Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/5HpsAvUDCeM/mercedes-have-some-way-to-go
Vern Schuppan Adolfo Schwelm Cruz Bob Scott Archie Scott Brown Piero Scotti Wolfgang Seidel Gunther Seiffert
woensdag 29 februari 2012
Mercedes have ?some way to go?
Mercedes push this season towards breaking into the top three yielded little success for the German team. They?ve established themselves as a team clear of the midfield but with a 210 point gap in the constructor?s championship to third place Ferrari ? they still have a lot of work to do. On the track: Nico [...]
Reading between the lines in a phoney war
The annual Formula 1 phoney war was in full swing at the second pre-season test at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya this week.
Fernando Alonso was talking down Ferrari's form, Lewis Hamilton was talking up McLaren's - as, intriguingly, was Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. And the unlikely combination of Kamui Kobayashi and Sauber set the fastest time of the week.
As ever, the headline lap times were a poor guide to the order of the grid that can be expected in Melbourne at the first race in just three weeks' time.
But look behind the fastest laps, and there is usually a way of gleaning at least some sense of form ahead of the season.
Fernando Alonso's Ferrari could yet to turn out to be a dark horse. Photo: Getty
I'll preface what follows with a major caveat - this has been one of the most difficult tests to read for some time. But here goes.
Red Bull, as ever, looked especially strong. Vettel was fastest of all on the first day of the test, and throughout the four days he and team-mate Mark Webber set consistently formidable-looking times.
On Wednesday afternoon, Vettel and Hamilton set out to do race-distance runs at more or less the same time. Both did 66 laps - the length of the Spanish Grand Prix, which will be held at the track in May.
Vettel did five pit stops; Hamilton four. Discount laps on which they went in and out of the pits and they both managed 55 flying laps. Vettel completed his more than two minutes faster than Hamilton.
If that was repeated in a race, Hamilton would be lapped by the end.
And the pattern was repeated on Thursday with Mark Webber and Jenson Button, although the margin was reduced to about half a minute.
Of course, this is very far from an exact scientific comparison.
They didn't use the same tyres as each other - although they don't necessarily have to in the race either.
We don't know what they were doing with fuel loads - although it would be counter-intuitive to start putting fuel in at pit stops because it would provide the team with data that was never going to be relevant to competition.
And it's an especially confusing situation because only the day before Vettel was saying how impressed he had been with the McLaren's pace on the longer runs.
But there was more - none of it especially happy ready for those hoping for a close season.
On the Wednesday, Vettel's fastest time of all was nearly a second faster than Hamilton's on the same type of tyres. Although both were set on very short runs - suggesting a qualifying-type simulation - that's still potentially meaningless as there is no way of knowing the level of fuel on board at the time.
Nevertheless, if you then look at the lap times both were doing at the start of their race-distance runs, they were about the same margin slower than each driver's fastest laps as you would expect given a full race fuel load.
That suggests that the headline lap times of those two drivers could be a reasonably accurate indicator of form - again worrying for McLaren.
Of course, this is only testing, and teams have updates to put on their cars before the first race - as Button pointed out. And everyone expects McLaren to be a close to challenger at the front come Melbourne. Nevertheless, few are under any illusions about Red Bull's strength.
"You're old enough, Andrew," one senior insider said to me during the test, "to know that Red Bull look very strong. McLaren and Ferrari are a bit behind. Force India look like they have a quick car, too."
He might have added that the new Mercedes looks quite decent as well.
But few teams are as difficult to understand right now as Ferrari - who have not done any race simulations to compare with their main rivals.
The messages coming out of the team have all seemed pretty negative.
There has been a lot of attention put on technical director Pat Fry's remark at the first test in Jerez that Ferrari were "not happy" with their understanding of the car.
Start raking through the time sheets, though, and you begin wonder what's behind all the negativity.
On headline lap times, Alonso was less than 0.3secs behind Vettel. And on both his days he started 10-lap runs with a lap in the region of one minute 24.1 seconds.
If you take 10 laps' worth of fuel off that time, you are left with a lap in the low 1:23sec bracket - again, not far off what Vettel managed. And you can bet the Ferrari was running with more than just 10 laps of fuel anyway; most top teams routinely test with 60-80kg of fuel on board.
In other words, the Ferrari actually looks reasonably fast, and an insider did admit: "The car is not as bad as a lot of people think."
If - and it's a big if - Ferrari can start to extract that potential before the first race of the season, Red Bull might just have a serious fight on their hands. And that's without even considering what McLaren might be able to achieve.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/02/reading_between_the_lines_in_a.html
Jarno Trulli Esteban Tuero Guy Tunmer Jack Turner Toni Ulmen
Patrese says Ferrari should hire an Italian | F1 Fanatic round-up
Patrese says Ferrari should hire an Italian is an original article from F1 Fanatic If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
In the round-up: Riccardo Patrese suggests Ferrari should replace Felipe Massa with a young Italian driver.
Patrese says Ferrari should hire an Italian is an original article from F1 Fanatic If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/Jf4Gep-lRl8/
Joachim Winkelhock Manfred Winkelhock Markus Winkelhock Reine Wisell Roelof Wunderink Alexander Wurz Sakon Yamamoto
383/440 Headers
Any one make these in 1/24-1/25 scale headers for b and e bodies?In resin anyone anyone
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1004327.aspx
Ted Whiteaway Graham Whitehead Peter Whitehead Bill Whitehouse Robin Widdows Eppie Wietzes Mike Wilds
Double BAFTA success for Senna movie
Senna has won the BAFTA awards for Best Documentary and Best Editing in tonight’s event at the Royal Opera House in London, giving F1 a boost in front of a star-studded audience that included the likes of Brad Pitt, George … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/02/12/double-bafta-success-for-senna-movie/
Fred Wacker David Walker Peter Walker Lee Wallard Heini Walter
dinsdag 28 februari 2012
How good is Bruno Senna?
Bruno Senna describes sealing a drive at Williams in 2012 as "the start of my Formula 1 career for real". It is a date that could have come three years previously, had events turned out slightly differently.
In the winter of 2008-9, the nephew of the Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna was on the verge of being signed by the Honda team after impressing in a test alongside Jenson Button.
But then Honda pulled out of F1, team principal Ross Brawn was forced to spend the winter desperately trying to save the team, and when he did so at the 11th hour, he thought it better, given the circumstances, to stick with the experience of Rubens Barrichello rather than the promise he had seen in the younger Brazilian.
Now the wheel has turned full circle, and it is Senna who has deprived Barrichello of a seat in F1. But it has been a long time coming.
Bruno Senna drove for HRT in 2010 and spent most of 2011 as a reserve for Renault. Photo: Getty
While Button went on to win the world title for the reconstituted Brawn team in 2009, Senna was left to scrape around for a drive in sportscars, biding his time before another chance in F1 came up, before landing a drive with the nascent HRT outfit in 2010.
The dream turned into a nightmare as the team limped through their maiden season, and for Senna it was a relief to leave, even if it again meant he did not have a full-time grand prix drive.
He spent most of 2011 as a reserve driver for Renault, doing very little driving, before being drafted in to replace the sacked veteran Nick Heidfeld for the final eight races of the year.
The fractured nature of his brief F1 career so far reflects that of his rise up the junior formulae and means it is very difficult to assess the quality of a driver on whom, realistically, a post-restructure Williams will depend to revive their failing fortunes, given the erratic form shown by his team-mate Pastor Maldonado in his debut season last year.
Senna's path to the Williams seat was eased by a substantial sponsorship package from Brazil, a situation that will inevitably see him labelled in some quarters as a 'pay-driver'.
This is quite a stigma in F1 - it traditionally means the driver needed to bring money to make him attractive to team, the implication being that his talent on its own was not enough.
Both he and Williams were at pains to emphasise on Tuesday that they had put their new driver through a rigorous assessment programme before signing him up - and that any talk of money had followed only once they had established to their satisfaction that he was good enough.
"We had an extensive driver-evaluation programme with a handful of drivers," said chief engineer Mark Gillan, "and we made the final decision based on raw pace, consistency, tyre management, technical feedback and mental capacity - and most importantly the potential impact they would have on the team.
"In all those areas it was very clear that Bruno has not had a lot of experience in single-seater racing, but has consistently shown improvement and real talent."
Of course, Gillan would say that - Williams chief executive Adam Parr spent a long time last year trying to convince the world that Maldonado was not a 'pay-driver', despite the sponsorship deal with Venezeula's national oil company that accompanied him to the team.
Maldonado has talent - he out-qualified team-mate Barrichello at Monaco last year, for example - but it is fair to say that he would not be in an F1 car without that help.
Senna is a different case.
Ayrton Senna once said of Bruno: "If you think I'm good, wait until you see my nephew." That, though, was when Bruno was cutting his teeth in karts in Brazil as a child. The great man's death brought Bruno's fledgling career to a shuddering halt at the age of 10.
His family forbade him from racing, and it was not until 10 years later - very late for a man to start a career in single-seater racing cars - that Bruno was able to take it up again.
It has meant a career on fast-forward, and the necessity to soak up vast amounts of information and experience much quicker than his rivals.
Ayrton Senna once said of Bruno: "If you think I'm good, wait until you see my nephew." Photo: AP
Inevitably, that has led to mistakes, but there have also been flashes of real talent, even if it has remained difficult to form a conclusive judgement.
At HRT, the car was awful, the team struggling just to survive and his team-mate Karun Chandhok was then an unknown quantity.
At Renault last year, the qualifying scores between Senna and team-mate Vitaly Petrov - who had not only been in the car all year, but was also in his second season in F1 - were four apiece.
But of the four races where Senna was on top, two of them were the Belgian and Japanese Grands Prix, held at Spa-Francorchamps and Suzuka, two of the three toughest tests for a driver in the world, the other being Monaco. At Spa, on his debut for the team, Senna qualified a brilliant seventh, directly in front of double world champion Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, no less.
With a young driver, especially an inexperienced one, the key is always to look for the highs. The bad points, the crashes, the occasional clumsiness, can be ironed out. But without inherent pace, a driver is going nowhere.
They know a decent driver when they see one at Renault, who have been renamed Lotus for 2012. Trackside operations director Alan Permane has worked with Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica and he says his impressions of Senna were largely positive.
"I don't think there's any doubt about his pace," Permane says. "What lets him down - and he knows it - is his consistency. But he didn't get a chance to show it. He had eight races with us but a lot of them were compromised by car problems."
Permane admits that it is difficult to be sure exactly how quick Senna is because Petrov is not exactly a proven top-level benchmark.
"Bruno was at least as quick as - if not quicker than - Vitaly," Permane says. "It's difficult to say whether he's going to be an Alonso/Kubica/Schumacher character, but some drivers take a long time to come along.
"Look at Jenson Button - when he drove for us, Giancarlo Fisichella destroyed him, and Fisi would be the first guy to admit he's not a mega. He was a very good number two. But now Jenson's fantastic. Can Senna do that? Only time will tell.
"He's very confident, very relaxed, almost performs better under pressure. The cars these days are trickier to drive (than they used to be) for someone who jumps in cold. And I think he did a brilliant job to do that.
"There's definitely something there. He definitely can be there on merit."
Backed by a budget or not, then, Senna more than deserves a chance to show what he can do.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/01/how_good_is_bruno_senna.html
Gaetano Starrabba Chuck Stevenson Ian Stewart Jackie Stewart Jimmy Stewart Siegfried Stohr Rolf Stommelen
'Phantom' 55 Pontivette....Pontiac Nose On........2/27
I have a 55 Pontiac Star-Chief and a 55 Vette. I will combine the two to make one.....
More on it's way...................................
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1004004.aspx
Consalvo Sanesi Stephane Sarrazin Takuma Sato Carl Scarborough Ludovico Scarfiotti Giorgio Scarlatti Ian Scheckter
Bernie Ecclestone - No plans to put the brakes on
 |
The way I feel at the moment, why stop? I do it because I enjoy it. And yesterday is gone. I don't care what happened yesterday. What else would I do? People retire to die. I don't get any individual pleasure because we don't win races or titles in this job. I'm like most business people. You look back at the end of the year and you see what you've achieved by working out how much money the company has made. That's it.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/bernie_ecclestone_no_plans_to.php
Karl Wendlinger Peter Westbury Chuck Weyant Ken Wharton Ted Whiteaway Graham Whitehead Peter Whitehead
McLaren unveil new car for 2012
At McLaren Technology Centre, Woking
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button sat on the stage in front of the car they both hope will take them to the world title this year looking relaxed and happy.
Yet in their responses to apparently innocuous questions, both men revealed much about the different ways in which they approach the 2012 Formula 1 season.
They were asked how they had spent the winter. Button, fresh from arguably his best season yet in the sport, had spent some time in Hawaii. "Somewhere warm to chill out and train," he said, "but it's always the same - you spend a couple of weeks away and you are missing racing, so I was back on 5 January".
Hamilton's 2011, meanwhile, was self-admittedly his worst season yet in F1, with three superb wins interspersed with errors and controversy.
McLaren are set to compete for the title with their new car which was unveiled ahead of the beginning of the Formula One season due to start in March. Photo: Getty
His response to the same question was enlightening."The opposite of Jenson," he said. "I was over in the cold in the mountains in Colorado. I wasn't missing the car too much - it was nice to be away from it awhile, to refresh, start anew, and just getting back to training was great.
"I altered it a little bit this year, I think last year I was training too much. I had a good break and I was grateful to Martin (Whitmarsh, the McLaren team principal) for giving me such a good break."
Later, Hamilton revealed a little more about his desire to make amends for 2011 with a sparkling 2012.
Which race are you most looking forward to, he was asked. "Monaco is the one for me - I want to get back there and have a better race [in which he collided with two drivers and caused a storm with his post-race comments] than last year."
It was a stark illustration of just how much is at stake in 2012 for the man who many still regard as the most naturally talented and out-and-out fastest racing driver in the world.
Whether Hamilton has found the mental equilibrium he desires to enable him to perform consistently at his brilliant best remains to be seen, starting with the first race in Melbourne, Australia, on 18 March.
But much of it may depend on the reason he and Button were up on that stage - the McLaren MP4-27.
His team's failure - for the third year running - to produce a car with which he could consistently challenge at the front was one of the main causes for Hamilton's frustrations last year.
He knows exactly how good he is, so it was galling for him to see yet again that he was not realistically going to challenge for the championship.
As is the way of things, the launch of the new McLaren shed no light whatsoever on whether that will change in 2012.
The car looks nice enough - and it mercifully lacks the "platypus" front seen on the Caterham, the only other new car to break cover so far this year, as a response to new rules lowering the height of the nose.
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There was a lot of talk about McLaren's focus on the aerodynamics at the rear of the car, which featured noticeably tighter packaging than last year, and particularly of the need to make the most of pre-season testing and start the season strongly.
That was where McLaren's campaign began to unravel last season - an over-complex exhaust system led to a terrible pre-season with a car Whitmarsh has described as "neither reliable nor quick".
This year's car contains no obvious stand-out innovations but the team were quick to deny suggestions that McLaren had reined themselves in an attempt to make sure the car runs in testing, which Whitmarsh described as "data-gathering".
Engineering director Tim Goss described the MP4-27 as "a complete re-work from nose to tail".
Technical director Paddy Lowe added: "The regulations are trimming us into narrower and narrower boxes so we don't see the big radical changes from one year to the next, so the car looks quite similar.
But there is a great deal of change underneath.
"There still are obvious innovations. We have done a lot of work around the back end, a lot more tidy packaging there. We have had to respond to the change in the exhaust regulations (banning the blowing of exhausts along the rear floor to boost downforce).
That's given the aerodynamicists a big challenge to come up with the (lost) downforce and the balance."
Lowe and Goss are old hands and they did a great job of straight-batting the questions on the stand-out features of the car and it was left to Whitmarsh to utter F1's dreaded c-word.
"I don't believe we've been inherently conservative," he said. "We've set ourselves some tough targets, targets that we think if we achieve them we will win the world championship. I think we will meet those targets, and if they are the right targets, we will win the championships."
To achieve that obvious aim, though, there is the small matter of having to beat the twin formidable forces of Ferrari and Fernando Alonso and, the combination expected to remain the one to beat, Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel.
Just as the car's tight rear takes more than a small bow towards the all-conquering Red Bulls of the last two seasons, it is clear that McLaren have had their eyes on other aspects of their rivals' dominance as well.
"It didn't go unnoticed that Sebastian Vettel put the car on pole a lot and then pulled the gap (from which he controlled the race)," said Goss. "We're aware of it; we've attempted to find ways to deal with it."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2012/02/at_mclaren_technology_centre_w.html
Raymond Sommer Vincenzo Sospiri Stephen South Mike Sparken Scott Speed Mike Spence Alan Stacey
maandag 27 februari 2012
Crash test failure forces Marussia to miss Barcelona test
Marussia has been forced to skip the forthcoming Barcelona test after the new car failed an FIA crash test. It means that the team may end up going to Australia without running the car unless it can fit in a … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/02/27/crash-test-failure-forces-marussia-to-miss-barcelona-test/
Alejandro de Tomaso Charles de Tornaco Tony Trimmer Maurice Trintignant Wolfgang von Trips
1967 Charger R/T
Started a new project as I build the itch to finish off my 69 GTX pro tour and over coming some problems with my Bel Air. Been wanting to do this one for some time now. Been working crazy long hours so it's taking me awhile to get some things done, however, I managed to get the body in primer and engine half built and painted. Tell me what you guys thing.
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1003826.aspx
David Walker Peter Walker Lee Wallard Heini Walter Rodger Ward Derek Warwick John Watson
Heikki Kovalainen: ?We?re closer than we?ve been before?
Caterham caught the eye at Jerez on Wednesday when Heikki Kovalainen ran more laps than any other driver, the new CT01 showing impressive reliability as the team got to grips with KERS for the first time. The Finn ? who … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/02/09/heikki-kovalainen-were-closer-than-weve-been-before/
Peter Walker Lee Wallard Heini Walter Rodger Ward Derek Warwick John Watson Spider Webb
zondag 26 februari 2012
Mercedes formally unveils the new W03
Mercedes has officially unveiled its new W03, some five days after it was shaken down at a filming day at Silverstone. The car is the first to be produced by the stellar new technical team of Bob Bell, Aldo Costa … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/02/21/mercedes-formally-unveils-the-new-w03/
Mike Thackwell Alfonso Thiele Eric Thompson Johnny Thomson Leslie Thorne Bud Tingelstad Sam Tingle
Doctors use Formula One pit crews as safety model
American Medical News reports hospitals in at least a dozen countries are learning how to translate the split-second timing and near-perfect synchronisation of Formula One pit crews to the high-risk handoffs of patients from surgery to recovery and intensive care.
"In Formula One, they have checklists, databases, and they have well-defined processes for doing things, and we don't really have any of those things in health care."
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/10/doctors_use_formula_one_pit_cr.php
Bill Schindler JeanLouis Schlesser Jo Schlesser Bernd Schneider Rudolf Schoeller
A sign of the times
Raising money in Spain these days is not easy. The country has a 23 percent unemployment rate and according to forecasters will go back into recession in 2012, wiping out the small gains made in 2011. Necessary austerity measures will not help as they will discourage consumption. It is not the moment, therefore, for companies [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/a-sign-of-the-times-3/
Desmond Titterington Johnnie Tolan Alejandro de Tomaso Charles de Tornaco Tony Trimmer Maurice Trintignant Wolfgang von Trips
Lotus: It?s very difficult to know where Raikkonen should be
Lotus have been speaking about Kimi Rakkonen’s successful return to Formula 1. The former World Champion took part in his first test for the team this week following two years away from the sport. Speaking about how it went, Trackside operations director�Alan Permane said: “From the first run he was pretty much there.” “It’s very [...]
Ian Scheckter Jody Scheckter Harry Schell Tim Schenken Albert Scherrer Domenico Schiattarella Heinz Schiller
zaterdag 25 februari 2012
Hogan's Jeep
I know this isn't a WWII issue Jeep, but what is it exactly? Is it an M38?
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1003758.aspx
Esteban Tuero Guy Tunmer Jack Turner Toni Ulmen Bobby Unser Jerry Unser Alberto Uria
2012 F1 testing day 8 in pictures | F1 pictures
This is an original article from F1 Fanatic - The Formula 1 Blog If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic - The Formula 1 Blog it is an infringement of copyright.
Pictures from the final day of the second F1 test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
This is an original article from F1 Fanatic If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/4_2JI497leI/
Ian Stewart Jackie Stewart Jimmy Stewart Siegfried Stohr Rolf Stommelen
Red Bull will be challenged in 2012
Hi all, thanks for your many and varied questions about the 2011 season. I've answered a number of them as well as giving my thoughts about how the season panned out and what I think will happen in 2012.
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If you are outside the UK, you can watch the video here.
Murray
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/murraywalker/2012/01/red_bull_will_be_challenged_in.html
Raymond Sommer Vincenzo Sospiri Stephen South Mike Sparken Scott Speed Mike Spence Alan Stacey
2012 F1 testing day 8 in pictures | F1 pictures
This is an original article from F1 Fanatic - The Formula 1 Blog If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic - The Formula 1 Blog it is an infringement of copyright.
Pictures from the final day of the second F1 test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
This is an original article from F1 Fanatic If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/4_2JI497leI/
Dempsey Wilson Desire Wilson Justin Wilson Vic Wilson Joachim Winkelhock Manfred Winkelhock Markus Winkelhock
vrijdag 24 februari 2012
Double BAFTA success for Senna movie
Senna has won the BAFTA awards for Best Documentary and Best Editing in tonight’s event at the Royal Opera House in London, giving F1 a boost in front of a star-studded audience that included the likes of Brad Pitt, George … Continue reading
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/02/12/double-bafta-success-for-senna-movie/
Bill Whitehouse Robin Widdows Eppie Wietzes Mike Wilds Jonathan Williams
Mercedes have ?some way to go?
Mercedes push this season towards breaking into the top three yielded little success for the German team. They?ve established themselves as a team clear of the midfield but with a 210 point gap in the constructor?s championship to third place Ferrari ? they still have a lot of work to do. On the track: Nico [...]
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Formula1Fancast/~3/5HpsAvUDCeM/mercedes-have-some-way-to-go
Johnnie Tolan Alejandro de Tomaso Charles de Tornaco Tony Trimmer Maurice Trintignant
Dominant car? Great driver? Or a bit of both?
Sebastian Vettel's second world championship title was as remarkable for its control as much as the blinding speed of the German and his Red Bull.
Vettel based his season on a strategy of taking pole position, blitzing the first two laps and from then on going only as fast as he needed to.
The plan generally worked to perfection - Vettel took 11 wins and 15 poles from 19 grands prix - but it left you wondering just how fast he and the Red Bull could have gone.
In Brazil, I asked him if, with the title already in the bag, he had ever been tempted to just go for it, to really push the car and himself to the absolute limits. He replied that he had done just that in Korea and India, the scenes of two of his most dominant wins. "We were able to explore and sometimes take a little bit more risk," Vettel told me.
Despite Vettel's domination in 2011, there were very few of the runaway wins normally seen when one car is superior to the rest. Quite often, the races looked competitive, with Vettel tantalisingly close to - but frustratingly just out of reach of - his leading rivals.
Vettel and team boss Christian Horner often insisted the Red Bull had less of an advantage over McLaren and Ferrari in 2011 than in 2010. Yet Vettel won only five races and recorded 10 poles in 2010 on his way to winning the championship for the first time.
Let's examine the two seasons in a little more detail.
In 2010, Vettel's advantage in qualifying over team-mate Mark Webber was only 0.053 seconds when averaged out over the season. In 2011, it was 0.414. Likewise, Vettel's average advantage over the fastest driver not in a Red Bull was 0.077secs in 2010. In 2011, it was 0.317. That is a massive percentage gain from year to year.
There are reasons why Webber was so far adrift of his team-mate. Unlike Vettel, he struggled with the new Pirelli tyres, which affected both his pace in qualifying and his tyre wear in races.
The Australian is also physically bigger than Vettel so was occasionally at a disadvantage with the car's weight distribution, which again impacted on both his pace and tyre wear.
Turn One, race one; Vettel already has a big lead as the rest squabble. The story of 2011. Photo: Getty
The DRS overtaking aid, which gave drivers within one second of a car in front a boost in straight-line speed, also influenced matters.
But it is the tyres which were key. Asked to produce ones that spiced up racing, Pirelli came up with rubber that wore out rapidly, forcing a greater number of pit stops and resulting in more unpredictable races.
It is also worth looking at Red Bull's race strategy in 2011. The team may have had a car whose aerodynamic superiority made it the fastest by far, but it lacked a little straight-line speed compared to the McLarens and Ferraris. On top of that, I understand Vettel thought some of his rivals were perhaps better at wheel-to-wheel racing.
As a result, Red Bull's strategy was based on Vettel taking pole position, then opening up enough of a gap by lap three to prevent anyone from being close enough to make use of the DRS system, which couldn't be used for the first two laps. After that, he would measure his pace to those behind, producing a super-fast lap or two if he needed to.
Such a strategy did have its risks. If Vettel found himself in the pack during a race, he would have problems overtaking as the car was set up for lap time not straight-line speed. In other words, an error in qualifying or at the start could mess up an entire race.
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Red Bull were caught out a couple of times, notably when Ferrari's Fernando Alonso rocketed to the front on the run down to the first corner in Spain and Italy.
In both cases, Vettel managed to get past again. In Spain, he did it by pit-stop strategy, although it took two attempts, while in Monza he achieved it a brave overtaking move around the outside of the flat-out Curva Grande.
Had it been a McLaren that passed Vettel - a car that was faster than the Ferrari over the lap and down the straights - he might have been sat behind for the entire race.
But team boss Horner was adamant the strategy that Red Bull employed was the right one. "As a team, you have to attack the events," he said. "If you are conservative, sometimes you can pay a penalty. If Vettel was in a situation where he needed a big overtake, yes, a gamble was taken. But it was a calculated risk."
So how dominant was the Red Bull, really?
It had a clear performance advantage in at least nine of the races, of which Vettel won eight - Australia, Turkey, Valencia, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea and India. The other one was Brazil, where he hit trouble.
That leaves five races at which it was not possible to ascertain whether Vettel's was the fastest race car, although it almost certainly was in most of them. They were Malaysia and Monaco, which he won, and China, Canada and Abu Dhabi, which he did not. And the remaining five races where it definitely was not, out of which he won only in Spain.
The first obvious conclusion is that the Red Bull's pace advantage was restricted by the tyres. On many occasions, Vettel could have gone faster but chose not to because he was concerned about over-using the tyres.
At the same time, Red Bull insiders insist Vettel was not always in the fastest car. There were weekends, they say, when they did not think the car was quick enough yet Vettel still managed to put it on pole. Equally, there were times when Vettel was having to drive on the edge to break the DRS and to hold his advantage at the head of the field.
The Pirellis required something new of the driver - an exquisite feel for the limits of the tyres, the intelligence to drive measured races at exactly the pace the tyres and car could cope with and the consistency to do it at every race.
How many drivers could do that?
Jenson Button had a great season for McLaren, finishing second behind Vettel in the standings. The 2009 world champion treats his tyres delicately and, at his best, is as good as anyone. However, his form tends to fluctuate depending on outside circumstances, while he is not the best qualifier.
As for Hamilton, his speed and feel are at least equal to Vettel's but the 2008 world champion struggled in 2011, making too many errors and perhaps not fully grasping the demands of the new F1.
Then there is Alonso. The double world champion boasts speed, consistency, adaptability and mental strength. However, the Ferrari was nowhere near fast enough this year and it's rare that the Spaniard transcends the car's abilities in qualifying, although he nearly always does in races.
That is why, in 2011, Vettel was generally in a league of his own, even on the occasions when his car was not.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/12/sebastian_vettels_second_world.html
David Walker Peter Walker Lee Wallard Heini Walter Rodger Ward Derek Warwick John Watson
2012 F1 testing day 7 in pictures | F1 pictures
This is an original article from F1 Fanatic - The Formula 1 Blog If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic - The Formula 1 Blog it is an infringement of copyright.
Pictures from the third day of F1 testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
This is an original article from F1 Fanatic If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/NUvNxUXgg1Y/
John Taylor Mike Taylor Trevor Taylor Marshall Teague Shorty Templeman Max de Terra Andre Testut
donderdag 23 februari 2012
The Mole ponders F1 in Britain
The Mole is busy again this week, looking at the state of the British F1 industry and where it is under threat. He also looks at some possible F1 team owners of the future. You can read about it here.
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/the-mole-ponders-f1-in-britain/
Len Sutton Aguri Suzuki Toshio Suzuki Jacques Swaters Bob Sweikert Toranosuke Takagi Noritake Takahara
Robert Kubica Could Be Ruled Out For At Least A Year Following Accident
Polish racing driver Robert Kubica will spend at least one whole year recovering from a rally crash he suffered this morning, according to his surgeon. Kubica, who races for Renault Lotus crashed the Skoda Fabia rally car this morning and was airlifted to hospital suffering serious injuries. He has spent many hours in surgery, with [...]
Consalvo Sanesi Stephane Sarrazin Takuma Sato Carl Scarborough Ludovico Scarfiotti Giorgio Scarlatti Ian Scheckter
Lotus: It?s very difficult to know where Raikkonen should be
Lotus have been speaking about Kimi Rakkonen’s successful return to Formula 1. The former World Champion took part in his first test for the team this week following two years away from the sport. Speaking about how it went, Trackside operations director�Alan Permane said: “From the first run he was pretty much there.” “It’s very [...]
Mike Sparken Scott Speed Mike Spence Alan Stacey Gaetano Starrabba Chuck Stevenson Ian Stewart
Action at Blackbushe
The work being done for the Formula 1 movie “Rush” is pushing ahead at Blackbushe Airport, where much of the filming will be done this summer. The film crews have already constructed a double-sided pit garage set, with a straight on either side, in order to simulate different race tracks, one is likely to be [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/action-at-blackbushe/
Alexander Wurz Sakon Yamamoto Alex Yoong Alex Zanardi Emilio Zapico Ricardo Zonta Renzo Zorzi
Lotus hope to regain lost test days | F1 Fanatic round-up
In the round-up: Lotus have approached rival teams for permission to reschedule the testing days they have lost this week due to their chassis problems.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/naAQx6PybR8/
Jo Schlesser Bernd Schneider Rudolf Schoeller Rob Schroeder Michael Schumacher
TV/Movie Car VII CBP 'Model And Modelers' In Production!
The TV/Movie Car CBP is back with our new sequel to the TV/MC franchise...The Model And The Modelers. This will be a six month production starting on October 1, 2011 and ending on April 1, 2012. You are cordially invited to audition and to complete as many roles as you wish. While I am the Executive Producer and Director, I will also participate with my own role as well to be announced later. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask me here.
The Rules
- The model must represent a vehicle from a TV show, movie or video that is accessible through normal channels to all. Please announce your role during your audition. No what-if's!
- To be fair to all, the model must be unstarted or to be rebuilt from a disassembled model.
- Any scale except 1:1.
- Can be built from plastic, resin, or modified die-cast.
- Use aftermarket parts and accessories if desired.
- This is a six month production.
FYI
If you have never participated in one of my TV/Movie Car CBPs before, I run this like a like a TV or movie production. Please be ready to start when the Director calls for ACTION and have your role completed when the Director calls THAT'S A WRAP! The future of this franchise depends upon the success of this production. I am depending upon all actors to work together as a team!
Let the auditions begin!
The Actors
- mrmike
- Spencer1984
- F1 Starr
- avidinha
- Charger 01
- aussiemuscle308
- ohlly
- crazyhorse
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/977981.aspx
Harry Schell Tim Schenken Albert Scherrer Domenico Schiattarella Heinz Schiller Bill Schindler JeanLouis Schlesser
Life in the pit lane
 The Mercedes pit crew prepare for Michael Schumacher in Singapore |
These are not select millionaires but up to 16 ordinary, yet gifted, guys; team mechanics who have worked their way up the system and often migrate from team to team, are paid real-world wages of between �30,000 and �50,000 a year, are drilled to perfection ? and whose split-second synchronisation brings their teams huge rewards.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/life_in_the_pit_lane.php
Siegfried Stohr Rolf Stommelen Philippe Streiff Hans Stuck Hans Joachim Stuck Otto Stuppacher Danny Sullivan
putty?
whats the best kind to use amd where can i get it
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1002283.aspx
Carl Scarborough Ludovico Scarfiotti Giorgio Scarlatti Ian Scheckter Jody Scheckter Harry Schell Tim Schenken
woensdag 22 februari 2012
TV/Movie Car VII CBP 'Model And Modelers' In Production!
The TV/Movie Car CBP is back with our new sequel to the TV/MC franchise...The Model And The Modelers. This will be a six month production starting on October 1, 2011 and ending on April 1, 2012. You are cordially invited to audition and to complete as many roles as you wish. While I am the Executive Producer and Director, I will also participate with my own role as well to be announced later. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask me here.
The Rules
- The model must represent a vehicle from a TV show, movie or video that is accessible through normal channels to all. Please announce your role during your audition. No what-if's!
- To be fair to all, the model must be unstarted or to be rebuilt from a disassembled model.
- Any scale except 1:1.
- Can be built from plastic, resin, or modified die-cast.
- Use aftermarket parts and accessories if desired.
- This is a six month production.
FYI
If you have never participated in one of my TV/Movie Car CBPs before, I run this like a like a TV or movie production. Please be ready to start when the Director calls for ACTION and have your role completed when the Director calls THAT'S A WRAP! The future of this franchise depends upon the success of this production. I am depending upon all actors to work together as a team!
Let the auditions begin!
The Actors
- mrmike
- Spencer1984
- F1 Starr
- avidinha
- Charger 01
- aussiemuscle308
- ohlly
- crazyhorse
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/977981.aspx
Ian Scheckter Jody Scheckter Harry Schell Tim Schenken Albert Scherrer
Hulkenberg on top as second day of Barcelona test ends | 2012 F1 testing
Force India headed the times sheets at the end of the second day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya thanks to Nico Hulkenberg.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/240Tk0gbSs0/
Peter Ryan Eddie Sachs Bob Said Eliseo Salazar Mika Salo Roy Salvadori Consalvo Sanesi
What was your first model u ever built?
What was ur first model u evr built?Mine was a "78 Lil Red Express"It had knobby tires with a little bit of a lift with the stock paint and decals with a homeade plow
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/442261.aspx
Fred Wacker David Walker Peter Walker Lee Wallard Heini Walter Rodger Ward Derek Warwick
Vettel fastest on day one in Barcelona | 2012 F1 testing
Sebastian Vettel led the way for Red Bull in the first day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya today.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/f1fanatic/~3/Qz3WwOFOecQ/
Justin Wilson Vic Wilson Joachim Winkelhock Manfred Winkelhock Markus Winkelhock Reine Wisell Roelof Wunderink
A Spanish mystery
There is a conundrum that I have been struggling with in recent weeks. It is as follows: HRT is a Spanish Formula 1 team (in principle). It has finally decided to set up a base in Madrid, and is cobbling together a headquarters in the middle of tennis complex. Its cars are being built in [...]
Source: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/a-spanish-mystery/
John Watson Spider Webb Mark Webber Volker Weidler Wayne Weiler Karl Wendlinger Peter Westbury
'The point of no confidence is quite near'
 The wreckage of Jochen Rindt's car at Barcelona |
?Colin. I have been racing F1 for 5 years and I have made one mistake (I rammed Chris Amon in Clermont Ferrand) and I had one accident in Zandvoort due to gear selection failure otherwise I managed to stay out of trouble. This situation changed rapidly since I joined your team. ?Honestly your cars are so quick that we would still be competitive with a few extra pounds used to make the weakest parts stronger, on top of that I think you ought to spend some time checking what your different employes are doing, I sure the wishbones on the F2 car would have looked different. Please give my suggestions some thought, I can only drive a car in which I have some confidence, and I feel the point of no confidence is quite near.?A little more than a year later Rindt's Lotus suffered mechanical breakdown just before braking into one of the corners. He swerved violently to the left and crashed into a poorly-installed barrier, killing him instantly.
Source: http://blogs.espnf1.com/paperroundf1/archives/2010/09/the_point_of_no_confidence_is.php
Wolfgang Seidel Gunther Seiffert Ayrton Senna† Bruno Senna Dorino Serafini Chico Serra Doug Serrurier
dinsdag 21 februari 2012
60-66 Chevy longbed question...Update pics
Hi Guys,
I'm going to attempt to convert the Revell 64 Chevy fleetside to a longbed 4x4. The best research I have been able to come up with is a parts oder sheet that shows the different quarter panel lengths below.
I have the extra parts, and scored a set of 8 lug wheels that should finish things off. I didn't realize that the longbeds were longer both front and back of the wheel well, although I suspected as much. I've also got some pretty good reference pics of finished trucks. I'm just wondering if anyone else has been here and what kind of problems/solutions others may have discovered.
Thanks.
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/960485.aspx
Mika Salo Roy Salvadori Consalvo Sanesi Stephane Sarrazin Takuma Sato
1962 Pontiac Grand Prix "WIP"
Heres were i am so far with the 62 gp waiting on the nose and tail panel
also once again to cold to paint. More to come.......
Source: http://cs.scaleautomag.com/SCACS/forums/thread/1003140.aspx
Bobby Unser Jerry Unser Alberto Uria Nino Vaccarella Bob Veith Jos Verstappen Sebastian Vettel
Marussia Virgin Racing Launch Their 2011 Car
Marussia Virgin Racing have launched their car to take on the 2011 world championship in a lavish London ceremony. The Marussia name now preceeds Virgin following a major tie up with the Russian sportscar manufacturer and the team at the end of 2010. �It has led to the new car being designated as the MVR-02. [...]
Source: http://f1fanatics.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/marussia-virgin-racing-launch-their-2011-car/
Hans Joachim Stuck Otto Stuppacher Danny Sullivan Marc Surer John Surtees
Dominant car? Great driver? Or a bit of both?
Sebastian Vettel's second world championship title was as remarkable for its control as much as the blinding speed of the German and his Red Bull.
Vettel based his season on a strategy of taking pole position, blitzing the first two laps and from then on going only as fast as he needed to.
The plan generally worked to perfection - Vettel took 11 wins and 15 poles from 19 grands prix - but it left you wondering just how fast he and the Red Bull could have gone.
In Brazil, I asked him if, with the title already in the bag, he had ever been tempted to just go for it, to really push the car and himself to the absolute limits. He replied that he had done just that in Korea and India, the scenes of two of his most dominant wins. "We were able to explore and sometimes take a little bit more risk," Vettel told me.
Despite Vettel's domination in 2011, there were very few of the runaway wins normally seen when one car is superior to the rest. Quite often, the races looked competitive, with Vettel tantalisingly close to - but frustratingly just out of reach of - his leading rivals.
Vettel and team boss Christian Horner often insisted the Red Bull had less of an advantage over McLaren and Ferrari in 2011 than in 2010. Yet Vettel won only five races and recorded 10 poles in 2010 on his way to winning the championship for the first time.
Let's examine the two seasons in a little more detail.
In 2010, Vettel's advantage in qualifying over team-mate Mark Webber was only 0.053 seconds when averaged out over the season. In 2011, it was 0.414. Likewise, Vettel's average advantage over the fastest driver not in a Red Bull was 0.077secs in 2010. In 2011, it was 0.317. That is a massive percentage gain from year to year.
There are reasons why Webber was so far adrift of his team-mate. Unlike Vettel, he struggled with the new Pirelli tyres, which affected both his pace in qualifying and his tyre wear in races.
The Australian is also physically bigger than Vettel so was occasionally at a disadvantage with the car's weight distribution, which again impacted on both his pace and tyre wear.
Turn One, race one; Vettel already has a big lead as the rest squabble. The story of 2011. Photo: Getty
The DRS overtaking aid, which gave drivers within one second of a car in front a boost in straight-line speed, also influenced matters.
But it is the tyres which were key. Asked to produce ones that spiced up racing, Pirelli came up with rubber that wore out rapidly, forcing a greater number of pit stops and resulting in more unpredictable races.
It is also worth looking at Red Bull's race strategy in 2011. The team may have had a car whose aerodynamic superiority made it the fastest by far, but it lacked a little straight-line speed compared to the McLarens and Ferraris. On top of that, I understand Vettel thought some of his rivals were perhaps better at wheel-to-wheel racing.
As a result, Red Bull's strategy was based on Vettel taking pole position, then opening up enough of a gap by lap three to prevent anyone from being close enough to make use of the DRS system, which couldn't be used for the first two laps. After that, he would measure his pace to those behind, producing a super-fast lap or two if he needed to.
Such a strategy did have its risks. If Vettel found himself in the pack during a race, he would have problems overtaking as the car was set up for lap time not straight-line speed. In other words, an error in qualifying or at the start could mess up an entire race.
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Red Bull were caught out a couple of times, notably when Ferrari's Fernando Alonso rocketed to the front on the run down to the first corner in Spain and Italy.
In both cases, Vettel managed to get past again. In Spain, he did it by pit-stop strategy, although it took two attempts, while in Monza he achieved it a brave overtaking move around the outside of the flat-out Curva Grande.
Had it been a McLaren that passed Vettel - a car that was faster than the Ferrari over the lap and down the straights - he might have been sat behind for the entire race.
But team boss Horner was adamant the strategy that Red Bull employed was the right one. "As a team, you have to attack the events," he said. "If you are conservative, sometimes you can pay a penalty. If Vettel was in a situation where he needed a big overtake, yes, a gamble was taken. But it was a calculated risk."
So how dominant was the Red Bull, really?
It had a clear performance advantage in at least nine of the races, of which Vettel won eight - Australia, Turkey, Valencia, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea and India. The other one was Brazil, where he hit trouble.
That leaves five races at which it was not possible to ascertain whether Vettel's was the fastest race car, although it almost certainly was in most of them. They were Malaysia and Monaco, which he won, and China, Canada and Abu Dhabi, which he did not. And the remaining five races where it definitely was not, out of which he won only in Spain.
The first obvious conclusion is that the Red Bull's pace advantage was restricted by the tyres. On many occasions, Vettel could have gone faster but chose not to because he was concerned about over-using the tyres.
At the same time, Red Bull insiders insist Vettel was not always in the fastest car. There were weekends, they say, when they did not think the car was quick enough yet Vettel still managed to put it on pole. Equally, there were times when Vettel was having to drive on the edge to break the DRS and to hold his advantage at the head of the field.
The Pirellis required something new of the driver - an exquisite feel for the limits of the tyres, the intelligence to drive measured races at exactly the pace the tyres and car could cope with and the consistency to do it at every race.
How many drivers could do that?
Jenson Button had a great season for McLaren, finishing second behind Vettel in the standings. The 2009 world champion treats his tyres delicately and, at his best, is as good as anyone. However, his form tends to fluctuate depending on outside circumstances, while he is not the best qualifier.
As for Hamilton, his speed and feel are at least equal to Vettel's but the 2008 world champion struggled in 2011, making too many errors and perhaps not fully grasping the demands of the new F1.
Then there is Alonso. The double world champion boasts speed, consistency, adaptability and mental strength. However, the Ferrari was nowhere near fast enough this year and it's rare that the Spaniard transcends the car's abilities in qualifying, although he nearly always does in races.
That is why, in 2011, Vettel was generally in a league of his own, even on the occasions when his car was not.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/12/sebastian_vettels_second_world.html
Ian Scheckter Jody Scheckter Harry Schell Tim Schenken Albert Scherrer Domenico Schiattarella Heinz Schiller
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