Yes, I'd agree with you that they are two separate points. However no manufacturer is duty bound to supply a team if they don't want to, especially one that has gone out of its way to stir up as much problems for them, whether deserved or not. Lotus' situation is different as it seems to be all down to finances, I wonder whether RBR had an idea about this early on and thought they could just walk into a Merc contract? What would the board think, however, if RBR became RBM and then walked next years championship in the same way that they did with Renault in the latter years of the V8 era? The best way to close the field up is to keep the rules consistent. Merc aren't as far ahead as they were last year and I would expect the gap to be even closer again next year to the point Ferrari, provided they don't produce a complete lemon, should be able to challenge them regularly. If Williams had more money then I would expect them to be further up, but as their budget is much lower then they are hamstrung by this. The only way to truly sort this out is to ban 'works' teams, so therefore each engine manufacturer would be willing to supply who they thought was the best team. Avoids a conflict of interest that is clearly the issue with Merc and Ferrari not wanting to supply current spec engines to RBR. Would never work though as it would mean Ferrari not being able to enter (though doubtless they could get an exemption).
I disagree, Ferrari are closer than they were last year but I'd say Mercedes dominance over the second best team (which last year was Red Bull and Williams) is just as great as it was. OK Ferrari have taken two legitimate victories on pure performance, but on average they've been over half a second behind Mercedes. In the last two Russian GPs, Bottas has qualified 3rd behind an all-Mercedes front row, the gap was double this year what it was last.
It should be simple really- if you don't want to give teams equal engines to yourselves, then don't sell customer engines. They have had all the advantages of data gathering from their multiple customer teams that the likes of Honda haven't really had, so the penalty should be that they have given those customer teams engine parity.
Nothing stopping Honda from supplying other teams, it was theirs and McLaren's choice not to. Renault have had the benefit of 3 teams and still haven't made it work, so data sharing argument doesn't work that well. By and large all teams do get roughly the same spec engine, it's only Mercs last upgrade they couldn't give to give to all teams, but before then I'm not aware of any disparity with the specs, same with Ferrari (exclude Manor as that was a special deal for 2014 engines).
James Allen described Red Bull's engine saga as being like jumping out of a plane and trying to buy a parachute on the way down.
Lotus F1 Team @Lotus_F1Team 33s34 seconds ago Jolyon Palmer announced as race driver for 2016: http://bit.ly/1MaYhN1 Jolyon Palmer please log in to view this image
How much money is he offering? They couldn't have signed a worse driver if they tried (barring Carmen Jorda)
I actually liked the look of Palmer from his GP2 days. Good luck to the chap. Struck me as a smooth racer rather than a one-lap speedster- a Button mould kind of guy.
It's an OK line up for Lotus, given that they're being run with a budget of whatever they can find behind the sofa. There are worse pay drivers, but it would be a pretty dire lineup for a works Renault team. Palmer may have won GP2, but he's of the "i had enough money to hang around for several years then win with experience" breed of "champion", much like his teammate. With the likes of Magnussen, Vandoorne and Vergne on the market money can be the only reason.
Precisely, it wasn't like he won GP2, it's more the other drivers lost it and he just finished in average positions! Practice sessions shows he's no quicker than Maldonado and unless he's now got a huge amount of backing, Vergne and Magnussen would be a much better option.
Another diresta? In years he hasn't run in cars or series owned by his dad he has been terrible. I was trying to find a 'beating Vettel in f3' scenario
He beat Nasr, suprised he didn't get the 5th seat at Sauber Joking aside though, whilst there is better potential available at the moment, there countless far worse drivers.
He was by far the best driver in GP2 the year he won it. He's not a major talent, but he'll be a safe pair of hands, no worse than the drivers Sauber have and probably better than Maldonado, who's another who won GP2 through experience rather than raw talent. Shame that there are better drivers being kept off the grid but Palmer's not the only one doing it and he certainly won't be the worst driver on the grid. The worst thing about this for me is that it's starting to unlikely that Renault will buy out Lotus.
