Honda and RB could well be one to look out for. Merc probably happy with just FI and Williams. Can't see them giving anything to Caterham or Marussia as probably not worth their effort, unless they think they can have their name up in lights by being the engine that finally gets one of those teams a point!
well Cosworth have already designed an F1 engine, although I imagine unless it has the Mercedes layout, or something even better, it's been thrown in the bin. Would be good to have a few more teams and engine manufacturers, after all ,that is why the rules have changed. Would like to see an RBR/Porsche v McLaren/Honda
so Haas are in, I think they'll do a better job than the last 3 new entrants tbh, they have a good racing pedigree and seem to be hiring the right people to do the right jobs. Is it possible they could coax Ford back? they say they've been talking to Mercedes (no surprise) & Ferrari (do they want to succeed?) but could they go elsewhere? Cosworth have designed an F1 power unit (which is probably being redesigned with more, shall we say 'Germanic influences', as I type). I'm wondering how much can a team test prior to their first season?
Red Bull will stick with Renault I think. The issue is complicated for them by the Infiniti tie up, if they leave Renault they'll lose their title sponsorship and they'll have to start paying for engines, I know they have a big budget but that's a lot of money to say goodbye to. They'll also lose their works status, look at the advantage Mercedes are getting over their customers. Honda are also completely unknown, their engine could be a dog as could Cosworth's. I'm surprised that McLaren want Honda exclusivity for 2015, in that first year you need as many cars gathering data as possible.
Isn't the Infiniti deal ending at the end of this season anyway? Mclaren have also admitted they're deal isn't exclusive with Honda, so someone else could use Honda engines.
I'll predict that the Honda deal will be a huge mistake for McLaren. Have it on good authority that when they were last in F1, they refused to run their engines at anything like full capacity because the company bosses didn't want any images of their engines going bang damaging the brands reputation for reliability. Even though the engine was capable of safely running another 100bhp with very little extra cause for concern, they stuck to the safest most conservative approach and were approx 150bhp down on the most powerful engines at the time. Agree too on the exclusivity factor, first year i believe is exclusive, second year they have to supply to teams if others want them. They are going to be lacking in data from car running, so do we really think they'll be allowed to run at anything like full pelt (and probably going bang) when they've already shown that as a company, they are more focused on the brand than success? Where Lotus are this season performance wise is roughly what i'd expect they'll be like early next season.
Their image was tarnished as they were going too slow, so if that did happen (a big if) then it kinda backfired. The last Honda V6 turbo's dominted the last 3 1/2 years of the old turbo formula, as they did for the first 3 years when turbo's were banned. If you're solely basing your prediction on the last couple of years they were in F1, you need to look back a little further to see just how successful this company was in F1 with Williams and especially McLaren. They will not be holding back as they want to win and McLaren would not want a second-rate engine in their car.
The FIA have confirmed the name of the 2nd possible F1 entry (The Colin Kolles Romanian project).... ready for it... Forza Rossa! Who turn out to be a Romanian Ferrari Importer. so could this be a Ferrari version of Toro Rosso? (AKA a Ferrari B team) or is our friend Forza starting his own F1 team without us
Why do people keep going for Kolles? His record in F1 management is hardly dazzling. Forza should have known better Time to find out what the laws don't explicitly say we can't use. Team Not606 should be using EM generator.
There's a few succesful spare team principals floating around at the moment for them to choose from, plus one more added to that today!
I don't disagree about the slow part, you'd think in a RACING series, you'd rather be quick than slow, but nope. Not Honda's boss. It certainly happened in BAR's last season and the honda earth car season, It's pretty well known. Several Ex BAR and Honda engineers are on record as saying that Honda E.D were being absolutely begged to let them turn the engines up to show what the car can do, Even the Honda engine engineers themselves wanted to do it and were adamant it was safe to do so but the big bosses refused in fear of the engines going bang, believing they still wouldn't be competitive enough and simply not going bang was a better option than still not being that fast and going bang. Then we have people who rebuild old ex f1 cars for private owners coming out and saying that working on that bar and a couple of similar (and later) cars period wise, there's no way on the surface that car should have been as slow as it was unless the story of the internal engine power/reliability war was true. The cars themselves apparently were beautifully engineered, very, very clever and in a few places a little ahead of their time. Absolutely everything, including speed trap figures of the time, suggest the "Leaked" numbers and stories were in fact true. Again, for more evidence, look at Super Aguri... same engines, slowest cars in a straight line. You could argue that was aero... but it's actually pretty rare for the backmarkers on the grid to be consistently 20km/h slower than every other car (hell, generally the backmarkers are fairly quick in a straight line, most of their perfromance is lost in downforce through corners, under braking and therefore not carrying as much speed onto straights... vicious circle) , so that ties in with the Honda engine being massively underpowered and also the BAR being fundamentally decent, lumbered with a terrible (or restricted) engine. For further evidence, look what happened when Honda quit F1.... BAR/Honda ex works (and a few of those "idiots" with the draggy back marking car at Super Aguri) went and bolted in a Mercedes engine into their ex honda, now Brawn GP car... which didn't even fit properly.... and won a world championship. That wasn't an overnight effort, again shows the Old Honda cars were being massively held back for whatever reason Honda's boss was pushing. I agree Honda dominated the old turbo era...but that was over 20 years ago, different people now. All you can judge on is their recent consistent failure/ No matter how it's dressed up, McLaren are gambling big style. It will after all be an engine that nobody else is testing when every other makes (so far) has a years r&d. Hopefully the attitude has changed at Honda and they are back to win, not to show off reliability (a bonus, but not to be the be all and end all)
Haas official name is now Haas formula. seems an odd name.. wheres the 'one'? They have also announced the will be solely sponsored by themselves for the first year to get the maximum exposure of their product into the European market. Also: - they plan to have experience alongside a young American driver. - they are in talks with dallara - they have their HQ in USA but will have a European base in either Germany or Italy depending on which engine partner they go with. (presume Ferrari or Merc or possibly BMW)
Haas could run in a yellow livery http://autoweek.com/article/formula...sidering-yellow-livery-2016-formula-one-debut? The article shows a Jordan, but it makes me think more of ................ please log in to view this image
The Haas F1 car is to be designed by the man Adrian Newey replaced, Rob Taylor. Apparently he went to Mclaren for 2006 but I have no idea when he left them or if he's been employed there up until now.
Haas F1 team makes further key technical personnel signings The new Haas Formula 1 team has secured more key signings - with Ben Agathangelou becoming its new chief aerodynamicist and Dave O'Neill its team manager. Just weeks after AUTOSPORT revealed that former Red Bull man Rob Taylor will be its chief designer, the American based squad run by NASCAR team co-owner Gene Haas (pictured above) has further ramped up its staffing infrastructure. Agathangelou has recently been working at Ferrari on windtunnel development, having previously been head of aerodynamics at Jaguar and Red Bull. He has also worked at Renault, McLaren and Tyrrell. O'Neill was most recently with the Marussia team, having played a key role in setting the squad up from the end of 2009. Haas's new F1 car is progressing well with a 60 per cent scale model already designed. Team principal Gunther Steiner said: "While there is still a lot of work to do, a lot has already been accomplished for Haas F1 Team to be competitive when we join the F1 grid in 2016. "Our technical partnership with Ferrari has allowed us to develop our car and our people at an exceptional pace. "The way we're going about our F1 team is new and different, but it's working. "We're committed to our plan, we're committed to F1 and, most importantly, we're on schedule. "This time next year, our cars will have already been tested and we'll be readying them for Melbourne."
