Slow news month - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Slow news month (/showthread.php?tid=626)

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RE: Slow news month - PapaofGags - 07-02-2020

Dr Helmut Marko has claimed Sebastian Vettel enquired about returning to Red Bull in 2021, but a deal to bring him back is “not possible”.

Vettel, who is currently due to be out of contract at Ferrari at the end of the 2020 season, has recently been in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbuhel, where Red Bull are the main sponsors of the slopes.

While that is nothing out of ordinary for Vettel, who has regularly visited Kitzbuhel over previous winter breaks, Marko told Auto Bild that the four-time World Champion did suggest the possibility of returning to the team on his most recent visit.

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RE: Slow news month - forzaferrari - 07-02-2020

This would cheer you up no end.....NOT 

The future of Formula One has raced into uncertainty after the UK government announced on Tuesday that it would ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035 “or earlier if a faster transition is feasible.”

They were originally due to reach the end of the road in 2040 but experts advised the government to put the brakes on them sooner in order to achieve its target of the UK emitting virtually zero carbon by 2050.

Talking at the launch event for a United Nations climate summit in November, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that 2020 would be a “defining year of climate action” for the planet. “Now is the moment. It is up to us to organise the nations of the world to do something about it,” added the acclaimed natural historian Sir David Attenborough. “The longer we leave it... the worse it is going to get.”

It is ominous for F1 as the auto racing series is a poster boy for pollution. This year F1’s ten teams will travel to a record 22 races in 22 countries over eight months which is far from an easy ride.

F1 takes to each event 150,000 kilos of broadcast equipment, 30 containers of hospitality facilities and as much as 50 tons of freight per team. It comes to more than 750 tons and logistics giant DHL uses nearly 300 trucks to transport it to F1’s 9 European races. Up to seven Boeing 747 cargo planes transport the freight to the 13 long-haul races and fly a total of 131,995 kilometres throughout the season. It takes a hefty toll on the environment and that’s without even including the emissions from the cars themselves.

F1’s cars are powered by a 1.6 liter V6 engine which the sport’s chief executive Chase Carey described in November as being “the most efficient in the world.” The driving force behind his claim is that F1’s engines are hybrids as they use the energy created under braking to run an electric motor which gives the cars environmentally-friendly power.

Hybrids were seen by many as being the future of transport but that reputation was dented by Tuesday’s announcement as these engines also fall under the UK government’s ban.

There is no suggestion that the incoming legislation would prevent F1 teams from using hybrid engines but it would prevent auto makers from selling cars in the UK which are powered by them. F1’s engines are made by Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes and Renault and the UK is a major market for them. It is also F1’s home country.

Although F1 is owned by American investment firm Liberty Media and listed on the Nasdaq with the ticker FWONK, its headquarters is in the UK which is also where seven of the ten teams are based. It means that in F1’s home country auto makers will not be allowed to sell cars which are powered by the same type of engine that is used in the sport.

Ferrari, Honda, Mercedes and Renault spend almost $1 billion annually on their F1 engines and they do this for two reasons. Firstly, to drive publicity of their cars and, secondly, to make developments with the race engines which trickle down to their road cars.

Both of these driving forces will come to a screeching halt in F1’s home country when the new legislation comes into effect and the sale of electric vehicles becomes mandatory. Combustion engines don’t promote EVs and the former doesn’t drive development of the latter. The UK is just the start. France plans to ban fossil-fuel powered cars by 2040 and Norway’s parliament has set a goal of all cars producing zero emissions by 2025.

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RE: Slow news month - NeilP - 08-02-2020

I say it every time I see this crap. Where in the hell are they going to generate all the extra electricity to meet demand? Most countries run very high 90's percent capacity of their electric grids. God it used to register when everyone in the country switched the kettle on to make a cup of Joe at half time in soccer matches can you imagine the demand at 6 pm when everyone gets home from work and plugs the family saloon in for the night!!!

Maybe they will build another 100 Coal fire power stations to meet that demand!!!!

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RE: Slow news month - morini - 08-02-2020

(08-02-2020, 01:20 AM)NeilP Wrote:  I say it every time I see this crap. Where in the hell are they going to generate all the extra electricity to meet demand? Most countries run very high 90's percent capacity of their electric grids.  God it used to register when everyone in the country switched the kettle on to make a cup of Joe at half time in soccer matches can you imagine the demand at 6 pm when everyone gets home from work and plugs the family saloon in for the night!!!

Maybe they will build another 100 Coal fire power stations to meet that demand!!!!

Exactly this people! Neil sees it ^^^^

I regularly have friendly arguments with a tree hugger colleague on my current client site - he's actually a really good bloke and we get on well (doesn't stop me from trying to wind him up at every opportunity though). 

Electric vehicles are NOT the answer and probably never will be as the world has no means to generate enough clean electricity to make them viable. It might make the individuals who pay an exorbitant premium on purchase price feel better about themselves, but if they think it through they are actually making the situation worse, not better. Using an electric car is simply moving the problem from the point of consumption of energy to the point of production of energy (i.e sweeping it under the carpet). I read somewhere that running a 100% electric car would push more CO2 into the atmosphere than running a petrol car assuming the energy used by the electric car was produced by a coal fired power station. As all electric vehicles energy consumption is effectively "new demand" then it follows that all of the energy used to power them will ultimately be provided by coal. Until such point that there are no coal fired power stations on earth that will always be true.

Hydrogen fuel cells look promising, but until they become technically viable the only real answer for now is for everyone to try and reduce the amount petrol and diesel they use. With this approach in mind it makes hybrid vehicles (the F1 regenerative variety not the "plug in" charge from the grid type) a very sensible and worthy approach. In purely simplistic terms they convert wasted energy into useful energy which is then used to increase the distance you can travel on the same quantity of conventional fuel thereby genuinely reducing the amount of CO2 pumped into the atmos. What I'm saying is, at this point in time regenerative hybrid vehicles are actually better for the environment than purely electric vehicles. Boris can't see this though as he is banning hybrids from 2035 as part of his latest ill thought out policy. That should tell anyone (who doesn't already realise) exactly what grade of f*ckwit Boris Johnson really is. Oh, and don't think we the consumers are going to be financially better off with "cheaper to run" EV's because all that tax her maj guvmunt no longer gets from petrol and diesel has to come from somewhere else. I wonder where?

<TL;DR>
Don't think electric vehicles are cleaner for the environment - they're not.

<rant over>

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RE: Slow news month - forzaferrari - 08-02-2020

Pirelli: Positive start to the day, Charles LeClerc completed 33 laps of @circuitodejerez this morning with the 18" development tyres, more to do after lunch.

   

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RE: Slow news month - PapaofGags - 09-02-2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z-dJ35fOiM

Only a few weeks to go peoples 

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RE: Slow news month - morini - 09-02-2020

(09-02-2020, 02:15 AM)PapaofGags Wrote:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z-dJ35fOiM

Only a few weeks to go peoples 

Can't come soon enough. Especially after the disappointment of yesterday.

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RE: Slow news month - forzaferrari - 09-02-2020

18" tyre test dates

   

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RE: Slow news month - forzaferrari - 10-02-2020

A few screen grabs from the Mercedes livery reveal

   

   

   

   

   

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RE: Slow news month - Jody Barton - 10-02-2020

Totally shocked that it is Silver and Green, with a bit of red. Last years car though, and the spec they had at the reveal event. Are they actually having a car launch this year, or do we just get to see it when they rock up to testing in Barcelona?

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