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Fat Hippo’s Rant: More double points nonsense (10:00)
HRD’s opponent for new team spot (10:00)
Hungaroring needs financial aid (10:00)
Mark Watch: Impeccable timing (10:00)
Fat Hippo’s rant: More double points nonsense
Not only does it looks as if, sadly, the brain-dead idea of double points is about to stay, former F1 pilot Damon Hill has now added a whole new layer of pacepalm inducing weirdness to the debate by suggesting that in the first months of the season races should pay only half points. “How about we only award half points in the first six months?” the Englishman suggests in the Times Of India. “That would at least keep the title race interesting.”
“The race for the title will probably go down to the wire this year. It makes things more interesting. I’ve heard people say double points was a stupid idea, but why is it not a good idea? Everything’s artificial anyway. Everything that increases the chance of a different world champion is a good thing.”
*deep breath*3… 2… 1…
Damon, ol’ hack, are ye daft? Could it be that you’re suffering from a bad case of ‘beaten by Germans’ syndrome? Ok, unlike the toad from Suffolk and others, you’re at least honest about the fact that the whole point of the rule change is to prevent another Vettel championship, but you really didn’t think that half-point idea through did you? Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two seasons, you should have noticed that with your idea RB would have won with an even bigger margin. Maybe senility is starting to take you to the night, but RB usually starts a little slow and picks up strength over the season. So in their ‘weak phase’ the others can earn only half points and once the points will be awarded in full or even double loads RB has out-developed the rest again.
DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!
elderly, retired sportsman. slightly confused
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HRD’s opponent for new team spot
Haas Racing Development, the proposed team from the United States of Americaland has an opponent in the race for the new team spot. According to information of Motorsport Total, a Romanian consortium has officially applied for the slot, too. I’m pretty sure the short stuff would like to sign them up immediately as the consortium is said to have money in abundance, but the technical capabilities play an important role in FIA’s decision, too and the vertically challenged toad is on naughty watch anyway.
Enter stage left: Colin Kolles. The German, born as Călin Colesnic in Timişoara, Romania, is no stranger to F1 and has the technical infrastructure to build an F1 car with his company Kodewa. Kolles, however, is not part of the consortium. His role would be that of a supplier, similar to Red Bull Technology, who build the cars for Red Bull Racing.
Hungaroring needs financial aid
The Hungaroring in Mogyoród near Budapest has applied for financial help from the government to carry out much needed modernisation work. The cost are believed to be about 1 billion Forint (3,3 million euro). Even though the track posted modest profits (100 million Forint), it does not have the money that needs to be invested to carry out the work that was part of FIA’s demands when the Ring’s F1 contract was extended until 2021.
Among the necessary measures are new asphalt, a better fencing for the start-finish straight. The media center needs new air conditioning and more modern TV screens.
Mark Watch: Impeccable timing
For once Mark Webber has unlocked the ‘right place, right time’ achievement. When he took to the track in his new Le Mans car at Portimao just days after his final F1 race, what looked like a routine test was actually a major break-through for Porsche. Up until then they had suffered major problems with their V4 turbo unit. The powertrain developed heavy vibrations, which led to failures, accident and a burning car on the Lausitzring. Extensive modifications to the innards of the engine finally rectified the problem, just in time for Mark’s first drive in it.
Major changes on Webber’s new steed are expected in terms of aerodynamic development. So far Porsche mainly used Dallara’s wind-tunnel to optimize aerodynamic efficiency, but according to the team from Weissach, they will continue the work in a ‘commercial wind-tunnel in Great Britain’, which is believed to be the one of the University of Southampton, which is also frequently used by Red Bull Technology.
Despite their initial engine troubles, Porsche look well prepared. Since the early roll-out in summer they’ve run many a mile of tests, like Audi, but unlike Toyota, who still have to test their challenger at all.
F1 is trying to attract new viewers/fans to the sport, but the whole double/half/varying points system does not exactly make it easy for you to keep track of things! I can just imagine an occasional viewer tuning in for one race and seeing that its 25 pts for the winner, then watching Abu Dhabi and seeing that the winner gets 50pts! You’d scratch your head and switch off. I can see some point in having 2 races over a race weekend if you want to increase the points scoring, with reverse grids like in GP2, but just giving one race more importance is a ridiculous idea.
On a completely different note, have the drivers of the weekend polls been added up to see who was the people’s champion on here? I can’t remember seeing it.
I don’t know if you’re being fair on the “new followers”… In this day and age, even in established sports like football, stats are more widely reported and analysed than ever before… And technology allows for more stats to be recorded… And resultingly, people are interested in such… So wrapping their head around the season finale being worth double points isn’t really that big of a head scratcher.
I mean, look at nastycar… If *their* fans can embrace and understand the points system and the chase, then surely f1 fans can!
I accept that the doubling of points is not hard to understand, but the reason why may be. Why should somebody that is 49 pts behind at the last race be able to win from someone that has almost 2 race wins of an advantage but perhaps has a puncture or ERS failure in that one double points race. I accept that stats are widely available in sports, but are sports watchers the people we are supposed to convincing? Should sports watchers have already decided about F1? It’s not like its an underground sport! Surely we are trying to grab the attention of people to yet decide which sport they might enjoy watching? Things like double points just cheapen the experience for me.
If they were going to award double points anywhere, and I am not saying they should, then the first race or two of the season seems like a better place, as at least it is rewarding those who managed to get their shit together over the winter and do their home work right. Oh Damon, I hope he had that half cocked ‘its all bollocks anyway’ look he has on when he talks near johnny herbert.
Why not in the races that are the real classix? Spa, monaco, silverstone? Or why no points at all? And than the one who wins the last race will be champion… or maybe hand out points at an unannounced venue. So nobody knows and they have to do their best all season long… or why not take turns on being champion. By winning a raffle.
Fan vote for WDC at the end of the season..
Strange nobody’s mentioned loopings.
Maybe something for the hungaroring?
Ha ha lol
With regards to double points, how about distributing points to more drivers instead? First gets 50 points, second gets 45, third 42 and it continues till 15th or 16th.
Hi Denis
Whilst I’m a traditionalist in many ways, I agree with you here. The situation Caterham and Marussia find themselves in repeatedly as teams who score no points is a farce.
The highest place for the year decides who gets 10’s of millions more than the other – even though one team may be consistently better yet still lose out to a freak result.
Campaigners against double points should really share this view too as 1 race for Marussia last year was like quadruple points….
I reckon they should just double the points for all the races and be done with it 😉
This whole wind tunnel thing is confusing me a little, can someone shed some light please.
Why are teams that have a perfectly good wind tunnel, using other ones too? Is it correlation so they can use say 3 tunnels and if all results match they got it right or is there other reasons? I mean, it must cost a fair bit to buy tunnel time and once you got your matching data you know your tunnel is good so why is there a need to keep working in others? I’m sure there is a sensible explanation but I just can’t see it. If anyone can shed light on this I would be most greatful. (i realise Ferrari have been upgrading their tunnel but why have McLaren been using the Toyota tunnel too for example)
There are different kinds of wind tunnels – high speed, low speed, climatic etc. It is imaginable that the RB tunnel is ok for most of what they need, but lacks some special testing features and/or data acquisition methods that the Southampton tunnel has, which are needed sometimes. but not regaularly.
Thanks Danilo, I didn’t think about the differing data collection methods that may only be available if built into the tunnel it’s self.
And also clarify me about size of the tunnels.ex.,force india use 40% windtunnel in brackley and also use mclaren MTC windtunnel.
Why some teams use multiple windtunnels.
imagine if in soccer (aka football) a goal was worth two points in the last 10 minutes “just to keep things interesting”. such utter nonsense.
Since Hungaroring 1997 and until ten minutes ago I had a lot of respect for Damon. Under that logic, why not putting the name of the teams in a bowl and pick up one and forget about racing? What else can increase more the chances of a different world champion? Oh, and the teams will be saved without the need of that almost-impossible-to-enforce budget cap.
Am I the only one who thinks Damon might have been talking with irony and sarcasm… or do you guys know something I don’t. If his father had said anything like this everyone would have screamed with laughter. I accept Damon doesn’t have the same sense of humour but, even so… 😉
It was an interview with a print medium, so irony doesn’t work there. You often see things like ‘(laughs)’ printed in interviews when someone is taking the p*ss, but apparently Damon really thinks it is legit to screw with the rules to manufacture a championship for anyone but Vettel.
I think it is poor form. Kudo’s to him for being one of the very few, who are actually honest about it, but I think such things usually bite back. RB might feel targeted and hit back with even more force. I remember that Ferrari weren’t taking well to the tyre skullduggery that FIA introduced in 2005 to hobble Schumacher. My opinion might be unpopular, but I still think the job of ending Red Bull’s doiminance falls to Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. When FIA or Pirelli get involved in this, it comes round to bite them in the arse. Pirelli tried in 2013 and they came away with a massive glob on egg on their faces.
In fairness, I don’t think it’s “anyone but Vettel” I think it’s just “not anyone before the last round”.
Still totally stupid, in my opinion, but not targeted at Seb. At all.
….good idea my friend…
Anti Vettel campaigners should be looking for half points for Seb alone….
Even then in 2013, Alonso would have won by just 43 points… with Webber tied with Seb for second…. (on rounding up principles)
…and of course had mark and Seb been tied, the rules for a tie including Vettel should be that the other guy wins…
Mmmm…
i’m hearing the Mercedes engine is struggling to complete a GP distance and has huge problems with the turbo and vibrations… though I must admit this is not from a first hand source – hence why I’ve not posted it.
If it struggles to complete A race distance, they can just as well pack up and go home – with just 5 units per season ‘n all. Merc were the first to present their engine, so I doubt they’re that devastatingly behind the ball. But FIA might have bitten off more than they can chew with the new rules. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see even more farcical races than we had to endure last year. Greenpeace fuel eco run FTW. Let me find a place to empty my stomach….
“Let me find a place to empty my stomach….”
…the mental image that conjures up is most unpleasant 😉
one of Seb’s favourites if I’m not mistaken……
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhbHTjMLN5c&w=560&h=315]
It would appear on the face of it that the Merc engine is possibly suffering with a few ailments that the new Porsche has been prone to regards vibration causing it to destroy itself. I do hope these fears are unfounded though as I feel it’s either Hamilton or Alonso who in my view are best bets to take the fight to Vettle (provided the Renault engine stands up) if Merc fall flat on their faces I can see Lewis back at Woking by 2015 as I’m sure there are performance clauses in both parties contracts and Lewis will have a ‘get out’ on poor performance grounds. It would play into Big Ron’s hands lovely, especially as Alonso is said to feel Ron was the problem in his last stint with McLaren.
So it could be a Brawn/Hamilton/? Dream team at Macca by 2015, especially if the rumour mill starts spitting out stories about how well the Honda power train is progressing.
If Lewis has not had a win and is less than 3rd in the championship by summer break, I’d say by Singapore Eddy Jordan will be breaking the story of Lewis’ return to his true racing family, possibly taking Rosburg with him if Merc are bad enough.
For the the love of salo…….that’s not what a man wants to see first thing Monday morning!!
@Colin,
https://imageshack.com/i/1a2pj1j
Better? 😉
Hmmm… I’m not sure about the large orifice under the headlamp… 😉
Would Damon have won any more championships under his new rules?
Well, half points for the first half of the season is equivalent to double points for the last half. I’m sure the FIA would prefer double points for the last half, as that would increase the entrance fees. Good times.
I think this double points thing is just a ruse to drum up something to talk about.
Its, obviously, so stupid as to not be taken seriously. Pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to feels its a farce. But its meant millions throughout the world discussing it, and it will have further penetration when the new season starts and less committed fans than us find out.
All pr is good pr, even if you’re showing yourself up to be a fool. That seems to be the consensus within F1 ville anyhoo……
It’s just a PR drive to drum up interest in the sport. Though if we have a season where reliability is the key factor as to who wins the titles, then the double points may just give things a boost.
Though tbh aerodynamics needs to be scaled back a bit in the sport and in season development of it to be much reduced. It’s what kills the championship in the end. You have to decide if you want an exciting championship or the usual procession of one driver and one team dominating the rest.
Mark Watch?
Mark Watch!
Mark Watch!!!!!!!!!