Overtaking...

[si|verfish]

...is non existant in Formula 1.

Nothing hammers this fact home more than James Allen and Martin Brundle creaming their pants over Montoya and Alonso's little scuffle a couple of times during the race. "Titanic scrap" my backside.

Anyone care to count how many times a car passed another one?

Gilles Villeneuve did more overtaking in a single GP, back in 1979 at the French Grand Prix in Dijon, than all the drivers did this entire season...and I'm certain this will be true even till this season ends.

Current day F1;
Faster cars? Yes, but you would expect that with the pace that technology is developing.
Better safety? Yes, you don't hear about anybody losing a limb or dying so often anymore, but again, improving technology.
Better drivers? MY BIG FAT ASS, NO! And I don't blame the drivers...it is also technology that did the trick. So the next person who argues that Schumacher is better or even equal to Fangio can consider himself a fucking idiot.

 

[cyclonite]

silverfish:

It's more like NO-ONE has ever died driving an F1 car since aryton senna

And No I disagree with you on Schumacher's skills. I think if you put him in a 2008 spec F1 car(no aero downforce, full slick tyres, standard H pattern gearbox) I think Schumacher will still beat the rest of the drivers. Similarly if you put him in a 1994 spec F1 car against all the other modern day F1 drivers he will still win.

 

[boggysv]

Better drivers? MY BIG FAT ASS, NO! And I don't blame the drivers...it is also technology that did the trick. So the next person who argues that Schumacher is better or even equal to Fangio can consider himself a fucking idiot.

I still think no other driver can drive a single lap faster than Senna. And his driving on a wet track is just out of words.

Can anybody remember European 1993 GP first lap?

 

[prodigy]

Its no surprise that overtaking is a luxury in formula 1 nowadays. Last race was a perfect example of boring race, when overtaking doesn't happen. What i notice is that drivers rather wait till the pitstop to do the overtakings and Kimi at france this year, just shows how many position you can gain if you take a late pitstop and push real hard while the opposition are recovering from their outlaps.

But really its hard to see the top drivers fighting for positions because the gap between each cars performance is so vast. Whenever Alonso or Raikkonen starts at the front, they just dissapear from the rest the moment the lights go off and there's no chance or whatsoever that the rest catchup. Besides, i find it weird when Trulli slows down the rest of the field and they're unable to overtake him despite having a car thats at least 1 second a lap faster than him. Its like they can follow him in the straights but when its near to the corners and exiting it, they sort of lose momentum. I'm just wondering if the aerodynamics of the cars messed up the downforce of the car behind him that results in the car behind losing grip, therefor unable to overtake.

And year, the sweet memories of Dijon 79. I was not even born yet but i have that video clip of gilles villeneuve and rene arnoux battling it out on the last lap. Great stuff!

 

[boggysv]

Besides, i find it weird when Trulli slows down the rest of the field and they're unable to overtake him despite having a car thats at least 1 second a lap faster than him. Its like they can follow him in the straights but when its near to the corners and exiting it, they sort of lose momentum. I'm just wondering if the aerodynamics of the cars messed up the downforce of the car behind him that results in the car behind losing grip, therefor unable to overtake.

It's mainly the effect of the raised front wings (so the following car gets more "dirty" air) enforced this year.
With all these rules to slow the cars down, I will not be surprised if F1 will use street legal tires soon.

 

[kapitan]

Cars do get faster each year and its the same this year.. just that the 50% reduction in aerodynamic is too much for them to take. Yes, you can say that with the current aerodynamic reduction, cars are not that much slower than last year but you can clearly see the effect of it when it comes to overtaking. They dont follow the car infront as close as they used to in the past.. thats more than enough to explain how much downforce is being loss there..

 

[si|verfish]

Overtaking was still virtually non existant - before - they changed the aerodynamics. You chaps have got to watch some of the older GPs to appreciate what drivers back then were all about. Modern day drivers are wimps.

This is out of the topic btw, I'm not saying Schumacher isn't a good driver. He's a fuckingly talented driver, but because he has been spoilt by all the shit driving aids and everything and because he is racing in the age of wimps, he will never be as good as himself would have been if he were racing a couple of decades earlier. But, no matter what, he isn't going to be anywhere near the driving gods of yesteryear. Those guys had balls the size of Antartica, and in terms of talent isn't lacking behind Schumacher. But their skills were forged in a much much more challenging environment than current day F1.

 

[antonio]

as u can see in my avatar...the pics show it all....