F1 - General discussion and 2017

Fox1 said:
Meh...Alonso is another whiny driver. He had his chances at Ferrari but chose to dismantle a Championship winning team that saw top Ferrari men switch over to Mercedes.
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They gave him a crap car.
 
Celis gets two F1 practice outings with Force India


The Force India Formula 1 team will use its reserve driver Alfonso Celis Jr in Friday practice for the first time this season at the Austrian and Hungarian Grands Prix.

Celis had six outings in official F1 weekend sessions during 2016, but his only on-track appearances for the team so far this year have been in winter and post-Bahrain GP testing.

Force India has announced that Sergio Perez will step aside for Celis on Friday morning at the Red Bull Ring this week, with Esteban Ocon doing so at the Hungaroring in a month's time.

Celis's main campaign this year is a third season in what is now called World Series Formula V8 3.5.

Driving for Fortec this season, the 20-year-old Mexican claimed his first F3.5 win at Spa in May and is fighting for the title with Lotus duo Pietro Fittipaldi and Rene Binder.

Celis sits third in the standings after last weekend's Aragon round, 16 points off leader Fittipaldi.
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Source
 
Sainz calls for rethink of "dangerous" Baku restarts


Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jr has lobbied for changes to be made to safety car restarts in Baku, as he believes they created a “dangerous situation” in the 2017 race.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix proved a chaotic affair last weekend, as the race featured three separate safety car restarts, with collisions and resulting debris led to frequent lengthy interruptions.

Sainz, who finished the race in eighth, said afterwards that the restarts presented the biggest safety risk in the event, as inconsistent pace from the leaders on approach to the start-finish line caused disruptions further down the order.

“For me it was probably the most dangerous part of the race,” Sainz said of the restarts. “The leaders were waiting up until the safety car line to start, and at the same time they were going fast-slow, and for the guys at the back, we're still in the corners when they're going fast-slow, and there's walls and we cannot see through them.

“So suddenly we are going flat out in sixth, seventh gear, and they are braking again. For me a bit on the dangerous side, probably for next year they should reconsider when the leader is obliged to push.”

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton led the field on all three restarts. For the initial occasion, he opted to accelerate early out of the Turn 16 left-hander and was warned by the team that he had come too close to passing the safety car before the first safety car line, which would have yielded a penalty.

The Brit went much later on the throttle the second and third time around, accelerating in the flat-out section encompassing Turns 17 to 20.

Sainz continued: “I think they should just put a rule for the leader to restart before Turn 16 and then to be flat from 16, make sure he's racing from 16 onwards, no?

“Because you cannot be slow braking, fast, slow braking, fast, you know, all the time, in such a long straight, with people actually thinking we are going, suddenly upshifting, and suddenly braking again.”

The Spaniard clarified that the issue had not come up in the drivers' briefing despite last year's hectic safety car restarts in GP2 races in Baku, and said he was not blaming the leader for accelerating late.

“If I were the leader, I probably would've done the same,” he said. “It's not the leader's fault at all. I think we would all have done the same to avoid the maximum possible slipstream.

“Put a rule, I think, if you want to be a bit more careful and make sure there's no accidents. If not, just let it be and more things will happen, and that's it.”
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Force India makes first move in ‘Force One’ name change

Force India has taken the first steps to a possible re-branding as Force One, with the formation of a series of UK company names featuring the new identity.

Documents reveal that on May 31st and June 6th new limited companies were registered under the names Force One Grand Prix, Force One Racing, Force One Team, Force One Technologies, Force One Hospitality, and Force One Brand.

The only director listed is Dr Thiruvannamalai Laskshimi Kanthan, an accountant, financial consultant, and long time associate of Dr Vijay Mallya.

He is also a director of the Force India team and three other companies connected with it.

Mallya is planning a change to a more generic name in an attempt to open up options for sponsorship, given that it has proved hard to raise funds in India.

A new name would also potentially make it easier to sell a shareholding in the team.

The new companies have in essence been created to protect the name that is currently favoured, prior to approval, and none of them will actually become the team as such. The company that currently uses the Force India Formula One Team name and holds all commercial rights – and which was was previously known as Jordan, Midland and Spyker – would have to change to Force One.

An application for a chassis name change would have to be made to the FIA, and approved by the F1 Commission. Traditionally Bernie Ecclestone didn’t make it easy for teams to change names without good reasons, but Force India is confident that it will not be problematic.

“Force India was born out of Vijay owning the team,” said COO Otmar Szafnauer.

“His hopes that some India companies would sponsor us. As it turned out, there were a couple, but not very many. He also hoped that India would have a Grand Prix, which happened. With the Grand Prix and a couple of our sponsors, it made sense to have Force India’s name.


“Since then we’ve lost the Grand Prix there, the Indian sponsors no longer were interested in sponsoring us. Now we have no Indian sponsors whatsoever, apart from Vijay’s Kingfisher.

“So it kind of makes sense to change it from India in order to attract sponsors more globally, and not restrict ourselves to being Force India.

“For a name a chassis change we need approval from some of the rest. I don’t think it’s all, but it’s got to go through the F1 Commission. If the FIA and commercial rights holder and some of the teams say ‘yes,’ then we can have a name change.

“I think there’s a spirit of co-operation in that regard. We voted for Brawn to go to Mercedes, and I would hope they would reciprocate.”

Szafnauer said the change has to be the right one: “You don’t change your name every other year, so we’ve got to think about it deeply and philosophically, and make sure if we do it, it’s going to be there for a long time. The one reason Bernie didn’t like name changes all the time is that a team over time gets an identity and everyone knows who it is.

“We’ve been Force India for 10 years now, if we do change, it should last another 10 years or 20 years so people get to know what it is.

“If we choose a name that’s closely linked to Force India but not Force India that might even be an easier step forward.”

The FORCE name was previously associated with the F1 team also known as Beatrice Haas in 1985 and ‘86, but whose official title was Formula One Race Car Engineering.

When owner Carl Haas pulled out of the sport it was bought by Ecclestone, who still owns it, although it has not actually traded since then.
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FIA reviewing the Vettal Hamilton incident to determine if further action is needed...

Source : SkySports
 
A retrospective penalty would ruin the championship and fans interest in the sport. They've already added points to his licence for good measure.
 
Fox1 said:
A retrospective penalty would ruin the championship and fans interest in the sport. They've already added points to his licence for good measure.
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Speak for yourself. On the contrary, it would close the gap.
Vettel continues to be defiant that he did nothing wrong. I have a feeling they won't let this slip.
They let him off for swearing at Charlie because he made an effort to apologise.
 
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They really should have resorted to the VSC on more than one occasion this weekend. That would have been problem solved.
 
Robertvv said:
Safety car must disappear beginning of that long straight.
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It can't disappear until it reaches the pit lane entrance, Hamilton almost passed it on the first restart and he only started accelating out of 16 or 17 iirc. If full racing started at 16 there's no doubt they would run into or be overtaking the SC before it could get off.

It seems a design flaw of the Baku track that it's such a long distance to the pit entrance.
 
Sabre Wulf said:
Speak for yourself. On the contrary, it would close the gap.
Vettel continues to be defiant that he did nothing wrong. I have a feeling they won't let this slip.
They let him off for swearing at Charlie because he made an effort to apologise.
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Not to mention the harm that's been done by the apparent condoning of road rage the soft punishment appears to reflect.

He should be stripped of last weekends points.
 
If there is a ban I expect a lengthy one and the championship over as of that. Ironic that it was the same FIA that did not get involved in the Rosberg Hamilton incident last year.
 
Sabre Wulf said:
They really should have resorted to the VSC on more than one occasion this weekend. That would have been problem solved.
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The Safety car is too slow for that circuit and the VSC won't bunch them up enough for the marshals to get the job done.
I propose that next year whoever is driving the leading Honda Powered Car be the designated Safety Car.
Even Flat out it is slow enough to bunch up the field but is faster than the Safety car and is expendable.
:twisted:
 
Fox1 said:
If there is a ban I expect a lengthy one and the championship over as of that. Ironic that it was the same FIA that did not get involved in the Rosberg Hamilton incident last year.
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Which Rosberg Hamilton incident did the FIA not get involved in?
 
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