Official F1/Motorsport thread

[sharky_ob]

Decent article about the future of F1 engines by Andrew Benson on the BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2010/04/what_f1s_future_means_for_the.html

[charlaph]

What? Are you saying that the team would make him go slower to make Pedrosa look better? Surely they're more likely to throw their support behind him if he's doing a better job.

That's exactly what I'm saying, and depending on who you believe it's what happened to Hayden, despite him having won HRC the world championship on 2006 (pedrosas debut year) they went and built an 800 bike for Pedrosa that Hayden could barely fight around the track and it backfired with pedrosa then blaming the bike for not being able to win (in reality 2007 was the year that Stoner dominated, and pedrosa ended up beating rossi to 2nd place in the standings, but far from being happy with that pedrosa threatened to walk out on HRC and pretty much p!ssed off every other honda rider in the process with his moaning) I don't know the full details of the internal politics but I can't imagine Dovi ever being the #1 Honda rider.

The real fly in the oitment right now is DePuniet, who was hamstrung with limited revs last year but still managed to impress up until he had his 'training' accident. If HRC knew that nobody would go faster on a Honda then yes, I honestly think HRC would rather have Pedrosa being their top rider and accept their lower rankings and keep pocketing the Repsol sponsorship money¹. With the very real danger of dePuniet finishing above both repsol riders I'm not sure what they'll do - they might even throw parts at Aoyama and try to build around him instead of either of the Repsol riders? Couldn't happen this year but with Pedrosas contract up for renegotiation it'll be fascinating to see what happens in the first half of this year. If he doesn't deliver he could easily wind up not being the #1 HRC rider for the first time in, what? 7 years? that'll be a major hit.

I find Pedrosa a real enigma within the top riders, and I used to be a Pedrosa fan. I'd love to see him regain the form he had five years ago, but he's had many good chances to step up and he's never been able to get the consistency needed to live with Stoner and Rossi. He's always wound up 'best of the rest' and only consistently won in Spain or when others fall or have mechanicals. I can't remember him having a proper battle for a while - some of that's down to his style, but some of it isn't, if he's put off his rhythm then he tends to drift backwards.


¹Pedrosa has consistently been the top Honda rider. Look at the numbers and he's doing great - 5th in his debut season, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd. Drill down a bit and it gets less impressive. In 2006 Honda had arguably the best bike (must have for Hayden to win, LOL) 2007 Stoner won the championship by 120+ points, and Rossi was using the second half of the season for testing as much as anything (was this also the year of his tax problems?) 2008 was a mess with the tyre fiasco and he ended up massively behind Rossi and a little back from Stoner when he should really have been right up mixing it with Rossi. Last year was similar, but as well as injury he had chassis and suspension changes - all of his own making (allegedly) and only finished 3rd on account of Stoner being ill and taking races off - for Lorenzo to outride him must have been a real slap in the face.

Now the million dollar question - you stick someone like Edwards, or dePuniet (if supplied with a psychologist) with Pedrosas full factory ride, and offer the same level of support as Pedrosas had (or if they'd sided with Hayden instead of Pedrosa for the 800 era) and would they have done any worse? I'd say no. They might not have done any better, but that Repsol money has meant Pedrosa has had ALL of the breaks that Honda have to offer, yet he's never kicked it up a notch (yes, there have been races, or even spells but it's never been across a whole season). The nub is whether he's capable of doing that (on a honda, or on any bike?) or whether Honda will pull the rug and make this season the deadline. He's had 3 full seasons as the number 1 rider (even when his teammate was wearing the #1 plate!!!) - how long is he going to keep that going on his [deserved] 250 reputation and spanish connections?

So many questions, and I don't know the answers. I'd really like him to come out and put a string of dominating wins together, but I just don't think he's capable of it - partially because he's been 'safe' at honda and surrounded himself with a very supportive team, and if that's true then honda only have themselves to blame.

[sharky_ob]

Wow, I remember the situation with Hayden and Pedrosa after Hayden won the title, but I knew that was a design decision that the team had made which didn't suit Hayden. I never thought a team would actively slow a rider down during the course of a season to placate sponsors. Maybe I'm naive but that obviously isn't racing.

I didn't watch Pedrosa during his 250 days, so I can't comment on that. However, he has never seemed a great racer to me. He's quick, but vulnerable when fighting with opponents. He just doesn't seem to be able to brake as hard or late as other riders so is comparatively easy to overtake at times.

[vanpeebles]

Decent article about the future of F1 engines by Andrew Benson on the BBC website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewben...s_for_the.html

I thought that article was bobbins as most of what was mentioned is already in road cars now. Direct injection petrols and companies like Daihatsu have been turbo chargining small engines for decades now.

[CMcK]

True. But Ferrari just want a motorsport tie in for their current motors which now have direct injection engines.

[Wools]

Damon Hill needs to be the next Bond villan.

[Bort]

oops. forgot about the MotoGP. Qually has already happened.

Jerez

Sunday 2 May
125cc and Moto2 races: 0950-1205, BBC Red Button/online (Moto2 race not available on Freeview)
Race live: 1230-1400, BBC Two/online
MotoGP Extra: 1400-1430, BBC Red Button/online (Not available on Freeview)

[Senna]

First in-car footage of the new Silverstone layout. New corners look a great addition. I'm going to the GP for all 3 days and cannot wait.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2010/04/exclusive-first-flying-lap-of-new-silverstone-circuit/

Great Moto GP race today as well between Lorenzo and Pedrosa, and Rossi had an excellent race what with his injured shoulder. Nice to see Hayden beat Stoner as well, that doesn't happen often between Stoner's Ducati team-mate.

[PeteJ]

This would scare me - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptmg3...eature=popular

[Senna]

Wow.... looks like someone forgot he needed to break!

[Malc]

F1 is back on this weekend:

(UK times)

Spanish Grand Prix
Circuit de Catalunya, 7-9 May 2010

Fri 7 May: Practice 1 0900-1030; Practice 2 1300-1430
Sat 8 May: Practice 3 1000-1100; Qualifying 1300
Sun 9 May: Race 1300

It's also back to back races this time, so the very next weekend it's Monaco!

[Rossco]

Sweeeeeet! I've missed it so much.

[ChrisF]

Video explanation of Massa's "simplified" steering wheel...

[Alastair]

Got a link to any articles on that Chris? I can't see vids at work.

[ChrisF]

This was the original link...

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/04/video-felipe-massas-new-simplified-steering-wheel-explained/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+weblogsinc/autoblog+(Autoblog)&utm_content=Google+Reader

Not sure how useful it is without video though, unfortunately