Red Bull-Renault relationship done and dusted.
Red Bull Racing has begun the process to terminate their relationship with Renault for 2016. The termination without reason clause apparently states that this would cost Red Bull £50m, although the impending Renault acquisition of Lotus will probably mitigate this somewhat.
Whilst the Renault/Red Bull and Renault/Lotus deals are not directly linked, there are complex implications for Renault and managing the negotiations with both parties will be a time consuming and detailed process.
Renault have also said if they continue in Formula One, they will not supply customer engines – which leaves Toro Rosso with some work to do – and the FIA may need to re-regulate the four engine customer maximum rule.
All this of course leaves Red Bull Racing without a Power Unit for 2016, though as TJ13 reported last month, Mercedes are said to be sympathetic to a one year deal with Milton Keynes, whilst the Red Bull institution continues its plans to become a true ‘works’ outfit. Access to the engine would be severely restricted as it was for McLaren in 2014.
The Infiniti brand as title sponsor of the Red Bull Racing team is also a cause for Mercedes concern.
However, Renault ditching Toro Rosso as an engine customer could just be a ploy to offer Mercedes an alternative to Red Bull Racing as a replacement customer for Lotus.
Of course, Ferrari have kindly offered Red Bull Racing an engine relationship with Maranello. Their chairman and FCA supremo – Sergio Marchione – already proclaimed earlier in the season that Ferrari would “talk to everybody, with serious interest’.
Today in London, Judge Birss will hear evidence and make a decision on whether the Enstone Team should be placed into administration. Should this happen, a deal between Renault and Lotus may well be expedited over the next few days as he Genii investors backs will be truly against the wall.
Lewis pulls off a Grand Chalem
Hamilton continues to stamp his number in the record books. This weekend saw him “hit the cycle” in american baseball terms. Fastest Lap in all practice sessions, fastest in all quail sessions, Led all laps of the race, won, and had the fastest single lap.
This is the second time he has done it, with the first being the 2014 Malaysian GP, and puts him in a tie with several of the greats, Fangio, Brabham, and Hakkinen.
Follow this link to the F1 wiki to see a complete list.
Vettel pushes for historic tracks.
Andrew Benson captures another great moment in Vettels ever expanding vocabulary of english curse words:
“If we take this (race) away from the calendar for any (swear word) money reasons, you are ripping our hearts out.”
While his delivery may be lacking, his sentiment rings true throughout the sport. Though one has to wonder if he chose to go public with his views as payback to Bernie for being called to the woodshed this week. I suppose being a disciple of Ferrari now was a big reason for his statement.
The official FIA press release regarding Mercedes Tire Pressure:
Glad that is settled.
George Lucas handles the podium interviews:
In what has been widely panned as the worst podium interview since Toto’s audio doppelgänger, one must look for some positives. George has a habit of going back to edit his own work in an effort to make things “better”, and there is no doubt that Bernie has use for that kind of talent. This is obviously why Mr. E has chosen not to officially release the enormous back catalog of Formula 1 races. George needs time to make sure he can insert an uplifting message from FOM, so we can all enjoy the brilliance of Bernie’s wit even in the distant past.
I read somewhere that CVC does not want to give Renault a historic bonus. So that makes it all very interesting….
Wonder if Red Bull will keep it’s “historic” bonus. They should just do away with that whole thing, how it’s not been legally removed I don’t know. Finical bias from people who play a part in making the rules, hmmmm.
The only ones getting a “historic bonus” are Ferrari. All others came and went, but Ferrari have been around since 1950, consecutively without a single year off. Renault appeared for the first time when Ferrari were in their 28th season, so calling for a historic bonus is preposterous. McLaren have been around longer than Renault.
So Ferrari get $90m just for turning up, labelled “Ferrari payment”, wow, and also a share in the “constructors’ championship bonus”.
In Total
Ferrari: $111.2m
Red Bull: $78.9m
McLaren: $34.6m
Just for turning up.
Then Mercedes and Williams get something simply labelled “Historical payments”
Mercedes: $30m
Williams $30m
Renault should get a share. Well technically they shouldn’t, none of them should, but by the above ‘logic’ matched with each team….
How is RBR getting more money than McLaren and Williams? Is that just the ‘historic’ payments or is it a combo of historic payments and WCC position?
This is best answered in a picture, so here we have it:
http://www.totalsportek.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/formula-one-profit-distribution.jpg
This is for the 2013 season by the way, where the top 3 was RB, Merc, Ferrari.
All my above figures were “before we even start racing” figures.
Fantastic graph! Thanks so much! And of course what jumps at you is that 5% for Ferrari!
Williams also earned more than Lotus despite spending most of the year slowing their car down with a faulty EBD!
Ferrari’s backhander should go to team 11, but the next one is Haas who are paying them for tech.. It’s all good when you are on the gravy train.
Why didn’t my comment about giving due credit to the graph’s creator get posted?
Hey Gomer.
I don’t know.
I swear I saw it get approved hours ago.
Not sure what happened.
But you are correct, I have seen that graph before as well, and I am all for giving credit.
Indeed, I realise my wording in the comment is probably misleading in retrospect, when I said my figures I meant the numbers in my earlier post. I didn’t make that chart, but I have no idea who did make it, I just found it on google images. I saw the original months ago but I can’t for the life of me remember where!
No comment on the alleged request by Dennis to Honda to dismiss Arai?
Eric the Believable said it’s only rumors, so that settles it
Apparently Mitch Evans is quite upset he has been banned from qualifying for “low tire pressure” while Mercedes got off scot-free:
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/222784/1/mitch-evans-calls-out-f1-for-double-standards.html
P.S. Apologize external link, feel free to remove if you feel it’s inappropriate
Apparently FIA have the call on F1 and not in GP2 (FOM?). Either way, someone has messed up!
Re: Hamilton
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-3224130/Lewis-Hamilton-sparks-outrage-keeping-cap-minute-s-silence-IndyCar-driver-Justin-Wilson.html
He then tweeted:
“Guys, I honestly hadn’t realise it was a minute of silence. I was so focused & listening to my music…”
What a piece of work this chappie is.
And he also tweeted that he was informed that it would’ve been done at the front of the grid, similar to what was done for Jules.
Storm in a tea cup
It’d be interesting to see what Bernie would put in the races of the FOCA-FISA war.. Plus, tributes to fallen drivers at the next race?
Considering Bernie has 1981-, I wonder if we’ll ever see everything pre-81.
Apparently next years German GP is being changed to the Syrian GP. The circuit will be renamed to the Hockenheimstan-Ring
no if’s, ands, or butts! Lewis and Merc were the total class of the field all weekend long!
Lewis won the race!!
the whole “tiregate” thingy is as expected! soooo damned simple. “any and all car-mounted tires shall not EVER display a PSI less than xxx PSI . the FIA will determine that in any way it sees fit – calibrated tire gages used by trained FIA or Pirelli engineers or as viewed by Team event sensors . it is up to the Teams to make certain it happens – atmospheric and track temps and sunshine levels and barometric levels simply do not matter”!!! XXX PSI or DSQ…
how damned difficult is this??
They’d need to redesign the tyre’s so that they could hold the pressures at racing temps if they wanted the tyres to be above 19.5psi at all times.
Where do you draw the line? 19.5psi in 20c ambient conditions would be 26psi at racing temps. Why stop at measuring them at 20c, why not 15c? Why not 0c?
All the FIA need to do is specify that the tyre must be XXX psi at XXX celcius/kelvin.
of course, the above assumes there should even be a tire pressure limit… WAY back 3 1/2 decades ago, I had the choice of about 8 different tires to run with ZERO tire pressure limitations. I get it… mere old school FF and FA class vs super high AERO and G-Force of today’s F! car. seriously, I often ran about 11psi front and 12.5 psi rear but as a mere part time and amateur driver, I seriously felt and made time improvements AND WON with a mere plus/minis 1/4 psi tire pressure change at each corner!!!
obviously, I can IN NO WAY make a valid argument to today’s F! situation with presumably massive tire stiffness characteristics needed for huge downforce and other normal race situations…
but, would I think the top F1 guys can feel the difference in .3 psi in a singular tire??
hell yes!!!
I cannot compare my early 1980’s tire gage to those of today, BUT, it was a $150 analog pro gage at the time 🙂
I still have mine and use it on my car. You can read ± 0.1#, made by US Gauge Co., NY. Also has a great bleed valve setup to adjust pressure. I don’t know absolute accuracy, but repeatability is fantastic, and that’s all that counts.
It only days the tyres were .3 psi lower then recommended when they were measured. It doesn’t mean they remained .3 lower after Tue parade lap. So the driver doesn’t need to feel anything that isn’t there. Pirelli supervised the tyres and gave it a pass mark.
Okay, so the very same company that two years ago conspired with Merc to blatantly violate the rules by conducting an illegal test gave them a clean bill of health. I’m so convinced by that.
Finally I read all content on the site. It’s reversed cold Turkey here.
It’s so much.
But what a Royal mess is the FIA, I think all ‘camps’ can agree to that.