quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Kubica for 2 years?

That would be awesome!

Note, this isn't an official Williams statement, and the F1 press seems to play pretty loose with "facts" generally, but at least a semi reputable site.

Rust notwithstanding, I can't believe he's up to it.

Jeezus! What the fuck is going on with his right arm!

quote:

Originally posted by HuskySig:
Jeezus! What the fuck is going on with his right arm!

Serious rally accident, nearly severed his arm, IIRC.
From wiki

quote:

On 6 February 2011, Kubica was seriously injured in a crash at the Ronde di Andora rally, in which his right forearm was partially severed.[1] He was taking part in the rally for personal enjoyment.

Yea, I remember that accident, but I never saw any pictures of the damage to his arm. I think he needs to give up wearing short sleeve shirts...

quote:

Originally posted by HuskySig:
Yea, I remember that accident, but I never saw any pictures of the damage to his arm. I think he needs to give up wearing short sleeve shirts...

After this one it was a miracle he’s alive.

He's tested for both Renault and Williams so they must have an idea if he can do the job.
He had an insurance policy at the time of his accident that paid off on the basis of he couldn't continue to make a living racing F-1 cars. That would have to be paid back according to the news reports.

The other questions.
Does he have the raw speed?
Does he have the endurance required?
Commercial considerations?

If I heard correctly, next week's test will be his first drive in the current spec car, which seems to be more demanding than what he has tested in so far.

I find it hard to believe that Kubica has any strength in that chicken wing of an arm...

That was a less than exciting end to the season. Now the wait begins for the start to the first race in Australia.
The questions;
Will Mercedes be able to continue to have their power advantage and improve the shortcomings of this years car? Will Bottas get closer after a season with the team and a car maybe more to his liking/
Will Ferrari move closer and challenge or drop back?
Renault's engines will have an effect on several challengers, Red Bull, Mclaren, and the Renault factory team. They need to gain both horsepower and reliability at the same time, a big challenge.
Less important but maybe interesting, Williams. Will Kubica get the chance he has been working towards for many years and if so, can he get the job done? Stroll sure looked especially weak this weekend. He was seriously outperformed by Massa both in qualifying and the race, and in recent races.
His dad writing checks for a reported $80 million to secure a ride, go just so far in that world. He really hasn't looked any better in recent races than he did at the start of the season and one lucky finish at Baku made his point total look better than it was. If I was one of the worker bee's at Williams, I would be wanting more, especially with Mercedes engines.
Red Bull? It's going to be all about the engine. The car seems to be right there in most places other than power circuits.
Toro Roso/Honda?
Sauber with '18 spec Ferrari engines and new drivers?
Force India with both of the owners in extreme legal jeopardy but performing way above expectations on the track?

Glad to see Bottas wrap up the season with a win. Not sure if HAM was pushing as hard as he said or not, they were turning near identical lap times for a while.

Was also interesting to see the Red Bull being faster on the straight. Max was pulling higher speeds at the end of the straight than Kimi toward the end; maybe RBR was running less downforce.

Hopefully Honda keeps up the progress & we see a strong STR/Honda team next year.
A bump in power & hopefully reliability should make for a strong McLaren next year, they seem to have a good chassis.

Sounds like McLaren was the only veto on keeping the sharkfin/t-wings, so we may see slightly slower lap times next year.

Hopefully the ESPN coverage is at least as good as the NBCSN coverage next year.

17 weeks til Australia.

Kubica turned 100 laps at Yas Marina today, 9th quickest out of 12.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Kubica turned 100 laps at Yas Marina today, 9th quickest out of 12.

They were testing his endurance and giving him time to settle in with long runs on the harder tires than others ran. He hasn't been on this track in over 7 years when he was in a BMW F-1.
Today he will run the softer sets in the second half of the day.
I would be curious to see him matched up against Stroll to see how they compare. Massa spanked Stroll on speed last weekend in practice, qualifying and the race in his final weekend.

Update; He ran only 28 laps today, least of anyone but was .5 seconds faster than Sirotkin and marginally faster than Stroll who drove yesterday. His time put him 7th of the 14 runners.
That said, only the Williams team know exactly how he compared as everyone is testing tires, different fuel loads, time of day, etc.
Still, pretty impressive all things considered. I'm sure they didn't back to back him with Stroll since he is their cash cow and they don't want to risk embarrassment.

For being out of F1 as long as he has & with the extra effort implied to drive the '17-spec cars, I'd say that's impressive to be on the mid-field pace.

Ok, the grid is now full. Next up is winter testing.
Who will be the surprise or will there be a surprise?
Will Honda finally get some horsepower and reliability?
Will Renault (engines) be able to close the gap any?

With ESPN carrying the races, I've given up trying to figure out just what we're going to get. Not following things daily but not sure who will provide the feed, who'll call the races and will it end up as a paid streaming service.

There are rumblings that the red cars may be showing up with a monster, we'll see.

No more grid girls....
http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/42890261

"Grid girls' will no longer be used by Formula 1 from the start of the 2018 World Championship season.
Sean Bratches, managing director of commercial operations, said the change would be made "so as to be more in tune with our vision for this great sport"."

quote:

Originally posted by Mutiny:
No more grid girls....

I just saw this bad news. I always liked seeing what the girls in different countries would wear, and my husband just likes seeing the girls. He's going to be bummed.

I thought the old "F-1 Drivers are a bunch of Fags" crap died out 40 or 50 years ago, but it looks like it ain't so -- now the "Management" walks funny.

Well, I guess they will just cancel SEMA too then.

WTF??

From the comments, before my head explode and I just had to close:

quote:

"It’s too risky to employ any women now, not just the pretty ones."

Any truth to the rumor that ESPN is just going to broadcast the F1 feed and Machett, Hobbs etc. are out?