Japanese Grand Prix 2015, Suzuka - Race 14/19

From what I understand, and honestly what I see in terms of numbers of changes on the Ferrari car, the Haas wind tunnel thing isn't a rumour, it's close to a fact at this point. I'm under the impression people know that a huge number of ex Ferrari personnel now turn up at the wind tunnel in Haas gear. Haas are using Ferrari's wind tunnel, which means 70 ex Ferrari, now Haas employee's go to the same place they worked last year but have no limits on testing.

Ferrari also with unlimited testing absolutely won't be testing only the current cars. One of the cost cutting things that you can only have one model to test on, one chassis. With no limits they'll be testing this years car, next years car and they'll be testing several prototypes for 2017 cars. If Ferrari have unlimited testing now and a ban gets implemented for next year or 2017, Ferrari will have one of the biggest headstarts/advantages any team could ever possibly have. I can guess who is behind the idea for the ban, it's genius if they are and would I hope not go ahead. Cheat, get testing for 2017 out of the way early through a monumental loophole, then get it banned entirely. If it happens I would put money on vettel being champion in 2017-18 and until the rules changed again. I can't see the other teams agreeing though. The only real possibility is if Ferrari leverage RBR, we'll give you almost works status, we'll give you engine dimensions and ideas as soon as Ferrari get them if you agree to the wind tunnel ban otherwise you get crap engines later than us.
 
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Skeeter said:
Theres also the other posibility that if the Current -1 rules do happen, Mercedes suddenly jump back in offering RBR a prior year engine contract.

I seriously doubt we will see any decision on RBR/STR and engines until after the WMC has voted for/against the Current -1 rules.
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The thing that bothers me is, if another car manufacturer beat you with your own engine that is one thing, if just a good team with your own engine beats you who cares. If RBR Ferrari beat Ferrari next year... what are fans going to go, go out and buy a RBR car? Where do they lose out, Ferrari name on more successful cars, more people want Ferrari cars. Mclaren with a Ferrari engine is a different matter, people might buy a Mclaren instead of a Ferrari.... but RBR? It's a marketing win with no real competitor there in the actual world of selling cars so what is there to lose. Same with Merc, join with one of if not the biggest marketing company in the world and get your name associated with everything they do.
 
Quartz said:
VW need some very good PR right now and for the next year or two and a deal with RBR could provide just that.
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Really? Look at Honda. The potential to splurge hundreds of millions of pounds on coming last isn't really 'good PR'.

If they want good PR, just look at WRC, or WEC, or GT racing, or any of the other areas where VAG are currently dominating.
 
How many non Motorsport fans follow WEC? Not many. How many of those fans know Porsche is part of VAG? Probably even less. F1 is the biggest global sport behind football. For global brand awareness it's the place to be.
 
I was thinking more Le Man's and Audi, of which a lot of people will be aware.

F1 is only the place to be if your doing well. I'm pretty certain Honda's attempt at F1 is doing more bad than good at the moment.
 
This really shouldn't be overlooked, Honda currently suck because between them Mclaren and Honda made every possible bad choice that led to this outcome. Rushing engineering is a huge huge mistake, always, with no exception. You may find something that works well but rushing things almost always leads to mistakes. Renault's reliability issues was from rushing their own upgrades for this year without proper testing. Mclaren/Honda made far far too many changes in such a short space of time.

Just because Honda utterly ****** up doesn't mean VW would. Ultimately Merc got everything right, they started early, invested well, made bold choices but had time to test and fix every problem. Ferrari started a little later, went for a conservative engine, got done but still made a reliable good piece of kit, just not what was needed. They then made all the right moves to rectify the situation and not surprisingly fixed it. Renault took a little less time also, however they didn't invest nearly the same as Ferrari and Merc, first big mistake, they went for a sensible design that did think about ERS and had okay performance, much better than Ferrari. The lack of investment showed in unreliability and lack of absolute performance. This year they still didn't increase investment, rushed some upgrades last minute, terrible decision and it backfired. Honda got everything wrong and it went terribly.

These aren't coincidences, invest well, hire good people which takes money, give yourself a sensible amount of time and test well, the two teams doing this now have great engines, the two teams not doing this have joke engines.
 
forza jules

can't believe it's been a year since his accident at this circuit that led to his death :(

If Sky bang on about Hamilton wanting to emulate Senna I don't think I will be able to take it any more. Haven't they got anything else better to say? They are like a broken record lately.
 
Skeeter said:
I was thinking more Le Man's and Audi, of which a lot of people will be aware.

F1 is only the place to be if your doing well. I'm pretty certain Honda's attempt at F1 is doing more bad than good at the moment.
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Exactly this, and it doesn't matter if people don't follow it, Le Mans especially is still a big seller as everyone is aware of it. Sports may not be popular over here remember such as WRC with very little british entrants, but suspect in other countries, such as France this may be a bigger draw.
 
Twirlywoos said:
forza jules

can't believe it's been a year since his accident at this circuit that led to his death :(

If Sky bang on about Hamilton wanting to emulate Senna I don't think I will be able to take it any more. Haven't they got anything else better to say? They are like a broken record lately.
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Don't log on to their website and when watching the TV hit the mute button. I usually only tune in when the cars set off on the formation lap.
 
If mercedes get their speed back they should troll everyone by doing enough to get through to Q3 then put in a stonking lap and get pole by a silly amount.
 
Glaucus said:
Vw aren't coming. They've only setv8.5bn for fines and Everyman and there dog recons it'll be 10+ times that amount.
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Fines mean nothing in terms of getting into F1 or not. It's really this simple, they think F1 will increase profits by increasing sales, or they don't think that. In the first case that means increased profits, this won't change after the company is fined. If they don't think it will increase profits they would have chosen not to get involved anyway.

This is a company with a 200billion turn over and 20billion profits yearly. Big fines are one thing, long term health is what they care about, they could spend 1 billion on getting into F1, on a team, on a new engine, on new facilities and it wouldn't be a drop in the bucket compared to their turnover.

Likewise F1 is currently got a eco badge around it, going for ultra efficient engines. Development into green technologies, energy recovery, high efficiency engines is precisely the image they want out there at this second. If anything their non green emissions issues only make the marketing of a efficiency based era in F1 even more valuable for marketing than it was before.
 
20billion profit, so fines could easily wipe out 5years of profits. They can't then afford to throw money away at f1, especially as time and again its been shown to take about 3 years to come a team
 
aside from this not being the VW thread, they can only receive a maximum fine of $18.5bn ($37k per vehicle, 500k vechiles) so not sure where your getting this $85bn from.

Just to note they have not actually broken any regulations within Europe, it is just the US where they have shafted themselves.
 
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