The F1 2015 thread…

Lotus cars haven’t been released yet…

Lotus stuck at Spa as Renault F1 decision delayed

Some positive news to come from Justin Wilson’s death…

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/55667788/73673/Wilsons-organs-donated-to-save-six-lives

…if you aren’t on the Organ Donor register, do it today.

Lotus are ok because Renault are buying them out –

interestingly – there could be a return to the old green and blue racing colours

interestingly – there could be a return of an old renault driver

Renault are also in discussion with Force India so nothing is certain.

interestingly – there could be a return to the old green and blue racing colours

Aren’t Renault’s colours yellow and black?

Are they bringing René Arnoux back!? They must be on a tight budget! 😀

greeny/yellow and blue 🙂

54million euro is what i heard , all agreed and just awaiting FIA approval before formal announcement in 2 weeks.

They were a carry-over from Mild Seven colours though. Subliminal sponsorship, like Ferrari’s barcode.

interestingly – there could be a return of an old renault driver

Alain Prost?? He has a proven record running a team.

I’d love proper old school Renault colours…

I can see why Remault want to terminate their relationship with Red Bull (all that criticism must be wearing very thin by now) but it feels like they may be making a mistake. By all accounts Red Bull have one of the best chassis on the track. If Renaulf go elsewhere then they are taking the bit that’s holding the car back- the engine. Maybe if they pump a ton of money into Lotus they can make it work, but surely the best way to get the best results for the least cash would be to focus on the problems with their engine and stick with Red Bull?

I think they have let down all the teams with their engine. More likely the contracts wont be renewed for next year due to poor performance clauses.

That would leave them with no or very few engine customers. So from their point of view its best to buy a team. That way they will at least have one customer who doesn’t (cant) complain.

oooo is Flavio still banned – dont think he is.
Renault, Falvio, Alonso – we’re getting the Band back together.
all we need is Piquet ….

Wasn’t flav banned from ever looking at an f1 car ever again? Thought his was lifetime but pat s only got a few years which is why he’s back

This Alain Prost?

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/328984/prost-regrets-becoming-formula-1-team-boss/

There is only one Alan Prost and he is currently co-owner of e.dams-Renault the team which won Formula E, who his son drives for. Handily his son is also a test driver for Lotus F1.

i think Flav was going to take the FIA to court over his lifetime ban and they dropped it, to 5 years, but cannot be sure.

I think Renault would also get some extra payments if it became a works team based on its History and Bernie’s History-payment clause….

Not sure they would keep Maldo given his crash history probably outweighs the money his sponsor brings in.

a works Renault team really must be a draw for Alonso though – why not start the season fighting for 3rd and 4th with a works team, than grappling for 14th with a fragmented McLaren Honda team.

Decisions will have to be made pretty soon, and perhaps Alonso’s “towing the line” for McLaren-Honda attitude will change once Renault’s plans are made public….

At this stage I would like to announce that I have been talking to Haas F1 about a drive next season…

…as it appears everyone with a driving licence has had talks with them! 😀

Danica Patrick aint going there for sure – for all her hype she never quite lived up to expectation and was a bit accident prone. 8 years ago she might have been a contender – she never seemed to get over losing the Indy 500 with about 1 lap to go on a restart , 2009 i think it was – since then she’s gone to the Indycar retirement home – NASCAR (ok thats a little unfair to NASCAR…)

more engine woes for mclaren 10 place penalty for alonso and 5 for button! got to wonder why they bother turning up 😆

Klunk if I was jenson I’d go just to laugh at Lewis’s blonde hair.

any more claims about it being faster than renault and on a par with Ferrari this weekend?

they should just go about their business quietly instead of being on the defensive

not sure Mercs will get a challenge this weekend – Williams seems to have gone of the boil a bit, perhaps they will take the fight to the 3rd spot and below.

i remember the days when Ferrari would have a single special engine for Monza Qualy and the Race…

Rumours are that Lotus will be visited by bailiffs again this weekend. Looks like key suppliers aren’t too happy about not being paid.

Lotus need Renault to sign on the line and clear their credit lines otherwise they won’t make it to Singapore.

I thibk Honda are being very precise about comparing their ICE with the others. According to the letter of the regs I think the ICE is just the normally aspirated block, with turbo, mgus etc all classified separately. They’ve got well publicised issues with the whole harvesting and deployment of the hybrid component, and their axial turbo probably still needs work. I bet the Mercedes ICE runs like a bag of spanners without the rest of the PU components so comparing Honda to Renault is pretty meaningless.

thepurist – Member
I thibk Honda are being very precise about comparing their ICE with the others. According to the letter of the regs I think the ICE is just the normally aspirated block, with turbo, mgus etc all classified separately. They’ve got well publicised issues with the whole harvesting and deployment of the hybrid component, and their axial turbo probably still needs work. I bet the Mercedes ICE runs like a bag of spanners without the rest of the PU components so comparing Honda to Renault is pretty meaningless.

I think you’re right about that. Eric Boulier said that they were lacking a lot in the electrical side of things compared to the other teams at Spa:

Eric Boullier
If you can properly manage the energy, because we have limitations per lap, you can use both of them to maximum. At Spa, we were lacking a little bit of power on combustion engine but we can’t use 100 per cent of our electrical power which means it is a big hurt for us. To give you an idea here, we can’t use it on the two straight lines and not even in the full straight line. When we know, Renault and Ferrari and Mercedes use it in all the straight line, in full.

http://www.crash.net/f1/interview/222568/1/exclusive-eric-boullier-qa-interview.html

A few people on F1tech forum think their MGU-H is crap, which seems plausible given their unusual turbo setup.

Some seriously thin looking rear wings this week:

The Mclaren one looks like it’s going to be a bit of a handful! 8)

Bad news for all the other teams – Merc have upgraded their engine!…

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120601

so comparing Honda to Renault is pretty meaningless.

so why do Honda do it then? im only quoting them…
all that happens is everyone watches you and says “nah its crap”

Well, barring mechanical failure, it looks like a Merc walkover this weekend. 😐

so why do Honda do it then?

Quite often it’s because they’re answering a question and only part of the answer is used to make the story which removes context. I don’t know if that’s what’s happened here though.

As for Merc, it looks like their reliability upgrades have worked fairly well..

Looking at FP1 it seems that ferrari are as far behind Merc as Honda are behind Ferrari…

lets all do a rain dance… 🙂

ferrari could be sand bagging a little

you know what – McLaren Honda should just go totally illegal,
just forget the tokens and work restrictions and design limitations and just blow it all on getting the car up to speed – even getting fines , deducted WDC points everything, position penalties – because they are doing no good at the back….

I reckon the engine penalty regs will get an overhaul now redbull have done the same double change move as mclaren. I think docking wcc points would be a better approach with the penalty increasing for each additional pu component used. Grid penalties have been exposed as unviable, once you’re at the back there’s nowhere left to go so you might as well go to town. The extra stop go or drive throughs were ridiculous too.

The situation gets worse for McLaren – major sponsors now set to walk away…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/11845062/McLaren-set-to-lose-20m-in-sponsorship-next-year.html

Hamilton must have been to see a Sea-side fortune teller before he made the decision to leave for Mercedes!

Even Williams in their worst years were only at the back of the mid-field, not propping up the back of the grid.

wonder if redbull sent out ricciardo just to make sure mclaren didn’t make 2nd qualifying with one car 😈

daily mail says mclaren want honda boss to resign. not giving url obviously.

the mclaren honda deal would no doubt have a clause about either side can cancel the contract if they feel the other company brings continued disgrace, shame, negative publicity to the other (as do most business 2 business contracts these days)….could mclaren invoke this clause?
i would say the decision time would be in the next month – because they would have to find an engine and accommodate it into the 2016 car designs now.

there is a rumour Cosworth are circling F1……………

Well we’ve seen how well it goes developing a new PU for the current regs from scratch…

Oh dear, Deflategate has started.

no further action

Just finished watching the race and now catching up on the aftermath!

Pirelli – please just leave F1 you are a disgrace to the sport.

Pirelli – please just leave F1 you are a disgrace to the sport.

Isn’t it the FIA? They should define when the pressure needs to be the minimum pressure, they measured it on the grid with heating blankets turned off.