Quote from BlueFlame :

Nascar and V8 Supercars don't go to silly places like India and Turkey. You'll notice the majority of F1 fans at any track are following fans from other countries anyway.

Just for reference, turkey was sold out in 2005.

Quote from Mustafur :

Just for reference, turkey sold was sold out in 2005.

which was it's first GP IIRC (without being a stat fag and wiki'ing it).

Quote from Mustafur :

Just for reference, turkey sold was sold out in 2005.

Different story nowadays. I read some time ago that there were only 10.000 paying spectators on Sunday in 2009 - half of them from other countries also.

E: http://www.grandprixcities.com/raceattendances.html Looks like my sources were sucky, but still, 36.000 is extremely low for F1's standards.

Quote from Mustafur :

Just for reference, turkey was sold out in 2005.

And how many of those fans were actually Turkish? Less than 50% I'll bet.

Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :

Different story nowadays. I read some time ago that there were only 10.000 paying spectators on Sunday in 2009 - half of them from other countries also.

I think it was 10k on friday, not sunday

Quote :

Renault positive over Kubica recovery



Renault team boss Eric Boullier is positive about Robert Kubica's rehabilitation after meeting with the Polish driver after the Turkish Grand Prix.
Boullier flew to Italy straight after the Istanbul race to see Kubica, who is still recovering from his accident in February.
Renault said doctors consider the first phase of his recovery over and the Pole will now start heavy rehabilitation aimed at restoring the functionality of his hand.
There are more small operations planned for Kubica, who already underwent a successful one today.
Boullier insisted the recovery will be very long, but he is positive about how Kubica is progressing.
"Robert has made another step forward in his rehabilitation process and doctors are pleasantly surprised by the way in which his condition is improving", said Boullier. "Now, it is a matter of time and even if patience isn't Robert's first quality, he is fully aware that rehabilitation could be quite a long process.
"We spoke about the latest developments of the car and of the team, and he was also interested to hear more on the details of the R31, tyres and strategies.
"Robert is still very much involved, keeping in touch with his engineers, and we have been keeping him informed of every important decision the team has taken. He may not be with us all of the time this year, but he's very much a part of the Lotus Renault GP family."

/

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91349

Quote :

Ferrari open to breakaway championship

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says Formula 1 teams will be open to the idea of forming their own championship from 2013, on the back of interest from News Corporation about getting involved in the sport.
A tie-up between News Corp and Italian investment group Exor, which has strong ties to Ferrari parent company Fiat, has prompted speculation that Ferrari could be evaluating the possibility of a breakaway series.
Now, in an interview with CNN, di Montezemolo has said that all options are open at the minute - as he suggested that there was no reason to feel the teams had to recommit to working with F1 owners CVC and Bernie Ecclestone beyond the end of the current Concorde Agreement.
"I think we have to be very pragmatic. At the end of 2012, the contracts of every single team with CVC will expire. So, we have three alternatives," di Montezemolo said in an interview broadcast on CNN on Friday.
"We renew with CVC, or we theoretically -- as the basketball teams did in the U.S. with great success -- we create our own company, like the NBA. Just to run the races, the TV rights and so.
"And third, to find a different partner. Bernie Ecclestone did a very good job but he has already sold out three times, so he doesn't own the business anymore. It is CVC that will sell. It will be the teams' decisions.
"At the end of 2012, the contract will expire, so theoretically CVC doesn't own anything. I think it is important to have alternatives. We will see. We have time to do it."
Di Montezemolo was also scathing of the current state of F1 – suggesting that new rules had made grand prix racing not as pure as it was in the past.
"We have gone too far with artificial elements. It's like, if I push footballers to wear tennis shoes in the rain. To have so many pitstops - listen, I want to see competition, I want to see cars on the track. I don't want to see competition in the pits," he explained.
"In the last race there were 80 pitstops. Come on, it's too much. And the people don't understand anymore because when you come out of the pits you don't know what position you're in.
"I think we have gone too far with the machines, too many buttons. The driver is focalizing [focusing on] the buttons, when you have the authorization to overtake. We have gone too far.
"Ferrari will push a lot with the authority - with the respect that we have to the federation and the other teams - to avoid going too far with F1. Because I think it can create problems for the television people and on the racetrack."
Di Montezemolo has backed calls from other leading F1 figures for the sport to do more to improve its promotion – and to embrace new media much better than it has up until now.
"We have to invest in the U.S. We have to improve new technologies in F1 for the people watching the television, for iPad, for the Internet. So I think we are in front of a very important moment," he said.
"We will race in Russia and India. F1, thanks also to Bernie Ecclestone, has become a worldwide sport. Now we have to find the best solution. It is important to invest for the future and the other teams."

Here we go again...

Quote from TypeRacing :

Here we go again...

I can't see how Autosport can be arsed to make a brand new article any time it happens. Just put the same BS on the header ever 6 months, change the dates, randomly replace "TV rights" and "Concorde Agreement" by "pitstops" or "wheel buttons"(?!?) and there you go.

/off to watch proper motorsports

http://www.spotterguidecentral.com/F12011.html

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

http://f1eleven.wordpress.com/ ... fia-bans-blown-diffusers/

Where is the FiA source information? Where is the F1 report on the Official F1 website. I clam bullshit until I hear this from an official source (FiA.com or F1.com) or the BBC.

Autosport good enough?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91475

Now that deko beat me to it...I don't even want to believe Autosport's article.
That's a big setback, specially for most of the teams who wanted to run their updates in Barcelona and some of them must have spent a fair bit of time working on the diffusers.

Quote from Autosport :

This effectively means that any team found to be using off-throttle blown diffusers could be in breach of the famous Article 3.15 of the technical regulations that outlaws moveable aerodynamic devices.

Oh come on! It's not a movable aerodynamic device, it's increasing air over an aerodynamic device! Not the same thing. (And yes, I'll believe Autosport before I would believe a no name word-press blog.)

No sooner is the ban announced, a reprieve is anounced
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/91481

Quote :

A high level source indicated that the decision had been taken because a number of 'unforeseen and unintended consequences' of the ban had been brought to the FIA's attention.

Well that's a bit of a relief but I think the blown diffusers' supposed ban was a bit uncalled for, to be honest. It was one of the main focus points in a car's development and that won't go too well with some of the teams' performances, but I don't know who'll benefit and who'll suffer.
Williams are going to suffer a bit with this I think, Renault has the exhausts in the sidepods so I don't think they'll lose much (unless I'm missing something)...

Ferrari is struggling with theirs, what to do.. Hey, what if we just ban it altogether?

There will be a more refined attempt at this at some point no doubt.

Meh. I do wish they would get rid of it. I find it silly that F1 cars run at 90-100% throttle the entire race. If they want to be 'greener,' then wouldn't it be smart to mandate that the throttle be cut under braking?

Don't want to see it happen until the end of the season though. Mid-season changes are always prone to favoritism, purposeful or not.

someone pointed out elsewhere that this may be to combat red bull's large angle of rake as they use a high exhaust overrun flow to bridge the gap between the diffuser and the track, whilst i'm not a lover of how it's being done, if it means an end to the whole flexi wing / front wing clearnece debate than it's probably for the good.

also it's pretty stupid that cars are running at 100% throttle all the time and relying on ignition retard, apart from the "green" issue if it's not stamped on it'll have major implications when the turbo engines arrive as effectively the turbo's will be producing boost pretty well continually with no lag, something that david vizard used on his daughter's drag racing mini in the 80's to ensure she had full boost straight off the line.

Like I have said many times, all of this is merely political. They don't give a shit about being green, but they do want to APPEARS to be green. Compared to the amount of fuel the cargo planes they used for transporting their equipments, the amount of fuel used for EBD is nothing.

fun fact: do you know a 747 uses approximately 2000kg of fuel just for taxi and take off?

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

Like I have said many times, all of this is merely political. They don't give a shit about being green, but they do want to APPEARS to be green. Compared to the amount of fuel the cargo planes they used for transporting their equipments, the amount of fuel used for EBD is nothing.

fun fact: do you know a 747 uses approximately 2000kg of fuel just for taxi and take off?

Yep, and governments keep telling us that if 300+ of us travel by plane rather than 5 coaches or so that it's greener. When it isn't. Just another piece of evidence to prove the governments don't care about being 'green' unless it's the average citizen paying for the changes (through tax).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d23B-R2-qw

Sometimes the BBC isn't entirely clueless (tho most of the time it is truly dreadful, one of the worst in the world in terms of providing balance) on inviting guests on for green/economic issues! ha Go Johnny Ball!

Quote from Intrepid :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d23B-R2-qw

Sometimes the BBC isn't entirely clueless (tho most of the time it is truly dreadful, one of the worst in the world in terms of providing balance) on inviting guests on for green/economic issues! ha Go Johnny Ball!

Great video, he makes the best points anyone can ever make against enviromentalism.

I'm proposing NSS for the next season, Nail Shooting System. Once in a race you can spill out 20 nails from the back of your car to take out the annoying opponent.!