So... Vandoorne is racing for McLaren this week...

[Vasconia]

I think that if he does a good job this race it could increase his chances of him driving next year. This can happen, especially if the speculations that were towards the end of last season about Sauber going with Honda from 2017 come true.

Anyway, I'm sad for ALO but looking forward to see this guy race against JB and with the rest.

I see him being in Japan for 1 year. I'd see him playing second fiddle to Alonso next season and when Alonso retires, he'll become Mclaren's no.1 driver. Don't think we'll see Button next season. That's what I think.

Some rumours agree with you, it seems that this could be Button´s last season.

I hope he has a clean race, he needs it being a rookie and the team also needs it.

[PlatinumZealot]

They way Ron Dennis has be talking about Vandoorne being in F1 in 2017 it seems very likely he will take Button's seat even if it is partway through the year. Depending on how the MP4-31 develops they might push Button out or keep him on.

[adrianjordan]

I would imagine Button's contract is pretty tight, so it would likely cost them too much to buy him out.

I can easily see Button moving to WEC after this season.

[ME4ME]

Dennis asks FIA to let Alonso drive in Bahrain
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/denni ... in-683847/

OK, this pisses me off.

First of all he wants to risk Alonso's health against the medical teams' advice. And secondly he undermines Vandoorne right after they called him in from Japan.

[Fulcrum]

I'll reserve judgement until the end of the race.

Holding thumbs for a representative qualifying lap so he can have a good chance in the race.

[PlatinumZealot]

Wow. Stoffel! He beat Button in qualifying! impressive for his first weekend in the car.

[Bomber_Pilot]

I don't know if these pictures were posted before. If they were, tell me and I'll delete the post.

http://www.topgear.com/car-news/motorsp ... ay-crash#2

[notsofast]

The following appears in F1T's own news article on this weekend's component changes (http://www.f1technical.net/news/20298)

As for the PU components, Fernando Alonso’s car which is driven by the Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne was equipped with a new internal combustion engine because of the high-speed crash in Melbourne. That car was also fitted with new control electronics, MGU-K, MGU-H, energy store and turbo charger.

Looking at the pictures above, I'm wondering if anything was kept at all. How exactly did they "equip" the mangled car with a new engine? Surely, the car driven by Vandoorne must have been a full replacement.

[krisfx]

The following appears in F1T's own news article on this weekend's component changes (http://www.f1technical.net/news/20298)

As for the PU components, Fernando Alonso’s car which is driven by the Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne was equipped with a new internal combustion engine because of the high-speed crash in Melbourne. That car was also fitted with new control electronics, MGU-K, MGU-H, energy store and turbo charger.

Looking at the pictures above, I'm wondering if anything was kept at all. How exactly did they "equip" the mangled car with a new engine? Surely, the car driven by Vandoorne must have been a full replacement.

The tub was probably okay, though in that position I'd probably replace it anyway. I think the PU is the only thing that is governed by regulations in terms of usage, so saying the rest was replaced may be a bit of a moot point.

[Thunder]

Eric Boullier said in Bahrain they can fix the Chassis and bring it as a Spare Chassis to the rest of the GP's.

But that really is the wrong Thread for that.