Which is exactly why Mercedes will, I believe pursue the appeal. It is less about who won the drivers championship, more about race manipulation and the impact that could have across both championships. The ambiguity, or rather the overuling the written text, has to be removed for a constructor to have confidence in fair play.
I think Merc tried to envisage every possible situation and wanted to be prepared for anything. Imagine if something happened and Red Bull turned up with a lawyer and Merc hadn't - they would be at a disadvantage!
As it stands, the teams have spent a lot of money on next year, if the rule book means nothing that money could be wasted on a decision process favouring Liberty or favouring another team.
I heard Horner, over the weekend, already getting a dig in regarding the Mercedes engine development for 2022 and suggesting he doesn't know if it is legal. You can always rely on Horner.
"Lewis Hamilton: Toto Wolff says he can give 'no assurances' British star will continue in F1 after Abu Dhabi pain" Probably nothing, but... https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/1...star-will-continue-in-f1-after-abu-dhabi-pain
I just hope that next season with Hamilton and Russell or if Lewis does walk away Russell and Norris make sure legally of course that the helmet does not win a single race and if McLaren and Ferrari can improve enough he does not even get a single podium
The thing that annoyed me at the time and even more so now that more conversations have been released was the celebrations of the helmet and Horner if one or both of them had said "not the way we would have wanted to win but luck was with us today" there would be a lot less hatred towards them, it appears that the other drivers all felt something was very wrong the way it all finished If the helmet had led the entire race and been over 10 seconds ahead with 5 laps top go then it would have been annoying but acceptable
I said this on the day in the race thread- no F1 driver has ever had it ripped away from them on the final lap with a safety car restart not in line with the standard rules. It will have knocked the absolute **** out of him, an absolute gut punch. It will take him a long, long time to digest this one. He was inch perfect in the final 4 races only to have it taken away in the final corners of the season. Sabbatical wouldn’t be the worst thing for him at all - Alonso has shown it can be done and if anything stoke the fires whilst recharging the batteries. It also gives him the chance to see where Merc are in the pecking order after the rules shake up.
Rather than a sabbatical, I'd say use this hurt to train harder than ever before over the winter, come back ready to fight and take no prisoners... Stick two fingers up and then come out swinging! This whole thing has been ridiculous and I hope we never see anything like it again. And I would feel just the same if the boot was on the other foot and this trick had been played on Max, because I really don't think they cared who won, so long as they got their finish under green. What we can be grateful for though, is that in their haste to get the "show" going again, they didn't drop a clanger and somebody wound up hurt.
If I am reading it correctly , it seems the new boss wants it to be that way . On the other hand it may be that they are threatening. I just wonder if the 5 second rule , and the giving places back is a They threaten A. The teams argue for Z And they settle for … my biggest concern is the risk of removing the stewards ….
Otmar has left the Aston Martin building . Welcome back Martin ? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/59881786
Audi are in preliminary talks to acquire McLaren it seems. Appears that VW group will partner up Audi with McLaren (if talks go well), whilst Porsche will potentially be the badged engine for Red Bull racing. If talks don’t go so well, sources suggest that both Williams (Audi) and Alpha Tauri (Porsche) are alternative options for VW to just supply works engines. I believe the Porsche/Audi engines will be a joint project under the VW Umbrella so it will be the same engine but badged differently. Interesting - I don’t know much about the 2026 engine rules but I believe this coincides with that change and not the complex hybrids we currently see.
Interesting. I think the main change to the pu in 2026 is that the mguh is gone! It seems like that part was the hardest to get right and the least relevant to road vehicles. It would be good to get more manufacturers into F1 but I would prefer it to not be at the cost of an existing historical team like McLaren! As for badging the Honda developed PU as a 'Porsche' that's just stupid as all the historic fans know it's a Honda!!!