2010 / 2011 Formula 1 Silly Season

[Dino Scuderia]

Bernie playing the media as usual....and us...it keeps us talking about F1.

Nothing to see here, folks, move along.

[aiasib]

How about just plain racing?

Not on Bernie's watch!

[LeonOfTheDead]

Thought this was more funny than interesting: link

Ageing left-winger Peter Preston has been having a go at the gas-guzzling culture of motorsport and how he can't bear the thought of the BBC covering tennis and F1 - the sport of tax exiles, millionaires and billionaires - in his Guardian column.

The former editor of The Guardian, the left-of-centre 'broadsheet' newspaper has been getting his woolly cardigan in a right old twist.

"Why on earth should your (and my) licence fee keep Bernie Ecclestone and, until recently, Max Mosley in the manner accustomed?" he wrote. "How, as the planet warms, do we justify flying tons of heavy metal from Rio to Kuala Lumpur in order, once a fortnight, to send them gas-guzzling and carbon-emitting round yet another ring of concrete?

"The whole notion is a simple affront to anyone who even vaguely registers climate change. It's a suicide note we underwrite year after year. Let Bernie (and Lewis, in his Swiss tax exile) knock on somebody else's door."

As Preston was in charge of the newspaper for many years it comes as surprising news, because his principles didn't stop him from covering the sport in great depth and giving many column inches to Alan Henry.

Having a go at tennis might be seen as a nice easy classist target, because British tennis clubs don't tend to be filled with young working class people - quite the opposite. Look in any car park of a tennis club and you won't be overwhelmed by the ranks of Nissan Almeiras and Kia Sorentos. Motorsport, on the other hand, is a far more inclusive sport, drawing fans from all walks of life.

But let's have a look at the waste that is involved in producing a newspaper. Every day the Guardian sell around 280,000 copies - to achieve that they're printing a whole lot more. When I worked in magazines you would be very lucky to get an 80% clearance of a magazine that had a week to sell. In fact one of the highest ever clearances was Autosport in 1994 the Thursday after Ayrton Senna died and Haymarket (Autosport's owners) cleared 98% of copies.

The current circulation of the Guardian is around 280,000. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they clear 70% of their copies. That means to achieve those figures they are printing around 350,000 copies a day.

That's 70,000 unsold newspapers x 6 days x 52 weeks. That would mean they are printing 22 million newspapers a year that no-one buys.

The energy required to produce that mountain of unwanted newsprint would create a very large carbon footprint. Far bigger than anything F1 could produce.

Preston obviously feels that F1 is a much easier target than his Guardian-reading dog owners. A similar totem of 'gas guzzling' indulgence is the 4x4. But owning a dog has a far greater premium in terms of carbon footprint.

The land and energy needed to produce pet food for an animal is shockingly large, the bigger they get, the more it adds up. There is some research that says a large dog is on average double the carbon footprint of a Toyota Landcruiser. But criticizing them about their wasteful habbits would be alienating half his audience.

So, Peter, get off your withering fat liberal arse and think about the real consequences of what you say before parading your prejudices about a sport millions of people love.

Andrew Davies

[RacingManiac]

Whats the carbon footprint of a high horse? And I am pretty sure FIA has long contended that all FIA run motorsports are carbon-neutral....since they are investing in carbon credit elsewhere....

[f6fhellcat13]

Though the FIA unanimously voted that the 2011 Bahraini Grand Prix should go ahead, it seems like this may not be the case.

... It seems the FIA had overlooked article 66 of its own sporting code, which says that no amendments can be made to the arrangements for a championship after entries open without the agreement of all competitors.

The race in Bahrain is back off, it appears. The 11 voting teams (Hispania isn't a member of FOTA) voted against racing there, not because of the sticky politics of the country, but because it would interfere with their vacation. Hopefully, that is only the reason given, not the actual reason they chose.

Formula 1 black flags Bahrain race after this leaked report

[Ferrer]

I'd be pretty angry if someone tried to interfere with my vacation.

[Matra et Alpine]

For Hamilton the whole season looks like it's going ot be "silly".

What a dick taking out himself trying a silly move on Button.

No doubt he will blame Jenson.

Reckon Lewis was on for a slapped wrist from the stewards for his move on Webber anyway !!

[Ferrer]

Such a bunch of sissies this F1 business.

So if it rains a bit you have to start behind the Safety Car, then deploy it if it rains a bit more and then stop it completely?

Come on...

[thebrochureman]

Bad season for Hamilton but the red bull team is doing great.

[Matra et Alpine]

Ferrer, having raced in only mildly wet conditions there is NO way you want a flag start to a first corner or be running in pack at 150mph and 10m visibility
At least it's not as bad as Indy

[Ferrer]

I understand stopping the race when it started to rain heavily, but when it started there was no need to start behind the safety car...

[RacingManiac]

Anywhere else I might agree, Montreal being Montreal, where a dry standing start was no guarantee to be clean at turn 1, a wet one is asking for it....even with the running start people are still tripping over each other....I can see why the tix there costs 2 times as much as other grandstands that are not the start-finish line...

The race ends up being quite dramatic...again proving there are no better way to spice up racing than weather.....Good to see how well MSC raced....only to be ultimately let down by the slow Mercedes with the tendency to eat rear tire....would've been nice for him to make podium...

[fpv_gtho]

Anyone else get the feeling that the standing water seemed like less of an issue when the cars were still running? I saw heaps of shots during the red flag of the safety car going around, and every time it went through a puddle, despite displacing bucketloads of water, i kept getting the feeling that had 20 cars been going around with tyres capable of displacing much more than road tyres, there was little issue on the racing line.

I think they could really do with a Monsoon tyre as well. The current wets are 670mm compared to the 660mm dries, perhaps go to 680mm for the Monsoon for the extra tread depth and ride height. If they still only want 2 wet tyres, perhaps take another look at what Bridgestone wanted to do in having a wet tyre that when worn down behaved like an intermediate.

[RacingManiac]

I think at some point it was not really the aquaplaning but visibility is the issue. Same deal with Korea last year. High wall around the track traps the mist over the racing surface....

[RacingManiac]

autosport.com - F1 News: FIA in new engine mapping clampdown

This will be interesting, not just the effect on map usage between quali and race, but also within the race itself.....drivers used to be able to just turn the knob for different phase of the race whether they need more power to make up position or turn down to save fuel when they are "coasting" or under safetycar, or rain. But now they can't do that anymore unless they pit....this may also affect the reliability....