54 replies to this topic

[MSwiss]

Yeah, PDL,

They would of been better off with better looking cars and more of the below.

 

BTW, since he survived, that is some "impressive" in-car footage.

 

The rule was introduced as a safety measure to prevent cars from launching over the top of one another,

as happened with Mark Webber when he took to the skies at Valencia in 2010.

 

[SlotStox#53]

Another sexy 2014 F1 car

 

 

 

 

 

Adrian Newey of McLaren & Redbull fame is worried that the "new low" noses that supposedly prevent what happened to Webber will actually be more dangerous and be low enough to go underneath & scoop up cars when hitting from behind?

[Zippity]

"Fugly" comes to mind

[Big Durl]

I agree that the design of the car in itself is brutal, as is so much of automotive design of the last twenty years or so, but the paint job certain doesn't help.  Garish logos are a given , but the overall design and layout are hideous.   And that helmet.   God help us all.

[Pappy]

That footage from inside the cockpit looks like it looks when you do a loop in an airplane. Maybe if they had a million dollar prize for concours they'd make prettier cars. 

[TSR]

So what?

Just because someone else agrees with you, doesn't mean that you are right.

In your opinion, the cars are ugly.

Who gives a fig what you think?

 

"Fugly" comes to mind

 

Do you have any credentials to even express a valid opinion against seasoned veteran writers who have been deeply immersed in the sport for many years?

[Mbloes]

Thanks for the response Philippe - now I understand.

 

Too bad, I was rather looking forward to a more elegant profile.

 

But I don't know why I thought they would return to something akin to the good looking turbo cars of the eighties - silly me!

[993]

they are ugly and slow, but are they unreliable?

 

9 seconds slower than Button last year?

So far slower than a GP2 car by a few seconds.

[Zippity]

 

 

Do you have any credentials to even express a valid opinion against seasoned veteran writers who have been deeply immersed in the sport for many years?

 

Careful, you might fall off your pedestal

[chaparrAL]

The only way it could possibly be worse is for FIA to require the nose be painted pink.

[Samiam]

Still a better result than that sorry pile of crap NASCAR came up with when they introduced the COT. That rear wing and front diaplane made it look like a Euro GT car.

[TSR]

Do you have any credentials to even express a valid opinion against seasoned veteran writers who have been deeply immersed in the sport for many years?

 

Careful, you might fall off your pedestal

 

Zipper,

I have no pedestal. You appear to be standing on one that is rather twisting in the wind...
I am happy for you that those horrors on wheels appear to please your sophisticated sense of aesthetics.

Sam,
I personally think that NASCAR's COT horrid machine cannot even compare on a scale of true ugliness with those F1 monstrosities, or even with the current Dallara Indy car, but hey, personal opinions count little when the guys making the decisions are at the same time, filling their pockets with (vanishing) enthusiasts cash. To the end.
We are indeed living a vanishing time, when single entities control all the money and both tracks and teams are having a hard time to close their insane racing budgets.
To make a direct comparison of how it "used to be" compared to today:

The 1970 Brabham F1 team budget was 70000 BSP, corresponding to $140000, and corrected for inflation, about $700000 today. With that amount, Jack's team built 4 chassis, purchased 6 Cosworth DFV motors, 6 Hewland DG400 gearboxes and spare ratios, paid salaries to 12 crew and that of Rolf Stommelen, the second driver. Tires and fuel were sponsored, so they did not have to pay for it. The season was not great, Jack winning one GP while leading several others but failing to finish for minor issues, like... not enough fuel in the car.
At the end of the year, the team was still showing profit.
 

Today, $700000 will hardly cover the gearbox budget for ONE car, let alone the salary for the 200 to 900 people in the poor to rich teams.
The budget necessary for being a constant last-place finisher in every Grand Prix is $50 million. Who is going to pay to have their name on the last finishing car, that get virtually zero TV time unless caught in some crash?  How many teams will fold before only 2 or 3 are left? This is the situation today for over 1/2 of F1 teams, including "Lotus", formerly Renault, formerly whatever it morphed into over the years.

And "Lotus" was a front runner all last year.

Now we have these truly butt-ugly thingies and that's F1 defined by regulations designed by people who never figured the "unintended consequences".

Well, if you like it, spend your money and go for it. In the meantime, our great American F1 center, the new and beautiful COTA, is going broke.

[Dr. Gamma]

About 8 or 10 years ago Formula One magazine had a breakdown on where all the money went in a F1 team's budget.

 

The Williams Team spent 1.7 million pounds on just champagne at their trackside hospitality suite that year.

 

The costs were as crazy as what some U.S. defense contractors charged the Pentagon!!!

[Mbloes]

 

 

We are indeed living a vanishing time, when single entities control all the money and both tracks and teams are having a hard time to close their insane racing budgets.

 

 

Anecdotally, I've been attending the Montreal race every year since about 1995 and it seems like every two or three years Bernie is threatening to pull out from there over fees.  Then, like clockwork, there's some big announcement that a deal's been finalized and it's great having the GP back and some BS about the stability of a long-term contract.  It all ends with Bernie and the Governor of Quebec giving each other a simultaneous reach-around.

 

My tix are US$1,200 for two for the three day package.  To be fair, I don't think my ticket price has risen in about three years.  And I think it sells out every year.

[TSR]

And that was when Williams was still a competitive team! They still spend the same today, into oblivion... 

[Mbloes]

 

 

Well, if you like it, spend your money and go for it. In the meantime, our great American F1 center, the new and beautiful COTA, is going broke.

 

 

Let's see - 2 races on the continent.  Montreal, groovy city, beautiful women, fantastic food, great weather, walking everywhere, or . . . Texas.

[Samiam]

And we cry about $13 motors and $15 tires

[TSR]

My tix are US$1,200 for two for the three day package.  To be fair, I don't think my ticket price has risen in about three years.  And I think it sells out every year.

 

The Canadian GP has been on a very fragile financial scale despite that tickets are very expensive and full crowd. Does that tell you something is not right here?
In 1976, I won the SoCal AFM 125cc GP championship with a budget below that $1200 figure... today I would need nearly $1/2 million to accomplish the same thing in a corresponding racing class since they killed the 125cc class. That's not inflation, it is stupidity. When racing a single bike requires a 40-foot trailer of spare bikes, engines, parts, computer engineers and $500K "customer bikes" that cannot compete with $3-million factory bikes, racing is kind of doomed in a fairly short future.

For F1, the lifeline of the "filling" teams such as Marussia, Sauber, Williams and possibly, "Lotus" as well as that of most tracks not sponsored by taxpayer money is indeed very short at this time.
 

Let's see - 2 races on the continent.  Montreal, groovy city, beautiful women, fantastic food, great weather, walking everywhere, or . . . Texas.

 

And both venues are losing BIG money.

[Dennis David]

... and some of us still go to the races. I could easily see myself going to Montreal and Singapore and having a great time whatever the actual race. On the other hand going to Silverstone is just brutal unless you take a heliocoptor.

[Arne Saknussem]

Yup, there were some real beauties in F1's past....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TSR]

Well Pete, every year in motor racing had its beauties and its horrors, but be happy because now they are all so gorgeous.    

[Arne Saknussem]

Well Pete, every year in motor racing had its beauties and its horrors, but be happy because now they are all so gorgeous.  

 

Hmm... Irony?  Sarcasm?  Or just agony?

 

I find the Lotus version with 'snouts' of differing lengths particularly obnoxious.

[TSR]

Pete, either one suits the situation quite well, when F1 is castrated as it is now for PC reasons.

[Zippity]

 

I find the Lotus version with 'snouts' of differing lengths particularly obnoxious.

 

Why?

[NSwanberg]

"The Canadian GP has been on a very fragile financial scale despite that tickets are very expensive and full crowd. Does that tell you something is not right here?
In 1976, I won the SoCal AFM 125cc GP championship with a budget below that $1200 figure... today I would need nearly $1/2 million to accomplish the same thing in a corresponding racing class since they killed the 125cc class. That's not inflation, it is stupidity. When racing a single bike requires a 40-foot trailer of spare bikes, engines, parts, computer engineers and $500K "customer bikes" that cannot compete with $3-million factory bikes, racing is kind of doomed in a fairly short future."

 

The Oakland County Sportsmen's Club is home to Waterford Hills Road Racing Incorporated. It is also home to the Michigan Midget Racing Association and a quarter midget track for kids 16 years old and under. You ought to see the expensive rigs and high dollar equipment that is there on quarter midget weekends. It makes the road racers look lame. I understand that quarter midget track is where the Keslowski's got their start so any parents that hope their little Johnny is going to be the next Jimmy Johnson spare no expense in giving them the chance. If I had known more about it my number 2 son may not have grown up playing a goalie in ice hockey which may have cost us even more. Racers do what racers do and the costs always escalate. Long live Parma's FCR!