F1

[AdamR28]

Appropriate.

[Mark W]

In "Ferrari and Red Bull are still c**ts" news:

Despite the agreement by all team principals which form part of the strategy group at the FIA press conference on Friday, that the smaller teams could run 2014 specification engines, an important change occurred.

Marco Mattiacci’s place at the table had been taken by Sergio Marchionne – and despite the former Ferrari man’s public assent to this cost reduction action, Marchionne said that Ferrari would veto this course of action, and so the matter stays out in the cold.

There were discussions over a more equitable distribution of income amongst all the F1 participants. Once again Ferrari vetoed this along with Red Bull, whilst Mercedes, Williams and McLaren were open to this course of action.

You guys.

Similarly, Dr. Helmut Marko (consultant/boss dude at Red Bull Racing) described their decision to use their illegal sprung wing system as "a silly mistake from our side". Bunch of dicks...

EDIT: Slightly related... https://twitter.com/miquelliso/status/537475098320449538/photo/1

If you find yourself wondering "What's Mark Webber up to these days?", he's leathering it into concrete walls at Interlagos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wam9HOnqtVE

[Mark W]

Bit of a bump but it's relevant for next season - after kicking up a fuss about the engine 'freeze' and wanting to change the rules for next season, it turns out that Ferrari and Renault aren't even using up all the 'tokens' they're allocated to use for development for their 2015 engines. For anyone unaware, the rules are basically:

The PU is divided up into 66 ‘token’ components and each is given a token weighting of 1,2 or 3.

For 2015, the teams have been allowed to redesign/change 32 of these tokens. Mercedes offered to allow a further 5 tokens to be added, 12 were requested by Ferrari and Red Bull. No agreement was found.

From the moment the engines were homologated back in February this year, the teams have ben free to work on the engine redesign for 2015.

Each year the number of tokens available for change will reduce by about 9%. Thus by 2018 there will be 15 tokens available for change – around 23% of the engine.

So for them to have been getting as shitty as they have been about things whilst not even maximising the opportunity they have to catch up is basically bullshit...

Also, Jardo's wet dream:

[Haz]

Bit of a bump but it's relevant for next season - after kicking up a fuss about the engine 'freeze' and wanting to change the rules for next season, it turns out that Ferrari and Renault aren't even using up all the 'tokens' they're allocated to use for development for their 2015 engines. For anyone unaware, the rules are basically:

So for them to have been getting as shitty as they have been about things whilst not even maximising the opportunity they have to catch up is basically bullshit...

F1 politics and underhandedness never fails to disappoint.

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

McLaren has failed to come to a decision on its 2015 driver line-up following a board meeting at the F1 team's headquarters on Thursday.

What the hell are they playing at? Jenson should tell them to stuff it.

[Mark W]

Maybe they're hoping that will happen to make life easier for them? Ron Dennis has been chasing some Danish sponsors so that should probably tell you everything you need to know.

Interesting how it turns out the S. Korea F1 dudes had no idea that there was going to be a S. Korea race on the calendar. The fact it happens to fall on the same date as the WEC 6 Hours of Spa - which Hulkenberg has already committed to, and which other F1 drivers are being lured to - is probably just a coincidence...

[AdamR28]

Or Bernie is just a massive cocksmoker.

[JD™]

He's not even massive, and I bet he doesn't care about the size of the cocks he smokes either as long as they line his pocket after they line his gullet.

[AdamR28]

*insert 'your mum' joke here*

[Mark W]

While I'm not a fan of Red Bull, it does still suck that they've been ram-raided and had 60 trophies stolen (including the WCC and WDC trophies from last year). Two stolen cars with foreign number plates were used. Cue "Italian plates?"/Vettel jokes...

[AndrewEH1]

While I'm not a fan of Red Bull, it does still suck that they've been ram-raided and had 60 trophies stolen (including the WCC and WDC trophies from last year). Two stolen cars with foreign number plates were used. Cue "Italian plates?"/Vettel jokes...

That's pretty shitty, and will be pretty hard to sell on... http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117061

[Mark W]

Assuming that's the plan and they weren't stolen to order though - with stolen paintings/artworks they're not always there to be sold on, and the people who possess them don't necessarily want them to show off to the world, they just 'want' them.

Trophy related - not a bad haul for Mercedes this year:

Interesting piece here about social media/F1: http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2014/12/mercedes-comes-out-on-top-in-f1-social-media-survey-of-2014-value-is-clear/ Bit of a 'f**k you' to Bernie.

[JD™]

Todays the big day for McLaren fans, or anyone wanting to know how those last two seats will be filled. Word on the street says it's leaning towards Alonso and Button, which I think is the right choice. If that's the way it goes, it'll still be a dick move by McLaren not to give Kevin a chance to look for another seat before they filled up. 'Perfect' option would have been the Alonso/Button pair with Magnussen getting a seat at Force India or something for a year before returning.

[Wrayvon]

Todays the big day for McLaren fans, or anyone wanting to know how those last two seats will be filled. Word on the street says it's leaning towards Alonso and Button, which I think is the right choice. If that's the way it goes, it'll still be a dick move by McLaren not to give Kevin a chance to look for another seat before they filled up. 'Perfect' option would have been the Alonso/Button pair with Magnussen getting a seat at Force India or something for a year before returning.

Confirmed now apparently

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/30328327

[JD™]

Confirmed now apparently

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/30328327

Until it's uttered out the mouths of the men in the team at the meeting at 10am I'm not holding my breath!

[Scotty Evil1]

Aonso is reputed to have signed a deal worth $40m (£25.5m) a year, which would make him the best-paid driver on the grid.

Still dont get the alonso hype.

Was hoping they were going to announce button and magnussen and that this was all a sneaky plan to leave fernando without a drive, revenge for 07.

Would like to see kevin get a reserve/test role and him to get a seat 2016, but not sure what will happen as they also have vandoorne ready to move up soon

[JD™]

So there it is. Alonso & Jenson, with Kevin in the reserve/test seat. Now just to see what the car can do...

[ben_travis]

I will love it if JB beats Fernando, nicest guy on the grid in my humble opinion.

[Mark W]

I want Button to destroy him just because they've re-signed him at half his previous salary, yet have bumped up Alonso's monies. However, if they start 'Alonso-ing' the new McLaren I can see it possibly hampering Button's performances in much the same way that the under-steery nature of the Ferrari did Kimi over.

To put these salaries into perspective too, #3 last season Daniel Ricciardo was paid €700,000 for the 2014 season...

[AdamR28]

How much is Jens rumoured to be on?

[craigjames]

Last season was £12 million apparently.

[Mark W]

If it is in fact half his 2014 salary, it'd be about €8million.

EDIT: The complete list from 2014:

1. Sébastian Vettel (Red Bull) : €22 million

2. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) : €22 million

3. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) : €22 million

4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) : €20 million

5. Jenson Button (McLaren) : €16 million

6. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) : €12 million

7. Felipe Massa (Williams) : €4 million

8. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India) : €4 million

9. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) : €3 million

10. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) : €3 million

11. Sergio Perez (Force India) : €3 million

12. Adrian Sutil (Sauber) : €2 million

13. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) : €1 million

14. Valteri Bottas (Williams) : €1 million

15. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) : €750.000

16. Jean Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) : €750.000

17. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) : €500.000

18. Esteban Guitiérrez (Sauber) : €400.000

19. Danii Kvyat (Toro Rosso) : €250.000 euros

20. Max Chilton (Marussia) : €200.000

21. Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham) : €150.000

22. Marcus Ericsson (Caterham) : €150.000

[Haz]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-30503589

Found about a minute from where I live... Wasn't me...

[Danny]

You sure?

[Mark W]

Some interesting stuff from TJ13:

The recent meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in Doha, kicked out regulations it had sanctioned in its meeting held the week before the Austrian GP.

Last week the media headlines were about the scrapping of standing starts and double points, though some 2015 regulations agreed back in the summer remain.

One of those is that the F1 cars will be placed into ‘parc ferme’ at the start of FP3 and not following their participation in Saturday qualifying. This will of course mean that the team’s will have to settle on their weekend set-up at least 3 hours and 1 track session earlier than previously.

This rule penalises the bigger teams ability to react swiftly and make substantive changes from session to session during an F1 weekend.

Another rule for 2015 is a ban on non-European pre-season testing. In 2014, two tests were carried out in Bahrain with the promise it would cost the teams no more than to test at the traditional venue of the Circuit de Catalunya.

Further, there will be two in-season tests of two days each in Europe (instead of the current four). Two of these four days must be reserved for young drivers.

The FIA appear to have had a sudden burst of common sense with the next regulation change. The last date at which the sporting and technical regulations can be changed without unanimous agreement has been moved from 30 June to 1 March each year, starting from 2015.

Many of these regulations impacts on R&D done by the teams prior to June for the following seasons cars, this avoids wasting time and resource.

There was a proposed tyre blanket ban for 2015, but that has been rescinded

The Friday curfew has been extended from 6 to 7 hours on race weekends. It increases to 8 hours in 2016.

Wind tunnel and CFD hours have been reduced and teams can use just one wind tunnel per calendar year.

A number of new regulations concerning skid blocks were introduced to ensure that they are made from a lighter material (titanium – which should create pretty sparks too) and are better contained.

Other rules will be formed to ensure that the brake discs rotate at the same speed as the wheels.

The new parc ferme thing seems kind of weird - with Williams seeming to generally be slow as f**k in practise but then rapid in qualifying it seems they might get hindered by that a bit.

The last bit about brake disc/wheel rotation is kind of odd too. Can't really see what other system would be in place unless there's some mental clutched/geared brake disc setups going on somewhere?