Lotus F1 Team have confirmed that the 2014 GP2 champion, and the team's current test driver, Jolyon Palmer will race for the team during the 2016 F1 season, alongside Pastor Maldonado.
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toraabe wrote:I will not be surprised if Manor will be Mercedes new junior team ( like Toro Rosso ) and why not inherit the w06 chassis from Merc so they can use Manor also as a test bench with a good chassis from last year.
Williams is already acting more and more as a Mercedes junior team, with mrs Wolff as a test driver and Bottas under management of Mr Wolff his company (and his 5% stake in Williams)
McLaren-Honda would be more likely, so they can have more info on the engines plus a place to let Stoffel (and Kevin) race. Plus Manor has more sponsors then McLaren at the moment....
mertol wrote:So they have lower top speed than other merc teams and don't gain in fast corners but have a good chassis. Something doesn't add up.
What doesn't add up? They're awesome in slow corners... And the fact that they don't gain in fast corners relative to Ferrari does not mean that they don't gain in fast corners relative to Force India.
Their aero efficiency (hence chassis goodness) doesn't add up. What you are saying is they have the same downforce as Ferrari but have more drag but are better at slow corners.
Just as a quick update for anyone interested, this is the current situation for some of the feeder drivers with regards a superlicence:
Alexander Rossi - Already has a valid superlicence
Pascal Wehrlein - Already has a valid superlicence
Johnny Cecotto Jnr - Already has a valid superlicence
Stoffel Vandoorne - Currently eligible with 65 points.
Alex Lynn - Currently eligible with 50 points.
Mitch Evans - Currently eligible with 50 points.
Raffaele Marciello - Currently eligible with 45 points.
Esteban Ocon - Currently eligible with 45 points.
Pierre Gasly - Currently has 35 points. Needs to finish seventh in GP2 this season to be eligible
Oliver Rowland - Currently has 22 points. Needs to finish third in FR3.5 this season to be eligible
Jordan King - Currently has 20 points. Needs to finish fourth in GP2 this season to be eligible
Dean Stoneman - Currently has 20 points. Needs to finish third in FR3.5 this season to be eligible
Sergey Sirotkin - Currently has 12 points. Needs to finish third in GP2 this season to be eligible
Luca Ghiotto - Currently has 7 points. Cannot qualify for a 2016 superlicence
Matthieu Vaxiviere - Currently has 3 points. Cannot qualify for a 2016 superlicence
Rio Haryanto - Currently has 0 points. Needs to finish second in GP2 this season to be eligible
I recall a blurb a while back where AMG said that the maximum number of engines they could build would be for four teams, anything more than that would not be practical and would need years or preparation to scale effectively.
I think Ferrari is going to take both Red Bull and Toro Rosso and attempt to make engines for five teams, and if they do; It won't end well.
As far as I'm aware there's only one version of an engine and that's the engine that's homologated at the beginning of the year 2016. This year was an anomaly because of the development loophole.
According to Autosport, there will be a meeting of the strategy group were they'll discuss to allow it for next year. Makes a lot of financial sense apparently. Manor could get 2015 Mercedes units as well.
ME4ME wrote:By that you asume that all teams will run 2016-spec engines next year?
I could see Sauber and Toro Rosso run 2015-spec Ferrari engines next year. That would also make economic sense.
I can't imagine it would be any cheaper to make both '15 and '16 spec engines instead of just '16 spec. I can't imagine they'd have a big stock of unused '15 spec engines, and keeping machinery for making them alongside whatever needs to be put in place for '16 engine production sounds wasteful.
This year was an anomaly purely because of Manor's late entry. Maybe there was enough spare '14 bits lying around for one team even. But I'd expect all cars to run 2016 engines next year.
ME4ME wrote:By that you asume that all teams will run 2016-spec engines next year?
I could see Sauber and Toro Rosso run 2015-spec Ferrari engines next year. That would also make economic sense.
I can't imagine it would be any cheaper to make both '15 and '16 spec engines instead of just '16 spec. I can't imagine they'd have a big stock of unused '15 spec engines, and keeping machinery for making them alongside whatever needs to be put in place for '16 engine production sounds wasteful.
This year was an anomaly purely because of Manor's late entry. Maybe there was enough spare '14 bits lying around for one team even. But I'd expect all cars to run 2016 engines next year.
The cheap thing (as I said somewhere else earlier) is make a B-spec engine. The biggest cost are those last few HP's, what is, when you're tight on a budget very inefficient. You would be faster with chassis development for the same costs.
Just having the turbo a bit heavier, the Kers units less on the edge, they could even build an engine with valve springs instead of pneumatics. That would save 10 million per team easily and would only cost a few tenth per lap.
Red Bull getting Ferrari engines means Total fuel will leave and replaced by Italian fuel and gas giant ENI. Then Infiniti logos will disappear and replaced by Alfa Romeo logos on the sidepods
ME4ME wrote:By that you asume that all teams will run 2016-spec engines next year?
I could see Sauber and Toro Rosso run 2015-spec Ferrari engines next year. That would also make economic sense.
I can't imagine it would be any cheaper to make both '15 and '16 spec engines instead of just '16 spec. I can't imagine they'd have a big stock of unused '15 spec engines, and keeping machinery for making them alongside whatever needs to be put in place for '16 engine production sounds wasteful.
This year was an anomaly purely because of Manor's late entry. Maybe there was enough spare '14 bits lying around for one team even. But I'd expect all cars to run 2016 engines next year.
I kind of disagree with that. The fundamentals of the 2016 engine won't be any different to the 2015 engine. So, it's more of an evolution with obvious scope for development and improvement, but the basis has pretty much been the same since it's inception. I think what takes time is the implementation and testing of a new development. I'm reasonably confident that Mercedes won't have much of an issue supplying a 2015 module to them. Plus, there's always a price you receive for the supply in the sense that you either get a profit from supplying the engine or you get data, which in turn relates to very valuable information in this era.
"Sebastian there's very, you're a member of a very select few.. Stewart, Lauda, Piquet, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Fangio.. VETTEL!"
fritticaldi wrote:Red Bull getting Ferrari engines means Total fuel will leave and replaced by Italian fuel and gas giant ENI. Then Infiniti logos will disappear and replaced by Alfa Romeo logos on the sidepods
Another thing is that I supose that Ferrari and Renault engine packing are quite similar, but Merc is different due to their turbo layout.
fritticaldi wrote:Red Bull getting Ferrari engines means Total fuel will leave and replaced by Italian fuel and gas giant ENI. Then Infiniti logos will disappear and replaced by Alfa Romeo logos on the sidepods
Another thing is that I supose that Ferrari and Renault engine packing are quite similar, but Merc is different due to their turbo layout.
Red Bull Racing has a budget of $700 million, what ever the engine they can squeeze it in without any problem. It is not like Brawn who was tight budget and resources.
WilliamsF1 wrote:Red Bull Racing has a budget of $700 million ..
Got a source on that? Seen a lot of numbers circulating about this over the last 3 years, but none that high.
Edit: A Dieter Rencken article on Autosport dated 31 of august 2013 (so 2 years old) states £235,5M (about $360M) annual budget. This could have changed, and this source could be wrong, but nevertheless I think 700M is a bit exaggerated http://forums.autosport.com/topic/18952 ... -finances/
WilliamsF1 wrote:Red Bull Racing has a budget of $700 million ..
Got a source on that? Seen a lot of numbers circulating about this over the last 3 years, but none that high.
Edit: A Dieter Rencken article on Autosport dated 31 of august 2013 (so 2 years old) states £235,5M (about $360M) annual budget. This could have changed, and this source could be wrong, but nevertheless I think 700M is a bit exaggerated http://forums.autosport.com/topic/18952 ... -finances/
