Formula 1 2011 Thread.....

[markopoloman]

One month to go before the start of the new season

First test is out of the way - and really shows us that RedBull & Ferrari have produced quick cars - but Renault could have been onto something great with Kubica setting the fastest time..................

Until he nearly killed himself in that horrid Rally accident That's him screwed for the season, leaving either Senna or Grosjean to stand in (2 under-performing guys) and partnering Petrov and probably lining up the weakest pairing in the history of F1 Such a shame as I think Kubica could have been a real force this year.

McLaren have produced a very interesting looking car - the side pods look very different to all the other teams......


Anyone else really into F1?? Would be nice to grab a few more members over at a forum I mod....

http://www.pumaf1.org.uk/forum/

Not many active members - but we love F1

Roll on March 13th............................

[RMLF]

The McLaren looks more like an Indy or Cart car from what I've seen of it. Maybe that is just me

The 'Lotus' Renault Car looks stunning! and I like that Williams have gone back to the Walrus, always liked that design

Kubica was lucky to survive the crash report about ithere from I think Polish TV( nothing too gruesome) and apparently according to the BBC part of his hand has been severed. Not good

New Commentators as well in Brundle and Coulthard, cant wait!

[rocky1980]

Looking forward to the start, same about Kubica some reports are saying this will end his F1 days hope this is not the case. Lets see if red bull can hang on for another world title. I am hoping to see more from Hamilton this year....

[Edwards80]

Cannot wait for the new season. Huge shame about Kubica - He's shown he can come back from a big accident in the past by winning the Canadian GP the year after his massive accident, of course coming back from a major injury is a bit different. Let's just hope the surgeons can work their magic. . . a season of watching Senna or Grosjean is not an exciting prospect at all.

Most of the cars look like repaints of last years Red Bull but there are some exciting designs, especially the Mclaren.

Looking forward to watching it in HD too. Got freesat solely for that reason!

[Liamh1982]

The McLaren looks more like an Indy or Cart car from what I've seen of it. Maybe that is just me

The 'Lotus' Renault Car looks stunning! and I like that Williams have gone back to the Walrus, always liked that design

Kubica was lucky to survive the crash report about ithere from I think Polish TV( nothing too gruesome) and apparently according to the BBC part of his hand has been severed. Not good

New Commentators as well in Brundle and Coulthard, cant wait!

I tend to press the red button and listen to the 5 Live commentary, may not have to do that with Jonathan Legard gone.

[markopoloman]

Yeah, the loss of Legard is a HUGE bonus! Brundle is excellent and I am really happy he has stepped up to lead commentator - BUT what were they thinking when choosing Coulthard to partner him It'll be RedBull this, RedBull that for the whole season. I suppose looking on the bright side, I won't want to throw things through the TV after being driven to despair listening to Legard.

Also HD - yeah, thats great news.

The Virgin Car was launched today. Looks like last years and all computer designed again. AND no KERS They will be in the bottom 2 again then.... Oh well.

[Tapey297]

Firstly I hope Robert has a full recovery and can return to F1 as good as he is now (one of the top 4 guys IMHO)
I am a massive F1 nut and am finally going to go and see one live this year. I have only missed watching 3 GP's on TV since 1988 and love other track based motorsport too. Hence I shall definetily be checking out the forum mentioned in an earlier post.

This year looks like a case of conservative Vs Radical with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes all simply evolving their machines Vs Mclaren and Renault being more innovative. As for the Renault driver situation Grosjean is much better than Senna, but I would be straight on the blower to Nick Heidfeld's people if the contract situation Re. messrs Senna and Grosjean allows.

Can't wait for it all to start less than 5 weeks now!!

[Edwards80]

As for the Renault driver situation Grosjean is much better than Senna, but I would be straight on the blower to Nick Heidfeld's people if the contract situation Re. messrs Senna and Grosjean allows.

He's a good option but I would be much happier seeing Nico Hulkenberg be given a chance. He's a genuinely good driver and got through the ranks in F3, A1GP, GP2 etc. on merit. He beat Petrov in GP2 in 2009 too so would give him something to think about. Kubica could come back with a cast on and a opaque visor and still provide more of a challenge than Senna

I'd forgotten about Legard. I was never a fan either.

Definitely get along to a live GP if you can. The atmosphere is always excellent and the noise of the cars flashing past is flipping fantastic

[Tapey297]

but I would be much happier seeing Nico Hulkenberg be given a chance. He's a genuinely good driver and got through the ranks in F3, A1GP, GP2 etc. on merit. He beat Petrov in GP2 in 2009 too so would give him something to think about. Kubica could come back with a cast on and a opaque visor and still provide more of a challenge than Senna

I'd forgotten about Legard. I was never a fan either.

Definitely get along to a live GP if you can. The atmosphere is always excellent and the noise of the cars flashing past is flipping fantastic

I agree the "Hulk" would be a good choice unfortnately he has a contract as test driver at force india and they may not wish to lose him as he has knowledge of the 2011 Force India

[Katzkatz]

Yeah very sad news about Robert Kubica. I hope he can come back from this accident okay and return to motorsport. I agree I would put Kubica in top rank of current F1 drivers along with Alonso, Hamilton, Button and Vettel. If you look last season he rarely made any mistakes. I was hoping that Renault would have a good year this year as well.

As for the new cars well we'll have to wait and see. KERS is back. I am not sure about that. Plus we now have adjustable wings, which are meant to aid overtaking(heard that before). The Pirelli tyres are from what I have heard anyway meant to be similar to the Bridgestones so I doubt we will see many races like Canada last year, where a crumbling tyre help the racing situation there.

I hope we have a few wet weather races as well this season as that always spices things up.

This year is make or break for Schumi. I suspect he wants to get at least a couple of wins this season and then next year challenge for the championship. If not I think he might just call it a day.

As for Mclaren well I hope they have a more competitive car this year. Button is an excellent driver, but his qualifying is off on a lot of days. I hope this year he can remedy that. Lewis is an excellent driver as well, but as was shown last year is still a bit too rash in moments. I hope he has a stronger year. Plus I hope McLaren learnt from the bad pit calls they made last year(Australia for Hamilton, Italy for Button and Singapore for both drivers).

Red Bull I suspect will be very strong this year still. I don't think they will have quite the performance advantage they had last year. I think Vettel is going to be very strong this year. His title win will boost his confidence. I think he could be a back to back champion. As for Webber, will he is a very good F1 driver(his drives at Monaco, Spain, Britain and Hungary were amazing) but Vettel outqualified him last year and also managed to have the upper hand in the 2nd half of the season. I think it is going to be Häkkinen/Coulthard situation with Mark maybe winning a few races, but always in Vettel's shadow.

I think Ferrari will be strong and Alonso could probably take his third title this year. If he doesn't keep doing his amazing overtakes like Hockenheim last year! I do think however he has the talent for another win and you can never discount him as he seems to be the best all rounder in F1. If only he didn't throw his toys out of his pram so often!! I do think Massa is going to have a tough time this year and will have to play number 2 to Alonso.

I hope Williams can come good as well this year. It has been so long since they have had a winning car. They are great team and had a ratio of wins which could shame both Ferrari and Mclaren at one time, but sadly in recent years are a bit of a second rate team. They are looking a bit like Tyrell in its dying days. I hope this year they are more competitive!

The lose of Legard is no surprise as it was rumoured for ages. I think his favourite phrase was "Battle joined. Up at the corner." Brundle is always good and I like it when he pokes fun at Bernie and co!! His favourite phrase is :"A F1 car is like an upside down aeroplane wing!" Maybe Coulthard can stop him saying it that much this year.

The calendar this year is really long and has a few more circuits. Most of which are Tilkedromes!!! Still we have a few good circuits like Sepang, Spa, and Suzuka still in there!

[Edwards80]

The lose of Legard is no surprise as it was rumoured for ages. I think his favourite phrase was "Battle joined. Up at the corner." Brundle is always good and I like it when he pokes fun at Bernie and co!! His favourite phrase is :"A F1 car is like an upside down aeroplane wing!" Maybe Coulthard can stop him saying it that much this year.

lol. The phrase that constantly got to me was "Round they come now" . . . round they come? Really? I thought that F1car shaped object getting larger on my tv was the pressure release valve being transported to relieve the pressure in Eddie Jordon's ridiculously tight trousers.

*Ahem* I'm fairly sure my commentary on my toy F1 cars was better than that when I was 6

Coulthard will do a good job

[Liamh1982]

Always better if commentators have been there, done that. You may not always like them but at least they know what they're talking about.

Add me to the "McLaren looks a bit odd" club.

Hope the 'new' teams can claw themselves closer to the likes of Toro Rosso and Sauber. Lotus are the best bet again, two good drivers and experience behind the scenes.

And all the best to Kubica, we need more drivers like him and I fear for Renault this season now.

[markopoloman]

Lotus (the green ones!) should be much better as they dumped the Cosworth engine/gearbox and have now got the Renault engine/RedBull gearbox.

[Neilos626]

Can't wait for the new season although I feel BBC missed a trick, they should have paired Jordan with Brundle, I could see that producing many moments of unintentional comedy.

Kubica is a loss but I feel Petrov has the makings of a top driver and could step up to the plate.

The re-introduction of KERS will also spice things up a bit.

Great to see the JPS livery back in F1 on the lotus-reanault cars.

If we have anything like the drama of last season + Schumi getting involved and maybe a return to form from Massa this could be a classic season.

[Katzkatz]

Ye. After a delayed start, F1 begins this weekend at Melbourne. Okay the track isn't that great(having only 1 place to overtake) but still I am really looking forward to this year's F1. I might even stay up in the early hours of the morning to watch it. Who knows I might even watch the qualifying(normally I don't as I like to be surprised to see who's on pole for the race).

Loads of different variables this year. KERS back, new Pirelli tyres, new tracks(although they are Tilkedromes sadly), moveable wings.

Jenson Button also took his car around the Mount Panorama circuit in Australia. A decent circuit. Check it out below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNjIFzULPZk

Here's a picture, demonstrating a helicopter trying to take give Jenson's beard a trim on the circuit.



Predictions for the year(hey just a bit of fun and speculative thinking):-

1. Alonso will take his third world championship.
2. Vettel will be runner up.
3. McLaren will win 4 races(I hope I'm wrong about this).
4. Mercedes will win 1 (maybe involving one of the teams making a bad pitstop call).
5. Hamilton will have 3 DNFs because of going for a gap that isn't there.
6. There will be 3 wet weather races this year.
7. The KERS and adjustable wings will make little difference to the drivers being able to overtake one another.
8. Schumi and Alonso will have a coming together (like Schumi and Damon Hill used too - and other drivers as well).
9. Williams won't make any head way. I doubt even to get on to the podium.(again, I hope I'm wrong on this, as I would dearly love to see them win.).
10. If Schumi doesn't score a win this season for Mercedes he might call it a day.
11. Massa will be overshadowed by his fiery Spanish team mate.
12. Martin Brundle will say : "A F1 car is like an upside-down aeroplane wing.", three times this season.
13. Kobayashi will perform an amazing overtake (maybe at Monaco).
14. Webber will win 1 race this season, but be overshadowed by his German team mate.
15. The new tracks will produce snore fests of races.
16. Bernie will talk about dropping Silverstone from F1 again.
17. McLaren will make three bad pitstop calls(costing them valuable places).