2011 F1 Thread

[ctjet]

the brunette behind him was a ripper

tall chicks are the secks

[ctjet]

some of these renault chops are comedy gold

[ctjet]

[ctjet]

[ctjet]

[tweety bird]

this one did it for me.

[Beer Baron]

the nick heidfeld edition beans one not bad.

[PHaT MR30]

Lol rewatch the ep with Ross Noble as the star....pretty sure he mentioned TG employ people to search for the women and put them in the front

That guy is piss funny!

[mickey]

that sure is evil monkey!

[tweety bird]

24 days till belgium wtf?

[blackrex]

Enforced summer break so that the staff on the teams have a chance to take a break and spend time away from work.

[sh@un]

At least the race after the break is the bizzle

[ctjet]

Enforced summer break so that the staff on the teams have a chance to take a break and spend time away from work.

im sure thats what will totally happen

[wolverine]

During the enforced break the engineers have time to shop around the proprietary knowledge from their current team and set up their future with a job at a rival team.

[tweety bird]

James Allison has revealed that different engine mapping, a cracked exhaust and a long pit stop were the cause of Nick Heidfeld's Hungarian fire.

(pf1)

Heidfeld was forced to retire from the Hungarian GP when his Renault R31 caught fire after his pit stop. The German parked on the side of the track at the pit lane exit and quickly jumped out.

Marshals arrived at the burning car with fire extinguishers, however, one appeared to be injured when the left side of the car exploded, showering the track with debris.

"As with most accidents, several incidents combined to cause the fire that Nick suffered in Hungary," explained Renault's technical director.

"First of all, we ran a slightly different engine mapping strategy in qualifying, which produced hotter than normal exhausts. We believe that this elevated temperature and caused a preliminary crack in the exhaust pipe.

"We presume that the crack then propagated during the laps to the pit stop - this was not evident to us as we believe that the failure occurred upstream of the place where we have a temperature sensor. We believe that Nick then came in with a partially failed exhaust.

"This pit stop took longer than normal, the engine was left at high rpm for 6.3 sec, waiting for the tyre change to be completed.

"Under these conditions, a lot of excess fuel always ends up in the exhausts and their temperature rises at around 100°C/sec. This temperature rise was enough to finish off the partially failed pipe and to start a moderate fire under the bodywork."

As for the explosion, Allison said that "this was caused by the air bottle which supplies the air valves in the engine. It has overheated in the fire and failed."

The team has already spoken with the FIA about their findings with Allison saying they are doing everything to ensure there won't be a repeat of the incident.

"The incident was highly undesirable, as it has caused us to write off a chassis.

"We will take steps prior to the next race to reduce the likelihood of a further fire and to ensure that the air bottle cannot overheat.

"We are in touch with the FIA both to provide them with a full report of the incident and also to explain to them the actions we are taking to prevent a re-occurrence."

[ctjet]

makes Eric look like a bit of cock head for blaming Nick

[Galois]

Interesting, good to see an official explanation on it. Surprised it wasn't kers related

[tweety bird]

there's a good interview with daniel ricciardo here.

i like the guy he seams level headed, which is amazing considering he's ozzy.

[Galois]

^and an f1 driver

[ctjet]

Mercedes GP are reportedly keen on signing former Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa as part of a 'profound restructuring of the team.

After a disappointing start to the Championship for Ferrari, Costa, who had been their technical director for just over three years, was replaced by Pat Fry.

And although the Scuderia said at the time that Costa would remain in an undefined position, it was announced in July that he would in fact be leaving.

The 50-year-old was placed on "gardening leave" until the end of the year.

However, Costa may not be without a job for too long as Mercedes GP are reportedly interested in signing him.

According to Auto Sprint, Merc GP team boss Ross Brawn, a former Ferrari man himself, wants Costa as part of a 'profound restructuring of the team.'

Brawn is believed to have already spoken to Dieter Zetsche, the head of Daimler, about his need to employ more technical staff in order to compete against the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull.

And Costa is at the top of his list.

i dont think its the right move for them, but they do need to step up in 2012, so maybe doing something is better than nothing