I don't think it will change much if its difficult to overtake, if another car is faster on the same age tires but different compound its going to be about management of pit stops and when to change. we are going to see some time trial racing for sure. I personally would like to see tires that are consistent in drop off but the curve is quite steep, so that strategy is a big part of the racing hence a team sport.

Big chance for us. The conventional wisdom is that the first stint will go 2/3 into the race (if a 2 stop isn't mandatory). Qualify on softs, do poorly and you're stuck in traffic for the first 1/3 rd of the race until you pit - then you're in trouble. Qualify on hards, get them up to temp, do a good time relative to teams that don't get their tyres up to temp and we're going to do well. No guarantee that this years car will provide the same characteristics as last, but in the end I think it's going to be Red Bull fuel economy vs Mercedes low tyre wear rates. Qualy this year will make a far bigger difference this year than last - so we better qualify well......thankfully with smaller front tyres cars will go back to Webber (understeer) territory...... I can only hope!

SS am I going to be seeing you on the Thursday night this year?

Lots to ask MW this year.

Yeah - I'll there early - have a feeling fitting into the room could become problematic after last season.....


Helmet looked like he wanted to boof you after the German GP - WTF was that all about?

Should be fun - will be off to the casino after the meet with Stewy of Arabia this year, rather than hanging around and drinking enough rum that my back teeth were under water whilst betting on the Dapto dogs.... Although being tanked and watching my dog get barreled in a corner by another one is a funnier way to lose money that getting 22.

See you there.

? are you sure this is the case ?
RBR said on many occasions last year that MW ans SV liked a similar amount of oversteer.

Mark's qualifying issues last year were mostly down to him not being able to handle the car on race fuel under pressure situations.
His Q2 runs were generally quick and similar to Vettel's pace.
I think this year with Q3 being run with low fuel the conditions will come back to suit Mark.

The narrow front tyre situation and what this means for qualfiying is guess work, but certainly historically Mark's driving style has not been one that involves a provoking to induce understeer, more so little adjustments at the wheel in a similar way Schumacher used to do.

I don't care what RBR say, you'd have to be blind to not see that Vettel likes the car twitchier than Mark. Vettel and Hamilton may make a good pair, they both like the rear to be alive a little.

Yeah, I don't think it's about a preference for under- or oversteer. Think it's more about Mark being taller and heavier which made it harder for him to balance the car the same way Seb could. With the difference in tire dimensions weight should be moving backwards, which should make it easier to adjust the correct balance.

Speaking of which, the FIA have increased the minimum weight, haven't they? One issue less to worry about then.

Anyways, the new qualifying rule that became public yesterday hopefully gives an advantage to Red Bull. And if trends from the past carry over to this season this should also help McLaren score good, while it might be not so great for Ferrari and Mercedes. So only the two most recent champions to beat? We'll see.

Some members of another forum have been discussing a rumour that the 2010 Redbull has overheating issues. Has anyone here read much about this?

I don't know the english word, but italian magazine reported this week that red bull have problems with air in the fuel pipeline from tank to engine...

Surely that problem would easily be fixable. Doesnt seem that difficult to get fuel from the tank to the engine without contaminating it.

Nope.

THE WORD IS CAVITATION

Yes, have heard it stated on a few occasions. Having said that - a driver should be able to deal with both (within reason).

Marko said that - "the Vettel way is better", "pointier is quicker" or similar....I heard that changed over the season, after Monaco perhaps. I agree with Alfisti, I thought it was fairly noticeable as to a difference in their preferences.

Mark has stated (I can't recall where) that he though the move from grooved to slicks had something to do with qualifying performance. I'd think MW performs well in low grip situations and that may have been his advantage with grooved tyres.

As for his inability to perform under pressure - all evidence in a career to the contrary.......Seb was far more comfortable in taking risks with the car during qualifying. There were a number of occasions last season where the differences in telemetry were discussed between the 2. Seb would get on the power a little earlier that Mark and push a little wider and harder out of corners and that made the 5 metres or so difference in a lap that had Seb ahead of Mark. Fuel loads and corrected times also seem to be forgotten in that statement....

Seb is a great talent and will most assuredly go on the be a WDC - I don't think that gives anyone license to bag his teammate who kept him honest up until the last few races.
I can't ever see Vettel racing beside Hamilton, he'll stay at McLaren, Mercedes will make it's major exit there and Vettel may head over to the works team....they just need to convince him to stop driving that BMW to races....well I think it was a BMW - I was trying to get out of the way before he ran me over.

Dank - news on overheating / fuel pickup issues?

Super Sleeper, how do you see the return of Raikkoonneenn 2011?

Depends on agendas at Red Bull.......... Marko appears to like those who are pliable. Webber isn't. I think Kimi is viewed as someone who will turn up, do as he's told (no I don't mean that in a derogatory sense) and then leave. There was some talk about Kimi fitting in with Red Bulls marketing image - I'd think that given the results last season, and some good ones this year that everyone will get over the sport/marketing relationship and realise that Red Bull is now a real F1 team, not a marketing "gimmick" as they have been seen (IMHO). The ultimate answer has to do with the personal preference of 2 or 3 individuals. If Webber performs well this season, I think Horner and Matesich will outvote Marko...if Red Bull is some sort of democracy.
Ultimately this is Webbers season to do well - personally I think he has a better chance than Vettel because of the higher fuel loads and narrower front tyres and his ability to look after a car. I think those changes suit Webber better than Vettel.
All that of course could be a moot point if Kimi falls in love with rally....he's not the only one in the family who likes it.
So my answer is ....... I think Kimi will race for Red Bull in 2011...but not in F1.

I think that Kimi may do some surprise this season in WRC, which could mean that Kimi may want to go on with it. SO wait and see...


About Webber, I do think this is the critical year, of take or leave...

could also depend on what Vettel does 2011, which in turn how he does this year, and how Mercedes get on?

I think this is the year he pays Red Bull back.

How?

By taking the championship, I am assuming...

BTW would it not be funny if Newey come up with the car which looks more like Brawn 2009? WIh undercut sidepods, higher rear, bended front nose etc.

The car was champion, and run away at the very first fly away races. The lower nose looked like fat enough to jetting the air towards the outer edge of the front wing... I am no aero man...

The 09 Brawn only ran away with the first races because the other teams with the DD made a piss poor job of it.
By the time the other teams had sorted it out the Brawn was just one of the front runners (and often not in the top 4)

I would be happy to see the new car as an evolution of the old, but that would not be very Neweyesk now would it ;)
I just wish they had got the Merc engine. Nothing i have seen in the last 3-4 years has suggested ANYTHING will make the Renault a good power plant.
Talk of its fuel efficiency is redundant, fact is if its producing less power it should be more efficient and I would rather they had the power on tap and had to turn it down than not have it at all.

I saw some more info on the fuel cavtation issue mentioned above and have to say the sources of this story are suspect at best.

I read int he f1tech forum that lower nose faciltate the DDD better than a higher nose.

Recalling that:

1. RB5 started off the series with pointy extremely high nose with No DDD.
2. By modifying DDD the team opted to enwidened its nose and lower it a bit.

Perhaps the hight of B nose has something to do with over all balance, my question is that:

1. Longer car has MORE floor surface area, which should be giving more effect of DDD.
2. As of Brawn's philosophy for 2009 car the lower nose got strea the air to facilitate DDD

It loosk as if it is logical to lower the nose like an arnt eater...

Going to wait till 10 Feb...

I hope that RBR is not having problems. I am big Newey fan and for my money RBR had the class car of '09. If it had not been for having to redesign the car RBR would have had both championships imo. I am looking forward to seeing what Adrian does with building a car around a DDD from scratch. If there is any justice, RBR will get at least one championship in '10.

This was the very post-season subject of discussion in here; namely, was poor showing of technical nature? IMO car was still a front-contender as evidenced by RB's race-positions, and JB took simply time-off.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81289

Jerez washout could put RB6 on the backfoot.

All the teams have been saying the same thing at Valencia - reliability, reliability, reliability.
If they miss the Jerez test this could hurt as they need to put in the laps.

Chance they take really. Worked for them last year when the test session the opted to miss was a washout as well, and so they lost very little ground to their rivals.

Yes, but the other teams have all chosen medium-high to very high nose so it must be better in their simulations. The Brawn was the best they had at season start, but they even went 'backwards' to a new but more simple front wing design in the chase to make the car better overall.

http://i67.servimg.com/u/f67/12/07/06/50/rb6_pr10.jpg
http://i67.servimg.com/u/f67/12/07/06/50/rb610.jpg

I've found this on some polish forum, could that be RB6? A little simple design, for me it looks rather like RB1 or RB2 with new front wing, but who knows...

it is a show car. Pretty sure.

It comes from this website:

http://www.confidential-renault.fr/Un-aper...enault-RB6-i478

What do you mean a show car exactly? It clearly has 09 or 10 wings and mirrors yet is also clearly very different car from RB5. What would a show car with these characteristics exist for exactly?

This is a Launch Date Announced comment on the red bull site:

And the focus is very much on the season ahead for Christian:2010 Car

Is Red Bull a one driver team now?

?

Horner said some worring stuff.
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp...56623&FS=F1
"It would be a disaster to lose another engine manufacturer at the end of the year because they cannot compete with the others,"
"The rules for the development of the chassis are so strict that the engine plays an ever more important role,"

To me he sounds like fearing the Renault has some disadvantage and that may become a dicisive factor in WDC title.

I think he's just repeating the same thing that was being said last year, and that is the Renault engine is down on power compared to the others and if they are made to stay underpowered for the next few years due to the engine freeze, then Renault may very well find there's no point in continuing.

Doesn't mean that they cant win, though. We saw last year they were still capable of it.

Parking in shopping centres, foyers of sponsors etc.

Show car examples:
http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?show...amp;hl=show+car
http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?show...amp;hl=show+car


Unfortunately image hosting services ruin the historic internet by not keeping images online Will a souped up Google owned "way back machine.com" add images to their super web archive to preserve the historic internet properly?

All old (very old in some cases) cars with new wings and even nose cones (and winglets*!) tacked on. *If they don't notice it is a 2000 model Williams... I really don't think they are gonna care if Williams didn't bother attaching the 2006 spec flip-ups!

The Red Bull looks like it could be an old RB1 with the modern style front wing, a perfect show car example.

The Renault engine was always Plan B.

I'm curious. What was the plan A?

Mercedes

Seems the safest bet at this stage but who knows.

In their drams maby...

How plan with no chances of happening could be plan A?

True, and there were complications outside the control of either Red Bull or Mercedes that made it difficult to reach an agreement.

Whether they would have come to an agreement without these is, of course, unknowable.

Would they not rather supply three teams who can win title instead of two plus one midpack team? Seems straight forward.

To whom? Mercedes have now their own team. It's in their best interest to keep the advantage of the best engine for themselfs and not helping their closest oponents.

Certainly Ferrari think in my way (It seems that McLaren too, because they blocked RB). SF don't supply with engines teams that could fight for championship.

Yes the Ferrari deal was very bad for RBR... much more expensive yet much less support than Renault!?

Why do Sauber position themselves with Ferrari , by all means Kobayashi intends to give the championship a shake if the Sauber proves to be the rocket it appears to be. Massa and Kobayashi battles for a 2nd place somewhere could be quite controversial if Luca gets on the phone to Pete Sauber

renault is the best for RBR, they supply a proper engine, with proper engineers to help get the best out of it etc. there are small but supportive renault patches on the driver overalls etc etc.

Both Mercedes and Ferrari have pushed to try to supply RBR so I really don't know what you're on about.

What? Ferrari pushed to supply Red Bull with engines? I never heard of this!

And now when Brawn is stakeholder of Mercedes GP there is no chance for Red Bull to sign engine deal with Mercedes. Brawn knows how to steer a team and he's not stupid, he already blocked RBR in 2009. Even if Merc pushed for supplying RBR in the past, they've done with it!

Along with '02, '03, '06, '07 and '09?

in f1, everything is critical