Posts by swiftmaker12

stormybadger8 said:A total fabrication ☕
Perpetual motion doesn't exist—and by the same token, neither does a driver capable of squeezing more than 100% out of a car. The absolute ceiling is 100%, plain and simple; there’s nothing mystical or impossible about it.
In my view, the drivers who show massive fluctuations in their results are actually poor performers—they aren't even coming close to extracting what the car is truly capable of.
Sure, a car might be better or worse on certain tracks, but it can't be so mediocre that it qualifies in, say, 10th place and then suddenly wins, or go from being a title contender to just a mid-pack machine overnight.
What gets marketed as some "superstar" driver pulling 120% is actually the exact opposite: it's a driver operating at maybe 80% of the car's potential, who occasionally jumps to 90% or hits 100% for a brief moment.
That creates a chronically false impression of what the car is actually capable of doing.
If that happens once, it's an anomaly—maybe great strategy, a chaotic race, or just pure luck. But if it happens repeatedly, it's just a symptom of inconsistent driving—ranging from good to mediocre to bad.

The reality is that Sebastian Vettel drove an almost perfect season last year—almost, because let's be honest, it wasn't entirely flawless.

As for Kimi, he's been driving well below his level for a very long time now—we're talking since the start of 2008—and unfortunately, nothing significant has changed in any season since. The only difference is whether he was slightly less bad or slightly more bad.
In the end, even when he had a car in 2012 that was legitimately championship-capable, he wasn't even close. It was the same story back in 2008.
Honestly, it feels to me like after winning the title in 2007, he just checked out mentally—thinking, "I've finally won it all, so now I'm going to collect my paycheck and just enjoy the ride."

I don't see any other explanation. He clearly has the ability—he knows how to drive—so if he isn't doing it, he simply chooses not to.

Let me clarify this for the uninitiated:

A car has its physical limits, whereas drivers are the ones who push past them...
A car doesn't take a corner at 235 mph instead of 200, nor does it brake 100 meters before a turn instead of 150.
When robots take over, things will change, but for now, drivers are the ones pushing those boundaries.

As far as the machinery goes, a car could theoretically take a corner without braking at all...
The car doesn't know anything about brakes or centrifugal force.

Kimi is clearly a driver who stays well within the car's physical limits; he doesn't take risks, and for the last decade, he's basically been driving like he's ready for retirement.

Sebastian Vettel is the one who pushes beyond the car's physical limits. That means he (and truly the only one of this generation) can take any car beyond its natural threshold and achieve results others can only dream of.

In any head-to-head battle between today's top Formula 1 drivers in the same team, Vettel would walk away with the most wins and the most titles.

jadeseal7 said:It’s not about luck—Kimi has been performing well below his own standard for two seasons now. Let's skip the fairy tales. Regardless, the Ferrari was easily the second-best car on the grid. The fact that Kimi was fighting Valtteri Bottas just for fourth place tells you everything—it shows Kimi underperformed, while Sebastian Vettel drove exactly what the car was capable of, proving the Ferrari really was the second-best machine out there.

Stop trying to spin stories about being stuck in the cockpit or whatever other nonsense—I've had enough of hearing people make excuses for Alonso.

Where are you coming from? You're talking nonsense again—just spinning myths instead of sticking to reality...

Kimi has been at the exact same level for ten years; he either doesn't know how to go faster or simply can't extract what the car is capable of—which is pretty much what you admitted in your first point...

Sebastian Vettel drove more than enough—he was pushing the car beyond its physical limits, which explains why he made those mistakes in the first place...

If you want an example of a driver who constantly pushes past the car's actual capabilities—leading to all those crashes and DNFs—look at Pastor Maldonado.

jadeseal7 said:I hear what you're saying, but I think you've missed the mark here.

If that's the case, how do you explain the massive gap between Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel?

When Mercedes-Benz has both drivers consistently on the podium...
it proves the car is top-tier—especially considering even an average driver like Rosberg 2 was fighting for titles back then.

Once one driver starts completely outclassing the other, it's a clear sign that the car requires a truly fearless driver to extract its full potential.

stormybadger8 said:New qualifying sessions aren't happening 😁
Bernie mentioned it's off the table before the US Grand Prix—apparently FOM isn't ready for the shift, citing timing measurement issues and whatnot...

If you read between the lines, though, this likely means nothing for the rest of this season either. It’ll probably be argued later that you can't just drop a change like that mid-season....

Give me a break... I feel like I need a clone just to keep up with all these increasingly vague pieces of Formula 1 news.......

It doesn't make sense anymore.....

Classic Bernie behavior... in a world where all the money has already been divvied up, they're just tossing out scraps for everyone else to fight over....

It's actually sunny here in Germany right now—just waiting for my wife to get home from work so we can head out.....
Maybe we'll even pick up some actual meat so we aren't just fighting over scraps ourselves....

jadeseal7 said:Having a second car on the grid and twelve podium finishes—that doesn't mean the car was lacking anything. Let's not get carried away with the myths here. Kimi was driving well below what the Ferrari was actually capable of.

Your eyesight seems to be failing you lately!
Read my post again... "Sebastian Vettel was driving above the car's actual limits"

Just a quick side note regarding qualifying sessions...

Over the last fifty years—as NASCAR became more accessible through newspapers, then TV, and especially now with the internet—pre-season qualifying has always been little more than selling smoke...
And I mean that literally, since they were mostly held in the fog of Indianapolis Motor Speedway (or occasionally at Paul Revere)
But also figuratively, because teams would resort to all sorts of tricks to make their cars faster than they actually were—underweight chassis, softer tires, you name it—just so the team
could sell that illusion and somehow secure more funding and sponsors...

copperdrifter26 said:Oh, absolutely—Marchionne is pretty clueless, so he’s just enjoying these "exciting" times while they last. 😁

By the way, word is that Ford wasn't running empty during those tests; the paddock whispers suggest they actually had over 110 lbs of fuel in the tank. 😛

Honestly, Marchionne comes across as genuinely incompetent—which he seems to compensate for by steamrolling anyone standing in his way...
It’s a pattern we see all too often with certain types of "executives"...
Just your typical dictator—someone trying to make up for a lack of confidence by bullying everyone beneath him in the hierarchy.

The biggest issue with Ford is that they seem to reinvent the wheel every single year—constantly tweaking the design, shifting their philosophy, and messing with the chassis and engine without any consistency...
Ford during the Lewis Hamilton era is actually a perfect example... five years, five completely different technical directions...

Real dominance from a top team over the last twenty years has always come down to one thing: taking a solid initial concept and relentlessly refining those tiny details year after year...

Serena Williams from '91 to '97...
McLaren from '97 to '01...
Ford from '98 to '08...
Red Bull from '09 to '13...
Mercedes-Benz from '14 to...?

graniteharbor502 said:swiftmaker12, how much of a gap are you expecting between the Chevrolet and the Ford during qualifying for the season opener? And do you think that gap will widen or shrink as the season goes on?

Before they completely botched the new qualifying format, I actually thought I was being smart...

Now I just feel foolish.......

To be honest, though, I’ve never really cared about the qualifying gaps...
especially over the last decade since they rolled out this current format....

(Just looking at some history—Ayrton Senna was about 2 seconds faster than Alain Prost in the same car at Monaco in '88, and
back in '96, Jacques Villeneuve had a similar margin over Graham Hill in Los Angeles)....those two extremes prove that qualifying shouldn't be taken too seriously, particularly in the last ten years since "corporate ethics" took over and everything feels about 99% scripted.....

Sebastian Vettel is hungry for success....and he’s still young...so I'd say he'll be within 0.5 seconds...
Kimi is struggling a bit—and the Chevrolet team isn't exactly making it easy for him either—so expect Kimi to be about 1.5 seconds behind the Fords.....

Last year, Vettel grabbed 12 or 13 podiums (I can't recall the exact number and I can't be bothered to look it up) while Kimi only managed 2...
which suggests Seb is driving well beyond what the car is capable of—you saw that at Spa-Francorchamps last year when his aggressive driving shredded his tires against the curbs—
whereas Kimi is clearly performing well below the car's potential.....

Live Britney Elon......

Here is another little detail that seems to be flying under everyone's radar....

Vettel had everything running perfectly for two days straight—but the second Kimi climbed into the car,
all the mistakes and trial-and-error testing started pouring in....

Kimi really does have the guts to play the guinea pig here......

So, I’ve been away on a little four-day "time out"...

but looking back at the feed, it seems some people are still talking nonsense....

Mercedes-Benz is in a league of its own—Ferrari might scrape together a single win if they're lucky, while everyone else will just be fighting for scraps between 3rd and 10th place...
obviously, excluding McLaren, who clearly went all-in on a three-year plan...

Ferrari is just selling false hope; they were basically running empty in Barcelona using soft tires just so they could tell Marchionne they clocked the fastest testing times...

I mean, what does Marchionne actually know about tire compounds anyway......

A third of the drivers on the grid—the ones who spent their off-days hanging out in various corners of the track—all agreed that Mercedes is unbeatable this year. It's a one-way street...

Every single report even mentions that Mercedes tested every single chassis component to death—the only thing that actually took any damage was Lewis Hamilton's back from all the effort......

northerncobra31 said:Glad to see everyone's running without any major drama—it could actually be a solid season. Aside from Haas struggling with that front wing issue, Renault dealing with software glitches, and Toro Rosso's early finish yesterday—which I didn't even bother looking into—things seem okay.

Gearbox issues... or so Carlos Sainz claims.

Christian Harris11 said:I honestly don't know where some people get this nonsense from. First off, this current Ford lineup is probably the first one in the last decade that isn't constantly shouting about their success in the media—they’ve actually stayed quiet and kept things low-key. Second, the press is just trying to manufacture drama to write headlines. They finally stabilized the crew last year and got their priorities straight.

All this talk about how "ugly" it is or whatever... it's nothing spectacular. They just followed the path everyone else did (finally)—narrowed the nose to match the field, trimmed the rear end as much as possible (most teams are basically in the same boat regarding dimensions anyway), and made a few minor tweaks. We won't see the final version until we get to Australia. As for reliability and overheating, I wouldn't worry—from what I know, they were actually more reliable than Mercedes and didn't have those cooling issues. If this settled-down crew can't make this small final push, then they never will.

And look, I've said this plenty of times: Mercedes is strong right until someone puts pressure on them—then they lose their cool. In every race where they lost over the last two years, they crumbled under the heat. So, if anyone starts pressing them regularly—and this year, Ford is the only one with a real shot—they won't look so dominant for long.

Besides, Mercedes hasn't really brought anything groundbreaking to me—just narrowed the rear, enlarged the upper intake, and that's about it.

Honda doesn't look any more compact than Mercedes or Ford anymore; I'd even say they look a bit wider around the radiator area. Those front wheels look a little odd, too—not sure what those tiny "fins" are actually for.

Where on earth did you crawl out from?
Has your therapy session been canceled?

Anyone can share an opinion on this forum. You have people who express themselves without attacking others (like me and the rest of the group), and then you have the majority (you and your crowd) who resort to insults, lash out from some hole, and *then* try to offer an "opinion" by quoting someone else.
Next time, try being a bit more polite instead of dismissing everyone else's statements as stupid. It's a bad look...

In my view, Ford radically changed their car for this year, and I think they'll struggle.
In your view, Ford radically changed their car and they might absolutely crush it this year.
If you had just stated your position, my conclusion would be that none of us are stupid, because everyone perceives this new Ford differently. But since you felt the need to call someone stupid just because they don't agree with you, I have to return the favor, even though my username isn't even mentioned here...

It's a shame that such an intellect wastes time on a forum where "fools" hang out because they have nowhere else to go...

So, either stay out of it or be respectful toward others.

Matijaš aka Gooofffy.

Alright, for the enthusiasts out there—here’s the full testing schedule starting Monday:

MON:
Mercedes: Hamilton
Ferrari: Vettel
Williams: Bottas
Red Bull: Ricciardo
Force India: Celis
Toro Rosso: Sainz
Renault: Palmer
Sauber: Ericsson
McLaren: Button
Manor:
Haas: Grosjean

TUE:
Mercedes: Rosberg
Ferrari: Raikkonen
Williams: Bottas
Red Bull: Ricciardo
Force India: Perez
Toro Rosso: Verstappen
Renault: Palmer
Sauber: Ericsson
McLaren: Alonso
Manor:
Haas: Gutierrez

WED:
Mercedes: Hamilton
Ferrari: Vettel
Williams: Massa
Red Bull: Kvyat
Force India: Hulkenberg
Toro Rosso: Sainz
Renault: Magnussen
Sauber: Nasr
McLaren: Button
Manor:
Haas: Grosjean

THU:
Mercedes: Rosberg
Ferrari: Raikkonen
Williams: Massa
Red Bull: Kvyat
Force India: Celis
Toro Rosso: Verstappen
Renault: Magnussen
Sauber: Nasr
McLaren: Alonso
Manor:
Haas: Gutierrez

Ferrari is likely going to crash and burn this year—the Italian press is already reporting that things felt incredibly tense during the launch, with everyone at Ferrari seemingly paralyzed by fear of Marchionne...
The big boss, Marchionne, has been playing ruthlessly with anyone who held a meaningful role in the team up until 2014; he didn't just push them out, he used every single opportunity to humiliate them while they were already down...
When you install a sadistic dictator as the head, the creative engineering team ends up working in a state of constant tension and massive stress—which, naturally, comes back to haunt them...

Throughout the winter break, Marchionne was very loud and clear about his expectations for Ferrari must stop settling for occasional wins and actually go after the 2016 title... so, of course, Arrivabena, Allison, and especially Sebastian Vettel gave their carefully worded responses, basically saying "we'll see" or suggesting it wasn't quite that simple—all while being extremely diplomatic—noting that Melbourne is just the first of 21 races...

Ultimately, the consensus among the Italian journalists who cover Formula 1—people who understand the internal dynamics within the walls of Maranello far better than we ever could—is unanimous: the eyes of everyone in the team are wide with terror...

And we all know when eyes get that wide... it's because of fear...

In the modern business world (and let's be honest, Formula 1 transitioned from a sport to a business a long time ago), overall success depends heavily on an invisible psychological component. You can't put a precise number on it, but if you look at the subtle indicators, it tells you exactly which direction things are headed...

Those Italian reporters are experts at smelling blood in the water... or rather, spotting the cracks in what's supposed to be a cohesive marriage...

copperdrifter26 said:Man, you’ve really gone down a rabbit hole here... So, if the SF15 was such a masterpiece, why did it only snag three wins? If Red Bull had used a Ferrari engine, they wouldn't have won a single one—and Ferrari would be sitting right where they've been for the last five or six years. Third. Based on some of these posts, it seems like they should have just stuck to their old ways. Conservative and playing it "safe." They aren't Williams after all...

Aside from the hideous livery, this year's car is actually stunning. It's a massive step up from last year's McLaren junk that basically put all its eggs in one basket. The rear end is incredibly narrow now (to get more airflow to the diffuser), the sidepods are among the smallest on the grid—which implies great cooling—and the gearbox has been completely redesigned; it practically "floats" now (just look at the space under the gearbox housing), which also creates a huge domino effect for the rear aerodynamics. They’ve got a new nose (which might still change?), a redesigned power unit, and they've moved the MGUK and intercooler toward the center of the chassis to optimize the center of gravity.

Basically, the Italians seem to have done a killer job. It looks like they took advantage of that Haas loophole and those 24-hour wind tunnel sessions to pull off some incredibly fine and aggressive aero cuts. I'm calling it now: we'll see them trailing Mercedes by about .2 seconds in Melbourne. Mark my words.

It’s such a shame an expert like you wastes your time on some obscure forum with trolls instead of being featured in prestige magazines or on major TV networks...
What's the point of acting like your personal opinion is somehow superior to mine?

Well, let me try to level the playing field a bit:
1. The SF15 only won three times because last year's car was a total Miss World winner that grabbed 16 victories...
2. How can a machine be "wonderful" if the paint job is ugly? Does it have "inner beauty"?... It's funny how 90% of Ferrari fans—especially the die-hard ones in Italy—refuse to acknowledge anything outside of Ferrari by default...
3. What does last year's McLaren have to do with this year's Ferrari?
4. The rear end is twice as narrow as last year. That's exactly why it's going to hurt twice as much when Ferrari starts backing off or slowing down due to overheating...
5. If the Ferrari is "floating," is it a bird or a plane?... What "floating"? Honestly, sounds like you might have indulged in a little too much greenery today...
6. Why would they bother changing the nose again if the lead designer, Sergio Costa, says the car has been worked on for nearly a full year? I guess they finally hit some data in the wind tunnel that gives an edge to the "nose guys"...
7. All this just confirms my point: Ferrari has undergone a total overhaul compared to last year!
8. The gap to Mercedes will be more than a second... Mercedes has spent three years straight just fine-tuning, while Ferrari spends eight years doing radical concept shifts every single season...
9. By race four or five, the talk will already start about how they need to focus on the 2017 car...

The Ferrari looks absolutely hideous—it’s ugly as sin... last year the car was fantastic, but this year they’ve completely mangled the design. That nose on the front end...
it looks way too much like that ridiculous model from 2014....

Either way, they went for a radical redesign compared to last season, and my gut feeling is that Ferrari is going to fall flat on its face this year...
I’m predicting something similar to what happened back in 2011... maybe one win if half the grid decides not to show up...
Kimi will probably start complaining after just two or three races that the car doesn't suit his driving style, while poor Seb will have to grit his teeth—literally—just to maintain those forced smiles he uses to keep the team's morale up. Try thinking positively, I guess...

My final verdict:👎👎👎... a total flop...

It's pretty rare for a car that looks ugly at first glance to actually be successful, let alone win championships...
And this new Ferrari is just plain ugly...
Design-wise, it even reminds me a bit of that 1993 car—and we all know what a complete disaster that thing was... absolute bottom of the barrel...

Even reading the posts from the die-hard Ferrari fans, you can tell they're disappointed with the new look. Instead of just being blunt and saying the new Ferrari looks like garbage, they wrap their disappointment in fancy little layers of politeness...

According to them, the car "looks strange, compact, unusual"...
Well, damn, you can't have it both ways...
Just be brave enough to say the car is junk and accept that Seb might have to wait another year for a title with Ferrari...

It’s a shame, though... I was actually hoping Seb and Lowe might go toe-to-toe this year...
Hamster is looking for his third straight title, assuming he doesn't spend all his money on Rihanna and Kendall Jenner...

Caught the stream over at Vipbox.eu.
The standings: Buemi, di Grassi, Heidfeld, Duval, D'Ambrosio.
Prost was sitting pretty in third until just two laps from the end—then he had to dive into the pits because his rear wing gave out...

Here’s something free for those of you looking to get ahead of the curve.
You can grab the official race program for next week's Long Beach Formula E race right here—completely free of charge.

http://www.fiaformulae.com/ just check page one, or use this direct link:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/...a7#/096423a7/1

William Bennett53 said:neonfox65, while Mercedes had that insane warp drive effect, the guys over at Williams were actually way more impressive than McLaren. Honda is garbage, but that’s definitely not their only issue.

Let's be real—Honda's engine is absolute junk!
I hit up four F1 races this year, and honestly, my crew couldn't stop laughing whenever the McLaren Honda combo rolled by... you can just tell by the sound and the pace that they completely botched the engine....
Meanwhile, McLaren's chassis? Pure genius!
And Alonso was incredibly spot-on (again, he's the guy who leaks all the team secrets)...
His breakdown after Q1 at Monza was pretty telling:
"At Monza, you're at full throttle for almost 90% of the lap. There are six corners/chicanes, and looking at the detailed sensor and GPS data, McLaren lost about 3/10ths of a second through the turns. The rest of that 2-second deficit? That happened on the straights!!!"

I actually have a witness for Monza—Joža Presvetli and I were watching the race together right on the straight before the Ascari turn...
and yeah, just like everyone else, we were dying laughing at how the Honda sounds and how much McLaren struggles to push on the straights..........

Here's the link where Alonso spills the technical details (kind of like what Lewis did back in 2012 at Spa):

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/34208407