Silly Season 2011 Thread

[Donuts]

I have no doubt Renault will find the perfect man for the job in Heidfeld and Kubica will return earlier than we can imagine .As Nick will undoubtedly extract from the Reanault a good stream of results and points they will face a major problem when Kubica is ready to return.I REALLY hope Nick will bag that win nowand make it imposssible to drop him giving them a strong push in second half of this year with Robert and Nick wich was the pairing they should have commited to anyways.

I'm not even sure he'll outscore Vitaly Petrov, but there is a chance, since the latter is allready complaining about "all the new thing on the car that won't make it easy even though he has a year of racing in F1 behind him". He allready spent some time in the gravel... But let's wait and see what the verdict is after today's testing.

[WhiteBlue]

Nick is already faster than Petrow. They have said that they will do some short stints in the morning for setup work and do long runs in the afternoon. So now they should be preparing for the long runs.

[Morteza]

Were BMW not running KERS in 2009? If they did, Heidfeld would be the man with KERS experience which is an advantage, right?

[raymondu999]

Heidfeld's BMW ran with KERS for a bit, then it was taken off. It made cameo returns in Monza and Spa I believe.

[WhiteBlue]

Heidfeld will take fastest lap today for Renault and do another half day tomorrow. I think they will announce him very soon as their replacement for Kubica.

[ESPImperium]

I believe they will intend to do around 40 to 50 laps with Heidfeld tomorrow and then stop for around the usual 1400 mark local time for about an hour for lunch, let the guys change the car over in that hour as the should have had their lunch before hand, then put Senna in the car and let him have around 30 laps or so from 1500 local time.

Better to get Senna some laps in now, and at the other tests and a few FP1s as well, he may be needed if Petrov crashes the way we know he can.

As for Heidfeld and KERS, he and Klien have the most experience of the BMW 'Super-Capasitor' KERS, Kubica ran it once and then ditched it. BMW ditched it in 2009 around the Monaco mark as it was mostly ran on Heidfelds car Kubica ran it once in Bahrain, but then didn't run it again. As for the cameo performances, they didn't happen as BMW Sauber introduced a 'B-Spec' F1.09 at Valencia and those chassis (06, 07 & 08) had their capacitors removed as well as the KERS MGU. Those 3 tubs were in-fact the last ever B-Spec chassis in F1 as they were outlawed from the start of 2010.

[Donuts]

Q. Will you drive at all tomorrow?

NH: No, Bruno [Senna] will drive the whole day tomorrow.

[Max Speed]

Because the cars are so technical these days, teams are often opting for experienced drivers to develop the cars, which may be understandable, but is a shame when the likes of Heidfeld and Barrichello seem to be around for ever, while the likes of "comingmen" like Senna, Grosjean, and Bianchi remain on the sidelines as regard to getting a regular seat. With the lack of high profile testing oppurtunities at the moment, it is hard to see how the door will open to a full time F1 ride for a fresh generation to be given the chance - unless they bring a bucketful of cash. Remember 1984, when Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle, who had dominated in F3 the previous year, were both promoted to full time F1 drives as a result? Hard to imagine that happening nowadays...

[FrukostScones]

Q. Will you drive at all tomorrow?

NH: No, Bruno [Senna] will drive the whole day tomorrow.

He will wreck the car!

[ESPImperium]

Because the cars are so technical these days, teams are often opting for experienced drivers to develop the cars, which may be understandable, but is a shame when the likes of Heidfeld and Barrichello seem to be around for ever, while the likes of "comingmen" like Senna, Grosjean, and Bianchi remain on the sidelines as regard to getting a regular seat. With the lack of high profile testing oppurtunities at the moment, it is hard to see how the door will open to a full time F1 ride for a fresh generation to be given the chance - unless they bring a bucketful of cash. Remember 1984, when Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle, who had dominated in F3 the previous year, were both promoted to full time F1 drives as a result? Hard to imagine that happening nowadays...

The precise reason i believe that testing should have the following rules:
* Drivers are limited to no more than 7 days testing
* The first three tests are single car tests [12 days] (Ricardo Tormo/Jerez/Barcelona)
* The final is a dual car test [Effective 8 days] (Bahrain)
* Teams can allot a extra TV day for development as well
* This means teams have to put their test drivers in to gain experience

As for FP1, id make it that each team has to put a Test, Reserve or Development driver in at least 14 FP1s each season with each race car/driver having to take a equal split of FP1 drivers and take a seat on the sidelines. This allows for experience to come through and be passed on.

As for in-season testing, allow for a single four or two three day tests where the Test, Reserve & Development drivers must take part in, these tests ideally will take place at non calendar tracks and tracks that teams have not tested on pre-season. This means that Motorland Aragon and Portamao come into their own. Id limit driver usage here to two days maximum so more drivers come into contact with F1 machinery. Id also make it mandatory that each team support a driver in GP2 & GP3 as well.

I agree there is too many older guys around and there isn't enough worthy younger guys around, this means drivers have to be the best to race in F1, and drivers have to perform otherwise they may be out, and out fast. This means drivers are more inclined to take risks and have a more do-or-die attitude and make racing better.

[andrew]

Q. Will you drive at all tomorrow?

NH: No, Bruno [Senna] will drive the whole day tomorrow.

He will wreck the car!

Go figure sports fan?

Bit of a wild prediction there. Care to elaborate?

[Shrieker]

Q. Will you drive at all tomorrow?

NH: No, Bruno [Senna] will drive the whole day tomorrow.

He will wreck the car!

Either that, or he'll get the seat And I definitely can relate why.

I'd like to see the responses of the F1technical folk if he posts a better time than Heidfeld (I know, consistency too, but we won't know).

[andartop]

I'd like to see the responses of the F1technical folk if he posts a better time than Heidfeld (I know, consistency too, but we won't know).

It would probably not make any difference whatsoever. As mentioned in previous posts Renault made it clear they want an experienced driver to develop the car. They would like to have Heidfeld and would consider others (Liuzzi and De La Rosa) if Heidfeld underperformed today, which he didn't. It's not about the fastest time but all about pulling out consistent lap times, being up there straight away, giving valuable feedback to set up the car better, avoiding mistakes and being fast, and Heidfeld apparently ticked all the boxes today.

[reikorp]

I think we are all pretty sure about Nick as a replacement for Robert. Even if Bruno was equaly fast he has still to exp.

But: imagine that R31 is 2nd or 3rd fastest car in the grid. It seems possible. Quick Nick is at his best and at the half of the season he's in top 5 driver's with serious chances to win the title.

Now Kubica is fully recovered, ready to race.

What then? Who's of the 3 drivers is first to out? Nick, Vitali or Robert?

[raymondu999]

Considering Robert is out for at least the first 15 races, looking at their options, the only way they can be in contention is if they put Quick Nick in the car. Any other driver, and they wouldn't be in the title-challenging position in the first place, methinks. Logically speaking in that case I feel Robert should come in and replace Vitaly, but that would be unfair to Vitaly. Having said that, I think when they thought of an experienced driver to replace Robert, they committed to letting Robert rest out the year, which is such a shame, and we never know if he might get race-rusty throughout the year.

If it is a title-challenging car, Robert must feel sore as a boil. Kinda like Schumi had to play second fiddle to Irvine (can't remember if that was 1998 or 1999) when SCHUMI was the one who brought about the team's revival, and then Irvine was about to be the first one to enjoy the fruits of that labor.