Motors The Bit-Tech F1 2015 Thread - Season Complete

I had a little rant about his earlier. I think the main reason is that the canopies will interfere with the car's aero whilst the necessary air conditioning will raise the weight of the cars.

Then there is Bernie's obsession with 'the look' of F1 cars.

 

Interesting one reading Bild earlier, Manor may end up with a merc powertrain next season...

 

Yeah, I saw that. It has the potential to push McLaren Honda to the very back of the grid.

 

Jenson Button to drive for Manor Mercedes!

 

I can see a very unhappy Ron if thats the case

Id love to see that but, his fees would be too much for them. On the plus side though with the Merc powertrain they stand a better chance of peeing off Sauber again and nabbing a couple of points. Points would mean a bigger share of the Bernie pie for them.
The merc move could pay of massively for them though I would imagine Daimler stating part of the deal being one seats effectively their driver progression seat giving it to Pascal to start with.

 

Renault have confirmed they're dropping customer teams.

 

Cost implications for Redbull could pretty much cripple them at this rate

 

Rossi to replace Mehri at Manor

 

Unfortunate for Merhi, but his results didn't leave him much to stand on when his sponsorship dried up.

If he'd destroyed Stevens he might have got away with it, but Stevens mostly beat him.

As for Renault, I think this might be the end of Red Bull in F1.

 

Why do you say that? It does put Ferrari in a great position to crap on Red Bull from a great height, but why wouldn't they agree to supply?

We're talking Red Bull and Toro Rosso, but Manor switching to Mercedes mitigates the increased strain on Ferrari to supply additional customer engines.

 

I think the only way it could end them is the cost of paying to get out of the contracts with total and Infinity then the purchase cost for Ferrari lumps as mentioned in the BBC article.

Manor getting the merc powertrains looking more and more likely with Renaults announcement id expect close end of the season or before to see them purchase Lotus bringing Total along with them, I think Infiniti will just vanish basically as a sponsor as it is effectively Renault anyway so expect to see yellow or orange cars next year.
They will likely bin off Maldonado as he is frankly a liability and possibly move to retain Grosjean, they like having a home driver, an they could do far worse leaving a free seat for Pascal maybe?

 

It's largely irrelevant who supplies Red Bull.

Losing Works Status and Renault/Infiniti sponsorship cuts at least $50million from their budget (including around $20million to buy engines).
It also loses them advanced notice and input on engine layout.
If Ferrari or whoever decide not to give them upgrades, they're SOL and dropping back.
They don't have Newey anymore, their performance vs STR says that hurts them more than anyone will admit to.
Dietrich Mateschitz' ego will only stand so much, they've already won everything there is to win, they even got a win out of the old Minardi team. What more does he have to achieve pumping hundreds of millions into a mid-grid team?

Unless they pull a coup like pinching Honda works status off Mclaren once Honda get the engine right (like Mclaren did to Williams many years ago) or VW power they won't be winning titles any time soon. After their dismal behaviour towards Renault this year and last, they're going to struggle to find another works partner willing to put so much money into a team that wins by itself and loses because of the engine.

 

I hadn't considered the Renault/Infiniti sponsor money - but Red Bull is cash rich, they could throw money at it, if it makes them competitive. I do agree that they may struggle to find a future works partner, given how appallingly they behaved towards Renault.

However, the apparent strains between McLaren and Honda already might make a partner switch more attractive to Honda, assuming love doesn't blossom once they sort their powertrain.

 

McL-Honda strain is irrelevant, because I don't think any of the other teams would take those powertrains even if they were free.

 

From what I understand Honda were pretty much persuaded into the tiny MGU or something along those lines so it cant store much power. It was something Mclaren wanted tiny for packaging I remember seeing it but cant remember the part.

 

No, of course not, but there may well be some interested parties willing to swoop after McLaren Honda have taken the pain of development.

 

There is a precedent with Honda though.

In the late nineties they let Jordan and Mugen do all the hard work, then once the honda engine was race winning they swept in, took the design off Mugen and became BAR's 'works' engine supplier, much to EJ's chagrin.

In the eighties they did the same to Williams, spending five years developing the turbo engine, then as soon as Williams won the title they dumped them and gave the engines to Mclaren for 1988.

Honda struggle a bit with loyalty...

 

Both Manors in the wall, that's gonna do their budget no favours...

 

Lotus were in court this morning and have managed to get an adjournment till the 28th reason stated was ongoing negotiations with Renault to purchase the team.

 

im highly expecting renaut to take back this team, considering all that is happening. it seems like the best option for both parties