Any news on who's driving the Caterham this weekend? I like to imagine that at Caterham HQ, they have a big wheel with random driver names on it, when they need some cash they give it a spin, if the person it lands on has a superlicense, then it's welcome to Formula One "Insert unusual driver here"
By all accounts Merhi will take the seat on a permanent basis when he gets enough kilometres for a superlicence, but for now he's only doing FP1 and Kobayashi's in the car for the rest of the weekend. To be fair to Caterham at least the drivers replacing Kobayashi have shown talent, if only to contrast the moron in the other car.
I think Dave Smith won the raffle down the pub at the weekend, but I think he chose the leg of beef over the Caterham drive
Is the fine greater for non-coded messages? I mean a $10k fine would probably make it seem almost worthwhile to some teams in some circumstances.
I should probably point out in the first instance I was joking - I can't find anyone who knows what the punishment will be. In fact I don't think anyone even knows if it is the stewards or the World Motor Sport Council who have jurisdiction! Having checked the admittedly out of date sporting regulations, the only thing which is specified in there the right of the stewards to impose sanctions in the event of a driver breaching protocol. (I would hope for this to fall outside their purview - I certainly hope a driver will not be punished because his race engineer screwed up) The second thing to note is more helpful. The closest thing we have to precedent suggests we can actually expect the punishment to be far more severe. The punishment for Ferrari's breach of team orders back in 2010 - which would probably be considered similar enough in circumstance to be considered a precedent - was $100,000, ten times my facetious suggestion. Though we should note this was a special case imposed by the WMSC, and the FIA may not have time to refer each case to them, I don't see why the standard punishment would be drastically different. As for your question, it depends. Typically I would be inclined to treat each single breach of the regulations the same in so far as such is possible - something I think the FIA would strive for too. But a coded message is fundamentally different from all the others in that the discovery of a coded message would necessitate a thorough investigation into the team's conduct at prior Grands Prix - because the use of such could shed light on conversations previously considered innocuous, since they are often representative of a wider pattern. As a result, I think coded messages will be punished more severely, if only to recoup the time and expenses spent on investigating them - as opposed to the non-coded ones which can be spotted more easily, especially if the teams are simply ignoring the fines... You do of course raise a wider issue with the very concept of fines as punishment, that being that they are almost always unfit for purpose and unfair when some can afford to pay them on a regular basis and some cannot. Hence why my preference would be for the confiscation or fining of constructors' points.
Seems at least Sauber have some worries about the heat this weekend, please log in to view this image Will Tyson @theWPTformula · 31m Sauber have also removed paintwork from the engine cover - maybe reduces heat retention slightly. (i: @octanephotos) pic.twitter.com/2YmIAJuc8O please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Will Tyson @theWPTformula · 33m Sauber have installed larger cooling outlets in the sidepods for Singapore this weekend. (i: @octanephotos) pic.twitter.com/vLEzIaZqyw please log in to view this image
With a view to next year, Singapore apparantly marks a significant upgrade package on McLarens downforce, and they have talked it up fairly well. The first acid test for McLaren as they look to develop a better car for 2015.
They should be able to beat Force India and secure 5th in the championship unless I'm significantly underestimating the Force India car, but their chances for 2015 are going to depend entirely on a significant redesign of the inner workings of their car to get more mechanical grip.
Please back up all data http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/277794-All-Mods-please-read?p=7082040#post7082040
I dont know if general users can see that thread on the moderators board but basically there was malware threat yesterday and you might want to back up prediction leagues etc etc as there may be a roll back. Probably the Scottish no voters trying to Wum the GC
