Force India have gone for the nostril approach please log in to view this image Fuoco was busy testing crash structures, please log in to view this image
A day in each position? Vandoorne: day one, pushing, day two making engine noises Magnussen: day one, making engine noises, day two pushing
Somersf1 thinks Williams were trailing 2017 ideas. A partial floor skirt and rear wheel wing so the main rear wing can be less aggressive. please log in to view this image
please log in to view this image How did that McLaren manage 104 laps? A close up of the Force India nostrils, which I also quite like, please log in to view this image
I guess McLaren turned their PU down. I quite like the FI nose too, something a little different to look at.
Force India win my respect in some ways. It is obvious financially that their development can't have the relentless pace of the top teams but the work they do is always progress and always solid, tending to fall back over time once the others throw more at their car.
They've had a solid day reliability wise and with a respectable lap time- if the PU was turned down, just where could they fit in to the pack if they had it working at maximum? I find them very difficult to work out.
I think their problem all boils down to having a one team engine supplier which meant they didn't have much time to work through all the silly gremlins during pre-season testing, which are popping up all over the place. sooner or later they're going to have a problem free weekend and we'll be able to see where they actually are. I think they're a lot higher up than they appear to be. question is, are they going to be taking ridiculous penalties every race.
But then if they take penalties with a good package, we'll get to see Alonso on a hate-fuelled charge through the pack!
Great idea, why not channel Alonso's frustration and rage at have a crap car into the batteries!? That will cure the power deficit!
Ahead of this weekend’s British GP, Hamilton leads this year’s World Championship by 10 points from Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg. But the Englishman’s decision to skip last week’s test at the Red Bull Ring, despite an indifferent performance throughout the Austrian GP weekend when he was unable to match the pace of Rosberg, has already proved controversial. Mercedes confirmed on their Twitter feed that Hamilton had been due to drive alongside Pascal Wehrleinat the test but ‘chose not to’. "I just find it bizarre that he would say ‘no’ and go off and be in Monaco with whoever he was with,” Derek Warwick, the president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, told Sky Sports F1 in response to Hamilton posting a 'selfie' picture on his Twitter account alongside pop star Pharrell Williams during the test. "As a racing driver you want every second you can in the car, if anything to keep the other driver out. It is obvious to me."
'Honda, Renault & Ferrari should be allowed to close in on Mercedes' Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn believes fully opening engine development could allow Mercedes to extend advantage Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn believes F1 should follow DTM’s example and open up engine development to Ferrari, Honda and Renault – but not Mercedes – to allow them to close the gap. Last year the German touring car championship allowed Mercedes extra time and an additional test to develop their uncompetitive C-Coupe – concessions that were not given to BMW or Audi. Kaltenborn believes this is the only way to level the playing field in F1 too, as fully opening engine development could allow Mercedes to pull further ahead. “If you open this up it is going to opened up for everybody. I don’t like to compare this now to DTM, but they did allow one big name [Mercedes] to develop and they themselves didn’t develop that much to bring them up to a certain level,” she told Sky Sports. “I think that is the kind of thinking we need that you have to make it a level playing field, because the advantages which are there will be for years and not be able to be caught up. So you don’t want to see this happening for the next two, three years.” When asked if she was worried that Mercedes could extend their advantage Kaltenborn replied: “Exactly, if you open it up it is for everybody. So they will continue to develop as well and they have such a massive advantage that I think even if they were to stop their development others would take two years to get there. “And that is something we have to be seriously thinking about because for two years fans are not going to accept these kinds of races. You look at other events coming up, TV stations paying far more to broadcast those events and we will just be suffering.” Red Bull's Christian Horner concurred that F1 needed to level the playing field, but did admit Mercedes had done a fantastic job. “I don’t think Formula 1 can afford for Honda and Renault to be in the situation they are now,” the Red Bull team principal said. “We had the new president of Honda here and I don’t think we put on a great show for him. For Renault it is not a great encouragement for them to commit further to the sport when we are imposing the penalties we are, the public embarrassment that there is over engine failures. “I think that we need to look at it for sure. Don’t get me wrong, quite often I am perceived as moaning or complaining about Mercedes, but they have done a fantastic job, they have interpreted the rules and have done a better job than anyone else. The problem is that it is totally out of kilter with where the other manufacturers are at the moment and we need them to be there for there to be engines for other teams to compete with.”
