If they didn't know about 6-8 weeks ago, then waiting till Thursday won't help.. No idea why they want to over complicate matters.. Alonso comes in. Keep Button has his partner for this year and tell him that this is his last year with the team, regardless of results. Tell KMag that he's gonna be the official test/reserve driver and will be get his race seat back in 2016 onwards. Best of both worlds, they have a very good driver line up for the first season of Honda's return. They have KMag to come back in, and Jenson knows this is his last season so he can try and go out on a high!
Lot's of reports that McLaren want Button but Alonso doesn't. It's the same old story as ever so it's truthfulness could be anything between 0 and full. This was all posted before 9am today btw. McLaren D-Day There’s been some excitement this morning on social media regarding the McLaren announcement of their drivers – which many expected today. However, the team from Woking did state in Abu Dhabi that, “We have decided to defer our final deliberations relating to our 2015 driver line up until a date no earlier than Monday December 1.” The word is, in fact it will be later in the week at the earliest when Big Ron and Honda declare their intentions to the world and that Dennis has been in Denmark discussing sponsorship for the team with 3 companies, including Saxo Bank and Lego. The options are clear. Firstly, Fernando is insisting on a certain number two driver or even the kind of experience the second McLaren driver must have. His evasive behaviour in the recent drivers’ FIA Press Conference when asked would he choose Jenson as his 2015, has led many to conclude his opinion on this matter is clear. Yet McLaren are now in a better bargaining position with Fernando, since he has been ‘ousted’ by Ferrari and his choices for a Formula One drive in 2015 are severely limited. McLaren should also consider, the promise of the fine young Danish driver was at its zenith during the first race of the 2014 season – and Magnusson’s results then deteriorated over the year. Such that without Jenson’s 126 point haul, the team from Woking would have been a distant 6th way behind Force India rather than 5th and hunting down Ferrari. Opinion is still divided on whom the axe will fall upon from McLaren’s 2014 driver line up. However, it would be no surprise to see Ron Dennis pull a rabbit out of the hat, despite their new signing’s apparent leanings.
Also, expect another "for the good of the sport" ramble from Horner in the next few days: Tobias Grüner F1 ‏@tgruener 2m2 minutes ago #F1 Renault decided not to copy Mercedes compressor / turbine layout for 2015. They ran out of time. AMuS (German): http://ams.to/X0
You could tell from the awkwardness in the press conference, you would expect Fernando to say yes when Jenson was messing him around. He dismissed it...
Does it beg the question "is F1 a sport" anymore if we lose Jenson Button? For me, it becomes all too easy for someone to say "he isn't as good as A/B/C" and then dismiss ones career. However, for me you've got to have a damn sight more in your locker than some of these guys making it to the grid these days. F1 is a harsh business, they all know it, but it's about time we saw some longevity in the careers of these seasoned, tough, high class racers like Button and Webber. These guys are more than just a benchmark to test the new kids against, they are top table drivers who given the tools would give it a real honest go against the elite, and on some days are part of that elite. If we have Max Verstappen, Kev Magnussen, Pastor Maldonado, and Marcus Ericsson all on the grid next year, that to me doesn't epitomise a top level sport. For me you have to earn your stripes and whilst if you're good enough you're old enough works, the kids getting seats in Formula 1 now are not proven as good enough. Formula 1 should be about top class drivers getting themselves and their teams the absolute best results achievable. There has to be a better way of feeding in these new kids without losing some bloody good drivers. IF the kids are proved to be better, then step them up. Until then however, they have to fight for it. It just seems too easy to get a drive in F1 these days for sub-par protege. You don't mind a lower formula champion being given a drive (Palmer et al) because at least they are proving themselves.
It's tough, but there definitely needs to be a better balance than there is currently. You don't want Button, Alonso etc holding on until their 40's because it's unlikely that the latest hotshot rookie would outpoint them over the season, but equally there needs to be a place for that rookie to prove their worth and create a strong case for replacing the current "top" drivers. I think it all comes back to costs. Let Ferrari, Mclaren, Red Bull and Mercedes pay the top established drivers megabucks, whilst the midfield have a budget that allows them to try drivers based purely on merit. As a short-term fix, it'd almost be nice if the bottom 3 teams received a set fee from the top 3 teams in return for running a development driver for the top 3 team, like a more fluid Ferrari-Bianchi-Marussia set-up.
Not a bad idea. It would cut out the bad pay drivers, give the up-comming drivers some mileage and the lower teams some much needed cash.
Seems that surprise surprise Horner's (et al) moaning is just a cover to force a complete engine change (which of course will be cheap to do). Not even able to use all the engine tokens now, never mind using more. Engine rivals set for more Mercedes dominance There has been a lot of propaganda regarding engine ‘freeze’, particularly from Mr. Horner and whoever is sat in ‘The Chair’ in Marenello when the music stops next. However, Andy Cowell attempts to put matters in perspective. Speaking to Spanish publication El Mundo, he explains “The situation is clear,. You can develop the engine in different ways throughout the year [2014] and then start with the best version at the beginning of next season”. Having listening to the rhetoric of Horner and the Red Team Boss, this may come as a surprise to many Formula One fans. Cowell adds, “There is a very long list of development opportunities for our opponents to take a big step forward.” Indeed, around 47% of the engine can be completely replaced/renewed, whilst the other 53% is still subject to the usual regulations which frequently allow components to be ‘upgraded’ for reasons of ‘safety’ and ‘durability’. Given this level of freedom, there is a hollow ring to Christian Horner’s threat that there will be a ‘no cost spared – free for all’ from Renault and Ferrari engine divisions for 2016. Auto Motor und Sport are suggesting that Renault and Ferrari have again fallen behind Mercedes in the ‘in season’ engine development allowed so far this year for testing in Jerez. Apparently neither engine manufacturer will actually use the full number of tokens allowed (ie the 47%) despite the fact that Renault has engaged the services of renown specialist – Mario Illien. Renault and Ferrari are now running out of time to prepare meaningful upgrades to their ‘power units’ before 2015. The report said neither engine maker even looks set to use all the available ‘tokens’ of allowed performance upgrades by the end-of-February freeze deadline. Word from Marenello would suggest that Ferrari will present for 2015 a more Mercedes like engine layout, though as has been expected for some time Nikolas Tombazis will be leaving the team. Admits all this Sebastian described his first day with the Italian team as “magical”. The unofficial voice from Ferrari-land, Italian journalist Leo Turini, penned the following words from an unnamed inside source in Maranello. “In the midst of all this euphoria, we should not forget to apologise in advance to Seb and Kimi for the car they will drive in 2015.” Of course Ferrari fans may cling to the hope that this is sand bagging, and as part of project ‘Body bags from Maranello’, Luca Marmorina was exited in the summer, whilst a number of Mercedes engineers were recruited. The problem is that the Mercedes engine architecture cannot be completely mimicked without some relaxation of the current regulations, though Mercedes offered an additional 5 tokens freedom for Ferrai and Renault, however, they rejected this. Should Ferrari and Renault be allowed to simply copy the Mercedes engine design, or should they receive a reward for delivering the best solution today in the era of the new F1 V6 Turbo PU’s? Here’s a quick summary of the engine design and redesign regulations as they stand. The PU is divided up into 66 ‘token’ components and each is given a token weighting of 1,2 or 3. For 2015, the teams have been allowed to redesign/change 32 of these tokens. Mercedes offered to allow a further 5 tokens to be added, 12 were requested by Ferrari and Red Bull. No agreement was found. From the moment the engines were homologated back in February this year, the teams have ben free to work on the engine redesign for 2015. Each year the number of tokens available for change will reduce by about 9%. Thus by 2018 there will be 15 tokens available for change – around 23% of the engine.
Latest rumour on the Alonso MclAREN hold up. Apparently he was trying to do a deal that enabled him to drive in leMans next year alongside an f1 drive. Mclaren wouldn't allow it. Hulkenberg got that opportunity instead. this has all delayed the button, magnusson or both decision. I also have a feeling we are going to get more than a driver announcement tomorrow. maybe a Title sponsor or even a launch livery?
