Formula1

You knew something was up at Marussia when their GP3 team pulled out of the race weekend in Russia. Also their decision to run only one car in F1 that same weekend seemed like a noble tribute to Bianchi but in retrospect it was probably a convenient cost-cutting opportunity. I know that sound horrendously cynical and heartless, as I know the team is devastated by what happened to Bianchi, but I saw no reason why one of their reserve drivers didn't take to the track that weekend.

The likely loss of Marussia is a sad one indeed given the fact they scored points this year.

F1 must ask itself if it wants to be a series purely focused on technical development where the team with the deepest pockets always wins, or does it want to be a competitive, sustainable racing series open to newcomers?
 
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the problem with F1 is, at least in my opinion, that it doesn't look at what is best for itself but rather trying to please too many differing views on what it should be. It tries to "be diverse and encourage technical innovation" and yet it limits that innovation with tight technical regulations and cost cutting. It tries to hold on what it was made of in "golden decades" of its history: innovative privately owned teams that produced magnificent results with small budgets and yet they have such a large difference between constructors prizes that those on the bottom (who are there because they don't have money to compete with those on top) will next year have even larger deficit. It wants to produce fantastic wheel-to-wheel racing, yet every little contact is first reported on the team radio for every one of us to hear and than FIA investigates it and usually punishes one of them (sometimes even wrong one). I have a feeling that Keke Rosberg or Nelson Pique Sr. would punch them in face at the end of the race if someone were stupid enough to whine against them on radio. And at the end, we have the claim that F1 is "pinnacle of the racing" where they are topped by WEC in both technology, racing and speed. Even IndyCar has better racing and speeds, although their technology is a bit down on F1...

But someone haven't said to them that you can't please everyone. Instead of complicating things by trying to reinvent a wheel they should scrap their current set of sporting and technical regulations, sit down and thought out what is best for the sport in long term
 
There seems to be some hope for Marussia...man would I be happy if that happens

"Two British-Indian brothers who made their fortune in the steel industry have claimed they are in 11th-hour talks with Marussia over a £55 million deal to save the beleaguered team from collapsing into administration.
Baljinder Sohi and Sonny Kaushal, a Conservative Party candidate for council election this year in Slough, told the Telegraph they have been in close contact in recent days with the Banbury-based team, who will miss the next two races due to financial troubles.

“We are very close to a deal,” Sohi claimed. “But it has to be the right price. We have put in a serious offer and we will see what happens.” Marussia did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday night."
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mo...ue-deal-claim-brothers-plotting-takeover.html
 
Let's hope a deal can be done. Marussia are a likeable team and if they can keep going to end of the year they will get a decent financial reward for their points finish in Monaco.
 
That 40m will be invaluable, which is perhaps why buyers are interested in saving Marussia.

Sauber may struggle to make the grid next year. I think they are quite reliant on the prize money as they lack big sponsorship deals. They've performed quite strongly for a number of seasons prior to this, but I always felt they were one bad year away from folding completely. 2014 could be that year.

Regarding the Alonso to Lotus rumour - although I'd like to see it happen, it's far too big a gamble for a driver that feels he should win another championship in F1. Alonso doesn't have age on his side either. The problems at Lotus are greater than a Mercedes engine can fix.
 
Sauber was pretty stable team in early 2000s and than BMW came. With them there came huge budget and status of a works team. But when BMW abruptly decided to fold out at the end of 2009. there was little time to consolidate again as a privately owned team. Even Ferrari came to their rescue with engine, gearbox, rear suspension and few ideas that they thought for their 2010. car but decided for different path. But as you said, from 2010. onwards it was just waiting game for when they will have a bad season and find themselves in financial problems. With BMW they lost all of their big sponsors (Petronas, Credit Suisse, FedEx, Intel, T-Mobile, Syntium...). They had basically start from scratch based on not so good 2009 car, with far less money and with no sponsors on the car. They had few Mexican sponsors while Perez was there but they are now long forgotten past...

As for Lotus, they admitted that their philosophy at designing E22 was wrong from tip of the nose to the red light at the back and that they will make sure not to repeat that same mistake with E23. This car was just not well thought out and it is good that they could confess that to themselves. You have to recognize your mistakes first if you want to be able to fix them.
 
Sauber have always been able to be quite competitive on a modest budget, both pre and post-BMW era. The problem for them is the cost of operating in F1 has spiraled out of control. The private 'garage' teams were the heart and soul of F1 but I think their days are numbered if the sport doesn't implement cost-cutting measures, budget caps and fairer wealth distribution to improve sustainability.

I appreciate teams have always come and gone throughout the entire history of formula one, but now we are seeing more teams 'going' and not many coming into F1. I think it's a worrying time for the sport. The series is in a far worse state than I can ever remember. FOM, Bernie and the 'big' teams are all at fault because of greed and short-sightedness.
 
well, fairer wealth distribution would be enough on its own to help stabilize budgets for most of the teams imho. They could than have better results, at least fight for couple tens of points, they would attract more broadcast time and that would attract more sponsors, small or big, to them.

There are more stories about financial problems though. There was a short tweet that said that Force India haven't paid their last bill to Mercedes and that Mercedes refused to supply them their 5th (and last) PU for this season. Couple of hours later there were lots of tweets from credible F1 sources that FI has finally paid that last bill and that they will receive their 5th PU in Austin.

So, we now have 5 teams that are struggling with money (Caterham, Marussia, Sauber, Lotus, Force India) which is just one car (half a team) shy from 50% of the grid.
 
Mercedes has released nice pictures showing their real (not 3D model) power unit minus radiators and intercooler. That being said, they probably plan to change a lot of it for next year when they are so openly showing it.

Mercedes-V6-Formel-1-Motor-2014-fotoshowBigImage-6be2123e-820218.jpg

Mercedes-V6-Formel-1-Motor-2014-fotoshowBigImage-b88c8240-820217.jpg
 
They aren't really developing something just for the last races? And no, I doubt they'll use it next season, would be too early to already show it.
 
they said that they won't use it in races unless it shows massive gains in comparison with their usual one. They are bringing it on the track so that they can gather some real data on how is airstream passing around it so that they have some basis for comparison with CFD and wind tunnel models of 2015 car.


Although, it isn't that strange to see teams bring some development parts on last couple of races to test them on track and than present the car and start in testing with that same part until new part for 1st GP is completely done. I can remember Ferrari bringing new front wing in 2012 Korean GP with which they presented their 2013 car and which was even used on first few GPs in 2013 until their newer front wing was developed to the point when they felt confident enough that it will bring better performance.
 
there was lots of testing in FP1 in preparation for next season:
- Force India has tested new steering wheel which incorporates new larger LCD display available to teams from this year. They are one of few teams (RB, Williams, Lotus, Caterham, FI) who decided to use older display that was used by all teams from 2008-2013.
- Lotus has tested new nose to better understand different airflow characteristics in preparation for next year
- Ferrari has tested development version of rear suspension which is being developed for 2015. It won't be used in races this season, but they wanted to check if their simulations were accurate.
- Ferrari also did some aero tests around front wheels.
 
Marussia will probably participate in last GP in Abu Dhabi according to Ted Kravitz from Sky Sports F1
If we see them in Abu Dhabi who knows, but everything is ready to go, the freight is ready to go, the people are ready to go, the passes are ready, the flights are booked and paid for already.
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He has also said in post-race show that as he understands they have lodged an entry for 2015. as Manor Grand Prix Limited. Company was registered under that name before they started racing in 2010, but team was called differently (Virgin Racing in 2010 and 2011, Virgin Marussia Racing in 2012 and Marussia in 2013 and 2014).
I understand they have lodged an entry under Manor Grand Prix Limited for the 2015 World Championship and that they are targeting being in Abu Dhabi if they can get some solid investment in place. Bernie Ecclestone has said that they can come to Abu Dhabi so they are targeting that and it is thought Alexander Rossi will be the second driver alongside Max Chilton.
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The COTA race was pretty good in the end. Plenty of good overtakes and close racing. The circuit is clearly one of the best of the modern tracks as it's been designed to allow multiple lines through two or three corners. It's got a lot of character for a new track.

Did anyone catch the quick interview with Bernie on Sky just before the race started? It left me feeling disgusted that this guy is at the top of F1. He didn't seem to care that the smaller teams were struggling, didn't see why they should be helped financially and gives the impression that he fails to grasp why the smaller teams are so important to the F1 'show' as a whole. His message was basically teams need to find their own funding and keep their houses in order. That's quite difficult when wealth is distributed so unevenly and the odds are stacked against the small teams.

He must go.
 
He is not the only one. I was watching team bosses press conference on Saturday. Bosses who participated were Toto Wolff (Mercedes), Eric Boullier (McLaren), Vijay Mallya (Force India, owner), Monisha Kaltenborn (Sauber) and Gerard Lopez (Lotus). While last 3, especially Lopez and Mallya were saying that they know what they can spend, but that they can't always decide on what to spend. They said that for some teams (namely Marussia and Caterham) just power units this year were probably almost half of their budget. And that is about 5 times the money spent on something they need to even move their cars than last year. Wolff and Boullier both said that teams have to look at how much they can spend and on what, on which Lopez replied that he would be happy to say to Maldonado and Grosjean that they will be pedaling next season as that will save them huge amount of money, but that he doubts they would be happy. Mallya has also said that it is easy for Wolff and Boullier to be smart when they are just overseeing their teams, while he as owner is the one who is signing the checks and who knows what it takes to even be on the grid.

The problem is that larger teams, mostly those owned by car manufacturers are opposed to changes in prize money because they spend a lot, they have results and they gain back huge percentage of spent money through prizes. But teams that are at the back of the grid don't have the money to compete with those bigger boys and than they can't get any substantial prize money. As Mallya has said, they are not asking for others to pay their bills, they just want fairer distribution of prize money just to allow them to participate without fear that they won't be able to live until the end of the season.

EDIT: Here is that press conference
YouTube - 2014 F1 United States GP | Team Principal Press Conference



As for the race, I sadly missed everything from Perez-Sutil crash up to 12 laps till end.


EDIT2: For this year pit entry in Brazil was modified so that drivers can't use it to cut last corner (it is officially a corner, but it is more like just a slight kink to the left)
B1ipn9bCUAEYkiB.jpg:large
 
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remember that tweet I posted some time ago from pitlane talk that first posted the rumors about Alonso going to McLaren. They were right with some previous rumors and have said that hey will remove their account if they are wrong about Alonso...well, this is their latest tweet
@pitlanetalk As promised, account will be deleted in case we were wrong about Alonso to McLaren. We were so it's time to go. #F1
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is there any reason alonso cant stay at ferrari for next season? he has a contract there right? what if he doesn't leave and then vettel wont have a drive?:CONF:
also ericsson and nasr into sauber next season, hope they are secure now with this brazilian bank sponsor
http://www.pitpass.com/52889/Official-Nasr-to-partner-Ericsson-at-Sauber-in-2015

& this double points for last race imo has made brazil GP less important, because with normal points lewis could win title in brazil (again) but this double points shit has damaged F1. i havnt heard anyone say that its a good idea, everyone is against it. i fucking hate it. im gonna kick off if lewis gets a DNF in UAE and nico rosberg wins the title. it will be a massive injustice. lewis got 10-4 in wins to rosberg ffs..
 
Well Ferrari has already announced that Alonso will be leaving so I don't think there would be any way back for him even if he wanted to. Alonso has given his all to Ferrari yet the car has been less and less competitive over the last two seasons. At this late stage in his F1 career he probably feels making a move to the unknown (McLaren-Honda) is worth the gamble.

...and I totally agree on the double points race. Nobody likes it and should be scrapped for 2015. F1 doesn't need gimmicks.
 
Well, I don't really know what to think about Alonso anymore...just so much conflicting news that I think it is best to just keep myself out of it and wait until it is official.


Sauber has confirmed their 2 drivers for 2015: Marcus Ericsson as #1 driver and Felipe Nasr as #2 driver. Felipe Nasr will come into F1 from GP2 and with him comes Banco do Brasil as a sponsor.


Also, FIA has published provisional entry list for 2015 which includes 11 teams:
Infiniti Red Bull Racing
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team
Scuderia Ferrari
Lotus F1 Team
McLaren Honda (previously McLaren Mercedes)
Sahara Force India F1 Team
Sauber F1 Team
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Williams Martini Limited (previously Williams Martini Racing)
Manor F1 Team (previously Marussia F1 Team)
CF1 Caterham F1 Team (previously Caterham F1 Team)
 
yet another twist on this story

BBC seems to think that the 'Manor GP' entry is a separate entity established by the team.

Perhaps they are planning to try and hoover up the assets in liquidation and start again debt free...
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