Formula 1 thoughts:

[Bud Plug]

First point: On strawmen

You start with a summary of what you claim is my position

You believe that pre-season engineering is not the major determinant of season race results.

That's a quote.

What I actually said,

Sure the engineers are of vital importance - an unreliable car ain't going to win.

When presenting an example of a strawman argument, you, littlest, take the cake.

Your comprehension skills are the tiniest. You still don't understand what a straw man argument is. Your position was correctly represented. You never denied that pre-season engineering was important. You just denied that it was the most important determinant (as I have suggested). The engineering you recognized in your quote was only in relation to reliability (only one component of mechanical performance). Reliability is a product of pre-season engineering, and to a lesser degree, in-season maintenance and setup, as well as driving behaviour.

The only point you're really proving is that you are consistently annoying.

Second point: You've moved your position just a tad.

First you said,

"The F1 season is won by engineers, off track, and before the season ever starts."

Now you are saying "engineering" is the major determinant.

Yawn..

You are truly dense. Anything that is the major determinant of races is properly described as why some teams (not one, you numbskull) will dominate the season and others will flounder.

My first point to your first position was that the engineers haven't changed at Renault - if they were the reason they won last year, it's funny how the same guys aren't winning this year.

So - you responded there have been changes. This means though, that winning isn't won by the engineers themselves, but by the team responsiveness to those changes, and engineers that produced a winning team last year might not be produce a winning team this..

Do you read what you write? Isn't it perfectly obvious that competent engineers can outperform other competent engineers, depending upon the nature of the problem to be solved (ie. the regulations in force during any season)? The issue is not whether Renault engineers went stupid. The issue is that the Ferrari and McLaren engineers outsmarted Renault this year, and Renault cannot possibly close the engineering gap, given the rules.

Compare that to the first 9 races: Alonso won 6. Schumi 2 and Massa none..

Bad example. The largest factor in the turnaround was the removal of the damper (declared illegal) from the Renault chasis. In other words, F1 removed the engineering advantage by their ruling (see my reference to the drama of attempted cheating).

There's no doubt that this season McLaren's tweaking has returned them to their form of earlier in the season - something important now that Raikkonen's vehicle is suddenly showing reliability (which is another mid-season example).

So - no one is denying that engineering is important. I am denying that the season is over, due to engineers, before it begins (which was your original position).

Both the McLaren and Ferrari have been competitive all season long. Their engineers put a better car on the track than all of the other teams. These two cars are sufficiently close in performance (given pre-season engineering by both teams) that other factors will decide which of these two cars will prevail. However, I will wager anything you like that no other team will win the constructor's championship. The other teams (including BMW) started in an engineering hole that is too deep to recover from. Are you predicting a dark horse winner?

For all your blather and inane patronizing you still haven't countered the original point - too few teams are competitive in F1. My point is simply that the rules prevent trailing teams from closing the engineering gap during the season.

 

[TQM]

I'm not going to bother responding

to you after this - the last word will be to you.

I think you have a serious reading comprehension problem - and where that isn't the issue your just wrong.

I'll comment on only one issue - 2006.

You claim it was the damper that changed everything (and that is, by the way an engineering issue. But the results don't show you right.

Alonso was consistent throughout the season with 14 first or second place finishes - including a 1st in the 2nd last race and and 2nd in the last race.

It was Schumacher's vehicle which became much more reliable. Up until the Australia race he finished 5th or worse 4 times. After - only once. Now that still doesn't prove it's engineering.

Please note, I'm not claiming the damper didn't have an impact. I'm claiming your move of extreme oversimplification (a) it was all the damper; b) the outcome is decided before the season begins by the engineers) isn't worth further response.

Toodles.

 

[Bud Plug]

At least the F1 press agrees with me

Let's give the last word to them (and by reference, Bob Bell of Renault), from http://www.formula1latest.com/category/mass-dampers/:

Perhaps more interesting than all this optimism (par for the course before the season opener), are Briatore’s conclusions after the recent tests on Bridgestone tires. He says he understands now why Ferrari instigated the ban on mass dampers halfway through the 2006 season; the dampers just don’t work with Bridgestone tires.

.....

It seems to be the general opinion that the best car in 2006 was the Ferrari 248 F1, at least in the second half of the season.

.....

Autosport magazine has a brief interview with Bob Bell, Renault’s technical director, in which he mentions the effect of the tuned damper ban on the R26. It is clear that the ban had some effect on the performance of the Renault, even if only marginally (and F1 is a sport of small margins)

.....

So Renault were already battling against a car on superior tires when the damper ban occurred. That extra little degradation in performance was enough to make the R26 look less effective a design than the Ferrari and it was only the occasional wet race, where the Michelins were better than Bridgestone’s equivalent, that enabled Renault to remain ahead on points.

.....

As we all know, the team that will suffer the most from this [damper] ruling is Renault. It is suggested that the dampers are worth half a second a lap to them, which would explain their loss of form ever since the ban came into effect. And the Hungarian race was no pointer to their having found a solution; what made the difference there was the superiority of the Michelin wet tires, a fact demonstrated by the resurgence of the other Michelin-shod teams in that race.

Nuff said.