Hamilton has broken down! So they are human after all. lol It's apparently down to an oil system issue which caused a shutdown for safety reason. Williams have had 2 engine problems relating to the oil system too. Achilles heal? Trying something a bit suspect? Time will tell.
Williams have had at least 3 engine failures, and Merc 2 [1 for bottas, one for hamilton]... so Merc PU reliability may be an issue... or it may not...
If past form is anything to go by Merc teams won't have a single engine penalty this year, they've done all the exploding in testing to find out exactly where the limits are to the nanosecond.
Turn them up and let them race....or more likely reduce the engine allotment further. 1 engine to rule them all!
If I was writing the rules they would have to run each engine until it explodes, then they can't have another engine until the next weekend, so they either repair it or sit the race out if it should 'accidently' blow up in FP2. Might actually get some random results for a change.
Let them race balls to all the rules. How does running a blown engine help a true race. Give them all the same engine job done.
I cant link it currently as I'm at work but, if your interested Marc Priestly is doing his annual run down of the cars in pre season testing. Some interesting things but the massive shock to me was, the Renualt RS20 is the same chassis as last year. They have literally slapped a skinny nose on an there is a terrible transition between the skinny nose and the wide nose designed chassis from last season. Look around the camera mounts, its literally just bolted on
Could be that's on purpose? Allow access for weights to be added for balance adjustment? Could also be that it's just testing and they'd rather concentrate on other things than making the camera mounts nice and flush and polished. Maybe they're temporary because Renault have some trick aero gizmo from a loophole they want to save till the first race? Besides, it's not like they can cut giant cheating corners and copy another car......
That sounds like "we don't like what you did, but it was not against the word of the regulations. don't do it this season, m'kay?".
That or 'We, the FIA, dropped the ball and weren't checking something we were supposed to be checking'
Then Merc rock up with DAS and go to Ferrari 'You call that bending the rules? This is bending the rules...'
Sounds to me more like an agreement of where to place sensors to avoid cheating. The rumors about Ferrari playing with the fuel flow rates, oil-burning, etc made Ferrari the right candidate for this. Chances are the FIA did see what Ferrari were doing last year, but it wasn't against the rules, since the measuring spots all checked out with the right readings. I wouldn't attribute any form of malice to it. As for Pink Mercs - Steiner said it best: Not happy with it, but not illegal, so there's nothing he can do. DAS-Mercs: DAS is cool, and seems Merc checked it with the FIA before. Well played. How much benefit is in it remains to be seen. I don't believe RBR's claim of "0.2 per lap". I think the tyre temperature benefit outweighs the pure lap pace benefit. Regarding Renaults: they claim they got all their tests done. Something tells me they're not fast. Which leads me into a (late) bunch of predictions: RBR is quick. Merc is quicker. I expect another double here (HAM for WDC, of course). Better tyre management and slightly improved straight line speed means that leading from the front will be the norm here. Ferrari is VERY quick, but to go backwards in the season. Might end second, might lose the spot to RBR. Williams take a step forward, actually fighting in the midfield (albeit at the back). Renault has issues, will occasionally fight Williams. Haas has issues. Fixed the consistency, still lacking pace. Will fight Williams. Pink Merc will start strong, drop off in the season. The midfield is a free-for-all. All midfield teams will be very close in pace, and the real fighting will happen there.
