April fools!

Quote from Senninha25 :

April fools!

Of course

But on a more serious note (but still funny to me):

Quote :

HRT owner Jose Ramon Carabante has admitted his team's failure to qualify for the Australian Grand Prix was down to financial problems, insisting: "If we had the budget of the other teams, we would have come to the first race of the season with 3,000 kilometres under the belt."

HRT failed to qualify under the 107% rule, but despite that Carabante bullishly predicted that by May it would be beating the other 2010 newcomers Lotus and Virgin.

"Like last year, we began the development of the car too late due to the budget," he told Cadena Ser radio. "We were closing [sponsor] agreements that in the end did not come." He added a technical deal regarding 2011 with Toyota was "broken" at a late stage: "So we set a realistic goal with the budget that we had."

Revealing that HRT's budget for this year is €45 million, he said the team's showing in Australia was an achievement. "We did 11 laps with Liuzzi. If he had done 20, he would have qualified. Getting within 1.7 seconds without driving hardly at all is a miracle."

The team plans to have its 2011-spec front nose on the car in Malaysia, and Carabante said a whole "new aerodynamic package" will be fitted for May's Spanish Grand Prix. "It will be enough to be ahead of Lotus and Virgin," he said. "Last year we were in a worse condition than now and we ended up ahead of Virgin with twice our budget, and behind Lotus due only to one accident."

He also reacted to the strong criticisms of HRT, noting he had "not read a single criticism of Virgin in the English press".

Source

Maybe my April fools will come true sooner rather than later.

He has a point about that last sentence. Virgin has a fairly decent budget and with it they have improved their CFD technology for this year so you'd expect thay they would bring a better car out of that...but they still have a shit car that just managed to qualify for last week's race.

But I'm glad that we're being proven that entirely computer-designed machines are nowhere near the pencil and rubber art when it comes to designing racing cars.

Quote from Senninha25 :

He has a point about that last sentence. Virgin has a fairly decent budget and with it they have improved their CFD technology for this year so you'd expect thay they would bring a better car out of that...but they still have a shit car that just managed to qualify for last week's race.

But I'm glad that we're being proven that entirely computer-designed machines are nowhere near the pencil and rubber art when it comes to designing racing cars.

The alternative to pure-CFD is using wind tunnels (along side CFD), not using pencil and paper.

Quote from pik_d :

Of course

But on a more serious note (but still funny to me):

Source

Maybe my April fools will come true sooner rather than later.

Sorry but I agree with him more or less. If the car can get within 1.7 second of the 107% after only a few laps, with fail 2010 parts and no DRS, the package isn't hopeless.

Once they'll get the new parts and the DRS sorted I belive they can qualify and get close to Virgin.

I love that he says that they didn't pass qualification because of financial problems.. lol, they were THERE at the weekend, it's not a money problem when you are too retarded and half arsed to do a shakedown before the weekend, or even before qualifying for that matter. It's bullshit ,they need to sort themselves out big time and stop using F1 as an amateur circus.

Although as someone else pointed out before, it's funny that Virgin in comparisson have a **** tonne of money. I find it funny how now Marussia owns most of the team now, seems that Richard Branson thought success would come instantly in one season and now is having to rethink his buisness model.... ass hole.

I can't wait for when teams like Red Bull and Virgin don't exist (especially Virgin) Teams based purely to make money FROM racing, aren't fit for the sport, those teams who race to make money so that they can go racing again (racing for the sake of racing), those are the teams that we want to see.

I suppose the only difference with Mateschitz is he does genuinely LIKE racing, and he uses the money from Red Bull to fund the team (initially anyway) and then uses the cars as a sponsorship platform for his company anyway.

Quote from BlueFlame :

I can't wait for when teams like Red Bull and Virgin don't exist (especially Virgin) Teams based purely to make money FROM racing, aren't fit for the sport, those teams who race to make money so that they can go racing again (racing for the sake of racing), those are the teams that we want to see.

Then you can also say bye to Ferrari, Renault-Lotus and Mercedes. I mean, aren't they there to promote their cars, and therefore make money from racing?

Quote from BlueFlame :

I love that he says that they didn't pass qualification because of financial problems.. lol, they were THERE at the weekend, it's not a money problem when you are too retarded and half arsed to do a shakedown before the weekend, or even before qualifying for that matter. It's bullshit ,they need to sort themselves out big time and stop using F1 as an amateur circus.

Although as someone else pointed out before, it's funny that Virgin in comparisson have a **** tonne of money. I find it funny how now Marussia owns most of the team now, seems that Richard Branson thought success would come instantly in one season and now is having to rethink his buisness model.... ass hole.

I can't wait for when teams like Red Bull and Virgin don't exist (especially Virgin) Teams based purely to make money FROM racing, aren't fit for the sport, those teams who race to make money so that they can go racing again (racing for the sake of racing), those are the teams that we want to see.

I suppose the only difference with Mateschitz is he does genuinely LIKE racing, and he uses the money from Red Bull to fund the team (initially anyway) and then uses the cars as a sponsorship platform for his company anyway.

Considering Redbull is more involved in World motor racing then any other F1 team by far and combined, i think you should rethink what you just said.

Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :

Then you can also say bye to Ferrari, Renault-Lotus and Mercedes. I mean, aren't they there to promote their cars, and therefore make money from racing?

Ferrari no, not necessarily, I don't like Ferrari's at all, but they still go on the basis that the F1 team earns more money than the road car team (maybe not anymore, but that's how it used to be, they sold cars to go racing, not went racing to sell cars).

But even with regards to car manufacturers, sure they are corporations, but they are relevant to the sport, they will be passionate about sport, about cars, technology and mechanical physic.

They are using a relevant sport to boost their sales, at least they are a car manufacturer, not TEAM ALIENWARE or Scuderia Electrolux.

Quote from Mustafur :

Considering Redbull is more involved in World motor racing then any other F1 team by far and combined, i think you should rethink what you just said.

Read the last paragraph.

Quote from BlueFlame :

They are using a relevant sport to boost their sales, at least they are a car manufacturer, not TEAM ALIENWARE or Scuderia Electrolux.

Redbull is an energy drinks company, sports require energy = Redbull relevent

Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :

Sorry but I agree with him more or less. If the car can get within 1.7 second of the 107% after only a few laps, with fail 2010 parts and no DRS, the package isn't hopeless.

Once they'll get the new parts and the DRS sorted I belive they can qualify and get close to Virgin.

HRT's qualifying times:

Aussie 2010
B. Senna: 1:30.526
K. Chandhok: 1:30.613

Aussie 2011
V. Liuzzi: 1:32.978
N. Karthikeyan: 1:34.293

The King of Spain is right, they are an embarrassment to the nation, and the sport. 11 other teams (2 of which joined when HRT joined) made it to Australia with a car that was ready to go, qualified, and raced. They beat Virgin last year on virtue of having three 14th places rather than just 2. The only miracle will be if HRT makes it to Brazil this season.


EDIT: Also there's nothing wrong with privateers, the sport needs them with manufacturers like Toyota, Honda, and BMW pulling out because they didn't meet some goals in whatever particular year.

To be fair HRT started last year in the same situation, but Melbourne was the second race.

Quote from pik_d :

HRT's qualifying times:


Aussie 2011
V. Liuzzi: 1:32.978
N. Karthikeyan: 1:34.293

The King of Spain is right, they are an embarrassment to the nation, and the sport. 11 other teams (2 of which joined when HRT joined) made it to Australia with a car that was ready to go, qualified, and raced. They beat Virgin last year on virtue of having three 14th places rather than just 2. The only miracle will be if HRT makes it to Brazil this season.

You have to remember they didn't even shakedown the car properly before qualifying, so either the drivers are awesome, or the car is awesome. Think about it, they hadn't driven a lap in anger the whole weekend until qualifying in a car they're not familiar with, and Narain not driving an F1 car since 6years ago.. Infact, now I'm thinking to myself, when it's put like that, it does make you wonder how quick that HRT actually is....

Quote from Mustafur :

Redbull is an energy drinks company, sports require energy = Redbull relevent

I wasn't specifically talking about Red Bull, why are you so biassed towards them? I ruled them out in the first post I made (which ironically YOU pointed out to ME).

Quote from Mustafur :

To be fair HRT started last year in the same situation, but Melbourne was the second race.

Indeed, Senna was in fact approximately within 108% of Vettel's pole at Bahrein. Okay, the track might have improved between Q1 and Q3, but they basically were in a similar situation than this year at Melbourne.

Quote from BlueFlame :

You have to remember they didn't even shakedown the car properly before qualifying, so either the drivers are awesome, or the car is awesome. Think about it, they hadn't driven a lap in anger the whole weekend until qualifying in a car they're not familiar with, and Narain not driving an F1 car since 6years ago.. Infact, now I'm thinking to myself, when it's put like that, it does make you wonder how quick that HRT actually is....

Not really, the car is crap and HRT have no money to make it better. I really hope they keep missing the 107% so they quit the sport quicker. You're talking about not wanting teams int he sport, HRT is the worst offender.

Quote from pik_d :

You're talking about not wanting teams int he sport, HRT is the worst offender.

Yea, but I'm not gonna let my opinion rule out the facts if I am aware of them. That would be ignorance.

All I did was give them credit where it's due, in that they managed to be close to the 107% without any previous flying laps. Think about it, they didn't even get time on the track to setup the car, other than the data they had for last year, but then they got off to a shakey start there too...

Me thinks that the stewards should have let the HRT cars run anyway so that they could have atleast made some development. Also, how happy are their (few) sponsors when they aren't allowed to race? The team can't get better if it doesn't race from the start.

Either that or they put someone else on the grid. It's disgraceful that HRT (and USF1) was given a license last year. Were there really no better teams that could be put together? What about the team that had bought Toyota's cars? I find it hard to believe a factory car from an established team would be as bad as an HRT.

Quote from Rappa Z :

Me thinks that the stewardsshould have let the HRT cars run anyway so that they could have atleast made some development. Also, how hhappyy are their (few) sponsors when they aren't allowed to race? The team can't get better if it doesn't race from the start.

Don't blame the FIA, blame the team, they didn't test their car, even with the added time they had after Bahrain got cancelled, nor did they even have the car ready for FP1 on the Friday (when in reality they had more time out of any other team to do so).

It's not professional to let a kid out on a monkey bike on the track, just as much as it's not professional to let a car thats more than 107% out.

Quote from Rappa Z :

Me thinks that the stewards should have let the HRT cars run anyway so that they could have atleast made some development. Also, how happy are their (few) sponsors when they aren't allowed to race? The team can't get better if it doesn't race from the start.

Either that or they put someone else on the grid. It's disgraceful that HRT (and USF1) was given a license last year. Were there really no better teams that could be put together?

That would have been dangerous though. The track would have flooded due to Alonso's tears from being held up by too many backmarkers.

And there were better options, Dallara or Prodrive would have both been much better options. I suspect the entrance was more about money though.

Well, we're a bunch of pansies if we think the frontrunners are going to have a difficult time overtaking a car that is 6-10 seconds slower. Not to mention, the HRTs can't afford accidents, so they'd probably peel as far over as possible to allow people through. Also, they'd probably have technical issues after 5 laps anyway.

Quote from BlueFlame :

Yea, but I'm not gonna let my opinion rule out the facts if I am aware of them. That would be ignorance.

All I did was give them credit where it's due, in that they managed to be close to the 107% without any previous flying laps. Think about it, they didn't even get time on the track to setup the car, other than the data they had for last year, but then they got off to a shakey start there too...

The fact are that, unlike everyone else, they were not prepared for what was supposed to be the second race, don't have enough funding, and just barely got their cars on the track long enough to confirm everyone's suspicion that they're slow and dangerous.

"Wow they got realllly close (they didn't they were still like 2 seconds off I believe) to qualifying without much running time" is not a good fact. It's bad from every angle.

Quote from Rappa Z :

Well, we're a bunch of pansies if we think the frontrunners are going to have a difficult time overtaking a car that is 6-10 seconds slower.

That remark was in reference to Alonso moaning constantly last season about the backmarkers. I'm sure he'd have gotten around them eventually.

I know, it's fecking ridiculous though.

Engaging F1 mode of thought:
Why don't we have the track split into halves at Le Mans so that the LMPs don't have trouble overtaking the GTs? They can run next to each other in different lanes.