F1 2020 (spoilers abound)

Why do you think Ferrari will go off the boil?

I am super happy with all the transfers tbh. One of least favourite drivers (Vettel) has finally had his just deserts and two of my favourites have moved up into favourable seats. Perfect!

Apparently Alonso is ready for a return, as according to Flavio Briatore. Or, more interestingly, Vettel was never offered a contract lol:

Fernando Alonso ‘ready’ for Formula 1 return – https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/52682505

The phone line from Liberty Media to Boris must be red hot at the minute. If they can’t work out a way round the new 14 day quarantine rules the whole season is in serious trouble. with seven F1 teams based in England it just wouldn’t be workable.

Re Alonso – it wouldn’t surprise me if he and Briatore where involved in some sort of team buy-out. Renault’s F1 effort of late has been seriously lacking and they must be considering pulling out as a works team, but may stay as an engine supplier.

Budget cut to $145m approved

The bit that interests me is this:

As well as the budget cap, other rules forming part of the package included a radical aero development handicap system, where the worst performing teams are allowed more wind tunnel and CFD development time compared to the more successful outfits, plus the allowance for the use of open source parts.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-teams-approve-radical-rule-budget-changes/4795544/

Why is that?

Nice little story of how F1 teams have been working together on seeing how they can help Covid together.

Good to see they can come together when it really matters

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/may/24/project-pitlane-how-rival-f1-teams-united-in-battle-against-covid-19?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

shermer75
Member

Why is that?

You mean why do I think it’s interesting?

Because as far as I remember it’s the first time we’ve had anything like this in F1. However it remains to be seen if e.g. williams actually have the budget make use of the time.

Success ballast would be cheaper but i guess would upset the purists.

Vettal to Merc? Really?
https://www.planetf1.com/news/sebastian-vettel-valtteri-bottas/

Well, not really.  At the same time Lewis came out that he was getting bored of F1, although maybe sometimes able to shake the motivation back on a daily basis.

I took that to be a subtle communication to Merc that its “Him or Me, I can do other things”.     Ham/Vettell would never be comfortable team mates, Mercedes won’t like the disruption Vettell would bring.

More likely they’d bring Russell into Bottas seat and Vettel can take his sulking outside of F1 while “working as an adviser” to Haas.

There’s all sorts of crazy rumours going around, everyone’s bored and letting their imaginations run amok. Red Bull have no use for Bottas. He was never a Red Bull driver, so what’s the point of spending millions bringing young guys up through the ranks if you’re going to hire an outsider. Bottas going to Renault would make more sense.

Vettel to Merc doesn’t make any sense to me. They are happy with Hamilton and Bottas, but having Vettel available gives them some leverage over Hamilton when it comes time to talk salaries. In the long term, George Russell alongside Hamilton for a year or two would make more sense than Vettel.

Looks like e-racers are up there with ebikes (I’m joking!!!!!)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/52776028

It’s like using an Ebike on a Strava segment 😆

Quite drastic budget reductions plus an aero handicap for top teams approved

Lower budget cap, ‘aero handicap’ and more cost-saving F1 rules officially approved

Not looking good for Williams – team possibly/probably for sale, splitting with title sponsor

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/williams-considering-selling-team/4798066/

I hate to be another of those people – but under Claire Williams management that team has gone to pot. And will probably now be sold for nowhere near it’s true value as it’s very much a buyers market now.

Sad day for a once great team.

I wonder if Rokit actually paid them.

silly season.. I throw this in Seb and Alonso buy the team and get Paddy lowe to run a Renault engine b team

And will probably now be sold for nowhere near it’s true value as it’s very much a buyers market now.

It’s a loss making business with a major recession looming. Hard to see that it’s worth very much.

Seb and Alonso buy the team and get Paddy lowe to run a Renault engine b team

B team hardly describes the cluster**** that that collection of ****s would be if they teamed up.

yep could it be any worse than it is now? Just for sheer amusement and egos! Its a real shame as I have grown up watching Williams go racing with McLaren.

Really annoying thing is they had Mr. Stroll’s money as good as in the bank, but they let that go to Force Point India Racing! 🙂

Employees futures should have come before personal pride and heritage.

I always thought Rokit were another Rich Energy. Never seen any product for sale

A massive shame if Williams fall

Their decline started when Adrian Newey left. He wanted shares in the team, but Frank Williams refused. It’s hard to imagine a Newey led team with BMW engines not winning multiple championships and turning into what Merc is now.

any chance of Latifi doing a Stroll or is he not on the same level in term of finances? On wiki it claims he put 200m into Mclaren

Shame if they go. They’ve always been a popular employer locally.
I remember when the angling obsessed Ross Brawn worked for them. He would do his regular job there and then spend the evening making his early carbon fibre fishing rods at the factory.

One of my mates drove for them. A transporter admittedly but that came late on in the ‘conversation’ with impressionable ladies.

any chance of Latifi doing a Stroll or is he not on the same level in term of finances? On wiki it claims he put 200m into Mclaren

Possibly – his father isn’t short of a bob or two.

Great shame for Williams. There was a rumour in the early 2000’s that BMW wanted to buy a major stake in the team, but Frank refused to sell. I always thought if that had happened they would be still at the top.

But fair game, he refused wanted to remain in control and carry on, full respect. But unfortunately something has gone wrong, and not just lack of £££ plenty of other teams are getting better results with less cash.

I’m hoping Williams will live, perhaps Williams VW group? Although that might be difficult with current engine regulations and a looming global financial crises.

As soon as a team starts using wealthy talentless drivers who pay for their seats they are doomed to fail.

It’s really quite sad to think that it’s even possible we won’t have a proper Williams on the grid, especially when you consider that it isn’t THAT long ago when Stroll claimed a podium at Azerbaijan in a competitive car. I started watching F1 for Mansell’s FW-14, then along came Prost, Senna, Hill, etc.

There’s a lot of looking back at history and pontificating about what they could’ve/would’ve done etc, but small cumulative tactical blunders have become the norm. There’s some seriously dysfunctional management going on there, that was evident when Paddy Lowe was dismissed.

Rokit don’t even have a wikipedia page…

Rokit don’t even have a wikipedia page…

Even Rich Energy managed that!

It’s really quite sad to think that it’s even possible we won’t have a proper Williams on the grid, especially when you consider that it isn’t THAT long ago when Stroll claimed a podium at Azerbaijan in a competitive car. I started watching F1 for Mansell’s FW-14, then along came Prost, Senna, Hill, etc.

Remember the same feelings when Lotus chucked in the towel.

But fair game, he refused wanted to remain in control and carry on, full respect. But unfortunately something has gone wrong

The idea of having an independent constructor building a chassis and bolting in an engine hasn’t worked for a long time. Brawn got a bit lucky, but before that, the last time it worked was Williams-Renault with Hill and Villeneuve. Since then, chassis and engines have been integrated much more. Red Bull-Renault seem like an exception, but that car and engine were quite tightly integrated – the blown diffuser only worked because the engine was developed with that in mind. On top of that, I can’t remember the last time Williams actually produced a truly competitive chassis – bit hard to market yourself to manufacturers if you can’t actually build a decent car.

Seems clear that the Williams way of being a ‘proper’ race team and making as much as they can themselves, having their own wind tunnel etc doesn’t really work for the mid fielders any more.

Things like making your own gearbox just makes no sense unless you can get a significant advantage over just buying one in from Merc. It’s a shame but if your immediate competitors are all buying everything in that they can from the front runners, then you have to as well to be competitive.

Rich Energy considering buying Williams, according to Planet F1
God help them…

Rich Energy considered selling drinks 🙂

Rich Energy considering buying Williams, according to Planet F1
God help them…

Planet F1 see a tweet from the weirdo at Not Whyte Energy and publish a story (not Storey). Nothing more to it than that, I hope.

pic.twitter.com/OPzMXPVM4u

— paul (@ptank40) May 31, 2020

Great shame for Williams. There was a rumour in the early 2000’s that BMW wanted to buy a major stake in the team, but Frank refused to sell. I always thought if that had happened they would be still at the top.

BMW invested in the Sauber team instead. After a few years BMW sold the team back to Peter Sauber and left the sport, having got bored with not winning.

Also worth remembering that whilst they had some success in the early 00’s, William’s and BMW won nothing in their last season together, having lost their power advantage of previous years.

If Frank Williams and Patrick Head had just retired, made Adrian Newey a shareholder, and let him run it, they would have had a chassis capable of winning championships. Good chance BMW would have stayed if they were frontrunners. Even if they had still quit, a Renault/Merc/Ferrari customer engine would still have been good enough to win championships with an Adrian Newey chassis.