Formula 1 2015: General Discussion Thread

Going Strong · 11-12-2014 11:49am

Thank feck that saga is over.

greedygoblin · 11-12-2014 12:01pm

Had to laugh at Ron's 4 e's. Rather than simply say "Alonso is a good driver", he had to make it as wordy and complicated as possible.

HighLine · 11-12-2014 12:35pm

Ron is all smiles with his old pal. What he is really thinking is "Won't be long before that beard will be gone"

https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/543003260014309376

eviltimeban · 11-12-2014 12:47pm

HighLine wrote: »

Ron is all smiles with his old pal. What he is really thinking is "Won't be long before that beard will be gone"

https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/543003260014309376

Yeah, beard aren't the McLaren way alright! Though Jenson's kept his for a while!

Tzardine · 11-12-2014 1:16pm

Christ. Fernando is not short of a Bob or two.

You would think he would have a better fitting suit.

Jordan 199 · 11-12-2014 4:26pm

Now that Lewis and Fernando have two titles each, which of those drivers will be first to win a third title.

I think if Mercedes can produce a car like they had this season for next season, I think it will be Lewis.

Who knows what will happen though.

HighLine · 11-12-2014 4:42pm

Jordan 191 wrote: »

Now that Lewis and Fernando have two titles each, which of those drivers will be first to win a third title.

I think if Mercedes can produce a car like they had this season for next season, I think it will be Lewis.

Who knows what will happen though.

Not much because Mercedes continue to block any engine development so the chances of other non-Mercedes powered cars catching up are slim unfortunately.

Gillespy · 11-12-2014 4:52pm

A fool would bet against Hamilton now. There seems to be no confidence in Honda and Mercedes could dust off the W05 in Melbourne and still win.

Seeing Alonso at McLaren again just reminds you how much his career has stagnated since the last time he was there. His reputation has never been higher but to think Hamilton has clocked up as many titles and wins in that time is amazing.

11-12-2014 5:18pm

Gillespy wrote: »

A fool would bet against Hamilton now. There seems to be no confidence in Honda and Mercedes could dust off the W05 in Melbourne and still win.

What price would tempt you on Rosberg? This year a failure on the other car in the last race would've got him the title like.

It is a pity though on the engine front. While I like performance differentials in engines and the like I find it stupid to do it with an engine freeze. Unless Red Bull can somehow switch to another engine supplier it's gonna be another few years of Merc winning 75% of the races.

GarIT · 11-12-2014 5:37pm

Deleted User wrote: »

What price would tempt you on Rosberg? This year a failure on the other car in the last race would've got him the title like.

With better reliability (which they should have in 2015) Rosberg would have lost by much more than he did. I only expect Hamilton to be further ahead this year. It would take about 10:1 for me to put money on Rosberg.

Gillespy · 11-12-2014 5:42pm

Deleted User wrote: »

What price would tempt you on Rosberg? This year a failure on the other car in the last race would've got him the title like.

That would have given Hamilton twice as many failures as Rosberg, not counting the issues he had in qualifying. On performance, taking luck and reliability out of it, it's Hamilton every time.

I have no sympathy for the those suffering because of the engine freeze. If they didn't insist on it, they all agreed to it.

Williams finished the season well and could get amongst the Mercs next year and no one knows what Honda will have, so it's not all doom and gloom. Another year of Hamilton filling his boots will be okay by me anyway.

Myrddin · 11-12-2014 5:57pm

GarIT wrote: »

With better reliability (which they should have in 2015) Rosberg would have lost by much more than he did. I only expect Hamilton to be further ahead this year. It would take about 10:1 for me to put money on Rosberg.

Agreed, for Nico to only have won four races in that car, & not converted all those poles to wins, it's a pretty stark contrast. I know Nico had some bad luck, but not as much as Lewis did & it didn't affect him as badly (car going on fire etc).

PopePalpatine · 11-12-2014 6:07pm

Coral's the only bookie offering top 3 (at 1/5 odds) for placing, Bottas is currently 28/1 with them. SkyBet are offering 40/1 for him, though, if you're feeling liking taking more of a risk.

ScumLord · 11-12-2014 6:13pm

GarIT wrote: »

With better reliability (which they should have in 2015) Rosberg would have lost by much more than he did.

I think you're right, while the two are close in qualifying Hamilton just has the superior race pace and you'd always expect him to take Rosberg on track if he lost the pole position on Saturday.

I've heard Hamilton say the Mercedes aero package isn't that good and the cars pace is entirely down to the engine. Improvements in the aero package could give them even more of an advantage next year.

Honda are the only people in a position to make a merc beating engine at this time. It will be difficult to do in the first year though.

Unless peugeot and ferrari can do some major changes to their engines I don't see them winning much next year.

Jordan 199 · 11-12-2014 6:18pm

ScumLord wrote: »

Unless peugeot and ferrari can do some major changes to their engines I don't see them winning much next year.

Hmmmmm.....

boardsuser1 · 11-12-2014 6:19pm

ScumLord wrote: »

I think you're right, while the two are close in qualifying Hamilton just has the superior race pace and you'd always expect him to take Rosberg on track if he lost the pole position on Saturday.

I've heard Hamilton say the Mercedes aero package isn't that good and the cars pace is entirely down to the engine. Improvements in the aero package could give them even more of an advantage next year.

Honda are the only people in a position to make a merc beating engine at this time. It will be difficult to do in the first year though.

Unless peugeot and ferrari can do some major changes to their engines I don't see them winning much next year.

Peugeot??????

Zcott · 11-12-2014 6:28pm

Hamilton has the confidence to take the title in 2015 and I just don't see Rosberg matching that, as much as I'd like to.

The two teams im genuinely curious about are Williams and McLaren though. Did Williams have a great 2014 at the expense of 2015 or are they genuinely up there now? And McLaren are a complete unknown right now.

11-12-2014 6:30pm

Have always been a Ferrari supporter, but have lost faith over the last few years. Will be 100% behind McLaren this coming year, definitely my favourite driver line-up.

ScumLord · 11-12-2014 6:32pm

KC161 wrote: »

Peugeot??????

Shh, maybe no one else will notice.

youreadthat · 11-12-2014 6:45pm

ScumLord wrote: »

I think you're right, while the two are close in qualifying Hamilton just has the superior race pace and you'd always expect him to take Rosberg on track if he lost the pole position on Saturday.

I've heard Hamilton say the Mercedes aero package isn't that good and the cars pace is entirely down to the engine. Improvements in the aero package could give them even more of an advantage next year.

Honda are the only people in a position to make a merc beating engine at this time. It will be difficult to do in the first year though.

Unless peugeot and ferrari can do some major changes to their engines I don't see them winning much next year.

I haven't heard Hamilton say that, and it doesn't make much sense either, the Merc was quick around all sorts of track type and destroyed cars using the same engine.

_rebelkid · 11-12-2014 7:06pm

ScumLord wrote: »

Shh, maybe no one else will notice.

PSA Toyota 2016 Confirmed.

Zcott · 11-12-2014 7:29pm

_rebelkid wrote: »

PSA Toyota 2016 Confirmed.

I'm still waiting on that Ford superteam Autosport talked about 15 years ago...

christy c · 11-12-2014 7:31pm

GarIT wrote: »

With better reliability (which they should have in 2015) Rosberg would have lost by much more than he did. I only expect Hamilton to be further ahead this year. It would take about 10:1 for me to put money on Rosberg.

I haven't done the maths, but I don't think Rosberg would have lost by much more with better reliability. They both had equal retirements (counting Rosberg in Abu Dhabi as he finished outside the points). Also Lewis pulled an extra 25 points to make up for his two mechanical faults in qualifing.

Unless I am forgetting something, was a long year

Jordan 199 · 11-12-2014 8:13pm

Zcott wrote: »

I'm still waiting on that Ford superteam Autosport talked about 15 years ago...

I had a look about that. Ford were planning on talking to Schumi about it.

Very short article about it here. BTW, take a look at the date on the top right of the article

Ghost Train · 11-12-2014 8:34pm

Well it was Ford using the Jaguar brand, had 5 seasons
The were eventually taken over by Redbull
And eventually were winning multiple championships

Cookie_Monster · 11-12-2014 9:05pm

OSI wrote: »

Thank god for that. If the one F1 race I managed to bring the Mrs to didn't have her beloved Jenson involved I'd never hear the end of it.

Now that's out of the way we can speculate on the important things, like what's the livery going to look like

Zcott wrote:

I'm still waiting on that Ford superteam Autosport talked about 15 years ago...

they've just pulled out of the V8s and are pretty much shutting down production in Aus. Would be nice to think they'd redirect some of those funds to F1