A year ago, people were saying they would stop watching because the halo was so hideous. Twelve months later everyone’s forgotten about it. Those scrapers do look a bit silly, but I think most people would rather watch silly looking cars with lots of overtaking than awesome looking cars that just trundle around line astern for two hours.

Also, there have been some hideous looking cars in the past, but that doesn’t stop people prattling on about how everything used to be awesome

Stealth edit to show it in an even more unflattering light.

Just finished watching the Netflix Documentary from last years season. Very good. Well worth a watch.

I’ve always had a soft spot for that March as it was one of the cars in our first Scalextric set as a kid.   Though to be honest, even then we argued over who got the JPS Lotus.

That March 711 is horrific, it looks a generation older than it’s predecessor. It sired the appalling Eilfelland E21, a car so aesthetically wrongheaded that it arguably took until 2014 for Caterham, Lotus & McLaren to roll out anything approaching this level of hideousness

https://www.blenheimgang.com/eifelland-e21/eifelland-e21-13/

Yep, that’s ugly.

it arguably took until 2014 for Caterham, Lotus & McLaren to roll out anything approaching this level of hideousness

Have you forgotten the FW26 from 2004? 🙂

A year ago, people were saying they would stop watching because the halo was so hideous.

Yeah, agreed. I’m just hoping the gains from each of those are marginal enough to not be worth the aesthetic cost.

Lest we forget the eye-gougingly hideous wheel covers on the Brawn…

I think most people would rather watch silly looking cars with lots of overtaking than awesome looking cars that just trundle around line astern for two hours.

This is where I differ a little from a lot of opinion, in that I don’t think “more is more” when it comes to overtaking. What I think’s needed is more prospect of overtaking—more dogfighting—but not necessarily more passing. Monaco 1992 was an iconic race precisely because of overtaking being difficult, but the prospect of it being palpable.

DRS was all about More Overtaking and it’s not really a satisfying solution: the only thing stopping it being far too easy is the following-car aero problem that they’re trying to solve. I don’t massively care how much overtaking there is, within reason; what makes for the entertainment is the lead-up to it and the fight to achieve it. It’s a bit like a comparison between basketball and soccer: with the former you expect points on each attack, whereas the latter has a lot more rise and fall with the build-up to what may or may not be a goal. I’d hate for F1 to turn into a lottery of who ends up pulling the last overtake before the flag, maybe even more so than I’d hate it to turn into a battle of who sits in front of the most powerful engine and keeps their foot in longest.

The 70’s wasn’t kind to F1 cars… Arrows A2 and the “Smurf hat” Ligier spring to mind

I quite like the Arrows. I mostly admire the aero designers’ work in the days before computers, since when we’ve converged on largely identical basic shapes with as many fussy little appendages as will fit in around the regs.

The Ligier was ludicrously twatty, though, clearly.

Have you forgotten the FW26 from 2004?

Yes, I had! The whole connivance looks as though a model had been assembled from card and had make it to full size production. Let me guess without googling, it was an aero disaster and was quickly canned before the end of the season?

I don’t mind that Arrows either, uniquely 70s excess in the same colour as your auntie’s Mk2 Escort.

Was the logo on the Ligier sized to fit the airbox, or vice-versa?

Let me guess without googling, it was an aero disaster and was quickly canned before the end of the season?

Pretty accurate guess, once they’d shitcanned the front end mid-season, it was actually an okay car.

Looking forward to this weekends race. Here’s a little reminder what happened last year…

Red flag already in practise. Think it was Russel’s williams. Sounds like either the floor failed or it hit a loose manhole cover.

Manhole cover apparently.

Could be Russell’s weekend over with Williams spares shortage problems.

Crikey, Williams just aren’t having any luck eh?

LOL the recovery vehicle has now hit a bridge

edit: and the hydraulic fluid from the lifting arm is now leaking onto russells car

the impact:

….and session is cancelled

Well at least Kubica has now say his car is the better one 😕

Think this weekend is cursed.

Red flag, Stroll in the wall

Kvyat in the wall, red flag again.

Bet Dani Rik is wishing he’d stuck with Red Bull now. Better to be a No.2 driver in with a shot of winning than a No.1 driver with no chance.

And Gasly outpaced by both Torro Rosso drivers!

Bet Dani Rik is wishing he’d stuck with Red Bull now.

I don’t know about that. He’s shown he can win races, now he wants to win a championship. When he switched, he knew that neither Renault or Red Bull would deliver a championship winning car this year, so the question was which team would be better in 2021 when the new rules are introduced.

If he really wants to get back into RBR it looks quite possible that there might be a seat coming free after the summer break.  Gasly now starting from the pit lane due to a weighbridge cockup in FP2…

Wonder what the Williams credit card bill will be after this weekend….?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/formula1/47830085

Another MB 1-2 tomorrow?

tomorrows race in baku is going to take a lot to beat todays paris e prix!!! 4 seasons in one race. Mario kart has nothing on it

I caught a bit of the FE race and it was a bit like a circus clown car show. People bumping and crashing every other corner. I was crazy.

I can see the safety car being busy tomorrow in the F1. The teams will have to stay sharp on their strategies to avoid being undercut etc …

Anyone else get the same brief excitement at seeing a Ferrari in the wall and then the crushing disappointment of realising it was the wrong one? 🙂

Me! Gutted when finger boy sailed past a few seconds later.

Not normally a fan of street circuits but Baku has fast become one of my favourite venues.

Whoops Nico 😄

Former world champion Nico Rosberg temporarily not welcome in F1 paddock from formula1

Gasly now starting from the pit lane due to a weighbridge cockup in FP2…

And disqualified from Qualy for fuel flow irregularities.

RB are turning into Benneton! Cheat-tastic.

IIRC, Ricciardo was excluded from the very first race with the new engines for the same thing. I know that pushing to the very limit of the regulations is the key to winning, but getting busted twice for the same thing with two different engine suppliers does make them look a bit silly, especially considering that I can’t recall any other team being being caught doing that.

Looking forward to the race today. It’s Baku, anything can happen.

Be interesting to see what LeClerc does from tenth.
Can see finger boy stuffing it into the wall again.
Perez for a podium?

Another interesting column from The Secret Aerodynamicist. I always wondered why Merc was the only team using the low-rake idea, assumed that maybe high-rake had benefits if you had to follow other cars but Merc had such a good engine that they were confident of qualifying at the front and maybe the low-rake was more efficient running in clear air. Seems to be that nobody really knows for sure and everyone just copies what Adrian Newey does because he’s really brainy.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/47838557

tomorrows race in baku is going to take a lot to beat todays paris e prix!!! 4 seasons in one race. Mario kart has nothing on it

I think one of the commentators said it was the first proper wet FE race. They need to have a think about things for the future. The cars are great but the Mickey Mouse circuits really do hold them back add the effect of rain and no pitting for fresh tyres (probably due to the short length of the races and the problems of overtaking) and it looks pretty sad. I think the Jag ePac e(iPace?) races are just as good value as the FE.

Uuuh, the FE cars use road tyres iirc, so there’s no need for them to pit, as they’ll easily last a race distance.

The circuits will get less Mickey Mouse as the cars get faster I’m sure, but that’s part of the charm for me, the fact that there is zero room for error just adds to the show, and the nature of the tracks helps keep the cars running close to eachother.