UPDATE – Hamilton says Formula 1 rule changes will have little effect
The VW Group will not enter Formula 1 while question marks remain over the sport’s ownership and technical rules, says the group’s motorsport boss
In September, Volkswagen were close to agreeing to take over Red Bull, before the VW emissions scandal led to the resignation of CEO Martin Winterkorn.
Last year, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said the sport could be sold and also wants to get rid of hybrid engines.
“Formula 1 is not on our agenda right now,” said Wolfgang Durheimer.
“The situation is not predictable enough to make the kind of investment required. Before you commit the kind of money needed you must see five years of rules stability,” Durheimer told Autocar.
This season, teams have agreed changes to qualifying to increase unpredictability and talks are ongoing to make cars faster in 2017.
“There can’t be the possibility of rules changes, of more or less engine cylinders coming in, or the hybrid system changing away from technology you are developing on road cars,” he added.
“If you are a big business making a big investment you expect to have some influence on the set-up, with an assurance the present ownership will last. In F1, it seems the owners will not be there forever and that creates some instability.”
In other F1 news
Hamilton says Formula 1 rule changes will have little effect
World champion Lewis Hamilton says planned changes to qualifying for this season will not have much effect.
“I don’t really feel like it is going to change much.”
A new elimination-based system will be introduced for the 2016 season, which starts next month, if teams given it the go-ahead in the next few days.
Williams driver Felipe Massa added that the plan could cause “chaos”.
The idea is to retain the current system of three parts of qualifying, but eliminate one driver at a time through each of the sessions.
This would result in a 90-second shoot-out for pole position between two drivers.
“I don’t know if it I like it or not,” added Massa. “I need to have a little bit of time to sit down and understand the rules, understand the change.
“The only thing I understand is that they want to create some chaos – and this will happen for sure.”
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo agreed with Hamilton.
“I don’t know how much it’s going to change,” he said.
“It might put a little bit more pressure on us to execute the lap early in the session because after five minutes or something they’re going to start ticking them off.”
Hydraulic leak curtails McLaren’s running on day three
McLaren was forced to end its running after 51 laps on day three of pre-season testing due to a hydraulic leak.
Jenson Button was at the wheel of the MP4-31 on Wednesday and had enjoyed a largely productive morning following Fernando Alonso’s 119 laps on Tuesday. However, the 2009 world champion then stopped at the end of the pit lane early in the afternoon, causing the pit lane to be closed while running continued on track.
Racing director Eric Boullier confirmed a hydraulic leak was the cause, and while he downplayed the severity of the stoppage at the time, McLaren was unable to run again and ended its day early.
Ecclestone welcomes F1 changes after ‘wake-up’ call
Ecclestone says the sport faces a brighter future after teams agreed a new qualifying format from this season, even if he had sought a more radical approach to liven up racing.
Speaking to Reuters two days after he said current F1 was the worst it had ever been and he would not buy tickets for his family to watch races, the 85-year-old sounded a much more positive note.
“I think now I’d be a bit more confident that we are going to see some good racing,” he said in a telephone interview. “Then I’ll be happy.”
Ecclestone said teams, who agreed the new qualifying format on Tuesday, had finally woken up and taken a step in the right direction with more change to come.
“I think there’s lots of things we can do and will be doing,” he said.
“What people needed was a bit of a shake up. I seem to be the only person that has thought we should do something in Formula One, to wake everybody up a little bit. And maybe that’s what’s happened.
“I wasn’t talking down the sport at all, quite the opposite. I was trying to sort of explain that unless we did something that’s the way we’d be going.”
TJ13- So you're the only person who thought F1 needed a shake up Mr E??! What about the fans?
Marko praises new RB12 “The best Red Bull ever”
TJ13 - The good Dr claims they've been conservative with their testing and the chassis reacts extremely well to changes already. He and Horner even praise Renault for their work thus far and claim by the European leg they'll start to get a significant power increases.
It rains in Bahrain?
TJ13- Some say it usually rains something a different colour but yesterday it appears the Middle Eastern state circuit got wet.
Summary of proposed 2017 bodywork changes
From Reddit user /Wrenny
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Bernie and Max discuss modern F1 and where it’s gone wrong in an astonishing interview.
Seriously? They are really serious about the ludicrous new format for qualifying? I hope the stewards have plenty of time to sort out all the squabbles and protests about blocking before the races start. I hope the teams bring in their driver and change tyres, if they think their driver will be eliminated early….. more protests. How this will work on a street circuit like Monaco is beyond me, or other circuits with short laps. Bernie says he wants to “spice things up” but it is just another of his lame ideas, like water sprinklers. How will this, and the new tyre rules, will bring new fans to the sport?
Isn’t the idea similar to what we had in A1GP?
There it sort of worked.
Qualifying was possibly the only part of F1 that wasn’t fucked. It was, in my opinion, the best system the sport had seen. It worked on a sporting level and for TV.
It was far from broken, if at all. When I read about it, I couldn’t comprehend what was broken and what the big wigs are trying to now fix. Are there not other things they could’ve focused on?
I get that it’s human nature to resist change, which is the basis of the disingenuous accusations/pleas of the ‘give it a chance’ camp. But it wasn’t broken.
I recall reading a conspiracy theory that Bernie was genuinely trying to destroy F1 in order to buy it back at a cheaper rate. Such theories would often illicit a chuckle for me. It made little to no sense. But now, I can’t help but wonder…
I really hate agreeing with you, but I have to on this occasion. I could see no reasons as to why the qualifying format needed to be changed.
What’s your opinion on the fans voting for driver of the day? Sounds like that gimmick in that ‘other’ series fan boost. Would be really interested to know what’s the prize going to be. What do you think, a shiny new Rolex from Mr E?
What’s my opinion on it? I think I’ve spent my daily quota of F1 negativity already. But, in short, my opinion’s not positive – to say the least.
I believe the motivation is to ‘shake things up’ – the alternative presented is reversed grids.
But ‘change nothing’ would ve been my alternative…
A huge percentage of conspiracy theories start from some form of reality. Unless some fool decides to venture off with the pixies and start a rumour for hate’s sake.
This theory about Bernie is spot on!
Look back over the times when Bernie has done this before. Buy the series for relatively small change when it’s in a low point, pump it up via his Global TV rights, make it spectacular again and sell it for a kings ransom to the highest bidder.
This is absolutely nothing new. Just another ride on the incredibly clever Ecclestone merry-go-round.
He is lauded as one of the shrewdest businessmen in the world … by his billionaire peers! That says everything.
I have been saying this would happen ever since the day the automotive industry was granted the opportunity to run their favoured Hybrid engines. It was a blatant effort by the FIA to look after the automotive industry’s collective investment in this technology. Coupled with WEC and GP2, they created a monopoly.
Bernie has always known that the only way forward for F1 is to be ground-breaking and significantly different. A stand-alone showcase of NEW technology or a complete U-turn and go back to fire breathing monsters. Either way, it stands out and humans love a stand out! It’s in our DNA to follow the most spectacular! Bernie knows this better than anyone, he always has! Bernie will always make most of his money from the peripheral business opportunities that instantly open up because of being new or different. Once those businesses become successful, he then sells those smaller companies which have grown with F1 and triples his investments.
Shiploads of money and incredibly shrewd forward thinking makes shiploads more money. Bernie wrote the book on the subject!
Anyone with half a brain knew Hybrid was a terrible waste of money from the start. It is far too complicated and requires far too many interactive systems to marry both forms of power together in harmony. The past 2 years in F1 has made this so obvious that it has become an absolute farce with only 2 teams getting the idiotic idea to work. The rest of the grid are still scratching their collective heads and going purple in the face with frustration!!!
Therefore, in the grand scheme of future automotive power-trains which need to be cost-effective and simple to engineer, hybrid has a relatively short life in front of it.
Hydrogen and electric technology were always going to be greener, simpler and cheaper because they involve far less systems and parts to run them.
Just like any in any industry, when a new idea comes along to step all over it’s predecessor, that new idea is either bought and hidden away, or the powerful people behind the old tech find a way to monopolise the market until their investment pays dividends.
Then they have the funds to invest properly in the new idea and off we go again!
The only thing it’s likely to do us confuse the already fairly crappy TV directors, giving them the chance to miss even more relevant track action than before.
Bernie Ecclestone, the worst he’s ever been. Every day.
The new qualifying system seems harsh on power units… I wonder how many midfielders’ PUs will blow up in quali towards the end of the season with engines on their last legs.
pretty sure increasing weight and downforce isn’t a good direction to go in for better racing
When is, or was, the cut off date for nominating tyres for the first few races? Will the teams be able to change their preferences, now that qualifying is to be altered?
+1 great spot. yet another variable to ensure the viewing public fully understands whats going on 🙁
can we stop saying “f1 boss Bernie”? there is no one boss of f1. it’s a clusterfuck of inept parties.
Is the new qualifying an attempt to get more cars on track throughout the session rather than have them all pile up at the end like German verbs? More airtime for sponsors ($$$) and a few slightly wonky grids along the way, meaning we’ll get to enjoy the odd Trulli train or a couple of extra (yawn) DRS enabled overtakes per race. If that’s the case we should eagerly await the official FIA Formula One drinking game to make races more interesting.
Is there going to be a Fantasy Formula 1 Prediction contest again this year? I used to love seeing how wrong we all were with our predictions. 😀