Soldato
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Made me chuckle - the Gods are really not happy about the cut in testing, as well as De la Rosa
F1 2009 Season discussion/development thread
- Thread starter Duke
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Made me chuckle - the Gods are really not happy about the cut in testing, as well as De la Rosa
Made me chuckle - the Gods are really not happy about the cut in testing, as well as De la Rosa
Interesting the bit about McLaren turning their engine down at the last test as they're having trouble getting them to pass QC and the KERS is making them fail prematurely.
As a show of good faith between Mclaren and Honda to secure Mercedes engines for their "low owner, weekend use only track toy for sale" Honda said that while their swindon plant is on shutdown, Mclaren staff can use the factory for a giant game of Laserquest.
More talks happening for Honda - http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=37144
Ive given up readin anything untill something official comes from them. Its got to the stage where the Motorsport press are just trying to outdo each other with sensational headlines, with no evidence. Im half expecting something like "The FIA are looking to purchase Honda and run as a 'referee' team in F1 in 2009, with cars painted black and with the ability to give yellow and red cards to drivers, autosport.com has learnt (made up)."
wise move IMO, why go with an unexperienced rookie when you can go for the man with the most experience currently in F1.
I don't think they can afford a Nelson Piquet-esque rebuild every couple of weeks.
Will be nice to see him racing still 
Because the unexperienced rookie will bring masses of sponsorship revenue. Honda need money more than they need good drivers at the moment, so unless Rubens is has managed to get some massive sponsorship deal, I cant see this being true.
Rubens has deep pockets - he could personally pay the several million that another driver would bring... don't for a moment think that would happen though.
It'll be a real same if he doesn't race this season, he won't have had a fairwell race / send off which given his long F1 history wouldn't be right.
It'll be a real same if he doesn't race this season, he won't have had a fairwell race / send off which given his long F1 history wouldn't be right.
Given the cost cutting in F1 i dont think anyone would care.
Interesting comments from Mosley
now that I'd like to see, pity there'd be no way of properly auditing the teams - there's so many ways of getting around a budget cap when you have large companies running the teams.
edit: Ouch, McLaren really off the pace today:
1. F. Alonso Renault R29 1:20.612 77 pit
2. F. Massa Ferrari F60 1:20.890 +0.278 53 pit
3. M. Webber Red Bull Racing RB5 1:21.035 +0.423 59 pit
4. A. Sutil Force India VJM-02 1:21.326 +0.714 17 pit
5. R. Kubica BMW Sauber F1.09 1:21.463 +0.851 37 pit
6. T. Glock Toyota TF109 1:21.652 +1.040 86 pit
7. N. Rosberg Williams FW31 1:21.701 +1.089 67 pit
8. H. Kovalainen McLaren MP4-24 1:23.726 +3.114 45 pit
Max Mosley said:
now that I'd like to see, pity there'd be no way of properly auditing the teams - there's so many ways of getting around a budget cap when you have large companies running the teams.
edit: Ouch, McLaren really off the pace today:
1. F. Alonso Renault R29 1:20.612 77 pit
2. F. Massa Ferrari F60 1:20.890 +0.278 53 pit
3. M. Webber Red Bull Racing RB5 1:21.035 +0.423 59 pit
4. A. Sutil Force India VJM-02 1:21.326 +0.714 17 pit
5. R. Kubica BMW Sauber F1.09 1:21.463 +0.851 37 pit
6. T. Glock Toyota TF109 1:21.652 +1.040 86 pit
7. N. Rosberg Williams FW31 1:21.701 +1.089 67 pit
8. H. Kovalainen McLaren MP4-24 1:23.726 +3.114 45 pit
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Doesn't seem to look good for McLaren, although if they're still testing 2010 tyres and still got the engine turned down that might explain, but that's mighty slow...
With the budget thing, If the FIA can implement it properly (eg without loopholes) then setting a budget of say £50m but on whatever you like (a very 'open' rulebook) would be far better than the current path really.
But they'd need to monitor every penny spent and every shipment in/out of each team, the logistics behind that are fairly massive, if it's even 'possible'...
With the budget thing, If the FIA can implement it properly (eg without loopholes) then setting a budget of say £50m but on whatever you like (a very 'open' rulebook) would be far better than the current path really.
But they'd need to monitor every penny spent and every shipment in/out of each team, the logistics behind that are fairly massive, if it's even 'possible'...
Don
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Is that really viable though? The teams with massive manufacturer backing would find it easy to do work without being part of the team, and pass it off as testing for some other car, or system they are making.
Far too easy to get around.
Its not the physical cost manufacturing that costs the most money, its the R and D behind it that costs, and is easily hidden.
The biggest problem I'd foresee would be research being done by Mercedes (as an example) 'filtering down' to McLaren - that kind of thing would be very costly to monitor.
edit: heikki put in a faster time, although apparently it was with an 08 rear wing, plus there's blue paint on the car from airlflow analysis
I don't know whether to think they're making sure their wind-tunnel is as accurate as possible so they can introduce new parts mid-season or they're having some aero problems. Apparently they've been testing 2010 stuff again today and I think the engine is still detuned.
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I wouldnt worry about McLaren's poor performance. Remember, they havent got their Champion there. Once he arrives, he will push the car to its limit and eek out one of the fastest times. This is probably why McLaren dont seem too worried about their 2009 spec car and are happy to continue experimenting with 2010 specs.
With all due respect to Heikki, he isnt in the same league as Hamilton and certainly doesnt have the ability to post the fastest time, if Massa, Alonso, etc are on the track.
It's also good to see Alonso put up a fast time.
What about the silverstone pole? On a single lap Heikki is quick, he might not be good in the race (I still have faith, but it is dwindling a bit
) but for single lap stuff he's quite rapid...No, it's not really feasible, not just for the R&D things but I'm sure the accountants could think up millions of other ways to get stuff off the books, just that if it was possible to isolate all the money spent on getting an F1 car on the grid that it would be (imo) far superior at cutting costs than the current quest for a single spec car...
What about the silverstone pole? On a single lap Heikki is quick, he might not be good in the race (I still have faith, but it is dwindling a bit
OK. He isnt bad in qualifying, though I think he does generally get out-qualified by Hamilton. Still, Hamilton has the determination to be fastest in all sessions (be it in qualifying, race or in testing). Heikki does not. Hence, Heikki might not have been putting the car on the ragged edge in the test.
I still say, wait for Hamilton to arrive. Only then will we get a better representation of what the new McLaren is actually capable of.