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McLaren also suffered rear wing problems on Kimi Raikkonen's car, insofar as it fell off a bit more than it was strictly supposed to.

 

Suprisingly, the McLaren garage didn't seem too worried about the same thing happening on DC's car, and while at the time it may have seemed foolhardy to leave him out on the track, it actually makes quite a lot of sense when you look at the facts.

 

Fact 1: The car is supposed to be designed around David this year, to give him his best shot at the WDC.

 

Fact 2: David's head is shaped like a cube.

 

Fact 3: Kimi's head is altogether more normal (although he seems to have picked up a penchant for bad haircuts from his ex-teammate at Sauber).

 

Fact 4: McLaren's top design guy is a specialist aerodynamicist.

 

What can we deduce from this information? It's simple, really. When designing the car, Adrian Newey took David's head-shape into account, overcoming the problems caused by it's basic squareness, making it as advantageous to the entire package as possible. The result? Car works ok when David drives it.

 

However, when Kimi with his normal shaped head gets into the driver's seat, problems arise. The progression is reasonably simple: Kimi's head doesn't block airflow, strain on the rear wing is increased substantially, wing falls off. Apparently McLaren are well aware of the problem and are currently working on a solution - unfortunately it may take a bit longer to implement than originally thought, as Toyota don't seem all that keen on hiring David. So for the immediate future at least, McLaren remain troubled.

 

Their new motorhome however, is really cool.

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Don't expect too much, but interesting to see The Chin on the second row. The race will just be the reds though.

 

QUALIFYING:

Slowcello

R Shu

The Chin

Montoya

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frannyo, the answers are all pretty much in this thread, if only you'd look.

 

The whole thing relies very heavily on technology, from the cars themselves to the presentation of the show to the audience. If it weren't for television, you'd only be able to see a fraction of the action. That applies to a lot of sports these days, but most especially to F1.

 

F1, as even the name suggests, is rule driven, and if the rules get broken even slightly, what little element of 'sport' there is disappears. Add a skirt to exploit ground effect and win big - until skirts are banned. Also, a poorly designed track results in no action at all - what you good fans call 'a parade'. I've never liked parades much.

 

Strategy and tactics in car racing is largely extraneous to the actual race. Only the tactical manoeuvering of the driver is visible, and that only when conditions allow.

 

Culturally speaking, F1 is a very money-dominated, corporate sport, and I'm not much of a fan of corporations or big money activities.

 

So that's why a good crash is most welcome, to alleviate the boredom and to remind one that it is after all hazardous, and for that reason alone, a sport.

 

I may have got some of this wrong, and I hope you'll correct me. But I don't think you'll change my mind. It's for all of these reasons that I prefer curling.

 

brring, ding-ding-ding-di-di-di-ding-ding, pikchi-buoooooo!

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Can't write for frannyo, and no need to "change Ocean11's mind", but here's my view.

 

I have been watching and enjoying F1 for about 10 years now. I've been to 2 races as well - they were amazing experiences. You just can't "get it" until you've seen those cars up close, heard them, smelt them and generally soaked up the atmoshpere at a race weekend. It's awesome.

 

Yes, money led, but I don't really care about that - if I enjoy it.

 

The Schumacher/Hill/Villeneuve/Hakkinen years were fun to watch and follow. The problem with the last few years has been some of the regulations making it less interesting and the emerging dominance of "The Chin". Which is all well and good - he's a genius - but some of the races have become more and more parades with little of interest.

 

The main attraction for this year seemed to be the arrival of Montoya who seems to have the balls to take it to The Chin, but unfortunately it seems the equipment - while being the second best on the grid - just doesn't bring him to the position he needs to be in to challenge.

 

Anyway, sure I've missed lots of points here.

 

I'm knackered - off for a lie down.

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Interesting, but probably becoz Ferrari were going for race setup or some other reason.

 

There's bound to be a good reason for it - other than Ferrari are slow.

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