The online racing simulator
Quote from el pibe :actually, 2m out of the 8 that he had to collect were paid by the argentine government. me, a dude that was born in argentina and left it coz of the economy, thinks that it is a really stupid move from Christina Kirchner ( the president of Argentina..) to pay that stupid amount of money just to see a compatriot humilliated in FailF1. that money could have been used to help the ppl in need, but no. that god damn blonde thinks its better to support an athlete and let the population die.

Would've been better to have not taken it off the people in the first place. No point getting up tight after that point!
they didnt even take it from the population, im sure it is part of one of their many millions of debt with the world monetary founds ( or bank, i dont remember...)
Quote from el pibe :they didnt even take it from the population, im sure it is part of one of their many millions of debt with the world monetary founds ( or bank, i dont remember...)

Which they will either to pay back via inflation or taxes. Both takes money from the people.
With that proposal it just renders Qualifying more useless as there will be people strategically using certain tyres in order to work their race strategy well enough.
Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :Formula one is just getting more and more ridiculous.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81069

Nothing new. It's just an improved version of the "get the fuel for stint 1 at Q3" rule.

I don't think it's gonna have much influence anyway, as I do not foresee much nutters trying to make their lap on soft to change them after 10 laps.
Actually I hope this Lopez thing doesn't set a precedents because F1's driver standards will not improve. If teams realise that drivers can now attract government funding they literally can charge whatever they like for drives in their teams as countries start competing to get their young driving talent in F1.

So now, you not only have to have some wealth behind you, but you need a whole government backing your bid to get to F1 regardless of your actual talent.

Pay drivers have of course been around forever. F1 isn't, and has never been, a demonstration of the best driving talent on the planet despite how it's publicised. However this Lopez thing may be taking it to another level. Government backed drivers! We've seen what government backed race circuits do to non-government backed circuits (destroyed Donington, and nearly wiped a Brit GP of the calender).
Quote from Intrepid :Actually I hope this Lopez thing doesn't set a precedents because F1's driver standards will not improve. If teams realise that drivers can now attract government funding they literally can charge whatever they like for drives in their teams as countries start competing to get their young driving talent in F1.

So now, you not only have to have some wealth behind you, but you need a whole government backing your bid to get to F1 regardless of your actual talent.

Pay drivers have of course been around forever. F1 isn't, and has never been, a demonstration of the best driving talent on the planet despite how it's publicised. However this Lopez thing may be taking it to another level. Government backed drivers! We've seen what government backed race circuits do to non-government backed circuits (destroyed Donington, and nearly wiped a Brit GP of the calender).

The Argentine government have always funded race drivers, Fangio being the most famous. Its hardly setting a precedent in 2010 if it happened in 1948 aswell, no?
Quote from DeKo :Argentina have always funded race drivers, Fangio being the most famous. Its hardly setting a precedent in 2010 if it happened in 1948 aswell, no?

For a government to be so publicly involved in paying for someone's entry to F1 is a new precedent. The same thing happened with circuits, and it nearly priced the UK out of the market. The same thing will happen, well IS happening, with drivers maybe even teams as a whole. Be very worried for UK motorsport industry once China announce a new f1 team.
You dont get it do ya? It's nothing new, it's just the first you've heard of it. I see your point but if it was ever gonna happen it would of happened by now.
#488 - Bee
Quote from GreyBull [CHA] :Nothing new. It's just an improved version of the "get the fuel for stint 1 at Q3" rule.

I don't think it's gonna have much influence anyway, as I do not foresee much nutters trying to make their lap on soft to change them after 10 laps.

Should just bring back the single lap qualifying from the early 2000's, rewarded those on the ball and still gave us a quite mixed up grid. Plus, sponsors on the smaller teams got some valuble screentime.

I guess what they could do to extend the session past 20 odd minutes is to keep the three stages aswell. So single laps to decide who gets through each session, that'd be my ideal.
Quote from BenjiMC :You dont get it do ya? It's nothing new, it's just the first you've heard of it. I see your point but if it was ever gonna happen it would of happened by now.

While yes it has happened before, it hasn't on quite this public scale.



So it is happening now. The cost of getting into F1 as a driver IS rising even more.

This is the exact same thing that happened with race tracks. Silverstone and Donington are struggling massively to compete with Shanghai etc... and no doubt will happen with teams.
While I like the idea of Lopez being on the F1 I've got to agree that we are in no position to "waste" money on these stuff, our economy isn't at it's best right now. This was merely a political decision, the government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is really weak by now, last year a similar decision was made when the government decided that it would pay to have the rights to air every football (soccer) match for free, poor people like those measures, racing fans will love having an Argentinean back in the F1, more if you realize that we have a stupid rivalry with Brazil since forever to measure who's the best at what.

Hopefully Lopez will prove himself worthy of a better team and end up being paid for racing, bear in mind that there isn't a single enterprise in Argentina that would benefit sponsoring in the F1, we don't export anything big with a brand on it, just meat and grain.
Quote from JPeace :if teams start racing under government colours and funding, it will be rubbish, it will be like, on pole is mclaren, then alongside is china. making the 2nd row is bangladesh with america making the 3rd row. it will be stupid. and UK will fail, because they hate motorsport imo.

Since when was China, Bangladesh or the USA a specific political party??
Quote from JPeace :hmm, well thats putting doubts into my mind already.

Not just your mind either.
They say its because they want the first races to be a test, its clear what they really mean is 'we haven't got enough money and we're not ready'.
Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :Formula one is just getting more and more ridiculous.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81069

Everything that's quoted to "improve the show" can't be good for the sport... I'd like to bash their heads together, maybe then they'll have a good idea for once (if only step away to get their heads looked after)...

Quote from 5haz :They say its because they want the first races to be a test, its clear what they really mean is 'we haven't got enough money and we're not ready'.

Exactly what I'm thinking "we haven't got any money for testing, so we'll turn up with a completely unprepared car (and driver) and go from there"... I worry that'll cost someone - hopefully not a life...
Why anyone would openly admit that they are forced into using the first races as pure 'tests' is beyond me. It's almost like they are looking for an excuse because they suck, but since they haven't even ran yet, how would they know?

Guess I feel bad for Bruno too.
They've said the first race or two is a test, but they haven't explicitly stated they aren't attending any of the preseason tests, have they? (not where I've read it). The first season will be testing for them to be honest...
Lopez has a pretty good track record (wins in GP2, etc), and as noted was a test driver for Renault for ages, with lots of miles under his belt. I'm sure he's a fine driver, though I've never seen him drive myself. Being funded by a government is kind of weird, but I've heard weirder.
A lot of sports-people are funded by the government, but most are involved in amateur sports (eg. gymnastics), not professional ones. Anyway, good luck to Lopez, he is quite a handy driver.

By the way, I've started up the F1 Race Manager browser game subleague for this season. Go to this thread for details: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=65571

Formula One Season 2010
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