^^^Well messed the **** out of that one. Ferrari needs to drop the dead weight Massa and find Alonso a better team mate.
I've followed F1 on and off since I was a kid. Always rooted for Ferrari. Anyway, is there such a thing as a slingshot in F1 like they do in Nascar?
i don't know the answer to this for certain, but you wouldn't be able to bumpdraft like you can in nascar, and there's also only limited/short straightaways on the road courses to have a opportunity to slingshot anyway, so i'm guessing it's not something you would see in F!. i don't follow F1 though, so somebody who does may have a better answer.
F1 races are usually follow the leader with little passing. However, the last couple of years they have tried to incorporate more opportunities for passing. One thing they've done is have something called a DRS zone. If your car is less than one second behind the car in front of you, there is part of the track where your rear wing will open up, causing a reduction in drag, and thus, go faster which helps you overtake the car in front. It's similar to the slingshot move that used to be common in NASCAR races. At the Austin track the DRS zone is the long back straightaway. I think Vettel is going to run away with the race. The guy is on fire right now. The only way to slow him down is if he gets a mechanical issue. I'm going to miss the race since the Texans will be playing at the same time. I hope I can watch the replay later that night.
have you ever seen a F1 steering wheel http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/industry/the-insanely-complicated-f1-steering-wheel F1 is very technical with tons of engineering and math.
I live in Austin and have that on cable. A bit concerned that it'll be blacked out locally. I've been watching the time trials, qualifying and so on. The track looks amazing and it blows me away that they built it so quickly. I can't go this year (back has really acted up), but hope to go to the next one. I don't doubt that it will be a great time. I'm jealous of those able to go!
Interesting. So then what's the point of having teammates if they can't do team work and help each other out?
yes. pretty wild. not sure if that was in response to me not adequately answering the other poster's question, or if you're just sharing that.
there's helping outside of the race like practice experimentation and set-up comparisons, etc, but "teammates" in auto-racing is a very loose usage of the word. it's more that they are both owned by the same race team. it's still an individual sport at it's essence, or else you'd see dale jr., kasey kahne, or jeff gordon wreck brad keselowski tomorrow in nascar to enable their "teammate", jimmie johnson, to win the championship.
Well this year they can issue team orders for them to help out. Ferrari have at some tracks also been trying to use a sling shot method to get better qualifying times but so far it hasn't really worked. Essentially though besides Ferrari where Alonso starts the season as the clear #1 driver teams like Red Bull, Mclaren, Mercedes and Renault all let their drivers go for it at the start of the year, now Vettel is well ahead of Webber they will use Webber to help if need be, for example say Alonso moves up the field tomorrow they might tell Mark to hold him up, although with perhaps more coded terms. Also depending where Alonso was, if Webber was winning with Vettel behind him they would no doubt get Webber to give up the spot.
Slingshotting is pretty much impossible with the dirty air that comes from following closely behind another car. Since F1 is all about downforce and aerodynamics that dirty air can slow you down quite a bit. Using DRS (opening the slot on the back wing to reduce drag) or the KERS system (extra ~80bhp from regenerative braking - thing hybrid, but for performance reasons) can give a big boost in speed, but the DRS can only be used in a certain area and only if you're within 1 second of the car in front of you. I'll be going to the race next year and have tons of friends there this year, including one lucky b*stard with pit passes. I can't wait. I hope Kimi pulls out another win, but wouldn't mind Vettel winning by a small enough margin points-wise to keep Alonso in the hunt until the final race, just to add some drama. If you don't follow F1, pick out your favorite driver via Jalopnik's guide. Oh, and a guide to F1 vs. NASCAR: Spoiler http://www.redbull.com/cs/userfiles/file/Nascar-vs-Formula1.jpg
Bah, after that freak injury at Hungary a few years ago he hasn't been quite the same, but Massa has done fine this year and has shown improvement through the season. Alonso is on a different level as a driver, sure, but Massa outqualified him yesterday. He's done well enough this year to earn a new contract from Ferrari for next year and I think he'll do just fine and show improvements next year as well. Who would you rather see in his seat that's realistic?
I went for about 6 hours on Saturday. It was a great experience. The cars are amazing. So loud, so powerful. We watched from a ton of vantage points. Great fun. Glad it's in Austin for the next 9 years at least. Plus all the other events. I think a Moto GP is coming up.
