Nothing lasts forever. There is no way Vettel will win the title next year, not with an engine that's down 100BHP on its rivals.
Likewise. As I said before, if Red Bull have assembled the best factory set-up, the best race operation, and have the best driver and designer, it stands to reason that they'd be well set to adapt to the rule change. The only hope we've got is that they put their resources into securing this years title for too long, so that their rivals have significantly more development time. However, as all the rival teams gave up on this year, nobody is pushing Red Bull that hard, so they'll have it all wrapped up long before they would have if Ferrari/Mercedes/Mclaren/Renault were pushing them right to the end.
Until something more concrete comes up, I will ignore any and all suggestions of cheating within Red Bull. Certainly in this response, I'd prefer to focus on what is known, rather than guessed at, even if the guesses have value. Newey and Vettel have their contracts tied for the foreseeable future. And yes, there is good reason. It should not come as a surprise that virtually every F1 driver is in envy of Vettel with regard to his circumstance and especially his car's designer. Opinion: virtually every F1 driver would love to be in Vettel's position with Newey designing his/her car. The reciprocal question is worthy of comparison: is virtually every F1 chassis designer in envy of Newey with regard to his currently preferred driver? My opinion is essentially no. Vettel is doing exactly what is required, and surely nothing more can be expected of a driver; but there are at least three other drivers, perhaps even four, who could do the job equally well, if not better. That said, I acknowledge that the grist of what I've said can never be more than conjecture. Nevertheless it persuades the conclusion that Newey is generally considered a more potent part of the equation than Vettel. Once again, this is no slight upon Vettel. Naturally, every driver seeks the most preferable circumstance and Vettel has found himself with the ability to be in that place. However, one designer can only work for one team at any given time (just as is the case for a driver, of course); and Vettel and Newey have found a mutually beneficial environment. Until this arrangement ends, no definitive answer on Vettel's value can exceed the conclusion drawn from his current situation. In a sense, if Vettel really wants to prove himself as peerless in today's modern world of relatively safe F1, he will need to do so under different circumstances. My belief is however, that unfortunately for viewers and most fans of motorsport, Vettel values his personal statistics too much to be persuaded to break ties with Newey. This has been reinforced through Helmut Marko's effort to leave his own mark upon the world, and as things stand, Vettel and Newey can't part anyway! (Congratulations to Marko: you got your wish). They're all in it together. Until that changes, despite the production of excellent cheese, we will not properly separate curd from wheyâ¦
OK dhel; you've twisted my arm. I submit! If Red Bull and Vettel were found to be cheating, the severity of punishment would (hopefully) reflect the degree to which any cheating had taken place. If such cheating were to suggest that it may have impacted upon the outcome of Drivers' and/or Constructors' Championships, I would expect relevant party(s) to be disqualified from the results. Now, although it pains me to say it, in reality, 'cheating' is a hugely variable term in F1 (unfortunately), particularly with regard to car design – despite efforts to make it very difficult. And whilst I would never condone it, I nonetheless acknowledge that it is to some extent within the nature of the beast, since a designer's role is to exploit what is allowable according to what has been written in advance of what might subsequently be done. Therefore any punishments resulting from conclusive 'evidence' should take proper account of that evidence, as should always be the case with common law; and we can do no more than trust that this will be the case. That said, McLaren's $100,000,000 fine of a few years back may serve demonstration of how punishment can sometimes exceed the crime, although I very much doubt such an extreme will be repeated, at least within my life-time…
Cosicave, that is what I wanted to find out.... What would happen, how would FIA react, what other teams would do, how would fans view this? I have a very curious mind...maybe because of my years in journalism. Lol. I always try to find the story behind the story..lol I always look forward to your replies as you seem to have a good knowledge and understanding of these matters. The fact that this has been viewed 361 times in just 6 hours means that people are interested in the topic even if they might be afraid to openly bring up the highly controversial topic themselves.
Red Bull is a massive corporate entity, there is no way they'd risk tarnishing their reputation over F1 by cheating. Might they be exploiting loopholes or operating outside of what is considered the 'spirit' of the sport? Absolutely! Operating entirely outside the rules. Not a chance.
While I may agree with you totally I think this rule ever if exploited by some loophole should be viewed as totally against the spirit of fairness. FIA technical regulation states: 9.3 Traction control: No car may be equipped with a system or device which is capable of preventing the driven wheels from spinning under power or of compensating for excessive throttle torque demand by the driver. Any device or system which notifies the driver of the onset of wheel spin is not permitted.
As for the Hypothetical. If RBR were found guilty of cheating, their offending constructors titles would be stripped. However, all of Vettel's records and titles would most likely stand. Historically, the FIA almost always target the team rather than punish the driver.
And therein lies the loophole, the caveat, the justification and the get-out-of-jail-free! âSo long as whatever is done is deemed acceptable when (or if) such probing questions are raisedâ¦
I didn't like what mercedes did with the tyre test although FIA and Pirelli were partly to blame. But Red Bull seems to operate on the fringe of these illegalities on a regular basis no wonder Vettel is not always given his due praise.
Yet Mr Horner is usually the first to jump up and down with 200 rule books in hand when he thinks another team is doing something outside the spirit of the sport. As with mercedes when he was sticking out like a sore thumb at the hearings. I think he is a hypocrite actually.
They're all a bunch of hypocrites.... But some principles are just more dislikable than others when they go running to the teacher.
It's his job. I agree that others may handle some of these things differently, at least in terms of politics; after all, we are all different. To put it another way, perhaps Horner is not the best politician with regard to the public? At least, this is my view. I'll make no bones about it: Horner is not my favourite Team Principal. However, just as is yours, no doubt, this is a personal view based upon how I think I might deal with some of the issues he's had to contend with; and has been formed over many years; and is based entirely upon my own perception. Right. must dash. Work to do… Hope you enjoy this weekend.
"spirit of the rules" that line always cracks me up everytime I hear/see it. If SV & RBR do win both again, then the last 5 WDC/WCC championships have all been won by teams acting within the rules but outside the spirit, Brawns double diffuser and RBR's flexi-wings, I also think merc ddrs was too, legal but, disappointingly, against the spirit. They all look for that grey area "can we find the loophole and do legally the thing the FIA tried to ban?" RBR have found the exploitative loophole in this convolution of the rules, but will they be the team that finds the next one?
No, it's definitley the norm, and pretty much has been since whenever, pushing the boundaries of the rules is the designers remit, I've got no complaints, it shows their genius.
They have to design in to such tight regulations that the only way to gain an advantage is by pushing the boundaries.
