The Renault is a thing of absolute beauty. The best looking car for over a decade in my opinion, perhaps even eclipsing the MP4-20. The Force India is not. Sauber looks very decent, if a bit busy. It looked far, far better and much classier on the track under natural light though. Sauber: Sauber C36-Ferrari on track. Didn't expect the blue and gold combo to work this well! Looksby gav - F1
The Williams "bump" is just an s-duct by the looks of it, but it's a terrible quality render. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if it was just an Autosport livery mock-up and would be disappointed if Williams themselves supplied that. You can't even see the Mercedes-Benz logo in the side view and it all looks very soft.by gav - F1
Where did Alonso post it? Apparently it was "leaked" by a Dutch website.by gav - F1
It's hard to argue with any of that. Renault are a bit of an unknown. Last year they must have been terribly gimped by the complete lack of development of the 2016 car by the financial issues at Lotus, so it will be interesting to see what Renault can do with a clean sheet of paper. I fear both Red Bull and Ferrari are too inconsistent to mount a consistent title challenge, irrespectiby gav - F1
Having trawled the internet there is no single opinion. Even I'm querying which makes more sense. McLaren-Project 4 seems obvious, but then it can't be McLaren McLaren Project 4. Who knows. Only a few, and good luck to anyone trying to decode Ron's opinion on the matter.by gav - F1
Meh, Dennis didn't found the team. He played a major part in making it a great team, but that "great team" went out of the window with the millennium with a very brief resurgence in the late 00s. The MP4-era died when Senna and Honda left in my opinion. Edit: And don't get me wrong, I'm a stickler for tradition, but a car designation isn't much of a tradition anyby gav - F1
Didn't really mind the change from MP4 - for me it harks back to days long gone more than the last decade or two - but MCLxx is just terrible. Still, since nobody calls any car anything other than at the launch, I couldn't give a damn.by gav - F1
I always said "better the devil you know" when it came to someone superseding Bernie, as I assumed it would be someone with even less interest in the sport (Bernie was a driver himself remember). I suppose only time will tell whether those fears were unfounded, but it's all sounding rather positive at the moment. I guess "cautiously optimistic" best describes my feeby gav - F1
It's the analytical nature of F1 now. There are sensors for everything and the management of tyres is at a bonkers level. Half of the fun of F1 in the past was the unpredictability of it - that's why we love all sport - but that has all gone now, either in terms of the fastest car or reliability. We've said it for years, but give them a steering wheel and pedals (I'll eby gav - F1
I pretty much disregard everything Irvine has said since he left F1. As I remember the common rumours at the time was that Schumacher was suffering from a water leak and wouldn't have finished the race, so he sucked Villeneuve in and then did what he thought he could get away with out of desperation.by gav - F1
Quotelandex At that time was Ferrari the best car in the F1 circus, would be a shame if he didnt point. I was more referring to his performances compared to the most successful driver in F1 history.by gav - F1
Reims would be terrible. It was exciting back in the day because it was high speed, but today it would point, squirt and a few flat-out corners - a much more boring version of Monza. If you want a good French track then you need to look no further than Le Mans Bugat... ha, who am I kidding - even Grand Prix Legends couldn't bare to keep it in the portrayed 1967 season, so used Rouen (196by gav - F1
QuoteJ i m Isn't Paddy Lowe out of contract by the end of year anyway? So there wouldn't be any gardening leave to waive. If Lowe's leaving I will staggered if he's allowed to simply walk out of one team and straight into another without a sweetner, especially given the nature of the information he will have had. There has been plenty of talk of gardening leave, though Iby gav - F1
QuoteFrantic Also, Pat Symonds out of Grove at the end of the year. I guess this implies a Valtteri-Paddy Lowe swap, or something like that. The BBC are saying that part of the Bottas deal is that Lowe's enforced gardening leave will be reduced, which could well be why Symonds has left already. The Red Bull-Mobil deal was reported months back, but I don't know if it was official.by gav - F1
I agree, it's almost sad to see him returning for the reason that he can't win. If he beats his teammate then so what, he beat a rookie. If he loses to Stroll his reputation would be further tarnished. That said, I'm not sure it was entirely his own decision to retire, and was perhaps forced to a degree from Williams bringing in Stroll and with no viable seats he chose to retiby gav - F1
It should be manditory in such situations to force the replacement driver to run as 0 next season.by gav - F1
It's got to be Wehrlein. The only reason he's still at Manor is because of Mercedes, so if they had no intention of fielding him in the future then why are they funding his development. It's not like he's an especially young driver - he's 22 - so really the only stumbling block is whether his temperament is up to it (rumour has it he's quite hard to work with). Hby gav - F1
I totally forecast this. Nobody wrote ever. Webber did say at the weekend that when they were teammates at Williams that Rosberg came up to him and said "I don't think I can do this" regarding the media attention and pressure of F1, so I guess now he's got what he came for he's happy to quit. I expected one of them to leave Mercedes at the end of 2017, but nobodyby gav - F1
I always hated Zandvoort, but I'm pretty sure that's 100% down to having to lug the tank (AKA the BRM) around there in GPL. It will be interesting to see what they do with Paul Ricard. Hopefully it's back to it's original best, with a mighty straight followed by a fast sweeper, which will really set the men apart from the boys. We need more fast tracks. If Tilke gets his haby gav - F1
I don't even think I was posting in the F1 forum back in 2006.by gav - F1
Why did I type "Mortal" in the quote box. Sorry Morbid! It's hardly an empty statement and you know fine well what I mean. I personally am giving him grief for being an arse afterwards, once more saying his team were favouring Rosberg publicly, not for his actions during the race. This is the team that told Rosberg to let him through in Monaco but I guess he quickly forgot abby gav - F1
Never going to happen in a million years. He's worth too much to them as a brand. If he'd ultimately cost Rosberg the championship, despite saying he wouldn't play any of those games beforehand (presumably to the team too, hence him waiting until the pitstops were over), then I could see a warning coming his way, and perhaps a race suspension if he does anything serious next seaby gav - F1
QuoteMortal Hamilton has been stupidly unlucky with his gear this season. That is of course true, but he's also been lucky in one sense with how little it's affected him. Only 1 failure resulted in a finish off the podium (and that was a result of first corner damage, though of course he was much less likely to have had it had he been at the front), the other two qualifying issues caby gav - F1
Something I remembered while having a bath last night... Monaco, when Rosberg let Hamilton through as he couldn't get his wets up to temperature. Obviously very different circumstances, and I still would have done what Hamilton did, but as Webber put perfectly, he could have been more gracious after the race yesterday.by gav - F1
:D I think Carlitox missed it.by gav - F1
I'm pretty sure Rosberg will take the #1. He's probably vain enough in that regard (not meant as a criticism) to want it.by gav - F1
What a tense finish. I can completely understand Mercedes' stance but I equally agree with what Hamilton did and I've even done the same in sim-racing when trying to secure a constructor's title. I didn't feel ashamed doing it and that was with good mates, and I don't think Mercedes will be too upset ultimately... if it all went belly up it would have been great to heaby gav - F1
There was talk that the Osterreichring was being actively developed during the Austria GP weekend, but from the helicopter shots that weekend I saw nothing which suggested any recent work. I've always quite liked the current A1/RB Ring layout. It's simple and short, and obviously pales compared to the Osterreichring, but that exact layout would be terrible these days. F1 has too manyby gav - F1
Quoten00binio Concerning tyre pressures, he said pressures are quite high for the wets (almost balloon shaped tyres) as it is preferable to have a small area of contact. I thought the main reason for high pressure in the wets was to open the tread block more.by gav - F1
You also have to remember that when you're hearing the likes of Verstappen saying "it's ready to go" that he has far more downforce than the cars lower in the pack. It's very different for some of the other drivers in worse cars. Hamilton was saying the same and he had more downforce and a clear track. It was only really Magnussen towards the rear who was being brave onby gav - F1