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[QUOTE=Kitdy;843309]
If it was not machinery at all that counted, then I think the best driver was Fernando Alonso. The Ferrari (and I am not sure of this) also on average may have been the faster car so if you don't want machinery to be part of it, then how would Hamilton have done in a Ferrari? My rough guess tells me he woulda beaten Massa in equal machinery this year, and I think maybe the only person that coulda beat him woulda been Alonso. Others with potential would be Vettel and Kubica but it is harder to evaluate as they have never had the quality of machinery under them that Lewis, Alonso, Kimi, Massa and Kovalainen have.
[/QUOTE]
Yes... we have to be honest that Lewis is somewhat better than Felipe in some point...
We also shouldn't count out Kimi in the equation, as I've observed, the proble with kimi is that he will only perform when HE WANTS TO. You'll notice that he can set fastest laps at the closing stages of the race...
Fernando has proven he can be better than lewis when they were teammates, and i agree with you on that. Now, the problem with alonso is that he beceame a little jealous with lewis last year (2007). It is because lewis was able to outperform fernando at some point of the season. Fernendo didn't take that so well.
Regarding about Kubica and Vettel, I think they are as good if not better than Lewis, Alonso, Kimi, Massa and Heikki. Kubica and Vettel were able to keep up and even beat the pace of these guys in cars that were not even a match for ferraris and mclarens... I hope vettel soon will have the machinery, same can be said for kubica. They deserve to be world champions.
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[QUOTE=Kitdy;843293]I think calling the hierarchy in 2009 will be harder than usual due to the vast rule changes - I think we'll have to wait until after testing more than ever to get a good picture. By the way, where is the 2008 predictions thread?[/QUOTE]
Have you heard when the new changes are to be announced, for all of the rest of the world to see?
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[QUOTE=5150;843369]Have you heard when the new changes are to be announced, for all of the rest of the world to see?[/QUOTE]
Reduction in aero, change to slick tires, and KERS are the biggest changes, but to further that:
On 22 December 2006, the FIA released the technical regulations for the 2009 season[31].
Along with changes to bodywork, vehicle weight and tyre size, the document includes details of a "Kinetic Energy Recovery System", or KERS. This is a regenerative brake device that is designed to recover some of the vehicle's kinetic energy that is normally dissipated as heat during braking. The recovered energy could be stored electrically, in a battery or supercapacitor, or mechanically, in a flywheel, for use as a source of additional accelerative power at the driver's discretion.
After being banned since 1998, slick tyres will be provided by Bridgestone in 2009.[32]
There will also be a cap on team budgets starting in the 2009 season.[33]
Section 3.18 of the regulations contains details of "driver adjustable bodywork". The angle of incidence of elements in a defined area forward of the front wheels can be varied by up to 6 degrees and adjusted by direct driver input. A maximum of 2 adjustments can be made on any lap.
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[QUOTE=Kitdy;843293]By the way, where is the 2008 predictions thread?[/QUOTE]
That's a very good question actually. I seem to remember a thread with that theme floating around at one stage, but I can't seem to find it. I'm thinking the predictions were probably made in another thread covering something else...
I'll keep looking and post as soon as I found it.
EDIT: Err, just saw you found it already Kitdy :o :)
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[QUOTE=Kooper;843429]That's a very good question actually. I seem to remember a thread with that theme floating around at one stage, but I can't seem to find it. I'm thinking the predictions were probably made in another thread covering something else...
I'll keep looking and post as soon as I found it.[/QUOTE]
I found it but forgot to link. Moments... [URL="http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/racing-forums/35710-what-your-predictions-f1.html"]Here[/URL].
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With Bridgestone providing the slick tires for 2009, will they be used as an "option" tire or will they be used in compliance as their other two compounds were in 2008?
Thanks for the info on the new regulations for 2009.
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2009:
The WDC will be a close fight between Massa and Hamilton again with Kimi not being interested and Heikki just not being good enough. However Massa will struggle at first with the reduced downforce.
Kubica and Alonso will win races as both BMW (who gave up on this year to concentrate on 2009) and Renault improve their cars, however they will not be incontention for the WDC.
Alonso will probably take out Hamilton on at least two occassions.
Hamilton will take out or bump people off the track on several occasions (much like this year).
the FIA will be accussed of favouring Ferrari (much like every year) while secretly hoping the Hamilton wins the WDC (much like the last two years).
Webber will have more DNFs then any driver in the field.
Vettel will keep on improving.
Piquet Jr and Nakajima will not last the season.
Honda will continue to be mobile chicanes.
Toyota will continue to pour billions of dollars in their car and only improve marginally.
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I think the mandatory use of the option tire is silly. What is the goal of that rule? To spice things up?
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[QUOTE=Kitdy;843505]I think the mandatory use of the option tire is silly. What is the goal of that rule? [B]To spice things up?[/B][/QUOTE]
Most likely.
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[QUOTE=Rockefella;843514]Most likely.[/QUOTE]
The same reason we have an idiotic qualifying format.
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I dont know if this has been posted, but here is a prediction of the 2009 cars
[IMG]http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5354/ferrari09zt1.jpg[/IMG]
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Except for the out of proportion rear wing, it is a big step forward.
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The wing has to be that way though to keep the drag relatively high whilst reducing downforce unfortunately. With a wider, simpler wing then we'd probably see drag drop as significantly as the downforce, and hence top speeds would jump up which the FIA would be unlikely to allow on safety grounds.
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Going with what W said, I like the toned down look of the 2009 formula, just the wing is a bit large. Hopefully F1 improves with this recipe for reduced aero and slicks.
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[QUOTE=fpv_gtho;844637]The wing has to be that way though to keep the drag relatively high whilst reducing downforce unfortunately. With a wider, simpler wing then we'd probably see drag drop as significantly as the downforce, and hence top speeds would jump up which the FIA would be unlikely to allow on safety grounds.[/QUOTE]
Yes, narrowing the wing causes the effieciency to drop because of the bad aspect ratio and the downforce to drop due to less area. Also the efficiency of the diffuser is lowered due to moving the rear wing. But would the higher positioning of the wing give cleaner air for the wing and also cleaner air for the follower car, helping overtaking?
I like the looks of this car without all the aero devices. But Its one step closer to lets say Formula Ford.