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GuzziHero

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Well, practice is about to begin for the first round of the 2008 Formula One world championship. Who do you support and who do you think is going to perform well?

 

Personally, while I like Lewis Hamilton, I think Raikonnen is going to successfully defend his title. There are avenues of development blocked to McLaren because of the shenanigans last year. He will win races, sure, but I think the Iceman will have the consistency to beat him. Renault have a well sorted set-up and Im excited to see how Piquet Jr will do against the arrogant Spaniard. Best of the rest will probably be BMW or Williams (not sure about Williams' all-blue car though and I think Nakajima will be another Katayama...those who have watched for a few years will know what I mean). And I really hope Honda will have given Jens-boy something decent to work with. Alonso will need FAR more than the alleged .6s he took to McLaren last year to challenge the top 2 teams.

 

So my predictions for the championship:

Raikonnen

Hamilton

Kovalainen

Massa (never has looked like a champ to me)

Alonso

Heidfeld or Kubica

Piquet Jr

...

The rest

 

DC is probably in his last year of F1, so itd be good to see him on the podium, maybe. And perhaps Webber can finally get his first win?

 

Edit:

Just found out Williams have actually put a livery on the car now. Hurrah!

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I used to love watching F1, but recently i've found myself watching MotoGP if I watch any motorsport at all.

 

I'm not sure why this is the case tbh. It's easy to moan about the lack of overtaking on soem tracks etc, but that's been done ebough. I still tune in for the Monoco GP, but only because i've raced there so many times on GT2 and GT4 ;)

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Ive never been a MotoGP fan, but I saw the first race in Doha and the great rookie performances from Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Davizioso and thought "Hmm...could be good this". Ill probably watch the rest of the year now ;)

 

I love superbikes and watch the BSB...really annoyed that Dorna has taken WSBK off terrestrial. Shows the damn greed of those *****s. I was going to go to a few WSBK races last year and this, but whats the point if I cant follow the rest of the series?

 

BTCC is also great racing. Im looking forward to seeing Plato lose again (arrogant maroon he is) and itll be fun to see how truck champion Stuart Oliver adapts to touring cars ;)

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These days I only like to hear about the technical aspect of F1.

Unfortunately, NONE of the current drivers (for whatever reason) have the flare or spirit to really alter the outcome of the races.

The performace data for each car could almost be entered into a computer and the championship results calculated instead of running actual races.

 

I swear, last year there were (IIRC) 2 occasions where I was stood on my sofa screaming "Come on! Have him!!!"

Back in the 80's and 90's pretty much every race used to provide that sort of excitement.

 

I hope Hamilton wins but, more importantly, I hope he matures as an aggressive driver and starts to really drive his car on, or over, the limit rather than simply doing what he's told.

 

I hope the Ferraris catch fire on the grid and get banned for the entire season.

I hope they discover that Rosso Corsa paint gives you cancer and that Ferrari never sell another car again and the entire business is closed down by FIAT and they end up manufacturing wheely-bins.

The eagerness Ferrari have shown to litigate against competitors is utterly pathetic.

Sure, gamesmanship will occur in motorsport. Always has done. Always will. Ferrari, themselves, are as guilty as any and more-so than most.

Their petty courtroom battles have destroyed any respect I had for the marque or their drivers.

They obviously feel that they're unable to simply build a faster car, put a better driver in it and do the talking on track. That's not the way a supercar company operates.

 

*EDIT*

Oh, I see they're holding a night race in Singapore.

That'll be fun. I wonder if the testing and qualifying will also be done at night?

Expect lots of crashes and, possibly, the race being stopped when a lot of the drivers pull out.

I expect that, even with the best lighting available, the drivers will find that their vision is too poor to drive at 200mph at night.

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These days I only like to hear about the technical aspect of F1.

Unfortunately, NONE of the current drivers (for whatever reason) have the flare or spirit to really alter the outcome of the races.

The performace data for each car could almost be entered into a computer and the championship results calculated instead of running actual races.

 

I swear, last year there were (IIRC) 2 occasions where I was stood on my sofa screaming "Come on! Have him!!!"

Back in the 80's and 90's pretty much every race used to provide that sort of excitement.

 

I hope Hamilton wins but, more importantly, I hope he matures as an aggressive driver and starts to really drive his car on, or over, the limit rather than simply doing what he's told.

 

I hope the Ferraris catch fire on the grid and get banned for the entire season.

I hope they discover that Rosso Corsa paint gives you cancer and that Ferrari never sell another car again and the entire business is closed down by FIAT and they end up manufacturing wheely-bins.

The eagerness Ferrari have shown to litigate against competitors is utterly pathetic.

Sure, gamesmanship will occur in motorsport. Always has done. Always will. Ferrari, themselves, are as guilty as any and more-so than most.

Their petty courtroom battles have destroyed any respect I had for the marque or their drivers.

They obviously feel that they're unable to simply build a faster car, put a better driver in it and do the talking on track. That's not the way a supercar company operates.

 

*EDIT*

Oh, I see they're holding a night race in Singapore.

That'll be fun. I wonder if the testing and qualifying will also be done at night?

Expect lots of crashes and, possibly, the race being stopped when a lot of the drivers pull out.

I expect that, even with the best lighting available, the drivers will find that their vision is too poor to drive at 200mph at night.

 

coming from a brit I guess its to be expected, even if McLaren was the one cheating, admitted to it, apologized for it, and people are still blinded to it..... <_<

 

I thought 2007, regardless of the scandal and name calling and the pitlane dramas, was one of the classic season. Tight championship, lots of good racing action, and drivers do drive the butt off their cars. And if Hamilton is any more aggresive he would've been a Sato, he pretty much took advantage of every situation he was given last year....Not a big Hamilton fan, but he is a heck of a driver....his lack of experience did decide the driver's title, from his China blunder to the Brazil mistakes made him lose 17 pts in 2 races to give the title to Raikkonen, who simply at the end lived up the expectation that everyone had for him....

 

I hope Kimi defends his title, and I think the racing will be even better this year....

 

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[...snip...]

Oh, I see they're holding a night race in Singapore.

That'll be fun. I wonder if the testing and qualifying will also be done at night?

Expect lots of crashes and, possibly, the race being stopped when a lot of the drivers pull out.

I expect that, even with the best lighting available, the drivers will find that their vision is too poor to drive at 200mph at night.

 

Agreed totally on Ferrari, although I never had any respect for them. I can see why Italy holds them in such high esteem as they represent Italian passion and (when they work right) engineering. Outside of the country, Id rather have almost any other car.

 

With the night race...youd be shocked. I was sceptical till I watched the night time MotoGP race from Doha where the bikes reach over 190mph and corner speed is as high as F1. Not a single incident due to lack of visibility and in fact I think everyone in the race finished. Street circuits will be more difficult with shadows etc, but Im prepared to bet its just as easy as a day race.

 

Edit:

RacingManiac - Ferrari are more guilty of anyone of cheating over the years. Theyre protected by the FIA and in particular Bernie because of who they are, not what they are.

 

The data stolen and found last year doesnt surprise me one little bit...every team gets involved in espionage, just not usually that big and that well publicised. Remember the several times that laptops were stolen from pits in Brazil? Why do you think the race is now at the end of the season? What I think IS important is that Ron Dennis was caught lying...now THATS a big deal, especially when he and F1 has such a long history.

 

At the end of the day though, Ferrari are largely a bunch of crybabies who complain every time anything isnt to their liking and they usually get away with it. What happened last year could have been deal with without many people knowing but Ferrari are the ones who tried to damage the sport with their handling of the matter.

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At the end of the day though, Ferrari are largely a bunch of crybabies who complain every time anything isnt to their liking and they usually get away with it. What happened last year could have been deal with without many people knowing but Ferrari are the ones who tried to damage the sport with their handling of the matter.

Exactly.

 

McLaren had the designs of a car Ferrari ALREADY built?

What were they going to do? Use the blueprints to find an unshielded thermal exhaust port and fit Hamiltons car with a couple of proton torpedoes?

 

There's nothing McLaren could do with the data besides, possibly, find areas where Ferrari were guilty of breaking the rules.

Do we think they're going to bin a decade of development and, instead, build Ferrari-alike next year?

Of course not.

 

Let's cast our minds back over the years...

 

McLaren build a car that accumulates pressurised oil in a tank and discharges it as the car goes through corners.

Ferrari complain.

McLaren take the system out and go on to win the championship.

 

McLaren build a car with a "loose" brake pedal which can, effectively, alter the brake bias from front to rear.

Ferrari complain.

McLaren take the system out and go on to win the championship.

 

McLaren build a car with rear splitters that mix hot air from the exhausts with cold air to create a more unstable vortex behind the car.

Ferrari complain.

McLaren take the system out and go on to win the championship.

 

In all these cases, McLaren are doing things that are WITHIN the rules, as written, but Ferrari manage to discover what they're doing and get a team of lawyers to draft a complaint stating why it shouldn't be allowed.

 

Ever see that race, at Hockenhiem, where Eddie Irvine's rear wing collapsed?

That was cos Ferrari were playing with deliberately weakened wings, to take advantage of reduced downforce on the long straights at Hockenhiem, and they overdid it.

 

The cars wing is supposed to be fitted rigidly to the car. On a Ferrari it is, except that the bit of car it's fitted to is rubber mounted so that, at high speed, the wing bends back, effectively reducing the downforce.

This is against the rules on adaptive aerodynamics and against the rules on crash protection but they still did it.

 

Ferrari modified the sideskirts of their cars so they produced ground effect. This was actually discovered at the final race of the season.

What was done? Nothing?

 

So, why weren't any of these infractions challenged in court by McLaren?

Simple. Cos they were still beating Ferrari on the track and Ron Dennis knows THAT is the honourable thing to do.

 

Incidentally, I'm not really a McLaren fan.

I was just starting to appreciate how good Schumacher was when he retired.

Overall, my favourite team is Williams. The sooner they realise they need a yellow & blue car, ideally with a "Renault" badge on the side, the sooner they'll start winning again.

Alas, now they're owned by BMW, I fear those days are gone forever. Hopefully they'll at least persuade BMW to let them paint the cars yellow & blue again. :(

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They obviously feel that they're unable to simply build a faster car, put a better driver in it and do the talking on track. That's not the way a supercar company operates.
By winning drivers championship I'd say they had a better driver :rolleyes: . (Or faster car I'm not gonna start arguing bout that)

 

With the night race...youd be shocked. I was sceptical till I watched the night time MotoGP race from Doha where the bikes reach over 190mph and corner speed is as high as F1. Not a single incident due to lack of visibility and in fact I think everyone in the race finished. Street circuits will be more difficult with shadows etc, but Im prepared to bet its just as easy as a day race.
MotoGP bike's don't come even near to Formula 1's in terms of corner speed. Formula 1 has so much more downforce due to all the wings and surfaces that they can corner much faster. If you compare qualifying times from example Sepang, where both leagues race, a motoGP bike loses 30 seconds A LAP.

 

McLaren had the designs of a car Ferrari ALREADY built?

What were they going to do? Use the blueprints to find an unshielded thermal exhaust port and fit Hamiltons car with a couple of proton torpedoes?

 

There's nothing McLaren could do with the data besides, possibly, find areas where Ferrari were guilty of breaking the rules.

Do we think they're going to bin a decade of development and, instead, build Ferrari-alike next year?

Of course not.

Err? Of course that data is valuable FIA investigated McLarens new car and found designs that were copies from the Ferrari... It might not be the things you see on the outside but the things on the inside that matter.

 

Ever see that race, at Hockenhiem, where Eddie Irvine's rear wing collapsed?

That was cos Ferrari were playing with deliberately weakened wings, to take advantage of reduced downforce on the long straights at Hockenhiem, and they overdid it.

 

The cars wing is supposed to be fitted rigidly to the car. On a Ferrari it is, except that the bit of car it's fitted to is rubber mounted so that, at high speed, the wing bends back, effectively reducing the downforce.

This is against the rules on adaptive aerodynamics and against the rules on crash protection but they still did it.

And McLaren's rear wing is so rigid that it would never collapse, right? Also from Hockenheim: http://youtube.com/watch?v=kKMp5LBiafY

 

So, why weren't any of these infractions challenged in court by McLaren?

Simple. Cos they were still beating Ferrari on the track and Ron Dennis knows THAT is the honourable thing to do.

Didn't McLaren rant about the floor panel of the Ferrari last year and made them change it? :rolleyes:  Didn't they also prepare an appeal about the fuel temperatures of some cars that placed between R

aikkonen and Hamilton. Tho' that last one was rejected due to McLaren's lawyer  not making it properly

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McLaren build a car that accumulates pressurised oil in a tank and discharges it as the car goes through corners.

Ferrari complain.

McLaren take the system out and go on to win the championship.

 

McLaren build a car with a "loose" brake pedal which can, effectively, alter the brake bias from front to rear.

Ferrari complain.

McLaren take the system out and go on to win the championship.

 

McLaren build a car with rear splitters that mix hot air from the exhausts with cold air to create a more unstable vortex behind the car.

Ferrari complain.

McLaren take the system out and go on to win the championship.

 

The first one is called a dry sump, every car has that...nothing special there...

 

Fiddle brake was never legal, you are not allowed to have rear wheels independently braking, as it constitude a form of vehicle dynamic control(yaw control, as it were), and incidentally people only found out McLaren had it because of a photograph taken by a third party photographer, who did not know what he just shot.

 

The exhausting of exhaust into the diffuser(not splitter) is nothing new, McLaren ran it from the 80s to as recently as 2003. And this is used very commonly by many different form of racing cars as well(Group C Jaguars are a good example of this). Exhaust gas is more energetic(velocity wise) compare to airflow, and by using the exhaust gas you make the diffuser works better at extracting air out of the undertray. The downside is that now the downforce generation becomes throttle input dependent, and makes for unstable car for the driver. AFAIK no one complained about this as turbulent air for the trailing car is nothing new in the aero centric F1 of recent years, McLaren moved away from this simply because it no longer fulfill the need of the aerodynamic function......

 

I also seem to recall Kimi's wing collapsing multiple occasion on a McLaren.....I wonder if that has anything to do with McLaren's rear wing is bending back(for the record, EVERY TEAM DOES THIS, nothing is 100% rigid, thus there are limit as to what the rule's definition of "rigid" is, and static testing that FIA does certifies a car as pass or fail according to that rule. If a car passes the specified test before AND after the race, what happens during the race is free for all....same deal with the flex floor saga of last year, which incidentally, McLaren complained based on the classified Ferrari drawings that was given to them by Nigel Stepeny)

 

And clearly McLaren wasn't stealing Ferrari's idea from the 700+ page documents, because their engineers clearly didn't use it for the design of the 2008 car....oh wait:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64374

 

and subsequently:

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64369

 

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Pole for Hamilton and a crazy off for Kubicica!

 

I like Hamilton on top of his driving skill for being able to not present himself as a jackass, unlike so many of the other drivers who show themselves to be complete twats.

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Q1:

Well Raikkonen got what he deserved for blocking Kubica HAHA. Glocks blocking was nowhere near that bad and he got demoted an extra 5 places, yet Raikkonen gets away with that shambolic display. And guess who one of the people advantaged by his penalty? Raikkonen! FIA sucks **** to Ferrari.

 

A pity, but not a surprise, to see Davidson out in the first session. Nelsinho was more of a shock - I really thought little Piquet would have been stunningly quick right out of the box.

 

Another surprise was to see Bourdais out in Q1. He has such a stunning history in other formulae, I expected him to shine. Having seen what Vettel did with the sister car, he must be disappointed within himself.

 

 

Q2:

Webber...his luck never improves. The track where he often has his best showing of the year, and out on his first flyer with a brake failure. What does he have to do to change his luck?

 

Honda seem to have really improved and Button says it was only bad luck that he didnt make Q3, pointing out that 2/10ths of a second seperates 8th to 13th (as was then, before Glocks demotion). He cited bad traffic, something I think we will see become a greater feature in these new sprint-like quali sessions. Barrichello was even more unlucky to miss Q3, and with his experience I think he could have been top 6 or 8 if he had. Both drivers know how to drive a careful, car-saving race and I really hope for points for the pair of them.

 

Alonso complained about differential issues holding him back, but the Renault just honestly doesnt look that good out there. One test driver in pre-season testing said the driver aid he missed most was 'segregation' - a system that changed the differential settings from corner to corner, and now leaves the drivers with one diff setting for the entire lap. Its somewhat of a surprise to see Alonso, who did drive before the reintroduction of traction control, being one of the ones struggling the most with this.

 

Nakajima...well, I predicted he was going to be another Katayama and on early inspection I was right.

 

 

Q3:

Wow, what a slide from Kubica! To say that he made 2nd on the grid after that shows that he is a star in the making and really reinforces the progress BMW have made over the last year. One of the most interesting things to me tomorrow will be whether they can sustain it against Ferrari in the race. Heidfeld looked a star all weekend. Can the intelligence-over-instinct German sustain the pressure of having such a naturally quick teammate?

 

'Super Seb' Vettel was sidelined early with a car fault but to say that he was in Q3 at all shows the star quality of this man, too. Toro Rosso are nice and cosy up there with brother-team Red Bull, and I have to question the wisdom of having 2 directly competing teams from the same manufacturer but Im so glad they have and given this young man a chance.

 

Coulthard looked to be hampered by heavy fuel, so Red Bull probably dont feel they have the pace to stick with the guys in front. A shame that as I think Coulthard could do so, but he was always going to be in the lower third of Q3 with such a strategy.

 

Williams thought they had the speed to be the best of the rest behind McLaren and Ferrari this year, and maybe that will come. But for me, the Williams never looked that 'quick' despite Rosbergs best effort.

 

Trulli always produces good quali times, and maybe this will be the first time he is pleased that he gave up his Renault berth for Toyota!

 

And that leaves...the McLarens and Massa. Massa looked off-song all weekend and I mean no disrespect but I just dont see him as a real suprstar driver. Raikkonen caught and overhauled him in performance last year and while Massa is quick, I feel he is another Coulthard - close, but not 'there'. Maybe he will prove me wrong.

 

So Hamilton took pole with a carefully considered lap when he could have put himself under real pressure. Inch-perfect, and it left Kovalainen to do what he does best...keep a cool head and do his job quietly - and proficiently.

 

Very interesting, overall ;)

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Q1:

Well Raikkonen got what he deserved for blocking Kubica HAHA. Glocks blocking was nowhere near that bad and he got demoted an extra 5 places, yet Raikkonen gets away with that shambolic display. And guess who one of the people advantaged by his penalty? Raikkonen! FIA sucks **** to Ferrari.

Kubica placed 2nd... Can't really see why Raikkonen should be penalisided for something that had no effect on results.

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Just watching the qualifying now.

 

I am seeing lots of gamesmanship during the qualifying.

Shame really. Guys like Ross Braun are undeniable tactical geniuses but the sneaky stuff they come up with ruins the actual racing IMO.

 

F1 desperately needs another Jean Alesi or (dare I say it) another Nigel Mansell; a driver who just wants to go faster than everybody else.

All the time.

Period.

If I see somebody sliding their car up the inside of another, into a corner, tonight I will support them loyally all year.

 

In other news, good to see the Ferraris looking thoroughly average.

You can't expect the rules to penalise them so you just have to hope they bury themselves in a wall instead.

Alas, the oz GP usually isn't indicative of performance on other tracks during the season. :(

Fingers crossed that they remain poor in Malaysia, then.

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Ferrari fan or not I am loving this TC-free F1......now they have to work for their speed.....

 

BMW definitely sprung a surprise for like the entire pitlane(or not, for those who are in "they have sandbagged the entire winter" camp), Kubica's lap was banzai and probably could've spoiled Lewis' pole....

 

Piquet Jr. is not living up to the hype, not only is he not out of Q1 he is 21st, in a Renault....yet another solid example of "I was just as good as (insert another star's name here) in (insert junior formula here), I don't see why I can't be as good as (insert same name here)".....

 

Race should be good, Kimi can do some passing, and see if BMW can do something like winning the first race of the year...

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If I see somebody sliding their car up the inside of another, into a corner, tonight I will support them loyally all year.

QFT :D

 

Considering your Ferrari hate and Raikkonen starting from 16th place this could be good  :D .

 

 

It's funny that whether you're on an UK based or an Italian/Brazilian/Finnish based forum Ferrari and McLaren guys always have the same arguments. FIA supports the other more, the other is constantly cheating the drivers are rubbish and so on.

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Sorry if I ruined anything, Stealthy.

No worries. First thing I did was check the F1 website to see how it was all gonna turn out. ;)

 

I have spotted something in the rules and I have a question as well...

 

The new rules for gearboxes are that it has to last 4 races.

If the gearbox needs replacing prematurely it costs the car 5 grid positions.

They've added a clause where, if the car fails to finish a race, the gearbox can be changed immediately with no penalty.

Obviously, the idea of this is to remove safety issues about being forced to re-use a gearbox involved in a crash OR so a team doesn't lose out twice, once when their gearbox fails during a race and then, again, when they lose grid position in the following race for changing the faulty gearbox.

 

However...

 

I can see EVERY car that fails to finish in the points mysteriously breaking down on the last lap with gearbox problems, probably related to software.

Make no mistake, guys like Ross Braun will spot loopholes like this right away and it'll end up creating even more of a farcical situation. :(

 

The question I have is related to the above point...

Engines are supposed to last 2 races and, if you need to replace an engine prematurely, you're at the back of the grid.

Does anybody know if there's a similar clause regarding engines; that if it fails during a race it can be replaced with no further penalty?

If there is then I can envisage this years championship being a horrible joke. :(

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first things first - i think F1 is horrifically dull - same cars, round the same track for about 3 hours ? no thanks. but what makes it worse is there seems to be very little excitement to your average joe viewer. somebody with more interest in the sport may notice little things that make it more exciting, but to a casual viewer like me, i think its rubbish. to be fair, track racing in general doesnt interest me, but F1 is the worst. i'd much prefer to watch WRC, a million times more chance of seeing something different every time the cars go round, much more interesting.

 

anyways - the idea of making them keep certain parts, am i right in thinking it was to reduce costs, and therefor make the playing field more level bewteen the big hitters and the 'minnows' in F1 ? as surely you have more chance of winning if you culd field a brand new car every race rather than one thats already done half a season ?

 

whatever the reason for the new rules, all its done is create a plethora of over complicated rules that change every season because they cannot get them right, at all. if the rules were brought in to create more balance bewteen the finacial gaps between teams, why not just give each team a budget for the year, and let them do whatever they want with it ?

 

if it means changing the engine every week, fair play. but thats going to affect how much they have to change other parts. it leaves it down to the mechanics and engineers to decide what needs changing, not some suits in an office making up some god awful useless rules, that will inevitably, be changed again next year. in the beginning, F1 was simply about who could drive their car round the track the quickest. technology has changed this, and while you would have to expect some adaptation, its now less concerned about who can drive fastest than ever before. so much rests on making rules to suit the sport, and making sure you stick to them.

 

in an ideal world, what would make the perfect sport is all the drivers have the same car, meaning who wins races depends squarely on whos the better driver/support team. not who can plough the most money into research, and pay the biggest wages.

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