Formula 1 2015: General Discussion Thread

Going Strong

Marussia apparently expect to be out of administration by Friday the 19th of February and back in F1 for Melbourne. There's talk that McLaren/Honda are interested in backing them as a 'B Team'.

Brendan Flowers

Going Strong wrote: »

Marussia apparently expect to be out of administration by Friday the 19th of February and back in F1 for Melbourne. There's talk that McLaren/Honda are interested in backing them as a 'B Team'.

Could be an opportunity to get Magnussen back into a race seat as well.

Also any word on whats happening with Caterham?

ZiabR

Jordan 191 wrote: »

^Dream on boys. Lewis will win his third title this year.

I would have to agree with you. Cant see him being beaten this year.

Going Strong

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

Could be an opportunity to get Magnussen back into a race seat as well.

Also any word on whats happening with Caterham?

Autosport have an update now that Manor want to run last year's car with last year's Ferrari engine. There's an F1 Group meeting tomorrow to discuss the plan.


http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117584

challengemaster

aphex™ wrote: »

Hamilton's broken up with Sherzi again.

Hamilton apparently got dumped because he wouldn't pop the question! :eek:

Going Strong

challengemaster wrote: »

Hamilton apparently got dumped because he wouldn't pop the question! :eek:

Seeing as it took him until the final race to win the title last season, I can't blame Nicole for not waiting around with dithering like that on display.

challengemaster

Raikkonen still lapping fastest, but what a change from last year this statement is

Raikkonen heads back out to exploit some more of the Ferrari's positive turn-in.

ScumLord

It would be great if they can keep this up for the season, it would be great to see Ferrari's be competitive again. Especially with the driver line up they have this year, Alonso and Vettel being able to compete with Hamilton and Rosberg would make it a cracking season, especially if williams can stay in the mix too.

challengemaster

14:31 It's a 1m20.841s for Raikkonen on the soft-compound Pirellis. That's the fastest time of the week - pipping Vettel's best earlier in the week of 1m20.9s.

It's very hard to tell right now, but that says to me that the car this year doesn't favor either driver but is more drive-able all-round. Looks like we won't see either of Ferrari's drivers struggle too much with the car, which should translate to both drivers continuously scoring high points in the championship...


/edit: BBC footage of the McLaren on track... starting to sound a bit better.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=628751380563359

lolie

ScumLord wrote: »

It would be great if they can keep this up for the season, it would be great to see Ferrari's be competitive again. Especially with the driver line up they have this year, Alonso and Vettel being able to compete with Hamilton and Rosberg would make it a cracking season, especially if williams can stay in the mix too.

Do you mean kimi and vettel? Can't see McLaren competing with Mercedes for a while yet.

Zcott

As good as the Ferrari might look, apparently Mercedes are still running high fuel loads, and they've also been very reliable. They really had a 1 second head start on pretty much everyone for this year, and it looks like they've kept it that way...

Jordan 199

The Lotus sure looks good in the sunshine:

lolie

I quite like vettels Ferrari helmet this year, nice simple design. Says he doesn't intend on changing it to often.

AMKC

Linky to autosport http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/814

Redbull testing without the front wing!!

Rather strange, also does anyone else think the redbull paint job is specifically designed to help hide minor aero body parts

My thoughts on the Red Bull too that that paint job is there to hide details.

Must say the Sauber and the Red Bull are the two cars that have surprised me this year by there paint jobs and doing something a bit different. I think that blue on the Sauber is growing on me. Was not sure about it at first but if the two drivers do wear yellow helmets then it might just work. Not sure which car I like the best yet would love to see a pic of them all together. The Ferrari and the Torra Rossa do look really good do and the Mclaren too.

Charlie-Bravo

They can dress up a car which ever way they like - it's still a dog of an power unit!

Zcott

LOL

Although to be fair it's had a better start than last year's car...

HighLine

Hmmm dog of a car or dog of a power unit and poor reliability from the said unit....

Thidp

It's good to see that Ferrari improved, but in fact it would be very hard not to do so, since 2014 car was horrible.

Can you imagine how Alonso would feel if Ferrari win some races this year? McLaren probably will have a tough year.

Charlie-Bravo

HighLine wrote: »

Hmmm dog of a car or dog of a power unit and poor reliability from the said unit....

True, fixed my own post!

Myrddin

lolie wrote: »

I quite like vettels Ferrari helmet this year, nice simple design. Says he doesn't intend on changing it to often

I seen that there & got a weird feeling that we might just be seeing a lot of that car/helmet over the season. I do hope Ferrari have made strides, but part of me would be sick at the same time because it's typical that that'd happen just as Alonso leaves.

Cool_CM

lolie wrote: »

I quite like vettels Ferrari helmet this year, nice simple design. Says he doesn't intend on changing it to often.

Looks like the design was stolen from another racing legend of German extraction:

SamAK

Laps run at Jerez this year versus last year:

2014 - 1,470 total laps (6,509 kilometres) completed in four days
2015 - 2,294 total laps (10,156 kilometres) completed in four days
That's a 56 percent increase

(http://www.formula1.com/news/features/2015/2/16808.html)

Getting comfortable with these engines it seems.

smellslikeshoes

Marussia/Manor's comeback looking less likely this evening. Strategy group seemingly after deciding they can't use the 2014 car, needed unanimous and Force India voted against.

Grim.

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

needed unanimous and Force India voted against.

lol, oh Vijay

Thidp

Force India with so many problems, probably afraid that would be behind Marussia through the year hahaha

That's a shame, would be nice to have them this season.

smellslikeshoes

I probably should have added to that post that it hasn't been picked up by many places yet so take it with a grain of salt.

Zcott

It's being reported in a few places now. Pretty poor of Force India to vote against it.

smellslikeshoes

Autosport have picked it up now.

PopePalpatine

It's especially prickish of Force India considering how Vijay was up in arms about teams going out of business after Marussia and Caterham pulled out.

Infoanon

smellslikeshoes wrote: »

Marussia/Manor's comeback looking less likely this evening. Strategy group seemingly after deciding they can't use the 2014 car, needed unanimous and Force India voted against.

Can't find any link to confirm that it was Force India that voted against - if true it is understandable,voting Yes would mean less for Force India who,if rumours are to be believed, are struggling financially.

If you are going to blame somebody the finger should point at CVC and Mr.E

Even if Marussia had got the ok to use the 2014 car it would have struggled to be on the grid in 37 days, for starters they have no engines,only 2 tubs,no equipment to build an additional tub and no staff or premises.