Reply to: 2015 Formula 1 Thread

[d000hg]

I'm not so sure about Renault. They've had a whole year - since the 2014 season started - to work on the new engine and seem to have stuffed up.

I think Honda will be making massive steps forward though.

Come on Ferrari, give Manor one of your 2015 engines...

[malvolio]

How wrong can you be.

Not that wrong. Special circumstances around tyre wear and strategic decision making. China will be a better test of Mercedes vs Ferrari, and I expect Renault to sort the engine issues - which affect both braking and cornering - by the time they get to Europe.

However, as has been seen many times, basing predicted results on winter testing is never a good idea

[ZARDOZ]

Never rated Vettel.....--He's nowhere near Hamilton of Riccardo and he won't have the Ferrari team on his side yet either. The real fight will be between Mercedes and Red Bull.

How wrong can you be.

[DannyF1966]

Ferrari are doing a snazzy summary of each race on their website, here's Malaysia. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see links for the other races this season.

[eek]

Well this race, VDG isn't eligible to drive as he hasn't got a license. So the team are allowed to field a replacement.

If you want the technicalities it seems that the lack of a licence can also be pinned on Sauber and therefore probably makes things worse in a courts eyes rather than solves a problem....

[d000hg]

OMG what have they done to the new F1 website: Formula 1®

[fullyautomatix]

No but if you only have 2 spaces you have a real problem if you've sold them 3 times and all 3 turn up....

How difficult is it to match 2 and 2. Some had an almighty **** up.

[d000hg]

Well this race, VDG isn't eligible to drive as he hasn't got a license. So the team are allowed to field a replacement.

[eek]

BBC Sport - Australian GP: Sauber team principal could face prison

It just gets crazier and crazier. Bailiffs hanging around to seize the cars from the garage, VDG appearing in the garage in his race-suit!

Is a team allowed more than two drivers, on some sort of rota system, if they wished to?

No but if you only have 2 spaces you have a real problem if you've sold them 3 times and all 3 turn up....

[d000hg]

BBC Sport - Australian GP: Sauber team principal could face prison

It just gets crazier and crazier. Bailiffs hanging around to seize the cars from the garage, VDG appearing in the garage in his race-suit!

Is a team allowed more than two drivers, on some sort of rota system, if they wished to?

[VectraMan]

No doubt they'll pay him off. After all a contract doesn't mean that you have to do something, just that you have to pay compensation if you don't.

I guess the question is is the cost of this more or less than the amount they'd lose from the sponsorship of one of the other two. The car's blue and yellow because those are the colours of Nasr's sponsor Banco do Brasil, so it won't be him.

[d000hg]

BBC Sport - Sauber driver Giedo van der Garde wins court case to claim race seat

This is kind of interesting. He's legally won the race seat but hasn't been involved in the development, hasn't been in the car, doesn't even have a seat that fits.

A team being forced to run a driver they don't want... that surely can't possibly work. So will they just pay him a wodge of cash, is that what he's after, or does he genuinely just want to be in an F1 car by any means? It's not like Sauber have a lot of money to spare anyway.

[d000hg]

Brawn inherited an amazing car developed by the previous team, and then had no money to develop it. They did not end the season with an advantage - they were not the fastest car - so it's not a fair comparison. Teams who end the season with massive dominance do not tend to lose that.

[malvolio]

Brawn had the early season advantage with an idea nobody else had picked up on but they didn't have the resources to maintain the necessary level of development. By mid-season the rest had almost caught up. Mercedes aren't in that position.

Never rated Vettel; fine when the car was matched to his driving style, but when they killed off some of the exhaust-blown options he suddenly looked very ordinary and he failed totally to adapt to the new formula. He's nowhere near Hamilton of Riccardo and he won't have the Ferrari team on his side yet either. The real fight will be between Mercedes and Red Bull.

[VectraMan]

I can't see why Mercedes wouldn't win both championships - historically when one team achieves such dominance following big rule changes, they do retain that advantage for a time.

Like Brawn?

Normally new rules mean someone has a bigger advantage, and then it closes up with stability, and especially the smaller teams are able to catch up. Hard to say from testing; this time last year Red Bull were nowhere yet managed to win three races.

As for Vettel, I think he'll get his motivation back and be a more serious threat this year. People like to put him down, but he obviously was doing something right for those four years, and it's probably fair to say once he realised he wasn't going to win the championship again in 2014 he lost interest.

We'll see. Only a week and a half to go.