paradisenb

Maybe RBR engineers devised something creative that no other team has the talent capable of discovering.
This type of artistry in engineering is why the other teams on the grid are following not leading.

Boy this has been a great season. Coming to an end. 2 more race wins and I think Vettel notches another WDC and pads his stats as one of the best evah.

If DV would have chosen RBR over Ferrari he would have more WDC now. It's all about the choices one makes.

ltc

Yes, DV did go to The Best team in F1, the team every driver dreams of driving for.
Clearly DV made the right decision....

multi21

So less than 24 hrs later you have changed your mind based on the report you quoted? Someone like G. Minardi isn't going to say something damning like that if he didn't believe it. He has nothing to gain from such a quote. So it wasnt TC but something that mimicks TC from the blown exhaust.

Leaving the legality of it alone for a moment, I specifically heard someone on the broadcast say that it sounded like TC when Vettel was going around the track. Vettel then puts 2.5 seconds a lap on the field. You know if there was someone in a kart putting 2.5 second on the entire field, there is something going on. Minardi then comes out and says Vettel has something different on the car than everyone else, including his teammate. As in the Kimi to Ferrari rumors, where there is smoke there is fire.

Finally as to the legality, TC is illegal, blown diffusers are illegal. Exhaust pipes have been mandated to be placed on top of the side pods and not below to thwart expended gases.... I guess the FIA will have to take a closer look.

RajDatta

That's what Paranoia's parents told him every time he was caught cheating. He was being ingenious.

ltc

I don't write the f1 news, I just post snippets here.
First it's the wind tunnel, then its tyres, then it's the wind tunnel again (all quotes from FERRARI personnel)....
Now it's traction control ... then it will be something else ... passing under yellow, etc...

There is of course a simple way to put and end to all of this .... ask DV and the Maranello Circus Clowns to actually WIN a championship (and no, not the 2nd place championship) and stop complaining.

ltc

Yes, of course, that's it.
BTW and FWIW, when you're the smartest kid in the class your entire life, cheating isn't really necessary ...

ltc

Oh look, Luca has hired someone to head up both the wind tunnel department, the PR department and in his spare time perhaps even the race strategy department for Ferrari.




Alonso is DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY, going to win a WDC for Ferrari...DEFINITELY.

multi21

Where has Ferrari said a word about this??? NBC broadcasters, Minardi, and now some other team principals are chiming in, never did Ferrari say a word about any of this.

Lewis please answer the question: If there was a kid at the track and he was suddenly 2.5 second a second faster per lap than the rest of the field when he had not had that kind of gap before would eyebrows be raised including yours? Fuel additive? engine timing? Talk to Doug Fleming and ask how it's done.

paradisenb

Here these people are called surrogates. They are sent out to stir the pot by says things others cannot. If Ferrari made these comments directly people would know how desperate they are.

This is an attempt to get points stripped from RBR and SV. This is their method of getting DV the 2013 WDC.

Lewis, your prediction may still come true, not because DV earned it, but because Ferrari Internationale de l'Automobile intervenes. I can hear the talk now if Ferrari were as good as RBR and stomping everyone else. "We have superior engineering. DV is THE BEST evah." blah blah blah

RajDatta

I see black helicopters circling over my house every night. I think they are watching me, lol

multi21

C'mon Randy, Ferrari doesn't control the NBC broadcasters, Minardi or the other team principals who commented on this. There isn't a black helicopter around every corner. Let's keep in mind that all the rest of the teams want to beat RBR just as much as Ferrari and have their own interests/investors/board members to satisfy and answer to.

With a 60 point lead, Vettel is guaranteed the title this year. Everyone is posturing for next year at this point.

RajDatta

But but but Giancarlo Minardi is an Italian and all Italians love Ferrari. They would do anything to make Ferrari win. Could it be that an Italian mechanic put a sound blaster with previous yrs recordings on SV's car. This would make his car sound like it is using blown diffuser? hmmm

As far as him being 2.5 secs fast. Pirelli is now working with Bridgestone to develop a special spray for SV's car.

I wonder how this board would have reacted if after the tire swap, Ferrari was the one winning all the races. All hell would have broken lose and we would be dealing with constant crying about how Ferrari had another Italian company help them by changing the construction of the tires mid season. Cheaters!

Only on this forum...

My993C2

Where is this 2.5 second gap you continue to bark about? Look at the qualifying times:

http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2013/906/7256/

There is less than a 10th of a second between pole sitter Vettel and Rosberg.

Surely not you're not referring to the lap times Vettel had compared to the rest of the field after the safety car, because that difference can easily be explained. Once again Vettel was told to push it while 2nd place runner at the time Rosberg resisted all calls to push it in order to preserve his tires and since the entire field was behind Rosberg on a track that is hard to pass on, the field could only lap as fast as Nico was lapping. Yes Red Bull is a superior car at this point of the season, but only the sore losers are the ones who are coming up with these insane conspiracy theories.

multi21

Alonso said that RBR is doing something different than everyone else, but it is legal because they (RBR) are being checked by FIA on Sat. and Sun.

However, this from Rosberg's teammate talking about the RBR pace particularly after the restart:

Lewis Hamilton, however, took a different tact in the pre-event press conference and stoked the debate: “They have a lot more in the bag than we get to see [most of the time], so it's just cruising, generally. I think in the race on the restart everyone's pushing flat out so there should be no reason why they should be able to pull away that much quicker. If you look at their on-boards, he's on the power, full throttle at least twenty metres before everyone else which is a huge advantage,” stated the Mercedes pilot.

“There's nothing we can really do [about that], we're always asking for rear downforce, always want to be able to get on the power sooner.

"But the last time I was able to put the pedal down that quick was 2007 when we had traction control, so it's a lot different,” he concluded mischievously.

agdamis

Fernando Alonso has dismissed rumblings in Formula 1 that his title rival Sebastian Vettel is benefiting from illegal driver aids on his car.

The rumours started after the Singapore Grand Prix - Vettel's Red Bull was more than two seconds a lap faster than his closest pursuer on his way to victory.

Alonso said: "They are using something different compared to the other teams but something that is completely OK.

"They pass all the checks every race so it's up to us to do a better job."

Former F1 team boss Giancarlo Minardi started the speculation with comments after watching from trackside in Singapore.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton heightened the speculation when he said on Thursday, ahead of the Korean Grand Prix: "If you look at the onboard [camera], he is on the power full throttle at least 20 metres before anyone else, which is a huge advantage.

"The last time I was able to put the pedal down that quick was back in 2007 or 2008, when we had traction control."

But Ferrari driver Alonso, who is 60 points behind Vettel in the championship with 150 still available in the remaining six races, said: "This different engine noise has been there all year in the Red Bull.

"It's true it's maybe more obvious in Singapore because it is a street circuit and people can watch in the corners but if you go to winter test, already in Barcelona, we were in corners following the test session and the Red Bull was a different sound.

"It's true when you find a Red Bull you see they are faster than you in the corners but this also happens with other cars and we don't say anything, like Mercedes. Hamilton was pole position in Hungary and winning easy, same feeling. All the things are good and it is up to us to do a better job."

Vettel said he believed Red Bull did have an engine control system that was better than their rivals.

"We were playing around quite a lot with it in practice [in Singapore]," he said. "The first time it worked was in the race.

"We are pretty proud of the system we have because other people will never figure out how we've done it. Constantly we try to improve the car. It is part of the homework we have to do."

He then jokingly played up to the rumours about traction control by saying he would be less strong in Korea this weekend than in Singapore because the nature of the circuit meant such systems would be less effective.

"Since traction control will not matter so much we should probably struggle a little bit more," Vettel said with a smile, "but I think we should still have a strong package."

Red Bull's advantage is believed to come largely from a more effective use of the exhaust gases for aerodynamic effect. This creates more rear downforce than the other cars, meaning Vettel has the rear grip to enable him to accelerate sooner.

Hamilton's team-mate Nico Rosberg was running behind Vettel in second place in Singapore when the world champion's advantage was at its most extensive. Rosberg explained that Vettel's comparative pace looked quicker in that race because he was struggling with his Mercedes.

"Rubber in my front wing cost me 1.7 seconds of downforce, and then more because when you do have such a loss you wear the tyres more, so it probably went up to 1.9 to two seconds a lap," Rosberg said.

Alonso, who was second to Vettel in Singapore, added: "They had a big advantage in Singapore but it was not 2.5 seconds. It was maybe one second, which is a huge advantage, but we see how much it is here."