Did he write that article in his sleep and without having watched most of the F1 season? What a load of ****e.
Irony, the forum is been busier now the season is over than it was for the second half of this season... #damnyouvettel!
That's how happy we are that the season is over! We now have 3 months of Forza v Silver and the mysterious feather-light Ferrari engine saga
Hamilton has said a few times this year he has struggled with the nature of the Mercedes because he is not used to it and this was a particular problem in the wet. Now that they are in the off season can't he and the team take a 2 year old car to the nearest track set up some sprinklers to get the track wet and rack up a load of mileage? Can't hurt surely?
Some are fair enough, other's just seem to be for the sake of creating argument. There's definitely a thread to come out of that though!
Thats what I would have thought. But they keep saying that he was very used to the McLaren which I find to be strange phrasing. The McLaren. He drove in 6 different McLarens and McLaren don't seem to like evolving cars, they start with a brand new one each year. So surely the charecsteristics would be very different and he would have had the same problems that he had getting used to the Mercedes? But that was never an issue. Which indicates each team has a certain process philosophy, a certain system to do things, that always tends to make their cars have similar charecsteristics to previous years and the more time you spend in one, that will have a positive effect on the next? Which would make a wet tyres test be of value to Hamilton in 2014?
Each new McLaren, whether revolutionary or evolutionary, would have been designed with his needs and preferences factored in. This last year's Mercedes was, of course, designed for Rosberg and Schumacher. Add to this that Rosberg would be very well accustomed to any quirks in the cars Mercedes tend to produce; same goes for Lewis at McLaren but not yet at Mercedes.
Evidence that Caterham may have been running a FRIC system last season: please log in to view this image
Ferraris horse whisper column has been moaning about stories it spends the most in F1, with the end result being third in the Championship. The story from Autosport had these figures for 2013: Ferrari: £250m Red Bull: £235.5m (94.2%) McLaren: £160m (64%) Mercedes: £160m (64%) Lotus: £130m (52%) Force India: £100m (40%) Sauber: £90m (36%) STR: £70m (28%) Williams: £90m (36%) Caterham: £65m (26%) Marussia: £51m (20.4%)
I chose £150m because it still allows bigger teams to spend more, but should level up the field at the front
Meanwhile at the Ferrari International As.. I mean FIA F1: Ferrari's Luca Di Montezemolo expects strong changes at FIA - Warning contains Benson Ferrari say they expect "strong changes" at F1's governing body after criticising several recent decisions made by the FIA. Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo condemned penalties given to his driver Felipe Massa and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in the Brazilian Grand Prix. And criticised a lack of punishment for Mercedes for an illegal test in May. He said: "I expect strong changes. For too many years the FIA has always been the same and a change is required." Montezemolo, speaking in a wide-ranging interview with Italy's RAI television channel, described the decision to give Massa and Hamilton drive-through penalties in Brazil as "disproportionate and unjust". Montezemolo said: "Every so often, the gentlemen who come to the races to act as stewards make decisions that are a bit ridiculous and anachronistic. "One needs to be careful that we maintain credibility, for the work of the teams that invest money and for the drivers who risk their lives." The comments imply that Montezemolo believes there is an argument for F1 to use permanent stewards, rather than rotate them for each race, to ensure consistency of decision-making. Di Montezemolo, a powerful man within F1 because the sport's structures guarantee Ferrari a major say in decision-making, was careful to emphasise that he was making his remarks in a spirit of collaboration. "A strong sporting authority is always a priority for Ferrari," he said. He described the decision of the FIA Court of Appeal to give Mercedes only a reprimand for organising a three-day, 1,000km tyre test between the Spanish and Monaco races as "a bit strange and [it] incurrent a punishment that, to say the least, had a touch of Pontius Pilate about it". The Pilate remark means Di Montezemolo feels the FIA was effectively washing its hands of the affair in its judgement.
