The Formula 1 Thread šŸŽ

Happy 40th Birthday Champ!

oh now he’s a champ is he? :eyes:

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Still we Rise! Team #LH44 in da house!!

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Yes yes, I am a modern F1 fan… Some of those questions are older than me!

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Formula 1 race on the table for Cape Town – BusinessTech

CTGPSA has proposed an F1 street race in the Green Point Sport Tourism Precinct in Cape Town, with a 5.7km street circuit around the DHL Stadium.

It added that the concept aligns with the global appeal of F1 street circuits, with the F1 calendar having street races in Monaco, Singapore, Baku, Las Vegas and Miami.

ā€œā€¦the global appeal of F1 street circuitsā€¦ā€ The what now?

Pit lane, Start/Finish down the bottom? Not sure what the sticky out bit on the top left is, or the funny squiggly bit on the right - extensions to make the circuit longer? All those silly turning circle ā€œchicanesā€ will have to be straightened out I think.

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While I’m a proud Cape Townian, and would prefer most things to be here(especially considering I would save on a plane ticket if its here), I just feel Kyalami would be better man(dik of these street circuits). That said its cool that we have two options.

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The red lines are the ā€œexistingā€ Formula E circuit, with a very weird pit lane design:

At 2.93 km, it’s much too short for an F1 circuit, so I’m guessing the yellow bits is to get it long enough… but it doesn’t really look like it’ll add enough distance to me!

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Okay, starting with the ePrix circuit makes some sense I guess. But I think you’re right - those added bits don’t look long enough. The article says they’re planning ā€œ5.7km street circuitā€. There does look like there’s enough road there to make up the other 2.8km?

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Yeah, I drew some lines in Google Maps. That yellow bits config comes out to about 3.8 km.

Monaco is the shortest current track at 3.3km, but it gets special dispensation for a lot of things. While there is no set minimum length, F1 prefers circuits around 5 km long. Even the Red Bull Ring is 4.3km. While it doesn’t feel as short, Circuit Hermanos Rodriguez (MEX) and Interlagos (BRA) come in at 4.3 km as well.

The number of laps in a GP is set by the requirement of driving 305 km, except in Monaco. That would make this circuit have a race that is 81 laps long.

I think the CPGP team need to sharpen their pencils a bit still… That said, I would love to see a South African GP alternate between Kyalami and Cape Town!

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This third bid for the EC and its provisional nonsense bid for an alternative CT city circuit sounds like the biggest load of shady AF tenderpreneur cadre collusion kak ever.

a bid that eventually wants to hold a race in the future Wakanda Smart City Development. That project, earmarked to be built on a private beachfront in Eastern Cape along the Nelson Mandela Corridor that aims to become a business hub like Singapore and Dubai, includes plans to construct a grand prix track there – but it will not be ready for up to 10 years.

Malefane said he was close to signing off on the plans for a Cape Town race that could be ready by the 2027 date that is being targeted.

ā€œIt’s a green field infrastructure on existing land that is fully developed,ā€ he said. ā€œIt’s 570 hectares, right in the middle of the city.

ā€œI shall not reveal where, because we’re tying up the final agreements on the awarding of that land.

ā€œWe will be able to dock enough cruise liner ships that will dock 100,000- 200,000 spectators, who will then be within proximity of the F1 track.ā€

Utter bs from start to finish. None of that is feasible or real. The bollocks reason is obvious: ā€œMalefane is urging South Africa’s president to take charge of proceedings because of concerns he has of an ā€˜agenda’ to help Kyalami.ā€

When his bid fails, he’ll be bleating about it being rigged and be tying everything up with court challenges and protests.

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The what?

The what? Where in the middle of the city?!

Do they want to annex Oudekraal? Or on top of the mountain? Or (and I actually like this one) around Robben Island?

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He is genuinely growing on me. Looking so effortlessly cool in red.

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Look, I’m no big Hamilton fan. I’m not a bigger Ferrari fan than your average racing enthusiast. But the combination of LH coolness and Ferrari Italian je ne sais quoi must have been so helpful to convince the big bosses in red that he’s the right horse to back.

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http://archive.today/2025.01.30-131002/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-30/south-africa-s-to-raise-50-million-for-formula-1-bid

A cool billion should do it.

ā€œFormula 1 is coming by fire or by force.ā€
~ Gayton Promises McKenzie, 2025 ~

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Tuesday, 18 February @ 22:00

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F1 2025 Key Pre-season Dates

Date Event Location
February 14 Williams reveal Silverstone
February 16 Haas filming day Silverstone
February 18 Season launch event The O2, London
February 19 Ferrari reveal Fiorano
February 24 Mercedes reveal TBC
February 26-28 Pre-season testing Bahrain
March 14-16 Australian Grand Prix Melbourne

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Ah, the constructor champion giving us a Valentine’s gift :wink:

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Six new F1 rules you need to know about for 2025

With a Formula 1 rules revolution coming in 2026 with all-new cars, things are much more straightforward for this season as we head to a year of stable regulations. But that’s not to say there aren’t some important rules changes coming in 2025 - so here are six of the most important to keep an eye out for.

  • 00:18 Fastest lap point is gone
  • 01:24 Car weight going up again
  • 02:04 Keeping their cool!
  • 03:30 Flexi wings clampdown
  • 05:45 Test limits but more rookie runs
  • 06:27 Bringing order to chaos
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Good!

Booo!

Good!

Boo!

Good!

Boo!

Okay, some real comments:

  1. The video hits the fastest lap point problem on the head - it’s too straightforwardly a reward for the front runner with sufficient gap behind them.
  2. Heavier cars == less agile cars == less fun racing.
  3. Safety first! Heat exhaustion is no joke, and the effects we saw the last few years on hyperfit athletes were extreme. It’s either this, or fit aircon!
  4. This is a bugbear for me. The testing procedure is documented. McLaren builds a component that is compliant to the published rules and testing procedure. McLaren gets told, no, can’t do that, even though there’s no rule being broken. Formula 1 has long had the problem of creating rules that are impossible to enforce in simple engineering terms, and that needs to end. Rather publish the testing/scrutineering criteria every car needs to comply with, and let that be that. It’s as simple as changing ā€œAero surfaces may not flex excessively at speedā€ to ā€œA load of 10 kN will be applied to the front wing at 400 mm outboard of the centreline. Deflection must be 20 mm or lower.ā€ DONE. /engineered
  5. More rookie runs is good! Get the young folks racing!
  6. Okay, this one got a boo purely on the heading, to keep the pattern going and because the general chaos of the last season was exciting. The actual rules that they are changing to clarify what happens when sessions are lost, is a very, very good thing.
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