F1 season 2015 coming up

Perhaps Ferrari has something with what to compete against Mercedes?

Kimi Raikkonen completed a successful first pre-season test for Ferrari by setting the pace on the final day at Spain's Jerez track.
It is the third time in four days a Ferrari has been fastest, as the teams reached one-third distance in their preparations for the 2015 season.
Sauber's Marcus Ericsson was second ahead of Lewis Hamilton, whose Mercedes team completed by far the most mileage.
McLaren had another tough day, still struggling with their new Honda engine.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/31135927



Kimi Raikkonen: Ferrari driver happy with improvements to car

Kimi Raikkonen believes Ferrari have made significant improvements to the car over the winter.
The 2007 world champion, who was 12th in the drivers' standings last year, finished second quickest behind Sauber's rookie Felipe Nasr on his first day of testing at Jerez.
Raikkonen, 35, completed 92 laps driving the 2015 SF15-T Ferrari car.
"You usually know if a car is good or not, and this year is a completely different story to last year," he said



Go Kimi Go!!!

 

Far too early , of course, but I would love to see Valtteri Bottas win the championship. . He and Williams did a remarkable job last year. Would love to see some wider competition. but big money will win again is my guess. Ferrari has been spun off by Fiat and must generate it's own revenue this year so that may even them out. Mercedes will probably be a juggernaut again. It will take Honda some time to develop but they have the resources and know how.

At least it indeed looks more interesting so far.. But fastest times in practice do not mean a whole lot about who is fastest but is good if linked to total laps.. ..

 

That is true. We´ll see after the first race what the cars are worth truly in the competition. Bottas seems quite happy with the new Williams version so interesting to see how he does. Many have said he did not do many mistakes in driving last season, and Williams seems to see him as a very valuable driver for the future.

 

Already got tickets to the Albert Park event in Melbourne, Father has his car on show their so got my way in

 

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo narrowly outpaced Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Williams' Felipe Massa on the second day of the second pre-season test.
The three were separated by less than 0.1 seconds at the halfway point of Formula 1's preparations for the new season.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg of world champions Mercedes finished fifth and sixth fastest.
It was a better day for struggling McLaren-Honda, who ran problem-free.
Fernando Alonso set the sixth-fastest time despite a cobbled-together fix for an engine problem that had ended team-mate Jenson Button's efforts on Thursday after just 21 laps.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/31553542

 

Have to ask: Why would McLaren use a Honda engine- what's wrong with a McLaren engine, and does Honda use anything other than Honda engines?

 

Poppy, McLaren is primarily a chassis and body builder. Last year they bought engines from Mercedes, clearly the best F 1 engine in 2014. They also use Mercedes engines in their rare road cars. why they are switching to Honda I do not know but it may take Honda a few seasons but they can make a world class F 1 engine. They have won a F-1 Championship before using a car entirely made by themselves and their racing morocyles is a great technical help. ....Still in the first year with the sealed engine rule they will have difficulties. . Someone correct me but until Honda showed up only Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault made competitive engines and the latter two were slower in development last season.

Ferrari and Mercedes are the only two groups making their own entire car. . Ferrari at Maranello and Mercedes in the UK. Of course Mercedes does some engineering in Germany but their entire car is made and maintained in Britain or so I believe. . They bought the old GM -Ilmore plant to make racing engines and no one beats the British in chassis design...of late.. Cotsworth use to do engine development work for Mercedes.

I hope this year is more competitive. Mercedes may be sandbagging or not. Honda is rumored to be exploring building and entire F-1 car. Be great if Toyota would come in as well. The only others I believe capable are BMW which did not do well in their last effort and VW that has enormous potential. The VW Group, which includes Audi, Porsche, Bugatti, Ducati, Seat, Bentley, Skoda ( I believe), and Lamborghini has massive know how..

Other than the effort of Dan Gurney-American Eagle, a few decades back F-1 simple does not interest enough Americans so I do not see them being a force..... Toyota had to scrap their DOHC V -8's and go to pushrods for NASCAR. Reverse engineering !!! .

What are the latest F-1 engines , 1.6 liter V-6's with turbochargers and KERS electric power recovery systems ?. A terribly complex device. At the beginning of the season you are given what 10-12 engines per car, all sealed so no further work can be done during the season. Honda probably can handle it but hard to do in a year . I preferred the 2.5 V-8's with normal aspiration. More emphasis on chassis and drivers..

Hope this is a better season.

.

 

Because had heard that McLaren had the fastest production car. maybe. ..Their production car does not use a McLaren engine?

Enjoy the fanfare and the cars, but the races never seem to be competitive. Is that true.

 

If some team has the best car and can go some 1 second faster laps than others, or more, then they are practically running away from the others. I recall when Williams did that, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes.

 

Poppy, the MacLaren F 1 road car, I believe 100 or so built had a Mercedes V-12 based engine. When they brought out the 12C they decided to build their own V-8 of 3.8 liters to reflect Formula ! technology. A version of it is in the newer P-1. It has twin turbos and makes 727 horsepower but the car also has two electric motors bringing the total to over 900. It leaves the factory limited to 218 MPH so top speed is unclear. The Bugatti Veryson comes in multiple flavors but most will turn about 250 mph. They , of course are V-16's of 8 liters. Then there id the La Ferrari !!!!

I am torn between which one to buy, one of the three or a used Ford Escape.

One of the on going criticisms of F 1 is lack of close racing. Kai is correct, as usual !!, generally one car has a slight edge and it builds up over the race. NASCAR and INDY cars solve that by throwing out the caution flag if a nuthatch flies over the course or a cloud develops....I exaggerate but not by much. This causes the cars to bunch up erasing the built up lead and often causing crashes that may take out the front runner. Plus they are all very near identical cars with only minor changes. NASCAR cars are space framed, all are near identical, with engines bench tested the same horse power. The bodies are aero tested to the same CD all which puts them in a very competitive position to excite the fans . Racing around some version of a circle is not as complex as a road course, IMHO.

I have been moving toward World Ralley cars.

 

I enjoy DAKAR whenever it's broadcast. Those things are brutes, enjoy seeing the supply trucks racing along too. Lots of money to do that stuff as well, imagine.
F1 has a great build up. The first lap often results in another first lap. ..Then not a lot happens.

And you need to experience a Honda Fit. It is...peppy. Tiny TruckNutz though.
http://trucknutz.com/

 

you guys seem to know a lot about racing...but it's hardly ever in the news compared to other sports....I'm very glad to be able to 'expand' my ''world'' on the forum here....is it 'exciting' to watch those long races??..can anyone win, or just the best??

 

Finnish Ari Vatanen has won the race four times and he says that everybody in France knows him and wants signatures and photos of him.... We have and have had great drivers in WRC, F1 etc.

 

Kai, is that a given name ???, I have long been impressed that Finland with it's small population produces so many good racing drivers. WRC I understand but F 1 is truly impressive !

Poppy, I love the Paris DAKAR . The coverage could be better but sometimes it is quite good. Some machines !!

Bronk, I started following F 1 when I was about 15-16, in rural Alabama. The local magazine stand carried a few copies of Road and Tract for pilots at the nearby Air Base and I always paid my quarter for one. No way then to see a race, not even on News Reels and early TV certainly did not cover it. But I read every word Rob Walker wrote. He was the UK Correspondent for R&T and the heir to Johnny Walker Scotch. I lived 12 miles from town, on a farm , and had to imagine F 1 . By 1956 I could draw a cross section of a DOHC engine blindfolded !. Today we have wall to wall coverage covering practices, qualifying, all the races from ever angle in HD. , interviews, race analysis, etc. Plus many dedicated websites and the BBC and Daily News, London even provides gossip and who will be driving what. A flood of data .. In 1980 and again in 85 I got to visit Rob Walker at his home in Wiltshire, a boy hood dream come true. I have only seen two Grand Prix's in the real, but rarely miss one on TV.. 60 years is a long time to follow an esoteric sport ! I also follow MOTO GP.

Thought there are occasional upsets mostly strong teams with top drivers win. . I can understand why many find it ironically slow to watch a race. But dumb old me will watch it out. The technology is fascinating but it means only well supported teams are competitive. ..

 

Yes, GT, that is my actual name...I simply did not want to use something like Finnish iceman. I leave that to Kimi... he´s much better in that...

The only sad thing about Dakar is the number of drivers getting killed...especially in the desert where you just enter the cliff edge and suddenly it´s 30 meters downwards...ouch!

 

Read that as "Road and Tractor", but you're not that old G.

I am jealous of Ari Vatanen, and pretty sure his life is awesome. sniff
The Iceman. Cool. You are now registered as such.
People can call me The Chinook (hot wind blowing).

 

Poppy wrote: "And you need to experience a Honda Fit. It is...peppy. Tiny Truck "

Poppy, my wife decided to trade her 12 year old Toyota RAV4, completely reliable, and decided on a Nissan Cube. Her car but I wanted her to get a Fit. . Nissan dropped importing Cubes this year, too peculiar for most but she loves it.. I have an Element, 5 speed AWD , made in Hamilton, Ontario and you could not pries me out of it ! Also discontinued .

Hard to believe the first F 1 race is looming...& Kai, great name ! I always use my real name on forums . Someone, maybe Poppy, will steal my identity. , he has a secret desire to be a redneck Southerner.!

Gaines

 

Sorry, but G likes the Kai. I loved it too. Great show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRkkAo2Hj7I

 

Aargh. That last post didn't stick. Sorry for that one.

The Cube is distinctive. The AWD would be a bonus. Nissan makes good stuff.
Back in highschool, buddy had an older Datsun something something. 4 dr standard (what was it, looked square-500?). But it sounded like a rally car, and we tore up the streets and parks in winter.
Other buddy had a 2 dr Datsun (want to say 210)he kept pristine. Was fun tooling around, changing gears, weak squeek burnouts.

 

Interesting, thanx. Kai seems to be a popular theme these days or before... I mean I am a Manutd fan, and Wayne Rooney named his son Kai, so I was a bit stunned by this co-incidence.Thanx for the Kai part Poppy from Lexx if I got it right...