Formula One 2018

[Lineker]

Quote

Red Bull Racing has become the latest Formula 1 team to unveil its new car ahead of the upcoming 2018 season.

The RB14 has been unveiled with a striking blue camouflage-style livery instead of the team's familiar racing colours.

But Red Bull has made it clear the livery is "special edition", and that the colour scheme that will be used in race trim will only break cover at pre-season testing at Barcelona.

The Renault-powered RB14 will be piloted by Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, who combined for three race wins with its predecessor last year.

Aston Martin has prominent branding on the temporary livery, as it becomes Red Bull's title sponsor in 2018 having decided to step up its involvement in F1.

Red Bull has customarily left its car launch as late as possible before the start of winter testing, but eschewed that tradition this year with a February 19 reveal.

The car will be shaken down by Ricciardo at Silverstone on Monday, using one of the team's allocation of 'filming days'.

"The pattern of the last few years has been to launch 'aggressively late'," said a Red Bull statement.

"This has allowed the design department the maximum amount of time to add goodness to the car before the cut-off point at which the design is frozen and a launch car produced.

"It's been not uncommon to have the car finished, fired up for the first time and shipped to Spain for the start of testing all on the same day.

"It serves a purpose - but you wouldn't do it if you didn't have to, and this year we didn't have to.

"It's preferable to finish the car early and deal with any snags now, when the car is on a track a short drive from the factory, rather than using up one of our eight ultra-precious test days doing the same at the Circuit de Catalunya."

Red Bull is the third team on the grid to show off its new design, after Haas and Williams.

The RB14 will be powered a Renault V6 turbo hybrid, which will remain branded as TAG Heuer for a third straight season.

It could be the last Red Bull F1 car carrying a Renault engine, with the status of the parties' relationship beyond 2018 unclear.

Sauber has revealed its new look 2018 Formula 1 car, which will carry a new red and white colour scheme as a result of its tie-up with Alfa Romeo.

As part of a closer partnership with Ferrari this season, team boss Fred Vasseur concluded a title sponsorship deal with Alfa Romeo for 2018.

The logos of the Italian car manufacturer, a sister brand of Ferrari, feature prominently on the engine cover of the C37.

"I am very much looking forward to the 2018 season, and to seeing Marcus [Ericsson] and Charles [Leclerc] on track," said team principal Frederic Vasseur.

"We have put lots of effort and hard work into the C37 over the last few months, and it is fantastic to be launching the new car today.

"I am convinced that Marcus and Charles form the perfect driver line-up, with one being an experienced driver and one a promising rookie.

"The return of Alfa Romeo to Formula 1 sets another milestone in the team's history, and I am proud that such a historical brand has chosen us for their return to the sport."

Sauber's 2018 challenger features a new aero philosophy, which technical director Joerg Zander hopes can deliver a step forward in form.

"The 2018 challenger is the result of the hard work that everyone in the factory has put in over the last few months," he said.

"Speaking about the C37, the car philosophy is much different to that of the C36.

"The aerodynamic concept has changed significantly, and the C37 has several new features in comparison to its predecessor.

"We are positive that the new concept offers us more opportunities and will help us to make improvements during the course of the season.

"The 2018 Ferrari engine will also give us a boost in terms of our performance.

"We hope that we will make progress with the C37 and that we are more competitive compared to 2017."

The new Sauber will be fitted with Ferrari's latest-specification power unit, with the team having run a year-old version in 2017.

Renault has become the fifth Formula 1 team to unveil its new car ahead of the 2018 season.

The RS18, sporting a revised livery that features more black than yellow, is the third offering from the French manufacturer since it returned as a works team in 2016.

It will be driven by Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr, who joined the team with four races to go in 2017 ahead of a full-season tilt this year.

Renault improved from ninth in the 2016 constructors' championship to sixth in '17, pipping Toro Rosso at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

The team's development through 2017 was dramatic and it ended the campaign with the fourth fastest car on merit, behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Renault managing director Cyril Abiteboul wants to continue that upward trajectory this term.

"Last year was successful in many ways," he said.

"It was the second year in our rebuilding and a further step towards our long-term plans and aims.

"2016 was all about recruiting, investing, bringing in new sponsors, new talents and building our brand.

"It was a quantified progression towards what we want to become and challenging the top teams.

"Our headline target [for 2018] is to show continued progression through results.

"We want to be able to showcase our progression in every regard; power unit, chassis, operations, drivers.

"Everything must improve and we must continue to grow.

"We want to demonstrate this in many different ways, from the teams we will be directly racing against, to the gap to the leaders, including also our fan base and the respect that our team will inspire in our way we behave on and off track."

Renault follows Haas, Williams, Red Bull and Sauber in unveiling a 2018 F1 design.

Renault has also appointed Jack Aitken to the role of third and reserve driver for the 2018 campaign.

[Adam]

I really like the Sauber livery, even though I was initially sad they were ditching the blue.

Red Bull's car looks cool too, it's a shame when they release the actual racing livery next week it'll probably be the standard purple combo.

[Chris2K]

I'm still slightly confused as to how Aston Martin (or Infiniti before them) can be called the title sponsor of a team called "Red Bull Racing".

[Adam]

Because Red Bull don't sponsor the team, they run it. It is Red Bull's F1 team, much like Red Bull run Leipzig and Salzburg in football, they don't sponsor them.

[Lineker]

McLaren has revealed its 2018 Formula 1 challenger, the Renault-powered MCL33, in a new orange livery.

The team unveiled the car online on Friday morning, three days before the first pre-season test at Barcelona.

McLaren's MCL33, which will be driven by Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne again this season, has all-orange bodywork with a black halo device.

Its move to a largely papaya-orange livery will please many fans who felt last year's switch to an orange-and-black design was not close enough to the colours used by founder Bruce McLaren in the team's early years in F1.

The new design is similar to the one used by Alonso when he drove a McLaren-branded Andretti entry in the Indianapolis 500 last year, but also features elements of blue - as used on McLaren's early F1 and later CanAm cars - on the front wing, rear wing and engine cover fin.

McLaren plans to give the new car its track debut at the Navarra circuit in Spain later on Friday, using part of its filming day allocation.

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes' 2018 W09 Formula 1 car features design changes to resolve its predecessor's 'diva' behaviour and to make it work for both him and team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

The F1 world champion said both drivers had significant input in addressing last year's weaknesses, and Mercedes says the car has retained the same wheelbase as the W08, and features only "slightly increased rake".

"What we see today is an evolution of both of our driving DNA fused into one," said Hamilton.

"I hope that [Bottas] is more comfortable in it. That can only bode well for the team. It's definitely not moved away from me.

"My job is to explain the weaknesses and put a feeling into technical terms so the team can go and design something to fix it.

"I'm really hopeful that this year we've ironed out a lot of the creases.

"There's a different aerodynamic characteristic this year compared to last year.

"We've taken some of the good from last year, but there were circuits that we went to where we weren't that strong, so hopefully we've found a compromise which will favour a majority of the grand prix circuits.

"Some of the suspension, some of the roll issues that we had, some of the ride issues that we had, some of the floor characteristics, those things will be improved quite a lot.

"Everything's brand new, all the suspension, everything's been re-done."

Hamilton said Mercedes' defeat to Red Bull in Malaysia last year, on a weekend when Ferrari had also been faster, was key to the 2018 design philosophy.

"We had a very in-depth debrief afterwards," he said.

"Those particular debriefs that we had were significant in making today's car. And in those debriefs only Valtteri and I talked, really."

Hamilton did not see the finished W09 until he arrived at Silverstone for Thursday's launch.

"It's a work of art, and it's really just incredible to see," he said.

"I just walked into garage now and they took the cover off and I was staring at it.

"How everything evolves, it's quite phenomenal to see the technology move at the pace that it does."

While Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff suggested that he would like to take the halo off the W09 "with a chainsaw", Hamilton was more positive.

"The team has done a great job to integrate it and make it as nice as it can look," he said.

"I think after a few races we'll forget that it's even there.

"You often look at the old car and think it's so dated. This is the new world right now, and I'm sure it's only the first step of evolution and development for this safety level."

But he acknowledged the weight implications, raising concerns about the ability of braking technology to keep up with heavier F1 cars and the handling effects.

"There are parts of the lighter cars and nimbler cars of the past that I like, easier to overtake, easier to manoeuvre in combat, whereas the heavier cars, it gets slower," Hamilton added.

Ferrari has unveiled its latest grand prix racing car, the SF71H, ahead of the 2018 Formula 1 season.

The halo-fitted new car was shown off at Ferrari's Maranello base on Thursday, four days before the start of F1's pre-season testing at Barcelona.

It features Ferrari's traditional red livery, with the colour white mostly absent from this car in contrast to its immediate predecessors.

The SF71H is the first Ferrari F1 challenger since the 2009 machine not to feature Santander branding, following the Spanish financial giant's decision to end its F1 sponsorship deals.

Ferrari heads into the season with an unchanged line-up of its most recent F1 drivers' champion Kimi Raikkonen and four-time F1 title-winner Sebastian Vettel, paired for a fourth straight season.

Both were present at the launch, alongside the team's new development driver Daniil Kvyat and Ferrari-backed Sauber reserve Antonio Giovinazzi.

The 2018 car's predecessor, the SF70H, was Ferrari's most competitive F1 offering in years, helping Vettel to five race wins.

It sustained a credible title challenge against the hybrid era's dominant team Mercedes for most of the season, before late-campaign accidents and engine reliability woes allowed the Silver Arrows to break away.

The 2017 Mercedes and Ferrari were notably different design concepts, but Ferrari made clear at its launch that this year it has moved towards the longer-wheelbase philosophy favoured by its key rival.

On the engine side, Ferrari will start the season with an evolution of last year's design. It is thought to have focused on reliability in particular, given last year's problems and with F1 moving to a limit of three engines per season.

[Taxation is Theft]

Nice to see that Kraft Dinner has upped their sponsorship of the McLaren.

[FestiveJack]

First day of testing, first hour of testing, Alonso loses a wheel.

[DFF]

I love the low key political point Lineker makes in the first post by including the Catalonia flag next to Barcelona for the entries relating to testing, haha. 

[JasonM]

I'm sure he's following MotoGP standards of using local flags for the races, and totally not making veiled politics statements in the F1 thread. 

[Chris2K]

 

 

Wow, that can't be fun to be looking at when you're at 200mph.

[Chris2K]

They never did release the times for the Kubica/Sirotkin tests at the end of last year did they? Well today they went out on the same track with the same car on the same tyres...

 

7 Robert Kubica (Pol) Williams-Mercedes 1:21.495 *

8 Sergey Sirotkin (Rus) Williams-Mercedes 1:21.822 *

Also the track was 3 degrees today (4 degrees air temp) and the teams have deemed the entire day a pointless exercise, as the next two days likely will be as well, so they want extra testing days added somewhere warmer.

And as I've just learned on Ted's Notebook, Williams and Martini are parting company at the end of this year.

 

[Adam]

1 hour ago, Chris2K said:

They never did release the times for the Kubica/Sirotkin tests at the end of last year did they? Well today they went out on the same track with the same car on the same tyres...

 

7 Robert Kubica (Pol) Williams-Mercedes 1:21.495 *

8 Sergey Sirotkin (Rus) Williams-Mercedes 1:21.822 *

Also the track was 3 degrees today (4 degrees air temp) and the teams have deemed the entire day a pointless exercise, as the next two days likely will be as well, so they want extra testing days added somewhere warmer.

And as I've just learned on Ted's Notebook, Williams and Martini are parting company at the end of this year.

 

With Kubica in the reserve seat, and two very inexperienced drivers ahead of him, I'd not be surprised at all if he ended up racing a few times this year.

And I'm glad they're ending the Martini deal, if only because it will hopefully lead to a return to the blue livery that Williams should always have.

[Katsuya]

F1 are launching F1TV, their own version of the Network effectively. Key features:
 

• Live coverage of every single race, qualifying, practice with commentary in four languages, as well as pre- and post-race interviews
• Access to every single driver's on-board camera, as well as other camera feeds.
• Will launch on Web/Desktop, with apps for Apple, Android, Amazon to come.
• $8-12 monthly fee
• Also shows live F2/F3/Porsche Supercup sessions
• A less expensive, non-live version will have live timing feeds and radio commentary of the race, as well as "extended highlights" of each session in the race weekend.
• It'll also have an "Unprecedented" access to the video archive, which sounds amazing.

The kicker, of course, is that it doesn't seem like it's going to be available in the UK, because fuck Sky

[Gazz]

Day 3 of testing

Get out the studded snow tyres!

[JasonM]

On 28-2-2018 at 11:14, Katsuya said:

F1 are launching F1TV, their own version of the Network effectively. Key features:
 

• Live coverage of every single race, qualifying, practice with commentary in four languages, as well as pre- and post-race interviews
• Access to every single driver's on-board camera, as well as other camera feeds.
• Will launch on Web/Desktop, with apps for Apple, Android, Amazon to come.
• $8-12 monthly fee
• Also shows live F2/F3/Porsche Supercup sessions
• A less expensive, non-live version will have live timing feeds and radio commentary of the race, as well as "extended highlights" of each session in the race weekend.
• It'll also have an "Unprecedented" access to the video archive, which sounds amazing.

The kicker, of course, is that it doesn't seem like it's going to be available in the UK, because fuck Sky

It also won't be available in the Netherlands. 

Edited March 1, 2018 by Jasonmufc

[Gazz]

Saint Barthelemy, that hotbed of Formula One.

[Chris2K]

Apparently Rich Energy are going to be buying Force India and confirming it this week, so I have a few questions:

 

a) Who the hell are Rich Energy?

b) As a caffeine addict and regular energy drink user, how have I never heard of Rich Energy?

c) How has a company that a caffeine addict and regular energy drink user has never heard of become profitable enough to buy a successful F1 team?

d) This isn't a question, but check out the ambassadors on their website for a host of huge names.

http://richenergy.com/ambassadors/

[Lineker]

@Rich

[FestiveJack]

Check out those partners as well. West Ham, Hilton Hotels, Pirelli, Santander, BBC... jeez.

Also this is their CEO:

Spoiler

 

[Lineker]

Quote

McLaren has taken a seat on the Formula 1 board for the first time, potentially giving the team a bigger say in the future of grand prix racing.

The team joins Ferrari and Mercedes as the only entrants represented on the F1 board.

McLaren was first offered a seat by Bernie Ecclestone as part of past Concorde Agreement negotiations, but it did not take up the opportunity until now.

It is represented by its executive chairman, Shaikh Mohammed Bin Essa Al-Khalifa, reflecting the influence of McLaren's biggest shareholder and Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, the Mumtalakat Holding Company.