F1 2011-2012 Season

[DoozerUK]

I bet most of the teams are scratching their heads as to how Perez made his way from 15th onto the podium. That was an awesome drive.

[Pyre]

I was looking forward to a good season with Button after the Australian GP and his mature end to the season last year. But McLaren seem to be mired with technical difficulties and god awful pit stops. Perhaps Lewis still has the edge over Button?

[DoozerUK]

It is strange how Jenson has just seem to have got worse this season ... fighting for 15th with the Caterhams, whilst your team mate is on the podium must be pretty frustrating.

Hope he can sort it out for Valencia!

[hemingway]

I'm pretty sure its the tyres, but yeah he's not having a great run after a strong start to the season with a win and a podium.

[Nude_not_rude]

Yeah it was a good race. Was fun watching Webber following Schumacher through the field going from 11th to 4th in the last couple of laps. Those 1 stoppers were frustrated I bet being passed at the end. Great to see Schumacher on the podium for a change.

[hemingway]

Looking forward to silverstone.

Any english members going along?

[chrisw91]

As much as I love formula 1, I could never go to an actual gp. I'd much rather watch on tv.
What are everyone's thoughts on the possibilty of a London GP. It would be held at night, it would cover all the major landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Big Ben and there will be 59 laps.

[readonly]

London, New Jersey, Las Vegas... there are plenty ideas where to drive during the next years. The new Concorde agreement concludes a passage with "up to 23 GPs" per year, hardly to manage, though. Times of luxury having 2 GPs in 1 country in the same year are over, I guess (Silverstone/Donington, Monza/Imola, Barcelona/Valencia, Hockenheim/Nürburgring).

For GB it's a question of either / or: London or Silverstone. Mr. E explained so often that he wants new markets to be part of the game, like Russia or another GP somewhere in the Middle East. In times of the biggest world-wide financial crisis since the 1920s, it's only a matter of time when we'll see more and more GPs outside of Europe and outside "classical" race countries. No circuit has an absolute guarantee, even those traditional tracks like Monza or Silverstone which were the only ones in every F1 calender since 1950. Hopefully we don't lose another traditional one for markets that flood F1 only with money.

What I'd like to see? Less commerce, more driver tracks and world peace. Ok, to be realistic: good tracks that give us thrilling races. Anyone seen the DTM race in Austria, Red Bull Ring (formerly known as Österreichring). Like formerly in F1, the DTM races there are exactly that: thrilling, unpredictable and you can overtake without DRS or KERS. No comparison to Barcelona or Hungary which tend to be very narcotic. But it's Austria, there's (sorry, neighbours!) nothing than cows and mountains. And Red Bull.

If it's London where we get thrilling races, then let's go there. May be they manage the pit lane and stands layout better, so that everyone on the expensive stands can see what happens "down" there. Another GP at night? Welcome! But who wants to pay the bill?

[DoozerUK]

A London GP is good PR, but it won't happen.

There's no way they'll shut the centre of the Capital for 2 weeks and it'll only have capacity for 35,000, which is nowhere near enough to fund it compared to the hundreds of thousands you can fit into proper circuits!

[boris]

... Mr. E explained so often that he wants new markets to be part of the game, like Russia or another GP somewhere in the Middle East...

Anyone seen the DTM race in Austria, Red Bull Ring (formerly known as Österreichring). Like formerly in F1, the DTM races there are exactly that: thrilling, unpredictable and you can overtake without DRS or KERS. No comparison to Barcelona or Hungary which tend to be very narcotic. But it's Austria, there's (sorry, neighbours!) nothing than cows and mountains. And Red Bull.

new market??? what about turkey??? a few years in f1, great track. no easy money for big bernie. no more on the calendar...

right, overtaking depends on the course layout.
in fact the rb-ring is a great track. but 1km to short, looks like a mickeymouse-track.
the problem that there is no more f1 is the people living there. the do not like the circuit and the noise and... seems they are to stupid to make money from big events.
and more than dtm will not be held there...

barcelona this year was ok. there was some overtaking, thx to kers, drs and pirelli.
in series like dtm overtaking is easier because the cars can get closer behind.
f1 has a much too fragile aerodynamic. cars can't go close behind in corners. so they need help to pass.

would be better to build f1 cars with a very bad aerodynamic - like the tanks in the past, especially in the late 70s and 80s.
and that would make racing more safe, as the apex-speed will slow down due to less downforce!!!

[chrisw91]

I am so jealous of my friend right now. About 3 weeks ago she got a job as a steward and the first place she got sent too was Ascot. Her next job is Silverstone. To make things worse she is already complaining about being there :O

[hemingway]

 london gp was just a pr stunt and a good opportunity for bernie to divert attention from his shady deals in germany. Its too difficult and not financially viable. Also silverstone has a contract for the brittish gp until 2016 or something, and is far better than any street circuit

[readonly]

new market??? what about turkey??? a few years in f1, great track. no easy money for big bernie. no more on the calendar...

It's Bernies track so he doesn't have an interest in further GPs there cause it's no extra money. Even the domain is offline...

the problem that there is no more f1 is the people living there. the do not like the circuit and the noise and... seems they are to stupid to make money from big events.

It's the same with every huge event or building projects, like Munichs third runway or problems with transport of electric current due to renewable energies. Benefits are welcome, we need it, but please not here - why not elsewhere?

f1 has a much too fragile aerodynamic. cars can't go close behind in corners. so they need help to pass.

Dirty air gets less and less, but that's not in the focus anymore. Using new technologies like KERS is a better way to put measures in place, because it's more usable for car manufacturers. Aerodynamics are too expensive. And...

would be better to build f1 cars with a very bad aerodynamic - like the tanks in the past, especially in the late 70s and 80s.

...we need small front wings, very big rear wings and the same with tyres. We don't need those air ground cars with skirting panels. Whohoo!  

london gp was just a pr stunt and a good opportunity for bernie to divert attention from his shady deals in germany.

Bernie is a cunning old bird, but the noose is slowly tightening... Also Stirling Moss said: they got the Olympic Games, that's a lot more chaos than a F1 race. If necessary, he'd pay the bill, as Bernie said once. It would be another prestige GP before the door of the biggest financial center of Europe, I can tell which way the wind is blowing...

[chrisw91]

Well It wasn't the best British GP Ilve seen but it was still pretty entertaining. Webber's pass on Alonso was great to watch. It was a shame McLaren were so off the pace I would of liked to see them battling for a podium at least, but Hamilton put on a bit of a show for the home crowd which was fantastic. I felt sorry for Di Resta too, going out of his home GP so early on, without even knowing fully what had happened. Whats everyones views on what Perez was saying about Maldonado? At first I kind of felt sorry for Maldonado but then thinking about it, he does get involved in a lot of crashes.

[hemingway]

I enjoyed the race, especially since webber won!! It was a great pass on alonso but what impressed me was alonso's onboard replay of the pass - countersteering with webs on his outside wheel was pretty impressive.

I felt sorry for perez being taken out but I think the journalist was a bit predatory playing on his anger in the interview. Maldonado made a simple error though he does seem to make a lot of them so the question of whether he belongs in f1 still stands. What annoys me is inconsistency in penalties - schumi recently received a much harsher penalty (grid penalty) for a similar incident on senna, yet maldonado only gets a fine of 10,000 euro!

As a long time williams fan, I'm sad that they've finnaly built a decent car yet neither of their drivers are good enough to get results.