hrd-hr30

yep - there you go. Even if you remember nothing from the early days of Schumacher's career, its clear from the numbers alone that Vettel is doing it from a more dominant car in an era with a more generous points system. Schuey with less than half the number of pole positions scores more podiums, and the same number of wins but less championships. it's 82 top three finishes from 103 races and 2 championships vs 75 top three finishes from 103 races and 3 championships almost 10% more top three finishes (9.33% to be precise) Its a dodgy comparison. (If you ignore both driver's debut forcing their way into an F1 seat with a team fro a single GP, Schumacher with Jordan and Vettel with BMW) Schumacher started off with the 'best-of-the-midfield-teams', Benetton, sticking with them for 4 years as part of the team that took them from that 'best-of-the-midfield-teams' status to multiple Constructer's Champions. Vettel jumped ship from Torro Rosso after 2yrs into the Red Bull at the time it became not just competitive, but won over a third of the GPs, and was the dominant car by the end of the season. And he stayed put ever since in the dominant car. Schumacher had won his two WDC's by his 69th race then took the bold decision to move to Ferrari, who were consistently below the level of the top 2 teams, despite having just won the last two consecutive WDC with Benetton, who retained the same Renault V10 and the same technical team headed by Brawn while Shumacher left on his own. So 30% of Schumacher's races at that point were in the building phase with Ferrari. You don't see Vettel doing anything like that! He stayed put with the winning team and kept racking up the stats. It would have been like Vettel jumping ship from Red Bull at the end of the 2010 season to Mercedes... where would his stats be now? lol

I guess that's why it's only a 3 spot penalty instead of the usual 5. They're going pretty similar to this time last season, except their lead driver isn't getting mechanical DNFs and Grosjean'ed. Lewis qualy this year - 3, 4, 1 Schu qualy last year - 4, 3, 2 In the races: Schu had g'box retirement in Aus while running 3rd having passed Vettel. Hamilton finished 5th this year. Schu got Grosjean'ed to the back of the field in Malaysia's opening lap, but fought back to finish in the points. Hamilton had an uneventful but heavily assisted 3rd this year. And Schu was running a comfortable 2nd in China until the pit stop where they failed to tighten a wheel. While Hamilton just clung onto 3rd at the end this year. Rosberg qualy this year - 6, 6, 5 Rosberg qualy last year - 7, 7, 1 So he's doing similar things apart from not getting the job done in Q3 at China this time. And has inherited the mechanical troubles that plagued Shuey last year with 2 mechanical DNF's for electrics and suspension. Hopefully they don't fade away like they did last year. this! isn't it great for the show to see drivers so worried about hurting their tyres they don't bother racing someone for their position because it will only hurt their race by having to pit earlier, stuffing up their strategy. plus we had stuff all happening in qualy also because of the tyres good work Pirelli!

the current crop of soft compound semis would probably be best thing for go-whoas. normal compound semis definitely work better with a bit of heat, but are still pretty good cold. I've done plenty of hillclimbs on cold semis over the years. personally, I'd try some better street tyres before going to the trouble and expense of a seperate set of wheels and tyres. Even if you went to semis later, good street tyres are still worth having.

I watched it. Mainly to restore my faith that motorSPORT can exist in GrandPrix racing. And was not let down. It was a great race. Anyone who thinks its 'boring' just because one guy managed to get away at the front is not an actual motorsport fan.

I just posted this on another forum, but I'm putting it here too. ! watched the MotoGP this morning. Nice to see some actual GrandPrix racing - you know, where the best guys on the day sort out the podium places on the track, instead of fat old bastards behind the pit wall determining the outcome, allegedly because they don't think their 20,000,000 pound drivers are good enough to overtake one another without f**king it all up. MotoGP rookie passed his established teammate with 5 or 6 laps to go and the world did not end! It was also nice to see guys pushing hard right through the race rather than cruising at 80% most of the time, thanks to having race tyres designed to actually perform - a radical concept for the pinacle of motorsport... F1 has f**ked things royally IMO. Less FAKE SHOW and more GRANDPRIX RACING thanks!

you rarely meet anyone that says their choice of tow car sucks balls...

You'd never make minimum weight, but at least you aren't going to be restricted by that rule... The Japs get the TSCup version of the later, bigger, heavier B310 Sunny down to 670kg racing weight with FRP or carbon panels, bumpers and acrylic windows, And that starts life at something over 850kg. Still with no obvious fat on its bones. Pro allows you to cut out the boot floor and stuff as well. As for the other point, what Pro Class car doesn't need massive work on its chassis? Except perhaps Cyber Evo... But guess what the secret to their speed was... aside from the aero and good driver that all the contenders had. You can make good power from the original A12 or bigger A14-A15 with a turbo. They're a tough little unit, with plenty of aftermarket support. And one man can lift a complete engine! They're super compact too - get that 2" behind the firewall and V-mount the rad/intercooler as far back as possible. You'd stay light with driveline and be prepared to break a few bits occassionally, rather than over-engineer it. MX5 suspension could be the way to go - it works and its light. Do the NZ racecar trick of dropping the body down over the floorpan - sort of like a channelled rod, to get down to the 50mm permitted ride height. As Roy says 400bhp and 700kg is not beyond the realms of possibility. And you'd have the smallest frontal area of any competitor other than a Lotus. And would be one of the cheapest Pro cars to build. So it wouldn't matter so much when they change all the rules again the followig year! lol

nice 31! its handling reminds me of my old sileighty track hack - all over the place. nice driving to tame the beast though. not so sure about the fuel system on carpet...

with the introduction of those weight limits, a Datsun 1200, 120Y or similar featherweight 70's POS could be a good thing. A 1200 weighs 690kg standard - 20% = 552kg minimum weight in Pro... Any engine you want, any driveline, any suspension you can dream up...

well in one of the two races anyway... when the lead Ferrari was out of the race after the first lap, the Mercedes were keeping pace until they started runing out of fuel, and even McLaren were basically keeping up until they hit trouble of their own making again. And that was after the first race that Kimi ran away with, Force India were fast and Ferrari finished second. Bit premature to say no-one has the pace of RBR and its going to be boring as fk! besides, if you listen to the drivers, you're not seeing anyones' pace in the race. They're all saying they're driving around nursing tyres at about 80%.

previous owners may have run it without a filter? make sure you've got the correct filter, and that it seals against the top and bottom of the air cleaner assembly. And all the pipes underneath are either connected or blanked off. Yes, drawing air from the front of the car will be cleaner, but sometimes rallying, the dust just hangs in the air if its a still day. You could run a pre cleaner if you are paranoid about dust.

Yeah I saw that Roy. I said I think he makes alot more sense, I didn't say I agree 100% with everything he said I think the whole 'agreement before the race' is a mistake. The pre race agreement they have is the team will make the call on what to do after the last round of pit stops, and the drivers agree to follow it. That's the trust Vettel broke, not a pre-race agreement that Mark would be given the win if he was ahead at the last stop. This explains the situation and conflicting interests well, and how some of these things that are supposed to be designed to make the show more interesting are actually detracting from it... http://www.racecar-engineering.com/blogs/cottonballs-team-orders/ hell, even's Bernies making sense for once: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/f1news/9953272/Bernie-Ecclestone-hits-out-at-Red-Bulls-team-orders-and-warns-Mark-Webber-may-seek-revenge-on-Sebastian-Vettel.html jeezus - if I agree with Bernie and Lauder, maybe I am miles off track!

Well, its a comment, but its not a very insightful one. Did anyone think Vettel was a disgruntled driver? what was the point of that. Is it less bad to break team orders if your disgruntled? Vettel didn't hurt the team's interest either. We may think he put the teams interests at risk by racing, but I'm 100% sure that in his mind there was no risk - racing is what he does. Its all he does. Its all he's ever done. I'm sure in the cockpit he has 100% faith in his ability and does not consider passing a teammate a risky thing to do. You have the old golden rule still etched into the back of every race driver's mind; 'don't take your teammate out', helping keep it cleaner and less risky than fighting any other opponent. I thnk this bloke makes alot more sense http://willthef1journo.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/the-smiling-assassin/ Finally Nikki Lauder says something I can agree with! and for something a bit lighter, in a scathing kind of way... http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/formula-one-launches-race-unfixing-probe-2013032663802

Hamilton's were corocodile tears - if you don't think he was over the moon to get on the podium in his second race for Mercedes, and more importantly than that, know that the team will protect him heavily over his team mate even when there's a chance his faster team mate could pressure the other guys leading the race, and when there's a chance Lewis wouldn't even make it to the line, you're kidding yourself! If Hamilton honestly didn't think he deserved the podium and that the right thing would have been for Nico to get that 3rd place he clearly would have without such adament and stern protection from the team, why didn't he do the "right thing", and avoid the embarassment and guilt he claims he was feeling? It was no net cost to the team in terms of the constructers points and would only have cost him 3 points. Then he could have slept easy knowing he didn't steal 3rd place from his more deserving team-mate. Bollocks - his time with Button at McLaren shows he needs all the help he can get to beat his team-mates let alone his competitors. Those 3 points are what keeps him a clear 3rd in the WDC, just 1 point behind Webber and 3 points ahead of Filipe. No way he's sorry he stole those points.

Lewis too dumb to save fuel if he's told he won't make it to the end if his teammate is in front of him? Wow, I thought I was Lewis' biggest hater! lol

Anyway, it gave Formula 1 fans (those of us who love the sport, and aren't particularly Webber or Vettel, or even Red Bull fans) a great dice instead of more of the crap we saw with the 2 Mercs trundling around doing absolutely nothing, when clearly one was MUCH faster than the other. What happened there I can't understand. That was absolutely a low act by Brawn IMO - Yeah look Nico, Lewis burnt up everything he had up earlier in the race just barely staying ahead of you while you saved enough in reserve to go fast right to the end. Don't you dare pass him just because you've driven the GP better or chosen a better strategy to get to the end of the race and might be able to put some pressure on the Red Bulls who were less than 9 seconds ahead with 12 laps to go and had told their drivers to turn their engines down and cruise to the end because they're worried about tyres lasting the distance... But even at the "pace" Hamilton was running, they still reduced the gap to Webber throughout the final stint... maybe he was struggling to see through the tears What might have happened if Nico was allowed to drive his own race and put them under pressure? Crocodile tears from Hamilton saying Nico deserved that spot, were 100% right, but insincere - if he actually felt that strongly that he didn't deserve that spot and Nico did, he would have let him pass instead of being embarassed that the team protected him.

You won't get more engine friendly air cleaners than the factory paper elelment IMO. K&N filters have no place on a rally car or any other dusty environment. And there's no point going to triples if the engine is standard - keep the standard carb. It will just be $1500 wasted. With big cam, compression, headwork and good pipes, yes go triples. But if you go with a mild cam and mild head, a more sensible and cost effective carb upgrade might be a holley, which are used to good effect on some 240Ks up here.

it is very clear - if they had agreed before the race they would just be holding positions for the final stint, why would he be wondering how the team would handle it and be ready for a sprint to the end?

Mark's comments quoted above make it very clear they did not agree to that before the race, or at least he was confusd about the strategy to be employed - why would he say he was interested to see how the team would handle the last stint with him in front of Seb and that he was ready to have to sprint to the end, if they had such a simple agreement in place before the race? So it's no different to Silverstone in that regard.

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/22058/8594521/The-2013-Malaysian-GP-post-race-press-conference-In-full Mark Weber said himself in a post race interview; "And then after the last stop I thought that it would be interesting how the team would deal with it and I was ready for a sprint to the end. And then the team obviously rang up and said 'the race is... the pressure is off now. We need to look after the tyres to the end. Basically don't fight each other.' certainly doesn't sound like they had any such pre-race agreement. ignoring team orders is ignoring team orders. What's more, the comments Mark made about the whole scenario back then are totally inconsistent with his moaning and bitching now. Same goes for the contrast of Seb's reaction to being challenged by Webber against team orders back then, and Webber's whining now... I'm finding it very hard to support Webber on this one. Don't dish it out if you can't take it. And revenge is a dish best served cold.

hopefully he comes around to that way of thinking, because from what he said in the post race interviews its sounds more like it demotivated him. Like he's almost ready to chuck it all in...

Clearly heard him on the team radio befor ethe last pit stop saying he preferred the Hards.

must be something with red MX5 drivers...

For my money, I'm less pissed off about two guys racing to the flag against team orders than the ridiculous situation at Mercedes where team orders force a much faster guy to sit behind the much slower team-mate for the last 20 minutes. I came here to see a race FFS. Calling the race 'over' at two-thirds or three-quarter distance is a farce. If the top 4 are going to do that you might as well drop the chequer early and end the stage show.

you're setting yourself up for dissapointment!