Archive for 'season'

Mar201007

Rob

0

With Bahrain just a week away, what’s new for F1 in 2010?

The first race of the 2010 F1 season in Bahrain is just a week away, it seems like it’s been a long winter. There are many things that are different (I won’t say new) this year in F1. New rules, new teams, new drivers and we’ll all see who’s done the best job over the last few months.
There are a few new rules this year such as the refueling ban and the ban on wheel spinners. As well as technical changes like the tyre size and the new points system of 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. I may not agree with all of them – especially the refueling ban, I just don’t see how it can possibly improve overtaking – but they are here and the teams and drivers must make the best use of them.
We will have three new teams on the grid for the first race of the season, Virgin, Lotus and [...]

Mar201002

Rob

0

Can Jenson Button retain the title this year?

Arguably Jenson Button has the least chance of retaining his world title since Jacques Villeneuve pulled on his Williams helmet in 1998. With Ferrari signing Alonso and Mercedes bringing back Michael Schumacher plus the fact that Lewis Hamilton is now Jenson Button’s team mate there will be much more competition this year for the top set of points, and I haven’t even mentioned the Red Bull team.
Jenson Button will first and foremost have to beat his team mate to win the title and that is going to be a tough ask, he’ll have to do better than Fernando Alonso did in 2007, Hamilton has improved since then too. Button moves to McLaren as the World Champion as Alonso did in in 2007 but he’s also British and Hamilton did alienate a portion of the McLaren team last year after his antics in Australia so Button’s in a stronger position. What [...]

Feb201028

Rob

0

What does all the bad weather during the tests mean for the season

With three out of the four pre-season tests being affected by bad weather the teams will be well prepared for damp conditions but they won’t have done nearly as many miles in the dry as normal. How is a cold damp Spanish circuit going to compete with Bahrain?
I would imagine that the teams will have a very good understanding of how the new tyres perform in changeable conditions but they won’t have a very good understanding of the wear rates in hot conditions. Valencia – the only dry test is a street circuit and so will have different tyre wear rates to ‘real’ racing circuits and so it may effect the setup that the teams can run in the race.
The rates at which the engines burn fuel will also have been affected by the weather as the cars won’t have been able to push as hard around the circuits, this [...]

Feb201010

Rob

0

Testing times in Jerez, they really are…

Todays test in Jerez involved all of the current F1 teams along with the first new team to show it’s colours – Virgin Racing. With last weeks test throwing up some surprises we’d expect this weeks one to be even more exciting.
The test didn’t disappoint – apart from the weather – there’s not that much comparison to do between the times as all the cars would have been trying out different setups and tyres to see where the wet/inter cut off is but seeing a Mercedes with Nico Rosberg firmly at the top might be a little ominous. Fernando Alonso would have been disappointed not to be faster and Sauber with Kamui Kobayashi stayed just below the Ferrari it’s just that time that meant fifth place.
McLaren and Jenson Button still don’t seem to be able to get it together with the sixth fastest time but Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) and [...]

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