JasonM Posted November 10, 2014 Report Share Posted November 10, 2014 2014 - Mercedes turn off Hamilton's engine two laps from the end to allow Rosberg to win the WDC. The UK immediately declares war on Germany. "Sorry Lewis, we uhm... slipped on the remo- I mean... There was something with your engine... Yes, that's it...'' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted November 10, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted November 10, 2014 Rosberg was caught on camera leaving the podium calling Piquet a fucking bastard. Alonso to McLaren has finally been confirmed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainiac Posted November 10, 2014 Report Share Posted November 10, 2014 Rosberg was caught on camera leaving the podium calling Piquet a fucking bastard. Alonso to McLaren has finally been confirmed. So long Jenson Button, it was nice knowing you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted November 10, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted November 10, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted November 11, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted November 11, 2014 Red Bull boss Christian Horner says Formula 1 should consider ditching the current V6 turbo engines and going back to the old V8s. Amid the row over engine freeze rules, plus the crippling cost of the new power units for customer teams, Horner thinks that abandoning F1's new fuel efficient engines should not be totally ruled out. "Nobody likes to go backwards, but sometimes you have got to look," said Horner, who is furious over Mercedes' refusal to accept a relaxation of F1's engine homologation regulations. Someone doesn't like it when they're not the dominant ones! Zero chance of that happening; you'd see Mercedes and Honda pull out first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted November 11, 2014 Report Share Posted November 11, 2014 It's hardly fair on poor little Red Bull that those big Mercedes meanies have better engines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted November 11, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted November 11, 2014 If the Honda engine performs well, as is expected, I wouldn't be surprised to see Red Bull Honda's in 2016. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2K Posted November 11, 2014 Report Share Posted November 11, 2014 No disrespect to Kevin Magnussen but... I hope we get an updated version of this: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted November 11, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted November 11, 2014 Former F1 doc Gary Hartsein is doing an AMA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted November 12, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted November 12, 2014 Formula 1's small teams say Bernie Ecclestone has floated a plan to boost the F1 grid with 'Super GP2' cars. During discussions between teams and Ecclestone at the Brazilian Grand Prix, one idea put forward was for a two-tier F1 to be created in the future. As well as the usual constructors, the grid could be filled with upgraded GP2-type single-make cars, which would be run by customer teams. Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley said the idea had been laid out as a possibility, and that it had fuelled fears that Ecclestone wants the smaller teams out. "There is an alternative, which is 'Super GP2'," said Fernley. "It would be similar to a GP2 car with an upgraded engine. "The clear direction we are getting is that there is a desire to have five constructor teams and five customer teams, which will be the best way that they [the sport's owners] feel to go." Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn thinks that the vision of a customer scenario like Super GP2 is worrying because it shows Ecclestone and CVC are looking at a future without smaller outfits. "Looking at the proposals which have been made, we have to believe that there is some agenda here," she said. "The agenda seems to be that people are looking at four or five names to remain in here and, when ideas are offered to us of a year-old chassis or engines which maybe are a different spec or whatever, or even a different series, there must be an agenda. "And since nobody is reacting to it in front we don't know whose agenda it is." She added that the current atmosphere and the nature of solutions being suggested was making progress tough. "These things are changing every day. But the fact is it cannot go on like this, it's no way we want to work and can work," said Kaltenborn. "The more these ideas are coming up, the more we three get the feeling that maybe some people don't want us to be around and maybe the sport is supposed to be changed in a very different way." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted November 12, 2014 Report Share Posted November 12, 2014 Yay, mobile chicanes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted November 12, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted November 12, 2014 British female driver Alice Powell is hopeful of making her debut at a Formula 1 weekend with Caterham at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix later this month. Caterham went into administration in October and the administrators recently launched a 'crowd-funding' project to raise enough money to race. The grandfather of former Formula 3 driver Powell, 21, is among a number of private investors who are trying to raise enough money to seal her a seat. "If I got to race in free practice for Caterham that would be amazing," Powell told BBC Radio Oxford. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted November 12, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted November 12, 2014 Let them eat cake - Nigel Roebuck brilliantly explains F1's current crisis Marcus Ericsson has terminated all of his connections with Caterham F1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Lineker Posted November 14, 2014 Author Admin Report Share Posted November 14, 2014 Wow. ------ Formula 1 should not be chasing a younger generation of fans as they are the wrong target for the sport's sponsors, claims F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. After a year when F1 has been asking itself why television audiences are in decline, Ecclestone has suggested that a push to embrace a younger fanbase via social media would be wasted. In an fascinating interview with AUTOSPORT's sister publication Campaign Asia-Pacific, Ecclestone says youngsters are of no value to F1. "I'm not interested in tweeting, Facebook and whatever this nonsense is," said Ecclestone in the interview, where he talks about F1's financial problems and the future direction of the sport. "I tried to find out but in any case I'm too old-fashioned. I couldn't see any value in it. And, I don't know what the so-called 'young generation' of today really wants. What is it?" Asked if he believed there was no value in attracting a young audience, Ecclestone said: "If you have a brand that you want to put in front of a few hundred million people, I can do that easily for you on television. "Now, you're telling me I need to find a channel to get this 15-year-old to watch Formula 1 because somebody wants to put out a new brand in front of them? They are not going to be interested in the slightest bit. "Young kids will see the Rolex brand, but are they going to go and buy one? They can't afford it. Or our other sponsor, UBS — these kids don't care about banking. They haven't got enough money to put in the bloody banks anyway. "That's what I think. I don't know why people want to get to the so-called 'young generation'. Why do they want to do that? Is it to sell them something? Most of these kids haven't got any money. "I'd rather get to the 70-year-old guy who's got plenty of cash. So, there's no point trying to reach these kids because they won't buy any of the products here and if marketers are aiming at this audience, then maybe they should advertise with Disney." Elsewhere in the interview, Ecclestone likens the controversy over Marussia and Caterham's demise to the way the Oscar Pistorius case in South Africa grabbed headlines. "Nobody will miss the two teams because they're not frontrunning teams; they've only got a name that people would know because of the problem they're in," he said. "If you want to get recognised you've got to do something. "This poor guy in South Africa [Oscar Pistorius], for instance, has got more interest because of what happened with him than when he was winning gold medals. He won medals and afterwards nobody thought about him." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainiac Posted November 14, 2014 Report Share Posted November 14, 2014 At this point I think Bernie Ecclestone has completely lost touch with reality. Week after week he proposes these stupid ideas that would probably go a long way to killing off the sport for good if they were implemented. It's akin to Vince McMahon bringing the NWO into WWF in 2002 to "inject a fatal dose of poison"... except this isn't happening on a scripted wrestling show, it's happened in real life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted November 14, 2014 Report Share Posted November 14, 2014 I actually think he is (kind of) right, the Motorsport audience skews to the older and more affluent end of the market. Young audiences do not spend cash in droves. But the risk is that if you rid yourself of teams you lose spectacle and all of the audience suffer as a result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainiac Posted November 14, 2014 Report Share Posted November 14, 2014 I was inclined to slightly agree with Bernie on that point alone until he decided to compare Marussia & Caterham to Oscar Fucking Pistorius. Bernie hasn't realised that having more teams in F1 is actually a good thing: more opportunities for drivers, more variety on the grid and therefore theoretically more competitive racing across the field. Sadly at this stage the only way we're going to get more teams that Bernie actually supports are if his two-tier idea from earlier this week gets implemented Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted November 14, 2014 Report Share Posted November 14, 2014 But Bernie, this generation's 15 year olds are the next generation's 40 year olds with big bank balances and yachts and Tag Heuer watches. Failing that, maybe he should try and attract less high end brand sponsors, 'Team Wonga McLaren Honda' anyone? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted November 14, 2014 Report Share Posted November 14, 2014 Look, we lost Pacifc and Simtek and the sport kept going, I am sure we can do without Marussia and Caterham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted November 14, 2014 Report Share Posted November 14, 2014 Tell that to Domenico Schiattarella... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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