TBK-Light.com

Yes indeed, it also has a lot to do with the corners leading up to the long straight which aren't condusive to keeping the cars close enough to pass on the straight

Barcelona's the same, they replaced a ballsy corner that was rubbish for keeping the cars close together as they went onto the straight with a shitty chicane that's rubbish for keeping the cars close together as they head onto the straight

Abu's chicane to hairpin scenario just means the cars spend half the straight accelerating away from one another and the rest of it isn't long enough to overcome that gap.

No, I'd say the opposite. The hairpin (the same case applies to the chicane) is exactly designed to help follow cars because it allows different lines and faster cars could get better acceleration. The car problem in the, especially, the first year 2008, was that the car hit the rev limit therefore sitting in the slipstream without advancing for half a straightaway. The rev limit situation changed from year to year, thus the overtaking number fluctuates at that track.
Another perspective to counter-argue is that, Abu Dhabi is not the only track by Tilke where a low turn precedes a straight. 3 best overtaking spots at Sepang; all overtaking spots at Bahrain, including the short backstraight; 2 overtaking spots at Hockenheim, just to name a few.

All in all, if you are faster, and you have a long straight but you couldn't pass, normally you may find that you are hitting rev limits pretty bad, but with DRS and KERS, that's no longer a problem, hence in last year's Abu Dhabi race, no cars were held up badly.

What I always find puzzling is the hairpin at the final turn at Long Beach, which in theory should bunch up the cars close together before the long start finish straight but actually seems to prevent passing into turn one instead of promote it!

It's not F1 but it's the first thing that springs to my mind when it comes to long straights not having any overtaking on them...

I think that if you have a hairpin before a long straight, it gets the cars too close. If two cars are nose to tail going 40kmh then the second placed car is probably about 0.3-0.5s behind the first placed car, as well as the second placed car will lose more time because it has to let the first placed car accelerate sooner increasing it's lead to 0.7-0.9s (I'm dramatizing it but you understand). This is what happens at Long Beach and Abu Dhabi. Now of course you could argue that La Source is a big hairpin where passes can be made right after, but you can take La Source with much more speed then you can with Abu Dhabi's hairpin, plus you have a huge downhill to draft followed by Eau Rouge, Raidillon and the Kemmel. I'm OK with tight turns after the straight, I don't love it but whatever, it helps for passing. I really believe that you just can't have super slow turns right before a long straight.

Here's a list of current F1 tracks that have ridiculously slow turns before the longest straight:
India
Abu Dhabi
Valencia
Barcelona
Korea
Hungary
Bahrain (it's not too slow, but for some reason you can't follow closely)
Hockenheim (new version)
Singapore (T3 is a hairpin, T5 isn't bad but T3 kind of ruins it.)
Canada (This track works perfectly though, and the chicane after the straight is way faster then the chicane in Abu Dhabi.)
America (looks to be like Korea)
Monaco, but it's Monaco so it works.

Then tracks with somewhat slow corners before the longest straight:
Australia
Malaysia
China (although two corners before is pretty slow but the long right hander and straight away somewhat make up for it.)
Brazil
Spa (Glide through La Source for the Kemmel. And Stavelot is not slow and that's a good place to draft)

Then not slow corners before the longest straight:
Monza (Parabolica is fast.)
Japan
Silverstone (I know the new part is slow before the straight but there are other really long straights that don't)

Now most of those tracks in the first list are pretty shitty (apart from Canada and a couple others), while in the other two lists it's the contrary. Anyway, I do have to somewhat blame the cars as well, they are not helping anything.

But I don't think we should really be arguing about this now, this year has produced 4 out of 4 fantastic races. Pirelli and KERS (as well as DRS) are making the difference. To be honest, I don't think we need DRS, more/higher KERS power could do the job. I just hope Pirelli doesn't change their tires, they are producing some of the best racing in years and I can't wait to watch the rest of the season unfold.

Monza has been shit for the last couple of years. In fact, most of the races in Monza since 1995 (when I started watching) have been shit.

Why are people so greedy?
For a picture signed by 5-10 F1 drivers are not so expensive ...

_________________

at Di Resta's pic on that site

_________________
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

a race at Monza is never a shit race. Remember Vettels first win? Monza has been full of drama, many incidents have happened.

And seeing the cars at full throttle in Parabolica is just great to watch.

Rumors that Mercedes are quitting F1:
http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12433/7737491/

If Merc do quit then Schummy will retire, he won't go to another team.

At least something good could come out with it.

Brawn Mark II?

Maybe next year they'll be champion then....

Mercedes retiring has been rumoured from the day one after their announcement to start their own team.

_________________
"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

Probably just a tacktick to get the same terms as the other teams in the new agreement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17432510



While I can easily see this become the next off track controversy *sigh*, I also hope this doesn't mean one of the two cars on the grid that are actually nice to look at will be running a step nose any time soon

This is how it looked like:

Eh, not as pretty but still not as bas as the others. Could be worse

And they also ran a TV tower on the airbox...

If Merc pull out will they take the engines with them too?

I saw it in pictures of Ferrari as well. It's something common in the test sessions for a better collection of information.