The Motorsport Thread 2011

Yep.  Nico has had a pretty good season overall.  I think he had a 3rd earlier in the season too.

I'm also not comparing him to Schumacher here, as he's 43 and quite obviously slower.  I'm looking at Rosberg therefore from a different angle.  He's had his bad races, obviously but he's been fairly consistent and his free practices have been pretty decent too.  Qualifying hasn't been bad either.  It seems Mercedes' race pace isn't that great though.  I think they have to run a higher fuel load.  Not sure.  I know that Schumacher had to stop at the side of the track after he'd crossed the line due to low fuel (Button's done it a few times too), so fuel could well be an issue.

I think next year will be Schumacher's last, unless he somehow pulls out a miracle.  So expect a new driver there in 2013.  Sutil?  I think so.  I can see Sutil at Mercedes definitely.  Maybe they'll sign him up early as a back up just in case Schumacher is terrible next season and so they can replace him mid-season?  Who knows.

Of course, Nico may move but I think he's just signed a new contract, so he should be there for a while.

Quite obviously all the drivers have talent, otherwise they wouldn't racing.  They all have to pass strict rules.  They have to be able to remove themselves from the car within a certain time, their neck has to be able to sustain varying g-forces and plus there's a lot of other stuff too.  Many of these drivers have also come through GP2.  Some have been champions and others have won races at that level.

So no question they're talented.  It's just F1 is that much of a challenge and the car they're in also makes a lot of difference.  I think things are more equal in lower formula in terms of constructors.

I still think it's a shame some of the fringe drivers cannot get a drive.  The lesser teams cannot afford to hire them and end up getting drivers like Chandok.

People seem to rate Ricciardo but it's too early to tell for me yet.  He needs a whole season or a better drive, I think.

I think with Petrov he's going backwards.I know the front facing exhaust system that Renault used this year was a blind alley in development, it was as good as it was going to get straight out of the box and had far less potential than a more conventional exhaust so they lost a lot of ground to everybody else, but it seems like he got worse as the year went on. Senna definitely proved to be the best of their three drivers this year, despite being throwen in at the deep end.

At the moment Kibica has more of a chance to get in at Ferrari than Rosberg does, but the end of next year will see a lot of movement with the drivers.

Ricciardo's good, he outpaced Liuzzi on a regular basis at HRT.

I'm going to contradict you on Di Resta, James. Because they often found themselves around 10th place in qualy, they found the best way was to split their startegies, with Paul usually ending up on the really long run or having to start on the harder tyres. It worked well for him in Singapor but since then Sutil has found himself on the better strategy at each race, though he's definitely stepped up his game second half of the season, but looked a little wobbly early on.

I wonder if Michael will know when the best time to retire is?

Like I've been saying...no chance for Rosberg I know, just IMO he's the most deserving at the moment.

Before this season it was Kubica all the way, I was waiting for Massa to be jettisoned already but now you say Kubica may not even make the start of 2012? That's quite a bit of time off and I just pray he can get back to his form. Would hate to see such a good young talent have his career derailed with injury.

Yes, I'm a di Resta fan, really hoping to see more from him in the future.
I remember Sutil as the kid running in 4th at Monaco in the rain when Kimi decided to use him a break he did have a good year though, another good potential.

Ricciardo probably is good, just I personally cant judge yet. Just tough to say much when he's on HRT and Liuzzi is no stud.

So what's the deal with Renault? Kimi has a ride for next year you say. Senna replaced Heidfeld but then there's Petrov. Someone needs to get the boot and I'm guessing it'll be Vitaly?
Who knows about Michael. IDK why he did this, just to prove he could? A challenge? Honest love for racing? 2012 needs to be his last though, can't hold passion against the man but no point in continuing on really.


Edited by JJLehto - December 02 2011 at 12:04

James wrote: Qualifying is nothing compared to the race though and Di Resta just has consistently been around 11th or 12th all season whilst Sutil has been 9th/10th all season. I remember Rosberg qualifying well and then quickly going backwards in the race.

True, but often the difference between them has been thousandths, and I reckon that comes down to Sutil's greater experience. F1 cars are supper complex these days and 7 days of pre season testing just isnt enough, its really hurting all the newbies.

Rosberg often qualifies ahead of where the car belongs, but its race pace is so far away from Ferrari that there's no chance of him staying ahead of any one from the top 3 teams.

I reckon another big headline will be Hami, and how will he bounce back from his off year. I fully expect him to rebound, not really sure what happened but I'll throw it up to some bad luck and simply being human. I don't believe the talks about him and the team being strained. He was just frustrated/down because he wasn't on his top game and who wouldn't feel that way? Lewis loves McLaren too much for me to think he'd want to leave or anything like that.

Also, do we know officially what the deal is with Massa? We're talking a lot bout him but will he even go anywhere in 2012?

James wrote: Yep and it's the race pace I'd like to see improvements with. Are the tires the same next year?  I know there's a few rule changes but I cannot remember what they are.  My mate said that KERS might not be there next year?

Because Pirelli were new this year they were quite conservative with the construction of their tyres, but for next the current Hard is being done away with, the Medium will become the Hard, the Soft was made a little slower for Brazil and that will be the new Medium, the Super Soft will stay the same and a new Soft compound will be introduced. The idea is to get roughly a 0.8 second performance gap between each compound and try to make each race a close choice between 2 and 3 stops. KERS will stay the same next year and for 13, but for the new rules for 14 onwards it will double in power and usage time (currently 80bhp for 6.7s max at the moment, up to 160bhp for about 13/14 seconds).

Blowen Diffusers are banned next year and I believe thats about it as far as rule changes go.

American open wheel is dead. It was punched in the gut with the rise of nascar, then they stabbed themselves with the split. Like it was widely predicted, even after unification the sport is doomed.

Yes, but what about Massa and Ferrari? We were speculating about replacement but IDK if he's actually going anywhere. He still a definite for the seat in 2012?
If he does end up with another lackluster year he will certainly be dropped from Ferrari (no idea what his contract is, but ideally I'd say he should be dropped now).

What Jame said.

Damn, ah well I'm not surprised. Ferrari stuck with him thus far. Feels like ages ago now I remember him being moved to Ferrari, was a team mate to Schumi! 

hami had his fair share, even if most were honest racing incidents. Just an off year. I fully expect Hami to be back right at the top again next season.