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Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

MattS said:
I think Senna will catch on as a reserve driver somewhere, but I think he is done as a F1 race driver unless he can come up with money to pay for a ride. I just don't think he impressed enough with his Renault drive these past few races.
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Yea, he started ok, but never really did much.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

alfablue said:
Yea, he started ok, but never really did much.
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It wasn't quite as bad as I originally remembered. I just looked it up and Senna and Petrov were even in out qualifying each other. 4 - 4. But Petrov finished better in 5 out of 8 races. Petrov gathered 5 points to Senna's 2 points. I guess the "up side" for Senna was that he had zero retirements. :)
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

wow. Brian Barnhart = GONE!

http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/indycar-barnhart-removed-from-race-control-angstadt-fired/

yes!

also, Tomas Sheckter and PT looking for full-time rides only.

I'd love to see Tomas at a top flight team like Andretti, but...I don't think that will happen unless his friendship w/Marco can help him get an in. What might make perfect sense for him is A.J. Foyt. He's a hard charger and A.J. loves those guys.

also some headlines here but on the lower right a link to listening to watching the new car at IMS, I just noticed the pronounced difference in sound between the Honda and Chevy, pretty interesting. Still wish it would be more high pitched...http://news.speedtv.com/page/indycar-news-2012
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

It's amazing to me how quickly the Red Bulls (Vettle,Webber), pull away from the field at the start of the race and are never challenged. It appears they have about 10 more H.P. Looking forward to next year to see if other manufacturers (Ferrari,McLaren), can once again be competitive.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

MattS said:
I think Senna will catch on as a reserve driver somewhere, but I think he is done as a F1 race driver unless he can come up with money to pay for a ride. I just don't think he impressed enough with his Renault drive these past few races.
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Maybe I am wrong. I read this morning that it is possible the Petrov will be out at LRGP and Grojean and Senna are the two most likely candidates to replace him.

Runsub5 said:
It's amazing to me how quickly the Red Bulls (Vettle,Webber), pull away from the field at the start of the race and are never challenged. It appears they have about 10 more H.P. Looking forward to next year to see if other manufacturers (Ferrari,McLaren), can once again be competitive.
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I am pretty sure the RB success has to do with aero and not HP. Although it does look like they have more HP. Otherwise LRGP (engine supplier to RB) would be better in qualifying, even when considering their drivers. Also I think it speaks to the drivers, especially Vettel's, strengths. He is super fast when not having to deal with traffic.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

MattS said:
..........
I am pretty sure the RB success has to do with aero and not HP. Although it does look like they have more HP. Otherwise LRGP (engine supplier to RB) would be better in qualifying, even when considering their drivers. Also I think it speaks to the drivers, especially Vettel's, strengths. He is super fast when not having to deal with traffic.
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I don't think it's all aerodynamics. At the very beginning of races Vettle is pulling away. There is someting intrinsic to the engines Red Bull is using. Is it torque, gear ratios? Vettle is a very good driver and proved it by winning the Driver's Championship, but in my opinion there is more to it than his driving. I would love to see Alonso, Button or Hamilton in Vettle's car.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

Runsub5 said:
I don't think it's all aerodynamics. At the very beginning of races Vettle is pulling away. There is someting intrinsic to the engines Red Bull is using. Is it torque, gear ratios? Vettle is a very good driver and proved it by winning the Driver's Championship, but in my opinion there is more to it than his driving. I would love to see Alonso, Button or Hamilton in Vettle's car.
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By the FIA regs the engines that RB uses must be the same as the one's that LRGP uses (And Team Lotus for that matter). So it can't be that. But you are right it might be gearbox. I am not sure who makes the RB or the LRGP gearboxes. I still think it is aero though. Areo is just way to important in the current F1 world. Aero geniuses like Newey, are simply way out in front of others.

IMO, Hamilton and Alonso would beat out Vettel if they had his car. Button...probably not.
 
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Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

solovsfett said:
wow. Brian Barnhart = GONE!
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Yee Freakin Ha!

Marshall Pruett had a great article on the new chassis that gets into tons of details on the weight dist. problem, among other things. One thing I found disturbing was many components came were delivered over weight by suppliers, which is the main contributor of the problem. Why would any supplier deliver overweight components? One would think contractually the suppliers are obligated to supply parts per specs.

Interestingly, in testing this week, Briscoe in the Chevy isn't really reporting a huge handling problem, while Dixon in the Honda is.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

Timothy A said:
Marshall Pruett had a great article on the new chassis that gets into tons of details on the weight dist. problem, among other things. One thing I found disturbing was many components came were delivered over weight by suppliers, which is the main contributor of the problem. Why would any supplier deliver overweight components? One would think contractually the suppliers are obligated to supply parts per specs.

Interestingly, in testing this week, Briscoe in the Chevy isn't really reporting a huge handling problem, while Dixon in the Honda is.
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I read Pruett's article. And I think, and I am kind of guessing here, is that the parts are over weight because they are prototypes. I haven't worked in the automotive industry (Borg Warner) since the mid-90's but when I did all of our first prototypes, even the ones sent to the customers, almost always started out too heavy/strong. It was better to have parts that worked and were too heavy than to have one's that failed.

Maybe part of the Briscoe / Dixon difference is their driving styles and/or the difference in the weights of the engines?

I think this new chassis is going to really separate the real drivers from the pretenders.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

A lot of empty slots:

Official FIA Provisional line-up for 2012 Formula 1 season:

Red Bull Racing
1 Sebastian Vettel
2 Mark Webber

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
3 Jenson Button
4 Lewis Hamilton

Scuderia Ferrari
5 Fernando Alonso
6 Felipe Massa

Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team
7 Michael Schumacher
8 Nico Rosberg

Lotus F1 Team
9 Kimi Räikkönen
10 TBA

Sahara Force India F1 Team
11 TBA
12 TBA

Sauber F1 Team
14 Kamui Kobayashi
15 Sergio Pérez Mendoza

Scuderia Toro Rosso
16 TBA
17 TBA

AT&T Williams
18 TBA
19 TBA

Team Caterham
20 Heikki Kovalainen
21 Jarno Trulli

HRT F1 Team
22
23

Marussia Virgin Racing
24 Timo Glock
25 Charles Pic
Click to expand...
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

MattS said:
Maybe part of the Briscoe / Dixon difference is their driving styles and/or the difference in the weights of the engines?

I think this new chassis is going to really separate the real drivers from the pretenders.
Click to expand...

I totally agree, the only issue is we were all hoping for superfast cars that were a handful, not slow ones.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

Timothy A said:
I totally agree, the only issue is we were all hoping for superfast cars that were a handful, not slow ones.
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True enough. However, I am not too surprised about the lack of speed. I just don't think that the engine formula allows for the HP that the chassis needs to obtain good speed. I don't know how Indycar thought that a 2.2L V6 engine capped at 12,000 rpm (even with turbos) was ever going to produce 750 - 800 HP and stay within the cost containment. Heck F1 only produces about 750 HP in a 2.4L V8 with 19,000 rpm even if they are NA.

And I have come to the conclusion that Dallara doesn't know how to produce good open wheel chassis that are trying to obtain speeds above 125 mph.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

Just saw on the espn ticker that Newman Haas will not be fielding a team next year...

So many championships and great driver.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

I saw on Fox Sports that Patrick Head is leaving Williams. He is co-founder with Frank Williams and top engineer. Jensen Button tweeted that Head believed in him and gave Jensen the opportunity to win the Drivers Championship in 2009.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

alfablue said:
Just saw on the espn ticker that Newman Haas will not be fielding a team next year...

So many championships and great driver.
Click to expand...

wow. that's awful news. Not only do we lose a championship caliber team (and they were coming back into form), but now Hinchliffe and Servia need rides somewhere. No wonder I read that Servia was talking w/Foyt.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

MattS said:
And I have come to the conclusion that Dallara doesn't know how to produce good open wheel chassis that are trying to obtain speeds above 125 mph.
Click to expand...

Apparently Dallara also produces HRT's F1 dog as well.
 
Re: Open Wheel Racing 2011, hurry, before we downsize your engines....

Timothy A said:
Apparently Dallara also produces HRT's F1 dog as well.
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They did. I don't think they do anymore. But it's another example of how Dallara can't design a good open chassis.
 
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