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Previously on TJ13:
#F1 Forensics: Williams chases less than perfect Mercedes
OTD Lite: 1949 – Birth of a gentleman driver – Patrick Tambay
Gandalf Wolff – One PU to rule them all, one PU that binds them
Horner backs embattled Vettel to ‘come back’ (GMM)
Horner denies RBR to build engines (GMM)
Engine re-equalisation imminent
OTD Lite: 1949 – Birth of a gentleman driver – Patrick Tambay
Today marks the 65th birthday of one of the true gentlemen of our sport. A Parisian by birth Tambay ascended the traditional French motor-sport ladder until making his Grand Prix debut in 1977 whilst in the process of winning the Can-Am championship with Carl Haas. A few outings with the Ensign team would lead to a full drive with the Mclaren team who had mysteriously allowed Gilles Villeneuve out of their clutches.
Fed up of the teams poor performances he returned to Can-Am and duly won his second title before being enticed back by Theodore and Ligier for the 1981 season. A close friend of Villeneuve – he confessed to a lot of soul searching when Ferrari offered him the number 27 seat after the Canadian’s death and in his 4th race for the team carried the squad to victory after Pironi’s dreadful accident.
In 1983 at Imola – starting 3rd on the grid as Villeneuve had the year before – Tambay took an emotional victory in front of the tifosi claiming that Gilles had been with him throughout. Released by Ferrari for 1984, he soldiered on with Renault for two seasons before rejoining Carl Haas in the Beatrice-Lola F1 team before retiring from F1 for good.
Gandalf Wolff – One PU to rule them all, one PU that binds them
The Red Bull Ring is made up of 3 long straights. Of course there exists corners to tie these all together but what was critical for the Mercedes powered teams, and Mclaren, was that with heavy breaking followed by a sustained period of acceleration, this circuit was tailor-made for the Mercedes Power Unit.
With seven of the top ten finishers powered by the German powerhouse it’s not surprising that the advantages of this unit were highlighted but news has emerged that Williams may have thrown the opportunity of a win thanks to what would appear a conflict of interests.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff still owns a 10% share of the Williams F1 team and his wife Susie is getting seat time at the Grove team. What’s the big deal? It would seem that Wolff was the main man behind securing Williams a supply of the Mercedes PU106 engine but perhaps more significantly, Pat Symonds and his design team have been furnished with recommendations of how to exploit the power unit best.
These include the fact that Williams has also placed selected pieces of the power unit into the chassis ‘a la Mercedes’ an idea which cannot be copied by other teams without huge expense.
In 2013 Williams were barely better than either Marussia or Caterham and finished the season with five points to their tally and 9th in the Constructors title. All this whilst running the dominant V8 Renault engine.
Symonds arrival brought about changes with the coanda exhaust system which was thrown away completely and suddenly Williams moved forwards. Barely eight months later and Williams are challenging for race wins – or they would be if Mercedes allowed them to.
According to Omnicorse, Williams is not allowed to challenge the Mercedes team, even when the FW36 can keep up with the Silver Arrows, which some believe partially explains why Williams did not react to the earlier Mercedes stops which gave them the crucial undercut?
If this is true, it’s a tragedy that Frank Williams has been reduced to a support act in his battle to survive in Formula One; this was the man who told Honda where to go when they wanted Saturo Nakajima to drive for the team in 1986, or when BMW were looking to buy a significant stake in the early 21st century – Frank made his intentions clear there would be no sale.
So is Toto partial to a bit of ‘match fixing’? Wolff has spoken publicly about being nervous when his drivers are racing – whereas Lauda embraces the battle. That said, it’s not a bridge too far to believe Toto is controlling – or at least attempting to control – the antics of Mercedes competition too.
Horner backs embattled Vettel to ‘come back’ (GMM)
Christian Horner has backed Sebastian Vettel, amid suggestions the four time world champion could be losing the support of the Red Bull team. Typically-forthright 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve this week said he thinks that, amid Vettel’s struggle to keep up with new teammate Daniel Ricciardo this year, “Red Bull is treating him like they treated Mark Webber. Now they want to ‘kill’ Sebastian because he’s not right for the Red Bull image,” said the French Canadian, amid rumours McLaren has made an early approach to Vettel.
But Red Bull boss Horner has tipped the team’s reigning four-time world champion to bounce back, essentially blaming the bulk of the 26-year-old’s struggles on “bad luck”. “Sebastian has had an incredible amount of bad luck this year,” he told the Austrian broadcaster Servus TV. “Three times he’s failed to finish but he’s had many more technical problems than that.” Despite Vettel’s struggle simply for a functioning car, Horner says the German is dealing with the situation “incredibly well“.
“Many other drivers would have their heads down, their motivation would be gone. Not him. He works harder and pushes the team even more,” he added. “When the tide turns, the results will come back,” said Horner.
According to F1 legend Niki Lauda, however, a major element to the Red Bull situation in 2014 has been Daniel Ricciardo, who surprised the entire paddock with his rapid rise among the very best drivers in formula one today. “He is a massive talent that has reached a very high level in a very short period of time,” said the triple world champion, who is Red Bull rival Mercedes’ team chairman. “He has everything it takes to be a world champion in the future,” added Lauda.
FP1 and FP2 safe
Midfield F1 teams do not develop young drivers because they believe it to be a necessary part of their ongoing activities, they do so because it usually raises some cash
Nico Hulkenberg will sit out FP1 at the British GP as Dani Juncadella will make his F1 debut for Force India.
Juncadella has already gained some track time in an F1 car during pre-season testing in Jerez and also at the in season test following the Barcelona GP.
Yet for a driver there is something extra special about taking part in an F1 weekend. “I am delighted and ready and I’d like to thank Sahara Force India for this opportunity,” Juncadella said. “This will be the first time I take part in an official Grand Prix weekend session, so it will be a very special day for me – I’ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time and it goes to show that hard work and determination can get you there!
This is also the team’s local race, which makes a day I will never forget even more special.”
There were suggestions that FP1 be abandoned at F1 events in 2015 to cut costs, yet this was a pernicious suggestion from an unsurprising source, designed to embarrass somehow the smaller teams for whom incremental track running is usually undesirable.
Thankfully, it appears FP1 and FP2 will be retained for 2015, though the timing and length of the sessions may be affected.
Horner denies RBR to build engines
Christian Horner has added his denial to reports Red Bull could end its F1 engine crisis by building its own turbo V6.
Amid the reigning world champions’ obvious frustration with Renault in 2014, the story of a ‘Red Bull engine’ intensified when Dr Helmut Marko admitted last week that it was a possibility.
But team owner Dietrich Mateschitz this week issued a clear denial.
Boss Horner now follows suit.
“Red Bull is a chassis manufacturer and we have no ambition to become an engine manufacturer,” he told the Austrian broadcaster Servus TV.
However, the rumours are not likely to stop there. Despite Red Bull’s 2016 contract, the team is not committing to running French power beyond next year.
And off the back of the very latest reports that Renault could sell its F1 facility at Viry and pull out of the sport, the new rumour is that Lotus could be considering a switch to Mercedes power for 2015.
For his part, Horner said Red Bull is pressing ahead with Renault for now.
“We have had meetings to discuss what needs to happen. At the moment there is a big difference — Mercedes have done a great job,” he said.
He said the basic problem is the interaction between Renault’s combustion engine and the energy recovery systems.
“It is not working harmoniously,” said Horner. “The fact is that it is not easy to recognise any progress.
Engine re-equalisation imminent
Scenario. Renault withdraw from F1, fire sale their Viry engine production facility assets to ‘A.N. OTHER’. ‘A.N. OTHER’ then ‘designs’ a ‘new’ F1 engine, and enters it under the name ‘A.N. OTHER’ in 2016.
It didn’t take long for the…. ‘Renault engine production facility for sale’ rumour to morph into something akin to the scenario above.
Adam Cooper speculates today. “It’s worth noting that Dr Marko has been spending a lot of time at Viry recently. The suggestion is that Caterham boss Cyril Abiteboul, respected by Red Bull and previously a leading light at Viry as Deputy Managing Director of Renault Sport F1, might return to oversee any restructuring”.
‘Restructuring’?
The advantage of the above scenario is that the strict engine design restrictions currently facing Renault would be removed. The FIA homologation regulations do not provide protection from the transfer of engine design and development intellectual property by a third party.
Cooper continues, “A brand new power unit – perhaps badged as a Red Bull or Infiniti – could then be homologated for 2016. In theory it would be several steps ahead of what the regulations would allow Renault to update should the company simply continue with the current unit.
This new engine would not be designed by the team that produced the current Renault, but will instead be a product of the new Red Bull technology centre, which will be overseen by Adrian Newey. His old pal and Ilmor founder Mario Ilien is expected be part of the process, and it won’t be hard to draw on ex-Mercedes/Cosworth personnel in the Milton Keynes/Northampton area”.
Despite Christian Horner’s rejection of the idea that Red Bull are likely to build their own engine, this does not preclude the possibility of someone else building an engine ‘on their behalf’.
Ferrari and Mercedes will be furious should something along the lines of our scenario occur, but the FIA is powerless to prevent it.
Yet we’ve been here before.
The V8 engines were introduced during 2006, however, having been allowed to develop the engines throughout the year the various manufacturer’s specifications were frozen for 2007 to keep development costs down. The engine designs used in the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix were those to be used for the 2007 and 2008 seasons, but were limited to 19,000 rpm.
Over that time, it was believed that Ferrari and Mercedes exploited cleverly the regulations allowing design changes to improve reliability, to also deliver boosted engine power output as a side effect.
Renault complained, so the FIA agreed to allow Renault to re-tune its engine in 2008 to help bring its performance up to the level of its rivals.
Renault were still down on power, so again in 2009, they requested another opportunity to ‘equalise’ the power of their engine.
Christian Horner was outspoken in Monza. “The FIA has all the information they can see where the differences are on, I don’t think it is a coincidence that you have three Mercedes-powered teams that dominated six out of the top seven places in qualifying and looked dominant again here in the race today.
So, the FIA I am sure, they have all that information to hand, but it is always the danger of a freeze that you can freeze in a competitive advantage.”
This time the FIA weren’t playing ball. In a statement issued after the FIA World Motor Sport Council hearing on Monday, the governing body said: “Following suggestions that there is a differential between the performance of engines used in Formula 1, the World Motor Sport Council has decided that should this be the case, and should the teams wish to eliminate this performance differential, they may be allowed to do so by reducing the performance of the more powerful engines. However, no engine upgrades will be allowed.”
History appears to be repeating itself as a disappointed Horner commented following the Austrian GP, “Seven cars in the top ten have a Mercedes engine. That says it all,”
The likely source behind the ‘Renault engine plant for sale’ stories, is in fact Renault. And this is the first steps in a lobbying process which will begin to pressurise the FIA to allow the French engine manufacturer to make incremental power plant modifications over and above those regulated for – in an attempt to again ‘equalise’ the F1 engines…. as happened during the V8 era.
Ecclestone boot boys?
Much has been said and written over the years about F1’s self styled supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, yet in Munich this yesterday, Gerhard Gribkowsky revealed he believed there was a sinister side to the Formula 1 boss.
Documents revealed Gribkowsky asked his secretary to contact the head of German intelligence agency, BND, following suspicious sightings of individuals following him and mysterious knocks at the door.
The ex German banker claims all this occurred during a time when Ecclestone was pressurising him to use his influence with the German bank Bayern LB, to act as Ecclestone instructed.
A witness close to Gribkowsky told the Munich court, “I thought it was strange that he [Gribkowsky] talked about it [the alleged Ecclestone threat] so often.”
Bernie and boot boys? Not a story published before to this author’s recollection.
Whilst only having to attend court 2 days a week may have seemed a good wheeze at the time to Bernie and his lawyers, the elongated nature of this trial is doing nothing to improve either his or Formula 1’s image.
I was surprised when Williams, didn’t use one of their cars to back the Mercedes up, whilst the other scampered off for the win, seemed like a slam dunk to me.
What you’re saying makes a lot of sense, and explains why they didn’t challenge. My only thought is, isn’t this equivalent to match fixing? One thing for team mates not to challenge each other, quite another if teams can’t.
….Ferrari been at it for years……
as have Williams, Mclaren and many other British teams against Johnny Foreigner… tally ho judge 😉
…sorry…. Murray Walker’s commentary conspiracy theories are deeply embedded in my pysche from a young age 😉
Apropos from my twitter feed http://mentalfloss.com/article/57466/disgrace-gijon-most-controversial-match-world-cup-history
It’s not just F1…..
Italy vs. South Korea… in Korea 2002. Belgium goal disallowed in the same WC…. there are too many to name!
Also, it’s quite funny how OTT everyone is going on Suarez. It’s just a bit of gamesmanship.. did no one notice the big shiner he now has on his right cheekbone? Suarez and Chiellini also have previous from last year’s confederations cup.
I wonder what he did to achieve that, because its clear from the video footage that Chiellini never touched him. Also Suarez was pretending he had been hit in the mouth immediately after the incident. Suarez should be banned from ever playing professional football again, after all, this is his 3rd nibble on someone.
maybe his missus gave him a slap for being out of order – AGAIN
True, I assume it was from another part of the game. I imagine that with their previous this is probably connected to that as well. But I do find it melodramatic.. a life ban.. 3x and you are out.. is that not equivalent to the ‘3x caught with a pinch of marijuana and you have a life sentence’? In another era, that could have been alcohol..
Also, given the amount of ridiculous refereeing decisions (not their fault, it’s hard to decide ASAP. Technology could help them, like the eventual take up of goal-line technology after Germany got their payback on England last time) for such huge amounts of money, and the amount of fraud and match fixing that goes on at FIFA..
I’d say we have more problems than a little gamesmanship from a player. We have players diving at every chance and careers ended by shocking tackles, but no bans for those players.. I’d rather FIFA were heavy handed on racism punishments personally. This one just embarrassed them at their favourite tournament, so they decided to act.
Idle question – would it surprise or worry us if Toro Rosso failed to challenge Red Bull for a race win in a similar position. If not, is this alleged Williams/Mercedes situation any different?
Well there had to be a reason why Williams did not use at least one of their leading cars to cover Rosberg and try to win the Austrian race. But if this is the actual reason then my interest in Formula 1 just took a major hit. There had better be some investigation into these allegations.
…. Having cocked it up time and time again, Williams set out to be cautious and ensure they got 27 points…. They didn’t believe a fully fit Merc was beatable.
Then they didn’t realise Merc had problems otherwise they may have been more aggressive. That said, Massa was also in trouble last 10 laps and just brought the car home if you listen to Smedley’s slow down lap message.
How is it still possible for Toto to own shares in the Williams team whilst he’s in charge at Mercedes a direct competitor? There’s clearly a conflict of interest with this setup. Because the better williams does on the track, the more valuable his 10% stake becomes, so obviously he will do whatever is necessary to see them succeed. Why weren’t Force India offered the same information as Williams?
I’m sorry, but this stinks and should not be allowed. But saying that, this is F1 a sport that’s being run by Mr E.
….because the rules allow it. Blame the FIA for not regulating re corporate governance….
Yet again the FIA and common sense just doesn’t seem to go together.
One might also argue that one individual owning almost 20% of the teams plus more than 5% of the races might give rise to undue influence over what should be a level playing field sporting endeavour.
Influence that gets your name on the screen towards the end of the race, for example.
And yet the IOC have approved the FIA’s governance. “Bull” one might say…
It’s certainly interesting in that since his arrival, who would have predicted a Mercedes 1-4, with the 3-4 being Williams? A few years ago when he joined F1, that seemed like a long way off…
I find it so frustrating that this is “acceptable” because it is not Ferrari involved.
Over the years there have been many occasions when Ferrari has been challenged by Sauber, Malaysia 2012 for eg. The media attacked both Sauber and Ferrari for what they deemed fixing a result, yet later in the year, when Alonso was fighting for the WDC Perez sailed by at Monza to secure 2nd place – taking valuable points from Ferrari. No mention made of the race-fixing allegations from earlier in the year.
Perhaps the one that makes me angriest was Jerez 1997, when Williams repaid Mclaren’s help in keeping Irvine at bay where he couldn’t support Schumi as they fought for the title.
Williams instructed their drivers to let Mclaren past and DC was then told to let Hakkinen past. What a joke!!
“Perez sailed by at Monza to secure 2nd place”
Much the same thing happened in Canada that year when Perez on a different tyre strategy overtook Alonso and then went on to take third. Perez didn’t sit behind the Ferrari so Alonso could score more points – and that’s the way it should be.
True.. those 6 points could have won Alonso the title at the end of 2012 as well, unless I’m getting mixed up with 2010. But what strikes me as similar to Jerez 1997 was the closing up of the field at the end, after problems for the leading duo, same in Canada.
This battle for the win, with any one of 6 cars or more with a chance really spices things up… so much so, that such a blatant fix seemed to be accepted in 1997 (in a case of ‘everybody wins’, race and title). They even showed the team members running down the pit lane to get the communications across!!! Considering Villeneuve’s car was stricken, I thought they did well to manage it and not drop like a stone….
Conclusion: F1 ’95 style fun races, where anyone can win, and the field closes back up from halfway onwards…. now, can we control the pace of cars? We do have a stock ECU in all cars… hmm… don’t tell Bernie this!
How this would work…. each lap (or possibly to half way), you get credits for your position (1-22).. in the second half (or possibly all race) you can discharge this as increased ERS output (above 4MJ), thus giving a boost in power to those behind later on, as they would have built up ‘more boost’..
Ergo, near the end of the race, we have an almighty scrap for the win on overtaking friendly tracks, with some guys going for track position, others boost amount, others a middle ground… a bit like tyre strategy now, but with engine power added in in an artificial way to ‘spice up the racing’ and help overtaking…
PS. if not by position, perhaps by ‘the amount of draft’ generated by following in another car’s wake.. would that be better than DRS? I.e. the fuel you save following can be deployed with more power…. I guess strictly that’s just like engine mapping that gets done now.
But perhaps something can be worked out, for when people are stuck behind and can’t get past, to gradually boost ERS amount by how much extra fuel they’ve saved and can’t dump by race end, to make 100kg, if that happens.
@ f1esty
*** FOUND OUT ***
you’re the one at the FIA that came up with DRS and Double Points for the last race
aren’t you ?
Heh, expect my idea to appear in the 2015 F1 regs… 😉
Speaking of ECU seeing unconfirmed reports that it was an ECU bug that cost Red Bull, not Renault.
Whoops… Mebe them RB wizards had too much (or not enough) Red Bull while coding 😛
Something had to go belly up in one of them sometime.
FUCK: shitty day.
Stacked my bike today on a joy ride. Back street, no one on the road, hit the gas hard out of a slow second gear corner i take everyday. Like normal. Little power slide, like normal. Getting the bike upright.
Then a classic noob low side!!! Slow as you like. Saw it all in slow mo. Laid it down. Slid on my fat dumb ass. Nothing hurt, I wear everything one can. But my beautiful fairing and exhaust ripped to shreds, sliding away in front of me.
Picked it up, restarted it, ride to bike shop. They knew straight away. Wife picked me up. Took day off.
Lesson of the story? No it’s not go slower. It’s warm the front better when only 5min out if garage!
Well glad the damage was to the bike and not to the body mate.
Thanks Fortis. At the time I was very much like, “damn, I wish it was me and not the bike. I wish I stayed under it. Save the termi’s.”
But it’s just money. My ankle is rooted though, didn’t realise yesterday. Bit ‘clicky’.
Maybe get some tyre blankets, would be a shame to loose the best user name on the site over cold tyres. They weren’t Pirelli by any chance?
I’m sure you can get some Caterham blankets at ebay after the end of the season, they won’t be needing them…
Nah, I’m a Michelin man, (not literally).
Hah, thanks for the user name props. Yeah I like it too!
Happens to the best of us… Hamilton was on for pole by 3 tenths and an easy win, with his team-mate stuck behind the Williams, but binned it at T8..
Well let’s see, there was the time I was in 6th in the district crit, having been gapped off the leading break by my teammate ( he was nice but I never forgave him) into the penultimate turn at 40ish kph and the next thing I know I’m lying on the pavement hoping to not get run over. Or there was the time I ran into the back of the parked car because something felt odd with the rear wheel and I was try to sort it while rolling at a slow speed. LOL just remembered getting my hand stuck trying to clear glass off the rear tyre, that was fun.
But the worst was just making a simple lefthander in the rain at a slow pace and the wheels just went. Scared me silly and I never entirely recovered my confidence for commuting after that. Happens indeed.
That on a bicycle? I do have a lot of respect for cyclists on the road.. in the UK, it’s very dangerous indeed to cycle on the roads here. We are woefully behind in cycling provision. I just saw that we now have some ‘city bikes for hire’ in Liverpool yesterday..
Yes indeed, on a bicycle. Though the first was a racing incident the rest were just riding about town.
They have been making a notable effort here in NYC and it’s to the point I’m considering getting a bike and commuting again after many a year, just to save the money on train fare.
I saw a bicycle delivery film with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in it, and lets say, there were many scrapes along the way. It did a very good job of portraying the guys (and gals) as real life comic superheroes…
The big fear for the FIA in regards to engines is that, with one year of extra development, Honda could could be significantly ahead of everyone else, and 2015 could be a replay of 2014, with one team (McLaren) running away with everything. If that were to happen and with the amount of development allowed being severely restricted, the FIA will be forced to allow more development or face declines in viewer-ship and sponsorship.
The FIA should have allowed full development during 2014 rather than homologating the engines in February, then we might have other teams challenging M-B today. But take heart that while one team runs away with everything, the engines are ” road relevant”.
I sooo hope that you come true and Macca runs away with it next year. And who knows, maybe Lewis would have joined them.
Anyhow, in all seriousness, FIA keep cocking it up, F1 neesd to change its culture. James Allen has an article on a Q&A with Domenicalli and he validly says that F1 needs to engage with young people.
The problem for McLaren now is that even in that situation, I can see Magnussen beating Button! He’d be ahead on points right now if not for his unlucky hitting Kimi incidents… and 3 tenths faster in Q says it all. Kevin has been learning some tracks as he got to them too…
So, another scenario would be K-Mag and Stoffel suddenly at the front… or whichever WDC is brave enough to take a chance on McLaren not producing another dud 13-14 car! Otherwise, another 2nd year champ, or Button winning it somehow after looking decidedly out of the pace this year!
It’s clear that only Jenson’s experience is leading him to better finishes at the moment (when he does, natch), at least to me. Hence the waffling from Macca. They would rather bring in someone new, but Jenson is experienced and consistent enough in races (plus I’m guessing good with the corporate stuff) that they will wait to see how K-Mag shapes up before doing anything.
Indeed… if K-Mag can cut out the little scuffles in the rest of the year (the middle European tracks he should know already) then he could easily be ahead on all counts when contracts are negotiated at Singapore..
I would think the biggest fear for the FIA would be EU intervention in F1 if the midfield teams lead a revolt because the deal to cap costs was reneged on by the strategy group.
In any event at least at would be a different team running away with it next year, rather than the same team 4 years in a row *paging Mr. Hippo* 😀
The problem now is that Bernie has effectively said “Snitch on me and I’ll stop your main cashflow…” i.e. they could go bust before the intervention is done and dusted…
….I think Mr. Hippo’s found a more remote waterhole this year…. along with Sebastian… away from the limelight 😉
*stomping sounds near the gavel man’s office*
*ominous roaring*
Hehe!
*loud bang*
*Elephant gun deployed*
🙂 !!
It is something I commented on a long time ago. Honda would get an extra year of development, without any restrictions, and with the information about how the other powertrains were performing. They should run away with it next year.
Maybe they will be supplying Red Bull too the year after, unless Renault get their act together.
The entry of Honda into the competition next year makes this suggestion even more absurd:
“…should the teams wish to eliminate this performance differential, they may be allowed to do so by reducing the performance of the more powerful engines. However, no engine upgrades will be allowed.”
Either it would hand Honda another manifestly unfair advantage next year – or it would cripple the efforts of a manufacturer the very first season they were enticed back in to the sport.
that was 2009 ……
not 2014/5
Regarding the re-equalising of the engines… even if I am an Alonso fan and would love Ferrari to catch up… go hell with all that did not do the best work.
The only problem with the current engines is that Williams and Force India are not as well regarded as Ferrari and Red Bull. Come on, the best engine is available in no less than 8 cars in the grid: Mercedes, Williams, Force India, Mclaren…
So, there are some teams with a great engine and a great chassis, some teams with a great engine and a not so bad chassis (Williams), some teams with a great engine and a decent chassis (Force India), some teams with a great engine and a lack of chassis, manager, and drivers (Mclaren) and there are teams with a great chassis and a mess of an engine (Red Bull) and there are teams with a great chassis and engine aiming for second best (Ferrari).
That’s enough competition in my opinion. Mercedes did the best work… kudos to them and for the rest of the teams…. more work, better work, or a combination of the two.
Also, this should no be a problem save for the absurd regulations against developing. Freezing engine regulations is utterly nonsense. It is supposed to reduce the cost of being in F1 for smaller teams but in the end, the top teams are spending as much as they want, mostly in aero. If there is a tenth to be gained and there’s the willing to spend the money, nobody will stop a team investing that money in getting that tenth.
At the end of the day, the teams with the biggest budget are on top of the list and the biggest absurdity of all is that there are teams with a huge budget (such as Red Bull or Ferrari) that cannot improve their engines but they can invest as much as they want in aero. Utterly nonsense.
Bring back development, testing, and let the teams compete to build the best car. If a team has not the money to develop as much as others, they will end behind, that’s not much difference, but at least competition would be fair and not only on aero because engine is frozen.
Sorry for the rant.
Or alternatively –
you could freeze aero development too …… ?
I like that idea @Manky maybe there should be aero updates and engine upgrades allowed at say Barcelona, Silverstone, and Singapore only (this is just a rough draft) so all the teams have the same opportunities and time scale to focus on the new packages, obviously the richer teams may end up with a B spec and possibly C and D spec cars with total overhauls at each update point but I think it would definitely set the smaller teams up to atleast annoy the front of the grid and it would mean that any team with an advantage after an update would only keep it for 4 or 5 races then there is a chance for the others to change who has the advantage at the next scheduled update. Plus it would mean that even the big teams had to make sure their new parts work, teams like Ferrari must throw away more than they use due to unsatisfactory results on track, where as teams like Force India and Marussia can’t afford waist so are more careful with how they use their limited resources.
Mr E is the modern day Vito Corleone