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Formula One

Anyone think he just makes these claims to keep F1 in the public eye? Has he not quit yet anyway?

If he hasn't then he must be thinking of it pretty soon, the strongly rumoured candidate to replace him is Justin King, CEO of Sainsbury's. King is stepping down in July - will he slot straight into F1 afterwards?
 
Great news about MSC, I wasn't sure he'd make it this far in the immediate aftermath.

Has anyone noticed testing times are so far around six seconds down on last year? Quite significant for a short circuit like Jerez, but it's what I expected.
 
Tom said:
Has anyone noticed testing times are so far around six seconds down on last year? Quite significant for a short circuit like Jerez, but it's what I expected.

This was mentioned on BBC and someone argued that you shouldn't read too much into it because teams don't want to show their hand yet, which I think is nonsense for a number of reasons, beside the fact you could say the same for last season.

That said, I think that because there have been so many changes it will take longer for teams to feel comfortable with running the engines at maximum power due to reliability worries etc. Look at Red Bull, testing has been a disaster for them so far.
 
"Bernie Ecclestone, an old racer at heart, has condemned the new greener, quieter and slower era of Formula One as ‘totally absurd’. He was responding to the evidence of this week’s first pre-season test in Jerez, where several teams have struggled with the unfamiliar fuel-efficient engines – which, even when they have run, have proved only a fraction as loud as the old V8s with their banshee scream."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-2548990/Bernie-Ecclestone-slams-F1s-new-environmentally-friendly-era-totally-absurd-farce.html
 
Yes, the 2004 cars (mainly Ferrari and Michael Schumacher) hold all of the records at tracks where the F1 circuit hasn't changed.

I think F1 will collapse this year and they'll be forced to take drastic action. Anyone attending a live race in 2014 is going to be falling asleep from the slowness and quietness. No one is going to be booking 2015 tickets after this.
 
^pretty much yeah! All the lap records were made then, excluding the new tracks of course.

I don't think the power units are anywhere near their potential yet, although still only a few seconds to gain. Teams are not concentrating on performance just yet, they need the cars to work firstly. That's why teams only really use Jerez as a reliability test and use Bahrain for performance.

Red bull struggling again, they will be busy in Bahrain for sure.

Bernie is a complete bell-piece! Every time I see him, hear him or read a quote from him I hate him even more. A sad, hypocritical, self obsessed and nearly dead old man.

Edit, yeah as above :)
 
He may be an ass, but he knows what people find exciting. When crowds and TV audiences diminish, the alarm bells will ring with others - but only he can see it coming this early.
 
To be fair I agree about the 'fuel saving' being a farce. Mercedes 23 trucks, wow. Didn't know that.
 
It may be slower, and not as loud, but why does that mean that it won't be exciting? It's not as if overtaking won't be as frequent, as all are affected. Also, I like the fact that it is going to completely re-shuffle the pack, given that we don't really know which design will be the fastest. I'm looking forward to this season a lot, and I think that F1 still has many many years left.
 
CupCakeMonster said:
It may be slower, and not as loud, but why does that mean that it won't be exciting? It's not as if overtaking won't be as frequent, as all are affected. Also, I like the fact that it is going to completely re-shuffle the pack, given that we don't really know which design will be the fastest. I'm looking forward to this season a lot, and I think that F1 still has many many years left.

It depends what you find thrilling. The cornering speeds 10+ years ago were breathtaking to watching on TV, as was the sound of a V10 engine.

Overtaking as a result of DRS bores me.
 
When drivers hang back but so they are within the 1-second DRS zone and take them on the straight, it's boring and predictable.
 
I'm less against KERS as it requires an element of strategy etc in the timing of its use, but DRS and its detection point etc is just a pure gimmick.
 
The 'DRS zone' makes it seem even more like a video game power-up than it normally would if it was just s standard feature you could use any time.
 
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