Silly Season REALLY About To Get Silly?

After a fairly quiet silly season, thus far, with Kimi being confirmed at Ferrari for 2016 and limiting potential driver moves, perhaps things are just about to get REALLY silly?

We have LOTUS being chased around the globe by the taxmen. Renault are about to seal their acquisition of the fledgling team, saving a great group of guys from early retirement and re-establishing a Renault Works entry. It's been a while...

Red Bull and Toro Rosso tossed Renault under the bus, then proceeded to drive the bus back-and-forth over Renault repeatedly. And they did this without a contracted engine supplier for 2016! Now Bernie had to come a rescue them by negotiating an engine deal with Ferrari because Merc said "nein!" Now the Alfa Romeo name is being resurrected in Grand Prix racing since????

McLaren has developed a decent GP2 engine, though it wouldn't pass scrutineering in that particular series... Alas, their seasoned World Champion driver duo are poised to leave the team together before 2016! That would leave McLaren without ANY driver (other than their 2 backup boys) and the WORST engine supplier on the grid by a large margin. Who would sign-up to take Alonso and Button's place on the team???? Other than Magnussen and Vandoorne, my guess is nobody! McLaren have potentially become a worse team to drive for than Marussia. At least Marussia have a better finishing record, right?

I have a feeling the **** is about to hit the fan in F1. I predict Alonso and Button leave McLaren at the end of the season, or sooner. Alonso will go to the new Renault team, joined by Loldonado. Britatore convinces everyone "it will be different this time". Again. Button is done for good. See ya at LeMans. McLaren drops Honda and becomes a Renault PU customer team for 2016. Ron Dennis would rather team-up with the French than flounder-around at the back of the pack as he has been. That's gotta hurt a man with such an ego. Honda is then forced to buy Force India, making them the Honda Works team. Too much pride to go one-and-done this time around... Perez and Hulk forced to become the new Honda Dream Team. Honda makes Marussia a sweetheart deal to run their PUs, since they really need the testing and data. Year-old PUs aren't going to be allowed anyway. Super Aguri, take 2! Stevens stays-on, joined by an up-and-coming Japanese hot-shoe to be named in December.

Thoughts?

 

I expect Alonso and Jenson to both be at Mclaren next year. They have contracts, they can cash in by rolling around for a year. They have just as good of chances there as anywhere else available.

 

Rules are still the same for 2016 right?

 

I agree. Macca need them and they need Macca. Besides, there are contracts. Nobody with an open seat can afford to buy out Alonso's and McLaren have an option on JB. I would be very surprised if both aren't back in 2016.

 

I'm sure their contracts have an exit clause, based on performance.

IMO they don't need Mclaren. Far from it. Both made so many millions they survive without. Alonso wants to win again, as does Mclaren. I've got sincere doubts that'll happen before 2017.

Mclaren needs a lead development driver (with all due respect, that is NOT alonso. He's there to take what's been developed and magically drag it to podiums and better). But more than that...they need an engine that's on par with Ferrari at the very least.

 

This could just be the silliest Silly season on record. As far as I can tell, there are only 3 stable teams in the grid right now - Merc, Ferrari and Williams. Everyone else is at risk.

I can't see where Alonso can go. The only possibility for a race winning seat would be Renault, but let's face it, their PU is not much better than Honda's. Net result - no chance of a WDC in 2016 with that team. So now it comes down to a roll of the dice - given 2 years max, who is a better bet to deliver a championship winning car? Renault or McLaren? Even after all this years shambles, McLaren would be most people's bet at a guess.

And let's not forget the final twist to this plot - 2017 is a completely new spec, so 2016 won't tell us much about 2017 chances either.

It's a mess. Well done Bernie and the Formula 1 Strategy Group.

 

No such thing as a "development driver" any more IMO. The amount of testing available means that the driver's role in development is much, much smaller than it was.

 

Wrong. Because there is no testing, every session on track is a test session. It is more important than ever to have a driver that can communicate to the engineers what is going-on behind the wheel.

If you listen to Jensen's radio, you will hear a lot of feedback regarding the chassis balance, behavior, as well as power delivery characteristics. Alonso's radio communication is very different.

 

You hear what the broadcaster allow. You have no idea what Alonso provides. Period.

 

100% correct.

Though the real development with drivers is behind closed doors.

 

What a mess, and on top of this the cars are ****!!!

 

It's funny when I see repeated posts about the Mac drivers that say "but but but they have a contract!" F1 contracts are about as reliable as Honda's current engines.

 

As disappointing as the Renaults have been, they are an order of magnitude better than the Hondas

 

To me all these issues that we are seeing are just symptoms of a much larger problem. I think what we are witnessing is the beginning of the end (in one form or the other). With time F1 has moved so far away from real cars that the F1 technology now has limited impact on road cars making it a purely marketing exercise. With the waning interest in cars, especially among the younger generations, combined with a move away from gasoline engines (turbos are already turning away longtime fans), viewership and sponsorship dollars will continue to decline.
Not saying this will happen in a year or two but imho the decline has definitely set in.

 

Rubbish. F1 will not die - that's an absurd suggestion. F1 will adapt and move forwards.

 

I hear you, but can you see Renault ever being wcc contenders?

 

???

I'm not among the "younger generation" so I can't speak for them, but do you have any facts to back up this claim?

 

I may be repeating myself here, but coming from a family where my father and grand father spent their lives working around air racing, I see what you are getting at.
Air racing had a huge following and captivated the crowd before and just after WWII. There were not only local derby races, but long distance records, international races with huge budgets to operate costly aircraft, large crews to spanner them, etc... It used to be big business, and now, 50 years later it's all gone.
What is left is historic racing where old aircraft that missed the museum are flown in short exhibitions.

I think that the way F1 is heading. It's becoming very technical, very remote from "the man in the street", and so increasingly expensive that people will question what's the point in it? Like air racing, the engineering war between teams will make it more difficult to understand, whilst the atmosphere will be sanitised to the point of boredom. People may have more fun playing on a simulator than watching a race one day, who know? In fact, simulators may be the lasting legacy of F1, whilst the racers will gather dust in museums, just like the old aircraft.

There is a chance that the future generations will not be so enamoured with the combustion engine as we are, and many will turn down owning a car, prefering the safety of public transport or perhaps opt for electric power. As for motor racing, it will be seen as anti-social. I can see it in my own family. Of my 5 adult children, 3 have a license and only 2 have a car, and when I proposed recently to my eldest grandson to buy him driving lessons for his 18th birthday, I thought he would welcome the offer, he looked at me in amazement like if I said something rude and say he would prefer an electric organ instead!! So here you go ...

 

The many reasons millennials are shunning cars - The Washington Post

The article contains some interesting data points.

 

With respect, what does an article about US millenials and their driving habits have to do with F1 and your assertion that F1 will die in 1 - 2 years???! F1 is a global sport and believe it or not, the world can't get enough of fast cars. Have you noticed the global boom in super car sales? For your hypothesis about F1 to be correct, motor sport in general would have to die out. Guess what - it won't. Have you noticed the popularity of Nascar?

 

I categorically said that it will not die in a year or two.....it's the start of a longer term trend. If you don't agree with my opinion that is fine by me as it is just one persons opinion. I respect the fact that you have a differing opinion, keeps the world interesting. Let's see how things play out over the next 10-15 years.

 

I think it will take more than 10-15 years, but before the end of this century, motor racing will be considered as irrelevant and barbaric as a gladiators fight.

As for the motor car itself, between pollution and over-population, it will become outlawed in large agglomerations, replaced by public transport - probably free. That's what tomorrow's town planners have in mind.

 

Automated cars are the future. An aging baby boomer generation who is living longer, yet demand freedom of mobility is going to drive adoption. The millennials will latch onto that trend as well. We will probably see significant adoption in automated vehicles between 2020-2025. Technology development is moving very fast in this area by every marque.

It will be interesting to see how traditional cars fare in this transition period. They probably will become too expensive to insure by the average person at some point in time.

When that happens, auto racing becomes an irrelevant sport for the wealthy much like polo.

 

+1

We are probably witnessing the last decades of individual transport and unrestricted driving.

Motor racing will look archaic in a century, just like steam engines are seen now.

 

Lol, self driving cars for the masses are 100 years off, easy.

Political red tape alone will stymie them