Rosberg Retires....

Well, didn't see that coming...

http://www.racer.com/f1/item/136914-f1-rosberg-retires

TTFN
John.

Good luck to him, F1 (or is it formula mercedes) is getting very stale now with one team dominating, all the stupid rules boring cars and it's being run by by people just concerened with lining their pockets.
They should let these new american backers have full control of the running of it.
It would also be more fun to watch if everyone had the same car like F3.

rickoshea wrote:

Good luck to him, F1 (or is it formula mercedes) is getting very stale now with one team dominating, all the stupid rules boring cars and it's being run by by people just concerened with lining their pockets.
They should let these new american backers have full control of the running of it.
It would also be more fun to watch if everyone had the same car like F3.

The problem is that the ethos of F1 is to encourage new development and that would be either very slow or not at all if you just had one make of car like f3.

I most certainly agree with everything else you say though and I would like to add that downforce should be abolished and tyres that last a full race which would mean less grip would be a far better spectacle for the spectators. It's cheaper to buy a Scalextric car set than it is to go to an F1 meeting and maybe more fun actually driving the cars (on rails) than watching them going around the track in real life!!

Having the same kind of tyres or using the same set of tires for quallifying and racing would be better too and apart from less cost would provide better watching.

Pit crews are to fast these days so if they do keep different tyre compounds then all the pit crews should have one arm tied behind their back... they are so fast these days it's hard to know if they actually did change the tyres, tee hee!

Actually, I always felt like the superiority of Mercedes actally made things more interesting. Two of the best drivers of their time able to fight it out among themselves with only little interference by others. On and off track. No stategy calls to whistle the more unfortunate driver back to rig a result so that no driver from yet another team may spoil the party. Personally I find that more honest, even more so as I always considered motorsport also to be a competition of technology. I know, I have a minority opinion, but then, when I began to become interested in motorsport, the allmighty red and white McLaren-Hondas won everything and Senna and Prost were at their prime and fought it out hammer and tongs with every dirty trick they could think of. The duel between Rosberg and Hamilton often reminded me of that time, even though I personally don't regard Rosberg as really on par with the other three. One of the best drivers of our time nontheless.

In my opinion F1 is wearing out, so I would firstly consider kicking Bernie, secondly doing a drastic change in regulations, due to that bringing back the naturally aspirated 3.0L with engine variety from V6 to V12 engines also three tyre compounds (Dry, Intermediate, Wet) wich last a whole race. Then reducing downforce to only simple aerodynamic parts (one front wing, one rear and a diffuser) last thing would be manual gearboxes and no DRS and KERS. (also finally deleting those same feeling Tilke-tracks from the calendar)

The big question always has been is f1 a drivers championship or a manufacturers championship or the biggest spenders championship ?

We have endurance racing which has largely (in spirit) always been a manufacturers championship, whether the players have been manufacturers their dealers or" Patrons of a marque".

Then why do we need manufactures messing about with F1 or is it the FIA that wants it to keep it this way so that no other motor sport "show" gets bigger than theirs which is what CAN-AM almost did.

If you dont like F1 ,vote so by not turning on your T.V on Sundays that run F1 , I do that so that they get one less trp.

The only motorsport I watch now on T.V is moto g.p, some tarmac WRC events and some superbike racing and lots on IMSA.T.V ( american endurance series ) on the net.and off course some replays of GTL AND gtr2--- He ,he.

framroze wrote:

The only motorsport I watch now on T.V is moto g.p, some tarmac WRC events and some superbike racing and lots on IMSA.T.V ( american endurance series ) on the net.and off course some replays of GTL AND gtr2--- He ,he.

I only watch Moto GP and World Superbikes too, also British Superbikes. Moto 3 is actually very competitive and really exciting with 10 to 12 riders fighting for the lead most every lap... amazing stuff!!

I love road racing and whether you are a fan of technology or not, unfortunately, the almighty $$ usually takes over. Sad as it is, big money wins out and we, the race fans lose. Long live Schuey!

I agree, I get my "Real Life" racing kicks from motorcycle racing. I think F1 has slowly lost the plot over a number of years. It's almost like they don't know what to try next. The ridiculous suggestion of a grid restart after a safety car is just 1 example.

It's ironic that F1 is trying to tell the world it's going green with Hybrid Technology and Kers etc then it expends christ knows how many tons of carbon ferrying everything all over the world. Although I miss the sound of a V10 on full song as much as anyone I do see the relevance of hybrids, Kers etc to the modern road car but DRS?? Putting the financial aspect to 1 side I think aero is the biggest destroyer of modern F1. DRS was "invented" because the Aero is now so efficient that as soon as a driver gets close to the car in front down force etc is reduced so they can't get close enough to mount an attack so they needed some way of allowing the faster car past on the straights and DRS was the answer.

If I'm honest I think they had it right in 1967.

TTFN
John

Jeep wrote:

I agree, I get my "Real Life" racing kicks from motorcycle racing. I think F1 has slowly lost the plot over a number of years. It's almost like they don't know what to try next. The ridiculous suggestion of a grid restart after a safety car is just 1 example.

It's ironic that F1 is trying to tell the world it's going green with Hybrid Technology and Kers etc then it expends christ knows how many tons of carbon ferrying everything all over the world. Although I miss the sound of a V10 on full song as much as anyone I do see the relevance of hybrids, Kers etc to the modern road car but DRS?? Putting the financial aspect to 1 side I think aero is the biggest destroyer of modern F1. DRS was "invented" because the Aero is now so efficient that as soon as a driver gets close to the car in front down force etc is reduced so they can't get close enough to mount an attack so they needed some way of allowing the faster car past on the straights and DRS was the answer.

If I'm honest I think they had it right in 1967.

TTFN
John

Yes John,1967 was probabally just right; its funny how a lot us "car Guys" actually love motor bikes. ( see Ge Bees post too.)
I too learned all my real road racing skills in my teenage years road racing bicycles, the thril was always in the down hill runs at break neck speeds, drifting bikes and "shortening " wheelbases by "understearing" into cornors- these skills still hold good in sim racing today.
I still cant imagine entering some cornors at over 80 kmph ( yes we did have cyclo computers back then ) in the hilly parts of Bombay on roads no wider than 30 feet and drifting thru them.
In fact every mornings ride included the "hills" just to bomb down them.
Thank God for Sim racing otherwise a lot of us would go cold turkey after the televised road racing seasons ended !!!

Yes Kers is wasted really as it is supposed to improve fuel efficiency but any downforce kills fuel efficiency and so does going into the pits to change tyres. Even producing all of the different compounds of tyre for each track is just ridiculous. There are some racing formulas that only use one set of tyres each year baring punctures of course and they give some of the best car racing going, I'm talking of the 5/8th scale Legend cars that race 5 a breast sometimes.

I also agree that 1967 was a good year for F1 racing.

Using hybrid technology to safe fuel is more a consumer application, in racing, the idea is gaining more performance. But I don't regard it really as the culprit, from my observation, the turbo/hybrid technology made the racing more competitive, because the engines now deliver low end torque the old N/A V8 could not deliver and it gives the drivers more options (and opportunities for mistakes), which made often for great racing. Granted, the works-Mercedes usually drove their own race at the front of the field, but from position 3 on, there was usually a lot going on in the races. I enjoyed the last three years more than the last years of the N/A engines.

I totally agree though that in the last few years, there was too much concentration on gimmickish features added in a futile attempt to add more excitement by adding gambling elements. Extra short lasting tires (up to a point where they became a risk), DRS, double points in the last race, grid restart after safetycars as the latest nonsense, you name it. Seriously, it doesn't make racing any better. But then if it becomes to stupid, there's always that button on my TV: ( | ) Others already found it too

I you really want to stop one team running away with the championship and allow the 'minnows' a shot at a point haul make points weigh 1/2 kg each, as a driver gets more points his car gets heavier and the lesser cars come into their own, then at the end of the year you should have a close 'dozen' or so competitors each vying for a championship win.

Never say it could happen because it wouldn't be F1 if it was campetitive.

GeeDee wrote:

I'm talking of the 5/8th scale Legend cars that race 5 a breast sometimes.

I love the Legend series. Those would make a terrific mod.

TTFN
John.

Jeep wrote:

GeeDee wrote:

I'm talking of the 5/8th scale Legend cars that race 5 a breast sometimes.

I love the Legend series. Those would make a terrific mod.  

TTFN
John.

I think they already did make a terrific mod... pretty sure I had it for GTR2 on an earlier installation

Pete Conway wrote:

Jeep wrote:

GeeDee wrote:

I'm talking of the 5/8th scale Legend cars that race 5 a breast sometimes.

I love the Legend series. Those would make a terrific mod.  

TTFN
John.

I think they already did make a terrific mod... pretty sure I had it for GTR2 on an earlier installation

Hi Pete,
Really? Would anyone have a link? I tried the search but as you can imagine the word Legends is not a good choice on a forum such as this. (Pages and pages of results).

Thanks in advance to anyone who can point me at this.

TTFN
John.

Jeep, I've had a look on my more regular sites and around on old storage discs to no avail, someone here will probably know where it's hosted though... (in my best Murray Walker voice) unless I'm very much mistaken!

@ Jeep.

Yes the Legends Mod was converted to GTL by friend Greybrad after myself and a German friend asked him if he could do it:

GTL Version: http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=16887

A GTR2 version was going to be done but I couldn't say if it ever was.

Points awarded to drivers is always an annoyance to me. I think that every car that finishes a race should be given at least 1 point as they have achieved something. These points add up during a season and would give a team a good lift instead of finishing with no points like those who hardly ever finished a race.

@ Jeep

There is also an Australian version of the Legends called 'Oz Racers' which are about the same size but newer car car versions.

http://f1classic.your-talk.com/t18710-released-oz-racers-gtl-v1-0

Great, Thanks GeeDee (And Pete for pointing out that a mod even existed).

Just downloaded both and gave them a quick whirl. More fun than it's legal to have packed into 64mb. They drive fantastic. Stuck the Legends in their own class by adding a new category in SIM_GTC.gdb. I think I'll be spending a lot of time in these little pocket rockets.

Cheers

TTFN
John.