Today is the first day of testing at Barcelona for the Formula 1 grid, including Red Bull’s RB14 car which the team are hoping to challenge the might of Mercedes.
TJ13 can thoroughly recommend Marc Priestley’s analysis on the car, it’s an interesting watch. Marc is an ex McLaren No.1 mechanic who was involved during the team’s championship winning year of 2008 with Lewis Hamilton. Many who follow Formula E in the UK might recognise him from the terrestrial TV coverage as a studio pundit but also from Sky Sports F1’s ‘The F1 Show’.
He has great insight into the Formula 1 and has started ‘Vlogging’ on YouTube. Please head on over to his channel and subscribe for updates.
Marc is an ex McLaren bolter…not an engineer……huge difference
Quite right, although no.1 mechanic is perhaps a less depreciative sounding term
many thanks Marc. thanks TJ for posting this. p.s. even if RB make changes or/and Marc doesn’t get 100% right, it still gives an excellent guideline for understanding f1 car aero science. and yes, at least Marc is ex-bolter, but who are/were Sommers and Scarb to call themselves an experts?(no abuse here, just want to know the background to hopefully not ask this question again)
In comparison, neither somers or scares are any bodies…
What most people also forget, or perhaps didn’t know, before the current era of aeronautical degrees, many of F1’s top engineers/ designers started as bolt men too.
It’s actually quite arrogant to suggest Marc as a ‘bolter’
i agree on last two paragraphs alright. As for the first one i have no answers(yet) to make a judgement(take it as my diplomatic answer(i mean those lads may have some points, but – what knowledge are those points based on?). As for Marc’s case i guess the ”bolt man” knows best than an armchair-based aerodynamics bachelor picture(not taken by themselves) analyzer
Much of Somers stuff comes from Giorgio Piola
well. here you go then. paragraph 1 of SyracuseVerse now answered
I’ll be open and state that despite his credentials as formerly part of the McL F1 crew, Marc never impressed me from what I had seen of him on Sky interviews.
I am tho’ thoroughly enjoying his clear and concise renderings here – he is far easier to understand then the much liked Scarbs (who I think has dropped off markedly as he became more important) and even Somers who has similarly fallen away.
Thanks for the pointer TJ.
hah, funny – we dressed down two ”experts” in one go, didn’t we? the truth always surfaces – later or sooner is a matter of time
I think the truth is, neither Scarbs or Somers are ex F1 team members in any sense. They seem passionate F1 techie fans.
I watch blogs on YouTube of console game reviews and you have all standard of presenters telling you about the merits of Call of Duty or FIFA etc but not one would understand how to code a game.
If you’re interested in the technical side of the sport then I’d imagine it’s easy to explain the nuances of design but having the ability to put ideas down on paper is a different ballgame.