They will obviously bring in their new people so I doubt it's a case of jumping or pushing, just leaving, with 100 million Euros in the back pocket.
They will obviously bring in their new people so I doubt it's a case of jumping or pushing, just leaving, with 100 million Euros in the back pocket.
I think her and Frank leaving was the natural outcome, the family don't own the business anymore. Sad to see the last of the true garagistas and my first favourite team going but they missed their opportunity to modernise and compete when they refused BMW and then Mercedes.
What shocks me is a Formula 1 team can be bought for £150m. That's a person or two in footballing terms. Shame they dropped off after the 2017 rule changes. I thought the Martinimobile was quick and could've grown into a proper contender.
I think once we got into the hybrid era the Mercedes engine covered up for a lot of their deficiencies, I don't think it's a coincidence that they've fallen further and further back as the other power units have caught up.
These days it's a different way to spend your R&D and marketing budget but even the most successful team in the history of the sport only barely break even, and that's if you believe their own propaganda.
Back in the day yeah but there's no way Renault are learning anything from their F1 car and putting it into their Hot Hatchback.
Does that count?
It's literally the only reason Mercedes entered as a manufacturer, the shift to hybrid was done in order to keep and attract more of them.
I was (sort of) gutted to find out the F1 Espace was a just a one-off mental let's stick an actual F1 engine in an Espace thing, rather than some limited run mad machine that might still be available somewhere privately that could potentially be driven normally.
It doesn't really work either, you can see it hopping round the corners at about 20mph.
In the middle of Concorde negotiations, it's like when Wayne Rooney was definitely going to Chelsea that time. Their CEO even went on Sky and gave a halfhearted denial yet here they are committing to the next rule set.
Toto said during the week that if they can only run one mode then they'll just find a way to run their qualy mode all weekend.
I think there will also be a max lap time in qualifying after the F3 shenanigans.
What if they gave Party Mode a funny German name to deceive the FIA?
Party Mode already is a funny German name.
Finding out what Party Mode is in German has just confirmed to me what a stupid language it is. Miserable cunts.
Eight drivers summoned to the Stewards ahead of Qualy because of stupidity backing up in F3.
Ferrari playing a stormer again I see.
This is comical.
Ocon will hardly get away with that will he?
If you're on a flying lap it's fair game.
Good job they nerfed those Mercs.
The only good thing that might come of it is that they can't turn Bottas' engine down and just keep him where he is that way in the race. Unless they've just permanently set his to be a bit worse than Lewis', which I wouldn't necessarily discount.
What was this rule change?
You can't fiddle with the engine modes (ie turn them up to 11 for qualifying) - so Mercedes have just turned it up to 10.5 for the whole time and everyone else has had to go back to 7 for fear of blowing their engines up, presumably.
Hence the full blown trolling of the field that was qualifying yesterday.
Presumably it was to close up the field and has had the opposite effect.
Even without 'party mode' they still had 0.8 secs over the competition over 1 lap.
Thing is it also affects anyone who has a Mercedes engine too. They made it so this year teams had a right to pay for a current years model. Previously if you bought one you pretty much expected to get last years spec.
So you're not only knocking back Mercedes, but Tracing Point and Williams. You're also stopping everyone else from running max engine mode, unless they can make that run for a whole race + qualifying, so in reality you're probably making Mercedes job a bit easier.
Bottas must have an issue.
Giovinazzi really is a first lap monster.
Issue or massive bottle job?
Dr Marko might leave Albon behind after this GP.
This should spice things up a bit.
Hamilton and Giovanni fucked by the pit lane entry closing there.
Has to be a drive-through at least for those two.
10 sec stop/go. You'd imagine Hamilton should still cover that off by the end.
EDIT: I didn't realise that's not the one that carries to the end.
Last edited by Gray Fox; 06-09-2020 at 01:55 PM.
New winner? Richie Rich will be my guess.
Well if Hamilton takes it immediately he'll be last. Given Bottas' struggles he'll likely struggle back to a point or two.
I'd suggest he's going to put everything into the first 2 laps to hopefully gain him back some time for when he pops back out.
Sainz to win for me.
Seems strange to allow teams to change tyres under a red flag stoppage. I thought you weren't allowed.
Why isnt the pit lane closed message on the inside somewhere?
Ive never driven a F1 car or even drove faster than 100mph on the road, but I imagine these signs are hard to spot?
I think Hamilton struggles big time from this unless there's a further safety car.
Actually, signs are not hard to miss. You can see them at whatever speed you travel. F1 driver reactions are a million times better than mine, so they should see them.
You do also get the lights and warnings direct from the stewards to the dashboard inside the car. It'd be strange if that hasn't happened as well as the signs.
Lewis sounds like he is crying on the radio.
Surely Sainz has to fancy this.
Anyone but Gasly please.