http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Formula_One_season#Rule_changes Last season's thread:https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/formula-1-2012-season.1881883/ Round 18 of 19 is at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX. That's on 17 Nov.
Late to the party, here are the 2013 cars when they were unveiled. I was too lazy to do it but tradition prevails... Lotus E21
Not bad. This is shaping up to be a very interesting season as it is the last year with the old regulations. It should be very close, although judging from the Friday test sessions, RedBull is once again in a league of its own (whereas last year, McLaren had the quicker car). But behind RedBull, it should be quite tight with Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus all looking competitive. McLaren seems to have troubles to get started yet again. If there is a team that can turn things around, it's McLaren, so one should never write them off, however, should they be off pace for the first couple of races, it'll be interesting to see whether or not they fully focus on their 2014 car, since with the new regulations and limited wind tunnel time, it might make sense to throw away this season if you don't see a chance to win it early on. I think Caterham has already given up the season. They have stable finances but probably not enough to develop two cars at the same time (like the big teams do). Caterham's 2013 car is virtually identical to their 2012 car, so my guess is that they already focused all their resources on the 2014 car. If that's the case, then they might surprise next year, while they'll lose out badly this year. On the flip side, McLaren have totally overhauled their design and it doesn't seem to have done them much good. Yes, their 2012 design was rather unorthodox and followed a unique approach while their 2013 car looks more in line with the rest of the grid. But then again, they had the quickest car in 2012, so given the stable rules, one would think that a careful evolution would be the way to go for McLaren, especially since it was reliability more than anything else that cost them. After all, that's exactly what RedBull has done over the last years: Take a quick and proven design and improve upon it. It's baffling that McLaren thought it was best to design a completely different car than last year. Maybe they'll prove me wrong, but so far, it doesn't look too promising...
Red Bulls seem to be strong in qualy provided that the session isn't too disrupted by rain but how they will all fare with the tire degradation in race condition has yet to be seen. RBR, Lotus and Ferrari look quite strong right now. Concerning Mc Laren, I guess it depends if their woes are mostly due to not being able to sat up this front suspension pull rod lay out -like Ferrari a couple of year ago - or is it deeper than that. And as for Caterham, I wonder if they'll let their arch rivals of Marussia take the rewarding 10th place even it indeed seems that the current car is just a mere evolution from last year's single seater. Bianchi appears to be quite an asset for Virgin Marussia as well.
caterham isn't going to win any races this year but of the maxim, "to finish first, first, finish." they have the second part right so far. their future will depend much on their new alliance with alpine, which also translates into means coming from renault, and perhaps an eventual favored partner status. since there's no le mans thread more recent than 2011 i'll segue into alpine throwing their hat into the le mans ring: with RS's experience in F1 it may be a surprise that this will be powered by nissan, but that engine was ready and there's not much time until june... certainly not enough to challenge audi already, but you have to start somewhere and by 2015 (when both alpine and caterham intend to come out with models intended for more than the marginal connoisseur market they've attracted so far) they may come closer than peugeot has managed.
Formula E...racing next season http://www.racer.com/formula-e-reve...QS2&spJobID=73620122&spReportId=NzM2MjAxMjIS1
E Formula would have sounded better. The car looks quite nice and after the DW12 in Indycar, it confirms the trend in single seater design with the semi covered wheels ; I guess it's only a matter of time for F1... Well played Renault, well played...Well if the championship works but it seems that there is an interest, the good idea is to run on street tracks with that electric formula.
For the moment the car is mostly an Oreca Signatech Nissan with an Alpine paintjob and it's an LMP2 so quite far from being able to challenge at Le Mans but maybe they'll get there eventually. That said I'm happy to hear about the Alpine brand coming back on the track and on the road ; I'll be very happy when a French GT enters the FIA GT championship ! I know you work for Renault but you're a bit harsh with Peugeot, they've done a remarkable job with the 908 ; they won LM24 in 2009, finished 2nd with a 13 second gap in 2011 with cars finishing in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th ! Even if that close defeat stung that was quite a feat. More than that, on a whole endurance season, they beat Audi in 2010 and 2011. Unfortunately the crisis caught them and the board pulled the plug quite brutally as the team was already preparing Sebring last year...I think they even auctioned some of the cars... The Lion brand has decided to come back in motorsport through the famous Pikes Peak run this very year with Sebastien Loeb racing this impressive 208 T16. Another 80's revival... Speaking about that Honda is back with Mac Laren for the 2015 season ! http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/107442
i think a big factor is that they need to do all they can to maximize the performance of these cars, where for F1 they want to limit it. i'm surprised there's nothing on our intranet about it since electric cars and F1 are both top subjects. soon i'm sure, maybe tomorrow. here's a pic of a funny they cooked up for RWS pre-race entertainment : it's a twizy with lots of Fi technology including KERS that provides for peaks of 100hp. performance details not published but with a curb weight under 700kg it's said to accelerate as briskly as a mégane RS.
Good point. For some time, they'll try to give those electric engines more performance while the FIA has decided that the output of F1 engines will stay in the 800hp bracket. The current 2.4 L V8 are between 780 (Cosworth) and 830 hp (Mercedes) and next year's "power unit" will be around 800 hp when cumulating the 1.6 L V6 turbo power (around 650 hp) and the beefed up KERS plus TERS (that will collect wasted energy on the turbo). French engineers humour with front and rear F1 style wings and tyres for this electric city car ! I remember drawing a Twingo DTM style when I was a student...I guess this kind of décalage is common in the minds of many but kudos to the RS engineers for actually producing a real car. Remember the V10 F1 engine powered Renault Espace in the mid nineties ?
The Caterham got a nose job... Speaking about them, Sir Richard Bronson had to honour his lost bet of 2010 when the then named Team Lotus of Tony Fernandes beat the then named Virgin F1 team...
875 horses for 875 kg? you call that a car? i can live with that. especially since it's going to be in badboy black. and if anyone can teach that rock a lesson it's seb loeb. i still remember the clip of vatenen doing it in '88... at one point he raises his right hand to shield his eyes from the sun and drives with one hand. ballzy iz as ballzy duz!
Can't get enough of the "Bottas Cam" ! Sadly, we can't see just after the start on this video where Valterri checks both his mirrors as he gets overtaken on both sides. There's another one showing that but with poor quality.
Et voilà ! BTW I was wondering if a motorsport thread for everything but F1 should be created or do we keep on posting here given the low activity this thread has this year ?
After Ricciardo taking Webber's seat at Red Bull racing, the silly season is leading to its actual phase : Felipe Massa confirms he will no longer race for the Scuderia next year ! http://instagram.com/p/eFyM4QHLf1/# Will it be a swap with Lotus (Räikkönen) or Sauber (Hülkenberg) unless he joins Force India since it doesn't seem he wants to quit the sport.