Red Bull RB10 launch

[Pezzarinho17]

Spending at least half the season in the midfield mire would benefit Vettel in the future. He needs to find out what difference he can make at the wheel when he can't win despite driving well within the cars performance level. All of the top drivers have had that season or so to gain that fighting spirit, where battling for 9th on one day will give the extra point to potentially clinch championship positions later.

 

[BHRxRacer]

Last time RB were struggling at the beginning of a season (2012), Vettel got his ass handed to him in qualifying by Webber and didn't make anything work in the race. Just saying.

 

[Holdenhsvgtsr]

Yeah, one of the biggest criticisms levelled at him is his underwhelming ability to overtake.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

He pulls off the odd move, but he's not what you'd call consistent.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Pardon the double-post, but I just saw an interview with Vettel on the evening news - he was being interviewed while signing autographs, and his demeanour made Räikkönen look upbeat. He openly admitted he doesn't like the rules, and there was a very pregnant pause before he said "no". Maybe he was just irritated at being asked the same questions, or by being interviewed while signing autographs, but everyone else was fine with it (except Horner, who was a little evasive), and I would expect someone who has been in the sport for six years to be used to it.

His body language spoke volumes: he's not looking forward to this weekend. I have never seen him like that before - he looked rattled, like he wasn't in control.

Well RBR is like a political campaign all the time, when they win they want everyone to know and they try to look and act humble yet they really aren't and do a piss poor job of it. Especially when they're winning driver shoves a finger at the camera as if him being on the top step wasn't enough indication. You have Horner also acting smug and so on...

However, when those politics lose as the rules have been rewritten and the formula vastly changed and things go wrong for them, they are too humiliated to admit things have gone off the rails a bit. They now want to blame everyone else but themselves. I called them having issues because of these politics and more so Newey's design efforts and main philosophy that can't be rewritten especially by an engineer that has been doing these types of tight configuration since working at March.

Last time RB were struggling at the beginning of a season (2012), Vettel got his ass handed to him in qualifying by Webber and didn't make anything work in the race. Just saying.

Yeah but during that year they ran nearly as many laps in test one vs all of testing this year. I think they did 300 laps in test one of 2012, and this year they were under 340 I think I can't find the exact numbers. However, that just shows how big of a hole they are in. This is far worse than that (2012)or the faulty exhaust design of 2010

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Horner's reaction was quite funny. He was evasive, and was clearly trying to shorten the interview by walking quickly, but he still had a smirk for the reporter who asked him about "rumours" that the team was struggling. The reporter was either uninformed, or fishing for a response that he could spin as "Ricciardo can be on the podium".

Anyway, all of this goes back to what I was saying about Vettel lacking a champion's qualities - he is the public face of the team, and everyone is going to be looking to him for leadership. But his demeanour does not inspire confidence.

 

[BHRxRacer]

Yeah but during that year they ran nearly as many laps in test one vs all of testing this year. I think they did 300 laps in test one of 2012, and this year they were under 340 I think I can't find the exact numbers. However, that just shows how big of a hole they are in. This is far worse than that (2012)or the faulty exhaust design of 2010

Point is, when he doesn't like the car or if it has problems, he under-performs. Noticeably. Not only that, but if you look at pictures from Australia today, during testing or when they struggled in 2012, he has the same exact one-lipped sad face. Like monkeys said, not a champion's behavior.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Point is, when he doesn't like the car or if it has problems, he under-performs. Noticeably. Not only that, but if you look at pictures from Australia today, during testing or when they struggled in 2012, he has the same exact one-lipped sad face. Like monkeys said, not a champion's behavior.

Read my other post above the one quoting you and you'll see that I'm not defending RBR (which is what I feel you think I've done), I have quite harsh words for the likes of them

 

[Pezzarinho17]

@SomersF1 just put this up, seems the hunt for the FOM cameras is over! So although the area is defined in the rules, there is nothing to determine how far from the cars centreline they must be. Clever way to reduce drag, but will they miss the downforce that Mercedes and Ferrari are getting from their positioning?

 

[TenEightyOne]

It was on the coverage from FP1

I still don't see how that can be legal, the center of the lens is occluded by body work. They're within the lined area of the rules but not in the prescribed camera positions.

Here are the positions in which they're allowed;

Any camera or camera housing fitted in the left hand position 2 shown in Drawing 6 must be
mounted in order that its major axis where passing through the centre of the camera lens (or corresponding position for a camera housing) does not intersect any part of the car lying forward of the camera or camera housing.

The camera hole in the nose clearly has the centreline over the nose. And isn't in the position of 2. I see that Newey has just flipped it against the mounting point, but it isn't where it should be now, surely?

EDIT: Nah, thinking it through that means no blockages in front of the lens, I think. Oh well.

The camera still isn't in position 2 though...

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

@SomersF1 just put this up, seems the hunt for the FOM cameras is over! So although the area is defined in the rules, there is nothing to determine how far from the cars centreline they must be. Clever way to reduce drag, but will they miss the downforce that Mercedes and Ferrari are getting from their positioning?

Well I guess I was right when I said they weren't going to put camera's on the sides of the nose cone

 

[GOTMAXPOWER]

/Camera rant

F1 doesn't need all of those camera angles for onboard's. Just put two cameras on the T-bar one pointing forward the other backwards (and have them shooting wide not really zoomed in). Also kill the rotating camera idea from last year, it doesn't work in America since you miss half of the action and lose track of which way is which on the circuit, don't copy it into F1.

/rant

 

[TenEightyOne]

/Camera rant

F1 doesn't need all of those camera angles for onboard's. Just put two cameras on the T-bar one pointing forward the other backwards (and have them shooting wide not really zoomed in). Also kill the rotating camera idea from last year, it doesn't work in America since you miss half of the action and lose track of which way is which on the circuit, don't copy it into F1.

/rant

Don't choose it then... just watch trackside feed?