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A damp squib? Maybe the 90s return but in the 80s thr TAG engine was originally developed by Porsche and carried their branding for a while, and that did OK I think. Well if you count race wins and world championship victories as doing OK
It would almost certainly be Audi. Porsche and VW are already established brand leaders in their respective fields all over the world, whereas Audi are (in most markets) third to Mercedes and BMW. As such, VAG seem to be placing heavy emphasis on marketing the AUDI brand (starring roles in almost EVERY Hollywood production) as it has the greatest potential for expansion.
BMW and Mercedes currently hold around 40% of the US luxury market, with AUDI at around 10%, by stealing only 5% from each of BM and Merc, AUDI could double their US sales.
It's going to be all about the numbers and the potential for increased sales. Heritage and prestige will have NOTHING to do with it.
@daffy has hit it on the head.
if VAG decide to return
IF!
meanwhile still now LH contract.... if it was all about more money perhaps it would be nice to see Merc simply say "no" and hire a young F4 star with a famous dad....
😉
Thats an 'unamed' Audi spokesman speaking to the beeb.
Its not the VW board.
Not sure if it rules out there other brands, either
Interesting update by the reliably-fantastic Nigel Roebuck on Martin Whitmarsh.
[url= http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/nigel-newsletter/where-is-whitmarsh-now/ ]Linky[/url]
Agreed, that was a great article. I'll definitely be following Nigel Roebuck from now on..
Think it's fair to say that the new McLaren livery is a tad underwhelming:
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They don't make it easy being one of their fans. CHUCK US A BONE FOR GAWD SAKE!
They only did this redesign because the plain chrome didn't look great on camera - it's just a stop gap isn't it until they get a proper sponsor (or should that be if they do...)
FWIW, I prefer it to the previous 2015 design but it's still pretty uninspired.
Would be better with less red - just too many 'swoopy' bits...
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Oh... er.. hadn't seen the overhead view. That's really not good, is it (though to be fair, you don't get many overhead shots in the races)
They did well to get a sponsor called 'McLaren'! What are the chances, eh? 😉
They misspelt 'Maclaren'.
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Hi-res pics...
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/05/06/new-mclaren-livery-for-spanish-grand-prix-revealed/
Think they employed Hispania's old graphic designer?
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You would think McLaren had more pressing matters that the colour of the paintwork at the moment.
How about getting to the finishing line?
Crazy I know but I've heard that the guys who design the livery aren't the same as the ones who design the car/engine so they managed to come up with the new colour scheme while the others worked to improve the car.
I suppose that the livery guys could help out on the engine but I suspect that painting it black and adding some red flashes (and maybe a pie chart or two) probably wouldn't solve the engine issues.
Separately, is the awful Honda reliability due to a sneaky but clever strategy to design the engine with no compromises for reliability knowing that the rules allow the engine to be freely updated for reliability reasons - eg playing the rules, accepting a crap start to the season but knowing that unlike Renault for example, once they sort reliability, they should have a good engine?
So , i guess now we'll see if there is team orders at Merc about Pole Sitter gets race win....
once again Lewis has no contract -
nice to see the McLarens with the new revised package and "turned up Honda engine" competing in the top 10 - oh no wait....................
Lauda didn't look overly happy about Rosberg out qualifying Hammy.
Long starting straight - good chance of them taking each other out in the first corner I reckon!
lauda has a bit of a bromance with lewis it seems
Oops Alonso
Ferrari challenge, yeah right 2.5 pitstops back (on the 2nd placed merc !!!)
Pitstops MUCH more interesting than the racing! Seems wrong to me. I thought it was about car racing?
it's quite funny that merc are looking to stretch out their first engine to canada and red bull are already on their fourth (without the chocolate pistons 🙂 )
new paint job, same crap car - whats the phrase about cannot polish a turd?
Alonso wont see out the season with them IMHO with some get out clause - end of button's career too and i still feel Ron will get the pish too....
Merc showed just how much they have over the Ferrari when they really need to pull out the stops (even with crappy pitstops), 45seconds between nico and vettel!
Hamilton looked like he was "the depressed, moody, no one loves me" version of himself - girlfriends or contract talks i suspect.
calling it a turd is being nice 😯
they ought to pay the front jack man danger money. I reckon the rear guy gets the easy job 🙂
The lotus man certainly showed commitment.. Rosberg had plenty in hand .. Hamilton is getting better in the interviews when he loses but the team made it harder but not the main reason he finished second.
Cant wait for monaco.. there should be some fisticuffs I suspect.
would lewis have beat nico on a 3 stop strategy if he hadn't got stuck behind vettel on the first stint ? would have been a close run thing
Merc need to sort out LHs pitstops.
I would have liked it if Mercedes had allowed Hamilton to catch up with Rosberg in his final stint there, even if it was ultimately pointless! 🙂
I'm at a loss to understand the McLaren. The aero package is actually quite good, remember they're running less downforce to reduce drag and thus flatter the engine compared to the competition. In slow corners, it doesn't want for mechanical grip (as evidenced in the slower corners of Bahrain and Malaysia), how the heck have they got it so wrong in Barcelona?
Power delivery and driveability have taken a backwards step.
My theory on the Honda engine is that they deliberately designed it with very little consideration for reliability - with the designs being so locked down but the rules allowing for changes for reliability or driveability, it does make sense to make a potentially powerful engine that you can then upgrade within the rules through the year so that it's hopefully on a par if not better than the Merc in the longer term.
Of course, that only works if you are willing to take a lot of pain until that point as the engine either has no power, poor reliability or both. And if you read up on how the hybrid engines work, you'll see that improving it can make massive steps as all the systems feed off eachother - if the IC engine is down on power then the energy recovery systems have to waste energy on keeping the turbo going, filling in power gaps, etc. You also run less downforce so have more braking and accellerating to do which further impacts that. That leads to driveability issues too which makes it even worse. Start to sort out all the various systems and you can make big strides (or not as Renault are proving...)
For me, that fits Ron's comments about needing a good engine to compete and given the year's head start Merc have, it's a logical way to try and achieve it I reckon.
No new parts went on the PU in Spain (at least not that used tokens - see reliability/driveability rules above) so they maybe just got the software wrong - JB's clearly wasn't right and FA's failing front brakes suggests that maybe the rear hybrid braking wasn't working right so they'd shifted brake balance forward to try and make up for it.
As to why Ferrari weren't competitive, it may be a little conspiratorial but it would make sense - the new engine flow rules are now in place which it's suggested may well have impacted Ferrari more than Merc.
and FA's failing front brakes suggests that maybe the rear hybrid braking wasn't working right so they'd shifted brake balance forward to try and make up for it.
Well I was partly right - the rear right brake apparently cooked because it had one of FA's visor tear-offs blocking the brake duct... oops 😳
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/32688667
Whilst I acknowledge the headline doesnt quite match the story, I'm finding all these quit threats incredibly tedious?
Toys/pram
I do think they'd sell up though (which is allowed under their 20/20 contract).
tbh let them quit - if thats what they want to do now the glory years (and drivers) are behind them, so be it - they are not unlike every single manufacturer on the grid (bar ferrari) who just up and quit when it suits them...
this has been the issue with F1 since the 80's when it ws seen as a tool to sell cars, rather than a smart engineer building upon an existing engine and putting it the back of some steel box with aero wings.
it might also shake up F1 if renault stop supplying engines and the grid becomes (effectively) a 2 engine marquee - forgive me honda but you've stated your not supplying customer engines just yet -
as for McLaren - considering this was thier big push for Spain, what a disaster - and it just goes to prove that you cannot just "turn up the engine"... was it me or were the tones from Button and Alonso slightly more edgy in the post race interviews than the "positive" lines from the previous races - perhaps they have seen the true "potential" in the car and the panic behind the scenes in McLaren....
[quote=back2basics ]was it me or were the tones from Button and Alonso slightly more edgy in the post race interviews than the "positive" lines from the previous races - perhaps they have seen the true "potential" in the car and the panic behind the scenes in McLaren....
tones? A bit more than tones from Button here - given what a master diplomat he usually is, this read as incredibly damning to me.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/32684346
F1 has been very good for Red Bull, however they could easily withdraw and spend the money elsewhere or just scale back the marketing budget. Car racing is hardly a business essential for them
I hope Red Bull do sod off - bunch of miserable, whiny, pathetic losers.
Can you imagine the moaning they'd do if Audi did come in and they went through the same troubles as Honda!? Christian Horner's head would explode!
All the great F1 teams have had troubled times, and Red Bull are nowhere near the sorts of lows that Williams have endured in recent times.
I just popped in to see if b2b was carping on about alonso quitting because he's not driving in the next test. Disappointed.
on another tack, it seems a certain "reserve" driver is not too happy at williams....thy cynic in me thinks it could it be the ulitmate in sexism that williams have employed here? simply put, they wanted some furore about the team, so hire "reserver" driver who is a female and then actually do nothing with her, even when they need a reserve driver (bottas)! seems she'll be off racing somewhere non F1 just after she gets a few free-pracice laps perhaps at Silverstone - also suggests that might be a PR stunt too....
i know williams employ women as part of the top brass, as have other f1 teams, but is it sexism to employ someone by gender to promote something because of lack of gender in that role?
[quote=back2basics ]i know williams employ women as [s]part of[/s] the top brass
fixed.
I presume Susie only got her drive in the first place because of her connections. Whilst she clearly is quite good, there are plenty of quite good drivers around and the question is whether she deserves to step to a race seat on merit.
Given the Tyre/Fuel management parade we have now rather than any actual racing, I'd have thought she'd be fine.