Yeah. Too awkward. So awkward that it won't happen, regardless the outcome of any judgement. If (as is possible) Sauber are persuaded that they are likely to be found to have breached the terms of their contract with van der Garde, there will almost certainly be an out-of-court settlement. And if they allow the process to go all the way through court(s), they will then just pay him off with a mutually bitter handshake of undisclosed sum. Giedo's dreams are already shattered. He will not be seen on track again in F1.
Sauber have shown reasonable pace in testing, was surprised that they were pretty much 4th fastest in all the sectors across the 2 Barcelone tests. Maybe that's now why VDG suddenly wants his contract back?
Formula1.com being fairly cutting. The rule changes: There has been none of the wide-ranging changes we saw in 2014 with the introduction of the 1.6-litre turbocharged hybrid cars, but the most significant concern changes to the powertrains. After heavy lobbying from the Ferrari and Renault-powered teams, who suffered from the two companies’ failure to build competitive engines for the new formula, the FIA was able to identify and exploit a loophole - despite understandable opposition from Mercedes who did far and away the best engineering job with the new powertrains and deserved to clean up - whereby Ferrari and Renault were able to bypass the agreed engine development freeze and make changes to their hardware to help close up the field. The new powertrains had to be homologated by February 28th, 2014, with no further development allowed to the end of the season. But the 2015 rules only stated that the engines had to be homologated, without specifying a date. Thus Ferrari and Renault (and Mercedes should they wish) had longer to develop their 2015 powertrains than the end of February. Each manufacturer is allowed a stipulated number of tokens which cover different aspects of the engines, and they are thus free to keep developing them until they have no tokens left, whereupon they can homologate the unit for the season. Changes to the technical regulations include another increase of the minimum weight, which rises from 701 kg without fuel, to 702. Interlinked suspension is banned under rules dictating that the front suspension must react only to changes in load applied to the front wheels, and likewise for the rear suspension. The Zylon anti-intrusion panels on both sides of the survival cell have been extended upwards to the rim of the cockpit and alongside the driver’s head, in response to Jules Bianchi’s accident, and there have been further limitations in the governance of wind tunnel testing and the aerodynamic reporting periods for 2015 and 2016. Additionally, the FIA have revised the penalties for using more than the allotted allocation of power units in a single season (which has dropped from five to four). Changing a full powertrain will no longer incur an automatic penalty. Instead penalties will be cumulative, based on the individual components of each power unit. If a grid place penalty is imposed, and the driver’s grid position is such that the full penalty cannot be applied, the remainder of the penalty will be applied in the form of a time penalty during the race, instead of rolling over to the following race as another grid penalty. Among changes under the Sporting Regulations, the qualifying procedure has been clarified: with 20 eligible cars, five will be excluded after Q1 and Q2. The controversial double points season finale is no more, and after consultation with the teams the proposed use of standing restarts after safety car periods has also been dropped. And following successful trials in the final races last year, the Virtual Safety Car has been approved for 2015. It may be initiated to neutralise a race upon the order of the clerk of the course, and will normally be used when double waved yellow flags are needed on any section of track and competitors or officials may be in danger, but the circumstances are not such as to warrant use of the safety car itself. If a race is suspended, the pit exit will be closed and all cars must now proceed slowly into the pit lane, not the starting grid.
the FIA was able to identify and exploit a loophole - The FIA exploited thier own rules? I dont believe it
Sutil also had a Sauber 2015 seat promised.... Sauber may need to field a B team. http://autoweek.com/article/formula...ian-sutil-also-suing-sauber-formula-one-team?
I'd cynically suggested exactly this possibility when the story first broke. It may even have been in this thread. We should bear in mind that the FIA's greatest ally is the team it has traditionally favoured and which has also been provided with considerable financial advantage; and that more recently, another bullish team arrived on the scene with similar demands and conditions that they be dealt better cards than others. It is my belief that Ferrari and its young pretender may have been deliberately steered in the direction of the 'loophole' with a view to becoming its publicists. In addition, perhaps it is worth unearthing a Toadt with a preference for shadows and remembering where it came from. This is pure conjecture. It is based on nothing but my belief of the ethics and practices within at least some of the organisations mentioned... [Edit: Fixed wording of a sentence]
I always knew Vettel left for Ferrari (at this time) for a reason and it had nothing to do with Ricciardo beating him or Newey 'retiring'. He left because he knew Ferrari had something up their sleeve to challenge Mercedes for 2015 where RBR didn't. If I couldn't be more paranoid enough I would say Vettel let Ricciardo and Bottas beat him in the WDC so he could use the clause to leave the team. It's Lewis to Mercedes all over again, 2013 'omfg that's career suicide to leave McLaren to that midfielder team Mercedes'. McLaren haven't won a race since... If he does get close to Mercedes in the race I call BS from the off and start rambling that Bernie and the FIA had a hand in this push for Vettel becoming the next Ferrari wdc.
If Kimi beats him though then questions will be asked about him again. I also highly doubt he let himself get beat in the WDC, he won 4 world titles at Red Bull and wanted a new challenge. He probably knows Red Bull will never stay up the top and they will eventually fall back into the midfield, I think he would have left them regardless of his championship position.
I bet he had a pre contract to join Ferrari when Fernando left. That event happened sooner than expected.
There was a pre contract with Ferrari that you can bet on around the end of 2011. RBR was only an option to 'extend with' if they had the best car. Even Horner, Helmet and Dietrich were saying (every year) 'Vettel wouldn't be around RBR if they didn't provide him the best car'. What didn't sit well with me was how laid back he always was being beaten, it's like it didn't bother him what so ever. During testing sure, he was irritated clearly by Renault messing up the power unit for the foreseeable future, but at the European races he seemed to not give a damn about the outcome any more and was just waiting to jump ship. Horner isn't a stupid, he's not going to back the driver they know isn't going to be there in the near future so they should back Ricciardo who at the time is a much more dedicated to RBR and a longer option than Vettel. He knows RBR are in decline for a few years and he isn't going to win the wdc with them and he knew it. No sane f1 driver would ever turn down the chance to win the wdc even if your team mate was faster than you, Webber, Alonso and Rosberg all got their fair shots at the wdc against faster drivers which they all took to the end. Vettel just seemed to be making sure they got second in the WCC so not to burn that bridge indefinitely. He needed to be out of the top 5 with zero wins to activate his escape clause to get into Ferrari and what do you know... he did! That's what doesn't sit right with me when I was watching him last season, his little 'whimper off to Ferrari with his tail between his legs' seemed all too easy even for a 4 time world champion. Vettel doesn't want race wins like Ricciardo, he wants more titles. If Ferrari isn't better than RBR for these next two years I'll call the guy a coward myself for not giving himself the best chance to win the wdc and that's saying something. If Ferrari really has returned from the ashes then I'll flat out say he rigged his position in 2014 to give himself this crack at 2015-2016 titles. If he gets within 0.3-0.4 of either Mercedes I call BS and that he knew Ferrari was going to be the only real challenger to Mercedes.
Outcome for me is uncertain. Mercedes hold all the cards but Vettel has the card dealer 'Bernie' and Ferrari have the observer in the FIA. Anything can happen.
The sport is kind of stuck at the moment. Bernie makes no qualms about the fact that he wants Mercedes out of F1 but the problem is I think if Mercedes left as a constructor they'd also leave as a engine manufacturer leaving the sport with several un-powered teams. Not only is the Mercedes PU the cheapest, the other manufacturers don't have the capacity to plug the gap, at least not until Honda get their house in order. The powers at be would love nothing more than a Ferrari on a top step for many reasons, the problem is manufacturing victories to obviously, the sport is to fragile to take it. If you'd like to really get into smoke and daggers then you could ponder Hamilton as well. Love or hate him you'd be hard pushed to argue against his commanding stature in the worldwide scene of F1. Could someone be whispering into his ear about moving on, maybe to a more red team? We've never seen him express a desire like many others have to drive for Ferrari but if they could get him into the team alongside Vettel that would cover one hell of a driver fanbase. Would perhaps soften the blow when advantages are slowly passed to the old favourite.
Apart from me there aren't many actual legitimate Mercedes fans that support the team out right let alone before Lewis or the 2014 season. I remember the days in early 2010 when Mercedes had 1/5 of the followers on twitter to the likes of say Red Bull who were still behind McLaren and Ferrari. They were even behind in popularity to Sauber until Lewis gave a fresh injection to social media terms. People are kidding themselves if they think Mercedes has a bigger fan base than Ferrari. 80% of the current fans are Hamilton fans, the rest are Rosberg/Mercedes. When he goes, so does all that popularity apart from a few sad arses like myself. Hamilton wont go to Ferrari as they already have one prized boxer in Vettel. Bernie always wants the best drivers spread out and he just needs the FIA to help set up this fight. People will want Hamilton vs Vettel for multiple titles, it's a classic 'Germany Vs England' that will get the fans watching races more so than last year and more $$$. Nobody cares about Rosberg in this fight, Germany don't even see him as their best driver, I would rate Hulk above Rosberg. So unless Rosberg gets a grip and takes it up a notch against Lewis to prove me wrong, Hamilton is going to keep humbling him again and again. This will work against Mercedes like it did with RBR, people getting sick of 1 driver championships with the no 2 driver just clogging a fast seat up preventing a real challenge. I always believed that the politics held as much sway as the designer, I guess we are going to find out how powerful!
I think this is the last the chance for Rosberg to beat Hamilton and win a WDC. I can't see him recovering next year if he were to be beaten again. I then wouldn't be surprised if he was to be replaced by someone like Bottas or Ricciardo in a couple of years.
I dont think Rosberg is one to give up, and losing to someone twice in a row will only make him even more determined to beat Hamilton. Plus the fact that if anything, Hamilton would get too cocky about winning and (in a very loose way) he'd not try as hard to win. And if I'm honest, I don't rate Bottas at all. He's just like Webber, he's good at qualifying but when you look at his starts and his race pace, he's no better than average. I don't think he'll ever win a race unless he gets a Mercedes esque car.
The way you've described Bottas could actually describe Rosberg too then? Yes he's won races but his race pace and race craft is average most of the time and last year proved that.
