Formula One 2015

[Rich]

http://www.topgear.com/car-news/motorsport/video-watch-fr-20-racer-get-massive-massive-air

 

Big accidents here lads

[JasonM]

Yup, anything below GP2 is pretty much the territory of shoddy driving all around. I know a few months back an F3 race at Monza was red flagged purely because the racing was awful and the stewards didn't want to be the witness of something fatal happening.

[Lineker]

The Red Bull Formula 1 team will not run Renault engines next season, AUTOSPORT understands.

Renault and Red Bull's relationship has become fractious during the last two seasons following a string of reliability and performance problems.

Red Bull has a contract with Renault that runs until the end of 2016, but AUTOSPORT sources are adamant the relationship will not continue next year.

It is understood Red Bull has issued a document requesting a termination of the partnership that will be accepted by Renault.

This comes after Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat took their seventh engines of the season for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix, resulting in big grid penalties.

It also leaves Red Bull with Mercedes and Ferrari as the only realistic options for power next season.

Renault's future in F1 has been the subject of speculation during 2015.

It is understood that it has ruled out being an engine supplier to customer teams next year, which has implications for its second outfit Toro Rosso.

That leaves Renault with two options: buy Lotus, where a deal is poised to be agreed, or leave F1 altogether, which a source suggests remains a possibility.

But...

The Mercedes board has decided not to supply Formula 1 engines to Red Bull in the future, AUTOSPORT understands.

The news comes the day after it emerged Red Bull will not use Renault power next year, despite having a contract in place with the French manufacturer through to the end of 2016.

Red Bull is understood to have issued a document requesting a termination of its agreement that will be accepted by Renault.

Given the severe breakdown in the relationship between Red Bull and Renault, given the unreliability of the French manufacturer's power unit, the former approached Mercedes enquiring about a supply.

The Mercedes board has now looked at it, with AUTOSPORT sources confirming Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche has decided to bring the tentative discussions to an end following his visit to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix at the weekend.

The thinking behind the move is Mercedes has waited 60 years to find itself in such a position back at the top of F1, and it has no intention of helping out a team with Red Bull's resources become a serious challenger to its success.

When asked ahead of the Italian GP weekend if Mercedes should supply Red Bull with engines, reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton expressed doubts.

"If we're serious about winning the world championship, probably not," said Hamilton.

"Red Bull is a great team, but it's like giving Ferrari our engines.

"We don't really need it. We are good where we are."

Only recently Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff told AUTOSPORT the matter was up in the air as there were pros and cons to the prospect.

At the time, Wolff said: "Supplying one of your championship contenders with big resources, it needs to be carefully judged and balanced as to whether we would want to do that.

"But then from a global perspective, Red Bull is a really phenomenal brand that attracts younger audiences and consumers.

"Therefore you cannot wipe it off the table and say, 'From the team's perspective it doesn't make any sense, so we are not looking at it'."

It would appear to leave Red Bull with the sole fall-back option of getting Ferrari engines, although as of last week it is believed no approach had been made to the Italian marque.

The plot thickens!

[Lineker]

Gene Haas says a Ferrari reserve driver will pilot one of his cars when the Formula 1 newcomer makes its debut next season.

Haas has a technical partnership and engine supply deal with Ferrari for 2016, with the team receiving all 'non-listed' parts from Ferrari as well as using the Scuderia's windtunnel.

While Haas would not be drawn on names, the team owner's comments suggest Ferrari reserve Esteban Gutierrez is set to get a seat.

Ferrari's test driver and former Toro Rosso racer Jean-Eric Vergne is also in contention.

"Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, we'll have something to say," Haas told AUTOSPORT.

"One of the drivers will be a Ferrari reserve driver and we're still looking for an experienced Formula 1 driver, a current driver. No rookies."

Team principal Gunther Steiner added: "We're just trying to find the driver who best suits what we are looking for.

"We would like that both have driven F1 car before.

"One we want with real experience, one who has been through a few years in F1."

McLaren reserve Kevin Magnussen and Lotus racer Romain Grosjean are understood to be on Haas's list, which has been slimmed down to below the previously indicated 10 names after Nico Hulkenberg re-signed with Force India.

Haas admitted the driver recruitment process in F1 was a learning experience, adding his outfit had made an offer to a driver that was declined.

"It is a process," said Haas. "It's about going back and forth and just learning how to dance with the different drivers and working out who is going to be with us.

"We did make an offer to one driver, which was declined.

"It's a learning experience."

Mercedes is in discussions with Manor regarding an engine supply for the 2016 Formula 1 season.

Manor is using one-year-old Ferrari power units this term while Mercedes has customer deals with Williams, Force India and Lotus alongside its own team.

If Renault completes its talks to take over Lotus, Mercedes could have capacity to supply an alternative team - and has now decided against a potential deal with Red Bull.

Mercedes' head of motorsport Toto Wolff confirmed Manor was a possibility.

"On the engine, we had some discussions and they're interested in exploring the competitive environment," he told AUTOSPORT.

"They have a Ferrari engine today but it's a young team and a new team and they need to meet with all engine suppliers and make the best deal for yourself.

"This is why we've been talking to them."

A Manor source confirmed talks have taken place between the two parties.

Mercedes needed to get dispensation from the FIA for four teams to have its engine this year as the regulations state a single manufacturer can only supply a maximum of three teams.

"It's a capacity question [with Manor] and at the bottom we don't know what is happening with Lotus and Renault and this is why you have to keep all options open," added Wolff.

Wolff said there have been no talks with Manor regarding putting one of Mercedes' drivers in the car, but he remains keen to get the team's reserve Pascal Wehrlein into an F1 seat.

The German currently races in the DTM, and had been linked to a Force India F1 race seat after testing for the team.

"We haven't talked to Manor about drivers yet because I think it's too early," said Wolff.

"I'm a keen supporter of Pascal because he's doing a great job in the DTM and he was an outstanding kid in F3 as well.

"So I definitely see him having the potential to go into F1.

"But at the moment my agenda is purely concentrated on the racing team and locking in the championship.

"The next step is going to hopefully have Pascal in the right seat.

"Force India was an opportunity and that door closed.

"Now it's about looking at the market overall and the other teams, but we are not under pressure.

"We need to find the right seat for him."

Pirelli has announced its compound nominations for the Singapore, Japanese and Russian Grands Prix, with a softer step for Sochi the only change to 2014.

For Singapore's Marina Bay street circuit, Pirelli sticks with its usual soft/super-soft combination and the high-speed Suzuka track is given hard and medium.

But Russian venue Sochi will switch from medium and soft to soft and super-softs for this year.

A Pirelli statement said: "The asphalt has not changed significantly since its debut last year, and looking at the data from 2014, a softer step is possible."

Last season's Sochi tyre choice proved particularly durable.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg changed from softs to mediums at the end of the opening lap after flat-spotting his tyres [pictured] and went to complete the remaining 52 laps on that set, doing his best time of the day on the 51st lap of his stint.

[JasonM]

@Meacon (and all other North American viewers.)

Singapore Grand Prix is next weekend, and someone on the F1 reddit posted a poster regarding the US coverage of the event. Quali will be on CNBC whilst the Practice and Race will be on NBC:SN.

General info about Singapore, it's driven around the Marina Bay of the tiny nation bordering Malaysia. It's often called the "Asian Monaco", and in terms of track difficulty it's certainly up there. It has a lot of tough twists and turns and a total of 23 corners.

Interesting factoid: In 2008 it was the beginning point of a scandal dubbed ''Crashgate'', which involved Renault F1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr. (son of) to deliberately crash his car into one of the barriers, causing a safety car to be deployed. Since his teammate (Alonso) was running 15th at the time and just had a pitstop, he ended up gaining first place as the other cars stopped for tyres... At the time Piquet brushed it off as a simple driver mistake and nothing was said from it, it also didn't end up helping Renault as they still finished 4th among constructors that season...

The season afterwards Piquet was dropped after the Hungarian GP, and the scandal blew up when he told the press and the world that the Singapore race the year before wasn't actually a mistake, he had actually crashed himself on the orders of Renault F1 to give Alonso that advantage and eventual race victory.

After investigation Renault F1 was banned for two years from F1, Pat Symonds (Current CTO of Williams F1) got a five year ban, and Flavio Briatore got an indefinite suspension. Although all these suspension where eventually overturned by a French court, it directly facilitated the departure of Renault F1 from the grid the next season, and Flavio Briatore decided to retire from the sport and has multiple times indicated he won't return to the sport despite being free to do so.

It's still one of the most egregious examples of team orders, whereas in the past drivers simply had to concede positions to teammates (Schumi/Rubens Austria 2002), this went way further because it told the second driver to crash himself for the betterment of the team. And even to this day is a big example when talking about the badness of Team Orders...

Of course, time somehow heals all wounds, and as it stands right now Renault F1 is setting up for a return to F1 next season with a potential takeover of Lotus F1.

Edited September 14, 2015 by Jasonmufc

[Lineker]

Manor will replace Roberto Mehri with American Alexander Rossi for five of the remaining seven grand prix this season. 

[JasonM]

Which means there will be an American driving at COTA for the first time since the legendary Scott Speed!

[Lineker]

COTA wasn't built when Speed was in F1!

But yeah. @Meacon can totally be all USA USA USA now.

[Chris2K]

German car giant Volkswagen is close to agreeing a deal to take over the Red Bull Formula 1 team, says BBC F1 chief analyst Eddie Jordan.

The agreement would see VW buy the team and build its own engine, while Red Bull continues as a major sponsor.

Jordan says a VW engine would not enter F1 until 2018 and Red Bull would use Ferrari power in the interim.

The team will split with current engine partner Renault after this season, ending their contract a year early.

It is not clear at this stage which of the VW Group's brands would be promoted in F1, although Audi is the favourite. The company also owns the Porsche, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley, Seat and Skoda marques.

Red Bull, the four-time constructors' champions, are struggling to match the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari

Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz told his company's Speedweek website  on Friday that his team's split from Renault was concluded "a few weeks ago".

He said using a Ferrari engine would be "a very acceptable solution for the next two or three years" but a contract with the Italian company was not finalised.

Any VW deal represents a triumph in an internal power struggle for Martin Winterkorn, the chairman of the VW board of directors.

Winterkorn has agreed the deal with Mateschitz and the drinks giant's motorsport adviser Helmut Marko, Jordan says.

VW and Red Bull have long-time links and are currently partners in the world rally championship.

BBC Sport understands Winterkorn had agreed a deal to buy out Red Bull last winter but the plan was vetoed by former VW Group chairman Ferdinand Piech.

Piech was ousted in a boardroom power struggle and resigned in April.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has consistently denied that the team have had talks with the VW Group.

He told BBC Sport in June: "There has been no dialogue with VW or Audi."

In May Marko said: "If we don't have a competitive engine in the near future, then either Audi is coming or we are out."

On Thursday and Friday at the Singapore Grand Prix, Marko and Horner repeated the threat that Red Bull would quit F1 if they did not get a strong engine.

 

So... that's rather big news.

[Lineker]

Huge news. And all rather cool!

[Mad Jack]

I hope they go with Seat or Skoda for the brand.

[JasonM]

Eddie Jordan isn't a guy to just talk shit rumours either, he's often been right there with scoops of big import... E.g. Brawn starting his own team, Mercedes buying Brawn, Schumi returning to F1 with Mercedes... Dude's got the inside scoop big time, so this news is pretty huge.

Personally I think we're going to see the VW group probably using the Lamborghini moniker for the team

[MJB]

So, the Mercedes duo qualified on the third row today, 1.5secs off the pace. Doesn't seem as though they can get the tyres to work properly.

Vettel on pole with Ricciardo, Raikkonen and Kvyat also ahead of Hamilton and Rosberg.

Should be fun to see if the Mercs can fight through tomorrow and maybe a Ricciardo/Vettel battle for the win.

[Lineker]

Not watched the race yet Jenson Button is poised to announce his retirement from F1 at the Japanese GP this weekend. According to pretty much everyone. 

[Rich]

 Not Jenson

[Lineker]

Also it is set to be confirmed that Romain Grosjean will drive for Haas next year. Presumably so that he's in a good place to take over from Kimi at Ferrari in 2017.

[Lineker]

Formula 1 teams will be allowed to choose one of their tyre compounds themselves each grand prix weekend under new rules proposed for next year, AUTOSPORT understands.

Currently, F1 tyre supplier Pirelli nominates two compounds per weekend from its selection of four specifications - hard, medium, soft and super-soft - both of which must be used during the race.

For 2016 Pirelli will add a fifth compound to its selection, and it will nominate three choices per weekend - one of which will be mandatory for all teams

Teams will then get to choose which of the remaining two compounds they want to use alongside the mandatory option, and the rule requiring both types of tyre to be used in the race will remain.

The compounds are likely to be labelled from one to five or A through E, with the three allocated choices on each weekend simply known as soft, medium and hard to make it simpler for fans to understand.

Pirelli's fifth compound for 2016 will be a super-super-soft, and it is believed the compulsory tyre for each weekend would be a conservative choice, leaving teams to choose how aggressive they wanted to go for their other option.

Although various proposals are under discussion, this one appears to be the most likely to come to fruition, with all teams said to be in favour of the regulation change as a means of introducing a variable factor.

"[We're going to have a] couple of days of testing after Abu Dhabi to develop a super-super-soft tyre, which will make a lot more sense when regulations come out for 2016," said Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery.

"That's the current situation. That's only at Strategy Group level. It needs to be ratified."

The proposal is expected to go to the F1 Commission by e-vote for approval ahead of ratification by the FIA World Motor Sport Council, which meets in Paris on September 30.

There had previously been suggestions that teams should get complete freedom to pick their compounds from the full Pirelli range, but the current proposal is a development of the tyre company's preferred variation of that idea.

[Rich]

Has there been anything coming out about whether the VW scandal is affecting the purchase of Red Bull?

[Lineker]

Not that I've heard. 

[Rich]

Excellent!

 

HYBRID ENGINES FOR ALL!