- Login or Register
No account yet? Sign up
The team will need a customer PU in the interim so it'll be somebody supplying it that isn't GM.AR3-GP wrote: ↑05 Jan 2023, 23:25That's certainly possible. I was only pointing out that it's absolutely wild that people think GM and Honda would collaborate on a scene with this much attention. It's a massive conflict of interest.Mogster wrote: ↑05 Jan 2023, 23:21Ilmor build GMs Chevy badged V6Ts for Indycar. If GM are serious why wouldn’t they ask Ilmor to build them an F1 engine? Mario has said he just needs a partner with lots of cash, they are rumoured to have a running F1 spec engine they tinker with at the factory. Andretti, GM and Ilmor sounds great.
And it's well known that this is Alpine, which makes sense for dozens of reasonsdren wrote: ↑11 Jan 2023, 19:54The team will need a customer PU in the interim so it'll be somebody supplying it that isn't GM.AR3-GP wrote: ↑05 Jan 2023, 23:25That's certainly possible. I was only pointing out that it's absolutely wild that people think GM and Honda would collaborate on a scene with this much attention. It's a massive conflict of interest.Mogster wrote: ↑05 Jan 2023, 23:21
Ilmor build GMs Chevy badged V6Ts for Indycar. If GM are serious why wouldn’t they ask Ilmor to build them an F1 engine? Mario has said he just needs a partner with lots of cash, they are rumoured to have a running F1 spec engine they tinker with at the factory. Andretti, GM and Ilmor sounds great.
Any ideas about which dates are confirmed to only be livery launches? I think Aston Martin is 100% confirmed to be their actual car with 2023 livery, and I fully expect Ferrari to do the same - they always show their real carWouter wrote: ↑25 Jan 2023, 16:36Announced presentation dates of the liveries/cars to date:
Date, ..... team and car, ..... place, ..... start (CET)
January . 31: Haas VF-23, n.n.b. 3 p.m.
February 03: Red Bull Racing RB19, New York, N.B.
February 06: Williams FW45, online, 3 p.m.*
February 07: Alfa Romeo C43, Zurich, 10 a.m
February 11: Alpha Tauri AT04, New York, n.n.a.
February 13: Aston Martin AMR23, Silverstone, 8pm
February 13: McLaren MCL37, Woking, 6 p.m.
February 14: Ferrari n.n.b., n.n.b., n.n.b.
February 15: Mercedes W14, Silverstone, n.n.a.
February 16: Alpine A523, London, n.n.a.
* start time subject to change
Credits: @Larry Perkins
The president of motor racing’s governing body has provoked fresh controversy after it emerged that he said he “does not like women who think they are smarter than men”.
It is not a mistranslation - it is stated in plain English:Ben Sulayem has previously spoken about encouraging women in motor racing but an archived version of his old website, www.mohammedbensulayem.com, shows that he expressed negative views about clever women.
The website says his likes and dislikes are “basically simple”, with Ben Sulayem stating: “I love the desert and I love meeting real people”. But, according to the website, he does not like talking “about money, nor do I like women who think they are smarter than men, for they are not in truth”.
Back in the Autumn, this website was contacted by a source within Aston Martin suggesting that tactics were being used to negate the budget cap, we duly reported on this in January this year. Former Aston Martin team boss Otmar Szafnauer who moved this year to Alpine Renault, also suggested this loophole in the regulations on two occasions now this year.
This ‘cheating’ loophole would allow teams to carry out development work outside the sport’s budget cap, corroborating the situation our source claims is occurring in Silverstone.
Without actually accusing rival, or former teams of breaching the cap which was introduced two years ago, Szafnauer has warned that teams could potentially benefit from development work done outside of the cap.
“All those inflation bonus things, although we vetoed them, I think those are marginally adding to the cap, not massively,” he told the media in Bahrain last week.
“But when you look at corporate structures, that is massive…
“If you only have 68, 70 people in the racing team and the rest of the 900 are outside of it and apportioning costs, that’s the kind of stuff we have to worry about.”
In some ways, this loophole is rather an unsurprising and often known but not acknowledged tactic by big teams. Indeed, the said big teams have other racing programmes or technology departments outside motorsport to which they shift staff in order to comply with the cap.
An example is Red Bull which has companies outside the budget cap that some senior staff are paid from, such as team boss Christian Horner taking a big wage from the new Red Bull Powertrains. What Otmar is suggesting goes far beyond that, with huge portions of the factory workforce being employed off the main payroll of the team, therefore outside the budget cap.
It is very well known that Aston Martin has invested hugely into their F1 programme. The former Force India / Racing Point operation has transformed significantly in the last couple of years.
Indeed this website has a very reliable source from with the team who has been a whistleblower on numerous occasions, the last such being the disaster the team faced this time last year with an poorly designed car that barely made winter testing.
The source describes a system put in place to negate the budget cap by having AMR employees paid by different companies outside the racing team.
“168 members of AMRF1 staff were moved over to a company called Formtech,” says the insider,
…they are all still in the same jobs wearing AMR uniform with all the job perks and bonuses but not on AMR F1 budget. They also all received a £5000 “bonus” which was paid at the end of October 2021, another £5000 will be paid at the end of October 2022 to anyone who has stayed on for the 12 months.”
As to how true the details are in this communication, nobody will ever know. But it would be unlikely to be a huge surprise to many within the paddock, and even the fan base, that this kind of loophole was being employed.
“Fast forward to 2022 more staff were moved again but this time to “Aston Martin GP Services Limited” again same job roles etc etc but without the £5000 “bonus”…” claims the disgruntled employee of Aston Martin,
“In total this is around 200 people doing the exact same jobs, wearing the AMR F1 green uniform, the only difference is the bank account they’re paid from…”
If this is endemic within the Formula 1 establishment, it is difficult to see how the FIA and FOM would successfully police it, and puts a big question mark over the effectiveness of the budget cap going forward and might explain how Fernando Alonso was so fast in Bahrain for the season opener.
