E.
- Meanwhile, Bourdais (yes, him again) says that cost cutting saved his seat in Formula 1. He says that sponsorship was the number one priority of the team and it looked like Sato would get the drive, then the need for cash reduced somewhat, and Bordy made his way back up the list. This will only go to spur Max on, I suppose.
That should keep us going until the new Red Bull bolts from the garage and into our sights. Pictures and updates forthcoming, no doubt, but until then, I'll see you in the comments.
What a despicable, lowly comment from Bourdais.
He's basically saying he is "the sh*t" and the rest is worthless, just like he did in the ChampCar series.
So, basically, USF1 is on roughly the same page as Prodrive: a team which needs a whole lot of legal and financial hurdles knocked down to even consider putting a car on the grid.
As much as I'd love to see a team rooted here in the States, I'll believe it when I see a car, or when I hear Peter Windsor come on Speed and say to the guys "we have a team, we're going F1 racing!"
It's all very quiet...
Oh yeah, sleep...
You mean that champcar series he won 4 times? Consecutively? Yeah, he is "the sh*t".
steady with the language chaps. is bourdais really being that confrontational?
No other driver was so comprehensively thrashed by their team mate in F1 last year than Bourdais. He is lucky to get that drive, especially as Sato was quite impressive in testing.
wasn't sato's seat all about marketing value and corporate sponsorship though?
in the run up to this, no-one ever suggested:
"STR need sato, he's great at setting up a car and always brings it home in one piece".
apparently his good points were:
- he's popular in japan
- he crashes a lot and that's quite exciting to watch
ok, that's a one-sided and rather mean take on the man, but seriously bourdais brings no money and still gets the drive. that must mean something?
Sato needed to bring money to the team, he did not, so it went to Bourdais.
I feel sorry for Sato, he certainly drove well while at Super Aguri - was consistent and has got over his early reputation for crashes. He has had chances in F1. I would have rather given Bourdais a second chance - his first season was disastrous but luck was also not on his side. Give a driver two seasons to prove themselves.
Having said that his new team mate is going to trounce him this season!
I would rather bring back Klien or Liuzzi than either of the above prospects. In the case of Liuzzi he was closer to matching DeSeb's speed and at times was even faster. Bourdais has never looked like matching DeSeb!
Also to be fair to Bourdais he was responding to Sato who said a few days ago the opposite was true. I think he said something like, "They wanted me for my skilz, but I couldn't get enough marketing money together".
Bourdais was unlucky to be paired with a more experienced and very talented team mate. He also had his fair share of dodgy penalties and technical troubles to boot. I don't think we saw him at his full potential last year and so therefore he deserves another chance...
More experienced? Only just Bourdais has many more years of single seater racing on Vettel than Vettel does. I'm sure that's what people were using at the beginning of the season to justify his speed versus Vettel.
Poor, poor, poor excuse. I can only remember one dodgy penalty resulting in lose of points for LeSeb.
In F1 Bourdais is mediocre - he will be crushed by Sébastien Buemi in 2009. His only hope in 2009 are slicks and a car that suits his driving. Here I am saying he cannot adapt to the car - the car needs to be suitable to him for him to deliver. Contrast this with Alonso who can develop the car to his style of driving.
He missed out on two podiums in Spa and Monza. Why dismiss him after one year when drivers of much less talent do not get this kind of scrutiny?
True, but Vettel had more F1 experience whilst Bourdais was driving softer Champcars - it would take a while to get used to an F1 car and European circuits after a looong stint in the States...
Sorry Rich, didn't read your post properly before responding (Morning Coffee):
Buemi has not done anything flash - he hasn't won 4 championships in a row or anything and he was poor in GP2.
By that note, a lot of drivers (including Kimi Raikkonen) are rubbish then?
But only to a point. He had trouble when he first moved back to Renault and he had to get the brakes on the Mclaren redesigned...
Give him another chance - between him and Sato, Bourdais is heaps better and he did enough to deserve his place in F1.
ken anderson confirms usf1:
"We are looking at a couple of buildings in Charlotte, including one in the university area"
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73187
Interesting. But do they have enough money to pay the entry bond, as well as enough money to construct their own car (as it looks like they won't get help from any manufacturers unless it's US-based)?
I think there is no entry bond anymore. Or something... They need unanimous agreement for the entry instead... This is very much from memory.
On the thought of USF1:
This is not just a rumour - this is a very viable proposition. You have a lot of skilled people, a good base, and with the addition of the Cosworth engine, you have an operation similar to the kit car teams of the 1970's. This will happen, people, and with the timing of the launch and the silence from Brackley, I feel they are also involved somehow...
No idea why, but I think I had a dream about Button retiring from F1 last night.
Lou would call that a nightmare :-(
I don't see how Brackley can be involved. Maybe some of their former people would be involved, but seeing as that USF1 won't buy any of their equipment or use their property, Brackley being involved looks unlikely.
I just think it's uncanny timing that nothing has happened with Brackley and a new team gets announced. Do USF1 expect Brackley not to get sold and pick up the pieces for a 2010 assault?
In other news:
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will be among the 13 competitors on the new season of Dancing with the Stars, US television network ABC has announced.
Steve Wozniak? He must be getting bored or something...
Interesting line-up, though. They're really getting some good names on board now.
Max wants 12 teams, so he's thinking both BrackleyF1 and USF1 will get through. So I'm guessing USF1 has to assume they won't get any freebies from Brackley.
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/02/us-f1-team-rumo.html#more
Says Danica and Scott Speed
Actually that part is coming from Axis of Oversteer.
Danica and Marco. Scott Speed wants to race Taxis and Marco wants a shot at F1.
Danica and Marco all the way! But I still think they'd pick Dario over Danica. I mean, why would Tony George let IndyCar's biggest shot at fame go to F1?
Not sure Bernie cares much for Danica, though... ;)
Mario?
Well, he only stopped about 5-6 years ago...
Amazingly, yes! But I managed to sneak the edit in. ;)
My goodness, 2 logical errors in the space of an hour. It IS time for me to go home. :D
No, just have a Red Bull! ;-)
Does that really need to be said, though?
I'm sure few will disagree when you say Sato is experienced enough with F1-cars.
Torro Rosso invited him to testing sessions twice or so I believe, Honda wouldn't have been up front back in 2004 if he were rubbish at setting up a car and most of all, if he were rubbish at setting up a car, I doubt he would have made it to F1. :)
I am a bit sad to see that with regards to Sato, your mind still seems to be stuck in the time that he crashed the occasional car.
debatable, because the team had uber tester davidson at the time. friday test driver running was allowed in '04 right?
not true. my objection to sato is that he had his chance... in fact he had three decent chances and didn't exactly do the best job in the world.
he was ok, and he had he moments, but the man had his third coming when honda decided to build a whole team around him. how much more of a break does one man really deserve?
for the record i don't think he crashed that much, i don't think he deserves the title "crash sato", but also, i don't think he deserves a seat in '09 either.
My objection to him is that he had three decent chances mostly because he is Japanese and backed by Honda money. He didn't do much with it and therefore occupied a seat that someone else deserved.
Remember there are many drivers stuck in Champcar or GP2 or similar who have loads of ability and yet never get the chance in an F1 car because of people like Sato. So I can't like him, unfortunately.
I'm off home now. I'll check the doohickey again later on tonight after I've seen MOTD2. See ya later :-)
I am now going to set up the 1986 F1 BAT game on my newer account. I will post details in a bit.
OK, here's the link:
http://batracer.com/-cj?&D&36956
Password is: bourdais, I will not be modifying anything this time so all game values will be at 1.00 throughout. :)
To recap, myself and Gavin have Williams, Steven Roy and Selidor have Lotus and R.G has one of the Minardis. Apart from that, it's first come first serve so get in there quick! :P
Can you dig my comment out of moderation please? :)
as you wish :)
Ta very much :)
I've aptly named this game the "SPC 1986 F1 Thoroughbred GP Revival". :P
Divvent we have to wait till the current one finishes to sign up.
Nope, you can sign up any time. Don't necessarily have to wait for the 2008 game to end to join the 86 game. :)
Oh right, wicked. Will do now.
Nope, you have to wait till the end of this one before joining
Oh yeah that's right, you don't have KT. My mistake.
Still, not long now :P
As the song goes,
"It's the final countdown..."
:D
Its done.
:D, WAZAAA!!!!
I'll take that to mean you won? :D
Well done!
Well done R.G. BMW finally came good eventually. :P
Who are the champs, BTW?
Selidor won the drivers champ and McLaren beat Ferrari 167 to 162
So a reverse of what really happened. Not bad, not bad at all. :)
very well done selidor.
Well done to RG on winning the race and Selidor for winning the championship.
I had what may best be described as an eventful race. Started P10 due to crashing in Q3 despite having the fastest car. After one lap I was P17. I passed a load of cars and got back to P10 just in time to pit with a problem. I passed a stack of cars and was nicely into the points when the safety car came out so I gained 30 seconds on the leader. Two laps after the safety car pulled in I made a scheduled pit stop and came out P14.
In the end I had the fastest lap and passed 21 cars from a starting position of P10 to finish P7. That is what I call eventful.
What is the difference between not being able to adapt to a car and developing the car to suit his style. In both cases the car has to adjust to the driver. Anyone who listens to Bourdais's radio traffic knows that he is very clear what he wants from the car but being with STR he will never get the kind of resources behind him that Alonso does. Put Bourdais in a factory car and see how well he can develop it.
You could call it a Schumi-like comeback, or a Lewis-like comeback, depending on your driver preference. Good job of battling back through the field. I do wonder why it ALWAYS happens in Brazil, though.
I did already say that, but in the wrong thread! So I'm repeating it here. :)
Sadly, the thing with Bourdais is, Vettel had the same equipment and the same treatment as he did, and Vettel did better with it. The team doesn't care how Bourdais beats Vettel, he just had to - and he wasn't able to.
Bourdais deserves a 2nd chance, that's true, but I don't think we'll see anything different pace-wise this year.
Why does no-one ever put Ferrari's perforfance down to Badoer or McLaren's to Wurz or Pedalo. The only two test drivers who are ever assigned credit for developing cars are Damon Hill and Ant. I wonder if it is a co-incidence that they are bothe English
Damn. Was heading for a podium in that race...
Well done to everyone for such a competitive season, though!
In fairness, I did give DC credit for developing that Williams car (along with Hill), as well as Wurz for developing the McLaren.
not sure i give damon that much credit. and i rate pdlr highly as a tester (but not as a driver).
i guess badoer might deserve more than he gets though.
And Wurz.
Ah, blast. Shall let Gavin sign up in that case.
Have joined McLaren instead.
Test drivers are never responsible for the development direction a team takes. Why would a team with experinced race drivers who have to race the cars use the preferences of a test driver over the race drivers' preferences to design a car. At the time Damon Hill was being credited for developing the Williams the team had Mansell, Prost then Senna. If you had the choice of listening to any of them or Damon Hill with no experience who would you listen to?
if i was part of the test team, at a test track, damon!
But then don't these race drivers partly base their decisions on what their test drivers tell them as well? Not all, for sure, but there are cases for that.
Maybe because we don't hear much from Badoer? There's plenty of interviews with Wurz or Pedalo (who I do very much assign credit to), but Badoer isn't really in the spotlight that much. Doesn't mean he's not working hard...
The test drivers are there to test bits and pieces on the car and to put miles on it but no-one in their right mind is going to take the opinion of someone with no experience over that of a driver who has done 150 GPs.
I think if any test driver should be given credit it is probably Pedalo because the race drivers have so little experience
As I've always said, I don't know why McLaren didn't stick Pedro in the second seat, rather than signing Heikki.
He knows how the team works, has plenty of experience, and would be happy to settle for a second driver role.
The memory of Spygate may still be a tad too fresh in their minds. Although I do wonder why they kept him on even after what he did.
And besides, Pedalo is a tad on the old side, and we know his speed. Heikki, on the other hand, is still young and still has some potential to become great (hard as that may be to believe).
I guess they put his knowledge and usefulness to the team ahead of the '07 problems.
If he had been sacked from McLaren, another team probably would have signed him up as third driver, and then they'd have the advantage.
Again, thanks guys for the all the congrats. Congrats Scott and (future team mate, or past team mate depending on how you look at it ;) ) Steven for nailing the constructors championship (just :P).
And Well done RG - I dont think anyone deserves a win more than you, considering your "difficult" season!
1986, Here I come!
would've also sent out a message that said "we think he's guilty", which would in turn have meant "we agree we did something wrong".
:D
Thanks Selidor, I was happy until it doesn't count for owt on terms for getting a 'Pro' licence ;)
I was lost when I saw in car setup 'Enduro'. I screamed and ran away.
Hmm i believe that might be your hard tire
Well one of the best things about the last game was the sheer amount of overtaking going on, but im not too bothered if its left as it is.
Bourdais has been confirmed at Le Mans
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73202
Driving with David Brabham, replace Villeneurve and Zonta
How about Klien?
From the link
The pair take the places of Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta in Peugeot's 2009 line-up, with Nicolas Minassian, Marc Gene, Christian Klien, Pedro Lamy, Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin all retained.
Whoops, shoulda read it before I asked. Thanks, though. :D
Can Peugeot finally win it at long last?
if they put their best drivers together... well, actually still depends on mcnish.
Possibly. Combination of Bourdais, Klien and Montagny or similar, they could be certainly serious contenders. Don't see why not.
No. No. No. No. No.
I think there is no entry bond anymore. Or something… {Alex Andronov - comment #18}
You think right. There is no entry bond because it was abolished for teams entering as of the start of 2008. There is a €300,000 fee per year for a team to enter F1 (this applies to every team from 2008 onwards, not just newbies). However, I don't think that's as big a problem as the team not getting any commercial bonuses or TV money from Bernie until the end of 2011 at the earliest (at least in theory).
What? Bourdais is in F1, Klien has experience in F1 and Montagny is used to enduro's
:D
So that is why Brabham was being so cagey at ASI
They still have to beat McNish
Klien crashed Franck's car last year and cost him the win. Have you not read Christine's naught list on the wiki?
Oh right. Bad idea to support Klien isn't it?
I'm happy about scoring a point in Brazil and getting a total of 4 in the Force India :)
If you ever want to get a point on a sidepodpanel ever again it is a very bad idea.
Mweh, already on -1,000,000 for killing Montagny. Can't get any worse.
Speaking of the panels, any news?
Nope.
Pre-season, hopefully.
Okay, just wondering.
For people like me
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56260629746&ref=mf
Probably do nowt in the long run, but its a start
Save common sense more like. As I said yesterday:
I am sick of people who move near airports and racetracks and complain about the noise. What right do they have to disrupt operations that were there before they were and which crackpots are ruling that this is fair and ethical???
Exactly. Its idiotic in the sense, they should have done research, fair enough its gonna be annoying living next to a race track, so don't buy a damn house their then. Its simply moronic.
Should thank Motorcyle Racing News and the Northern Echo for being one of the few sites reporting this
Real Life BATRacer is going crazy! I think I've had more PMs in the last two hours than I've had since I started...
That's what you get for being considered a top roleplayer ;). It's more than I've received to be honest :( But I have somewhere to drive for next season now so it's all good :)
Sometimes it's the what and how your write that makes a difference to how well people view you. It's especially important in a role-playing game...
By the way, if anyone wants help on the 1986 carset, I would consider this part of the BATracer Unlimited forums.
http://www.batracerunlimited.com/viewforum.php?f=47
Check the General Overview thread and the 3rd or 4th post for a great deal of info :)
Got moderated for quoting Woodwiss's smileys...
fiiiiiiiixed.
Ali - how come you took Minardi? You could have had McLaren :P
Because Minardi is way cooler ;)
:D
Gavin - My practice runs are done, but I lost my last 5 (yes, 5!) because I crashed. You got it all to do I'm afraid...
Consult the team talk before you do though ;)
Scott, I'm supposed to do the crashing! That's my party trick!
Scott, runs complete...
Erm Gavin, did you not load my setup?
Load mine now, I've altered it using your data.
Haha, its an inauspicious start to the Willams' boys campaign!
Steven, my runs are done btw.
Yeah I did. I made some mistakes on my runs, too :-(
Why does no-one ever put Ferrari’s perforfance down to Badoer or McLaren’s to Wurz or Pedalo. {Steven Roy - comment #60}
Because at both teams, they have had multiple testers for much of the time recently, so it's not clear where the testing credit goes. In Badoer's case, it also didn't help that Michael Schumacher got credited with all the testing strength in the same way that he got credited with the race speed, the psuedopolitical management and parting the Red Sea*, so everyone else on the driving side got overshadowed.
It's a lot easier to get due credit for good testing if you're the only tester on a given team when the testing pays off and you don't have a mega-driver elsewhere in the team. It's not fair, but it's unfortunately the way of credit :(
* - OK, maybe not the Red Sea. The occasional flooded Barcelona or Spa, though...
Aww, I just read the final BATracer race. What a sad way to finish the season personally :(
Such a great season though, good job everyone who was involved :D
It’s more than I’ve received to be honest :( {Scott Woodwiss - comment #104}
The stupid thing is that I said that I'd already got a seat weeks earlier. Either some people didn't get the message or they thought I was available again simply because I didn't say who I'd signed with (my team boss has got a licence to manage a FT team, so I'm all set).
Good to hear you have a drive too :)
Ali - how come you took Minardi? You could have had McLaren {Scott Woodwiss - comment #109}
Because I have an affinity for teams which aren't out-and-out frontrunners. Since there's no Jordan/Midland/Spyker/Force India car to pick and there is a heirarchy, I picked the more challenging car. It's part of the reason I took so long to make Pro driver (most of the results that eventually got me there were in BTCC races).
I actually ended up quite enjoying it thanks to Lukeh :D
So for those of you interested in my comments on the future of F1 broadcasting in the podcast last night I have written them up here:
http://www.sofaf1.com/2009/02/future-of-f1-broadcasting.html
Ali - just seen you announced at iSport in Formula Trinity. Nice one! :D
Ali - just seen you announced at iSport in Formula Trinity. Nice one! {Scott Woodwiss - comment #125}
Thanks for that! I'd better hurry over there and do my bit in front of the microphones then - wouldn't want the FIA to dish out a €5000 fine, would I?
LOL, trust me, this FIA is a lot more lenient ;)
My thoughts on my first season in BATracer:
1. There's no logic to it.
2. There's no trends that are followed.
3. Every single warm-up session would result in me being 'over enthusiastic' despite setting that to 40.
4. In a range of 0-100, if I were to say to you 'go for the middle' you'd probably go for 50 no? So why then when the engineer's report says set something to 'medium' would I sometimes have to waste runs only to find I need to set it to 25 or 75?
5. My team-mate's keyboard broke. That's the only thing I can think of that resulted in the lack of communication!
On the positives, it did pass the time a bit.
the harder i tried the faster christine went. the less i tried the better i did.
it's safe to say i'm rubbish at this.
:D
After this 1986 game, does anyone fancy having a go at any of the other non-F1 carsets?
Didn't you only just start this one?
Erm, yeah I did :S. What? I'm just putting it out there.
Not a problem. Just I know a man that can only think of one thing at a time, thought maybe everyone was like that ;)
:D
I tried to approve a friend request on the wiki but got this error message. Anyone else having problems? Or just my lovely computer?
hmm, nope. i literally just added you. what if you go to my profile and add me?
I've tried that. It says "sending .." but nothing happens
have tried to resent. also sent a message.
Just done my practise runs. 1986 has the four qualifying lap system. How much risk should I take for that last run. I am just thinking Senna, Lotus 1986 he would have been at 110. I think I will go a little easier on it.
I decided to make Brazil my home race since it is the first race of the season. Hopefully that will help me get off to a good start.
I replied to your post in Driver Chat regarding the qualifying tyres.
LOL, trust me, this FIA is a lot more lenient {Scott Woodwiss - comment #126}
That's good. The ambiance at the launch presentation is pleasant and so far nobody's fined me ;). There seems to be a fair few frustrated team bosses though, which strikes me as odd as there are surely several people worth having left to be signed up...
My thoughts on my first season in BATracer:
1. There’s no logic to it.
2. There’s no trends that are followed.
3. Every single warm-up session would result in me being ‘over enthusiastic’ despite setting that to 40.
4. In a range of 0-100, if I were to say to you ‘go for the middle’ you’d probably go for 50 no? So why then when the engineer’s report says set something to ‘medium’ would I sometimes have to waste runs only to find I need to set it to 25 or 75?
5. My team-mate’s keyboard broke. That’s the only thing I can think of that resulted in the lack of communication! {Dank - comment #128}
1. There is some logic to it, it just takes some finding.
2. The trends that exist are vague. Broadly speaking, the better cars in real life are also faster in BATRacer, but by nowhere near as much.
3. That's a pain in the neck, which is why I always pick the "Thinker" attribute where possible (this allows you to practise at 100 with impunity). Note that you can't pick "Thinker" in A1GP as it is deemed too much of an advantage.
4. "Medium" means the average of the settings in that category is between 25 and 75 inclusive. "Low" means that the average of the settings is no more than 50. "High" means that the average of the settings is at least 50. It sounds vague, but with the right strategy, it's possible to still get close most of the time anyway.
5. Some team-mates aren't much good at talking. That's why so much weight gets put on the third-party comments in each profile in public games.
After this 1986 game, does anyone fancy having a go at any of the other non-F1 carsets? {Scott Woodwiss - comment #130}
Yes please!
Ali - I need your honest opinion. Look at the post I just wrote in the AGR launch thread on RLB and tell me if that's a fair thing to write. I personally think so.