In Canada where it gets to -25C regularly in the winter and the distances between cities can be quite long (over 400 km between Ottawa/Toronto) your car might not have the range to get you there.
But how often do you travel that far? I don't know about your situation or Canada's but in the UK the average journey is only 12km. I know for me, out of a 250 mile range EV, I could get around 6-7 regular weeks of driving out of it before I'd need to charge it. That's not to gloss over the other problems with EV's, of which I agree there are many, but range is often given as an excuse when in reality, the range of EV's easily covers 99.99% of journeys.
1 hour ago, Luseth said:
hydrogen and EV cars
Hydrogen fuel cells are arguably the better solution than pure EV's as they can have significantly higher range, quicker to refuel and you don't need a drive / garage at home. The big problem with Hydrogen fuel cells though is efficiency; as in the energy you get to put to the road vs the production, transportation, transmission losses (substations, pylons etc. not gearboxes) etc. From whatever power source we use to produce hydrogen, only about 25%-30% of it actually makes it to road whereas pure EV can skip a lot of those steps making them about 50%-70% efficient.
Now we could just burn the hydrogen in an ICE but you then still have all the problems of producing the hydrogen in the first place and burning hydrogen still produces things we don't want like NOx emissions so that's out too.
EV's have a number of problems especially when it comes to electricity generation and infrastructure on a large scale. But they are crazily efficient when compared to other options; 2-3x over hydrogen fuel cells and more like 4x to ICE, so I struggle to see an alternative to EV's.
I think it’s more points for Haas than the last 2 years combined! Magnussen was definitely the stand out for me, I don’t know how he didn’t get driver of the day.
Overall though some terrible luck for Red Bull and brilliant luck for Merc. Merc were way off the pace though, being 40 seconds or so off the leader at the safety car. I hope they can get on top of the car and make it a 3 way battle but that’s a lot of time to gain.
It was great seeing Ferrari on the podium again. All those years watching Schumacher I can still hum along to the Italian national anthem 😄
So silly season is fully underway with drivers coming, going and switching team.
I think most people have seen about Bottas is leaving Merc to move to Alfa Romeo. I always find it slightly odd when a driver leaves a top team to go to a midfield / back of the grid as Bottas will have even less chance of scoring points than he did winning at Merc. Still, I suppose, they're racers to the core so will take any seat they can to continue racing. Though I think it's a shame to see Kimi going, he's very marmite but I fall on the side of loving him. His general no fucks given attitude is great in the very stuck up, media centric corporate world that modern F1 is.
Obviously the big news is Russell to Mercedes next year which is fantastic news. Russell seems a star of the future but I do feel it's a year too late as with the new regs next year, I think it would have been better to get him acclimatised to the team and their practices this year ready for next year. In hindsight this would potentially also be a benefit of fighting the Red Bulls as, I like most, think Russell is faster than Bottas. Still hopefully Merc have designed a good car for next year as I'd love to see Hamilton and Russell fighting for the WDC.
And finally, announced today is Albon will back and taking Russell's seat at Williams. I still can't make my mind up about Albon though, on the one had he tanked hard in the Red Bull but in junior series, other F1 seats and his stint in DTM he's been pretty good. Added to that, take someone like Gasly, also tanked hard at Red Bull but is killing it now with Alpha Tauri or even Perez who isn't having a great year in the Red Bull. It does make you wonder if it's something to do with the team or the car is so focused on Max that no-one else can drive it. Either way, good to see him back and to see how he does.
We've still got some of the 'old' guard around but the future of F1 is exciting with Russell, Norris, Sainz and LeClerc all being young and in top (or top-ish) teams.
That's a good point, Aston did do better this weekend, especially Vettel who looks like he might have found some pace in his new team. My opinion of Vettel varies constantly but he is a 4 times WDC so it would be a shame to see him stuck in mediocrity.
Ricciardo disappointed again though, after Spain I'd hoped he was on an upward trajectory as I think McLaren have the strongest driver pairing on the grid, only really challenged by Ferrari's pairing. I suppose though, Monaco is a track where "you have to be one with the car" and if you're not then you are really going to struggle.
I know how sleeping beauty felt after that race....well maybe not the beautiful part.
Monaco continues to always be about the Saturday and is the most interesting and exciting part as the drivers push in qualifying. It was strange seeing Hamilton so far down given that Bottas wasn't really too far off his normal qualifying position. Though his DNF and Hamilton being unable to make any advancement up the order has really swung both championships. Though I think Monaco is a one off, Merc have rarely been strong there even when they've dominated the rest of the season. So I think next race normal order will be resumed with them fighting for the front with Red Bull.
Ferrari were the surprise though, previous races it's been McLaren who've looked more like the third team. I wonder if Ferrari were the reverse of Mercedes, and they'll drop down the order again when we go back to more 'normal' circuits.
Yeah, yesterday was an alright race. I think the DRS was a little too strong so it made overtaking in to T1 a little too easy but it was good to see Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas going wheel to wheel for the win. One thing I couldn't work out for the fastest lap was why Mercedes didn't do it a lap later - it would have only given Bottas 1 lap to go for it but it would have prevented Red Bull and Verstappen going for it.
I agree about Norris too, he's doing very well in that McLaren though his 3rd in the WDC is bolstered by Bottas' and Perez's current lack of points. So sadly, I don't think Norris will hold on to it but I can see him managing to bag 5th in the WDC behind the 2 Merc's and Red Bull's. Ricciardo had a mare of qualifying but he made up for it the race and I think he could help McLaren get 3rd in the WCC again.
I don't think Ferrari will pull out though, they do GT racing but their big selling point is F1. I think the world and markets would need to change drastically for them to actually pull out. It is somewhat a shame to see them struggling but it's the nature of F1; pre Schumacher reign during the early 00's it was all McLaren and Williams for about 20 years.
Which does handily segway to Williams, I do find it a shame that they are struggling at the back and continue to do so. Russell is qualifying so well but for one thing or another doesn't manage to convert that to race finishes. Quali'd 11th I was really hoping he'd manage to sneak a place and score his first points but that car was horrible to drive for some reason. I really hope that will the with the investment from Dorliton they can start to move forward. I never thought I'd be happy that Williams are a midfield team but if they can get more in the mix with Alpha Tauri, Alpine and Aston Martin it would be great.
Did I miss where Gasly went btw? His Qualy pace was lightning and then he completely dropped off in the race! Granted I missed the start unfortunately.
He ran into the back of someone and knocked off his front wing so dropped back getting a new one. It was a shame as he qualified well and was on for a good result.
A lot to take away from this race
Tsunoda in the other Alpha Tauri had a strong race for his first ever race in F1. Early days but a driver to keep an eye on.
Vettel....It was a shame he got penalised but didn’t really drop him back to many places. It was starting to look like he got his mojo back with his fight with Alonso then he goes full retard and hitting Ocon especially as he tried to blame Ocon too.
Haas - oh God they look bad! They’ve said this year is a write off as they’re focusing on next year but if they’re this bad at the opening race it’s going to be a tough season. Mazepin, or Haasaspin as he’s now known, really showed why he’s a pay driver.
Perez smashed it and if he can keep it up he’ll be a solid second driver which could put Bottas under some pressure. Bottas had a hard time keeing ahead of the Red Bulls at times so without Merc’s advantage it could be difficult.
It looks like it’s going to be a tight season up front. You’d have to say Hamilton has the advantage as he’s got less pressure of winning his first title and knows better how to deal with the pressure of fighting for a championship. The technical side of the development fight is always interesting too.
Lots to look forward too, just a shame the next race is 3 weeks away 😞
Looks to me like driver error from Lewis 46 seconds into the lap where he gets his turn into the corner slightly wrong. What you reckon @Greboth?
It's a tricky one, the mistake certainly didn't help though Verstappen set 3 purple sectors so I don't think Hamilton would have gotten pole even without the mistake. Especially as he's sector 3 time was slower than his PB too.
Well that was an interest qualification yesterday, Mercedes looked more stable than in testing but it would appear slower than Red Bull. It's going to be fun finding out if Red Bull have the race pace too or will Mercedes overhaul them.
Then there's the question of how Red Bull have done this, is it the changes to the aero regulations or has Honda, with their new engine, finally come good? If it's the engine, then with an engine freeze until 2025 this could make an interesting 4 years.
So the FIA is going perform additional checks to "routinely and randomly select one car at each Event...for deeper disassembly, conformity checks and checks of software and systems"
So who do we think the FIA are suspicious of to implement such a thing? As by the sound of it, these inspections will be both more thorough and more often than normal. Currently McLaren have their fancy floor but this surely would have been (mostly) agreed as legal leading up to the season. There's a rumour that Mercedes have something up their sleeves to do with cooling and allowing them to run a higher power so maybe Merc given engine modes have been banned.
For all the questions I posed in the OP it is going to be an interesting opening weekend this year especially finding out the true pace of Mercedes and Red Bull. I can't decide between predicting Mercedes having sorted their car and being 0.5-1 second ahead or a Red Bull 1 - 2 come the chequered flag.
When was the track built?
Ground was broken for the Bahrain International Circuit in December 2002. Like the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, the developers had a blank, sandy canvas to work with, and with that fashioned the technical, 5.4km track designed by Hermann Tilke.
When was its first Grand Prix?
It was 2004 when the drivers first lined up under an unusually cloudy sky for the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix. The race was dominated (like many in 2004) by the two Ferraris, with Michael Schumacher winning out from Rubens Barrichello, while the crowds were also treated to a fantastic dog-fight between the Jaguar of Mark Webber and the Renault of Fernando Alonso.
What’s the circuit like?
You can usually expect great racing and decent amounts of overtaking in Bahrain, while the drivers have to contend with wind, racing under floodlights and the difficulty of finding a decent set-up with the wide temperature fluctuations between sessions. The track’s most challenging point is the tight, downhill, off-camber Turn 10 left-hander, while the fast run through Turn 12 is another highlight, allowing the racers to really feel their cars coming alive.
Formula 1 in 2021 is the year that shouldn't have happened, this was supposed to be the first year of the new regulations but due to the pandemic, it was decided to carry over last years cars with a few changes. The 2 most note worthy changes are the introduction of the cost cap in an attempt to stop the big teams out spending and out developing the independents. The second, is a restriction on the size and shape of the floor - this has been introduced in an to reduce some of the cars downforce, estimated to be about 10%, in an attempt to have the tyres last as some failures last year were due to excessive loading.
2021 Calendar
28 March – Bahrain (Sakhir)
18 April - Italy (Imola*)
2 May - Portugal (Algarve)
9 May – Spain (Barcelona)
23 May – Monaco (Monaco)
6 June – Azerbaijan (Baku)
13 June – Canada (Montreal)
27 June – France (Le Castellet)
4 July – Austria (Spielberg)
18 July – United Kingdom (Silverstone)
1 August – Hungary (Budapest)
29 August – Belgium (Spa)
5 September – Netherlands (Zandvoort)
12 September – Italy (Monza)
26 September – Russia (Sochi)
3 October – Singapore (Singapore)
10 October – Japan (Suzuka)
24 October – USA (Austin)
31 October – Mexico (Mexico City)
7 November – Brazil (Sao Paulo)
21 November - Australia (Melbourne)
5 December - Saudi Arabia (Jeddah)
12 December - Abu Dhabi (Yas Island)
So 2021, can Hamilton break further records and become an 8 times champion? Can Mercedes win an 8th constructors championship in a row? Pre-season testing looked a bit shaky for Mercedes, is this the year Red Bull finally challenge? How will Perez cope at Red Bull; will he be a good second driver for them? How good, and reliable, are the Honda engine upgrades? Will Ferrari recover any pace after their dismal year in 2020? How will Sainz cope with the pressure and how will he rank against LeClerc? Will Vettel now out of Ferrari and in to an Aston Martin regain his mojo? Will McLaren manage 3rd in the constructors again? Is Ricciardo and Norris going to be one of the best driver pairing in years? The Schumacher name returns to F1 but how will he fare in the Haas? Will Haas or Williams score any points this year?
So many questions and 23 races to find out the answers.
Keeping it sort of realistic, A Mazda RX-7 FD. An old car now but the design still looks new and having been a passenger in a modified one damn rapid too. The 13B is a bit a problem though so maybe an Nissan Pulsar GTIR, not very well known but comes with an SR20 DET so plenty of bits for it. Or a JZX100 Toyota Chaser with the jz-ge swapped out for jz-gte for a silly fast saloon fun.
Yeah the number plate on the Honda is a bit odd but not sure why or how to fix it. I've never timed mysef but for the photoshop probably 50-60 hours if you include all the time to find donors etc. The 3D model is probably waaayy over 100 hours but thats learning a new program too.
I do like the movie car posters and certainly something to consider on the wall of the man cave.
Posted
But how often do you travel that far? I don't know about your situation or Canada's but in the UK the average journey is only 12km. I know for me, out of a 250 mile range EV, I could get around 6-7 regular weeks of driving out of it before I'd need to charge it. That's not to gloss over the other problems with EV's, of which I agree there are many, but range is often given as an excuse when in reality, the range of EV's easily covers 99.99% of journeys.
Hydrogen fuel cells are arguably the better solution than pure EV's as they can have significantly higher range, quicker to refuel and you don't need a drive / garage at home. The big problem with Hydrogen fuel cells though is efficiency; as in the energy you get to put to the road vs the production, transportation, transmission losses (substations, pylons etc. not gearboxes) etc. From whatever power source we use to produce hydrogen, only about 25%-30% of it actually makes it to road whereas pure EV can skip a lot of those steps making them about 50%-70% efficient.
Now we could just burn the hydrogen in an ICE but you then still have all the problems of producing the hydrogen in the first place and burning hydrogen still produces things we don't want like NOx emissions so that's out too.
EV's have a number of problems especially when it comes to electricity generation and infrastructure on a large scale. But they are crazily efficient when compared to other options; 2-3x over hydrogen fuel cells and more like 4x to ICE, so I struggle to see an alternative to EV's.
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