Force India VJM03 Mercedes

[multisync]

They were just finishing off Smiths new office down the wind tunnel so to say this was unexpected is understating it. There were more than a few who had loyality to Gascoyne so that's one reason but lack of funding and probably the lowest wages in F1 are equally compelling...

I spoke to one employee and the feeling there is not one of joyous celebration over their defection at this stage of the season..

[marcush.]

so maybe the new office would fit well for Geoff Willis...?

[multisync]

so maybe the new office would fit well for Geoff Willis...?

Interesting call -they obviously need to get someone in place PDQ and the car has been treading water for some time now...

[mangesh]

Will we see di resta in car in place of tonio, his performance is not good compared to sutil and considering that di resta talent(who used to beat vettel ) he deserves the race position.

Geoff Willis in team would be good decision, he was also with red bull in 2007-2009.

[marcush.]

if anything is true in motorsports ,then it is don´t judge a driver on his results in lower series only.
there are guys who are very convincing and make it..Lewis Hamilton as an example
and others that blow away the field -Jan Magnussen,Mauricio Gugelmin ,Johnny Dumfries as a few to mention who somehow were not able to carry their speed or winning ways into F1.
But there are others who did not really shine in lower formulas but bagged World championships:Niki Lauda, James Hunt,Nigel Mansell,Damon Hill (did he ever win anything outside F1 before he made it into F1?)for example..

[raymondu999]

clear point of lower formula vs f1: Kobayashi and Grosjean. Nuff said

[Paul]

I also remember Liuzzi blowing everyone away in F3000 if I'm not mistaken...

[multisync]

Because of the lack of funding they decided to stick with the two drivers they already had. At the beginning the car was flattering them. Now the tide is turning and reality is that neither are anything to write home about but one isn't helping his case by always blaming the team for his poor qualifying/results

One thing that may play on their minds about changing drivers is look how badly that went for Fisichella last year

Plus, in all honesty is Di Resta any better.? He certainly hasn't seemed it..to me at least.(although I am happy for someone to post some comparable times during testing/practice which conflicts with my hunch.)

[marcush.]

one has to really review their drivers .
Sutil was not really driving circles around Fisi last year and Adrian has a talent to cause unnecessary mishaps on the track ...be it collecting other drivers in the first braking zone after the start or while rejoining the track...
but who knows..I would try to get Heidfeld on loan from Mercedes be it only for FP1 ...that would surely put things into a proper context .

[perer]

Btw I read on Scarbs his blog that FIF1 are the only ones that uses an F-duct that exits at the main plane of the rear wing and not the secondary one. According to Scarbs this causes quickker stalling, but slower braking.

Oh well, Montreal should be the ideal track to test everyones F-duct qualities.

[mangesh]

Mallya saying "Mark [Smith] will stay with us until April 2011 and we will, in due course, announce a structure that will take us to the next level of performance"

Whether this indicates FI going to bring somebody as a replacement?

[Blackout]

Closed airbox inlets

[donskar]

. . . lack of funding and probably the lowest wages in F1 are equally compelling...

I spoke to one employee and the feeling there is not one of joyous celebration over their defection at this stage of the season..

I'll start by saying I worked as Sr VP of an Indian software company, and in that role engaged in some high-level negotiations to sell our company to other Indian high-tech companies. All that by way of saying this is not some emotional, prejudiced outburst -- I have some experience with Indian businessmen and business practices.

Judging FIF1 against my experience, I expected them to be a shoestring operation, paying lowest possible wages, paying bills late, being litigious, having a high turnover rate among their highest ranking personnel. All of which has happened to one degree or another. That's not necessarily all negative, some of that is a form of good business practices. It's just that Indian companies that I worked with always seemed to go just one step too far in their negotiations, salary structure, personnel policies, etc. We non-Indians used this analogy: if an Indian company contracted to pay another company $1,000 for 1,000 items, and only 999 were delivered, they would not pay $999 -- they would pay nothing at all and keep the 999 items, because the contract was not fulfilled.

BTW, I don't see Willis going to FI -- I think he'd want autonomy and a good salary -- both are very hard to get fom Indians.

Finally: nothing in the above is meant as an attack. Sincere apologies if my early-morning semi-conscious state caused my tone to be other than what I meant. I'm just trying to provide some context to members of this forum who might have no experience with Indian business practices. If anything, I hope they do well. F1 needs more diversity.

[Blackout]

The FI had a ''new'' nose cone for Montreal... how is that possible ?

[tok-tokkie]

That new nose cone is very surprising considering it is homologated according to informed posts here. It has moved away from the Mercedes shape - which some here attribute a large part of Merc's problems to.