The Formula One Thread

[Robbo-92]

Evidently, just thought with Sauber becoming a Ferrari b team they may not need Ericsson's money going forward.

[D.J]

I see Kvyat has secured a development role at Ferrari, so that's one less driver for Williams to choose from.

I personally think they should give Pascal Wehrlein a call.

[Robbo-92]

I didn't think Wehrlein was an option due to him being under 25? Unless they've reworked their deal with Martini I think one of their drivers had to be 25 or over for advertising purposes. Probably one of the better drivers out there with recent experience though.

[D.J]

Sergei Sirotkin has been confirmed at Williams for 2018.

The third/reserve driver role has been given to Robert Kubica.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/13391 ... ams-driver

[Robbo-92]

Williams are just trying to get a decent car at the moment, even in a good car reasonable drivers will get decent results. When they've shown they can actually produce a decent car for a few seasons running then they'll stand a chance of attracting better drivers to the team.

Anyway not F1 but Formula E have announced their new car today and I think it looks ace, the good thing about this version is that a single car can now do the whole race and its more powerful. Even the halo doesn't look hugely out of place on this either.

[D.J]

Trouble is though, i watched some Formula E on TV and i just couldn't get into it. The tracks were so short and narrow i'm amazed the cars are even able to get around each lap.

[Robbo-92]

I do agree on the tracks, really wish they would go for some classic tracks and then some city tracks, Monaco being an obvious one considering the actual track is partly used in their circuit. I get why they don't, the cars are obviously slower than probably some of the lower formula so they don't want to show the speed difference and that electric cars are slower than petrol cars.

Edit, read on Twitter that Lucas Di Grassi has been quoted as saying the new Formula E cars can hit 300 km/h, roughly 186 mph which sounds very impressive although considering the tracks they race on it'll probably be limited due to lack of run offs.

[D.J]

I see F1 has decided to axe the grid girls.

Not sure why they're tinkering with such a trivial thing really, especially when there are far more important issues to be dealt with.

[Robbo-92]

Yeah, not seen much about it on my Twitter feed really

The way I see it is that they were causing no harm, was providing a bit of extra income for the grid girls alongside extra publicly for their career and (whether you like it or not) has been a part of the sport for a long time. It's not like in Moto GP where they seem to wear more revealing clothing (although judging by Darts and F1 this'll probably be the next thing to change its ways), they're modestly dressed, far more than they were years ago anyway. You barely even see them on the tv coverage anyway, mainly on the grid walk and then the podium, probably totals a few mins at most.

They've also changed all the start times for the various sessions over the weekend as well, all races now start at 10 past the hour (from what I've read this is for the American market as they normally drop into the race programme on the formation lap) and quite a few starting an hour earlier or later. Silverstone is now starting at 14:10 rather than 13:00 previously.

There are much more important things they could be putting in place for the future, like a dedicated streaming app in all regions, thinking what changes could be made to try and improve the racing when the next regulations are put in place, rethinking if a budget cap could actually work so more teams could compete for points and so on.

[D.J]

The start time changes are just absurd, it means that the likes of the US and Canadian GP's will be on C4 (highlights only remember) even later at night than they normally are (which was stupid o clock anyways).