F1 Silly Season 2009!
 

2008's been over with for a whole day now... who's got rumors for '09?

I see Seb Loeb is getting more F1 seat time, this time in a RedBull at a full test session:

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...03193612.shtml

http://www.crash.net/motorsport/f1/n...for_%2709.html

Alono and Piquet to stay on at Renault.

Piquet stays? Wow. I was incredibly unimpressed by his performance all season.

Tell me about it.

They must have seen something at the end, although I don't know what.

Not driver related, but new regs for 09!

Engines move from 2 races to 3!
http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2008/...races-in-2009/

FIA has new rules for Stewards (which requires them to be observers at another race before being stewards at their race).
http://www.f1technical.net/news/11023

Force India cuts deal with Ferrari (breaking contract, which will cost them) to sign a technical partnership with McLaren-Mercedes.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72063

And don't call it a b-team.

Williams was the first to show off their 2009 spec Aero

http://www.f1technical.net/images/ne...008-2009_1.jpg

I kinda dig it.

The narrow rear wing looks a little odd, but I actually think the car looks better than the current gobbledy-gook of wings. Looks more the the mid-90's F1 cars.

Nick and I were just talking about it and noticed that there's quite the open space under the rear wing and it appears no lower plane... that, plus the lack of all the mini wings on the fuselage, should really let a lot of air that's coming over the top of the body through to provide downforce for the front wing of a following car. Hopefully that will really help cars keep up while drafting in the corners and help passing.

looking more and more like no north america race in 2009

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...17090505.shtml

I was stoked to hear that there were some new negotiations, but I guess Canada has officially given up because Bernie is a greedy prick.

Last I heard, the manufacturers were all pulling for a new US race, but putting it on one of the coasts, to attract a bigger audience (and charge a premium I'm guessing too).

Hopefully that'll make 2010.

I tell you, the very best idea for a new US GP is a night street race on the Vegas strip.

yes it is. :D

Oh hell yes, that would be awesome.

holy ugly batman

http://www.f1-live.com/f1/photos/200.../diapo_138.jpg

http://www.f1-live.com/f1/photos/200.../diapo_150.jpg

I hate the narrow rear wing, but not a lot. I love the rest of the car though! Reminds me of the high-nose mid/late 90's cars before they got all tarted up with winglets everywhere!

http://www.f1-info.cz/images0017/199...ari_f300_4.jpg

The smaller wings make the cars look "special". I don;t like it.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72176


Christian Klien says the new BMW is the worst looking ever. :lol:

He must be talking about the 3 series.

uhh WTF

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headline...18091013.shtml

Yeah, I didn't think he was serious about that medal shit.

But, in a way, it makes some sense. It rewards winning and getting on the podium above reliability.

Think of the medals as a 10,000 points for 1st, 100 points for second, 1 point for third. :lol:

With less points positions, the championship will almost certainly have several contenders still alive for the championship win at the last race, so it should be more exciting in an "anyone can win it" sort of way. But it certainly removes any reward for being consistent, unless you're consistently winning.

What I'm most afraid of is seeing lots of 2nd place or 4th place drivers doing really dumb shit on the last lap to the 1st or 3rd place cars, taking them both out of the race.

Link's not working for me... My question is: For example, say there's 17 races in a season. Driver A takes 9 golds, and Driver B takes the remaining 8. Driver C takes ALL 17 silvers (drivers A&B were 3rd or lower, if not first). Who gets second in the championship? The dude with the second highest number of golds, or the dude with ALL the silvers?

Dude with second highest golds. Think of all the drivers as being tied for 1st with 0 points. Whoever has the most wins is the champion, if they're tied on wins, they look at 2nds next, then thirds... etc.

Or you can thing of the points I listed earlier: 10,000 for 1st, 100 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd... no matter how many 2nds or 3rds you score, you can't equal the points for one 1st place finish.