F1 2015 Season: Lineup's - Rumours - News

Well, seems like Hamilton is a spoil sport. He could have dragged this on till at least September

 

And the F1 world goes into silance again.


On a side, I wonder if Hamilton's dominance will all of a sudden return.

 

Oh dear, how much of a brib..... payment will be required to service this?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-billion-pound-u-k-tax-bill-over-family-trust

Ecclestone Fights $1.6 Billion Tax Bill He Thought Was Settled

 

As someone who deals with tax investigations (not for HMRC I shall add!) I will watch this with interest.

At the time of the settlement he almost certainly would have had to sign a certificate of full disclosure, basically saying he has told HMRC everything they need to know, which then leaves him liable to criminal prosecution if it turns out he was untruthful or withheld information from them.

If they can show that he has not complied with that, then they can really throw the book at him. Lets see how much balls they have, but as I often see, when dealing with large corps or wealthy individuals, its the power of the lawyers and who can afford the best that usually means who wins and loses these types of cases.

 

I really hope this bites him where it hurts. I can't believe he ever thought he could use the 'blackmail/bribe' defence at his trial and not expect HMRC to come after him!!!
We need HMRC/Gov to make the UK tax laws better so people/companies can't legally 'move' profits between countries just to avoid paying tax no mater how many jobs they create.

 

It won't. Bernie is Teflon

 

Manor may abandon plans to run new car in 2015

Manor will decide in the next few weeks whether or not to abandon plans to introduce its new Formula 1 car later this year.

The former Marussia outfit had pencilled in a debut for its all-new 2015 challenger at the Belgian Grand Prix after the summer break, having spent the start of this year focusing on getting its old car updated to comply with the rules.

However, with the pace of its upgraded 2014 challenger still solid and well within the 107 per cent limit, there are growing suggestions that the outfit may be better off sticking with it for the rest of the year so it can focus better its efforts on a big step for 2016.

New recruits to decide

Manor sporting director Graeme Lowdon said that newly arrived senior staff, including former Mercedes technical director Bob Bell, will be key to deciding what happens.

The team plans to conduct an evaluation study over the next few weeks to work out if the costs of introducing an updated car this season outweigh any potential benefits of being closer to the opposition.

Lowdon told Motorsport.com: "I think over the next few weeks we have some fairly key decisions to make.

"The landscape is getting a bit clearer now, in terms of who we are competing against and what we need to do.

"It is becoming a lot clearer. We will do whatever is the right thing for the company."

Strategy is open

Lowdon said it would be wrong for his team to stick to its early strategy of introducing the new car if Bell and his team decide there is little point.

"We are bringing people on board all the time who will have an input in to the decision-making process," he said.

"And there is no point having a dog and then barking yourself. So there is no point hiring these people and then telling them this is the tactical plan [to run the new car this year].

"There is no hard and fast route. There is nothing saying we definitely cannot have a different engine or a different chassis.

"Everything is open and whatever the right answer is, that is what we will do. But bear in mind that some of the people who can make a big impact in to that answer are just getting on board."

 

Meanwhile at Ecclestones Mansion:

 

Why are they allowed to race? They don't even want to be anywhere but last by the looks of it.. They have been last in the championship in pretty much every season they've taken part in, get lost, you've had enough chances now.

 

...and this is the fundamental issue with F1. The 107% rule needs to be drastically reduced and adhered to.

 

I would have thought getting the car able to take the 2015 Ferrari engine would be of high priority? All that 'free' performance gain, could really outrun the Mc-HRTs then.

 

I don't have a problem with them running within 107%, the team are still trying to establish themselves after financial problems.

But 2017 will be a big shakeup. There's little point introducing a late 2015 car, then a 2016 car on a tight schedule, then grapple with the 2017 regulations late in the day. Realistically they're only going to produce one update between now and 2017 (to fit the latest Ferrari engine as said), its just when to introduce it.

Someone always has to be last, and I don't mind it being them. But that said they need to close up in 2017.

 

But the only way a team will ever close up is if they have to - Marussia except that they will be last and have no incentive to increase their pace. I still think the cut off should be 103% if the grid is not full (i.e competition for the last place so you cant just turn up with a car that resembles an F1 car) Lewis's pole of 74.393 seconds against the quickest Marussia of 79.133 (4.74 seconds and 106.37%) is just too big a gap - it is a different formula altogether.

 

Manor will have competition next year in the form of HAAS

 

yeah, somehow I don't think anyone in gov't will want to **** themselves over by doing that.

I did laugh at that

 

As Bando says, Haas will provide competition from next season, although I suspect they'll be towards the back of the midfield before long, rather than dicing with Marussia.

But last place in the constructor's doesn't get prize money, and that money was the only reason Marussia came back. Whilst finishing last does get some money, I don't think it's enough to stay within 107%. You could argue that in some ways Bernie has got that right, Marussia can't trundle around last forever. If they see any kind of future in the sport (and you'd hope their latest appointments indicate they do), they need to be competitive in 2017.

 

Finishing 10th gets money. All they have to do is take part to claim. No point wasting resources that could be used to build a better car next year when they will have to fight for 10th. Bernie won't like it but it's common sense.

 

and in fairness where you finish doesn't really affect the prize money that much, it's more about who you know and what special deals you can sew up.....

 

And when you know the sporting regs are going to change massively again in 2017, do you bother to build one for next year?

 

And there the vicious circle continues......