hey - that was mean...but I guess that's the way it goes in F1. Nice guys finish last or they end up being reserve drivers.

Nick was never been able to be classic number one in the team, but he still is a good driver, consistent and very luck.

Petrov could be a not bad driver, moreover, Renault needs his money and it will be decisive issue.

Slavic Power, I would say.

"The cars are now supposedly "more to Jacques' liking". Relying on a good car to get you results is one thing, but depending on the entire rule book is another."

Well i don't want top get into a big debate on JV here, BUT, the upcoming season would suit him more than most think.

Most don't remember he was the only driver with enough balls to come out and describe grooved tyres as "shit" after testing them in 97, and the main reason i think he'll have the experience factor this year (if he land's a drive) is the way through basically all his last races, he had a heavy tank and tried to make it work, he can handle a heavy car and will love slicks. SUITS him.

commie

Helpful yes, advantage? Doubt it.

Advantage suggests it will give him something that the other drivers do not get. That's not the case. The new rules will affect all drivers, and although the weight limts will help the bigger drivers, the advantage will still lie with the smaller guys.

Or MacLaren.

Kubica always have problems with tyres in Brazil.

I think Robert, just like Hamilton, needs great suspension to really excel. Unfortunately both BMW & Renault had probably worst suspension on the grid last year. But miracles happen once in a while.

I don't really buy any of this "this change in rules will be an advantage for this driver". Especially that this talk is usually based on some extremely simplified view of driving styles. Kubica was supposed to suffer from ban of TC and harder BS tires for 2007 were supposed to suit him. None of this happened. Now the thinking goes along the lines 'Kubica likes understeer, so he'll like less grip at the front'. Couldn't be further from the truth imo, Kubica's 'natural' style was to turn in at high speed (which requires as much front grip as possible) and stable 'understeery' back of the car at the exit, as exit oversteer would require corrections and therefore negate the high apex speed. I don't see how narrower tires could help him with that at all (more ballast available - that's more like it), but as any top drviver he is adaptive, I think much more depends on the natural balance of the car. This 'understeer' talk is a bit misleading anyway, Kubica can be very quick with a car moving around under him, take the first (wet) part of Monaco 2008.

Again I was wrong :/ You are right, increase of min. weight, will be helpful, or better say, will decrease the advantage of smaller guys in balast distribution.
But narrower tyres can be an advantage, but it musn't

I hear it here first, as I remember he always sayed that it doesn't matter if with or without TC because for a profesional driver it shouldn't make a difference.

Kubica also said



I read Alonso was there.

Link

Yet he said in one of the interviews that both he & Alonso lost sth special, and ace in a sleeve with Bridgestone tyres. Rules changes do change the balance, but to much smaller degree than people believe I suppose. Thus top drivers will always stay top drivers.

This is a great read, thanks

Based on that, and the text overall, I have a strange feeling that Robert will never ever privately buy a BMW ;)

What a great challenger, F1.09

Whatever happens next, at least Rob never has to endure again the lameness that was BMW. Their team motto should have been 'welcome to the suck'.

It didn't help that Kubica is a very heavy driver.

I'm curious if lighter nick had similar issues from time to time, he used to drive with KERS quite a lot initially

Former head of engineering in Toyota, Jason Somerville, will join to the Renault. source

Good or bad news? anyone?

Well, rather good than bad. Toyota TF109 has pretty good aero.

Second that.

What are your arguments?

Well, rather he isn't mr. nobody from nowhere but definately not caliber of guys like Newey, Zander or Willis. Has to prove himself.

You said that yourself. The '09 Toyota was a decent car aero-wise. I only could imagine what would they achieve with a faster line-up.

Oh, sorry Sarhan, I did not understand.

Of course, TF109 aero was good, but mechanically they were nowhere. For Toyota, races in Spa, Suzuka and on Sakhir were pretty good, all of this tracks require good aero.

It wasn't an line-up issue, it was an mechanical grip issue, a bad managment issue, and bad decisions issue, something like BMW only a little better ;)

R30 is born:)


Unfortunately, it is hidden.

Only a little? C'mon

@Carlo's; second that=agree with that. Cheers mate

[sorry for offtop]
Who have more f**ed up, BMW or Toyota, I think that's a good question worth an seperate thread

IMO, Toyota was 3rd best car. Not meaning finish of the season but season overall. They've missed a lot of opportunities.

I think that TF109 has vary good aero. Remember that they had the weakest engine, by which they were loosing 0.3s on each lap.

Considering that they fought mostly in front they had very good areo package.

Where have you read it? PF1?

No one is covering their eyes, so hopefully it isn't as ugly as last year's!

You are wrong, ban of TC was from begining of 2008 season - his best so far, when he didn't make single mistake for most of the season.

Sorry, but I don't get your point. You can't have both front-biased grip and understeery car. Drivers who prefer understeery cars dislike front-biased grip. On the contrary, they prefer stable rear axle that has more grip than front one. That's why narrower front tyres (thus with less grip) will be definitely an advantage for the likes of Kubica or Alonso.

Nah! It's not a problem. We just need to contact with Red Dwarf and ask him to retrieve view of R30.

And you're not reading what I wrote: he was supposed to suffer but it didn't happen which one of the reasons I don't pay much attention to "this change is going to make driver X faster/slower". The general consensus on here before ban of TC was that it's good for smooth drivers but the likes of Alonso and Kubica might suffer as without the computer cutting the throttle off rear tires might spin and destabilize back of the car, with stable back being pretty crucial to their style. 2007 was the year of tire supplier change, maybe I phrased my self vaguely.

Supposedly D'Ambrosio and Tung are about to be signed as TD's: http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp...55693&FS=F1

What do you all think about that? D'Ambrosio I believe is a solid choice, but I'm still not sold on Tung. He just doesn't have the experience yet.

...he'll be in the test driver role which is essentially about gaining experience and learning how to work with an F1 team in the first place.

If Kubica or the 2nd driver get injured then D'Ambrosio, like you said, is a solid choice.

Usually Drive 3 is test & reserve and Driver 4 is purely test.

I think Tung's role would be something like Yamamoto year or two ago.

One good driving choice and one good marketing choice.

.3 per lap?

that was about the disadvantage in lap time the weakest engine of last year had compared to the strongest engine of last year, yes.

Technically, that's known as a halflonso.

R30's livery.

http://renaultf1.com/squelettes_institutionnel/images/

Are you guys expecting Renault to announce the second driver before testing starts?