Pretty sure an enclosed car was discussed when the halo was being developed/considered. IIRC, enclosed was scrapped due to necessity for driver to get out most riki tik.

It would be interesting but I think we saw a version of just that a few years ago. First when FIA disallowed teams from setting up the clutch for starts. Hamilton really suffered and most races lost positions at the start. Oddly enough the rule was changed.

Second, the year when team instructions to driver was banned. Hamilton (and a lot of other drivers) had difficulty getting optimum performance without the aid of the engineers.

It would be interesting to see just how good he is and just how much of his success has been the car and engineer assistance. A move to the mid field would certainly show it.

re: Mazepin... I don't wanna play devil's advocate because I largely agree with you and I'm not a fan of his, but I did listen to a long podcast interview of his, and also a joe Saward piece where he expected him to beat Mick (Joe, like MAzepin also full of himself but knowledgeable) and it's not quite as clear cut..

- the Haas was a complete POS, Last year, imagine this year !
- His Haas was more of a POS than schumi's, not a joke, his chassis was heavier and different somehow, Gunther acknowledged that, I listened to that interview and as much as I wanted to hate him for being a billionaire son with no manners and attitude, he comes out at quite the hard working level headed guy overall, rich sure, but not as as$$-holic as expected. He made some good points about his crap chassis and his turnaround in fortunes when they finally gave him a new one (still heavier)...
He did OK on the ladder to F1 and Mick totaled more cars than him so no doubt the car was a real POS..

Let's keep being amused but maybe keep an open mind this year and see... He may not be a bad driver... I'm so glad Grosjean and Magnussen bailed and are doing well here ! Haas has been a career killer in the past 3yrs.

for the brain trust comments

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/59951382

^Thats a little harsh. The article did point out two ways in which Masi did not follow the rules at the close of Abu Dhabi.

But the optics do come off per the meme.

One rule that should change is under a red flag, if racing is stopped and all cars are in the pits, the cars should have no tire changes or wing adjustments at all. The car should remain in the "as raced" condition. I am OK with taking off the times and putting them in warming blankets, but the exact same tires need to go back on the car.

New tires should result in a 5 car position drop for the restart.

I agree, red flag, don't touch your car.

Not a HAM or VER fan, just a racing fan. The end of the Abu Dhabi race was a s*^t show. Teams make decisions based on rules and past decisions. Mercedes can be criticized for not bringing HAM in for tires when LAT crashed. But with so few laps left and the prime rival at least 5 cars back, why take the chance. Massi gave the race and the title to VER. In my view, letting just the cars between the two of them by and not all lapped cars was political. T

he rule says all cars need to be sent around before the race can restart. If that had happened the race would have ended under yellow. Or the race is restarted in the order the cars are running, meaning VER would have had to pass 5 cars in one lap. While that outcome is not assured, HAM would have had a head start.

HAM drove the best race, had things well in hand. manged his race craft and his team made good calls. VER only won because of the race director free styling. In my view VER's title will always have an *.

From my view, I hope HAM does come back, the racing was great.

Agree 100% with red flag procedure recommendation.

I think 5 positions is light for a penalty. Make it 10 to make them think twice about taking a significant advantage.

Absolutely agree. In the past few years that have been several races where one driver has benefited from being lucky enough to be P1 when a Red Flag occurs and then they get to remain such by making changes during Red. Otherwise they would have cycled back, in other words a free pit stop while the dude formerly in P1 basically gets a big screw for having his strategy.


I'll say again that the race in question could have cleared lapped cars much sooner, like 5 laps or more sooner. They need to start that once lead car is behind SC. Otherwise you end up with this situation. I believe Masi didn't want the season or WDC to be finished under SC and decided in that fashion, which is why he let those 5 cars go thru. I don't believe he favored either driver nor that it was a mistake/rule infringement. Rather the race director wanting the race and title to be decided by racing.

Crash happened with 5 laps left so they could not have cleared it with 5 laps left. Given the location, safety car is deployed, picks up the field, safety crews dispatched, remove the car. Best case scenario is 3 laps which means if all is aligned a two lap shoot out. Given the situation, letting only the cars between HAM and VER to move around "saved" the race as finishing under green but contravened every rule in the book.

Massi blew it pure and simple. If I am HAM I am rightly pissed, followed the rules, did not let VER rattle him, had a 12 second lead with no chance of that being cut by VER and then the s^*t show with free style decisions. If Massi's goal was to finish under green then he should have left all of the cars in place, dropped the green and watched the outcome. But no, he put his thumb on the scale.

Asterisk title, not clean. Kinda like Senna and Prost. That one was equally stupefying but at least it was a blatant act by a driver and not a political act like this.

Sort of F1 related
 

Villeneuve heading for Daytona 500 next month. Trying to quali that is.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1642075023.jpg

This would seem to be true. If the car is upside down in the gravel, the weight of the car would be holding the canopy. Frankly, it's not always easy for a driver to exit a stock car.
When Ryan Newman was upside down at Daytona, he couldn't get out right away.

However, IDK all the factors. He could have been knocked out for a brief period. But many others have been stuck for too long should a fire have occurred.

can't even spell his name right, LOL

Aston Martin has announced they will reveal their 2022 car on February 10th . They are the first to announce . We're getting closer to the season opener .

If interested here is the BBC summary of the investigation into Abu Dhabi.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/60007031

I think the FIA has lost the plot. I have no confidence in their new president, nor do I think the current owners of F1 have done a good job. As much as I hated Ecclestone, things have gone downhill since he left. Every single year, the sport gets less attractive to me.

Gawd you guys still on last's year's Massi/FIA etc ??? I know the british press is relentless about it, we don't need to be. They stole it from Hamilton, and I for one am glad for it... makes up for silverstone.

Stuff happening at Alpine, not all good... The new big boss (Rossi) fired the old team manager (martin bud..something polish with "ski" at the end) for no good reason other than wanting to be the man, apparently.. Too bad, I liked the Martin guy and he seemed competent ! And Prost too, was let go as an advisor... He fired back quite nicely on social media that Rossi told him he "needed no advice at all" ;-) Too bad, the team was on the way up, we'll see - maybe it won't matter if the chassis is good..

Still believing Otmar Szafxxx (something unwritable, like the polish guy) will come over as team manager and rumors ar he will possibly bring with him the "Pink water" sponsor... Notice how good I am with names on this post? Good news for Aston (nicer green scheme without that horrible pink - something only wimbledon and the Margate hovercraft terminal pulled off), and good news for my credit card as I will no longer need to add to my Alpine clothing line if this happens - Pink and blue ? nooo...

Also, if you're real car guys, Monte carlo WRC this week end on red bull TV (free app) !!