F1 2016 (Bound to contain spoilers!)

No disrespect to JB,but is he in a position to turn down an offer from Williams if he received one based on their performance? I’d have thought he’d snatch their hands off.

Vandoorne mentioned the other day in an interview that there aren’t any company cars at McHonda so JB won’t loose out there.

And if JB did get a company car he’d only complain it understeers anyway.

Amongst all the discussion of what Massa retiring means for the driver merry go round, is there no speculation on whether he jumped or was pushed? Or is it just a given that he was getting dropped by Williams and that this isn’t a voluntary retirement?

Jenson doesn’t think Williams are going to be competitive

It’ll seem eye-wateringly fast after the McHonda.

What’s the big whoop about having a Brazilian driver? There’s no Italian driver in this years line up. Does any one (outside Italy) really care?

Alonso will likely move on himself at the end of 2017

The only teams he would want to move to are Merc and Red Bull, but both those teams already have top-class drivers. Honda have made a huge step forward in the last couple of months, by 2018 they should have a very competitive engine. Aero rules are changing next year, staying with McHonda is Alonso’s best option.

It was a shame that Jenson Button didn’t finish in Spa, those 7 tokens that Honda had spent has made for a much more competitive car. We prob won’t see much of them on Sunday as Monza is such a power circuit but maybe they’ll be able to put in some impressive results from Singapore onwards…

Nearly half a second between Britney and Hamilton.

What are the chances of Hamilton getting to swap his oval tyres?

So Button is “retiring”

it all sounds a bit Mika Hakkinen .. clearly to appease sponsors and also hedging their bets if Alonso thows a wobbly mid way next season when he gets beaten by Stoffel
I’m not retiring yet

Yep….once Alonso drives next year’s car and gets bored, JB can come back. Can’t see him back in 2018 tho

Still paid by McLaren for 2 years to hobnob about and ride his bike in-between.

I’d take that, I think.

Top gear.

Seems like an odd situation for Button to be in. Hard to see that he’ll be back in 2018.

Or maybe he’s making room in his calendar for the Top Gear gig?

As parskie said.

Oops

There’s a space at Williams to fill then

Sergio Perez maybe?

Only 2 points in it now, which might make things a bit more exciting. Yesterdays race was pretty dull. Rosberg easily had in the bag with plenty of laps left.

I’m going to say it again but bring back gravel traps, all this wandering off at the corner and coming back on with almost no penalty is ridiculous.

Has Rosberg actually gone out and won a race this year?
By won I mean challenged or been challenged, as far as I can remember there has been no race long wheel to wheel duel with his team mate and he has more often than not benefited from outside influences.
Just to balance things out I’m not a fan of either Mercedes drivers, however whilst they are in the dominant position it’d be good to see them have a lights to flag race at least once this season…

No more Bernie?

No more Bernie?

I’m sure Bernie won’t have contracted himself out of a job!

Something that may affect F1 fans directly though is the company buying F1 owns Virgin Media so F1 coverage possibly heading their way?

Has Rosberg actually gone out and won a race this year?

He’s won seven, I believe. I know it’s boring, but he does it by getting to the finish before anyone else.

Those are the rumours. It’d be weird to see him gone after all this time!!

Looks like Canadian Lance Stroll, current leader of the European F3 championsip, for the Williams seat

Motorsport.com[/url]

as far as I can remember there has been no race long wheel to wheel duel with his team mate

There was; Spain.

It didn’t go well.

Joe Saward[/url] seems to have a pretty confident take on the Liberty Media deal, and he’s been talking about it for a while now. If you don’t read his blog it’s well worth it, it’s one of the few places where you get to read stuff that isn’t cobbled together from press releases.

Brundle mentioned Eddie Jordan to Eccleston during his pre race grid walk thing with regards to an F1 buy out thingy.

It’s bad enough having EJ on the podium once a year let alone let him have anything to do with running it.

That Joe Saward article is a great read! 🙂

Three more years! He’ll be 88 by then – surely that’s just a ‘soft landing’ contract to ease him out once they’ve unpicked the details of all the dodgy deals he’s done.

(Without malice) I can’t wait to read a full biography of Bernie once he’s gone and people finally feel they can tell the whole truth.

thepurist – Member
Joe Saward seems to have a pretty confident take on the Liberty Media deal, and he’s been talking about it for a while now. If you don’t read his blog it’s well worth it, it’s one of the few places where you get to read stuff that isn’t cobbled together from press releases.

Agree – Joe’s website is the best source of news out there

Most of this has gone completely over my head but I’ve just come across this post via https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech – really in-depth stuff for those who understand it…

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/formula-1-f-duct-r-wings-aero-challenge-willem-toet

https://www.linkedin.com/today/posts/willemtoet1

So it’s definitely happening then: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37303230

Although “Mr Ecclestone said: “I would like to welcome Liberty Media and Chase Carey to Formula 1 and I look forward to working with them.”” makes it sound like Bernie still wants to be boss

makes it sound like Bernie still wants to be boss

the same article on the beeb earlier this morning said bernie was staying for another 3 years.

This Liberty media presentation gives a bit more inisght into the deal. Unsuprisingly they seem to be focussed on the ££££($$$$) rather than the racing.

Oh and I read somewhere that Chase has said he won’t be doing anything about revenue distribution just yet, plus his links with NewsCorp suggest $ky’s deal will roll on unaffected. I think BE’s being kept in until the current Concorde expires in 2020. Given the contracts with sponsors, promoters etc. that are already in place I’d expect it will take years for any real change to be visible. I think even the digital side they’re banging on about as the ‘next big thing’ is tied up in the 100+ broadcast deals. A first step might be to actually allow promoters to use images/video to promote their events, but I’m not holding my breath for any swift ‘revolution’ in F1.

Another race passes and no comments over the weekend!

F1 seems to be lacking something at the minute. The mid-season races have been rather dull.

Hoping next years re-vamp brings back the spectacle.

I dropped off. It took a kayak advert to wake me

Overall quite dull.
Though Kvyat vs Verstappen was pretty good. As was Seb getting from the back up to fifth, shame we didn’t see much on the C4 highlights. Shame Ricci didn’t get up on Ros a lap earlier or we’d have had a decent battle there as well.

Bloody scary with the marshal on track… 😯

I’m reading (and occasionally commenting on) this thread, haven’t bothered to watch any of the last few races – I’m recording the highlights but reading the race report first and haven’t been particularly inspired to watch any.

Another race passes and no comments over the weekend!

I think it might have something to do with LH driving like a granny. NR just nailed that one, LH needs to get his s#$% together if he wants to defend his title.