F1 2013 Season

As a Finn I am a little excited about Kimi going back to Ferrari and thus getting a better car, but I'm afraid Alonso will leave him in his shadow, Alonso and Vettel are ahead of anyone else out there, imo.

I hope Kimi can really challenge Vettel now he is in a better car.

Shame about Massa but he hasn't been doing that well recently so I am not overly surprised.

I'm confident that Kimi will give Alonso a run for his money. After all, he won the last WDC in a Ferrari. And I hope that Lotus will sign Nico Hülkenberg. He deserves a good car, too.

Art Morte wrote:As a Finn I am a little excited about Kimi going back to Ferrari and thus getting a better car, but I'm afraid Alonso will leave him in his shadow, Alonso and Vettel are ahead of anyone else out there, imo.

be excited bro. Kimi is ice cold. years ago, he was super incomunicato guy, and i hated him for just being show off. now he is matured. he communicates when he wants to and when its only matters. he is just so cool now.

you know... kimi signed for Ferrari and i think, kimi has got absolutely nothing to loose. he is just out there to have fun, and its twilight of his career so he wants best. he wants best, and he is not there to be alonso's no2. its always that kimi doesnt care thinking he needs F1, in fact its other way around, fans die to see him, there is a very good marketing around him.

while alonso still has long contract and he has been fighting over and over for titles, and for 2 times now he feels he got robbed by vettel, and also he lost to raikkonen by just 1 point, hamilton too. so, alonso wil not be satisfied without another title, so having kimi in ferrari makes things even harder for him.

i would say that raikkonen is as good as alonso, raikkonen is now below alonso and vettel. and he has come out as a matured more communicating guy than before, so that will help engineers.

Kick wrote:I hope Kimi can really challenge Vettel now he is in a better car.

Shame about Massa but he hasn't been doing that well recently so I am not overly surprised.

2014 is unknown we have no idea, how good Ferrari turbo engine will be, how good their design will be due to massive massive changes in rule, so aerodynamically and mechanically, there probably will be a situation where one team will be better than another.

i didnt bet on Ferrari 2014 to be really good, but ever since James Allison from Lotus moved just few months ago to Ferrari, i am absolutely convinced now, Ferrari will be awesome team. plus James knows this team well he was working in Ferrari when they were dominating in early 2000s.

we might see some huge difference in performance..because of rule change so if ferrari dont do well, then unfortunately for kimi and alonso , no matter what they do, they will play catch up.

adrian newey, peter prodromou and red bull's vast financial and facility resources will alwayss make them superior than other team, plus they are not in RRA, so they are in position to spend as much money or staffs they want... (ferrari also got out from RRA) so. thats always going to be factor too.

vettel is in privileged position. give alonso kimi hamilton same car as vettel, he wont be winning Championships...

rwo power wrote:I'm confident that Kimi will give Alonso a run for his money. After all, he won the last WDC in a Ferrari. And I hope that Lotus will sign Nico Hülkenberg. He deserves a good car, too.

lol kimi doesnt care as long as he has equal good car as alonso.

yea, nico hulkenburg is super impressive, he really deserves a great car so i really hope lotus sign him. he has matured so much.

JespSwe wrote:vettel is in privileged position. give alonso kimi hamilton same car as vettel, he wont be winning Championships...

IMO it is always a question whether the other drivers would really be as good in the Red Bull as Seb. What many people underestimate is that the RB is pretty much built for Vettel, and it is not so sure whether the others would feel comfortable in the machine as well. This is not a slight to the other drivers, but if you read that for example Daniel Ricciardo now has to try to get slimmer to fit into the Red Bull cockpit, as Newey designed it just for aerodynamic perfection, it is always not so easy for other drivers to get into a car not designed with them in mind. Same goes for things like oversteer / understeer etc.

rwo power wrote:

JespSwe wrote:vettel is in privileged position. give alonso kimi hamilton same car as vettel, he wont be winning Championships...

IMO it is always a question whether the other drivers would really be as good in the Red Bull as Seb. What many people underestimate is that the RB is pretty much built for Vettel, and it is not so sure whether the others would feel comfortable in the machine as well. This is not a slight to the other drivers, but if you read that for example Daniel Ricciardo now has to try to get slimmer to fit into the Red Bull cockpit, as Newey designed it just for aerodynamic perfection, it is always not so easy for other drivers to get into a car not designed with them in mind. Same goes for things like oversteer / understeer etc.

well, that will not be the biggest factor. no teams would design both of the cars specifically for one driver. never. one side of garage sure will have lot of option to explore for themselves, and ofcourse, for example vettel will have seats, driveability, and so on being discussed and designed, worked out for him, and same goes to another driver. its not like as if vettel says oh, i want this ... another drive have to adapt.

so if hamilton, alonso, kimi were in red bull, thats why i would have loved to see kimi or alonso there. horner and marko didnt want to upset vettel. thats why they put younger guy like riccardo who has lot of promise and potential , plus he is a red bull youth driver, and they can control riccardo.

oh my god..Derk de Beer has been signed from Lotus! a very reputed aerodynamicist who has been in enstone based team for a long time now.

Ferrari already got great guy in nicolas tombazis, who is also aerodynamicist, but he has been a chief designer lately. so, i guess they have much more flexible staffs now to work on huge projects in future, 2014 in particular..


no question Derk de Beer signed because of James Allison.

so they got Rory Bryne (best F1 designer ahead of Adrian Newey before he retired and he came back now for 2014), they got Pat Fry, Tombazis, Allison, Derk de Beer.... thats super team...!

well, anything less than making a competitive car right from the start would be fail for ferrari... because those names right there are just amazing stellar personnel you can't find anywhere else in paddock (bar red bull staffs)

Nicolas Hennel (aero guy) from Ferrari moves to Lotus . never heard of him..

Ferrari Next season Vettel pls lose

Anything could happen next season due to the new regulations...

Butt wrote:Anything could happen next season due to the new regulations...

Yeah, even Caterham could win a race... or not. Definitely not.

Forza wrote:

Butt wrote:Anything could happen next season due to the new regulations...

Yeah, even Caterham could win a race... or not. Definitely not.

lol maybe not caterham...


in all seriousness, red bull, mclaren, mercedes and ferrrari will be the safe bet.

red bull - adrian newey, the man who has won it all everywhere he worked at. williams, mclaren, red bull you name it. man who still to this day, still prefers designing cars with just sheet of paper, pencils, and scales instead of modern computers and CFDs. man who doesn't even need a windtunnel, and CFDs for aerodynamic performance and research because he is the possibly the only man who can envision all the airflow effects air pressures, its properties and results in the car bodywork. a genius, who combines art with science, a masterpiece... da vinci of F1.
if you watch how mika haikkinen says of newey, he says newey is a guy who design perfection, everything is calculation if something doesnt add up in his book, he is absolutely assured that car is not going to win races before the car has even reached the track.

and there is newey's co-worker, Chief aerodynamicist - Peter Prodoumou, really reputed designer, worked as chief aero guy for mclaren, he is the main guy who brought CFD technology to mclaren technology center at woking. and newey lured him after he quit mclaren and signed for red bull.

so these guys obviously over the years have proved that they are so damn good in exploiting rules to limit, the likes of ferrari mclaren mercedes and all the others are either complaining them or copying their design lol. newey is so good, whatever he designs or make changes he exactly knows how that will affect car, he knows like one one does!!
other teams design parts in CFDs, test in windtunnel bring in track and there are times it doesnt work. newey work is like it works once he designs it ... the results is always coming in the track

so 2014 is even better for him because he is the man who really loves rule changes because he gets so much freedom to find performance in design.


Ferrari - because .. as of this moment they are working on windtunnel problems they have been having this issues for months now. this should be fixed by october. in the mean time designs are being worked at toyota windtunnel facility at Cologne Germany. also ferrari has this problem with staff changes because Aldo Costa got booted out of ferrari few years ago with Pat Fry taking over as Technical Director. Also because chief Aerodynamicist Nicolas Tombazis was looking both as chief designer and chief aero guy so now things should be a bit burden lift off from him because Loic Bigois from Mercedes came to Ferrari. and now they have James Allison, who is one of the most reputed technical personnel, have worked previously at Ferrari. and they got Dirk De Beer chief Aero guy from Lotus ... not to mention Chief Designer Rory Byrne is back, the main who has designed car which won schumacher his seven titles. as of now, Rory has already started working on 2014 car since the season even began, so Allison is probably working on it too. Ferrari now have very good personnel looking over important project in the future, so they can be flexible, one team can look at current project while the other can look in the future.



Mercedes - now, Mercedes have been recruiting massively since last year, they fired Loic Bigois, Diamler board greenlighted on strengthening the aero team and areas they were weak at. They got Bob Bell from Enstone team (former Renault f1 now Lotus) as Technical Director, Aldo costa who was held as scapegoat for Ferrari's failure was enticed by Ross Brawn so he is the main man behind why mercedes is doing exceptionally well given where they were at last year. Aldo Costa has already started working on next year car. Then we got Mike Elliot, chief aero guy from Lotus who left the team and joined Merc in mid 2012, and started working on 2013 car. and we got Geoff Willis, who is also aero guy but is working in research and development sector for Merc. Geoff is the top guy when this merc team was honda team ,main man behind  upgrading to new windtunnel and CFD facility and just a year ago Merc also upgrade their 50% scale model to 60% .. highest allowed in F1 regulation. thats why last year they had so much trouble with car by mid season.
Oh and btw the biggest signing for Merc is Paddy Lowe, former technical director of Mclaren Mercedes, who joined Merc in early 2013. Paddy lowe expertise is on electronics but he is the main guy behind Mclaren research and development facility at woking. and besides Paddy lowe has overseen race winning cars over the years as technical director. at the moment paddy lowe, is overseeing current development of the car until the end of the season, and pretty sure he will soon put his focus on next year car.
According to Ross Brawn, Merc has already put half of resources for next year car because of big rule changes. Aldo costa is already working on 2014 car, while Geoff has already been working on 2015 project. that just shows how big work F1 has ... i cant even believe that before 2014 has even started people have been working on 2015 car!!!

so merc is in good shape, ferrari is in massive shape, red bull is red bull they set benchmark they still will be the team to beat.

which leaves Mclaren

McLaren, has Tim Goss promoted as Technical Director after Paddy Lowe left for Mercedes. he is a very reputed engineer, word has it, accordiing to technical forums he overlooked on last year car which was very good car. anyway, then Doug Mckiernan, chief Aerodynamicist for Mclaren is not to be underestimated, he is one of the most wanted man in the paddock, and Ferrari repeatedly tried to poach him to Ferrari (because Pat Fry worked for Mclaren and he wanted Doug to join Ferrari). Mclaren is always the best team when it comes to young engineering talent. like team manager of Mclaren, Jonathan Neale says Mclaren potentially loses 10-15 highly talented engineers of their team every year. but they are always looking for the best young engineers. so many best engineers, newey, prodoumou, fry, oh even nicolas tombazis, paddy lowe, worked for this team. they always will be top team no matter what. mclaren story is somewhat like Arsenal nowadays, they know how to win races but they never win titles .. its been a long long time.. but they always have talented young engineers.

btw Matt Morris chief designer of Sauber has left swiss team to join Mclaren.


Lotus, now this is a really sad story, they like Mclaren had always team of talents over the years, and got poached by top teams... Allisson left, Dirk De Beer left,  i am just wondering how they are going to cope. word has it lately, that since Ferrari got Allisson, Dirk De Beer, some of their staff is to move to Lotus. anyway it would be amazing if they still surprise.

and engine is going to be a huge factor, Ferrari and Mercedes are going to have advantage because they are manufactors as well as workers team. others who get engines will have to adapt their design based on engine.

Renault is not a works team. but, Renault always have closely worked with Red bull... remember the engine mapping controversy, all triggered by newey and his co. after closely working with renault to optimize their diffuser.


so yea this rule changes has brought hhuge chain of events staff moving, drivers moving. focus shifted on next year car, resources of this year car sacrificed for 2014!!!

so like Butt said it can be anyone's game but it would be very interesting who will be the best because competition is looking great so far.

and oh... i want to add. i wouldn't if Ferrari or Red bull dominate, because of RRA this was a mutual gentlemen agreement set amongst all the team, after 2008 global financial recession where top car manufacturer teams like Honda, BMW, Toyota, and Renault (they sold the team to Genii Capital but continue to provide engine) to save all the teams future financial problems. this was not legally binding agreement, but after 2009 red bull started dominating and ferrari accused red bull saying that red bull didn't honor the RRA resource restriction (where teams were not allowed to spend big (i dont know precisely how much) and not allowed to recruit too much staffs). then red bull finger pointed at ferrari and merc (particularly horner and helmut) saying that ferrari and merc were jealous of their domination, they are in favor of financial restriction but they wanted restriction on engines, and other mechanical things (which obviously ferrari and merc were strong at) and ferrari and merc were accusing red bull of strengthening aero department which they were strong at and not honoring RRA agreement). horner then accused merc and ferrari saying their resources probably comes beyond teams own self sustaining revenues (sponsors, prize money, so on) coming from their core organization itself (Diamler/FiAT in this case) so he questioned why not we get financed heavily from red bull )

anyway. this was huge huge friction going on especially red bull vs ferrari they were so pisssed off at each other they both quit RRA in i dont know was it 2011?? and now they have freedom to spend as much money they want , as much staff they want.
word has it, red bull is estimated to have  650 staffs, 200 in aero department alone), ferrari has like close to red bull 650-700. Mcalren i dont know... Merc.. well thats another story .. Honda quit F1 but before quitting honda was sold to Ross brawn for 1 pound... (yes you heard it.. just 1 pound, and Honda financed ross brawn with extra 100 million dollars for 2009 season  and asked to find new owner) because if Honda just quit with concorde agreement still legally binding them to stay in F1 until the end of 2012 , they couldnt just quit otherwise they have to pay 200 million penalty to FOM (Formula 1 management of Bernie Eccelstone) , only way to escape this problem was to sell the team to another party). so since honda was not going to finance beyond 2009, ross brawn had huge worries how to finance the future. so honda had 700 staff, after honda became brawn in 2009, they had to sacrifice in excess of 250 staffs... and then finally Diamler came to rescue and this happened actually merc came to rescue not only because they want to buy brawn but mainly they had whole lot of problem altogether with one particular giant team (hahahah this is a funny story let me know if you guys want to hear) and thats how merc made F1 return.

so merc by now has about 550 staffs because team again went from trasition from small team to big one to challenge for title.


so dont be surprise this could be also factor determining the future championships...

money, staffs... this makes huge difference

anyone who would like to story on, why Mercedes team bought brawn let me know its a very interesting story!

@JespSwe

Thank you very much for your indepth insights into F1 and the time you spend to write and share them. If I do not reply all the time, please do not think it is disinterest, it is more the problem that it is hard to improve on perfection. Thank you very much and please share your knowledge about Mercedes and Brawn, too. *bows*

rwo power wrote:@JespSwe

Thank you very much for your indepth insights into F1 and the time you spend to write and share them. If I do not reply all the time, please do not think it is disinterest, it is more the problem that it is hard to improve on perfection. Thank you very much and please share your knowledge about Mercedes and Brawn, too. *bows*

you are most welcome rwo power V^O^V oh no worries. you can read and reply whenever lol.


regarding Mercedes the real reason why Mercedes bought Brawn is not only to rescue the team, but well there are couple of reasons. First and most important reason is because Mercedes had a really bad bad bad bad friction with Mclaren (esp. Ron Dennis major shareholder of Mclaren Group) by like late 2008.

Mercedes was a engine provider for Mclaren, the partnership became strong with mclaren since 1995, after Mclaren ended Honda engine deal. but during the years after Newey came from Williams to Mclaren, and Mclaren started winning races, the Mercedes and Mclaren relationship became even stronger, not only Mercedes and Mclaren had exclusive partnership (which meant Mercedes provided FREE ENGINE for mclaren) deal extended at some point till 2012; Mercedes also bought stakes at Mclaren group (40% of it, some arab group had some majority, and Ron Dennis kept like i forgot how much but he kept like around 30% of it). the problem with this deal, was that .. to my knowledge, Ron Dennis of Mclaren Group had more control in the board than anybody, and Mercedes were not given position at board or something like they didn't get control over Mclaren. Mclaren Mercedes in F1 , was so successful, Mercedes engine were renowned to be the best engine provider in the grid. Mclaren Mercedes relationship was so rosy to the point, they joint designed and manufactured the famous ... i guess every gamers avid sports car lover knows the famous Mclaren SLR Mercedes Benz in Mclaren technology center and Woking, Surrey, UK.


The Mercedes engine for F1 are manufactured in Brixworth, UK. They also joint-designed manufactured the exotic car called Mclaren Mercedes Stirling Moss in tribute to famous silver arrow driver Sir Stirling Moss. anyway everything was rosy, but then came 2007 Mclaren spygate scandal where Ferrari accused Mclaren where two of ex-ferrari employees (Mike Coughlan, and Nigel Stephney) were alleged to have design secrets taken with them to Mclaren, and Ferrari suspected that Mclaren knew their secrets and might have illegally used in that 2007 season. Ron Dennis strongly denied of any wrongdoing, this went to the court. this scandal was so serious, it was possibly the biggest scandal ever happened in F1. anyway court found mclaren guilty and disqualified them from constructor championship in 2007, as well as fined them 100 million dollars. Mike Coughlan and Nigel Stephney was banned from F1 for life, however this was lifted, later Mike Coughlan made F1 return by signing for Williams F1, but he quit now again.






anyway, so Mclaren image in F1 was seriously tainted by this scandal, and Mercedes who had absolutely 0 involvement whatsoever, i mean their reputation was really really badly portrayed too. I felt incredibly sorry hearing this story, especially for Mercedes. Mercedes i am pretty sure Diamler board was pissed by Mclaren, i mean seriously... Diamler board... especially, CEO Dr. Zetche, Dr, Weber must have been really angry how Mercedes name and image also got involved in this. why mercedes had every reason to be angry with them??? because not only they were shareholders of mclaren group, but Mclaren actually was hugely benefitting from Mercedes in F1, because not only they got free engines, Mercedes actually even sponsored Mclaren with lot of money, Mclaren apart from their own spending, with sponsors money, they had huge huge huge funding coming from Mercedes, ( think i remember james allen , famous F1 journalist or somebody of good source saying at least like 150 to 200 million alone was funded by Mercedes to Mclaren, not to mention Mcalren was getting big ass money from Vodafone sponsor. so Mclaren seriously was living a life of a luxury, thats why they were able to compete with Ferrari in terms of financial resource. so after everything Mercedes did to Mclaren, Mclaren was pissing Diamler board off, Diamler board had no control in Mclaren, got free engines, Diamler felt like they were wasting money on Mclaren spending 200 million every year for Mclaren in F1.

and here comes the final hammer blow. Ron Dennis, now this guy, he wanted to become super ambitious, he wanted Mclaren to be like next f.. kin ferrari of UK, so what does he do... after their famous Mclaren F1 car got huge praise in motorsports, so he was like ok f.. k it ... i am gonna make Mclaren the next ferrari, so he greenlighted the project of exclusive design of Mclaren MP4-12C. Diamler board was pissed off by this initiative of Mclaren. they were like ok, why the hell Mclaren is doing this to us, if they manufacture the new Mclaren Mp4-12C, they will be like direct competitor to our commercial world, while we are f..kin funding money, giving them free engine, we have majority stakes at Mclaren group while we dont have control and Mclaren dont give a s... t about what we think. not to mention F1 spygate scandal got Mercedes involved too. Diamler was pissed, they had it enough of Mclaren, and not to mention 2008 global financial recession got lot of car manufacturers like Toyota, Honda, BMW, Renault quit F1 altogether at the same time, Diamler board were like ok this is serious stuff, we are spending way too much money in F1 right now funding Mclaren, this is not helping. the same 2009 where lot of manufacturers quit, FOTA alliance was formed (FOTA like alliance formed in 2009 in reaction to financial prlbem were all teams joined agreed to make alliance to help each other to cut cost, as well as take alliance on helping each other with technical stuffs and all) anyway so, Mercedes had enough, so Mclaren decided to sell the 45% stake back to Mclaren, for like 200 million?? something like that, ( ia m sorry if iam not precise), i need to go back to my books to refresh my mind but anyway, so Mercedes sold back their shares to Mclaren, with that money, Brawn was having troubles so , first Merc bought like 45% stakes at Brawn, the other was brought by Aabaar group (aabar group also have stakes at Diamler, or was...i dont know to this point but anyway) and the rest was kept by Ross Brawn, and Nick Fry, in doing so Ross Brawn actually made lot of money).

Mercedes bought brawn they can start their own team, instead of wasting lot of money at mclaren, much less than they were spending at Mclaren, according to ex sporting director of Mercedes motorsport. Mercedes would have made their famous Silver arrow return in F1 since 1955, and that would have been reputable return because 1950s Mercedes were dominating F1, they were untouchable. Mercedes joined FOTA, in the interest of cost cutting, and they showed huge commitment in F1, alongside Ferrari, the only team as manufacturer alongside Mercedes to remain in F1, while BMW,Toyota, Honda, Renault quit, Mercedes showed that they are committed, they want to be the best, they are going to be patient, and they are not going to play sports politics in F1, and they proved it, their patience their resilience their respect by handing all the responsibilities to Ross Brawn that he will have freedom to do whatever he wants, just like adrian newey in Red Bull, in return of making the team successful a title winner by 3 years (in which they failed ofcourse... for a reasonable reason). but Mercedes nevertheless showed faith to people to fans of F1, by signing concorde agreement until 2017?? anyway long term deal, while newspaper were saying they are certain to quit F1. so anyway now mercedes is in good shape.
the reason why mercedes didnt do well in 3 years of objective given by Diamler is because, first Ross brawn had downsized that brackley team, having 700 staffs back to 400 staffs in which when Mercedes bought the team, *(btw mercedes bought ross brawn's shares too so indoing so ross brawn became filthy rich and mercedes has like now 75% stakes; recently Toto Wolfe brought like minority of shares) anyway.so as brawn was small team, mercedes wanted to become very competitve so its not easy because mercedes had to once again go double transition, find new staffs yet again, after they lost it, then they had to upgrade windtunnel, people, newspaper, tv made bad accusation on Merc and schumacher, but i dont blame merc now, because during that transition merc didn't even have technical director, ross was taking the role of both team principal and TD at the same time. i would say ross was over ambitious thinking, they can win it all by 3 years with just 400 staffs and merc not spending too much. and obviously in F1, ferrari , red bull mcalren lotus sauber are not to be underestimated. its not as if merc are the only one.

actually word has it, that mercedes were not spending huge at all, some sources even saying that they were spending less than lotus. but Diamler has now greenlighted in recruiting again, that happened a year ago, also scale model upgrade so now its all about staffs jelling in the team.


so anyway this is the story, why mercedes made a comeback, why mercedes is a separate team.

Mclaren and Mercedes are still arch-enemies to each other to this day, strangely enough they are alliance at the same time when it comes to cost cutting and they are still part of FOTA alliance, and they still honor RRA agreement (not spending too much money on resources and staff) while red bull and ferrari quit.

anyway so Mclaren Group now exclusively makes Mclaren Mp4-12C, while, Mercedes ..possibly , or thats what most media, or sports journal says that Mercedes then made Mercedes SLS AMG in return.

but the reason why Mclaren was so successfully by late 1990s, all the way to early 2000s, and to late 2000s was all mostly because of Mercedes. without Mercedes, i dont think Mclaren would have benefitted much. sure Mclaren Group have their own empire, had big sponsors, they had arabs investing, but Mercedes mostly had very positive impact to huge extend. everything Mclaren have like facilities in woking and all, has in some aspect happened because of Mercedes.

Thank you very much for another highly enlightening article! *bows*

And for something different, F1 Fanatic has the full transcript of the Italian Grand Prix team radio here:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/09/13/2013-italian-grand-prix-team-radio-transcript/

rwo power wrote:Thank you very much for another highly enlightening article! *bows*

And for something different, F1 Fanatic has the full transcript of the Italian Grand Prix team radio here:  
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/09/13/2013-italian-grand-prix-team-radio-transcript/

yea its just amazing communication with drivers and engineers and exchange of so many technical parameters and information. its just crazy. i really admire drivers who can drive despite heat inside cockpit, they have to concentrate on wheels and concentrate on what engineering at the same time, not to mention like crazy filled buttons to push in cockpit. the multitasking is amazing.

Kimi Raikkonen has dropped a bombshell saying the sole reason why he left Lotus to sign for Ferrari is because Lotus didn't pay him.



"I haven't got my salary,I like to race - that's the only reason why I'm here."

Lotus have declined to comment.

Raikkonen said that despite being owed money by the team he would continue to race for Lotus this season.

Raikkonen is on basic salary of eight million euros (£6.7m)...

seriously Lotus wtf... do you expect... thats Eric Bouiller's and Gerard Lopez fault written all over it. These two clowns expect Lotus to be competiting for title, while payment is not due on time to employees.

I wouldn't be surprised why Technical Director James Allison and Chief Aerodynamicist Dirk De Beer jumped the ship either because they haven't been paid in time too, or either Lotus management has poorly managed the resources so its difficult for them to develop car and couldn't reach their goal just because of their managers. Lotus has a damn good car....

how the Formula 1 car is designed (demonstrated by Red Bull Racing )

The exodus of engineering talent from Lotus F1 Team has been going on for more than a year with a series of departures, of engineers who have often had long careers an Enstone. The latest to move is Jarrod Murphy, the team’s head of computational fluid dynamics who decided some months ago that he would accept an offer to go to Mercedes AMG F1. There have been some reports that he was going off to Ferrari but this is not the case. Murphy has been at Enstone since 1996 when he joined the team straight from university. He spent three years working in stress analysis before moving into CFD and has played an important role in the team ever since.

source - Joe Saward

seems like New Jersey race next year is back on track, Sky Sports F1 reported that the organizers have made their payment to FOM. Its not official, but if FOM accepts, then we could well see street race at New York! It is possibly scheduled to happen right after Canadian Grand Prix if everything goes according to plan

JespSwe wrote:seems like New Jersey race next year is back on track, Sky Sports F1 reported that the organizers have made their payment to FOM. Its not official, but if FOM accepts, then we could well see street race at New York! It is possibly scheduled to happen right after Canadian Grand Prix if everything goes according to plan

It's been on and off for a year now.... hope it happens i want to see F1 once in my life, missed Singapore F1 by one day a few years ago

Butt wrote:

JespSwe wrote:seems like New Jersey race next year is back on track, Sky Sports F1 reported that the organizers have made their payment to FOM. Its not official, but if FOM accepts, then we could well see street race at New York! It is possibly scheduled to happen right after Canadian Grand Prix if everything goes according to plan

It's been on and off for a year now.... hope it happens i want to see F1 once in my life, missed Singapore F1 by one day a few years ago

yea i hope it happens too. USA is a big market for Formula 1, and if they make it in New Jersey, F1 would really steal the limelight all over america. Not only its great in New Jersey, but there are so much going on next year, first time in 20 years we will see new rule changes, engine being the most fuel efficient ever 40% less fuel than than what F1 is using right now. that would be a great showcase to present in front of US market, for all car manufacturers to reconsider coming back to Formula 1. Also good for sponsorship deals.

other than that, New Jersey is a great place to have F1, americans love racing in general so i am pretty sure they will love Formula 1 even more. Austin, Texas last year was enormous success.