Motors The Bit-Tech Formula 1 2014 Thread - Season Complete

VW group joining F1 would be amazing and probably necessary with Caterham dead and buried.

I'd like to see Alonso there instead of Mclaren too, I want my Honda and Button win damnit!

Although, that would be terrible for WEC without Audi, presumably Porsche will hoover up their drivers and that could leave a bunch of people out in the cold. The racing won't be great either, back to the bad old days of Porsche just winning everything all the time (oh, wait...).

 

Oh great you know what'll happen then, diesel engines and a grid that sounds like a farm yard full of tractors.

 

Caterham['s Administrators] are 'allowed' to skip the US and Brazil GPs

Dunno what this means in reality, as they look highly unlikely to turn up in Austin anyway...

Also I gather Caterham's staff have essentially been told not to turn up for work until this mess is resolved...

 

Not F1 related, but:- Coventry holding motor racing on Ring Road next May

 

Marussia will also miss the US [and likely the the Brazil] GP

We could end up with another Indianapolis '05 at this rate....

 

^^ i hope not... that was a pathetic race, both the race, and the events leading up to it...

 

Q1 is probably going to be a non-event with only 2 cars not making it through...

 

Unless they are going to react and change the format to 4-4-10.

 

At least it would have some noise

 

Marussia goes into administration

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-29784602

 

It's a shame, and could possibly the first two of the teams by the start of the new season.

Next year might not be a good season for F1

 

Possible rescue deal already "close to completion"

 

Fingers crossed on that deal then. Be a shame to loose two teams one is bad enough. The 40M windfall from finishing 9th will give them a massive boost and solve the money issues they are having at present.

 

So Daddy Chilton hasn't/can't put hand to wallet for Marussia [wasn't he supposed to be buying the team at the end of the year?]

I can see one of the following happening...

Caterham and Marussia merge

Haas buys one [or the picked clean bones of one] of the two teams to cut the costs of his 2016 entry [assuming he's still bothering with F1]

We end up with another 'Brawn GP' type team

Renault leaves F1 as, at this rate, there won't be any teams for them to supply engines to... Lotus is switching to Merc, Caterham probably won't be here next year and RBR [and probably by extension STR] are on about making their own engine...

 

Audi are denying it of course, but this year they renewed a large sponsorship deal they have in place with Red Bull for DTM and GT and they just hired some guy named Domenicalli.

Probably nothing...

More plausibly, I can see Renault improving massively for 2015, they will have been developing like crazy once that Merc engine was seen in the field. If they don't then it's either Red Bull Honda or Red Bull Audi for 2016, since Mclaren only have exclusivity for 1 year with Honda.

 

Purge of all those non manufacturer teams followed by Audi / Honda / Nissan / Toyota / BMW / Ford all starting teams?

 

That would be a disaster.

Ford (as Jaguar), BMW, Honda and Toyota have all had F1 teams since 2000, they've also all thrown a hissy fit and dropped out when results didn't go their way, in three out of four cases tearing up in progress contracts as they went (Ford sold the team as a going concern to Red Bull).

Red Bull can't be relied upon if the next five years don't go their way, Mateschitz has said as much more than once. Renault dumped their team when Briatore's shenanigans came out (and Nissan is connected to Renault).

F1 populated entirely by 'Factory' teams would be dead inside of a decade, the losers will cut and run until the winners decide there isn't enough competition and coverage to justify the spending anymore.

See GT and sports car racing through the 80s and 90s for reference...

 

Audi and Dominicali: The best suspicion regarding that man (IMHO) is that he's going to Ducati.

Re: Caterham/Marussia: Haas has said he's not interested in them, but if he can pick up the scraps for nothing, he'd be stupid not to.... and with the Administrators not letting them decide on WCC spots, their value is likely to be nothing soon.

 

I LOL'd