Formula One ( F1 )

All getting a bit mixed up in the aero departments...

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2014/4/15707.html

Domenicali given the boot.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113446

Not really a surprise. This is interesting:

will be replaced for now by Marco Mattiacci, the president and CEO of Ferrari North America.

This would imply that they already have a target in mind to take over permanently. Would anyone be surprised if Ross Brawn returned to the scuderia?

I wouldn't be surprised, but why would he want to?

He didn't exactly leave Mercedes on his terms. I would imagine that he feels he has a point to prove, Ferrari have the resources and budget to allow him to that. He could also work things so that he spends the rest of this season building his team and developing next years car, let Mattiacci take the flak from the tifosi for them being shit this year. He could then arrive next year with a competitive package.

He be very attractive to Ferrari because he will have a good knowledge of the Merc engine.

Just came on to post the news; beaten to it. .

Booted three races into a season, wow.

For me, Ferrari aren't performing, they haven't for years. A lot of their success has been down to Alonso.

I think change will take more than a season and will need to be more than a fresh TP.

Brawn has already said he doesn't want to return and I think its unlikely... But hey, this is F1, anything is possible.

In other news, Bob Bell is to leave Mercedes.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113451

Good news... but as expected.

Red Bull loses it's appeal against Ricciardo's exclusion.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113461

Good to see Maldonado is at least being consistent - spinning in practice after getting distracted by his steering wheel and driving off the road, and then crashing into the wall on the pit lane entry.

Can't understand how he is still going, I know he brings a lot of money to the team but after 3 seasons you'd expect him to be able to adjust settings on the steering wheel without crashing.

He's an utter catastrophe of a driver.

The race I'm most looking forward to, is Ricciardo versus Vettel. I think Vettel has got the needle a bit, because Ricciardo has consistently been ahead of him so far, and I think Ricciardo is a tad heavier? It must be galling for the pipsqueak.

Ferrari seem to just be sorting out their car, and their manager jumps one race too early. Weird.

Photo is of last year's weights, with this years weights being lower still, for all drivers.

1 Attachment

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/merc-hami-shan-2014-23.jpg

fans flames

admires conflagration

I'm gonna rise early to watch the race, anyone else on board?

Me.

I'll be following it on streaming.

Me too, as usual. Any Ferrari fans?

Will be interesting to see what Rosberg can do.

"Which tyres is he on?".
"Primes, he stopped later than you".
"Tough luck".

^ Quite liked that. Moved over fair and square in Bahrain when he knew it was a split strategy, not going to roll over on command though. Not sure if he ran wide accidentally or moved over after being told they were on different pit strategies. Though like most here, I did chuckle at his reaction to being passed by Kobayashi!

Was a definite move over, he never went near the apex - I reckon he probably got some pretty strong non-broadcast instructions in response.

Still produces the most amusing driver communications though.

Good comeback by Rosberg, fuck knows what Massa was doing off the grid - nice start then when the door to further progress shuts ahead of him on one side he swerves across the track and makes like a weiner in hotdog - was lucky not to end his race pre-first corner.

Appalling flag marshalling today. If they weren't blue flagging drivers who were racing for position it also turns out they waved the chequered flag a lap early so the classification had to be moved back a lap. I think Bianchi got a place back as he was overtaken on the last lap.

It seems difficult for the F1 fans on here (with a couple of exceptions) to acknowledge Lewis' dominating drive, and his ability. Luckily for me, I remember every part of this thread, right back to the beginning, so I'm not surprised; not even slightly.

Alonso still shows that he is possibly the best driver out there, as I think the Red Bulls have overtaken Ferrari at least, even with Ferrari's Domencali-led improvements. So Alonso is doing magic in a car that lacks power.

Interesting, now that Hamilton is in a car as dominant as the former Red Bull, we're seeing that peoples' suspicions about Vettel may be true after all. He's not as fast as even he thinks he is. Ricciardo is definitely faster, and its going to be a shock to the system for Vettel to be told each race, to pull over and let his teammate through. I LOL'd.