Seems I could have been very wrong about this reply to EMSC. Things have become so pear-shaped here that I can barely remember what apples look like! Giedo van der Garde (and his entourage) has earned a lot of respect from a lot of people in these parts, and from a personal perspective, I must say I've been impressed.
Its a brilliant start to the season.... http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/...uf-geld-3-teams-noch-ohne-reifen-9314407.html Three teams are late to pay Pirelli (not Manor ironically!) FOM is having to guarantee payments to hotels as the hotels no longer trust the teams to pay up. Not the nice kind of guarantee, just the we'll take it out of what we owe you guarantee. Sauber can't perform the simple task of employing two drivers and the F1 App is now a million pounds.... sorta Meanwhile, the two Honda PU's in use this weekend seem to have their own twitter? Obviously. https://twitter.com/hondapu14 https://twitter.com/hondapu22
This is F1 however, and it is entirely conceivable that it is still beneficial to Sauber to pay up VDG's contract rather than lose the money from Nasr or Ericsson's sponsors.
Geido will have to try and make the 107% cut with no experience of the car. If he does it he deserves a massive cheer. Are sauber legally allowed to sack him on grounds of poor performance? (manufactured poor performance)
Wasn't sure of a better place to put this, but the teams are planning to increase the number of engines back to five for the season again so that the engine tokens can be spent more flexibly.
Woa woa.... but... this was supposed to drag on... oh, only 99.6% done, phew. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula-one/32124091 World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton says he is “99.6%” there on his new Mercedes contract, which he has negotiated himself with the team’s managers Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda. This would keep him in the company of the sport’s two other leading drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. “It’s 99.6% done. There’s no negotiating left, it’s just legal stuff,” Hamilton told the BBC. “It should be done this week. There is no reason it shouldn’t.” According to figures sourced by the BBC’s Andrew Benson, “Alonso is being paid $40m a year by McLaren and Honda for the duration of the three-year deal he has signed, which runs until 2017. Vettel will earn a one-off $50m (£33.7m) in his first season with Ferrari in 2015 but less after that, according to senior sources. “The figure for this season is high because the German secured a deal that, for one year only, he would have all possible bonuses he could earn guaranteed, as a kind of golden handshake for joining the team. After 2015, Vettel will revert to a basic salary of about $30m (£20.4m), with bonuses defined for wins and championship titles, according to sources close to Ferrari.” The new deal, is the first that Hamilton has negotiated by himself, having split with Simon Fuller’s 19 agency last year. The term is not known, but most contracts of this kind are for three years or two plus a one year option. Hamilton’s existing deal was three years, while Mercedes is committed to F1 until the end of 2020 at least and a three year deal would take Hamilton to the end of 2018. At 30 Hamilton will probably have one more contract after this one during his F1 career. A move to Ferrari is a possibility as the Maranello team has always tracked Hamilton, but never got close to a deal. Staying at Mercedes this time was the obvious choice as they have the best car at the moment, despite the strong form shown by Ferrari at the weekend. Hamilton has maintained since last year that his plan was to stay at Mercedes. The two sides had some preliminary discussions last season, but didn’t get down to proper talks until the start of the pre-season testing in February. One advantage for Hamilton of prolonging talks until now is that he has been able to demonstrate that he’s moved clear of Rosberg, who challenged him for the championship last year, but who has struggled to get on terms this year.
I always struggle to understand what delays these agreements, whether it's the greed of the team or the greed of the driver?
Lewis is some what fortunate that Ferrari are looking like a threat for the foreseeable future even at this point. It means Mercedes might sign his contract rather than Lewis signing theirs in fear of him going to Ferrari or McLaren with all that prestige of being the wdc if he retains it. A month ago Mercedes weren't even struggling to out blink Lewis. They won't pay a stupid amount to make him stay if they know Rosberg can still do the job or Lewis' replacement have the capability to win the wdc. Nothing personal against Lewis, there's just a lot of strong drivers around, especially Ricciardo, Bottas, Grosjean, Hulk and Verstappen that would gladly take that seat for 1/5 of the driver cost as Mercedes want to make the £££ The only problem of it dragging out is that Mercedes will back (their interests) sooner or later and it would be wise for Lewis to not forget that come half way into the season.
