Formula Renault 3.5 - Nurburgring Weekend Thread

[chunterer]

I'm going to kick off the dicussions by suggesting that Jules Bianchi needs to notch up at least a win this weekend if he really is going to challenge Bird for the rest of the year. But how much does it really matter to Bianchi, as he's got one eye on and F1 drive next year surely?

Otherwise, with so much driving talent in the series some guys are already looking out of touch with the points leaders.

Rossi needs some consistency or he will be left behind, Magnussen is perhaps the most consistent of the newcomers, and when will Frijns really get into his stride to fulfill the promise he showed in pre-season testing?

So guys and gals who's getting the job done so far and who isn't?

[bella]

for me it's being tarnished a bit by the new car not being as reliable as the old one. complacency had set in - it's easy to get used to championships not being decided by dodgy cars. i'd be interested to know whether the whole grid is seeing the same issues and what percentage of their races are being hindered by something important not working.

on the driver side i guess i'd like to see frijns continue to bring it to the far more experienced drivers and magnussen, and i'm *really* interested to see how sorensen goes from here. i wonder how different things would be if he hadn't had that failure at motorland?

denmark goes for years without a decent driver in single seaters (the mighty tom k aside) and two come along at once

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

for me it's being tarnished a bit by the new car not being as reliable as the old one. complacency had set in - it's easy to get used to championships not being decided by dodgy cars. i'd be interested to know whether the whole grid is seeing the same issues and what percentage of their races are being hindered by something important not working.

on the driver side i guess i'd like to see frijns continue to bring it to the far more experienced drivers and magnussen, and i'm *really* interested to see how sorensen goes from here. i wonder how different things would be if he hadn't had that failure at motorland?

denmark goes for years without a decent driver in single seaters (the mighty tom k aside) and two come along at once

Yes spot on, there's still some gremilns to be sorted out which is a shame, but on the other hand at least it's random who it affects!

The Danes, yes..... Once upon a time (great tv show by the way...) There was Nielsen, Nissen and Thiim,

Then the next lot was Magnussen, Watt and TK (Jason was a mega racer....)

Sorensen's been a bit of a revelation. Although he'd not been someone I had really noticed apart from seeing his name crop up in FR2.0 a fair bit? He's obviously one of those drivers that just keeps getting better the more experience they get, which is ideal at this level.

Ramos will be interesting for me, he really did show flashes of real promise last season when teammates with Rossi, but he always seemed to throw things away iirc?

[bella]

i don't know about ramos. his cv suggests that he already knows how to not throw things away, and in terms of fr3.5 grids he wasn't exactly inexperienced or from nowhere. it'll be very interesting to see what he can do with a car and a teammate who are both clearly up to the job of winning - not all that different from his year with fortec i suppose.

i like sorensen because him and stanaway are posterchildren for the relevance of formula ford in a young drivers experience. granted, sorensen's done frenault, f3 in all shapes and forms and that f masters thing in germany too... come to think of it i bet he's got a really interesting insight into the current single seater ladder for that very reason.

i really hope frijns and yelloly can keep bird honest for the title battle this weekend too. it's good for the credibility of the series from all perspectives that there's a mix of 'unsigned' drivers like those two and f1 trained and filtered guys like bird, bianchi, rossi and to a point williamson too.

worth bearing in mind that those two are also the main contenders for the f1 demo drive for the non-f1 signed highest placed championship finisher too.

[ptclaus98]

Maybe I'm jumping the gun but Rossi needs to start winning soon, because he really needs to at least be in the top 3 to keep his F1 dreams alive. What started out as a promising year for the three promising young Americans is looking like a horror story ATM. Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but the next few weeks are crucial regarding whether they can carve their way into the elite of their classes or whether they'll be also rans who end up in IndyCar or sportscars. And while IndyCar needs(and boy do I mean NEEDS) them, I'd rather them come back with damage done on the world stage than be spit out with no acclaim. The list is long and varied with guys who have been through the grinder, and their careers, for the most part, have gone sour.

[HaydenFan]

Originally Posted by ptclaus98

Maybe I'm jumping the gun but Rossi needs to start winning soon, because he really needs to at least be in the top 3 to keep his F1 dreams alive. What started out as a promising year for the three promising young Americans is looking like a horror story ATM. Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but the next few weeks are crucial regarding whether they can carve their way into the elite of their classes or whether they'll be also rans who end up in IndyCar or sportscars. And while IndyCar needs(and boy do I mean NEEDS) them, I'd rather them come back with damage done on the world stage than be spit out with no acclaim. The list is long and varied with guys who have been through the grinder, and their careers, for the most part, have gone sour.

I'm not too worried about Rossi. While not a personal sponsor driven driver, he does have the backing of Caterham F1. And the team simply can't give him a good car.

Who are the other Americans? Are you talking about Daly and Rosenzweig? I'm not too worried about Daly. He's had a run of back luck (mostly not his doing) in the couple of rounds since his win. He's not too far off the points total (or equivalent) of where Bottas was last season, or even runner-up James Calado. Plus he just had a test with Force India. Just a straight line run, but he has gotten his foot in the door. And the other guy, well, this is year 3 of WSR for him. And outside a pole at Spa (I think in the wet), he has looked like all other lower midpack drivers.

And trust me, pt, I'm the bigger pessimist.

[Mekola]

Another driver change for this weekend: at Arden Caterham, Lewis Williamson will be replaced by António Félix Da Costa since this round. Red Bull Junior Team was deluded by Williamson's achievements this year, then now they trust on Da Costa to reach better results.

[HaydenFan]

Originally Posted by Mekola

Another driver change for this weekend: at Arden Caterham, Lewis Williamson will be replaced by António Félix Da Costa since this round. Red Bull Junior Team was deluded by Williamson's achievements this year, then now they trust on Da Costa to reach better results.

I think he is Red Bull's next guy in line if a Toro Rossi seat opens up now.

Nürburgring is where the season settles down. Past Monaco and Spa, which are true extremes of the sport. I think the series really will start to show who's who in the title fight. You still have 9 guys within 2 wins of the title leader, and 8 drivers have at least one podium. It is again close, and will certainly go down to the last weekend in Spain.

[bella]

surely they just need and want a simulator monkey at this point? i don't think they have anything genuinely invested in anyone now before sainz jnr, and kvyat behind him.

fair play if they think he's going to make more of the drive than williamson has done so far. somehow, i doubt it.

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by HaydenFan

I'm not too worried about Rossi. While not a personal sponsor driven driver, he does have the backing of Caterham F1. And the team simply can't give him a good car.

Who are the other Americans? Are you talking about Daly and Rosenzweig? I'm not too worried about Daly. He's had a run of back luck (mostly not his doing) in the couple of rounds since his win. He's not too far off the points total (or equivalent) of where Bottas was last season, or even runner-up James Calado. Plus he just had a test with Force India. Just a straight line run, but he has gotten his foot in the door. And the other guy, well, this is year 3 of WSR for him. And outside a pole at Spa (I think in the wet), he has looked like all other lower midpack drivers.

And trust me, pt, I'm the bigger pessimist.

The third driver is Michael Lewis. Rosenzweig will probably end up in tin tops or out of racing.

And I'm not buying that it's simply Arden. It's his second year in cars and his 4th in Europe and he still isn't the type to be blazingly quick in quali, and that's what gets you noticed in F1. But that could be let go if he were winning, and in a field full of rookies(albeit dynamite rookies) he needs to be winning. Of course, I don't know why they HAD to link up with Arden. Fortec was going very well, and if not them, then ISR is also very good and there's history there.

[HaydenFan]

Originally Posted by ptclaus98

The third driver is Michael Lewis. Rosenzweig will probably end up in tin tops or out of racing.

And I'm not buying that it's simply Arden. It's his second year in cars and his 4th in Europe and he still isn't the type to be blazingly quick in quali, and that's what gets you noticed in F1. But that could be let go if he were winning, and in a field full of rookies(albeit dynamite rookies) he needs to be winning. Of course, I don't know why they HAD to link up with Arden. Fortec was going very well, and if not them, then ISR is also very good and there's history there.

I don't see much in the results to suggest Michael Lewis is going to be the next American in F1.

I consider this year as almost another championship for Rossi as he'd only run one year in WSR with the old car. You talk about being quick in qualifying, but Wickens had 7 poles in 17 races last year, and only Mercedes gave him a DTM seat.

[ivanalesi]

I thought Razia was the new "simulator monkey" for Red Bull in place of Hartley? I'd be surprised to see Da Costa at Red Bull, I mean it's kind of late considering his results against other Red Bull Juniors

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by HaydenFan

I don't see much in the results to suggest Michael Lewis is going to be the next American in F1.

I consider this year as almost another championship for Rossi as he'd only run one year in WSR with the old car. You talk about being quick in qualifying, but Wickens had 7 poles in 17 races last year, and only Mercedes gave him a DTM seat.

If Wickens had that good a season just two years prior, he'd be with Red Bull Juniors, and we wouldn't be having this discussion. As far as not seeing much in Lewis's results, he had a better year in Italian F3 than Rossi did in Formula Masters against a similar quality field. Success in F3 can put you in a really good position for a paying future, and he had that success last year and got himself into a Ferrari F1 car for a test in which he actually got to drive the car competitively. He won at Spa and Monza, two very good places to win as a junior driver, and most importantly, he has actual legit sponsorship from some fairly big companies and has a relationship with a top line team in Prema. He could have time to grow, but I'd still like to see him become more competitive as I think he truly has it in him.

[bella]

bianchi on pole (finally!), and a good day to have 'muller' in your name - both walter and nico qualified well.

our two newbies were 9th and 11th for ramos and da costa, between 1 and 1.3 seconds off bianchi and frijns' pace.

race start at 2pm local time. ought to be an interesting one - unlikely to be exciting unless it chucks it down halfway through (it was trying really hard about 15mins ago).

450 seconds of drs action per race for a 1m40s lap - for those who were keeping an eye on it

[ptclaus98]

This is horrific for Rossi. Hopefully the sponsors are as understanding as the commentators.

[bella]

current weather conditions are wet, but not spa wet. it's passing occasional rain. *generally* here it's only wet enough for wet tyres for a couple of laps, the best strategy seems to be to stay with slicks and wait for a dry line since the rain doesn't last long. it was similar last year, but a *lot* colder.

i reckon if it rains very close to the start on the grid there could be a mix of tyres but otherwise it'll be a slicks job. perhaps some might gamble on a late pitstop to try and take advantage of a late rain shower and a short amount of time on wets?

bit interesting this one

frijns is on pole from sorensen, bianchi, pic and ramos. the latter is doing an excellent job this weekend, but so far the hero has to be da costa. i wonder what the situation is behind his speed relative to the other arden drivers so far this season. it's making rossi's drive at monaco in qualifying (albeit a bit short on race pace) look all the more impressive.

[chunder]

Gotta be ruthless here

I managed about 6 laps of this on eurosport player before falling asleep

Staggeringly boring, should be good but in reality.......


oops did it again!

[chunterer]

I must try Eurosport player next time then as spent too long messing about on web trying to find a link!!

By the looks of things it must've been an odd race 2....

Yelloly won by over 27 secs??!!

[bella]

it was an ABSOLUTELY superb race. it's not even a matter of opinion. chunder is talking out of his arse. it was even better if you could see a timing screen too - sorensen drove a cracking race and really deserved to win but yelloly called it perfectly. he said they'd decided he'd come in when slicks were no longer viable. that might sound blindingly obvious particularly when you remember the circuit dries really quickly here but he was the only one who kept it on the track and came in when he thought it was right to do so. also interesting is that the vast majority of guys who came in almost straight away were the rookies, of them only sorensen and frijns stayed out.

sorensen would have won it had he not ended up with slicks at his first stop. he was a bit vague about exactly what was going on but for a full tyre change the loss of time was around 30-35seconds from pit in to pit out. he stopped, they put slicks on it and then stopped the next lap for wets. awkward!

catch it on espn or whenever eurosport choose to show it, cause it was very entertaining.

[Mekola]

I could see the finale of the second race. Great move by Sorensen over Negrao for 2nd place! Yelloly's win was dominant. Poor Rosenzweig that finished on a gravel trap just before the chequered flag.