LNERandBR

Talking about Race Directors, the FIA President thinks a Rally Co-driver would be a good F1 Race Director. Would that work or be a disaster?

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/which-wrc-co-drivers-would-make-good-f1-race-directors/

Nobody is forcing you to read the thread, this will be where people will post their thoughts on their new models when they arrive.

Personally, very much looking forward to when mine arrives.

The only time there is a case to increase the budget cap is if ALL the Teams are struggling to keep below it.

The bigger Teams just have to spend less on development which is the whole point of the cap and bring their spending more in line with the smaller Teams.

At times it feels like they are trying to make out they are showing the race live, not on highlights. Best example is in the pre-race section.

Indeed, however it was also encouraging to see George holding off the Red Bulls. 

Some more development and Merc could be up there.

In other news, crybaby Horner is upset about the cost cap and increased freight costs. Admittedly other teams have jumped on the bandwagon but I'm with the smaller Teams. They just have to reduce their development budget!

The whole idea of the cap is to slow the development of the top teams. If all the teams were struggling to keep under it then there would be a case for increasing it.

I do think it's easier for George to have the right mindset currently then Lewis.

Even at it's worst, this years Merc has been better than the car George had been driving. For Lewis, it's the other way around so that's always going to be demoralizing.

I think we saw that yesterday when Lewis wanted to stop after the first lap. I think the fact he was able to fight back will give him renewed hope and confidence going forward.

I do hope that Merc now go from strength to strength and don't make any backward steps. It will be interesting to see what happens between the two drivers going forward. I doubt there will be Team orders telling Lewis to move over yet. However, if George maintains his current points lead I do hope Lewis shows he can play the Team game.

3 minutes ago, westie7 said:

 

Thanks Fran

 

But that comparison doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

 

Your real image has the bottom of the lamp bracket below the bottom of the lower head code hinge.

 

Not so on the model.

 

And if size is a compromise, then I'd rather go without, and the scalpel will get a fresh blade.

 

Regards

Mark

Looks to me like the angle of the photos are slightly different. The camera lens is looking slightly upward for the real life one whilst the photo of the model is looking down slightly.

Getting an exact comparison between images is going to be very hard. You have to take into account the very different sizes of the real thing vs the model which affects the focal lengths etc.

I think it will come down to looking at it with the mk1 eyeball.

Was a good first day at the Immingham Show today. Some nice layouts and it was particularly good to see the progress on the two large layouts housed in the Museum.

If you are in the area around North Lincs it's well worth a visit 👍

I think if it had been ran last year it would have been even worse than it was. The only saving grace was the cars can actually follow each other lap after lap this year which once again drew out the fight for the lead.

I think the thing to remember here is that we don't know what the agreement is between Cavalex and the factory and I expect that information is kind of sensitive. 

As I've said already, I think they've made one hell of a decision here and one I really think should increase their reputation. I'm therefore sure Cav and Alex will make the best decision they can regarding what to do with this stock of HAA's for the betterment of their business, etc. I'm sure all options will be taken into consideration :)

At one point Safety Car restarts were predictable in that the same procedures would happen and the Driver at the front of the field would try to do the same thing. Floor it at the right moment so they weren't caught when they crossed the start finish and didn't catch the Safety Car up.

Then we had things getting 'played with', the SC lights not being turned off until the last moment is one I remember. Resulting in a 'crawl to the line' which caused another accident, I forget which race that was but it was either last year or year before. To be honest, this seemed to start happening when Masi got thrust into being Race Director.

A safety car period should always be an opportunity I feel. I think being able to change tyres and bunching the field are acceptable things. Don't play with the Safety Car processes and all works out fine. Yes, some will lose out and as a Lewis fan the whole debacle at the end of last season was wrong. However, the issue there was the procedure being mucked around with. Keep things as they are and Teams, Drivers and, most importantly, Fans will know what is happening and what is supposed to happen. 

Let fans get excited because the leader's comfortable 'cruise to the line' gap has now gone and their nearest rival is now tucked under their rear wing on fresher, softer tyres. We keep getting lap after lap of hard racing this year when Verstappen and Leclerc get close together. If the Safety Car forces that to happen then so be it.

Whilst I am sad to hear that there is a delay in dispatch of these as I was looking forward to receiving mine, I am comforted that you've taken the decision you have here. 

To stand up and say 'wait there's a problem' and go though all the trouble of getting that problem rectified is something to be applauded. I do wonder if Hornby ever do anything like this given some of the criticism about QC they get and seemingly ignore.

I also think your decision here should be applauded because both yourselves and Accurascale have ended up releasing HAA's. Duplication that was unavoidable given both of you were far too far along the development process to be able to pull out.

There will be comparisons between both offerings. Given your version is retailing at a higher price point, if you had shipped them with a flaw than I think more 'unfair' comparisons would have been made. 

Again, a very hard decision which I for one hope pays dividends for you in the longer term. Is it a case of them going back to the Factory to be fixed and refinished or is it a case of them being completely scrapped and a new batch made?

To be honest, George has had better throws of the dice then Lewis when it comes to Safety Cars. He's gained from that at a number of races now whilst Lewis has lost out.

Safety Car periods seem to be against Lewis currently it seems. Either letting others get free stops to come out ahead or to be on fresh rubber.

In this case, if George had to pit without the SC he would have lost more places and may not have been under Lewis's rear wing by the end.

I do hope that Merc are able to get on top of their issues at somepoint this season. 

Problem there is that this is a 'World Championship'. Can't really lay that claim if you only race in europe.

Although, the lack of Drivers from every country is another problem to that claim!

https://www.channel4.com/4viewers/blog/motor-racing-4

Looks like we will be waiting till Monday to actually see the race.

I would think it's similar to 2009 when he suddenly found himself in an uncompetitive McLaren. As long as he's nearer the front later in the year I'm sure he'll be happier.

His issue this time round was being stuck behind Gasly who for some reason couldn't get past Albon despite having DRS lap after lap after lap. If Gasly had lost DRS then I'm sure Lewis would have been past. As to if he would have then got stuck behind Albon is another matter entirely.

Whilst he didn't get as good a start as George, Lewis still made up places at the start. His race got destroyed by being unlucky with the pitstop mayhem. Lot's of 'ifs' there which could have made things a lot better for him later on. At least Ocon ended up behind after his 5 second penalty for the unsafe release.

Not necessarily, the lamp could have been added after the accident for the move to the works.

See the banner at the top of each page for an explanation. 🙂

Sit tight, and the images Fran n co have just posted will come back.

I think it's pretty clear that the DRS will need adjustment for these new cars. 

It seemed to be okay in Bahrain, not too powerful and we got some very good fighting using it. In Saudi it was too powerful I feel, the activation point also being in the wrong place causing the issues people are describing.

I think it will need evaluation at the end of this year. Then they can either ditch it for next year or change the zones at each track to adjust for the new cars ability to follow. Do we need so many zones on each circuit for example?

They already have power boosts in that they can change the deployment from the battery on each lap. Either in defence or attack. Therefore those are not a replacement for DRS in my opinion.

Heartened to see that many of the images in this thread are still here. This thread is an excellent source of inspiration and reference.

Not sure if that's due to them being hosted outside of RMWeb or due to those posting them having reuploaded. If the latter, a big thank you to you.

Super sub Hulk is in, Inspector Vettel has found more than he expected. Tested positive for Covid.

Wasn't unlapping cars brought in to make it clearer to the viewing audience what the race order was at a restart?

I think the SC is required as it allows the pack to be bunched together. That gives marshals a safe window to get out on the track in a way the VSC doesn't do.

Maybe that's part of the reason behind the design? Depends on how strong that floor area is.

My instant thought was have visions of Max's front wheel heading upwards into the rear tyre of thr Merc and flipping the Red Bull in the air! Not sure if that would actually happen mind.

Clearly there is some quick backpeddeling at Red Bull. I suspect they are going to try the same concept.

When I think about it, Merc have covered their bases here. In effect, they have two cars. One is this podless version and the other is a more traditional car.

If they got told the podless car is illegal they have a back up.

I think the 'wings' have to be there as part of the side impact structure. The mirrors themselves just look to be attached to them to me.