Alonso drives Renault R25 at Yas Marina Circuit

[V12-POWER]

It's on the Pirelli "demo" compound tyres which accounts for some of the deficit.

Those tyres are still a whole lot smaller than the current ones.
But, exactly that might explain how the car is maybe very quick on the straight as well.
Pity they didn't have a set of Michelins lying around somewhere

In any case, the car looks and sounds quicker than today's cars, imho.

F1 "evolved" in the wrong direction, with the limos and extra weight.
With the cooler more rubbered in conditions of Q3 and more setup work (the car was never suppoused to run on these tires, with "pirelli safe" pressures), it would probably shave a decent amount of time too, give Latifi a run for his money lol.

and the fact they’re most probably taking it easy on the engine, you can barely hear the traction control so maybe they also run a very ”light” map with it too. On the short vid F1 channel posted it seemed to smoke a bit after the TC kicked in

I believe this car can do a 1:36 running all out, it is a monster, it might be slower but it just doesn’t rely on endless stuff to be fast.

This is what embodies a speed machine

btw does anyone have footage of the Saturday run? Can’t find anywhere

[JordanMugen]

You deliberately picked the ugliest narrow track Renault you could find for that comparison didn't you

Yes, yes I did.

[jjn9128]

I think it's quite telling about the state of modern f1 that a lot of folk were more excited by a 15 year old car doing some demo laps than the actual race.

Is it a load of oldies with rose tinted specs on? Or is it that f1 really is missing something?

[Big Tea]

I think it's quite telling about the state of modern f1 that a lot of folk were more excited by a 15 year old car doing some demo laps than the actual race.

Is it a load of oldies with rose tinted specs on? Or is it that f1 really is missing something?

To me, it just took some of the gloss of the memory of the sound, but did really tickle a spot with the agility.

[DChemTech]

I think it's quite telling about the state of modern f1 that a lot of folk were more excited by a 15 year old car doing some demo laps than the actual race.

Is it a load of oldies with rose tinted specs on? Or is it that f1 really is missing something?

It's probably a bit of both.
I do accept the sound will not be as it was back then - tech moves on. But I sure to hope that cars do get smaller and more nervous again at some point. Limousine racing just doesn't look as exiting.

[toraabe]

Those tyres are still a whole lot smaller than the current ones.
But, exactly that might explain how the car is maybe very quick on the straight as well.
Pity they didn't have a set of Michelins lying around somewhere

In any case, the car looks and sounds quicker than today's cars, imho.

F1 "evolved" in the wrong direction, with the limos and extra weight.
With the cooler more rubbered in conditions of Q3 and more setup work (the car was never suppoused to run on these tires, with "pirelli safe" pressures), it would probably shave a decent amount of time too, give Latifi a run for his money lol.

and the fact they’re most probably taking it easy on the engine, you can barely hear the traction control so maybe they also run a very ”light” map with it too. On the short vid F1 channel posted it seemed to smoke a bit after the TC kicked in

I believe this car can do a 1:36 running all out, it is a monster, it might be slower but it just doesn’t rely on endless stuff to be fast.

This is what embodies a speed machine

btw does anyone have footage of the Saturday run? Can’t find anywhere

With the new wide tyres... even better

[Just_a_fan]

It's perhaps worth remembering that the cars have developed as they have in part because they have to manage the tyres as well as manage PU component life. So the cars are increasingly designed to be stable and not move around unnecessarily. I'd bet that the R25 wouldn't do the race on only one stop with the current tyres. Well, not and be as quick as it was on the demo runs. Also, it would run out of fuel.

It would be interesting to see how fast a V10-engined W11 would be - assuming the associated weight loss of losing the battery etc. was carried over. A 900bhp V10 weighing 150kg less would be quite nippy I'd think.

[LM10]

[jjn9128]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkmnv58uyOs

I think that says a lot about what I'm talking about - even drivers are excited by the spectacle of those cars. They have the fastest cars ever but they get giddy when a v10 goes by.

[Jolle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkmnv58uyOs

I think that says a lot about what I'm talking about - even drivers are excited by the spectacle of those cars. They have the fastest cars ever but they get giddy when a v10 goes by.

Have you seen the several video's of Hamilton (and Button) drooling over a V6 turbo back when they were racing high revving V8's?

[strad]

What does it matter if the cars are a few seconds faster OR slower? What matters, at least to me, is the entertainment value.

[AMG.Tzan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkmnv58uyOs

I think that says a lot about what I'm talking about - even drivers are excited by the spectacle of those cars. They have the fastest cars ever but they get giddy when a v10 goes by.

Have you seen the several video's of Hamilton (and Button) drooling over a V6 turbo back when they were racing high revving V8's?

Exactly that!

People just forget when in 2004 we were all looking back at 80s turbos or the early 90s V12s and we were all saying "wow these cars were so beautiful and powerful"!

I remember back in 2007-2008 i thought the cars looked so ugly compared to 1990-1994 cars! I thought (and I still think) that the early 90s cars were the most iconic with the sparks flying behind the front wheels! Now though I look back at the 2008 Mclaren and think "wow...what a work of art that was!"

It all has to do with nostalgia...people always tend to think that the past was always better than the present! V10s were beautiful until 2005 but not in 2020 just like V12s were beautiful in the early 90s but not in 2005!

I'm sure in 10 years time we will all look back at the 2020 Mercedes and we'll say "wow...what a work of art that was!! The fastest car in history..."

[e30ernest]

I'm sure in 10 years time we will all look back at the 2020 Mercedes and we'll say "wow...what a work of art that was!! The fastest car in history..."

Nostalgia is a strong thing. I'm pretty sure we will look back to the 2020 Mercs as works of art as well.

TBH put side by side, the R25 looks like a toy car now compared to the current car. Don't get me wrong, I still think the R25 is a beautiful car.

Me personally I'd love to see something between the current cars and that era of cars. I'd love to see smaller, lighter cars powered by today's hybrid engines without the engine durability requirements. Then bring back the tire wars. Then we'd be seeing higher revving, ultra-high-torque, on the limit PUs propelling very light cars.

[RedNEO]

[strad]

Or is it that f1 really is missing something?

YES!! Yes it is.