mendis wrote: ↑10 Nov 2022, 03:56
MadMax wrote: ↑09 Nov 2022, 19:18
mendis wrote: ↑09 Nov 2022, 17:01
Everybody had the same opportunity and time prior to freeze. Infact, Ferrari was in worse position when they accepted the rules for freezing the engines. They could have vetoed the change to play it safe to reclaim lost power. It was bold. Mercedes was in driver's position at that time with their engine as that was the most powerful engine and I am sure they were happy to sign the change.
I think Red Bull and Honda downplayed their own hand to fool the others. There was the whole reason for the freeze - Honda leaving and Red Bull not being able to compete if there was no freeze. And then we see Honda turning back up again afterwards.
As I said, they played it well.
The engine freeze discussion came in picture in early 2020 and there was general consensus among all manufacturers for the freeze by late 2020. It was at that time, Honda decided to leave. Like I said, Mercedes had the strongest engine in 2020 when these discussions came in and consensus was made. Nobody would have thought Mercedes would go backwards. Hindsight is beautiful thing which makes one believe Honda played it well, while they were in no position to do so.
Honda will be quite chuffed though. Apparently, there's a few on here that they've managed to convince that their decision to pull out was anything but a misguided disaster stroke whereby they poured billions into an engine only to lose the naming rights when the getting got good. It is Honda Motor company board room dithering that has cost them their seat at the table in F1. Gone are the big Honda graphics, replaced by a small sticker at the bottom of the engine cover as RB sold that rear wing space to ByBit for years to come.
but no no, this was all an evil plan to lose their foothold as the de-facto engine supplier for a Newey car piloted by Max Verstappen in the decade to come, all to screw over Mercedes....That must be it
A lion must kill its prey.