Headlines away from the track: F1

[IndyAndy]

Renault F1 shows "Crashtor" Maldonado the door, making room for Kevin Magnussen to return to a race seat.

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[forty_three]

Renault F1 shows "Crashtor" Maldonado the door, making room for Kevin Magnussen to return to a race seat.

www.telegraph.co.uk

This is some of the best news I have heard all offseason.

 

[IndyAndy]

Force India has found a teenager who comes with a big fat wad of money to help them with their financial difficulties.

at least it's only a developmental deal

 

[IndyAndy]

There will be at least one Rookie in F1 this season:

Manor signs Pascal Wehrlein

 

[IndyAndy]

Manor will have an all Rookie line-up:

Manor signs Rio Haryanto

 

[forty_three]

F1 teams agree elimination style qualifying for 2016

Not usually a big fan of changes to "improve the show", but I like this.

Here's how it's gonna work:
Q1
-16 minutes duration;

- After 7 minutes, the slowest driver is eliminated;

- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;

- 7 drivers eliminated, 15 progress to Q2.

Q2
- 15 minutes duration;

- After 6 minutes, slowest driver eliminated;

- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;

- 7 drivers eliminated, 8 progress to Q3.

Q3
- 14 minutes;

- After 5 minutes, slowest driver eliminated;

- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;

- 2 drivers left in final 1 minute 30 seconds.

No more having the Merc or Ferrari Boys sitting in the garage waiting until the 5 minutes left mark to lay down a hot one. Makes every qual lap count as well. You get out of shape and you're on the bubble? Bye bye.

I think this should mix up the grid nicely.

 

[IndyAndy]

F1 teams agree elimination style qualifying for 2016

Not usually a big fan of changes to "improve the show", but I like this.

Here's how it's gonna work:
Q1
-16 minutes duration;

- After 7 minutes, the slowest driver is eliminated;

- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;

- 7 drivers eliminated, 15 progress to Q2.

Q2
- 15 minutes duration;

- After 6 minutes, slowest driver eliminated;

- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;

- 7 drivers eliminated, 8 progress to Q3.

Q3
- 14 minutes;

- After 5 minutes, slowest driver eliminated;

- Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag;

- 2 drivers left in final 1 minute 30 seconds.

No more having the Merc or Ferrari Boys sitting in the garage waiting until the 5 minutes left mark to lay down a hot one. Makes every qual lap count as well. You get out of shape and you're on the bubble? Bye bye.

I think this should mix up the grid nicely.

That sounds awesome.

 

[IndyAndy]

The folks at COTA say that the USGP will happen, & that the weekend will include "the biggest concert in Austin's history"

Taylor Swift to perform at USGP weekend

Not sure how that's supposed to help sell race seats.

 

[forty_three]

The folks at COTA say that the USGP will happen, & that the weekend will include "the biggest concert in Austin's history"

Taylor Swift to perform at USGP weekend

Not sure how that's supposed to help sell race seats.

The big key is insuring the race against rain-out this year. They lost a boatload of money last year because of the storm.

And it's good that they are realizing that they need to frame the weekend with events for people who are coming as a guest of the guy who is a car nut. Look at Monaco, so many fashion shows, concerts, big parties, etc.

My favorite race weekend I ever went to was the Washington Grand Prix on the parking lot at RFK Stadium in Washington DC. ALMS, TransAm, Touring Cars, SCCA, and a Celebrity race for the petrolhead. But there were a TON Of other events on the grounds. Not all car related. BMX and Skateboard contests to fashion shows to a food hall with representation from a bunch of gourmet restaurants. Entry included with the price of your ticket.

Mrs 43 had no real interest in the cars, but she still had a good time. I stood at turn four for three hours watching the race, she wandered about the grounds.

You're pretty much always gonna sell tickets to hardcore fans. Get each fan to bring one extra person, and you've doubled your revenue.

 

[forty_three]

Aston Martin confirms technology partnership with Red Bull

Poop. That was supposed to be Audi on that RBR.

But thanks to the dipshits who decided to cheat emissions at VW, RBR had to find someone else to put their name on it.

 

[forty_three]

Here come the fireworks. Christian Horner has said on BBC that F1 should apologize to fans over qualifying.

And this is making the rounds on social media. It's taken by a fan with 3 minutes left in Q3:


That's looking down start/finish straight.

Rumors already that it's gonna be scrapped at Bahrain. Haven't seen confirmation yet.

 

[Retroram52]

It is a complete joke and it basically gives the pole each week to Hamilton or Rosberg without much effort from either of them and punishes everyone else for even trying. Whose unilateral wet dream was this BS remains to be discovered.

 

[IndyAndy]

Yeah, that was a bad joke to be sure.

 

[Retroram52]

Well, if Bernie vows to scrap this, perhaps the man still has a brain left to be viable.

 

[forty_three]

Like I said, I get the spirit, but it completely backfired. First, teams sucked the life out of it. Second, it actually punished some guys from the spots they should have had. Both Grosjean and Gutierrez should have been through to the 2nd. And Ricciardo was in 5th, got jumped by two guys and was left without enough time to defend it.

Given one more lap, you can bet Daniel would be starting 4th or 5th.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

And apparently qualifying stays the same for Bahrain.

Unfuckingbelievable.....

 

[Retroram52]

Yea and Bernie stated after Australia that they were scrapping that crazy qualifying mess. WTH?

 

[lakersrule]

The new qualifying format is really puzzling. What was the reasoning behind it? The old format could be quite exciting with several drivers on a hot lap as time expires.

 

[IndyAndy]

The new qualifying format is really puzzling. What was the reasoning behind it? The old format could be quite exciting with several drivers on a hot lap as time expires.

They thought that it would lead to more on-track action, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.

 

[Retroram52]

Yea with drivers literally not even trying and sitting in the pits with minutes left to go. What an abortion!