2008 Formula One Season Official Thread

[Kitdy]

If I remember correctly, teams get bonus money for scoring points yeah?

What sort of money did Force India lose out on assuming Sutil took the car home in 4th?

[Rockefella]

Originally Posted by Kitdy

If I remember correctly, teams get bonus money for scoring points yeah?

What sort of money did Force India lose out on assuming Sutil took the car home in 4th?

Probably a few million, but don't quote me on that.

[Zytek_Fan]

Originally Posted by Kitdy

If I remember correctly, teams get bonus money for scoring points yeah?

What sort of money did Force India lose out on assuming Sutil took the car home in 4th?

Let's just say a lot.

[fpv_gtho]

Vijay Mallya's brandishing a figure around of about $7 million, not sure of the currency.

[ringle]

Originally Posted by fpv_gtho

Vijay Mallya's brandishing a figure around of about $7 million, not sure of the currency.

As if $7 Mill of any currency is meaningful to a BILLIONAIRE!

[Jack_Bauer]

Originally Posted by ringle

As if $7 Mill of any currency is meaningful to a BILLIONAIRE!

Well firstly, $7 million is VERY meaningful, even to a billionaire.

Even if it weren't, that's hardly the point. Vijay Mallya isn't purely in the sport for shits and giggles, he will want the team to run as much like a healthy business as possible. Not only will the loss in prize money cost the team dearly, having zero points on the board come the end of the season (which now looks likely) will no doubt greatly hinder their drive for bringing in sponsors to the team next year.

It was a real disaster for the team.

[fpv_gtho]

7 million probably isnt all that much less than what 9th and 10th fight for in the constructors, McLaren lost about 50 million last year with spygate afterall. Spyker went to arbitration with Toro Rosso and Super Aguri from fear of being locked into 11th in the WCC and thus recieving no prize money.

It all ads up, it could be about 5% of their yearly budget.

[Zytek_Fan]

It wasn't so much TV money, but position in the championship table. Higher position = better sponsors. Not that Force India needs more sponsorship money, but I'm sure the team owners would rather not have to spend their personal wealth on a business venture.

The VJM-01 is showing some promise, mostly due to the fantastic Ferrari engine.
The team started this year knowing not to expect to do great, but they seem to have met their expectations so far this year for a "new" team.




As for a different manner, apparently Ferrari has been taping BMW's pitstops to try to see how they get pitstops done so quickly and methodically. I don't know, maybe lots of practice?
And it raises questions of should Ferrari be allowed to do that?

I'm beginning to think that Ferrari is feeling more and more threatened by BMW...

[ringle]

Bernie heads another F1 crisis meeting
Sun 08 Jun, 03:38 PM


The political undertone to this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix event continued on Saturday, with a second crisis meeting in as many days.

Bernie Ecclestone again chaired a gathering of team bosses, amid paddock speculation the F1 Chief Executive is adeptly driving suggestions of a split with the controversial Max Mosley-led FIA.

Following the sex scandal, the rift between Formula One and Mosley has taken on a new significance as it becomes clear that a war is being waged about a new Concorde agreement.

Whether the breakaway threat - for a new championship called 'GP1' - is genuine or not, Ecclestone is making the stakes abundantly clear to Mosley: "They (the FIA) have the rules but no teams and no contracts."

He told the Sunday Express: "I'm certainly not advocating a breakaway but in theory they (the teams) could do their own deal for TV, whatever.

"NASCAR do it all for themselves in the States but I don't know if they really want to do this in F1."

The German magazine Auto Motor und Sport reveals that Ecclestone has the backing of Honda and McLaren, while Toyota and Williams are reluctant.

A Ferrari indicated the Maranello team is for now not taking a side, while BMW's Mario Theissen said: "At the moment I do not have a clear picture.

"In all scenarios, a separate series would not be the first option," he added.



Bernie heads another F1 crisis meeting - Yahoo! Eurosport UK

[Zytek_Fan]

The manufacturers are all behind Bernie, save Ferrari.

A breakaway series could happen, but I'm sure the FIA would get rid of Max before it happens.

[Kitdy]

I had NASCAR qualification on for some reason the other day - I didn't watch it but it was on, and I noticed they had an amazing graphic.

It was a little graph that showed the performance of the lap relative to the leader in (essentially) real time. Do the guys in F1 have access to things like this? It'd be cool if F1 offered this online or if they had shown it onscreen with the old 1 lap qualification system.

Anyways, below is my little representation of it.

As far as I understand, the black horizontal line represented the performance of the best time so far, and the green line above the black line would represent a better performance at that instant, while a red line below it would represent a worse performance.

[Rockefella]

Originally Posted by Kitdy

I had NASCAR qualification on for some reason the other day - I didn't watch it but it was on, and I noticed they had an amazing graphic.

It was a little graph that showed the performance of the lap relative to the leader in (essentially) real time. Do the guys in F1 have access to things like this? It'd be cool if F1 offered this online or if they had shown it onscreen with the old 1 lap qualification system.

Anyways, below is my little representation of it.

As far as I understand, the black horizontal line represented the performance of the best time so far, and the green line above the black line would represent a better performance at that instant, while a red line below it would represent a worse performance.

It is a nice graphic, you're right. I think the reason that F1 doesn't use it is probably due to the lack of timing sectors. Since the F1 system is based on three sectors rather than the 20 odd timing sectors they have on Nascar ovals, it'd be tough to accomplish.

[cmcpokey]

Originally Posted by Rockefella

It is a nice graphic, you're right. I think the reason that F1 doesn't use it is probably due to the lack of timing sectors. Since the F1 system is based on three sectors rather than the 20 odd timing sectors they have on Nascar ovals, it'd be tough to accomplish.

when you see what the teams are watching in their pit boxes, they have real time updated positions of all of the cars. you would think that they could adapt that to broadcast timing. with all of the sensors and stuff put into the car, a gps tracker to send all position and speed info shouldn't be that challenging.

[Rockefella]

Originally Posted by cmcpokey

when you see what the teams are watching in their pit boxes, they have real time updated positions of all of the cars. you would think that they could adapt that to broadcast timing. with all of the sensors and stuff put into the car, a gps tracker to send all position and speed info shouldn't be that challenging.

Understood. I think the teams are unwilling to share those telemetries though.

[Kitdy]

Originally Posted by Rockefella

Understood. I think the teams are unwilling to share those telemetries though.

As I said before to you, Bernie is god and he should just make it happen - it'd be better for the spectacle.