Australian Grand Prix 2015, Melbourne - Race 1/19

The FIA have said they are helping VDG with fast tracking his super license, although the paperwork was with Sauber and they have yet to sign..

I think Sauber could well be finished over all this. They had plenty of time to sort this out, but they thought that VDG would just go away after giving the team $8m.

Caltenbourn is a contract lawyer, I'm sure she did this in order to save the team at the time, and now it's time for dues to be paid. I would be very surprised if she keeps her position in the team, and the way VDG is going in the courts he's going to get his drive or cease assets from the team so they can't run.

A very ugly side of F1. No-one will trust Sauber(the team) again, and I remember Peter Sauber being a man beyond reproach - he'll be livid about the situation.
 
Kimi said:
If i had paid $8m for a race seat, even if sponsors money, i would do everything i could to get what i paid for, if thats not possible, at least get the money back.

If i wasn't in the car, id be laying down in front of it in protest on the grid.
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That would be a minor improvement over when he was driving for Caterham, then. Mobile chicanes are always worse than ones that stay put.
 
I must say the improvements FOM have made to their coverage and interaction over the off season have impressed me, the new graphic display is a refreshing change for me, my eyesight is mediocre at the best of times!

There's still one big elephant in the room though, where are those HD onboards STILL?! Sort it out Bernie!
 
Yeah the new graphics look nice, but it makes the Sky overlays look out of place now. Hopefully they will refresh theirs too.

The engine noise seemed a lot better too, especially the onboards. You get the whistles and chirps as well as much better engine noise.
 
Why's all this come about now? VDG signed his contract ages ago, why didn't he raise this issue earlier? Rather than in the week leading up to the race?
 
Doohickey said:
Why's all this come about now? VDG signed his contract ages ago, why didn't he raise this issue earlier? Rather than in the week leading up to the race?
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The Swiss court said he has a valid contract and needed to be in the car on December 3rd.

Sauber have done nothing since then to get him in the car, hence the court appearance in Australia, which Sauber lost, and then the appeal, which Sauber lost, and now onto potential contempt charges against the Sauber management and seizure of assets of the Sauber team if he doesn't drive.

This could have been resolved as soon as the very first court case happened way back in November.

It's all Sauber's fault.
 
MrKnifey said:
Just how are McLaren so far back... how?! How can they get it so so so so wrong
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Rybo89 said:
So at the moment it is looking like McLaren are going to be a bottom table team and Ferrari competing against the Mercs.

Oh Alonso, you done it again! Doh!

smr gunna end up in a padded cell by the end of this one :p
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They're about where they appeared in testing.

They've got one aim - to get close to Mercedes at the end of the season. While it's certainly not going to plan, if it's true that they still haven't fully opened the taps on the Honda yet, then there's plenty of performance to come. The drivers are saying promising things about the Honda though - that's it's very drivable and they've got plenty of power to tap into. I assume development of the engine is still fine so long as it's done for reliability purposes, irrespective of the token system.

It's going to be horrible start of the year - certainly until the European season gets going - but I'm still (stupidly?) confident that they'll at least be in the mix among the Red Bulls, Ferraris and Williams towards at the end of the season, and if they can pull that off it bodes very, very well for 2016 and beyond.

As for Ferrari, there's no chance they'll be challenging Mercedes regularly, whether they'd retained Alonso or not. They've definitely made a positive step forward (as evidenced by both Ferrari and Sauber in testing), but they'll still be in a group including Williams and Red Bull. Alonso's gone to the one team which has the potential to challenge Mercedes (however unlikely that looks at the moment) whereas you have to think Ferrari will struggle to catch Mercedes while the development of these engines is as restricted as it is. They've a real chance of pinching a win or two (they weren't that far off the pace of Mercedes in Austria last year), but they've got not chance of getting on top of Mercedes consistently.
 
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Doohickey said:
Why's all this come about now? VDG signed his contract ages ago, why didn't he raise this issue earlier? Rather than in the week leading up to the race?
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He took Sauber to court in their own country and won last year. But they didnt resolve it.

He has then had to wait until they arrived in Australia to compete to take them to court there.

In theory he can take them to court in each country once Sauber arrives to compete there.
 
kaiowas said:
This appears to be the latest news on Sauber (Back in court tomorrow, out-of-court negotiations ongoing which may lead to a resolution before then):

http://adamcooperf1.com/2015/03/13/sauber-case-continues-but-agreement-could-be-close/
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Shame. Was looking forward to the spectacle of the Sauber TP being hauled off to jail for think about what she's done wrong.

Perhaps there will be some sort of drive share or something in the end.

If Sauber pay him off they'll certainly have to pay damages too, which could amount to earning over his (future) F1 career.
 
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Irish_Tom said:
If they are competitive this season and McLaren continue to have issues it's going to look like a genius move for Seb and a proper shocker for Alonso.
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This remains to be seen I think. Alonso isn't interested in finishing 2nd in the WDC anymore... remember his face in '13 Brazil, staring ahead as Seb celebrated with his team, the long face and everything...

He doesn't want that, he's had that hurt, he believes, as well as half the world, that he is the best F1 driver on the planet. He'd probably rather finish 5th than 2nd and be so close but no cigar.

Ferrari are unlikely to win either Championship this year, they could well finish runners up but that doesn't interest Alonso, it's all or nothing for him now, and McLaren next year - well who knows.... they could have an immense PU for all we know, if they have a good chassis for aero development too then he may be in with a shout of the WDC in 2016/2017.

No one expects McLaren to do anything this year, it's a rebuilding phase/transitional period which as Merc demonstrated from '12/'13 etc. takes time to complete.
 
you have to ask if Fred is any good at judging a technical team, mind you took Hammi a while to suss them.

McLaren do talk the talk
 
FP2 long runs average lap time

Rosberg 1:32.22
Raikkonen 1:32.353
Hamilton 1:32.484
Vettel 1:32.850
Bottas 1:33.016
Kvyat 1:33.987

Obviously we don't know fuel loads, Vettel did his long stint on mediums. Do I think we are that close to mercedes? No but given Massa said our pace was very impressive I'm hopeful we will be challenging for 3rd come Sunday.
 
Skeeter said:
Do you work for Ferrari?
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Lol nope just a long-time fan (I assume a reference to me saying our).

Also on engine development not sure if posted from bbc:

Honda will be able to use nine engine development tokens this season, governing body the FIA announced to teams on Friday.
A compromise brokered before the season was that Honda, which is new to F1 this season, would be able to use the average of the amount of the number of tokens - ascribed to parts of the engine - unused by their rivals out of their total of 32 each.
Mercedes have used 25 tokens and so have seven remaining, while Ferrari have still to use 10 and Renault 12.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/31869469

So looks like Renault have the most room to develop. Should be interesting to see how much teams are able to close the gap later on in the season. Doesn't look too good for Honda if they only have 9 tokens but I guess we can't really tell where they are.
 
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smr said:
Why is it you're allowed to say 'we' when it comes to your football team but in F1 you have to work for them before being allowed to. lol.
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Yh I'm just use to referring that way when I talk about a team I support, not sure why it's even a big deal?
 
Jesus smr your on one already!

I was asking if he worked for Ferrari because it would be cool if he did. We have a number of F1 team employees on here (RBR, McLaren, Williams, etc) and its always interesting getting team members views.

Calm down smr, Button still loves you.

Anyway, sorry SS, I was just curious. Don't mind smr, he's just up tight. Of course your allowed to say "our" :).
 
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Skeeter said:
Jesus smr your on one already!

I was asking if he worked for Ferrari because it would be cool if he did. We have a number of F1 team employees on here (RBR, McLaren, Williams, etc) and its always interesting getting team members views.

Calm down smr, Button still loves you.

Anyway, sorry SS, I was just curious.
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Oh right in that case apologies! Would love to but I don't work in anything related to motorsport lol :p

I'm just glad F1 is back. Think it's going to be a good battle outside of Merc, probably more interesting than the title race.
 
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