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This track/race is so dull. The place looks nice and great under lights but I want some overtaking and some close up racing. The only real overtaking has been when people have come out of the pits.

I think it was probably a mistake to make Hermann Tilke the official Formula One Grand Prix track designer, since all of his tracks (Sepang, Bahrain, Shanghai, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi) have been known as only offering one or two real passing areas. Abu Dhabi has around three, which is a plus. Maybe he'll do better with Korea, Russia and India, but I am not holding my breath.

That being said, I think the idea of running from the twilight into the dark was brilliant. I wonder if there is enough time to light Sepang so they can do the same. In addition to looking great, it would have the benefit of helping push the time into a more favorable slot for the EU television audience and would allow for extended weather-related Red Flag conditions like this year.
 
nice race, im starting to really like vettal now.

hey is anyone else wondering whats up with the huge net like thing over that hotel. how is the view from the higher up floors. i think it would be like being in a very badly placed hotel in Vegas.
 
hey is anyone else wondering whats up with the huge net like thing over that hotel. how is the view from the higher up floors. i think it would be like being in a very badly placed hotel in Vegas.

I think it was the show Extreme Engineering that did an episode on the Yaz Marina area, with emphasis on the hotel itself. The latticework doesn't affect the view that I could see from the interior shots of the hotel.

Also kind of topical for this forum, when SPEED Channel visited Team US F1, they were using Macs in their development area - even though they were running Windows Vista. :p
 
Also kind of topical for this forum, when SPEED Channel visited Team US F1, they were using Macs in their development area - even though they were running Windows Vista. :p

They'd better have been getting them cheap, because it would be a HUGE waste of money to buy Macs for use in F1.

PS, is there a video of this? It'd be interesting to see inside USF1.
 
I think it was the show Extreme Engineering that did an episode on the Yaz Marina area, with emphasis on the hotel itself. The latticework doesn't affect the view that I could see from the interior shots of the hotel.

Also kind of topical for this forum, when SPEED Channel visited Team US F1, they were using Macs in their development area - even though they were running Windows Vista. :p

extreme engineering, man i want to see that episode.
ya i just saw the glimpse of the mac when they were looking at US F1.
 
Also kind of topical for this forum, when SPEED Channel visited Team US F1, they were using Macs in their development area - even though they were running Windows Vista. :p
There was a mac to the side and a Dell behind the monitor. That's probably what they were running. The monitor probably accepts multiple inputs, so they can switch between the MBP and the Dell. My Dell monitor does.
 
I think it was probably a mistake to make Hermann Tilke the official Formula One Grand Prix track designer, since all of his tracks (Sepang, Bahrain, Shanghai, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi) have been known as only offering one or two real passing areas. Abu Dhabi has around three, which is a plus. Maybe he'll do better with Korea, Russia and India, but I am not holding my breath.

That being said, I think the idea of running from the twilight into the dark was brilliant. I wonder if there is enough time to light Sepang so they can do the same. In addition to looking great, it would have the benefit of helping push the time into a more favorable slot for the EU television audience and would allow for extended weather-related Red Flag conditions like this year.

IMO, most modern F1 tracks are pretty dull. At least Istanbul has some great high-speed corners (I love the quadruple apex left-hander). The new track in the Algarve looks great and meets F1 criteria; and F1 cars would be spectacular around there. But unfortunately it seems F1 is moving East, not West these days..

I read somewhere that the regulations regarding F1 tracks are quite restrictive in terms of camber, and gradients; which might be a factor in the repetitiveness of the new circuits?
 
Isn't it the same for all engineering software?

Pretty much, but even more so when you consider an industry with such specialised software. There are CAD packages available for OS X, but nothing that could replace with UGS NX or CATIA. The MESL (Mclaren Electronic Systems Ltd) software packages for running the cars and data acquisition is also Windows only (and a PITA). There are numerous other pieces of software that are necessary and irreplaceable.
 
I don't understand. Didn't Toyota just offer Truli a contract a week or two ago? How do you go from that to leaving the sport? If you're concerned about spending $400M/yr why not just cut the budget in half? Much like Brawn, you may be surprised at the results you get.
 
Look at the record.

Ford (in the form of Jaguar ) in the sport succesfully in the form of Cosworth for decades. They start a team ( Stewart, then Jaguar ) don't do much and they quit.

Honda very succesfull engines, buy a team, don't do much, and quit.

BMW in the sport successfully with Brabham in the 80's. Returned with Williams and things looked good. Bought their own team, a bit of success and then they quit.

Toyota start an F1 team. Don't do much. Quit. KERS was an opportunity to push their hybrid drive presented to them on a silver platter, and they didn't do it. It was possibly the least tenuous KERS-to-road-car link available, and it didn't happen.

Renault could very well be next ( superb result as engine supplier in '90s. Great success as a team, but as the dust settles on the silverware...it's time to go)

Whereas Mercedes have it JUST right. They write a big cheque to Ilmor every year who make F1 engines and put a merc badge on it.
If they succeed "Wow - look how good the Merc engine is"
If they don't "Oh dear - it must be the Chassis"

Everyone's praised Mercedes because of the results of Brawn and Force India. If they'd have been crap, we would just say "Oh - the McLaren chassis just isn't up to it".

As a full up constructor - it just makes no sense. If you're doing crap ( and not everybody can win all the time ) there's no one to blame but yourselves, and you're spending a lot of money damaging the brand and producing negative publicity. Other than Ferrari, only 4 times in the championships history has a car and engine from the same factory won the constructors championship - and even then, two of those (Renault) were an engine from Paris, and a car built in Oxfordshire. The anomaly is Ferrari who've had massive success- but let's face it, they're not exactly an ordinary company They could put a prancing horse on a dog turd and still sell it for £110K, come last in the WCC and still have 100,000 rapid fans turn up at Monza, and still look cool.

Private teams with good engine backing. It worked for Lotus, McLaren, Tyrrell, Williams, Brabham, Benetton and Brawn. Indeed old man Tyrrell would be very proud of what his team has become. Via BAR and Honda...it's now back being a private team with manufacturer support, a genuine racer in the form of Ross at the top.

Renault will almost certainly be next, and the sport will slowly move back to being a sport.
 
I don't understand. Didn't Toyota just offer Truli a contract a week or two ago? How do you go from that to leaving the sport? If you're concerned about spending $400M/yr why not just cut the budget in half? Much like Brawn, you may be surprised at the results you get.
For weeks the rumors have been that Trulli and Glock would not be renewed, and that Toyota would look for new drivers. I didn't hear anything about them offering Trulli a contract.

Brawn is not such a clear cut case. They benefited from all the Honda development of last year (Honda started 2009 development early when they realized 2008 was futile), and they had some infusion of funds from Honda this year. So saying they had half the budget doesn't really cover the big picture. They also got lucky with the double-diffuser row. They had an advantage while everyone else scrambled to catch up.
 
For weeks the rumors have been that Trulli and Glock would not be renewed, and that Toyota would look for new drivers. I didn't hear anything about them offering Trulli a contract.

Brawn is not such a clear cut case. They benefited from all the Honda development of last year (Honda started 2009 development early when they realized 2008 was futile), and they had some infusion of funds from Honda this year. So saying they had half the budget doesn't really cover the big picture. They also got lucky with the double-diffuser row. They had an advantage while everyone else scrambled to catch up.

Don't forget Williams and Toyota also had the double diffuser.

Just think about this: without the new teams we'd be down to 9 on the grid. Max was right!:eek:;)
 
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