Formula One 2017

[Katsuya]

Jenson all but confirmed to be racing at Monaco.

Honestly, as great as that kind-of-jokey sendoff with him getting wasted in Abu Dhabi was, I can't think of a better place for his career to finish than Monaco. It just seems very JB.

EDIT: Also, Italian media are suggesting that Ricciardo to Ferrari is a real chance in 2018. Would be interesting to see him vs. Vettel again to say the least. Would solve Red Bull's "what do we do with Sainz" conundrum too.

Edited April 13, 2017 by Katsuya loves Oslo

[Katsuya]

Good pole position for Bottas. Hopefully he can hold it together in the race too, Bahrain does seem the best chance to begin with of him doing well until Canada based on past form.

Alonso reportedly in talks with Renault about returning, which might actually be a really smart move. The fact they've made such a huge jump season-on-season already is a really good sign. Alonso-Hulk would be a great partnership too.

[Adam]

Alonso to Renault? Yes please. He always got the best out of that car last time he was there, which he's doing now at McLaren but of course he's driving a tractor so it doesn't mean he gets anywhere.

[JasonM]

Interesting rumour, and with Alonso really having lost all will to live at McLaren it makes sense he's going to try to force himself to any better team out there, especially one that is moving upwards at a good pace and he's won two titles with in the past.

And if he can roll into a secondary position behind Hulkenberg, who himself has progressed massively and looks like an even bigger star in the Renault than he did in the Force India, then that would be absolutely perfect for Renault. 

At the same time, McLaren might be giving Alonso a chance to run the Indy 500, I don't see them giving up Alonso easily, nor will Button probably want to be forced back to drive for full seasons in that shitbox. 

Also, knowing Nando's luck, McLaren will start winning if he leaves for greener pastures...

[Chris2K]

McLaren are somehow managing to do worse, Vandoorne's car has been retired before it even made the grid.

[JasonM]

McLaren emulating some of that 90s backmarker glory. Three races, one out of six cars making the finish line.

Edited April 16, 2017 by Jasonmufc

[Katsuya]

Another great race. The Alonso-Kvyat-Palmer back and forth all race was genuinely really entertaining and the strategy at the front too was good to see. Vettel genuinely seems to have the pace in races, even if they can't quite match the Mercedes one lap pace. Same as back in 2012/3 with Mercedes, in a way.

Shame for Bottas, who it seems had a problem with tyre pressures from the start. 

Other bits of news include the fact that apparently the Turkish GP isn't happening and it was a ploy by Erdogan (what a shock...) and that Mercedes are apparently flying to Japan to help Honda...

[Lineker]

Force India Formula 1 team boss Vijay Mallya has been arrested in London, the Metropolitan Police has announced.

In February, India sent a formal request for Mallya to be extradited under the Extradition Treaty between India and the UK.

Authorities in India are chasing Mallya for around £900million they claim he owes in the wake of the collapse of one of his former businesses, Kingfisher Airlines, in 2013.

Mallya had his diplomatic passport revoked last April, with a warrant issued for his arrest, and he has since been residing in the UK.

The British Grand Prix was the only F1 race he attended last season.

Last year, Mallya said he had "nothing to hide" in the face of what he considered to be a "witch hunt" being waged against him in India.

Mallya is expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later on Tuesday following his arrest.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Extradition Unit have this morning, Tuesday 18 April arrested a man on an extraction warrant.

"Vijay Mallya, 61, was arrested on behalf of the Indian authorities in relation to accusations of fraud.

"He was arrested after attending a central London police station, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later today, 18 April."

Following the statement, Mallya tweeted: "Usual Indian media hype. Extradition hearing in Court started today as expected."

 

[Katsuya]

Saw a rumour suggesting that India have sent a list of people they want sent back in exchange for trade talks post-Brexit, and Mallya was on it.

[Lineker]

Quote

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton bounced back from an early stoppage to set the pace on the opening day of Formula 1's in-season test in Bahrain on Tuesday.

With the start of running delayed by 10 minutes so officials could move shipping containers away from a dangerous place at the exit of the pitlane, Hamilton then stopped on track after just 15 minutes, causing a red flag.

The problem was discovered to be an electrical disconnection but, once the W08 had been returned to pitlane, it was rectified and Hamilton was get on with his programme.

Hamilton conducted a mixture of longer and short runs throughout the day, with Mercedes making no secret of the fact that it wants to use this week's test to better understand how to manage Pirelli's 2017 rubber.

The Briton set his best lap of 1m31.358 seconds on soft tyres in the final hour, meaning he ended up 0.626 seconds ahead of Ferrari test driver Antonio Giovinazzi.

With championship leader Sebastian Vettel concentrating on Pirelli's 2018 tyre test programme - which meant he was not allowed to run any development parts - Giovinazzi was tasked with Ferrari's main work for the day.

Vettel's efforts were compromised, however, by an engine problem in the afternoon that limited his running.

Pirelli subsequently got agreement from other teams to extend its own private test programme by nearly three hours until 9pm local time, so it did not lose any of its hoped-for track time.

Morning pacesetter Daniel Ricciardo, who worked on aerodynamic evaluation in the morning before tyre work in the afternoon, ended up third overall.

However, his day was cut short when he suffered a Renault engine failure in the afternoon and stopped at Turn 1.

A replacement power unit will be fitted overnight to allow Pierre Gasly to run on Wednesday.

"It just went," said Ricciardo.

"It's sleeping at the moment. I am not sure if that one is going to wake up."

Romain Grosjean was fourth fastest, his main focus was to evaluate new Carbone Industrie brakes, with Haas wanting to work out whether or not to make the switch from current supplier Brembo.

The Frenchman ended up ahead of Williams driver Felipe Massa and Renault's Nico Hulkenberg.

Formula 2 racer Sean Gelael hit trouble in the morning, when his Toro Rosso stopped with an electrical connection issue.

Gelael was able to get back out later in the day, though, causing another red flag later in the afternoon when he ran out of fuel, before ending up eighth quickest.

There were engine woes for Honda, with McLaren development driver Oliver Turvey only able to complete two installation laps in the morning.

Honda had discovered a water leak in the ERS, which prompted the need for a replacement power unit to be fitted.

Turvey was able to get running again in the final hour and completed 17 laps, although ended up at the bottom of the timesheets.

 

TUESDAY TESTING TIMES:

POS	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m31.358s	-	97
2	Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari	1m31.984s	0.626s	93
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m32.349s	0.991s	45
4	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m32.452s	1.094s	87
5	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m32.509s	1.151s	56
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1m33.624s	2.266s	74
7	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1m33.729s	2.371s	35
8	Sean Gelael	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m33.885s	2.527s	78
9	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m33.894s	2.536s	89
10	Alfonso Celis	Force India/Mercedes	1m33.939s	2.581s	71
11	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m34.550s	3.192s	106
12	Oliver Turvey	McLaren/Honda	1m35.011s	3.653s	17

[hugobomb]

On 16/04/2017 at 17:48, Jasonmufc said:

McLaren emulating some of that 90s backmarker glory. Three races, one out of six cars making the finish line.

It get worse when you realise the Minardi Fernado drove at the start of his career managed to finish 4 out of six cars in the first three races

[Lineker]

Renault has unveiled its vision of how a Formula 1 car could look in 10 years' time and called for a greater focus on drivers.

The French car manufacturer used the Shanghai motorshow to unveil its concept R.S. 2027 - a 600kg closed-cockpit car that produces 1340bhp, which would mean a power-to-weight ratio never seen before in F1.

GALLERY: Renault's 2027 F1 concept

The concept is four-wheel drive, with four-wheel steering.

It would be powered by a small internal combustion engine, but will boosted by larger battery systems that are almost five times as powerful as those currently used in F1.

Renault believes that although road car technology is set to advance greatly in the next few years, it is important that F1 remains about the driver.

So while its concept includes a closed cockpit, this would be transparent and Renault proposes that drivers would use transparent helmets so fans can observe them in action.

The R.S. 2027 features active LED lighting to boost its aesthetics, as well as moveable aerodynamic parts such an active wings.

On the safety front, as well as the canopy, the car would be fitted with two titanium 'pop-up' rollbars activated in the event of an accident.

As well as its car concept, Renault also proposed changes to the F1 format.

It suggested fans would have greater access to telemetry, with Formula E inspired 'fanboost' available to help drivers in the closing stages of races.

Renault also proposes a grand prix format shake-up, with a long race of 250km (155 miles), plus a shorter sprint known as the 'Final Sprint'.

Weekends would also feature a night 'rookie race, held on Friday evenings for teams' reserve and young drivers.

Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul said: "One role of Renault Sport Racing is to anticipate the future of Formula 1 so that it draws a maximum number of fans in an environment consistent with Groupe Renault's objectives.

"We look forward to generating inspired conversations with the racing community, fans and enthusiasts through this concept that highlights our ideas and desires."

Valtteri Bottas edged out Sebastian Vettel on the final day of the Bahrain in-season Formula 1 test on Wednesday, and clocked up an impressive 143 laps.

Bottas spent his day focused on both aerodynamic work and better understanding of tyres, with Mercedes having made clear it was trying to crack its recent struggle with long-run form this week.

Despite causing one red flag by stopping on track due to a mechanical problem just before lunch, Bottas got through an intensive programme and set his best lap of 1m31.280s in the final hour as track conditions cooled.

His lap tally was in stark contrast to Ferrari, as Vettel endured frustrations with a large amount of time lost in the pits.

In the morning, Ferrari discovered some hydraulic leaks during a set-up change in the garage and the work required left him on a tally of just eight laps before lunch.

After getting going again shortly after 1pm, Vettel lost further time when data problems in the garage left engineers without telemetry and he had to stay put until the issues could be rectified.

In the end, Vettel managed to get more running done later in the afternoon to set the second best time of 1m31.574s.

Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz Jr ended the day third fastest, having run only in the afternoon, while Stoffel Vandoorne finally gave McLaren something to smile about with the fourth fastest time with a late lap in the closing minutes.

Despite no changes having been made to the engine specification since Tuesday's problems, McLaren endured a pretty much trouble-free day of testing and Honda encountered no repeat of the MGU-H problems that have dogged it for the past week.

In fact, McLaren racing director Eric Boullier called it the "best day" of testing that the team had enjoyed so far this year.

With a late short run, Vandoorne was able to set a lap of 1m32.108s - just eight tenths off Bottas's best lap of the day.

More encouraging, though, was that Vandoorne completed 81 laps - more than a race distance.

Kevin Magnussen continued work on Haas's evaluation of brakes to set the fifth fastest time, while Esteban Ocon's morning time in the Force India was good enough to leave him sixth overall at the end, ahead of Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat and Williams driver Gary Paffett.

Renault's Sergey Sirotkin finished his first day of 2017 testing with the French car manufacturer ahead of Red Bull's Pierre Gasly and Sauber's Pascal Wehrlein.

WEDNESDAY TEST TIMES:

POS	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m31.280s	-	143
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m31.574s	0.294s	64
3	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m31.884s	0.604s	68
4	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren/Honda	1m32.108s	0.828s	81
5	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	1m32.120s	0.840s	88
6	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1m32.142s	0.862s	60
7	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m32.213s	0.933s	61
8	Gary Paffett	Williams/Mercedes	1m32.253s	0.973s	126
9	Sergey Sirotkin	Renault	1m32.287s	1.007s	90
10	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull/Renault	1m32.568s	1.288s	65
11	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber/Ferrari	1m34.462s	3.182s	91
12	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m35.015s	3.735s	70

[Lineker]

Sauber is closing on a deal with Honda engines for the 2018 Formula 1 season, Autosport has learned.

The Swiss team has run Ferrari power since 2010 but cracks have formed in that relationship in recent months and Sauber has been working on finding a new partner.

Talks with Honda have been ongoing for some time and accelerated in March.

The finishing touches are now being put to what will be a long-term arrangement.

Sauber is bracing itself for a challenging rest-of-2017 with year-old Ferrari engines, but a switch to Honda would mean the team had latest-specification equipment again.

The deal is the latest step in Sauber's rebuilding plan, which began when new investors came onboard last July to save the team and solidify its future in F1.

When Honda returned to F1 in 2015 with McLaren, an agreement was made whereby both parties had to approve any deal for Honda to take on a second team.

The regulations subsequently changed, and the FIA is now able to compel the manufacturer with the fewest customers to supply a team that needs an engine.

Honda was not keen at first, particularly given its struggles with performance and reliability, but said it would do so if asked because of its duty to F1.

When its situation on and off track improved last year, Honda turned its attention to the possibility of taking on a second team.

Last summer, it expanded its Milton Keynes F1 facility to provide the space to accommodate another supply and talks with interested parties began soon after.

Sauber emerged as the frontrunner, particularly given it was growing increasingly frustrated with its current supplier Ferrari.

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier admitted last week that having more teams running Honda engines could be beneficial given the Japanese firm's current problems.

But he warned Honda could not afford for an additional supply to detract from its primary programme with McLaren.

"I think more teams is better and more engine running is better," Boullier said.

"But there is a price to pay for that, which is deviating more resources into building more engines.

"Whatever happens, we are partners, so at some stage there will be a second team supply question, and I think we'll have to support this.

"But we want to make sure it's not detrimental to our partnership."

A formal announcement of the Sauber-Honda deal is expected in the coming days, with engine manufacturers required to notify the FIA which teams they intend to supply in 2018 by May 6.

The Sauber contract would be the first time Honda has supplied multiple teams in F1 since it provided engines for Super Aguri from 2006 to mid-'08 alongside its factory operation.

[JasonM]

Edited April 24, 2017 by Jasonmufc

[Adam]

So Sauber don't want to be fast, I assume?

[hugobomb]

2 minutes ago, Adam said:

So Sauber don't want to be fast, I assume?

Or reliable. Can only assume Honda's engines are a lot cheaper than Ferrari's (granted, for VERY good reasons)

[Katsuya]

Someone has pointed out that actually, having two lots of feedback is probably actually going to help Honda get better.

[Lineker]

Formula 1 is set to ditch the halo cockpit protection system and prioritise the newly-introduced 'shield' concept for 2018.

The decision was taken in Tuesday's Strategy Group and F1 Commission meeting in Paris.

The halo had originally been on course for introduction this season before being postponed for further testing and an intended 2018 debut following a previous unanimous Strategy Group vote.

But the device, which teams trialled during practice sessions last year, had divided opinion.

During the Chinese Grand Prix weekend earlier this month, the alternative shield concept - a see-through screen that would not cover all of the cockpit - was presented by the FIA during the Friday drivers' briefing.

It has now emerged as the favoured choice, with the FIA stating: "A number of more integrated solutions for additional frontal protection have been studied, and the decision has been taken to give priority to the transparent 'shield' family of systems.

"The FIA aims to carry out track tests of this system during this season in preparation for implementation in 2018."

Touted as a better compromise between safety and aesthetics than the halo or Red Bull's proposed aeroscreen concept, the shield drew mixed reviews when shown to drivers.

Daniil Kvyat, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were among the sceptics about both the shield and the general need for cockpit protection, while Felipe Massa urged critics to prioritise safety over aesthetics.

[Adam]

Aesthetically I much, much prefer the shield to the halo as I think the halo is just an eyesore. Of course, the priority should be safety but I can't comment on that. I hope the shield proves effective in its tests.

[Lineker]

Ferrari lock out the front row of the grid for the first time since France 2008.