34 laps before lunch for McLaren- some really important data being gathered for them. Hope they have a productive afternoon and keep learning, be reliable at end of testing and begin to think about optimum performance.
Kudos to Manor for going for a paint job that doesn't look like everything else. The new Toro Rosso looks aggressive: please log in to view this image Quite looking forward to seeing their new livery on it.
Have to say when I took a glance I thought the Torro Rosso was an absolute beaut- they've done some stellar progress these past couple of years and I tell you what, with an engine in it last year would have been podium contenders. Looks a real neat car again and they ought to go well in Melbourne with a race-ready Ferrari 2015 PU.
Funnily enough I wondered why there was a different Honda lead guy commenting on the power unit on the McLaren website. Could well be true- let the circus begin
Seems then like Honda haven't improved enough. I wonder if Fernando will be in Australia. For conspiracy happy, note how the McLaren store is filled with new Jenson Button 2016 merchandise, but the Alonso page hasn't been updated.
Unconfirmed rumours suggesting that a rogue/breakaway group of Engineers been working on upgrades in the background as almost a plan B and have provided better results than the Team headed up by Arai, but no confirmation of that as of yet.
Leaving in preseason testing can't be a good sign. I just hope that it's a over reaction and the new Honda unit is a marked improvement :/
Benson: “The second morning of the first pre-season test starts with some news at McLaren-Honda. Yasuhisa Arai, the man who has headed Honda’s F1 programme since its inception, is moving to a new role ahead of his retirement in a year’s time at Honda’s standard age of 60. He will be replaced by Yusuke Hasegawa. Arai will now be mainly based in Sakura in Japan, where he will be senior managing officer, and will still come to some races.” Sounds pretty amicable to me and not like a performance related sacking at all, he hasn't been Whitmarshed.
I think he's been moved to a corner office to save face, it's a culture thing, a Japanese 'Whitmarshing'.
Tech analysis: The big trends of F1 2016 http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/tech-analysis-the-big-trends-of-f1-2016-675335/ Interesting read
They say stable regs reduce costs. They don't, they just force teams to spend millions developing meaningless **** like this: please log in to view this image
Reports floating around that sauber were unable to pay their 300 staff in February. The magical rounderbout of no money swings round to Saubers front door.
Such a shame that the sport has come to this - I know teams have always come and gone but we really need to have a structure in place that works for all.
Well. Distributing the revenue more fairly would be a start! You are right- it's a real shame to see.
Renault. please log in to view this image Of all the dark liveried teams theirs was by far the nicest. Looking forward to the nice yellow number they're going to unveil. I'd like it if it looked like this again, but with the engine cover black like it is now. please log in to view this image