for 2017 the engines may become a little less complicated

Everyone will be running VW diesels.

Interesting development. It explains why RB haven’t run the improved Renault engine much better than the rubbish about it only being 0.2s faster.

We’ll see.

i think rbr engine will be the new cheap reference unit ratified for 2017 🙂 Sound business sense and keeps rbr give you wings on the side of half the grid.

That will really pee of merc, ferrari and mchonda

I think hondas new engine is more optimus prime than megatron

ref bbc article on the honda engine

So, what has Hamilton been up to?

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-suffered-monaco-car-crash/

Sounds like he crashed his car (lightly hitting another parked car in the process) which is rather embarrassing if nothing else…

i think you all know me and my views on Lewis, but , him hitting a lamp post shows what a slow news day F1 is having this week

In other F1 news – Lotus have been locked out of their garages again!

Same old…

Didn’t shumi crash a van once. Shows were all fullible.

It looks like Ham’s problems are from being chased around Monaco by lawyers acting for the other side.

Where there’s blame, there’s a claim.

Not exactly a classic today 🙁

Just dozed off there…

…did I miss anything?

Nope, nothing, although I believe I rested my eyes for a couple of minutes as well

Well I watched the first five and last five laps and nothing seemed to change. Hamiltons engineers didn’t sound too cheerful

well, that was dull

Two good Verstappen overtakes, obligatory Maldonado collision, not much else. Would have been good if Hamilton went maverick at the end, ignored engineers advice and stayed out for ten more laps than Rosberg before pitting for options. But that didn’t happen. Not a classic 🙁

Hamilton not happy – again. It’s a shame team rules stop the racing at the front, especially when there’s nobody else up to their pace.

Not Hamilton’s fault though as “it’s impossible to pass on that track” unless you’re one of the people making passes of course

Lewis just needs to accept his team orders about strategy and vent his anger to the team in private not on the podium- showing once more he just cannot take any hits to his “Image” as to why he was second.
The team wanted second in the WDC secured at the earliest opportunity, and i suspect the Nico has obeyed far more team orders in the previous races than he has wanted to, in order to ensure WDC/MDC points for Mercedes rather than “risky” attempts to win 1 race in entire season.

it makes for a more interesting abu dhabi if indeed “the glove are off” now and they can both do whatever they want, because if lewis doesnt beat Nico he has no one to complain too and i think he’d take a big hit on his ego.

It’s obvious that Hamilton is under orders not to beat Rosberg – I wouldn’t be surprised if his car was being ‘turned down’ a little also.
Boring race, gave up after 20 laps.

lots of red bull shots again, hardly any mchonda or manor. I play spot the mcManor in between dozes.
Highlight was wincing every time anyone got near Maldonado and holding my breathe when Verstappen decided to go for it at turn 1 I think.
No rain, no safety car no racing pretty much sums it up.

Sorry to say i’ve all but given up on f1. If next seasons first race is as dull as this that’s it for me. Shame as I’ve been a fan for 30 yrs but moto gp has more excitement in one lap than this seasons f1 has had all year.:(

Sorry to say i’ve all but given up on f1. If next seasons first race is as dull as this that’s it for me. Shame as I’ve been a fan for 30 yrs but moto gp has more excitement in one lap than this seasons f1 has had all year.:(

I’d say there’s a good chance that Ferrari will be able to make it a much more interesting championship next year:

Some great analysis, as always, from James Allen

It’s obvious that Hamilton is under orders not to beat Rosberg

Now that Rosberg has clinched 2nd in the Championship, hopefully it’ll be back to normal with LH smacking the german down in the first corner

I think for all their spin at the start of the season about the drivers being allowed to race, Mercedes really have controlled the 1-2’s as well as the internal rules around racing to the first corner and then to the first pit stop (ie. overtaking when the other car is not put in danger, then after that its hold position unless an issue) it really has taken the edge of out the season and we as spectators are always wondering if it was managed from the pit-wall….i think both drivers have suffered this year with “stay where you are” scenarios….

the only highlights for me was when Ferrari managed to get their weekend together in Malaysia and Hungary.
which is pretty crappy considering there are now more F1 races on the calendar than ever before!

as i said before, i hope the gloves are off for abu dhabi, although if Merc dont have to worry about saving the engine, they might run it full power and lap the entire field up to 4th (vettel/rakki) 🙁

I’d say there’s a good chance that Ferrari will be able to make it a much more interesting championship next year:

Like they do every year! 😉

Good point! 🙂

interesting to hear RBR have spent the most this season at £200million increasing their staff number by over double, makes me wonder if they planned to build their own engine all along, simple plan – destroy your current engine relationship to get out early, cry wolf about leaving and get FIA and Bernie to apply pressure to everyone and everything to give you options for building on someone elses engine (merc,ferrari,renault) and renault finally cave in (perhaps on the threat of bernie not paying them the “historic” team payment for their works team next year) and give them their latest engine to develop for next year….hmmmmmmm

legend – Member

Not Hamilton’s fault though as “it’s impossible to pass on that track” unless you’re one of the people making passes of course

Verstappen believes that the key to allowing overtaking in F1 is that the two cars battling each have strengths in different areas.

“We have very good cornering speed, so if we are behind a Lotus, Sauber or Force India we catch up in the fast corners, even when we are behind,” he said. “So that is different for sure.

“For them [Mercedes], it is equal everywhere – on the corners and the straights. When your car is exactly the same as your teammate and you are behind, it is very tough.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-no-comparison-between-my-overtakes-and-hamilton-struggle/

Tag Heuer deserting McL for RB

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/121844

Rats/ship? Let’s hope McL can recover next year…

interesting to hear RBR have spent the most this season at £200million increasing their staff number by over double

back2basics et al, (2015)

In a year in which the team slipped to runner-up, having enjoyed four consecutive seasons of title-winning success, staff numbers rose by 19 to 694.

http://www.pitpass.com

Renault may also be holding back updates so RBR get saddled with a low starting point engine . After all it would be very embarrassing for Renault works team to be beaten by a suped up ilmor RBR.
I wonder what is taking so long in the Lotus / Renault deal. Could all this be hinging on the RBR ‘divorce’.

It may be time that McLaren finally realise they are dinosaurs of the paddock. Tag cite the need to team up with a young fresh brand. Maybe they should’ve kept K Mag and lined up Stoffel.

Except that they spent their tokens on the IC part of the engine which is generally understood to be the bit that RB would likely take on and then add on their own MGU systems via Illen

McL would not be considered dinosaurs if they were winning. Or even doing a half decent job. When were they last quick? End of 2012?

Make you wonder if McLaren should abandon F1 and move to sportcars – would tie in better with their core car business. And they could market off the back of their sports car/Le Mans/CanAm heritage.

McL are really all about F1 though, aren’t they? People buy the other cars because they’re in F1, don’t they?

You didn’t watch Austin then?

Im trying to workout if Rosbergs recent wins are because Hammy has been told to back off because Merc want a WDC 1 and 2 aswell or if Rosberg is driving better now there is no pressure on him because the WDC has gone

I think several people are trying to work that out. If LH has been told to back off, he’s doing a good impression of someone who’s pissed off at finishing behind his team mate…

I just reckon that the pressure is off both and NR has something to prove.

Hamilton might be effectively backing off whether or not he’s been told to. He won the championship and has apparently been burning the candle at both ends since then, so it wouldn’t be a big surprise if he’s not quite maintaining the edge he had a few races back.
My money would be on a mix of Rosberg loosening up a bit and Hamilton slacking off a bit.

‘Lewis is looking for excuses when he doesn’t win races’ – Rosberg

…….. Pot calling the Kettle black spring to mind!

I see the beeb have dropped a threat about losing f1 completely. Wonder if there will be as much of a backlash about that as there was about 6music. I certainly wouldn’t be signing up to sky to keep watching, I’d rather spend that on going to a race.