F1 Silly Season 2011
 

I think its time for a thread for the new season.

And things just got weird.

Group Lotus (which is the Lotus that owns the street car manufacturing division) has now entered into a title sponsorship with the Renault team. Team Lotus (the Lotus Racing team that raced in F1 last year) is of course up in arms over the name. Renault also sells engines to the current Team Lotus, though that may change now.

The deal is all sorts of weird and complicated crap. Looks like Renault has completely sold off their remaining shares of the team to Genii Capital, who will now be co-owners with Group Lotus of the old Benetton/Renault racing team. Renault will still get major branding rights for years to come.

So, it looks like we'll have Lotus Renault GP and Team Lotus Renault on the starting grid next year (well, assuming there won't be a huge legal slapfest).

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin.../12/11592.html
http://adamcooperf1.com/2010/12/08/r...h-group-lotus/

Car looks hot though. Black and Gold JPS style livery.

The JPS scheme is still one of the hottest IMHO. This is pretty good.

Holy hell that's an evil looking car!

But I thought the 2010 Lotus guys lost the rights completely to the Lotus name for 2011? This is entirely too confusing. It must be F1, only in F1 would two teams want the same name and then both use it, thus totally ruining the benefits of a recognizable name. :unamused:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88645

The team orders ban has been removed for next season, though the FIA claims they can still punish if the orders damage the sport in any way.

I want to try to use team orders during auto-x next year...hmmm..

I personally don't ahve a problem with team orders. Mostly due to the fact that enforcement of the policy is a joke and has been wildly inconsistent. F1 is a team sport, so no issue IMO.

I wonder how many teams will be running kers this season? I am glad they lifted the ban on team orders. As long as the order is not to wreck other competitors i am cool with it.

I think I remember reading that Williams was going to use KERS next year. Not sure who else will.

Wasn't kers supposed to be compulsory in 2011? I thought I remembered one of the commentators saying that at some point.

Karthikeyan has a seat once again, thanks to HRT

http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/01/07/k...n-at-hispania/

Finally... F1 feed will be in HD!

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2...sion-coverage/

The Group Lotus v. Team Lotus debacle went to court yesterday. The judge threw out a summary judgment application filed by Group Lotus, and set a court date for March 21st to start the trial.

That's after Bahrain, so both teams will at least start the year with the Lotus name.

And, of course, both sides are spinning yesterday's court hearing as a win for their side.

http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/01/24/t...re-successful/
http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/01/25/g...h-the-outcome/

Ferrari has unveiled their 2011 car, the Ferrari F150 (yes really)

Article:
http://en.espnf1.com/ferrari/motorsp...ory/39070.html

More pictures:
http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/v/Ferrari/F150/

Movie:
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/videos/70...-in-maranello/

Top google image search result for ferrari f150

I bet it buffed out.

The new Team Lotus T128

Few more pictures: http://www.f1technical.net/news/15884

And Mercedes has released one teaser render of their new car.

The W02

Lotus Renault has unveiled the R31

http://www.f1technical.net/news/15886

Sauber C30

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...1/1/11685.html

You know it's a pretty field when the Ferrari is the ugliest car out there!

Yeah, all the new cars are really very nice looking. Even the Sauber, which might be the plainest looking of them all, still looks very good. Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Williams and Mercedes all have their official unveiling tomorrow.

I like that the best liveries are on the slowest cars. Will make it much easier to catch every detail :lol:

Exactly. :lol: A Ferrari is mostly just a red blur, so it doesn't matter how good it looks parked.

I'm looking forward to the Team Lotus and Group Lotus/Renault battle. I hope Kovalainen can get the T128 into fighting form.

The RB7 was announced this morning.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89185

Nothing too crazy. Livery looks more or less the same, and all the new bits for the new years regs seem to be in place.

And the STR6. The engine cover doesn't have the same sharp angle of the RB7.

I should go to bed.

Here is the actual Mercedes W02

Sauber released a video of their car in action. At about the 2:30 mark, until the end, they focus on the rear wing.

And the Williams FW33. I'm not sure if its temporary or not, but they sure seem to have a lot of space for sponsors.

EDIT: yeah, its the interim colors. The final livery will be shown later
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...1/2/11691.html

Hah, here is the Red Bull RB7 Press Kit

And apparently Haynes is going to make an actual manual for the RB6 and make it available this year.

The Renault doesn't have any exhaust ports in the back. The exhaust is coming out in the front of the sidepods, near the driver. Trying to help some aero effect. Hopefully the driver isn't sucking down too many exhaust fumes while he's idling on the start grid or in the pits.

More: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89223

FYI: Fantasy F1 registration is open!

http://ff1.seccs.org

McLaren released the MP4-26 today in Berlin.

One of the interesting things is that they started with a somewhat unassembled car, and then put it together in front of everyone. Though, Marvin Whitmarsh has said some of the internal pieces were deliberately obscured or replaced so as to not give away all their secrets.

Autosport has a good gallery, but you have to be a member to see the high res pics. F1Technical and GPUpdate have higher res pics, but only a few of them.

http://www.autosport.com/gallery/index.php/id/2317
http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/v/McLaren/MP4-26/
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-photos/6742//

And check out those side pods.

Want a simple flowchart as to the Lotus saga in F1?

Too bad, you get this flowchart instead.



Or, I guess this one from Jalopnik is a little clearer

http://jalopnik.com/#!5709121/lotus-...-one-yet-again

Registered!

Kubica had a pretty major crash this morning at a rally in Andora. He broke his right leg and his wrist apparently. Its very likely he'll now miss the start of the season.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89312

Here is an new report, all in Italian, but has lots of footage of the car after the wreck:

Looks like the accident caused severe damage to his right hand.

He's out of surgery, and the doctor is saying it'll take about a week to get a definitive answer on whether his hand will be okay or not.

http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/02/06/w...ubica-surgeon/

Wow, so it looks like Kubica won't be driving this year at all.

Does that mean Senna would get his seat?

Yeah, that's what the speculation is. I believe Renault has 2 test drivers lined up, and they announced a few weeks back that Senna would be the first reserve driver.

Is there anywhere to watch the races online? (Once the season starts of course.) I never seemed to be able to catch a whole race last year.

Only real option is to pay for a UK proxy so you have a valid IP address to watch via the BBC feed. Or you can steal it via torrents if you don't mind stealing, varying quality, delayed access and potentially non-English commentary.

More from the Kubica crash

In-car footage from the car behind Kubica. Fastforward to 3:00-ish as the driver gets yellow flagged and pulls over (the recording ends there, as the driver/co-driver get out and help). It does help show how narrow and crazy the stages are.

And another picture of the car. Shows the barrier going all the way through the vehicle.
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/1926/kubica3.png

Goddamn. Kubica is (once again, considering Montreal 2006) lucky to be alive.

The term "partially severed right hand" is creeping me out... I hope he can recover! :(

The last three cars have had debuts (sort of).

First up, the Virgin MVR-02

http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/v...Racing/MVR-02/

Force India and the VJM04

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-photos...february-2011/

And the HRT F111

http://www.f1technical.net/news/15945

Which seems to be courting advertisers.

Heidfeld will be joining Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov in testing for Lotus Renault next week at Jerez. He may be in line to pick up the drive, as Renault is now looking at needing a replacement for a full season.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2...enna-in-jerez/

Simulation of Kubica's wreck:

And now a HAH moment.

Ford is suing Ferrari over the F150 name.

http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/02/09/f...-of-f150-name/

Yeah, I can't see how they won't win that. They've only been using that moniker for 40-something years.

The first time the new Ferrari blows up, Ford will say "nevermind" and drop the law suit.