Zoxxo

Formula One - GREAT BRITAIN Schedule on NBC Sports Network AND ON CNBC!!!

THINGS ARE DIFFERENT THIS WEEKEND SO HEADS UP

THERE WILL BE 2 SHOWINGS OF THE RACE THIS WEEKEND

THERE WILL BE 2 SHOWINGS OF QUALIFYING THIS WEEKEND

THERE WILL BE 2 SHOWINGS OF PRACTICE 2 THIS WEEKEND

*LIVE* COVERAGE OF THE RACE will be on the CNBC network and *NOT* ON NBC SPORTSNET.

*LIVE* COVERAGE OF QUALIFYING will be on the CNBC network and *NOT* ON NBC SPORTSNET.

Practice (including LIVE), and ALL RESHOWINGS (practice, qualifying, and race) will be on NBCSN

NOTE THAT THE REDUCED COVERAGE OF THE BRITISH GRAND PRIX IS BECAUSE OF NBC
SPORTSNET'S COMMITMENT TO THE TOUR DE FRANCE BICYCLE RACE.

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Great Britain Schedule - ALL TIMES PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME !!!!!
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Friday July 3, 2015
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• 6:00 AM - Practice 2 [LIVE] (9:00 AM Eastern) NBCSN
• 10:30 PM - Practice 2 [RESHOWING] (1:30 AM Saturday Eastern ) NBCSN

Saturday July 4, 2015
---------------------

• 5:00 AM - Qualifying [LIVE] (8:00 AM Eastern) <<< CNBC
• 9:00 AM - Qualifying [RESHOWING] (NOON Eastern) NBCSN

Sunday July 5, 2015
-------------------

• 4:30 AM - RACE [LIVE] (7:30 AM Eastern) <<< CNBC
• 9:00 AM - Race [RESHOWING] (NOON Eastern) NBCSN

GP2

Sunday July 5, 2015
------------------------

• 11:30 AM -RACE [TAPE DELAY] (2:30 PM Eastern) NBCSN

Enjoy!!

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BrianCunningham

Thanks!

Zoxxo

So, the F1 bosses have been reading what the fans say they want and guess what? They can be just as dismissive of the fans' desires as they can be any other F1 stakeholder with ideas that run counter to yours.

Just freakin' amazing.

http://www.racer.com/f1/item/118698-...survey-results

Translation = "no matter what ANYONE says we will do everything possible to maintain the status quo."

I find myself wishing that Martin Whitmarsh's prediction would come true sooner rather than later:
Z//

GZire

Silverstone!!!

The teams should be bringing a whole bunch of upgrades. I'm interested to see how the new nose on the Force Indias will work out.

steve J06

It is sad, and quite a complex issue. Everyone wants something to serve their own purpose. understandable.

My preference would be to have some more openness in the engineering as it has been the unique and sometimes surprisingly simple solutions that propelled unusual winners in the past. Even unseen things in later years like FRIC and blown diffusers have been interesting to me. Do you think it would be possible to have some more engineering leeway inside of a "smaller box" and still put on a good show? I'm thinking something like each team only gets 80Kg of fuel and could choose to refuel or not; or perhaps define the formula as 1.0 L and leave the rest of the power unit to design teams. I also enjoy seeing the aero solutions when the formula is along the lines of "front wing NMT 1.8 M and two planes only" but nothing more. What we have is quickly resembling a spec series and for that GP2 provides better entertainment.

Zoxxo

It's not "quickly resembling" a spec series; it has been a spec series for quite a while. Always, actually. All racing series have had specified limits. Even the old, infamous Can-Am limited the size of the cars, mandated the seating arrangement, body type (but that was pretty much it )

I really do think that the desire for a return to an era of revolutionary engineering, while certainly understandable, is one that just can't be fulfilled any more. At the least it can't be allowed any more in the context of a racing series that can address reasonable solutions to costs, entertainment, interest, technology advancement, etc. (all of the above.) We're just way past that now.

If you open up a series to manufacturer development then their deep pockets will make for some interesting race cars but the racing will soon be killed off because no other manufacturer will volunteer to compete with their pocketbook - much less *any* "little guys" who could even begin to challenge the big guys. The old Can-Am is the most used example. McLaren quickly came to dominate the series (the "Bruce & Denny Show") but third party racers could purchase a McLaren race car for a relatively reasonable amount and then do their best to take it to them. Others (Lola, Shadow, etc) also offered their competitive cars for sale to good effect.

Then came Porsche and the 917-10 and then the 917-30. Could you buy one? Nope. Could you beat the things? Hahaha! Right. Could even McLaren challenge them? Nope. So everyone just threw in the towel and the Can-Am was dead meat almost overnight.

The same thing happened with the IMSA GT series. At least that one lasted a bit longer but when Toyota opened their checkbook wide and challenged the other manufacturers in the game (most notably Nissan and Mazda) to do the same, they opted out and again, end of the format, if not the series itself. The seriously awesome Gurney Eagles came out of that open pocketbook but to what end? By the way, the CURRENT lap record for the Daytona road course was set in 1993 by that Gurney Eagle (which also won the race that year.) It was powered by a turbo 2.1 liter, stock-block inline 4 cylinder. My wife and I attended that race. The car was just unbeatable and amazing to watch. Woosh!! The current F1 cars make more noise than that Eagle ever dreamed of, too!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_MkIII

Note the fuel

So, opening the series up to the kind of tech development that we all look back on fondly, is really no longer an option. One manufacturer will "go all in" and drive the others out. Not good if the idea is to incorporate longevity into the series.

Also remember that most of the "awesome" development in both open-wheel and sports cars over the past 35+ years has been in the realm of aerodynamics - a development that has been good and then quite bad for all of the racing series around the world. The DRS system is nothing more than a crass "solution" for the problem incurred by relying too much on aero for the creation of the cars' awesome g-forces. And now they're sort of stuck with it. If they backed down on the aero in F1 they'd have to do that same down through the feeder series, too. Can't have GP2 being faster that F1 But then the sports cars would be faster than F1 and the FIA can't have their premiere class being OUTclassed like that, so...???

I'm not sure just how they can "unring the bell" now. The viewing public expects... The viewing public that Bernie nurtured and grew to a huge global fan base wants what it had 10-20 years ago but things have reached the point where you can't go much faster without having to (again) redesign the tracks for safety. Note that when the teams talk of making the cars 6-7 seconds faster than they are now, they are simply taking things back to 10 years ago or so. They aren't talking fastER than EVER.

And if the powers that be (see: Jean Todt) can't even see that they have a real problem or that Mercedes has commandeered the series as a PR exercise, then I doubt that any technical stuff they can allow the cars to have will make any difference.

It's not just F1 that's in this situation, either. Next year's P1 Le Mans cars will have their power cut down as the cars are "going too fast" now. Drag racing had to actually quit being "quarter mile" races because so many of the tracks didn't/couldn't provide enough run off at the end of the track in case a car couldn't stop.

The technology has outpaced our ability to know how to handle it. "Spec" racing is here to stay, I think.

Your idea of a "development box" is interesting. I suspect, though, that without a sense of unfulfilled potential in that area on the part of the designers, there would be little interest. Remember that the reason they spend so much time twiddling with wings and vanes and vents is because the rules have boxed them in and that is simply the most cost-effective (yeah...) place to get some decent results.

It's a real problem. I think the fans have to lower their expectations re: endless development that makes the cars ever more "awesome" as there are just too many limits in pretty much every direction you look for room to move. That's why I think that they need to simplify the cars, lower the aero effects, give them 1200 N/A hp, have them make noise that hurts your ears from a half a mile away, get rid of the electric nonsense, and most importantly, give the series back to a benevolent dictator to run. Dear Merc & Red Bull, if you want to play, here are the rules. Take it or leave it.

Z//

Zoxxo

I have added the GP2 race to the schedule now that NBCSN has confirmed that they are showing the Silverstone race. The listings everywhere initially had it as the Austrian race.

Z//

steve J06

I supposed this sums it up, and well done too. Engineering and our collective knowledge about aero and mechanicals has advanced too much to have it "like the good old days" of free development. Still though I long for the amazement of advances and innovation, it is what makes the WEC formula intriguing right now. Sure the cars are made on parity through BOP but that doesn't make it less entertaining to watch or follow the technical evolution. That's why I would like to see the design space open even if in a "tiny box" or based upon ridiculous small fuel limitations, surely that would force new advances in engine efficiency which seems to be the hot topic of the day. I don't like the current FIA approach that also includes a per lap limit. why not just say that a lap time can't be below 1:xx and assign a ridiculous 25 spot grid penalty (sorry different subject)? To my sense, a formula specification is not the same as a specified part. The specified parts are what I lose interest in real fast. Indy has aero this year, but they all have it similar so to what effect? As you rightly pointed out, even if its just the little aero twiddly bits that is open it is still an advance. Maybe we should outlaw vacuum re-melted alloys or computers or ??, because there is no way to effectively control costs at the top of the game no matter what series. Even in spec, the teams will buy 20 sets of rims to look for the one that is 1g lighter and get rid of the rest.

thanks for your thoughts.

Zoxxo

Many of the fans, do. I certainly do. And that raises another issue which the old men in charge are not only failing to address but are totally ignoring despite numerous warnings:

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns31306.html

In addition, the general "fandom" for the automobile is dropping. Its place in the culture is being seriously commoditized. For much of the 20th century the car was THE symbol of freedom around the world and kids growing up yearned deeply for the day that they could get their driver's license, much less their own car. Even more on point was that (mostly) boys could customize their cars fairly easily to be an expression of individualism with one result being that multiple generations of boys and men learned how to work on cars and to appreciate and understand automotive engineering. For young auto enthusiasts today, try and imagine a world where THIS a part of a young car freak's world:

http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/cgi-b...=9990436564636

https://history.gmheritagecenter.com...ar_Competition

As a kid I was sooooo into the idea of this (but lacked the fanaticism required to succeed at it (and I knew it.)


Anyway, the growth and success of racing world-wide tracked these cultural developments. Now, however, the same technology that is dicking high-end racing is also dicking the hot-rodding culture. You just can't work on your new Corvette in the garage any more beyond some minimalist fiddling with rims and tires and stereos and the like. Things that used to be commonplace modifications for speed and fun and expressiveness are now impossible to do because the things you need to modify are tiny gray squares bonded to a circuit board. Or things that are still "macro" are illegal to touch for environmental reasons. The result is that the car has been replaced by the computer as the new "techno thing that I can fiddle with" and what interest lies in racing comes not from a personal appreciation of the cars (as in an actual understanding of the internals that are making that Williams do what it does) but from a far more generic "wow those things are really cool! (but I really don't know why - I was just told so by a friend who knows...")

And THAT evolution is a big deal for the world of racing. The same rapid tech development that's put the screws to continued evolution in the racing cars has also brought the nurturing of new, hard-core auto geeks to a crawl. And those auto geeks were some of Bernie's best ambassadors. They were the folks around the planet who could EXPLAIN the racing and the cars to the newcomers and be the "apostles" for the religion, as it were. ("The fastest ten qualifiers have to start on the tires they qualified on while the rest of them can start on whatever thy like." )

Absolutely! But remember that WEC doesn't have the huge "legacy" following that F1 does. Sure, there have been great cars and drivers and series through the decades, but the whole sports car scene through the years has been very fractured and very "come and go"; enough so that fan expectation is much lower than it is for F1. I *love* these new P1 cars. The faster and more techno-awesome the better. This is what the American sports car series have NEVER seemed to understand as they have tried over and over and over and over to generate a popular race series that will stick. Hint: the first ingredient has to be amazingly fast, amazingly cool race cars. No one wants to spend time and money to go out the Laguna Seca to watch Porsche 911s run around all muffled to death. And the attendance at all of the races around the country prove this to be true. ALL of the successful U.S. road racing series - sports car OR open-wheel - in the past 50 years (defined as "a whole lot of people show up to watch this year after year") have been headlined by "crazy fast" race cars. They didn't even have to be loud - just visibly, nutso fast. Can-Am, Champ Car, IMSA GT.

Nowadays, though, I'm not sure that even that would be enough. But there's no way to tell since all of the "high end" racing series have eliminated "crazy fast" from the credits. Instead, they try to sell us on "green" and "relevance" to no avail. No one wants to camp out for the weekend to watch recycling truck races. Dear race organizers - the fact that the EPA gave you an award for being "green" is NOT a selling point.

I never want to see a rule in racing that penalizes for going too fast.

Then don't read through the FIA's F1 rule book. Yeesh. Doing so makes one cry out in sympathy for Adrian Newey and the rest of the engineers. Just pages and pages of things that you canNOT do.


Don't forget that the aero package thing was meant from the beginning to be mostly a cosmetic thing to try and make the Dallara look more appealing and to offer the fans more than one design to look at. It was cursed by all as being ugly and decidedly "old school" even back in the IRL days. And the new car they settled on (another Dallara) did little to improve things. But, amazingly enough, the aero kits, once fiddled with by management, made the cars even uglier than ever. And IndyCar is *really* in a box (far more than F1) re: costs and the ability to change things. Their rules did with the aero kits what F1 did with the frozen motors bit - you're stuck with what ya got. Brilliant.

[I normally refuse to watch the Tony George Memorial Racing Series but after all the commentary/conflict in the press about last weekend's Fontana race, I pulled it down from the internet and watched it. Great racing!!! But the part of my brain that focuses on aesthetics kept begging me to look away whenever I started to actually look at the cars themselves. Ugh.]

That pretty much sums it up, I'm afraid.

You might enjoy reading Gordon Kirby's weekly articles as he addresses a lot of this stuff. Like me, he's a grumpy old man who longs for the old, better days but he has far more friends in the game that I do (duh) and they often offer some most interesting opinions and insights

http://gordonkirby.com/categories/co...y_archive.html

Z//

Zoxxo

Renault has decided to return to full team ownership in formula one.

That is the claim of multiple international media sources, including
France's Autonewsinfo, citing the confirmation of people close to the
news.

It appears the French carmaker has struck a deal with the Enstone
based team currently known as Lotus, which until 2009 was already
Renault's works outfit.

The reports say Renault is initially buying back 51 per cent of the
team from Gerard Lopez's Genii company, while quadruple world champion
Alain Prost is set to play a key role.

It is believed Renault will have to pay a financial penalty for
breaching Lotus' existing engine contract with Mercedes.

And the news will ramp up speculation Renault's own engine customers,
Red Bull and Toro Rosso, will have to revert to Ferrari power or quit
the sport.

When asked about the latest Renault rumours, current Lotus driver and
Frenchman Romain Grosjean admitted the speculation is "exciting".

"Being a fan of formula one, I really want to see a French team, and
to hear 'La Marseillaise' on the podium," he told RMC Sport.

"The rumour about the return of Renault is something pretty cool and
definitely something that is tempting for me," Grosjean added.

As for the related rumour about Prost's F1 return, the 29-year-old
continued: "He is a gentleman of motor sport. It would be nice to work
with Alain."

Z//

VetteDrmr

Z,

Once again, thanks for the info! Got a lot of wedding gigs this weekend, so DVR is gonna be busy!

BTW, I'd like to see Renault get back in the game.

Have a good one,
Mike

BrianCunningham

Press Conference

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/20...ess-conference

Thunder22

zoxxo thanks for the info!

Zoxxo

Here's a strange one. Believe it or not but ya never know...

Aston Martin to bring Mercedes-Benz power to Red Bull in 2016?

Saturday, 04 July 2015

Aston Martin is negotiating a shock return to Formula 1 in a tie-up with Red Bull for next
season that would bring the team Mercedes engines.

In a deal that is currently still under negotiation, Aston Martin would become brand
partner with four-time world champion team Red Bull Racing in exchange for brokering
a deal for it to run the dominant Mercedes F1 engine. Mercedes owns five percent of Aston
Martin, which competed in F1 for just two seasons, in 1959 and 1960, with very limited
success.

Under the deal Mercedes would be recognized as the official engine supplier of Red Bull,
but Aston Martin would become a partner and have branding on the cars.

The deal is said to have the blessing of Mercedes, which is eager to run more customer
teams to offset the costs of its investment in F1 and does not consider Aston Martin to be
a competitor for road car sales.

The talks are understood to have been instigated by Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer and
its director of marketing and communications Simon Sproule, both of whom were
credited for Infiniti's long-term sponsorship deal with Red Bull when they worked for
Nissan which is in an alliance with Renault.

Aston Martin declined to comment on the report.

Red Bull has a contract to compete with Renault engines until the end of 2016, but the
championship-winning relationship has soured over the past 18 months as the French
firm has struggled to match the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari. Senior figures at Red
Bull have regularly criticized Renault in public this season, and on Thursday team
and engine chiefs held a meeting at the team's Milton Keynes base.

Red Bull has repeatedly threatened to pull out of F1 if it is unable to get a competitive
engine in the near future. Its owner Dietrich Mateschitz said last month Renault had
"destroyed our enjoyment and motivation" and he also ruled out becoming a
customer to another engine supplier.

Z//

Zoxxo

From Adam Cooper:

Mercedes not discussing engine deal with Red Bull, says Lauda

Niki Lauda has denied suggestions that Aston Martin could help Red
Bull Racing secure a Mercedes engine supply for 2016.

Historically Red Bull and Mercedes do not work together, and hitherto
any kind of relationship looked impossible. However, Autocar has
suggested that Aston Martin - which is 5% owned by Mercedes - could
broker a deal, and that the RBR cars would carry Aston branding.

Aston CEO Andy Palmer and director of marketing and communications
Simon Sproule were previously involved in Infiniti’s sponsorship of
RBR, and Palmer also contributed to road car co-operation deal between
Renault/Nissan and Mercedes. There is also an engine and software
supply relationship between Aston and Mercedes, while there are close
links between David Richards and Christian Horner.

"There’s not even a discussion," Lauda told this writer. "No
discussion at all. I haven’t heard anything from them and we never
talked about it. I have breakfast every morning with Helmut [Marko] so
I should know.

"We never thought about it because we have four teams running our
engines, so we don’t even have capacity."

Asked if a fourth supply might be freed up if Lotus switches back to
Renault next year he said: "Who knows? I’ve no idea. We have contracts
with all of them. We cannot do more than what we have, and that’s it."

Meanwhile Lauda acknowledged that there was personal animosity between
Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz and Mercedes that made any
co-operation unlikely.

"It starts with Mateschitz, Mateschitz had, for whatever reason in the
past, I don’t know what. I don’t know the reasons, to be honest."

Meanwhile another Mercedes source joked: "They have been asking since
February 2014 - they ring up every week! If you see how they’ve
treated Renault they are not a good partner to have..."

Z//

Thunder22

That start was the best racing of the season so far.

VetteDrmr

Best race of the year!!!

miracle_whip4130

I was shocked by the beginning and then even more shocked when the 2 mercs didn't immediately overtake both williams cars! Also, Kimi got screwed when Ferrari switched to intermediates! I thought for sure that Hamilton was screwed when he switched as well, but it worked out perfectly for him.

BrianCunningham

Really had me routing for Williams there.

Merc must have had a rain setup

That why they were so poor at the start, and finished so well.

Zoxxo

Something to remember in cases like this is that Merc (in this season's case, anyway) are playing the long game. They knew that their pit stops would almost surely be faster than Williams' pit stops. They knew that the Williams cars eat rear tires faster than the Ferrari does. And they know that both Lewis and Nico are masters off the in/out lap. So they could figure the odds were in their favor to take over the race at the first stops. So they'd just shadow the Williams' drivers through the first stint and take over at the first stop. And that's exactly how it played out.

They gambled. They wanted what happened with Lewis to happen with Kimi. They would have been heroes if it had gone their way.

Makes you wonder if the weather radar provided to the teams is in English or Italian.

re: the start

It's going to be interesting to see what happens when the new start rules come into play at Spa. NO coaching re: clutch bit points, etc., so will Hamilton's starts improve or get even worse?

Z//