I know it is offtopic...but I can´t resist...Pictures...???

Marion Jolles

Nice...!!!

Carrot Top and Danica's better looking sister!

So true!

His girlfriend works for TF1, the french tv channel, as thier pitlane reporter, she'll still be around next year

After Valencia RedBull changed how they were running the engines, to stop blowing them up, this also gave them better mileage, ala the works engines.

Aparently D'Ambrosio won't drive for Renault in this season. Some quotes of D'Ambrosio:



Source

That can be one of the reasons, but people here do try to simplify those parameters to the utmost, when the whole thing is much more than complicated.

For instance, Webber and Vettel running the same car on the same engine behind the SC at China were able to generate totally different fuel saving figures, so that Webber that was heavir had to come in before Vettel for that pistop.

So that's why I affirm that it is plain BS to come and say: "Renault saves more fuel than Mercedes and Ferrari". We never know how those engines were used and if perhaps since the start of the season the Renault team knew they would have to run the entire season on leaner mixers, lower revs and on less aggressive throttle maps due to poor reliability, something RBR only got to know 10 races into the season.

Well, if Renault keep their advantage, then they should bode well for the new engine change rules.

Even more engines will need to be saved.

yeah, and that's why people invented very helpful thing called "average".


It's not secret that fuel consumption differs at each track, also differs among drivers in one team because they have diffrent height and weight which cause diffrent setups.

So, do you really want to consider every track X every team X and two drivers? I's 17 X 10 X 2 = 340 diffrent posibilities how much fuel teams use.

There's no way that you could apprehend that. Then average comes wiht help and you have overall view.

My guesses to the five drivers on Boullier's shortlist

Ho-Ping Tung
Jerome d'Ambrosio (despite being played down)
Nick Heidfeld
Romain Grosjean
Another gravity driver

Could only be Nick,...

Villeneuve

In my opinion Heidfield is the biggest candidate for the seat.


Ho-Ping Tung - rumored as Reno's third driver
Jerome d'Ambrosio - plays down his posibility of driving in Reno
Romain Grosjean - Boullier said his second driver was unlikely to be French
Jacques Villeneuve - he said it's unlikely that he will show in Bahrajn as a driver
Another gravity driver - no chance

That's pretty much standard operating procedure for anyone who is still negotiating for a role. Particularly if they are up against someone else.

Now that you mention Vielleneuve:

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules.p...c=1&catid=1

I'm guessing Jerome d'Ambrosio at the moment. Everyone plays down what the media says about them just to keep themselves in the headlines whilst they're negotiating.

Couple of cut out sentences.

Here you have his full statement.



He won't be driving for Reno or any oher team at the begining of the season.

RBR's aero was too aggressive, the cooling wasn't appropriate. Renault and RBR used the same engines with different aero and cooling. If there was a well known problem with the engines, then Renault could request change modification because of reliability issues, but it wasn't the case. There wasn't any request to FIA from this point of view, so the engines were okay.

Well, that's what happens when you only hear about in on the Newsnow system.

Thanks for the full statement.

But we can assume that Villeneuve is a candidate for a Renault seat.

The thing that people seem to constantly miss about fuel consumption is that engines were not setup with that in mind in 2009 AND 'reliability' engine updates are still allowed so it very well might be a completely different game in 2010 regarding that matter.

What Todt should really do is get rid of the engine freeze. That will allow engines to be better set up to deal with the new fuel rules.

Hmm... It seems to me that they actually made modification in their engines... but I haven't any source at hand. I will post it if I will find it

If it happened then it happened because of the insufficient cooling, because of RBR's aero, not because of the engine was unreliable itself. They made some allowed modifications to make the engine more reliable in RBR's config.

I guess Renault overdrove its engines in RF1 cars to bring some nicer results, more points. At least Alonso pushed the car and engine over their limits. To lost a car during a race because of engine failure and to finish the race at 10th place is not a big difference. I guess they took the risk, but there wasn't any engine failure in RF1 cars during the races of 2009.

The same engine was okay in RF1's car, but it was unreliable in RBR's car. Conclusion is simple.

Yes, I think that was the case.

Reports now that Gravity might stop putting money on drivers to tranfer the resources to the Renault team.

That would be around $5-7 millions per year.

What do they gain?

This is Boullier's shortlist.

1. Nick Heidfeld
2. Takuma Sato
3. Jerome d'Ambrosio
4. Ho-Ping Tung
5. Romain Grosjean

In that order.

What's your source?

His head.

I suspected as much. I was raising the point because if there's anything I hate about these discussion threads, it's the way people try and pass their own opinins off as facts established by the people they're talking about. And then they wonder why I treat them like they're idiots.

list from renault-f1.fr :

Romain Grosjean
Jacques Villeneuve
Nick Heidfeld
Christian Klien
Takuma Sato
Vitaly Petrov
Sébastien Bourdais
Bruno Senna *
Jérôme d’Ambrosio *
Bertrand Baguette *
Franck Montagny *
Ho-Pin Tung *

# In bold, pilots confirmed talks with Renault.
# In italics, quoted in various unconfirmed rumors.
# *: No longer in contention to support Robert Kubica in 2010.

My list is right, maybe not in the order I put them so I was wrong about that, but definately the 5 drivers I mentioned.

But it is kind of irrelevent because Heidfeld will be have been signed by next week, this i'm 90% certain of.

So you are 90% certain that Renault (or rather Genii) is taking seriously that PR talk about competitive 2nd driver, that's optimistic I would be so 50% certain.

The most stupid way would be bringing JV, I mean BMW had NH, JV and RK, and clearly saw that NH/RK was the fastest possible pair.
(ok, they had NH,JV,RK and SV and saw that NH and RK is the fastest pair, but that is a controversial statement and I don't want one more flame )

The typical modus operandi of venture capitalists. Slash costs, asset strip if possible, work with the bare minimum, by being lean mean and efficient, then sell on for a profit. Anybody hoping to see Renault at the front again in the short term, will be thoroughly disappointed. Longterm Midfield mediocrity unless they get lucky, is the future for this team.

I agree, but, how the hell is being longterm midfield miediocrity a way to sell on for a profit?

I simply don't get what venture capitalists are looking for in F1 teams, that is the worst possible way for fast return of the invested money, it can be a long term investment (but only with luck), but venture aren't looking for long term investments only the fast-risky ones, or I'm wrong?

Autohebdo.fr thinks that the choice is now between Heidfeld and Sato.

Sato?

His name pops up everywhere.

Well I guess Sato isn't bad, I like him. But still I'd rather see Nick in Renault, there is some unfinished buisness

Definately Heidfeld over Sato. The savings in spare parts will make up for any difference in salary alone. The guy with one of the best car saving records vs. the guy with one of the worst.

SATO in!!!

For a moment there I thought Sato had actually been confirmed. Then I remembered that it's Sunday, and nothing ever happens on a Sunday.

Sure, sure... i see pigs flying sometime soon too

Sorry fellas, I'm just a huge Sato fan

SATO for 2010 WDC

Sato seemed to be slower than Button, let alone Schumacher, Alonso et al. (asumming they may be slightly quicker than Button possibly?)

Surely not likely to win the driver's championship for Renault?

They got Kubica for that.

Nick and Takuma are both much shorter than Kubica. Although we cannot say they wouldn't be competitive. Heidfeld seems to be better driver but I would like to see him with other driver to compare. So, Sato to Renault fits for me well

In my inernet this: indicates irony..