MJB Posted January 13, 2014 Report Share Posted January 13, 2014 Max Chilton has chosen #4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted January 13, 2014 Report Share Posted January 13, 2014 Because it's probably the closest he'll ever be to the front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainiac Posted January 13, 2014 Report Share Posted January 13, 2014 Really saddened to hear about the passing of John Button. He was a very entertaining guy whenever he was interviewed in the paddock or on the grid and he came across as a really nice man too. RIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted January 13, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 13, 2014 Oh fuck, that is horrible news. John Button was always a great face in the paddock and it must have come as such a huge shock to Jenson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 Max Chilton has chosen #4. I assume he picked it based on his talent ranking among the four drivers who drove for Marussia and Caterham last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted January 14, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 Nah, he's done it because M4X (in a similar vein to Bo77as). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted January 16, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 Kobayashi is expected to be confirmed by Caterham any day now, according to multiple sources! Jenson has tweeted about his dad. So so sad. There were 4 tweets in all (top to bottom): https://twitter.com/JensonButton/status/423531267389280256 https://twitter.com/JensonButton/status/423531365603106816 https://twitter.com/JensonButton/status/423531491000217600 https://twitter.com/JensonButton/status/423531660991148032 Amid increasing rumours about the financial viability of the Lotus F1 team, the team’s owner (via his Genii Capital concern), Gerard Lopez, has confirmed the team’s significant debt and spelled out that the investment discussions with the mysterious Quantum Motorsport group are dead. He added that Kimi Raikkonen, who walked out on the team two races from the end of the season, had “got part of his salary, and he will get the rest.” Speaking to Michael Schmidt, from leading German motorsport magazine Auto Motor und Sport, Lopez confirms that the team’s debt is £114 million, of which £80 million is debt owed by the team to Genii. With the failure of the talks with Quantum at the end of 2013, despite Genii and Lotus allowing them to go public and speak to the media via the group’s figurehead Mansoor Ijaz, Genii once again had to fund the shortfall in budget. “The budget gap from last season was again covered by us, ” he said. “The Quantum money never arrived. We have now killed the talks. For 2014, we will have at our disposal our new sponsor PDVSA’s budget. We will not generate any new debt. Genii is still 98 percent owned by us.” [The remaining 2% is owned by Andrew Ruhan who has placed one of his men, Matthew Carter, at Enstone as the new CEO of the F1 team, replacing Genii's Patrick Louis.] “We have around 114 million pounds of debt,” added Lopez. “Of which more than £80 million debt is with ourselves (Genii). Why would we demand the repayment of these (internal) debts? That makes no sense. We reconciled the money as marketing expenses. At the moment, it is important that the team goes forward.” Asked about a “brain drain” of engineers away from Lotus over the winter, Lopez said that the team had gone down by 80 people but has managed to recruit new engineers from many of his rival teams, “Last year, we worked on three projects simultaneously. Overall, we had 580 people. Now we concentrate on the 2014 car and therefore the workforce came down to around 500. We have lost some engineers to the competition. But we got about five new engineers from them; from Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. “This is the carousel of Formula 1. It operates according to the Darwinian principle, ‘Survival of the Fittest’ Of course, in this way ideas migrate to the competition, but we learn from our new recruits too, what’s going on with the others.” Asked why the Renault engine deal had not yet been announced, Lopez said that the team has been working on collaborations on hybrid solutions taking it beyond a simple customer engine supply deal and this had complicated and delayed the agreement and negotiations between them. He did not offer any time frame for this to be resolved. There are also observations on the driver pairing of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. Lopez believes that Grosjean is now one of the top four drivers in F1, while he argues that Maldonado can take the same journey as Grosjean and turn his mercurial speed into a consistent force, “Two years ago I would have said , the pairing is quick, but explosive. Today it is different. Romain is for me one of the four fastest drivers, maybe even three. He is now strong in the head. “Pastor must still take that last step. He is super fast. We know him very well. Pastor knows our team boss Eric Boullier from six years ago when he was manager of DAMS. Pastor must now go through the same phase as Romain. He needs to learn that a Grand Prix does not consist of a few fast laps, but of an entire weekend. He needs to control his speed better.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted January 16, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 So a hell of a lot happened today. Bernie Ecclestone will stand trial in Germany amid allegations of bribery relating to the sale of the sport in 2006, court officials stated on Thursday. He will also step down as a director of Formula 1's management board, but will continue running the sport. Pirelli has finally concluded its Formula 1 tyre supply contract with the FIA, meaning it will continue in the sport for the next three years. As a result, changes to F1's Sporting Regulations mean one of this year's pre-season test days will be devoted to wet-weather tyre testing - plus teams must give up one of their eight in-season test days exclusively for tyres. McLaren looks set for a major management overhaul ahead of the 2014 Formula 1 season, AUTOSPORT has learned, after former team boss Ron Dennis was appointed as Group CEO. After the announcement, Dennis has vowed to bring change to McLaren to get it back to the front of the Formula 1 grid following a disappointing 2013 season. AUTOSPORT understands that Dennis addressed factory staff in Woking on Thursday afternoon to outline his increased responsibilities to the F1 team. He also made it clear that a new structure was likely to be put in place, and a change of team principal cannot be ruled out. A final call on the matter will however be made in February, when Dennis will outline whether Whitmarsh stays or if another figure will be appointed to run the F1 team. NASCAR team co-owner Gene Haas is working on plans to launch a new American Formula 1 team, AUTOSPORT has learned. High level sources have confirmed that Haas, who part owns the Stewart-Haas team, is working with former Red Bull and Jaguar technical director Gunther Steiner on the F1 project. The new team, which is provisionally called Haas Racing Developments, has lodged an application with the FIA to join the grid now that a slot has been opened up. The FIA announced in December that it was seeking new entrants for F1 that could bolster the grid from 2015 onwards. Although there is no indication yet from the FIA about whether or not the Haas plans will be successful, Steiner has confirmed that the project is being evaluated. He told AUTOSPORT: "Haas Racing Developments has asked for a licence and expressed an interest, but at the moment we have no further comment to make. "The FIA is still in the decision-making process and there is still one more step to go before they award the licence." Stewart-Haas recently expanded its facilities in Charlotte, which could be part of the preparations for a potential F1 involvement. Haas owns factory facilities in Brussels that could become a European base for the team. He is also the owner of the full-scale Windshear windtunnel that has been used regularly by F1 teams. AUTOSPORT understands that if the project is given the go-ahead then the team would likely enlist Dallara to help build its initial F1 car. The other potential contenders for the new team slot are believed to be former F1 team boss Colin Kolles, and Stefan GP, which has previously applied for a place on the grid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 I'm really surprised by the McLaren news as I had no idea there were such problems between Dennis and Whitmarsh, in fact I didn't even know Dennis was that involved with the day-to-day running still. Ross Brawn is the man being heavily linked to replace Whitmarsh once his 6 month sabbatical ends. I'd be completely happy with that. I'm also happy to have more teams, in my eyes the more teams the better. Hell I want to go back to the days of having enough cars competing that they needed pre-qualifying. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fry_4000 Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 i'll be glad to see the back whitmarsh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJB Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 If Dennis (or even Ross Brawn) becomes Technical Director, I might start to like McLaren again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 Ron Dennis was a large part of why I hated McLaren when he was around before but I guess they have remained very much disliked since that time so not a big deal. As for new teams, I'm all up for more teams if they can actually compete but I find teams not even on the standard of the 9th best established constructor (Caterham, Marussia and the already defunct Hispania) are pointless and get in the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieG Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 Well Haas has a great track record in NASCAR, winning the championship in '11 with Tony Stewart, and getting 20 wins since their debut 5 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 Now all he's got to do is learn how to design a car that can turn right. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieG Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 One of those wins was at Watkins Glen, a road course. Of course that's just a case of, which car turns to the left the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJB Posted January 17, 2014 Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 Apparently, McLaren's new car has failed one of the crash tests, meaning they might struggle to make it to Jerez for the first test Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted January 17, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 If Whitmarsh wasn't finished before, he is now. Second year on the trot there has been an issue with the car before a wheel has been turned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katsuya Posted January 18, 2014 Report Share Posted January 18, 2014 I don't understand why anyone gets Dallara to build cars for them, they're notoriously shit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted January 21, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Because they're cheap? Caterham driver announcement is due Tuesday morning. The team have already confirmed that Pic has left them and all mentions of VDG's sponsors have removed from the Caterham website. Kobayashi is expected to be confirmed tomorrow morning with Ericsson likely filling the other seat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted January 21, 2014 Report Share Posted January 21, 2014 Paul Di Riesta has agreed to drive for Mercedes in the DTM next year, so he's not going to IndyCar like had been predicted. Can't blame him after the recent run of horrible luck for British drivers in the IndyCar series, plus he's a really good touring car driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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