2018 F1 season - discussion

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A place for sit down with sounds of soothing music in the background, wine, cheese and good conversation about life with F1.

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2018 F1 testing schedule

26 February-1 March: First pre-season test, Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona

6 March-9 March: Second pre-season test, Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona

 

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2018 F1 race calendar

25 March Australian GP Melbourne

8 April Bahrain GP Sakhir

15 April Chinese GP Shanghai

29 April Azerbaijan GP Baku

13 May Spanish GP Barcelona

27 May Monaco GP Monaco

10 June Canadian GP Montreal

24 June French GP Le Castellet

1 July Austrian GP Spielberg

8 July British GP Silverstone

22 July German GP Hockenheim

29 July Hungarian GP Budapest

26 August Belgian GP Spa-Francorchamps

2 September Italian GP Monza

16 September Singapore GP Marina Bay

30 September Russian GP Sochi

7 October Japanese GP Suzuka

21 October United States GP Austin

28 October Mexican GP Mexico City

11 November Brazilian GP Sao Paulo

25 November Abu Dhabi GP Yas Marina

 

 

[Sakae 0]

15 January 2018   6:39 (CET)

Negative Camber quotes Horner (Budget Cap): 

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“I’m not a huge fan of budget caps because I question how policeable it is – because everyone’s corporate structure is different,” Horner said.“It absolutely has to go hand in hand with dealing with the cost drivers upstream, because the costs are generated through the regulations. That is what determines the amount we spend.

Lately I am not a big fan of Horner, but I do agree with his assertion as quoted. So, apparently there are people on the inside who do know what's involved. Mantra of "Budget Cap" - our salvation is meaningless expression until F1 finds an answer what kind of series it wants to be, and acts upon it. Opulent, unique and outrageously excessive F1 which only a few can afford in today's cost, or just one of many race series which meets your blank stare with big yawn at the end.  CART series used to be watchable ...I used to watch it through and through next to F1... no doubt about it, but it did not win America, and has disappeared of the map, despite being relatively "cheap". It was closest on Mother Earth, which could compete for viewership with the F1. So, what did we learn from its demise? Not much, perhaps just one thing is certain; some people will never learn.  

[Sakae 0]

15 January 2018   9:28 (CET)

Too expensive, an F1 engine? Prost doesn't agree

Cost of current PU - red herring, implies former champ, and one of the greatest, who actually owned a team.

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"My engines cost $28 million back in 2001, and they would have cost $31 million in 2002 had the team survived," Prost told Auto Plus.

"Today, we're between $15 and $17 million. Engine manufacturers have therefore brought the costs down, and for highly more complex engines.

Prost believes Liberty Media's current vision of F1's future power unit lacks clarity, and insists Renault Sport F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul is right to say that engine regulation changes should be considered in the larger scheme of things.

Thank you Alain for clarity so often missing in "one of the mill" articles we read on daily basis. 

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15 January 2018   11:54 (CET) - Venerable Mr. Benoit, Swiss F1 journalistic ace

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He said the FIA has set up a media working group “to make coverage better”. But Benoit wondered: “How is that going to happen when Zak Brown and his billion-dollar partners on the internet hunt all sorts of motor sport sites and agencies to buy?”

Benoit has it exactly right  - just count articles on the net over winter and whose point of view dominates pages, day in, day out.

[Sakae 0]

16 January 2018   11:39 (CET)

It's crazy: Cowell (MB)

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“It’s crazy,” he is quoted by Italy’s Corriere dello Sport, “because the manufacturers will have to virtually redo many parts.”

He therefore hit out at the FIA’s basic intention of the rules, which is to reduce costs.

“We will build at least 80-100 engines and then test them on the bench and take the three or four that have the best reliability and power characteristics,” said Cowell.

“That’s a huge cost that the manufacturers will not be able to recover.”

Well, as long as McLaren and alike are happy.

Common sense has taken leave of absence at F1 branch of FiA. They do everything possible to make life of PU developer's miserable, and chase them away. Ross Brawn is not as competent (said BE once) as it is generally propagated. He merely had brainy people working for him. Now, who wants to stay beyond 2020 raise your hand..!

[Sakae 0]

18 January 2018   18:37 (CET)

Pitpass.com

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While Honda opts to maintain a dignified - or it that embarrassed - silence, Mercedes and Renault have admitted their unease while Ferrari, in typically Latin style, is already talking of a breakaway. Daimler chairman, (Dr.) Dieter Zetsche, the man who signs the cheques for Mercedes F1 programme admits that while not following Ferrari's example of throwing his toys out of the pram, admits that he fully understand and supports the Italian manufacturer's stance.

OK, negotiations are on, and I am very much in doubt that Brawn will scream "jump", and SM will ask "how high"? "Ferrari's example of throwing his toys out of the pram" is British understanding what's going on, whereas I would say we must understand that someone - like SM - must say to LM, Ferrari will protect their interest. That's all. Totally appropriate.

GM247

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Mercedes big boss Dieter Zetsche has backed his F1 team chief Toto Wolff and aligned the German manufacturer with Ferrari regarding the future direction of Formula 1 under Liberty Media.

In other words, Zetsche’s line of thinking is in tune with Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne’s expectations of the sport, but points out that the way they put forth their opinions is what differs.

Zetsche said of Marchionne, “We are the good cop and the bad cop. We beat each other like crazy on the track and try to get every tenth of a second of advantage but at the same time, we are 100% aligned on our thoughts in Formula 1 and our strategic actions in Formula 1. We are good friends.”

 

[Sakae 0]

19 January 2018   12:05 (CET)

Future is now?

Handelsblatt:

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Germany more than doubled the number of electric cars on its roads with 25,056 registered last year, including 4,323 for the Renault Zoe, the most popular electric model for the second year in a row.

Writing is on the wall. BMW and others are helping road-side stations with installation of rapid charging electrical sources (while you wait, having nice lunch, and kids playing in controlled environment for their safety). Ferrari and Mercedes surely have somewhere to go after 2020 - should they choose to. Current F1 media sources, despite rather bellicose language, are wrong again. (Ferrari will stay because they have nowhere to go, and WE can order them whatever we like). BMW won race in common sense, and it is for the other automakers to follow.

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20 January 2018   21:40 (CET)

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The Mercedes chief (Dr. Zetsche) reaffirmed his company’s commitment to the sport at the highest level, “We are there to stay in Formula 1 but of course the platform itself has to stay meaningful and develop positively.”

...it will be a problem, if it is not. Meanwhile vilification of Ferrari by weak-minded scribes continues. Their rejection of the front wing design by FOG - within context how it was developed and presented - IMHO was totally appropriate. I am missing FiA in this tussle.

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22 January 2018   13:40 (CET)

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The source TSM Sportz estimated few drivers salaries based on their performance level. If there are any changes made to the drivers list that will updated here before the season began.

 

Drivers	Annual Salary	F1 Team	Contract Period
Sebastian Vettel	$60 Million	Scuderia Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton	$50 Million	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport
Kimi Räikkönen	$40 Million	Scuderia Ferrari
Fernando Alonso	$30 Million	McLaren F1 Team

I am not sure that's correct, but it is a nice paycheck.

[Sakae 0]

22 January 2018   14:19 (CET)

Formula 1 future rules to focus on three performance factors By James Newbold, Lawrence Barretto @lawrobarretto Published on Monday January 22nd 2018 Formula 1 RSS feed

PS:

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The F1 technical team is also looking at other aspects that need addressing, such as costs and predictability of races.
"We need to look at the costs," Symonds said. "Costs are making it difficult for those further down the field to make an impression on the leaders.
"We want to get rid of predictability. Over the last couple of decades, the worst times in racing have been when the result has been predictable.
"We had a little bit of it with the Mercedes domination. At least for a couple of years we didn't know which driver might have won.
"We want to look at the spectacle, we want visual appeal, we want to recognise the role of the driver.
"We need to look at the problem of the live audience and the TV audience as they have different requirements.
"And we have to look at the race week experience. It's no longer good enough to think about just what happens on Sunday."

 

Symonds seems to be on right track. What he said makes a lot of sense to me, despite occasional disagreements. Cost alone is not going to resolve other issues. Technical rule book needs to be trashed and re-written.

[BradSpeedMan 6]

17 hours ago, Sakae said:

22 January 2018   13:40 (CET)

I am not sure that's correct, but it is a nice paycheck.

Read it and I'm rather suprised too. Well, the best driver on the grid earns the most, Kimi in 3rd place in the paycheck rankings, I thought he took a cut, last I heard

[Sakae 0]

23 January 2018   7:15 (CET)

Seb has a contract until end of 2020, and I can easily see him retiring then, despite being very young of age. Reasons..?

1. Ferrari might pull out of the F1, and Seb will not want to change teams. (He might want to be there to see his kids in Switzerland grow up).

2. Ferrari might want to have a new driver after 2020. We know from the past that winning it all, as much it is not guaranteed, but it is not enough, and just raises a lot of negativity based on perceived issues regardless of facts. Schumacher at Ferrari and Vettel at RBR are two cases which came to my mind. Media went really berserk over success of those two individuals.

I have feeling that Kimi is probably in his last season. About that pay-cut, so I've read the same, but not sure of details, or whether it is factually correct. A few reports actually go the other way, and SM offered to give him a small rise.

(Not too many know that Nicky Lauda admitted Mercedes approached Vettel last year before he re-signed with Ferrari. Seb however likes Italy and Maranello crowd better, thus I don't blame him.)

[Sakae 0]

24 January 2018, 20:10 (UTC)

The power grid isn’t prepared for the approaching electric car boom.

Well, what else is new? Infrastructure is not there. We have discussed (Ruslan, Publius) exactly this problem on the old forum. Adding plugs and parking is relatively simple, but cities will go dark when power grid goes bust due to high demand. My guess is, that this will take couple of decades hence before people stop talking about it as novelty. Both, BMW and MB had their electric cars (with terrible batteries) ready for the road a decade or two ago, but people didn't wanted two cars (one for city, other for long distances), there were no incentives, and one couldn't "refill" anywhere but at home, so the development was halted, but now it is back - big way. Gasoline PU will be however with us for a while. (Hydrogen future - as an alternative - was not shelved as far as I know)..

 

[Sakae 0]

 

25 January 2018, 08:10 (UTC)

Now Mansell got involved

Plenty ideas are being tossed around, but are they a compromise which masks fundamental issues of the F1, or a breather before something else comes around? Two (PU diff.) tier solution is being suggested - as it used to be, claims Mansell. I am not exactly sure it did work in the past, and why it was dropped.

 

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Mansell: F1 without Ferrari? ‘Absolutely not’

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27 January 2018, 07:05 (UTC)

Noteworthy?

Negative Camber  (alias) is one of few people who took a notice of this. Whether this is an end to it remains to be seen. People who pushed for review how financing of the F1 were mainly from UK, but in current political melange of opinions about legal jurisdictions, hard to say whether EU will or will not continue to pursue the initial complaint. In theory it remains as the active case for so long until EU declares whole matter of the table as not worth of pursuing. 

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Joint release by Sahara Force India and the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team:

We have decided to withdraw the complaint we lodged with the European Commission in 2015 on the subject of anti-competitive practices in the sport of Formula 1

 

[Sakae 0]

30 January 2018, 07:10 (UTC)

Ferrari again..?

Modern Robin Hood, or Marxist ideas of late?

 

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30 January 2018, 08:58 (UTC)

PROST: OCON WAS MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN MAX LAST YEAR

Uhm, war is ON! I am actually short on facts, but if Alain says so, I take his word for it (never-mind that I detest MV's crass behavior). There seems to be bunch of guys on the grid living in shades and out of media spotlight who deserve better. It is not surprising to me that FI, despite doing a decent job with the material, find themselves in situation in which both drivers think they should be somewhere else. (Not that is very much unique on the grid.) Ocon should be replacing Bottas IMO as an equal partner to Hamilton and prove once for all how overrated someone can be in that car. He could be also suitable to replace Kimi  one day, but I think MB has hold on him first. (Actually I have nothing against Bottas, but he seems to be too accommodating for my taste that "sweat" setup MB is running there.) Problem is, Torger is not going to run two Alpha males side by side any time soon. He is still recovering from Rosberg beating Hamilton in his last run.

 

[Sakae 0]

31 January 2018, 16:05 (UTC)

MONTEZEMOLO: MERCEDES WORKED ON THEIR F1 ENGINE SINCE 2007

Hamilton must be so proud...

Add all those restrictions required to recover from design flaws others experienced, and you get one good scenario for disaster, while FiA and FOM were quiet.

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Former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has revealed that Mercedes F1 chairman Niki Lauda informed him that the German team began work on their all conquering power unit a decade ago, long before the new turbo era kicked off.

Montezemolo told La Repubblica, “Lauda recently confessed to me that Mercedes were already working [on their hybrid engine] since 2007 and that’s why they so adamant during the negotiations to introduce V6 engines from 2014.

 

[BradSpeedMan 6]

If Montezemolo was telling the truth (see no reason to) why did'nt they object. It makes no sense. Apparently Renault was also pushing for the V6 hybrids.

It also shows the amazing recovery of Ferrari last year

[Sakae 0]

1 hour ago, BradSpeedMan said:

If Montezemolo was telling the truth (see no reason to) why didn't they object. It makes no sense. Apparently Renault was also pushing for the V6 hybrids.

It also shows the amazing recovery of Ferrari last year

1 February 2018, 07:00 (UTC) Can anyone be really proud of winning under such conditions? Tony Kannan had it right when he said, it was (probably for past 4 years) a championship of 2 cars, and (I add) FiA stood silent on sidelines. Thank you Mr. Whiting, thank you Mr. Todt. There were times when Ferrari produced some of the best cars in the field (and so was RBR), but difference was in the rules, and complexity. Everyone could work on it, and catch them in 2 or 3 months. Not so today.

Then weren't some idiotic restrictions in place we have come to know in 2014. It was clear example of disastrous shortsightedness, when you budget development. (That time they budgeted points upon PU, in the future they want to repeat the same mistake by restricting finances.) All introduced to prevent teams from being able to develop or improve their racing related materials.

Ferrari was close last year, but my suspicion is that combination on occasions of some lousy driving by MB drivers, and response to it by Vettel made Ferrari look slightly better than actually it was. 

[Sakae 0]

1 February 2018, 16:57 (UTC)

Ferrari has nowhere to go if SM decided to pull out..? Following thought should give LM pause:

Fr / Lewin:

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Agag felt it was only natural that Formula E should lead the way, given that it is more in line with the overall direction of the motor industry.

“In 20 years' time, I don’t see anything bigger than Formula E," he told London business newspaper City AM. 

“Formula E will be the main motor sport championship because it is the championship that is connected to the industry.

 

[radical-one 0]

Who among the driver list would you take out as in not deserving or not good enough for his drive ?

 

The 2018 entry list
8 Romain Grosjean Haas F1 Team (OUT shouldn't be here)
20 Kevin Magnussen Haas F1 Team (OUT shouldn't be here)

14 Fernando Alonso McLaren F1 Team
2 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren F1 Team
44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport
77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport
3 Daniel Ricciardo Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
33 Max Verstappen Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
27 Nicolas Hulkenberg Renault Sport Formula One Team
55 Carlos Sainz Jr Renault Sport Formula One Team
11 Sergio Perez Sahara Force India F1 Team
31 Esteban Ocon Sahara Force India F1 Team
9 Marcus Ericsson Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team(OUT shouldn't be here)

16 Charles Leclerc Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team
5 Sebastien Vettel Scuderia Ferrari
7 Kimi Raikkonen Scuderia Ferrari
10 Pierre Gasly Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda
28 Brendon Hartley Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda
18 Lance Stroll Williams Martini Racing
35 Sergey Sirotkin Williams Martini Racing

[Sakae 0]

@radical-one 2 February 2018, 13:00 (UTC)  Interesting question, however leaving non-racing aspects aside, to be frank, other than 3 to 5 drivers, I do not know much about anyone on the grid enough in racing terms to judge them objectively. In post race food fights there is almost always something bad in focus, but seldom something of value. There is too much going on during a race, and I am unable to follow them all properly. Besides, camera is not really properly focused on all good drives which go undetected behind MB #44. This preoccupancy whether Hamilton sneezes or smiles, what his dog is doing, how he...whatever, etc., all of that takes all time we have for the sport. So, I pass on judging innocent and guilty alike.

Amend. How did you determined who should get OUT (in your view)? I am curious why would you think Stroll belongs, whereas Grosjean is not. In totally irrational terms, I would have probably chosen precisely opposite solution. You may find a lot of divergence which is driven in subjective terms, over solid analysis.