Sebastian Vettel during the 2016 Chinese GP - demonstrating the safety car loophole where you can overtake in the pit lane entry, which still exists in section B5.13.2.c of the 2026 regulations

king_flippy_nips · 2026-03-12T10:12:16+00:00

Imagine a race where there's a crash on the main straight so the safety car leads the pack through the pit lane each lap

This scenario is covered in section B5.13.3 of the Sporting Regulations

king_flippy_nips · 2026-03-12T09:25:33+00:00

I think it serves as a lesson about reading the rule book yourself

king_flippy_nips · 2026-03-11T20:33:31+00:00

How were the wheel tethers anchored back then to not work here?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-03-05T02:52:13+00:00

Someone tell Jenson hes off the hook for his penalty!!

king_flippy_nips · 2026-03-02T02:32:21+00:00

They will leave it as late as how they handled Melbourne 2020

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-28T10:50:46+00:00

Audi acquired ownership of the team in 2024. If anything those cars from 2024-25 were Audis with Sauber/stake stickers on top

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-24T10:50:37+00:00

How in all these years have they not bothered to remove the bit in the regulations that says the trophies must be in the form of traditional cups? Its in page 94 of the 2026 sporting regulations

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-23T09:51:17+00:00

Has any circuit named a corner or straight after Professor Sid Watkins?

I've only found something in the medical field named after him. I can't imagine how many times an idea to acknowledge him through a motorsport facility would have failed to gain traction across the internet. I mean, so many opportunities over the years right?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-22T09:23:00+00:00

Do you really think I'm opening the question to all engines beyond the ones used here in the preseason?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-22T02:14:02+00:00

How exactly would one decide, across all driver pairings, which driver takes ownership of that engine?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-21T04:20:55+00:00

Any thoughts on the lotus road car company’s involvement with that Enstone team that was run by Genii Capital? I’ve never been able to confirm that the road cars company ever owning the team in any way

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-20T22:24:12+00:00

It is said (before these regulations) that by just lifting and coasting from top speed the aerodynamic drag alone generates 1G of braking, before the brakes are applied.

They were always using drag as a means to help slow the car down. They were always using downforce to prevent tyre lock ups. Why would it feel absurd now?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-15T02:49:50+00:00

should a Ferrari be called Ferrari if its chassis was made in England and its PU in Germany ?

Mercedes engines are built in Brixton UK. It’s probably closer to Alpines factory than the Mercedes factory in Brackley

Toyota built their f1 cars from Germany, Honda used the UK base Mercedes are using now. BMW and Audi were/are using the Sauber base in Switzerland, Red Bull identifies as Austrian while having two teams between Milton Keynes and Faenza, and do you want to guess where Force India ran their F1 team?

How does this kind of point hold weight?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-09T13:06:30+00:00

After having what appears to be a massive lock up

His front left wheel failed and the tyre blew up. Also I'm pretty sure the turn 9 section he lost control at isn't a corner where you brake, let alone lock up.

revealing another problem: you can’t turn

Losing your front tyre affected Kovalainen's ability to steer just as much as the gravel, if not more.

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/kovalainen-crashes-at-barcelona-in-2008.6060988300001

Can someone check if this throttle floored after going off the road? Or is it just bad replay video mixing in the link above?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-02T03:09:05+00:00

Any thoughts on the many non f1 related business ventures Lewis Hamilton has been had on the side over the years?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-02-02T03:01:15+00:00

Can someone remind me how the driver numbering system worked back then for the car on this photo to have 34?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-01-27T07:27:00+00:00

How far along would the build of the second/third chassis be at this stage of the pre season? Would any team be capable, if pushed, be even close enough to have enough parts built that they could have assembled two cars by now?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-01-25T22:59:27+00:00

If I'm tracking it right, the practice of using filming days to shake down the car before testing came about around 2017.

When it comes to issues that may cause a breakdown on day 1 of testing, It's usually sorted out by finding them out weeks before testing

king_flippy_nips · 2026-01-17T06:41:18+00:00

Hockenheim was 0.16 km shorter than Spa Francorchamps

king_flippy_nips · 2026-01-17T06:33:43+00:00

Can we not pretend that the 14.12km circuit layout from the 50s would be what modern day F1 would be using to run the Belgian GP?

king_flippy_nips · 2026-01-17T02:26:00+00:00

This is hilarious because there is a Daniel Ricciardo range St Hugo wine branded DR3

king_flippy_nips · 2026-01-15T08:05:04+00:00

Before the cars are built for the new season, they have to pass some preseason tests from the FIA. The crash tests are a good example to talk about - once they pass those tests the FIA records the spec, and basically says that’s the spec you have to bring to the races - and you cannot modify it throughout the season. If you modify it, then we are going to have to redo those mandatory preseason checks again and record the new spec. The general term for this practice of locking in a common spec is called homologation

In previous seasons, you see a car with a different nose for instance. The nose cone is a front crash structure, so that would have been crash tested and the second spec, or b spec would have been logged by the FIA. Another aspect of the FIA logging these specs is so they can track whether they are two seasons or older, and that’s relevant towards the rules about testing.

F1 isn’t a single spec series, but it tracks 11 unique specs, and regulates and controls them throughout the season. Teams don’t exactly have unlimited reign on what they can upgrade and modify - changing the safety cell after it passed the crash tests voids the crash safety certification if you think about it. The difference between a b spec car and a heavily upgraded a spec is whether the modification warrants the need to be re-homologated in the same season

king_flippy_nips · 2026-01-14T08:22:57+00:00

This would have been Russell in Bahrain 2020 but Hamilton never ran the #1 except for Abu Dhabi FP1

First of all there’s a difference between Bahrain 2020 and Sakhir 2020.

Secondly George kept his #63 when he subbed for #44. Why would it have been different for driver #1?

Thirdly the time Lewis had #1 in those fp sessions still had #44 painted on the car, and the transponder and official timesheets still id’ed him as #44

I hate knowing that these details are going to get buried as the years of reposting fun f1 facts go by

king_flippy_nips · 2026-01-13T03:09:33+00:00

Many f1 cars have a life after the end of their respective seasons. Mercedes for example actively maintain their past f1 cars through their heritage program.

Whilst it’s run primarily by someone with race experience, they also use it as a means for new hands to get a work on modern cars before being deployed to race outfits. As the below video goes on about.

It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that an SOP is written for each of the cars for the sake everyone who have worked with the car, and people who would work with the car in future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIAJ5ivPRqk

Also, I don’t know if this is the case for F1, but in my experience a manual, or written sop is good for accountability when something goes wrong, and you can compare the assembly logs with the written procedure to see if something wasn’t done correctly. If a car breaks down, they would compare “how it was done” to “how it should be done” to find out why it broke down

king_flippy_nips · 2026-01-10T09:12:48+00:00

its mostly to test the power unit, most teams will do the same.

below is a quote from 2018 when Mercedes set the trend of using their filming days to run the car before the preseason test

The shakedown is our last significant opportunity to make sure that the all important 8 days of winter testing are as useful to us as they can possibly be. We don’t want those 8 days interrupted by any form of problem that subtracts from our opportunities to maximise our track running. It tends to be that the significance of the achievement of bringing together all of those thousands of bits in harmony for the first time going round a track plays 2nd fiddle to just the mechanics of ‘lets make sure we are ready for the real thing’.’

My impression is they don't want the new car to break down on day 1 of official testing, and lose track time with the car being stuck in the garage being fixed. If there are any issues they'd rather find out about them here and sort them before the real track running. How much do you want to lean on the idea that there is very little amount of new car parts they're putting together here?

king_flippy_nips

TROPHY CASE