Unveilings/F1 car launches
 

Must be soon for new weapons to make an appearence?

I miss Eddie. And Flavio. F1 was a little more colorful when they were around. Toto just doesn't bring the same pizazz...

I worked for Flavio twice, he was a real character, lots of dubious stories about him

My favourite was when the IRA blew up a bomb in the 90's on the doorstep of his house in London. He wasn't in and I don't think was the target as I was told the IRA were very apologetic about the disturbance they'd caused ;)

I listened to Flavio's 1st speech when he return to Enstone (was the Benetton team base now Renault) to replace one of the Benetton son's, it wasn't the usual long winded blah, blah, we will be champions blah, blah, just short and to the point....

"There are two types of people in this world! There are winners and wankers! I'm not a wanker!" :D

He was right too as a few years later under his leadership Renault won both the drivers and constructors championships in 2005 and 2006 with Alonso who he also managed

Nothing this week, new car launches all kick off next week
February 11: Ferrari.
February 12: Renault, Red Bull.
February 13: McLaren.
February 14: Mercedes, AlphaTauri.
February 17: Racing Point, Williams.
February 19: Haas, Alfa Romeo.

I love it - F1 needs more dubious stories... and not about geeky twin pocket protector engineers cheating. Granted, he's getting kind of old for it, but maybe one last Kimi bar fight, of the kind that gets Ron Dennis all worked up...

Back when F1 had a Piranha club, I was more fascinated by the owners and team principals between races than anything else being written by the press. I would have loved to have been privy to the workings of Peter Sauber, Ron Dennis, GC Minardi and later Paul Stoddart, Ken Tyrrell, Frank Williams, and their staff.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1581003407.jpg

New Haas. Not as pretty as it was under the crazy Energy drink colors...

The Haas car could be painted with purple pig $hit I could care less ........... I want it to perform consistently and be fighting for podiums . My gut says if this year is a disaster like last year the team will be gone or sold . Maybe partner with Penske ? I wish Haas team the best as I want to be able to cheer for an American team .

New driver for merc, plus team mate
 

I like the new look on the HAAS. Good luck to the team.

I really hope Haas can improve. They are at the back of the pack now so they have no where to go but up. I really wish they would get two new drivers. That would be the first step to improving things.

I liked Haas a lot initially, and love Gunther Steiner, but overall they flattered to deceive and I'm losing hope now... While I hear you about the paint scheme, I rather liked the quasi-lotus look of last year, and I think the scheme matters a bit - It's hard to love a pink sport Pesa, a yellow Ferrari might be weird, etc... But yeah, it would be nice if the car was more consistent regardless of color !

On a cool note, season 2 of drive to survive will be on netflix by the end of the month and by all previews reports, it's a good one... With a part on my favorite youngsters, Sainz and Norris - should be hilarious !

Season 1 was great! Good news about season 2.

I learned something new today.

<iframe width="1080" height="640" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g2Xio9h6EWM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
A. Senna

https://www.planetf1.com/news/alain-prost-ayrton-senna/

is the red team over reaching?
https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/51469169

Saw the Ferrari 2021 car unveil, lots of body changes, they said 2021, but the link says 2020 so who knows

https://youtu.be/oXZCkDzHvbM

A few car launch pictures from this week, all cars have just a launch/test aero package, race spec aero will be run at the 2nd test to allow maximum aero/wind tunnel development time

Track photo's are from what team's refer to as 'Filming Days', these are limited to only 100 km's and just a shakedown prior to the 1st of two 3 day Barcelona test sessions which is next week.

The big team's like Mercedes, Ferrari, RBR will have done hours and hours of 24 hr testing on 'virtual tracks' back at the factories for a full systems check eg cooling, oil, hydraulic, transmission, hybrid, telemetry etc, as well as debugging, setting PU performance parameters, gearshift strategy etc etc

In no particular order......

RBR, if Honda step it up they should make 2nd place a hard fought battle
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1581721958.jpg

Ferrari, named the SF1000 as it will compete in the 1000th race at Monaco for the team which is an amazing achievement
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1581722403.jpg

Mercedes, beautifully packaged car as usual, has to be the favourite again
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1581722018.jpg

Money shot for Won!
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1581722093.jpg

Alfa Romeo, another fighter in the mid-field battle?
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1581722277.jpg

Alfa Tauri, was Torro Rossa, aiming to be top of the mid-field
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1581722606.jpg

McLaren, hoping to keep last years momentum going to finish best of the rest
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1581722713.jpg

I will watch with interest this year as I have two dogs in this years fight ;) that's another 4 car's I'll have to buy for my never ending model car collection :cool:

Good stuff thanks!

The cars appear to be longer (wheelbase and overall length) than last year. Is that true?

I was thinking the same. They seem longer.

Aren't we supposed to be getting bigger wheels this year? Also, why the change to Alpha Tauri from Toro Rosso.

If it takes Gene Haas to gtf out of F1 so that the half-wit Grosjean gets the axe, and the polished turd Magnussen goes to some other series, then I'm OK with that.

Same here, they appear longer and the broken nose syndrome is worse than before..
Ironically the Williams is the best looking car for me (not livery, car), McLaren the worst...

Two Canadians on the grid this year!
Go Canucks!

Best
Les

18" wheels in 2021 along with quite a few changes.

Testing starts tomorrow, so let the fun begin :cool:

Don't think wheel bases are any longer than 2019, no reason to as the rules have remained the same

Think it's more of an 'optical illusion' as some/most teams have pushed the cooling radiators much tighter to the chassis to exploit aero performance which creates a narrower bodywork shape

How many cars will "get great air" this year?

Looks like Kimi is being his usual jovial self during testing:


https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-testing-live/

In other news, get out your tin foil hats:

Magnussen gets the honor of first spin of the year.
Won't be his last but at least he didn't hit anything.

Grossjean will wreck on the 1st turn of the 1st race (and probably every race after that).

spins - phooey

I want to see "wings in flight"


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1582144925.jpg


and Thank You, MB

red cars are SLOW

So Capt’n thoughts?

Especially with Racing Point 3rd, they claim it’s almost a from scratch car.

others claim they bought last years M-B or lots of the parts from that car SmileWavy

Sounds like Benz has a new system that the driver can change tire toe angle by pulling and pushing on the steering wheel. Might be against the rules, but seems pretty clever.

https://apple.news/A0xE9w_JLNSGSWs3zMg8yzg

Yeah, Merc's steering is clever, and technically not illegal - but I would be shocked if it stayed so after a team, any team, protests it... It certainly goes against the spirit of the rules and of price reduction, and would create a mad scramble to emulate it... Kinda like Renault's GPS brake bias of last year, not technically illegal but the FIA just said NO. I hope they do so again, for the sake of not giving Hamilton an advantage he doesn't need to win again...

Looks like so far Force india (F their stupid name, wait, are we calling them Aston already?) is a 2019 Mercedes, Alpha Tauri is a 2019.5 redbull, and Haas a 2019 Ferrari. Hmm...

I get it, but if I were Renault and McLaren I'd be pissed off at the diminishing shot at a podium esp. from force india. This being a bastard year before 2021 regs, might be an odd one as the big guns are going to want to invest on the 2021 regs car before the $ is capped and the smaller teams won't have the $ to do both.

Grosjean spins at Turn 4 and bumps the barriers#F1Testing pic.twitter.com/QQfsELDM89

— Formula 1 (@F1) February 20, 2020

Practice makes perfect!!

Opinion piece on the culture of Mercedes F1, https://racer.com/2020/02/24/straw-mercedes-invisible-advantage/

I disagree, it’s 100% related to how much money you can throw at it...