F1 2020 Thread

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by petrolhead611

I doubt that an F1 driver would be braking for as long as 2 seconds into a corner. That's a loooong time in an F1 car

You need to brake earlier on a teams pit scooter than a F1 car doing 4x the speed for the Aryton Senna Chicane at the Jerez Circuit

That was 12 yrs ago, scooter technology won't have kept up with F1 brake techology so that difference is probably more today

[GH85Carrera]

Fighter pilots have to wear a G-suit just to survive and stay awake during the maneuvers. F1 guys are no doubt tough, and very skilled but fighter pilots can torture a passenger and do it at 700+ mph and 60,000 feet vertical. And the craft is not some cheap 5 or 7 million dollar car, the top fighters planes cost that much to fly for a mission.

[rfuerst911sc]

It's being reported that all 10 teams have agreed to sign the new contract for 2021-2025 . So does that mean Haas is staying in the game ? Or is that a placeholder and the team could be sold ? I would like to see them stay , get a good sponsor on board and get more competitive . Wouldn't hurt to hire two new drivers also .

[rfuerst911sc]

The Williams F1 team has been sold to US investment firm Dorilton Capital .

[Halm]

Great, now the two worst teams on the grid are both US owned!

[astrochex]

https://racer.com/2020/08/21/williams-sale-puts-team-first-claire-williams

[legion]

There's nothing that gets a better return on your money than auto racing. Heck, I know several people that have used auto racing to generate a large sum of money, of course they started with a much larger sum of money, but...details...

[javadog]

Actually, most F1 team principals have managed to get fairly rich running F1 teams, so I guess you can make (yourself) some money in racing.

Frank Williams didn't have a pot to piss in when he started but I'd say he's wealthy now.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

It's being reported that all 10 teams have agreed to sign the new contract for 2021-2025 . So does that mean Haas is staying in the game ? Or is that a placeholder and the team could be sold ? I would like to see them stay , get a good sponsor on board and get more competitive . Wouldn't hurt to hire two new drivers also .

You see this a lot, a good driver in a not so good car. And then there's the salary, or in many cases how much sponsorship money the driver brings to the team. IDT a simple driver change will put Haas any higher on the grid. Better to split the money, and I don't even suggest evenly, between drivers and engineers. That's the core of the effort and if there isn't complete synergy you might as well get in the car yourself and see what you can do. That's about the size of the situation when the driver/engineer relationship isn't completely productive.

Other aspects of the team are obviously mechanical and race strategy, as well as top performance in the pits and in the factory. Mechanical issues and the race itself and be unpredictable (to a point) compared to car design and driver function as a pair.

However, my completely uneducated opinion is that Grosjean may be past his prime. He was fast when he first started in F1. He has driven for 3 teams if you include his brief F1 ride with his F2 team Renault in 2009. He's been with Haas since the days of of the Lotus team bouncing back and forth under the names Lotus and Renault. 4 years with 2020 being his 5th at Hass, his contract is ending this year.

We shall see what happens with Grosjean and indeed, Haas. The thing is, whenever Grosjean has dropped back into a feeder series he has been very successful. So, is it the driver, the car or the engineering? The choices faced are like which reliever to select in the top of the 6th with the beginning of the batting order on deck and 2 men on, with one out.

That takes exceptional experience. Hass just isn't exceptional in any way.

Williams? Well, if they are sold, the best thing to do at this time, IMHO, is rid the place of anyone named Williams and move the main principals up one notch if they are worthy. Wholesale house cleaning would be recipe for terminating the team. Starting with an entirely regrouped organization hasn't shown well in history.

[Deschodt]

Turkey is in...

After Imola November 1st, we now get Turkey from Nov 13 to 15 pending approval by the FIA (which should not be an issue)

Then 3 persian gulf races - 2 races in Bahreïn, Nov 29 and Dec 6.
Final race at Yas Marina December 13.

Not too bad for a Covid Season, and post Spa this w/e no more party mode...(watch, somehow mercedes will be even faster! ;-)

[Geneman]

ANYmore discussion about the williams sale from the learned folks here? seems to me the price paid was rock bottom..a measly 176 mil. for full f1 team with all the development/fab. stuff included? i thought even mid pack teams had yearly operating budgets much more than that. seems like fire sale to me... but what do i know.... oh have the once mighty have fallen.. msaybe another good example of how the idiots are never let go, but instead, promoted...

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Geneman

ANYmore discussion about the williams sale from the learned folks here? seems to me the price paid was rock bottom..a measly 176 mil. for full f1 team with all the development/fab. stuff included? i thought even mid pack teams had yearly operating budgets much more than that. seems like fire sale to me... but what do i know.... oh have the once mighty have fallen.. msaybe another good example of how the idiots are never let go, but instead, promoted...

Some teams have been sold for just a dollar.

[URY914]

Originally Posted by Geneman

ANYmore discussion about the williams sale from the learned folks here? seems to me the price paid was rock bottom..a measly 176 mil. for full f1 team with all the development/fab. stuff included? i thought even mid pack teams had yearly operating budgets much more than that. seems like fire sale to me... but what do i know.... oh have the once mighty have fallen.. msaybe another good example of how the idiots are never let go, but instead, promoted...

So we won't be seeing their equipment on racingjunk.com?

[Noah930]

Interesting article. So who really owns Williams now? Don Nichols?

https://www.yahoo.com/autos/williams-f1-sale-raises-questions-193500337.html

[Captain Ahab Jr]

https://www.grandprix247.com/2020/08/24/who-are-new-williams-owners-dorilton-capital/

Was told on good authority if they hadn't sold the team would not have made it to the end of the season

[oldE]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Fighter pilots have to wear a G-suit just to survive and stay awake during the maneuvers. F1 guys are no doubt tough, and very skilled but fighter pilots can torture a passenger and do it at 700+ mph and 60,000 feet vertical. And the craft is not some cheap 5 or 7 million dollar car, the top fighters planes cost that much to fly for a mission.

Glen,
The G forces which most affect fighter pilots are experienced through a vertical plain. The pitch up of the nose (either in a climb or to turn hard) sees the blood supply try to remain on its original path and head to the legs. The G suit tries its best to overcome this. The effects may be felt for a few seconds at a time for perhaps five minutes of combat.
F1 drivers biggest problem is the lateral G forces experienced for perhaps 20 to 30% of a lap over a period of between one and a half to two hours. Imagine lying on your side and having sixty or eighty pounds hanging from your head for a half hour. Might be fatiguing.

Best
Les

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

https://www.grandprix247.com/2020/08/24/who-are-new-williams-owners-dorilton-capital/

Was told on good authority if they hadn't sold the team would not have made it to the end of the season

Wow, that is scary. I wonder if/how executive personnel may change as a result of the acquisition. I have no insight into Williams, but it appears to me that Claire was not a bad team principal.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by oldE

Glen,
The G forces which most affect fighter pilots are experienced through a vertical plain. The pitch up of the nose (either in a climb or to turn hard) sees the blood supply try to remain on its original path and head to the legs. The G suit tries its best to overcome this. The effects may be felt for a few seconds at a time for perhaps five minutes of combat.
F1 drivers biggest problem is the lateral G forces experienced for perhaps 20 to 30% of a lap over a period of between one and a half to two hours. Imagine lying on your side and having sixty or eighty pounds hanging from your head for a half hour. Might be fatiguing.

Best
Les

No doubt at all, the neck strain of a F1 driver is off the carts and those guys are tough athletes. But they are driving at the peak of car evolution. I remember one designer was playing with designing a car on a computer with unlimited budget, and all the bells and whistles modern technology had created, and no rules to restrict him. So active aero, active suspension, traction control, ABS and as much power as possible to make. They figured it would be so fast as to make it deadly or at least harmful to the driver.

I guess the other difference in F1 drivers and fighter pilots is no one ever is trying their best to kill you with air to air missilies, bullets, and surface to air missiles.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by astrochex

Wow, that is scary. I wonder if/how executive personnel may change as a result of the acquisition. I have no insight into Williams, but it appears to me that Claire was not a bad team principal.

I have never been impressed with Claire. It's often been rumored that the team would have done better had her brother run it but who knows?

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by javadog

I have never been impressed with Claire. It's often been rumored that the team would have done better had her brother run it but who knows?

I recall reading an article that said the same thing.