It was definitely a bit of a stuttering start. No Manor, so two cars down already, then Bottas's back injury put us three down, Magussen's engine popping before it even got to the grid meant four down (Alonso will be relieved he stayed home), then Kyat's failure put us five down before we even started. Then the first corner fracas and generic unreliability put both Lotus outby J i m - F1
Thought Toto... I mean Arnie did the podium well... but dissapointed he didn't slip "Get to de choppah!" in.by J i m - F1
Well, the highlights finally and very belatedly found their way on to the iPlayer, and so here are some of my thoughts about the state of play. The cars are beautiful this year, I can even tolerate the Sauber (when it's out of focus), but more so than ever if you painted the cars all the same colours then you'd have a job telling any apart. Sparks! obviously a deliberate gimmick,by J i m - F1
The BBC were just as bad.. I missed watching live because of work, no worries I thought, I'll simply watch on iPlayer. Well I missed the 'live' rerun aka qualifying highlights on BBC1, and then after 3 hours getting bored waiting for them to show up on iPlayer, which they didn't btw ... I headed to the red button which my freeview box assured me would be showing the highligby J i m - F1
It's quite ironic really, Monish is supposed to be the legal expert... but Sauber has now found itself in the mother of all legal screw ups.by J i m - F1
The Sauber situation is a clusterfuck if I ever saw one. Completely rediculous situation. I read that software is the issue for Manor. The car s built and it passed scrutineering without a problem, it's basically ready to go, but all the software systems were wiped prior to the auctions (which were of course cancelled) and now're they're scrambling to get everything reinstalledby J i m - F1
OT. The ironic thing about the truck though, as bad as it looked (and it looked bad), it probably didn't make a very big contribution towards his injury. The photographs show his crash helmet to be largely unscathed, which strongly suggests that against all odds that he didn't actually hit his head in the collision with the truck. And if you saw the video clip of it, it also didnby J i m - F1
It's just a lot of silliness really. With all these denials and the conflicting information coming from McLaren they've basically fanned the flames for the tabloid, speculation based rumour mill. As usual facts (or at least the verifiable available information) are being ignored to create sensationalism. Similar things happened with poor Bianchi's accident. People cherry pickby J i m - F1
And Manor are on their way trucks left factory last night, freight leaves today. Next hurdles are scrutineering and getting the damned thing to run.by J i m - F1
Yeah, Williams need to push harder this year. In many ways they were correct to play the conservative card last year, especially early on to bank and consolidate their position. But if we're honest, they should have been the ones to capitalise when Merc dropped the ball at both Montreal and Spa but were roundly beaten by Ricciardo and Red Bull. Merc, seem to have as solid as an advantageby J i m - F1
And the 'interim' car which is a 2014 Marussia basically (and heavily) modified to fully meet the 2015 regulations has passed the crash tests, it's all systems go and freighting to Melbourne ASAP. As far as I can gather some parts of the 2015 design have been carried across to the 2014 car. The definitive 2015 car is still in development and is planned to debut later in the seasby J i m - F1
Manor are increasingly confident that they'll be at Melbourne, they're crash testing an 2015 legal interim car tomorrow, before introducing the 2015 later in the season. Investors have also been announced.by J i m - F1
So, post testing what do we reckon? Assuming clement weather... Group 1: Ding ding, Lewis v Britney round 2. Group 2: Battle royal between (in no particular order) Williams, Ferrari and Red Bull. Group 3: Midfield scrap (with the occasional hero escaping the pack to play with the big boys) between Lotus, Toro Rosso, Force India and Sauber. Group 4: Those lovably plucky chapby J i m - F1
gav Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Edit: Looks like Manor will be confirmed on the > entry list later today. If they've passed all the > crash tests and got a car ready for Melbourne they > need a trophy of their own. That's a remarkable > effort. They didn't even have a factory nor tools > (or staff?) at one point. >by J i m - F1
There definitely seems to be something odd over the whole Alonso accident, Ron Dennis has come out and said that there are no injuries, not even a concussion and yet he's been sidelined from testing and some people are doubting him for even Melbourne. It's all just very strange. But at least with the current condition of the car he's not exactly missing anything. At this rate Iby J i m - F1
gav Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > There's little doubt that Mercedes start as firm > favourites, the mileage they've put in during > testing and the confidence displayed in not > hunting lap-times is indeed onomious. > > > Rosberg's just done a 1:24.5 on the mediums... > which according to Autosport would eqby J i m - F1
It looks like we could be in for a really competive year. There's little doubt that Mercedes start as firm favourites, the mileage they've put in during testing and the confidence displayed in not hunting lap-times is indeed onomious. It's widely considered that against all expectation, Ferrari have made a big step forward. They've consistently been at (or near) the topby J i m - F1
Force India's 2015 car won't be ready for the next test, what's more they won't even be taking either Hulkenberg or Perez to use the 2014 car... but, Mercedes test driver Pascal Wehrlein instead. Sounds like Force India are trying their best to take the "Resident F1 Clusterfuck" title away from Caterham.by J i m - F1
QuoteMarussia/Manor GP CEO Graeme Lowdon has responded to suggestions from Force India’s Bob Fernley to the effect that the team did not provide any “substance” when asking to run its 2014 car this year – and has emphasised that the team is not giving up its hopes of being on the grid. He said work is continuing on a 2015 car, and that confidentiality was the reason why no details of any new iby J i m - F1
It is pathetic really. Another symptom of the preposterous distribution of revenue within the sport. It remains to be seen if Manor's new consortium will fund construction of the 2015 car, as they can still miss three races. But with this 'screw you' attitude from the strategy group I'd be surprised if they still saw the point of it all. Considering Force India, Lotusby J i m - F1
Hmmmm it seems that other teams may well thrawt the Manor recovery. Apparently they have to agree before they can get the dispensation to race their 2014 car, and it is said that up to five teams are extremely reluctant to facilitate this. Considering that this dispensation was already granted to Caterham who probably won't be able to race anyway, it would be an utter disgrace to deny Manby J i m - F1
Really really hope Manor pull through, if they survive it will end up being one of the best feel good stories in F1 for me. The tenacity displayed in the face of hopelessness has been astonishing. I'm a little bit more 'meh' regarding Caterham, although it would be better to have them than not have them so long as any new owner/management isn't a complete clusterfuck. Hoby J i m - F1
I think the main problem with the MP4/18 (I think it was) was that it simply wasn't reliable enough for them to be confident enough to race it. The development continued on the MP4/17 in a dual programme through out the season and many MP4/18 concepts found their way onto the MP4/17. The MP4/19, in looks was basically a MP4/18 which didn't break down as much It was all a bit embaby J i m - F1
What Super Aguri manged with those cars, especially the arrows which was.. what about four years old, and only semi competitive when contemporary was actually pretty impressive. Seems Honda might have made a break through today, Alonso is getting some laps in that aren't in basically 'crawl home' mode.by J i m - F1
I'm pretty sure that is the RB11, testing at Jerez. Obviously it'll have more developments by the time it gets to Melbourne, like all the other cars but I see little point in camouflaging a hybrid RB10 Pretty decent aesthetics across the field so far (Sauber excepted). Can't really tell much from the running so far except that Merc are testing their car beyond endurance andby J i m - F1
Shame the #camobull won't be raced, because that is indeed very creative.by J i m - F1
The Sauber is hideous. The livery and colour scheme simply does not work, which is a tremendous fail since the carlin in GP2 managed to make it look quite good.by J i m - F1
Honda are my main concern though. People have thought WOW Mclaren Honda! Senna, Prost ... They're going to win everything!!!! But as David Coulthard might say, past glory doesn't garantee future success and we're also forgetting that Honda's last involvement was a comparative failure, just a handful of wins mostly picked up 'Mugen' it has to be said. So Mclaby J i m - F1
So Hass. HQ in the states Design by Dallara in Italy Partly built in the states Race prepped in England I just hope Dallara get a chance to actually develop the car into something respectable for once.by J i m - F1
Right. So Hass have reportedly confirmed that they will use the Marussia factory as their UK base, however they are not the 11th hour investor interested in rescuing the team. Even Bernie Ecclestone has put his oar in now and stated that he thinks they have good chance of racing in Melbourne. Right, so. Where are the cars going to be prepared from?by J i m - F1