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Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

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Re: Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

#11

Post by antr »

ntkachov wrote: post #7

I'm loving the direction F1 is going. Sure, for the hardcore fans, the noise just isn't the same, and the cars aren't going as fast anymore, but I love that they are trying to force the manufacturers to improve their lower spec engines. Maybe the next rule change we'll have CVT as a requirement instead of a gear box.

As an F1 fan, it isn't the noise, and speed that are making this championship "boring". It's the fact that Mercedes is so superior that you really have to ignore them in order to enjoy the "real" racing / fights behind them. (It's true that the Hamilton-Rosberg fight in Bahrain was also fun to watch)

Mercedes' dominance is ridiculous - and I don't want to take engineering credits away, but there are no fights to watch at the top. Just take a look at the 22 second difference they managed to create in just 11 laps, the laps left after the safety car at Bahrain went in the pit lane. The fun was behind, Force India vs Red Bull vs Williams (vs Ferrari, sigh). Lets hope that other teams can catch up.

Re: Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

#12

Post by sbierwagen »

johnwyles wrote: post #10
ntkachov wrote: post #7

I'm loving the direction F1 is going. Sure, for the hardcore fans, the noise just isn't the same, and the cars aren't going as fast anymore, but I love that they are trying to force the manufacturers to improve their lower spec engines. Maybe the next rule change we'll have CVT as a requirement instead of a gear box.

Also keep in mind that Formula E debuts this year; it will be the sport we all eventually follow (not sure how I feel about the passing cars sounding more like aircraft than cars): http://www.fiaformulae.com/

Who cares about the sound? I'm tired of seeing blog comments on Jalopnik complaining about it. Of the many dumb excuses car nuts use to whine about electric cars, "they sound different!" is by far the worst.

Re: Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

#13

Post by gsnedders »

Theodores wrote: post #5

The Mercedes F1 team appears to be one team that makes cars with engines that they also supply to other teams. However it is not quite like that. The engines part of the business has been going for a long time with McLaren since the mid 90's and before that they were 'Ilmor'. Then, five years or so, Mercedes bought what was the Honda/Braun constructor team. Both the engine business and the car constructor part of the…

They cannot within the rules of the sport supply power trains of different designs to the different teams — all Mercedes power trains are identical.

Re: Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

#15

Post by gsnedders »

sbierwagen wrote: post #12
johnwyles wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also keep in mind that Formula E debuts this year; it will be the sport we all eventually follow (not sure how I feel about the passing cars sounding more like aircraft than cars): http://www.fiaformulae.com/

Who cares about the sound? I'm tired of seeing blog comments on Jalopnik complaining about it. Of the many dumb excuses car nuts use to whine about electric cars, "they sound different!" is by far the worst.

At the end of the day sound is an inherent inefficiency. The aim is to maximise the kinetic energy output of the motor — any sound or heat energy produced is waste that could've better been produced as kinetic energy.

Re: Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

#16

Post by lelandriordan »

Theodores wrote: post #5

The Mercedes F1 team appears to be one team that makes cars with engines that they also supply to other teams. However it is not quite like that. The engines part of the business has been going for a long time with McLaren since the mid 90's and before that they were 'Ilmor'. Then, five years or so, Mercedes bought what was the Honda/Braun constructor team. Both the engine business and the car constructor part of the…

There is no foul play going on, Mercedes planned this from the start. They knew that coming back into the sport they had no chance to catch the dominant Red Bull cars so for the last 5 years the team has been solely focused on developing a car for this season's rule changes. Mercedes intentionally made the decision to have a worse team the last few years to put more money toward R&D for this season. This sacrifice culminated in them having a better designed car than any other team this year with their innovative turbo/compressor placement:

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12472/9243875/revealed-how...

Your engine point is moot, because it is up to the team to implement the supplied engine and there are huge monetary differences between teams. A team buying supplied engines is always at a disadvantage in terms of time and design because they didn't design the engines. They have to adapt their car to the engine, while the manufacturer team can develop both in concert. Its similar to Android vs. the iPhone, Apple's products use similar parts but the experience was better because its OS and hardware were developed together, instead of hooked together at the end like Android phones. Also, F1 is not fair in terms of money. Manufacturing teams, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes etc, have R&D budgets multiple times the size of the smaller teams. Even though, Force India buys Merc engines, they have a fraction of the budget to figure out how to optimize it, and terrible drivers in comparison.

Re: Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

#17

Post by _s »

sbierwagen wrote: post #12
johnwyles wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also keep in mind that Formula E debuts this year; it will be the sport we all eventually follow (not sure how I feel about the passing cars sounding more like aircraft than cars): http://www.fiaformulae.com/

Who cares about the sound? I'm tired of seeing blog comments on Jalopnik complaining about it. Of the many dumb excuses car nuts use to whine about electric cars, "they sound different!" is by far the worst.

Lots of people do - some were drawn to F1 just because they stopped walking past a TV or near a track and wanted to know what was making that unworldly racket.

That, to me, is equivalent of saying who cares what the cars look like? It's all part and parcel of the appeal of the sport - if somethings amiss, you've lost a little bit of that appeal.

Re: Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

#18

Post by stevenwei »

frik wrote: post #14

This article is already dated. Today's race was one of the most thrilling races of all time. "Hamilton defeats Rosberg after epic duel": http://www.formula1.com/default.html F1 2014 is more exciting than season 2013 where Red Bull was superior (and '12 & '11) - that was boring.

Aw, a spoiler warning would have been appreciated there.

Re: Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

#19

Post by _s »

For those interested - it's not just the engine; you'll find plenty of teams/drivers also struggling with the new brake-by-wire as outlined here: http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/2014-f1-explaine...

It's among a myriad of new tech introduced this year, and Mercedes just happen to have the most complete package available.

Re: Mercedes Is Owning This Formula 1 Season

#20

Post by enko »

antr wrote: post #11
ntkachov wrote: post #7

I'm loving the direction F1 is going. Sure, for the hardcore fans, the noise just isn't the same, and the cars aren't going as fast anymore, but I love that they are trying to force the manufacturers to improve their lower spec engines. Maybe the next rule change we'll have CVT as a requirement instead of a gear box.

As an F1 fan, it isn't the noise, and speed that are making this championship "boring". It's the fact that Mercedes is so superior that you really have to ignore them in order to enjoy the "real" racing / fights behind them. (It's true that the Hamilton-Rosberg fight in Bahrain was also fun to watch) Mercedes' dominance is ridiculous - and I don't want to take engineering credits away, but there are no fights to watc…

> there are no fights to watch at the top

Were we watching the same race? The last 11 laps were an epic battle between Rosberg and Hamilton, and the mob contending for points was no less thrilling. I thought it was a great race, at least at the end.

And have you already forgotten 2013? Red Bull won every single race in the second half of the season. Yeah, Mercedes is on top, for now, it's not like a constructor has never been dominant before.

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