Club Arnage

see it on Autosport.com http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74361 (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74361)

Lets hope the "F1 style dummy spitting" stays away as much as possible though ....

Hhhmmmm, How much Audi money went into the "improvements" to the circuit and its' infrastructure? I dare bet that the R15 is totally legal ::)

Problems with the front... that could be why they kept the rear wings covered at Sebring to draw attention away from the front, it has been done before by Lotus I think...

>Martini...

i cant read any of this but these pictures seem to show the part in question.

http://vitorribeiro.sollec.org/blog/?p=3148

(http://vitorribeiro.sollec.org/blog/img/2009/04/audi.jpg)

I am having real difficulty with this. The car was homologated by ACO It passed scruteneering at Sebring.
Peugeot have the faster car. see Race Lap Record for Sebring.
Alan Mcnish out drove them and Audi team work in the pits left them in the dust.
We all know the Germans are brilliant at reading rule books it is up to the sanctioning body to get the rules written correctly.
The season has started. Too late to tinker with the rules for this year.
Phil

I agree Phil.

I often wonder if things would be better if there were in effect no rules.  Well just a few rules.   For example:-

Engine capacity,  Wheel Base, Overall Width, Overall Length,  Minimum Weight,  Minimum & Maximum height.
Plus of course rules regarding Safety.

Trying to make rule about aerodynamics it futile.  Everything has aerodynamic properties.  So it boils down to how big the positive impact of a given component is and what it's primary purpose is.

t.

I agree Lawnmower. 

The issue comes about though that they (the engineers) reckon they can have these cars going so fast with basic development that it could be a safety nightmare.  So I guess we could just adopt a top speed limit as well.

   

Hmmmmmm.........   not sure I could agree with that.   :D

t.

I just hope they won't handle the whole case like the moronic wannabe politicians in F1... >:( I mean the disgusting mud-slinging at court and in the media. ::) >:(

I agree in principal, Andrea.  However, I had a long chat  with a French team boss last year who is no friend of the ACO and doesn't mind saying so off the record.  His take on this was (and I necessarily paraphrase) that the ACO is a private club which makes up the rules to suit itself and if you don't like it, tough.  Thus I don't reckon that Audi - who let's face it have recently provided yet more service vehicles for the Circuit de la Sarthe and have pumped loads of money the ACO's way over the years - are going to be penalised by them in a hurry - certainly not to the extent that their new car will not be allowed to compete here.

F1 has several bodies competing for control over the poison dwarf's empire and power base and they are prepared to go to court to question decisions which are made, you are right.  The question is, which is preferable?  A complete monopoly such as the ACO has, or the bickering/dirty linen washing which goes on in public in F1?

I think the R15 is probably just another example for the thesis that engineers who built race cars are always smarter than the ones who write rulebooks ;D

@ termie:
I don't have any problem with teams wanting to clear certain rules or the legality of certain car parts or teams being penalised for breaking the rules (as long as the penalty is within certain limits).
My problem with the "diffuser-gate" in F1 is that they have brought it to a personal level, which is IMO disgusting. Ferrari slamming the man who helped them to win several championships is very much below the belt, not only for the man himself but for F1 fans, as well... I haven't met any F1 fans yet who are not fed up with all the F1 politics and mud-slinging.

I think, if F1 continues this way (with all the strict rules, standardised parts, freezing nearly all development, stupid politics, expensive race tickets, the "abyss" between the teams and the fans, etc.), it could be a good chance for the endurance series to attract more spectators and fans, but only if the teams and officials reduce the political matters to the minimum and fight their battles on the race tracks. LMS, ALMS and Le Mans could be very interesting even for motorsport fans who don't know anything else but F1. There are many different cars, all looking great, one better than the other, there's good contact between several teams and their fans. Endurance racing seems more human. The ticket prices and all the events are very fan friendly, too.
The biggest problem of endurance racing is the bad LMS and Le Mans coverage. It was a big mistake to sign that contract with Eurosport... MotorsTV did a great job in the past. Eurosport are nowhere in comparison to MotorsTV.

HAHA!  :laugh: Das war gut!  ;D  :laugh: :laugh: bin mit dir einer Meinung...

That was good, Werner!  :laugh: I couldn't agree more...

Kimi Raikonen said,during the F1 difuser debacle that if a team had found a new way of building a faster car that was within the rules then fine, it just proves that they are clever, not that they are cheats.  It struck me as the most sensible thing anybody had to say about the whole issue - and this is probably true for Audi in this case also.  It's just sour grapes on the part of the other teams who whinge and moan instead of getting their own houses in order and competing where it counts - on the race track.

Andrea, I agree with you about the TV coverage also - Eurosport was a truly retrograde step and the pathetic coverage will do little to bring in new fans to the sport, imo.

Werner your of course right.  Just look at the ridiculous state of affairs we had when they tried to rule out ground effect cars.
Some of the other rules are meant to reduce costs.  But they don't.  The big spending teams simply spend more to find a way around the rule or to find some other little tweak to give them an advantage.

t.

Didn't have a beard by any chance did he Termie?

Have to agree that the Eurosport coverage isn't doing it any favours. It's so dreary. Mind you the Motors coverage of Long Beach wasn't great.
I listened to the full race on RLM and enjoyed it. Yesterday I watched some of it on Motors but soon lost interest- it was like two seperate races. I guess you cannot beat the enthusiasm of good ole Hindy and co.

No, it wasn't HP.