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20 Oct 2014, 18:21 (Ref:3466860) | #401 | ||
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20 Oct 2014, 18:31 (Ref:3466868) | #402 | |||
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Buhk can still win the meaningless overall championship. I would have thought WRT might put Rast and Vanthoor together and just dominate Baku to get that title too, but they may not like each other much at the moment. |
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20 Oct 2014, 23:48 (Ref:3466955) | #403 | ||
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LeMansFan, it could have been 10m, and the Mercedes still would have hit the wall, hard. Besides, with the pits and paddock right there, the physical space to add room, along a straight, I might add, simply doesn't exist.
They do have run-off driver's left on the final right-hander there at Zolder, and I kind of wish they would go back to the original, quick, pair of corners at the end of the lap. I don't think it would hurt the racing. There would be fewer, if any, punts happening at that point anymore. Also, they now have all that added run-off at Turn 1, so a faster approach wouldn't be such a great concern. Divxx, that's a bit strong, to say it's nearly impossible to pass at Baku. It can be tricky, but there are multiple places where it can be done. The unusual profile, and long duration, of the two hairpins, allows for some very interesting lines, and potential for moves into, through, or coming off of them. The imperfect grip condition of the road can also make it easier to jump a competitor coming off of about any of the slower corners. The damp track, and red flag for an Audi in the second chicane, didn't help things in Race 1 last year. The long caution for the loose curbing at the 11/12 chicane, pit window delay, and Tandy watering the track from his Porsche, didn't exactly help us get the best read on the track in ideal conditions in Race 2, either. Not to mention, they washed the track early in the day, and presumably, that took off a fair amount of what rubber had been built up. I do think a few changes would certainly help improve the racing at Baku, but the basic course is solid. 1. Just get rid of that incidental chicane after Turn 10 (the long, high-speed right-hander around the back of the course); the drivers were practically ignoring it last year. 2. The big one would be to remove the first chicane, remove the second chicane (the stupidly tight one), and turn the corner after that second chicane into something like the revised Turn 10 at Singapore, so they aren't too fast entering that narrower section of road. With the first chicane being gone, there would also be plenty of run-out for that right-hander onto the narrower street, if someone went straight on. 3. Finally, if they keep the final chicane (before pit-in), fine, but re-profile it, please, so that we don't have multiple cars wiped out at that point, again. Open it up some. I wonder, with the larger field, if they will still be able to have all that chicanery in the pit entry and pit exit. They might need to sacrifice some of that to provide extra length for the actual pit boxes. Last edited by Purist; 21 Oct 2014 at 00:08. |
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22 Oct 2014, 09:48 (Ref:3467337) | #404 | ||
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Purist, you'll be pleased to know that most of that is happening! The first chicane is definitely gone, and the other two will be dramatically altered.
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22 Oct 2014, 19:07 (Ref:3467447) | #405 | ||
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Team Zakspeed will also enter the Baku round, drivers will be Alon Day and Andreas Simonsen.
https://gt3series.wordpress.com/2014...or-bss-finale/ |
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23 Oct 2014, 00:24 (Ref:3467501) | #406 | ||
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JackN, that is good news indeed. That ought to provide good scope for slipstreaming past the pits and down into the hairpin; it seemed like the Turn 1/2 chicane was right where the guys were really beginning to see the effects of the slipstream kick in.
It was a pretty quick street circuit last year to begin with, so these changes will make it very rapid. BTW, where are you finding this information? It's not the easiest circuit for which to find a good, detailed track map even, and it's only getting confused further with all the F1 talk swirling around due to their circuit coming in 2016. |
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23 Oct 2014, 16:29 (Ref:3467668) | #407 | ||
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24 Oct 2014, 16:28 (Ref:3467980) | #408 | ||
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From some pictures and captioned information I've seen, there's going to be a Maserati GranTurismo MC GT3 giving VIP laps at Baku. It's too bad we don't have one of those trident-badged machines on the race grid.
You know, I'm tempted to say that, with this event, I'd like to see up to a handful of the other GT3s, which maybe only have national-level homologation, be allowed to run. They could just not make them eligible for championship points. It would add some spice to the grid, and give good, added publicity to some of these lesser-known makes/models. FIA GT used to have the G2 and similar classifications for such machinery, like the Gillet Vertigo. |
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25 Oct 2014, 09:10 (Ref:3468218) | #409 | ||
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26 Oct 2014, 10:20 (Ref:3468642) | #410 | ||
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Totally agree. Maserati's presence in racing has been pretty meager for some years now. Actually, almost non-existent apart from the Trofeo series....
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29 Oct 2014, 19:07 (Ref:3469795) | #411 | ||
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If you're subscribed to it, which I'm not, Autosport also has the story.
http://www.racer.com/latest-stories/...for-bss-finale On the whole, I'm not sure that these circuit revisions really help anything. Without the removal of the first chicane, overtaking into the first hairpin isn't improved. Maybe, the removal of the second chicane, and the tightening of the turn after, will give an opportunity there. However, shortening the runs to and from the second hairpin seems to eliminate pretty much any chance of overtaking on that end of the circuit. The run into the final chicane is now definitely too short. And based on last year, they really need the full run to that roundabout after Turn 10 to possibly make effective use of the slipstream on that stretch. (And yes, I've also left my comment under the article itself.) |
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29 Oct 2014, 20:11 (Ref:3469805) | #412 | ||
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Damn, I thought they were getting rid of the first chicane too. Was surprised by the quality of racing last year though, so will remain optimistic
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1 Nov 2014, 11:58 (Ref:3470475) | #413 | ||
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The stream is geo blocked in the UK
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1 Nov 2014, 12:18 (Ref:3470479) | #414 | ||
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Pathetic SRO. Blocked in the UK, as they seem to do at random, so that one man's dog can watch it on BT Sport. Same pigheadedness as WRC at the moment.
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1 Nov 2014, 12:49 (Ref:3470484) | #415 | ||
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1 Nov 2014, 12:52 (Ref:3470485) | #416 | ||
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#5 Audi's weekend is over, car is too heavily damaged after its crash.
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1 Nov 2014, 15:12 (Ref:3470530) | #417 | ||
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What happened to the #5, and where on the course was it?
Plenty of guys looked to be blowing, or at least abusing, that first chicane. The final chicane looks no worse than the one they had there last year. The inner radius of the revised second hairpin is absurdly tight, which doesn't surprise me. Aside from guys pulling out of the way in practice, I don't see overtaking being terribly likely at that end of the track. I really did like that tricky approach to and profile of the second hairpin on last year's course. It was a long enough corner, with a unique shape, that guys could come up with different lines to use there. Now, they're all just following each other, line-astern, through the new hairpin. Maybe, they could have been quicker if Practice 2 was dry, but in any case, the average speed last year to this is about the same. They're quicker for the run out of the first hairpin, and maybe a bit quicker exiting that fast right-hander at Turn 9, I think they're calling it now. Then again, they're slower on the narrower road section, and between the second hairpin and the final chicane. |
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2 Nov 2014, 06:20 (Ref:3470740) | #418 | ||
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Drama filled race one, i wont post spoilers incase people didn't get to watch with the race being so early but at least some cars are left for race 2.
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2 Nov 2014, 06:53 (Ref:3470751) | #419 | ||
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I missed it but waiting for SRO to put the race up on YouTube.
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2 Nov 2014, 15:05 (Ref:3470844) | #420 | ||
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I hope we get them in a decent time frame, but they've been known to forget about the geo-blocking for months.
On another note, I guess Misano will be alright. Slovakia wasn't bad, but it's never really jumped out at me. On the other hand, that's going to have to be some street circuit in Moscow to stand in for Zandvoort. |
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2 Nov 2014, 15:12 (Ref:3470846) | #421 | ||
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Wish they would go back to Adria for a night race again.
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2 Nov 2014, 20:03 (Ref:3470904) | #422 | ||
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It was very unfortunate that no one was punished for cutting the opening chicane and gaining tons of positions. As far as I can tell, out of 6-7 cars that jumped a bunch of people at the start, only the Phoenix Audi voluntarily handed back ill-gotten gains.
Critically, Rast's track cutting ultimately resulted in his teammate Vanthoor beating Buhk to the overall title since he never should have been in position to battle, and wreck, the Mercedes. But that's street circuits... which we'll see more and more of apparently. Good season overall though, definitely an improvement over last year. |
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2 Nov 2014, 20:10 (Ref:3470907) | #423 | ||
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Somebody asked if the McLaren F1 was going to be like the Ferrari F40, Gordon Murray replied, "I don't think so, there's no one at McLaren who can weld that badly." |
2 Nov 2014, 22:42 (Ref:3470964) | #424 | |
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If I was HTP, I would have been tempted to send the Wolf out to take out the #1. Rast is an idiot and tried to defend his actions as a 'racing incident'.
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4 Nov 2014, 02:16 (Ref:3471418) | #425 | ||
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The two-class, GT1/GT2 format of the previous FIA GT worked better at Adria than a striaght GT3 race would. Also, technically, Adria is below the required length, since it's less than 3.0-km to the lap.
In addition, if the draw is largely the novelty of a race into darkness, the appeal for me certainly is only going to last for so long. As for Misano, I think passing into Turns 1 and 7 will be reasonably possible. The profile of the entry into Turn 8, and those kinks on the approach to Turn 12, will make passing at either of those locations rather difficult. For the cars at least, it would have been better if Misano had remained anti-clockwise in running direction. We'll see how Misano goes, I guess, but if they were looking for a slightly less mainstream Italian circuit, I might have gone with Vallelunga. |
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