F1Today are almost a parody of journalism. http://www.f1today.net/en/news/vettel-denies-ferrari-move-rumours
Ferrari has shifted its focus to next year's car and is bringing 2015 components to the F14 T at races in order to "track test" new ideas. Ferrari has suffered a disappointing year after Mercedes stole a march on the rest of the field. At the Italian Grand Prix the team slipped to fourth in the constructors' championship and with six races to go development is now angled more towards 2015. "At this stage of the season, the focus in the factory is shifting more towards next year's car," engineering director Pat Fry said. "However, there is still quite a lot we can learn from track testing, therefore we will be bringing some specific test components for next year and other developments for the F14 T, which will help our understanding for next year." After Ferrari's weaknesses were exposed at the high-speed Monza, Formula One arrives at a very different circuit this weekend in Singapore. "After the two races in Spa and Monza, run on low downforce circuits, we now go to Singapore which is at completely the other end of the spectrum," explains Fry. "It's a street circuit requiring very high downforce, where we will be running the soft and supersoft tyres on a track with similar characteristics to Monaco. There are hardly any high speed corners and only two turns that have combined lateral and longitudinal acceleration and therefore the challenge is more about straight line acceleration and good traction. "Monza was a tough weekend for us, so now we are regrouping and we will keep pushing forward, concentrating on getting the best out of the package we've got. Even though it's a night race, the temperatures are still very high, in the high 20s or low 30s, which puts heavy demands on the cooling systems for the engine and the ERS. In addition, the start-stop nature of the layout puts a high loading on the brake systems, with the front brakes in particular taking a real pounding." Read more at http://en.espnf1.com/ferrari/motorsport/story/175475.html#SLkciTMdbx7XIqT1.99
This doesn't exactly bode well for attracting your star driver lineup! McLaren chief Ron Dennis says it may not be until the end of next year for his team to be able to judge whether its restructuring has been good enough. With an overhaul of its design staff nearing completion - following the arrival this week of Peter Prodromou as chief engineer - hopes are high that McLaren is putting in place what it needs to get back to winning ways. Dennis, who has worked closely with racing director Eric Boullier to bring about changes at McLaren, says that the fact the team is altering things quietly behind the scenes may not deliver a headline grabbing impression of a revolution. However, he is clear that things have changed a lot - but accepts it may take time for the results to show. "There will be more changes over the next three months, but primarily to basically make sure the machine works properly," said Dennis, when asked about his feelings on the new structure in place at the team. "When you bring people together you bring their personalities together, and that doesn't come out for a month or two. Then you've got to shape everything to make sure it all works smoothly. "When a new huge sponsor comes in, for example BAT, the first thing they do is build new motorhomes and build new trucks. They come like a big new circus and boom! But they find the results are a little bit more hard to come by. "The inevitability is you want to look different but actually that's not where you've got to start. All of how we look and what we do will come later - it's a complete change and it will just take time. "Race results of course, as ever, will be measured every two weeks, but really I want the company to be measured in a year or two when everything has fallen into place."
Some moron handed Bernie a microphone. In one of his brief moments of lucidity, he revealed that we will find out soon about the plans for three-car teams and, hilariously, that double points could end up dropped as early as next year! http://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...4-car-grid-eight-teams-formula-one?CMP=twt_gu (posted here because it combines both the three-car teams and double points, and it seems disingenuous to post it in only one thread) EDIT: Hey, Bernie, if we have your attention, declare double points retroactively invalid, it saves someone else doing it in future.
What a joke. For a start a 8 team grid won't be viable as long as we have more than 8 teams. I can see caterham and marussia are being squeezed financially by Bernie but what about the 2 new teams who have an agreement?
More and more I have the feeling that Bernie is going to do a Fergie, leaving the sport in disarray when he finally retires and giving the impression that only He was ever capable of making F1 a success. I really don't want to diminish his past achievements but his actions are becoming ever more twisted and detrimental to Formula One.
So, to get it out of the way: Three cars needs the approval of all the teams. Can't see Force India or Williams agreeing to it, can't see a way in which Caterham and Marussia could merge with an existing team at such short notice. Moving on. It occurs to me that the true genius of Bernie's role in F1 is as a controversy magnet, because if everyone's attention is focussed on him then no-one's going to question the role of CVC as a corporate entity. As for the "succession question", it'll be someone with links to the teams again you'd think, the teams would not be happy about having someone foist on them from outside the sport. Montezemelo, Horner, Ron, Whitmarsh... someone who can reasonably claim to be in touch with the business side of things and mitigate the teams' concerns. I think when Bernie goes there'll be an almighty power struggle, possibly another breakaway series. If there hasn't been already.
His achievements are bringing vasts amounts of money in to the sport and keeping it for himself IMO. His achievements are making himself very wealthy and leaving a lot of teams and tracks broke. Just a leach that has people fooled in to thinking he's done great things for the sport as far as I'm concerned.
Fair enough! I agree that this has been the case for many years now and I think TomTom made a very good point about him taking the flak and providing cover for CVC too - who the hell are they, FFS?! But greed breeds greater greed and it appears to be highly addictive. He's a con man par excellence, certainly, and he's never shaken off the air of a dodgy used-car salesman to my eyes. I just didn't want to indulge in blind Bernie-bashing for the sake of it; I don't like the man or his modus operandi but he has been phenomenal, particularly if I think back to the tin-pot and lethal nature of F1 back when I was a kid. Although his greed has caused all but the richest teams to suffer in recent times, not to mention those countries and tracks that have been fleeced also, he wasn't always quite such a malignant vampire on the sport and he did a lot to help grow it into a more professionally organised, global sport back in the day, with all its attendant benefits, both financial and in terms of providing employment and enabling technological development - or was it just moving with the changing times that did that? Let's just say, to quote his own words, "He was a man who knew how to get things done". Of course, if there were any justice, he should have gone years ago but, and this brings me back to my original point, he has spun an intricately tangled web and made himself indispensable; and that's why he's still here.
Rumour mill says Mclaren will announce their driver line-up after Suzuka, and it is between Alonso and Button. Current estimates say Alonso will cost $30m to buy out of his contract plus whatever they have to offer him in salary, but Honda are prepared to do so.
Mclaren have lost their £155m sponsorship deal with Johnnie Walker...to Bernie Ecclestone. Will Bernie stop at nothing to make money? Increasing the financial hardship teams face is hardly going to help their competitiveness, or the precious TV product. Johnnie Walker is now the official whisky of F1. Because nothing says drive safely like strong alcohol.
Don't give Pastor any ideas.... Have a sneaking suspicion Alonso is off to McLaren. Definite attitude shift this weekend with the team, angry at leaks within the team, threatening to out people in the team, his manager seen fighting with Ferrari press officer etc etc. McLaren definitely holding off due to "something". I don't for a second believe it is to wait and see what happens, they KNOW something is happening. They already know what both drivers they have are capable of and are still in no rush. Something big is afoot for next year. If it was for 2016, they'd have at least 1 driver tied down on a 1 year extension. Another sign of this was Vettel, another attitude change with the team, seems fed up and has said a lot less committed things about his future than he has ever done before. Bit strange both seem very unsettled in similar ways the same weekend. Suggests to me either they've pinched Vettel or Vettel is heading in to Ferrari for Alonso's seat. Surely not both to McLaren....surely...... Alonso one way, Vettel the other makes sense. Might be able to read into the sponsorship situation too, McLaren loose Johnny Walker, wonder if Santander will follow their man Alonso to McLaren (if he goes). Honda seem pretty keen to get at least one superstar driver so can't rule out them buying out Alonso's contract then Ferrari doing similar for Vettel with the Alonso money. Honda seem to want an announcement at Suzuka. Going to be a very interesting weekend i think
