F1 Fanatic round-up: 29/3/2010

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We’ll have more analysis of the Australian Grand Prix on the site later today including a look at all the inter-team drivers battles, the regular stats and facts round-up and, of course, the Predictions Championship.

Before all that, here’s the daily round-up:

Links

Drivers call for improvements to mirrors (Autosport)

Rubens Barrichello: “I hope we put a proposal as the GPDA to see if we can have the mirrors back to where they belong – and it is something we mentioned in the drivers’ briefing on Friday. We have all been quite honest and said that we all have difficulties – apart from Lewis. The problem for me is that we are driven by the aerodynamics, but the mirrors situated on the aero stuff vibrates.”

A driven man at the controls (Financial Times)

Tony Fernandes: “AirAsia is exactly like Colin Chapman. He started with very little money, but he had innovation, and AirAsia is exactly like that. We started with two new planes and $250,000. I’m sure many people laughed at us. They’re not laughing any more.”

Comment of the day

Robert Kubica scored a classy second place in yesterday’s Australian Grand Prix – I liked Damon’s pithy take:

Nice to see Robert taking what should’ve been his last year.
Damon

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Blake!

On this day in F1

One of F1’s great ‘team orders’ controversies broke out on this day in 1981. Carlous Reutemann was leading world champion team mate Alan Jones in the streaming wet Brazilian Grand Prix when Frank Williams ordered Reutemann to give way.

The Argentinean driver refused and won the race, forging a bitter enmity between himself and Jones which lingered until they went their separate ways at the end of the year.

Read more: Ten best?óÔé¼?ª Team mate rivalries

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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45 comments on “F1 Fanatic round-up: 29/3/2010”

  1. Where is the position that the mirrors used to be where “they belong” as Rubens put it?

    The mirrors on the aero parts vibrate a lot. The mirrors on the body of the car provide little backward vision. Where’s the optimal setup for mirrors?

    Can anyone show me a picture?

    1. They used to be on the side of the cockpit, in front of the driver, now they’re way out to the side on the edge of the sidepod.

      It’s interesting not all teams have them in the same place though, compare these two.

      https://www.racefans.net/2010/03/28/australian-grand-prix-in-pictures/kubi_hami_melb_2010/

      https://www.racefans.net/2010/03/28/australian-grand-prix-in-pictures/formula-one-world-championship-93/

      1. If memory serves, I think Schumi was the first person to use these outboard mirrors, I recall he said it was so he could check the state of his rear tyres easier/clearer

      2. i find it funny seeing high tech F1 cars with bog standard wing mirrors on them!

    2. Oh and to partially answer your question, I dont think the mirrors closer to the centre have any more obstruction than the outboard ones, the point is the driver can see in both at the same time without having to turn his head.

    3. McLaren used mirrors mounted on the sidepod wings in testing this weekend, but didn’t run them in qualifying or the race.

      1. Mandate Eifelland-style mirrors, that’ll sort things and will also match the raft of f-ducts that will shortly appear on the grid.

        1. F1 is supposed to be a high tech sport, why don’t they have a rear mounted camera with HUD.

          1. Tongue was firmly in cheek.

  2. I think there should be a rule about the mirrors. Everyone must have a mirror on a visible place.

    Also, some onboard videos from Melbourne: Hamilton&Webber crash, Alonso’s spin on turn 1 and some nice overtakes.
    http://skrci.me/LHFMNR

    1. Why are some of those camera angles not shown on TV? the camera looking backwards from Massa’s car is fantastic and really gets a sense of speed across

      1. They’re from the BBC’s Red Button onboard camera stream.

    2. Great clips! Amzing how Alonso almost rams the safety car :)

    3. Nice clips again man. Great added elements to the race. Your Bahrain clips almost made that race okay.

  3. Why don’t they use camera’s, then the stewards and possibly us, could see exaxtly the same view as the driver.
    The onboard camera shots we get are very stable.

    1. Thats not a bad idea actually. Where would the screen go though. It would be pretty damn distracting for the drivers as well.

      Maybe the camera activates if a driver is a second behind you.

      1. they could have a series of lights on their wheel to indicate how close a car is to the side or behind them

  4. If Schumacher had made the mistake that Webber made crashing into Hamilton, everybody would scream and shout about it. Now Webber only get’s a reprimand.

    I think he should have been disqualified.

    1. Webber seems to be involved in more “racing incidents” than anyone short of maybe Sutil, yet seems to get away with it.

      Also, was anything done about the driver who went weaving all over the circuit to prevent an overtake, I’ve forgotten who it was now?

      1. Mark Hitchcock
        29th March 2010, 15:46

        Kubica did a fair bit of weaving at one point. 3 or 4 moves across the track. Don’t remember who was following him though, or when it was in the race.

      2. I think it was Massa who was weaving, was it when Webber was trying to overtake?

    2. PeterG completely agree with you. The headlines would have been “The old Schumi is BACK.”

    3. I agree with the “scream and shout” point, PeterG, we’d have every Schumi hater swarming onto this website to blast him. On the other hand I do not think Webber should have been disqualified, as this was a racing incident.

      1. People would scream and shout because of Schumachers history of doing things like that to benefit him. Webber does not have a history of running into people to benefit his race or championship position.
        Note: I’m a Schumacher fan.
        hawkfist, I think Webber gets involved in racing incidents a bit because he is an agressive overtaker and thus more likely to be have incidents.

  5. The best place would be in front of the driver horizontal over the chasis about 2 m from the drivers. Use a Mirror so he can see EVERYTHING between 2m left of his left tyre to 2m right of his right tyre.

    1. It’s been done – do a Google image search on “Eifelland” to see the results.

      1. Not like that just intergraded inside the chasis. just like a small wing 10cm height max.

      2. wow what an interesting view into the wierd and wacky mind of the designers. Good old google search for eifelland mirrors, loads of strange designs! Bit like a tangenty wikipedia search!!

  6. keith , what about the results for the Predictions Championship.

    1. Did you not make it as far as the first paragraph?

  7. Who remembers that car from a while ago that had a central mirror supported by a pillar on the bonnet?

    1. You mean the Eifelland March 721, which was run for Rolf Stommelen in a few races in 1972.

  8. I see Vettel has eked above Button in the Castrol Rankings.

    http://www.castroldriverrankings.com/

    1. Barrichello currently shouldn’t be in the top seven of anything.

      1. Ok, some of you may think that’s a bit harsh, but surely the F1 drivers on there are still based on last season.

  9. In recent weeks there was much talking about improving races, and one thing sprung to my mind. Remember a few years ago Ecclestone suggested to mount water showers around the track to spice up racing, remember? I thought that wouldn’t be such a bad idea to dampen the track before races. What do you think?

    1. I think it’s a good idea actually. We saw in many races how much it’s better with the wet track.

      1. Cut aero grip, give the drivers 200-300 more horespower and you would have a similar effect, minus any artificial tinkering ;-)

  10. Hello everyone, there’s no forum so I don’t know where to put this but remember ages back I set up an F1 league for us fanatics? You pick your drivers and run your own team for the season etc? http://fantasyracers.com/
    Thought it would be good to see the positions.
    Captain Lucy with Team Cupcake is leading but the well named Massa’s Year is 2nd.
    So far there’s 73 of us so this should get interesting!

  11. I love the back to back races, only a few days til next Practice Session, and it’s the Easter holidays too!!

  12. Accidental Mick
    29th March 2010, 20:11

    The problems with mirrors takes us back to the “blue flag” discussion. We need the blue flag because drivers cannot see well enough.

  13. An early look at the weather for the malaysian gp, rain friday, rain saturday, and heavy rain sunday

    1. Hopefully this will lead to a classic, not the rubbish from last year.

  14. Had a few technical problems here today which means the Predictions Championship results won’t be ready until tomorrow. Sorry guys.

  15. The driver mirror emerging story has me perplexed. I understand the safety aspect etc but I would have thought that the drivers would just grin and bare it if it makes the car faster. Perhaps thats just it, it makes no real substantial difference to the cars performance which would be surprising concidering the efforts the teams put into the overall design philosophy etc…

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