The Official 2008 F1 Series Thread

[E30Kaiser]

Something I hadn't thought about until now, anyone have an idea if there will be an 11th team this coming up year? Super Aguri won't be returning since it was basically setup to give Takuma a race seat and it looks like he may go to Toro Rosso. So will it just be 10 teams? I would like to see another team towards the bottom so Force India has somebody to play with :(

[Jon325i]

Who says the off-season of F1 is boring? It can be just as interesting sometimes.

Taku Sato gets a test opportunity with Toro Rosso

http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=44576

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-sato-gets-second-toro-rosso-test/

Force India news - Gascoyne & Kolles are gone

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44574

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-no-room-at-force-india-for-kolles-and-gascoyne1/

Force India ends contract with Ferrari engines supply

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-force-india-ends-ferrari-contract/

BMW to unveal its '09 spec car on Jan. 20, 2009

http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=44547

McLaren to unveal its '09 spec car in Jan. '09 as well
http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...ar-in-january/

Lucas di Grassi and Bruno Senna testing with Honda @ Spain in 2 weeks
http://www.itv-f1.com/news_article.aspx?id=44570

Nick Fry of Honda hints Button will stay
http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...stay-at-honda/

Jon

[TDE30]

Saw this on another forum, lol.

[devonjordan]

Yeah, my little brother skated it once, it was epic.

[z31maniac]

Oh Hell yessssss! Make those cars go down Lombard Street (between hyde and leavenworth), LOL.

That's the super twisty motherfucker tourist attraction right?

[hugh jass]

the street circuits are a good spectacle but don't make for very good racing on track.
did any of you guys watch the world superbike race from portimao in portugal this last weekend? that is an amazing track. i would love to see f1 there.

[devonjordan]

I also like that they said it would most likely NOT be at Indianapolis. But close to a major city on the east or west coast.

Street venue in NYC or San Fransico? That would be fucking amazing.

Oh Hell yessssss! Make those cars go down Lombard Street (between hyde and leavenworth), LOL.

[z31maniac]

Still trying - but nothing concrete yet. There was also a story on Speed's F1 page about the USGP returning to the calendar by 2010. I'm not going to get worked up on that one - Bernie and his doublespeak will lead you to believe something good is coming then he suddenly yanks the rug out from under your feet.


Jon

I also like that they said it would most likely NOT be at Indianapolis. But close to a major city on the east or west coast.

Street venue in NYC or San Fransico? That would be fucking amazing.

[Jon325i]

Still no Canada? I heard during the broadcast of the last race that they were trying to get them to put that Canadian Grand Prix in.

Still trying - but nothing concrete yet. There was also a story on Speed's F1 page about the USGP returning to the calendar by 2010. I'm not going to get worked up on that one - Bernie and his doublespeak will lead you to believe something good is coming then he suddenly yanks the rug out from under your feet.


Jon

[e30bmw]

Edit: Shanghai is moved to April in 2009. Preliminary calendar for next season also mentioned.

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...oves-to-april/

Still no Canada? I heard during the broadcast of the last race that they were trying to get them to put that Canadian Grand Prix in.

[z31maniac]

Now that's how controlling costs should be approached in F1 - forcing new regulations and technologies on the teams only drives up the costs because it forces the teams to re-invent, re-engineer, re-fabricate a component or system and that whole process costs money, often big money.

Bernie & Max's efforts to make F1 more spec-like just flies in the face of what made Formula 1 what it is - each team creating a car (and often times engine) of its own design and engineering, not everyone running the same hardware with the only distiguishing difference being the paint and sponsor logos. Steve Matchett was going on about this during the Fuji or Shanghai race. Loosely quoting him, "you want to bring costs under control, stop changing the rules every season." So simple yet so obvious too.

Our saving grace is that Max and Bernie are getting up there in the years and won't be in their positions of power/authority for too much longer.


Jon

Precisely. I was just sitting here at my desk thinking about this.

When they did away with V-10s, how much did that cost? Why not just use an xxxx diameter inlet restrictor as a way to decrease HP much like WRC, instead of spending tens of millions (probably hundreds of millions between all the teams)to design, test and build new engines.

[Jon325i]

I was just cruising Speed's website and saw the same story. I too am a bit surprised that Pee-kay-joon-yer was retained after his less than stellar season. Granted he did pick up on consistancy in the latter half of the year - but I remember during the British GP things were looking really bad for the young Brazilian. Renault keeping Alonso is a no-brainer. He's fast, fearless and great at extracting the most performance out of his car. He has that technical understanding to the sport which helps the engineers improve the car.


Jon

Edit: Shanghai is moved to April in 2009. Preliminary calendar for next season also mentioned.

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...oves-to-april/

[TDE30]

Yeah, Piquet's performance this year has been startlingly under par. I would have picked him as a test driver for Renault maybe.

Along similar lines, I heard somewhere that DC will be the RBR test driver next year. After his last real race, I'm kind of glad he'll be in the seat for test/practice sessions.

[E30Kaiser]

Alonso and Piquet are confirmed for next year with Renault: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...8/11/8652.html

I am more surprised by the fact that Piquet was confirmed than Alonso. They made it sound like he was getting the axe leading up to the end of the season. Plus I wouldn't have thought crashing in the last race would increase his chances of staying. Oh well, I hope he does a lot better next year since the car will be better.

[Jon325i]

^IMHO that is the best way to deal with rising costs.

Lift many of the technical regulations and say, "You have this much money, get after it"

Now that's how controlling costs should be approached in F1 - forcing new regulations and technologies on the teams only drives up the costs because it forces the teams to re-invent, re-engineer, re-fabricate a component or system and that whole process costs money, often big money.

Bernie & Max's efforts to make F1 more spec-like just flies in the face of what made Formula 1 what it is - each team creating a car (and often times engine) of its own design and engineering, not everyone running the same hardware with the only distiguishing difference being the paint and sponsor logos. Steve Matchett was going on about this during the Fuji or Shanghai race. Loosely quoting him, "you want to bring costs under control, stop changing the rules every season." So simple yet so obvious too.

Our saving grace is that Max and Bernie are getting up there in the years and won't be in their positions of power/authority for too much longer.


Jon