[speedmiester]

The reason for the new point system is to help the lesser teams, for these teams even a single point means a lot more than winning which is a distant dream. So instead of missing out on points, one or two points at 8th or 7th place will boost their morale and also bring in money to their teams.

The new rule change will make it the racing a lot interesting, no driver will be satisfied with a second place finish, all drivers will drive their best to win the race rather than just score points.

[motor_breathing]

I agree with anachronix here.
We are going to see more team orders.

A situation, Heikki is leading and Lewis is second.
And say lewis already has more wins than heikki, Team order will come and lewis will win. (IMHO).

[gouravsinha]

Speedmiester has a point, but i still think that this new scoring system is a little confusing. Also there are a lot of scenarios which can arise.
Like if
I win 9 races out of the 17 then i don't have to race for the next races and still i win the championship.(Other scenarios of the same type)

[mshooli]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

The new rule change will make it the racing a lot interesting, no driver will be satisfied with a second place finish, all drivers will drive their best to win the race rather than just score points.

Exactly and no team can force any of its driver's into the second position if they do not have enough points. I feel this is a good move and the action can only get better this year.

[Samir Taheer]

Looks like Jean Todt has quit. So thats the last of the Ferrari Dream team gone then.

Would be interesting to see if he goes to Brawn GP, or has severed ties so he can take over Max's role in 2010.

Would probably be even more interesting if he went to Brawn GP and Shumi also came back into racing. Mostly unlikely, but still.

[raj.barcode]

yup you are right and news is that he will be contesting for Maxs' FIA President job in the next elections

SOURCE: F1 : Todt severs last ties to Ferrari - Todt - F1-Live.com

[raj.barcode]

Team: Force India F1

Team: Vijay Mallya (TP), Simon Roberts (CEO), Mark Smith (Design Director), Andy Stevenson (Team Manager), James Key (TD), Ian Hall (Project Leader), Simon Phillips (HA)
Drivers: Adrian Sutil (20), Giancarlo Fisichella (21)

Specifications Of VJM-02 Mercedes

Chassis: Carbon fibre composite monocoque with Zylon legality side anti-intrusion panels.
Front suspension: Aluminium MMC uprights with carbon fibre composite wishbones, trackrod and pushrod. Inboard chassis mounted torsion springs, dampers and anti-roll bar assembly.
Rear suspension: Aluminium MMC uprights with carbon fibre composite wishbones, trackrod and pushrod. Inboard gearbox mounted torsion springs, dampers and anti-roll bar assembly.
Wheels: Forged wheels to Force India specification
Dampers: Penske

Dimensions

Wheel base: 3200mm
Front track: 1480mm
Rear track: 1420mm
Overall height: 950mm
Overall length: 4900mm
Overall weight: 605kg (with driver, by regulations)

Engine

Type: Mercedes-Benz FO 108W
Capacity: 2.4 litres
Cylinder configuration: 90° V8
Maximum rpm: 18,000 (FIA regulatory limit for 2009)
Piston bore maximum:; 98mm (FIA regulation)
Number of valves: 32
Fuel: Mobil High Performance Unleaded (5.75% bio fuel)
Lubricants: Mobil 1 – for higher performance, lower friction and better wear resistance
Weight: 95kg (minimum FIA regulation weight)

Transmission

Gearbox: Semi-automatic, 7 forward and one reverse
Driveshafts: McLaren
Clutch: Hand-operated

[anachronix]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

The reason for the new point system is to help the lesser teams, for these teams even a single point means a lot more than winning which is a distant dream. So instead of missing out on points, one or two points at 8th or 7th place will boost their morale and also bring in money to their teams.

The new rule change will make it the racing a lot interesting, no driver will be satisfied with a second place finish, all drivers will drive their best to win the race rather than just score points.

By this new rule. You would see fighting only at the top order. The teams in the lower grid would still lose out. If the point system was revised to the pre-schumi era it would have kept things nice for most and we could have seen more action.

Its going to be a boring season looking at the way BrawnGP keeps cracking track records everywhere! Happy for them!

Button & Barrichello win 8 races each through the season and go to Abu Dhabi to see who wins the WDC between them.

Would be real action in Bernie & Max's books . Both the ******** need to get out of F1 and let it live.

[motor_breathing]

IMO Mad Max and Bernie screwed the whole show.
Only time will tell whether this was good or bad.

[im_srini]

Originally Posted by anachronix

By this new rule. You would see fighting only at the top order. The teams in the lower grid would still lose out. If the point system was revised to the pre-schumi era it would have kept things nice for most and we could have seen more action.

The WDC & WCC points system remains the same, its only the awarding of the WDC itself that has changed. So the driver order would remain the same further down the field. This new rule will force drivers to take risks & at least try to overtake, which should be good.

The points system adopted till 2002 (10, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1) had the same effect, it rewarded wins as well as consistency with a big bias towards wins. It was changed because wins at the beginning of a season by a particular team meant a healthy points haul, making it difficult for other teams to catch up & overhaul it over the rest of the season. There were other issues as well, a successful team with a big enough lead could afford to work on developing the subsequent years' car earlier in the season, & of 20 or 22 cars, only the top 6 were rewarded with points. It should be remembered that when the points system was actually changed in 2003 (10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1), it was welcomed as a 'good' change.

Originally Posted by anachronix

Its going to be a boring season looking at the way BrawnGP keeps cracking track records everywhere! Happy for them! Button & Barrichello win 8 races each through the season and go to Abu Dhabi to see who wins the WDC between them.

While its nice to see a new team at the top, especially one that has been an underdog all these years, pre-season testing results can, at best, be taken with a pich of salt. Nobody could have predicted the way F1-2008 played out based on winter testing 2007.

Originally Posted by anachronix

Would be real action in Bernie & Max's books . Both the ******** need to get out of F1 and let it live.

While its high time for a change, lets also not forget that Bernie can be credited with bringing F1 to television. And under Max, the FIA has kept some semblance of control in F1 for more than a decade & a half.

Anyway, just 10 days to go !

[Bubby]

Guys is there a website or wapsite that can be used on mobile for all the updates and news on F1.

Originally Posted by im_srini

Anyway, just 10 days to go !

Just 8 days for Friday practice sessions to begin

[anachronix]

Originally Posted by im_srini

The WDC & WCC points system remains the same, its only the awarding of the WDC itself that has changed. So the driver order would remain the same further down the field. This new rule will force drivers to take risks & at least try to overtake, which should be good.

The points system adopted till 2002 (10, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1) had the same effect, it rewarded wins as well as consistency with a big bias towards wins. It was changed because wins at the beginning of a season by a particular team meant a healthy points haul, making it difficult for other teams to catch up & overhaul it over the rest of the season. There were other issues as well, a successful team with a big enough lead could afford to work on developing the subsequent years' car earlier in the season, & of 20 or 22 cars, only the top 6 were rewarded with points. It should be remembered that when the points system was actually changed in 2003 (10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1), it was welcomed as a 'good' change.

Even if not for the points, we would see a lot of overtakings to happen in this season. Every driver in F1 wants to win and I dont think that any driver had refrained from taking a risk.

It was the aerodynamics over the years which made life difficult for the following cars in the slipstream. Now that its going to be easy, we would obviously see some good overtakings.

It would have been much better if they made the points like 12-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. The winner gets more points which is not marginal like it is now!

Originally Posted by im_srini

While its nice to see a new team at the top, especially one that has been an underdog all these years, pre-season testing results can, at best, be taken with a pich of salt. Nobody could have predicted the way F1-2008 played out based on winter testing 2007.

I would have taken it with a pinch of salt if there was not much of a change in regulations. But the changes in 2009 are drastic that a top team can completely go wrong & a backmakers gets things spot on. It makes no sense for teams to sandbag. Given the new regulations, any team would be interested to see how fast they could go. I might be wrong here. So lets wait for the 8 awful days of wait to be over.

Originally Posted by im_srini

While its high time for a change, lets also not forget that Bernie can be credited with bringing F1 to television. And under Max, the FIA has kept some semblance of control in F1 for more than a decade & a half.

Bernie & Max got F1 to where it is now. Agreed!

But, is it good to have a traditional F1 track like Canada, Silverstone off the calendar and have circuits like Singapore & Valencia which are nothing but a joke of F1?

[motor_breathing]

If I was an F1 team boss I would have adopted the strategy to build fragile "specials" that will finish/win only one race but very fast.

Who cares if it can't finish the next so long as it wins? Take the grid penalty at the next race and grab a few constructors points.

If you could be reasonably certain to win say 40% of races you'll probably be champion. Ross Brawn are you listening.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by Addy

Hey do you know of any places where we can watch the races on a big screens on RACE DAY? I was a regular at Leela's till it was stopped.

Well, I don't know any such places. I have mostly watched races at home so far. I would be interested to know too.

Originally Posted by gouravsinha

Speedmiester has a point, but i still think that this new scoring system is a little confusing. Also there are a lot of scenarios which can arise.
Like if
I win 9 races out of the 17 then i don't have to race for the next races and still i win the championship.(Other scenarios of the same type)

If you win first 9 races, then you deserve to be the champion.

Originally Posted by motor_breathing

If I was an F1 team boss I would have adopted the strategy to build fragile "specials" that will finish/win only one race but very fast.

Who cares if it can't finish the next so long as it wins? Take the grid penalty at the next race and grab a few constructors points.

If you could be reasonably certain to win say 40% of races you'll probably be champion. Ross Brawn are you listening.

Interesting possibility. But depends on how many teams are willing to employ such tactics and how many teams are strong enough even otherwise. Like last 2 years, if there are 2 strong teams(4 cars) capable of winning on merit alone, and add a few lottery races here and there, we are looking at a target of anything above 6 wins for the WDC.

But what I think is going to happen, some teams might decide to focus on only one driver to go after wins after some point, while the second driver might be left to score points for WCC. Renault and McLaren have an advantage over Ferrari here, both these have a driver clearly better than his teammate, so it might be easy for them, compared to a Ferrari or BMW where teammates are more evenly matched.

[F50]

5 years and FIA is still deciding what rules are the best to stop the start of another Michael Schumacher Era! Long Live Schumacher!

There was no one who could stop Michael Schumacher. Rules was the last resort. It worked but killed the sport. Where is F1 heading?

I guess my signature sums it up!