TBK-Light.com

Bernie is just saying this to put the doubtful GP's under pressure to pay up soon. If they all pay him he will hold more than 20, just hard negotiating.

Yeaa, just like him to do that. I'm sure I've heard him state he wants more than 20 races.

and what about Imola? high kerbs, hard to overtake layout and some chicanes over "dangerous curves"

I liked a lot to watch races there, specially final laps drama in 2005 and 2006

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

The old Imola layout was awesome. It's a shame they wrecked it with 2 chicanes. 1 was fair enough, but I never saw any point in the second one, other than stopping Tosa from being a passing place.

I know it's changed again since then, but I've not properly seen any racing from the latest layout.

Also, whatever happened to the plans to rebuild the Western part of the Zeltweg circuit?

They've made it way more dangerous, as shown by the (probably) career-ending crash for Marcel Tiemann back in 2010.

the butchered final chicane, right? looks like main straight is longer and approaching speed to tamburello chicane is higher, dangerous thing for bikes

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

The chicane wasn't butchered, it was removed completely, but they needed to put a kink in there to slow the vehicles down.

Frankly, I'd rather take my chances with a brake failure at Tamburello than have an accident at that kink. Dreadful corner.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Final chicane is still there but optional. Superbike runs it for instance.

I see, thought they run flat out with bikes

but I still don't get it why Bernie took Imola out

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

More money from the gulf area, nuf said.

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

There's a few rumours flying about that Hulkenberg will leave Sauber after Hungary and head to Lotus in place of Grosjean, with Frijns stepping into Sauber.

It seems quite unlikely, but it would tie in to something I've heard. But what doesn't make sense would be Frijns to Sauber unless they're desperate or he's suddenly found lots of money, which seems improbable.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

That would mean Frijns is pretty good at lying on Twitter, considering he sounds really depressed on there after just being dropped out of GP2.

Given grosjean nearly won last weekend, i cannot see it happen.

Glad to see Austria back. I never understood why it was dropped. It always had good races, imo.

Personally never liked Imola and the latest version isn't that good either.

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"Many people ask me why I always sign off Till We Meet Again, because goodbye is always so final. Goodbye Dan Wheldon." -Marty Reid

It is probably more long-term than the last race. You've got to look at the situation at the end of the year as well. Do Lotus want to hold onto Romain for 2014? If not and one of the people you'd imagine they'd want for the seat is availabe now, why wait?

Also, I might be nothing, Budapest here, but I'm getting Hungary for a Race Thread.

Firstly: I loved old Hockenheim because seeing the cars in ultra low-downforce spec was seeing them at their best imo.

It was great seeing these cars finally do what they were designed for: high speeds.
That and Monza meant they used to crank out the minimal wings and tell the drivers just to hang on for the corners, which actually made them more of a drivers challenge.

These days people would bitch about them, imagine Hockenheim with DRS
People were zooming by in a straight line already, with DRS and KERS it'd be like warp speed, the difference between the cars behind and ahead...

Frjins? Well maybe now Sauber are "saved" they can afford to spend the rest of the season assessing potential 2014 drivers?
Or maybe The Hulk has already signed a contract and they want to put him on gardening leave?

Grosjean? Well despite his recent upturn in performance.....how are Lotus doing, money wise?

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Crazy thoughts:

Webber (forced into) doing a Montoya and leaving right away/after Hungary.
Lotus could use the money, Red Bull willing to pay, Raikonen replacing Webber.
Hulkenberg can leave when he pleases, replaces Kimi at Lotus. Frijns in the Sauber because money isn't a big issue right now.

Seems that at the moment Kimi is inclined to stay at Lotus but it depends on how quickly the new investors actually sign the paperwork and put the money in.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Not sure DRS would have had much of an impact on the old Hockenheim given how little downforce they ran there anyway, There would be very little drag for DRS to reduce.

Speaking of DRS, Some stats from Sky's F1 show last week:
**F1 Overtakes after 9 Races**
2013 Total 639 – DRS 269 – 43%
2012 Total 617 – DRS 136 – 22%
2011 Total 696 – DRS 186 – 27%
(Does not include first lap overtakes)


Thats a pretty big jump in DRS effectiveness, Thanks to 2 Zones this year & teams optimizing there DRS systems to get bigger drag reduction & larger speed gain.

The FIA has eased the restrictions on pit lane access for the media. 25 tabards will be available for journalists and photographers who require pit access during practice sessions.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011