Aggree with the car assessment, however Force India will go well here, and probably BMW Sauber and maybes Williams. I think that HRT will be the best of the new teams here due to their top end speed.donskar wrote:McL has top speed; RB advantage through the twisties; Ferrari good overall. I'll say Alonso.
Just how rigid is the rule about the factories being closed -- NO work on the cars before Spa???
And how rigidly the rules are enforced, the teams are allowed to take thei cars back and put them in the race bays and dis-assemble them to their core and thats about it.
CFD facilities have to be closed down, Wind Tunnels closed down as well, simulators as well, the FIA send arround a observer to put security tags over doorways to prevent entry, Blackberrys and Laptops all must be handed in and put in a "secure room" and locked by the FIA.
Most teams are starting their 2 week power-down from Wednesday thru to Monday. The only exeption is STR as they are taking their holidays a week on Wednesday as they are using the time that Red Bull arnt using the CFD and Wind Tunnel to develop their car for next year, thus establishing a loophole.
Howeverm, there are many other loopholes, there isnt any rules against meeting up and having a meal and discussing new cars or design posibilities with a personal laptop(s) or PC(s) with software bought personally and trying designs in that that are close to what could be made for 201l, there isnt any rule against pen and paper or looking at figures on paper or even the 2011 rules that you could have printed out. And there isnt any rule against ideas kept in the brain is there, so with that i question the shut-down.
Thats why id much rather have 3-three week breaks with each team taking their holiday in one of them, but only make it the race team, anyone based at the factory that dosnt go to the races can still keep on developing and such, as going by Force Indias figure last year, with the cost of the close-down and open-up added in it only saved the team £400,000 last year. I supose its something, but id prefer the three week break idea and have another GP before Spa.
