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F1 2019

grober said:
RECORDS exist only to be broken surely? Not sure anyone can realistically compare drivers from different eras driving different cars. The real heroes in some ways are those that raced in an era where if you crashed heavily death was pretty much a certainty. In terms of "building/accumulating" a record of race/championship wins perhaps the odds of surviving long enough to do so were against drivers in those days. Jim Clark might have done it- if he had survived, likewise Ayrton Senna, Jackie Stewart might have done it had he not retired, Nicky Lauda without his horrific burns, one could speculate till the cows come home. Perhaps the mark of a F1 Champion back then was to win a few races and survive to tell the tale!
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Return to an era where sex was safe and motor racing was dangerous perhaps? If only that were possible.

Comparing different eras of any sport is fraught with all sorts of issues, where in the end one is comparing apples with oranges.

Take tennis for example. Folks go on about how great Fred Perry or Rod Laver where. Yes in their era they were amazing. At his best Andy Murray would have blown either of them away, and pretty much any of the current top ten players would do the same. The game and players have changed.

F1 is so different now than it was in the Jackie Stewart, Lauda era. More races in a season, so more opportunities to get a pole position, a race win, a fastest lap and so on. Cars massively more complex mechanically and aerodynamically, with huge grip that would have been unthinkable in the 70's. Classic circuits that presented high risk to driver mortailty have been neutered or new ones are so contrived that they are like big karting tracks. Pit crews that train and know what is happening in the car every millisecond and can talk to the driver whenever they like versus a couple of stopwatches operated by the missus and a fleeting glance at pitboard. Every success, mistake or failure analysed in super dooper slow mo on screens the size of a house distributed all around the circuit. Corporate and personal liability lawyers lurking behind every incident, compared to a 'sh!t happens' sentiment when something goes wrong. Big corporate funding from global companies that care more about their public image than they do about the motorsport they are 'sponsoring'. Drivers (with one notable exception) that are so schooled in media speak that they are unable to say what they think or behave how they like. How would James Hunt have got on in today's snowflake social media corporate b*ll*cks era? (The motorsport world got somewhat duller the day we lost James).

Losing free to air live F1 coverage is a travesty, as was free to air live test cricket, football, world championship boxing, golf (OK there's still a bit of coverage). I'd like to see that change, but I honestly can't see it happening. Far too many millionaire sports folk to pay.
 
GeeJayW said:
Return to an era where sex was safe and motor racing was dangerous perhaps? If only that were possible.

Comparing different eras of any sport is fraught with all sorts of issues, where in the end one is comparing apples with oranges.

Take tennis for example. Folks go on about how great Fred Perry or Rod Laver where. Yes in their era they were amazing. At his best Andy Murray would have blown either of them away, and pretty much any of the current top ten players would do the same. The game and players have changed.

F1 is so different now than it was in the Jackie Stewart, Lauda era. More races in a season, so more opportunities to get a pole position, a race win, a fastest lap and so on. Cars massively more complex mechanically and aerodynamically, with huge grip that would have been unthinkable in the 70's. Classic circuits that presented high risk to driver mortailty have been neutered or new ones are so contrived that they are like big karting tracks. Pit crews that train and know what is happening in the car every millisecond and can talk to the driver whenever they like versus a couple of stopwatches operated by the missus and a fleeting glance at pitboard. Every success, mistake or failure analysed in super dooper slow mo on screens the size of a house distributed all around the circuit. Corporate and personal liability lawyers lurking behind every incident, compared to a 'sh!t happens' sentiment when something goes wrong. Big corporate funding from global companies that care more about their public image than they do about the motorsport they are 'sponsoring'. Drivers (with one notable exception) that are so schooled in media speak that they are unable to say what they think or behave how they like. How would James Hunt have got on in today's snowflake social media corporate b*ll*cks era? (The motorsport world got somewhat duller the day we lost James).

Losing free to air live F1 coverage is a travesty, as was free to air live test cricket, football, world championship boxing, golf (OK there's still a bit of coverage). I'd like to see that change, but I honestly can't see it happening. Far too many millionaire sports folk to pay.
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Nail on head ;ˆ)

Just the ability to talk to the drivers in real time made a huge impact on the sport. Suddenly it became a "team sport" in the true sense. No longer were the drivers isolated from their pit or the outside world. I am (I hope) realistic enough to recognise that almost every rule now/today, presents a challenge to the teams to gain an advantage over their competitors. This is seen when a pre-season rule is applied that shaves xx of a lap time. before we get to the grid, that xx has been added back in (and some more +). That was never the intent of the rule makers and has the effect of making their rules appear silly and futile.
 
2019 car launch dates

Tuesday 12 February, Renault Enstone, UK
Wednesday 13 February, Racing Point Toronto, Canada
Thursday 14 February, McLaren TBC
Friday 15 February, Ferrari Maranello, Italy
 
New Renault boss leaves before starting!

The man appointed as the new boss of Renault's Formula 1 programme has left the French car company before even taking up his new position.

Thierry Koskas was named president of Renault Sport in November, and attended the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on a fact-finding mission.

But 18 days after he was due to start work, Renault announced Kostas' departure from the entire group.

Jerome Stoll, who had been due to retire, will continue as president.
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This may be down to boardroom politics
As of January 1, 2019, Thierry Koskas is appointed President of Renault Sport Racing, replacing Jérôme Stoll. He will report directly to Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Groupe Renault.
If it turns out he was mainly appointed as Ghosn's "protege" then the climate may have altered somewhat while his mentor languishes in jail in Japan?
Carlos Ghosn received £6.9m in 'improper' payments, says Nissan
 
Irvine says Vettel is massively overrated and a one-trick pony.
Ex-Formula 1 racer Eddie Irvine has called four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel a "one-trick pony" in a scathing assessment of the Ferrari driver.

Irvine described Vettel as "massively overrated" and says he can't understand how the German secured four successive titles between 2010 and 2014.

He also said Lewis Hamilton is the best driver of this era, but the British five-time world champion "isn't even close" to Michael Schumacher.

more...
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This should be good...
 
The paragraph I liked ..
"In the 1950s you got killed if you make a mistake, the 60s you could get killed, the 70s you hurt yourself most of the time and the 80s you hurt yourself some of the time."
 
Nat said:
Eddie Irvine who?
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Fast on his day but not consistent. If he hadn't crashed out so often his results would have looked better and we would be more likely to remember him. He did race for Ferrari for several years with Schumacher as a team mate.
 
190 said:
Fast on his day but not consistent. If he hadn't crashed out so often his results would have looked better and we would be more likely to remember him. He did race for Ferrari for several years with Schumacher as a team mate.
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If I recall Irvine's car went quite a bit faster after Michael's leg(s) were broken at Silverstone....
 
Having now read Irvine's article, it's pretty clear he is a big Michael fan. I remember Johnny Herbert waxing lyrical about Schumi when they were at Benetton and I also heard a few inside tales when he was at Ferrari that underlined his outstanding talent as a driver. Better than Lewis? Better than Senna? Best ever? Not for me he wasn't. And nobody was a bigger fan of Eddie Irvine than Eddie Irvine.
 
GeeJayW said:
If I recall Irvine's car went quite a bit faster after Michael's leg(s) were broken at Silverstone....
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I don't think we will ever know if Eddie upped his game with a sniff of the title or more resources were put into his car after Micheal's accident, or both.
Eddie was one quick driver (I ran him in Toyota sportscars in the early 90's) but he never had the ultimate focus on F1 alone as Micheal did. That can be the difference between good F1 drivers and champions.
Eddie 'turbine' as he was known within the Toyota team, had already developed very sharp financial acumen and this other talent came to the fore after his spell in F1.

The very first person on the scene of Micheal's leg breaking incident was my very first racing driver (1978!). He was then driving the Medical car, Alex Ribiero.
The message he displayed on his race cars is still been 'flown' to this day.

32770e0a-427a-4628-b708-d3b976771742.jpg
Sometimes even the right way up! This was Silverstone Nov 2018....
 
^^I briefly met Eddie when he was driving with Ferrari. In fairness he was alright, easy to talk to etc. For sure he's no fool and could pedal along pretty well in his day, I don't think Ferrari would have wasted the ink on his contract otherwise.

As for his performance improvement after Michael's shunt; I think it was a combination of stronger support from the team and a more motivated Eddie. I've not seen any driver's contract, but have always wondered if Schumi had a stronger one than whoever his team-mate was at the time.
 
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I'm not sure to be honest, that Liberty Media are up to the task of running F1. Bernie has a association with the sport, is aware of the history, the tensions, the hidden agendas etc. Liberty don't have that insight and perspective, nor do they have the shared experience. I don't think it helps that the key players in Liberty Media are from the US. Americans don't 'get' F1, never have.
 
GeeJayW said:
Bernie has a association with the sport, is aware of the history, the tensions, the hidden agendas etc.
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Not only was (is?) Bernie aware of the tensions and the hidden agendas, he actually created many of them for his own benefit ;)

I think Liberty's success or failure with F1 will depend at least in part upon how much authority and autonomy they vest in people like Ross Brawn who have a long history in the game and are also acutely aware of the tensions and politics. I fancy that the cash-cow model that Bernie created so successfully was coming to its natural conclusion anyway, so there would have been a need to do things differently for the future whether Liberty or anyone else owned it. I do agree that Americans (with possible exceptions) don't "get" F1 though.
 
st13phil said:
Not only was (is?) Bernie aware of the tensions and the hidden agendas, he actually created many of them for his own benefit ;)

I think Liberty's success or failure with F1 will depend at least in part upon how much authority and autonomy they vest in people like Ross Brawn who have a long history in the game and are also acutely aware of the tensions and politics. I fancy that the cash-cow model that Bernie created so successfully was coming to its natural conclusion anyway, so there would have been a need to do things differently for the future whether Liberty or anyone else owned it. I do agree that Americans (with possible exceptions) don't "get" F1 though.
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Oh Bernie was/is an operator alright and very clever at playing both ends against the middle. Without him, I think Formula One would have died years ago. He bought the commercial rights when no-one else wanted them and turned tweed and flat-capped Formula One into the F1 brand we know today. In the process making himself and a number of others extremely wealthy of course.

Things do need to be done differently and like you hope that Ross Braun et al are able/allowed to make the necessary changes.
 
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