2017 FORMULA 1 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

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There's a few like that on here ...

 

I was basing my comment on figures that were released not so long ago. I assumed that Mercedes was the biggest spender, but in fact, Ferrari is, and Red Bull with its 2 teams together (a hell of an advertising bill for Mateschitz !!) . Mercedes comes 3rd, well in front of the rest, of course. The most efficient team is Force India that has the most favourable ratio between money spent and points scored.

 

Those figures don’t include how much mercedes spent developing their pu or how much more Red Bull and Toro Rosso have to pay Renault since 2016 to rebrand or use their engines now they are not as close as before.

 

The article (Can't remember the source now) was about budgets. I assume it was all inclusive.

 

here's a twitter page that I use. Just scroll down to Sept 11 (there abouts; not far down)

https://twitter.com/AUTbusinessport

alot of info about spending and budgets. For those interested save it on your "favorites."

 

OK, but why should we trust more an Italian Twitter than a US or British source?

 

The best drivers this year ,finished in the correct order.

I mentioned awhile ago that Ferrari were slowly sinking,and was blasted for it .Well looks like the plug has finally disintegrated now.Pity really.

 

Just a reference is all.....cross check it with a U.S. or British source should you have them at your disposal.

 

I think you are right. The writing was on the wall for sometime now. In the last few years, there has been many departures of talented technical staff at Maranello, and that doesn't bring a good atmosphere. A team that took years to create has been slowly disbanded, and I have no faith in the new management.

 

Interesting drivers briefing Suzuka 2017.

1.) Vettel/Stroll incident. Charlie to Seb "ride the medical car next time" then Lewis about Seb taking the steering wheel.
2.) Grosjean inquiring about Lewis "unfastening" his safety belts after the race...Massa joining in with Grosjean. Debate about "loosening" and "un-doing" them.

notice Stroll being underage not having the "Martini" logo.

Inside The F1 Driver Briefing | 2017 Japanese Grand Prix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPr5khO86Eg

 

OCTOBER 9, 2017

Japanese supplier blamed for Vettel failure


Fingers of blame are pointing at a team supplier, after Ferrari's 2017 title campaign turned into a Japanese nightmare.

NGK, the supplier of spark plugs to the Italian team, is located just an hour from Suzuka.

And on Sunday, it was a simple failed spark plug that led to Sebastian Vettel's retirement -- and almost certainly left the world championship in the hands of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.

"The world cup dream for Ferrari has been postponed until 2018," Corriere della Sera declared.

Some are speculating that Ferrari's nightmare Asian tour could cost team boss Maurizio Arrivabene his job.

But the Italian knows where to look for Sunday's failure.

"Everybody saw what happened," said Arrivabene. "Do you see any mistake by the team?"

He told Italian television Sky: "The car is good beyond the components that cost us.

"But we have to turn the page, keep motivated, do the analysis of what happened, and go to Austin, even if the points (deficit) to Mercedes is a lot."

German Vettel defended his team, saying reliability problems can be the price of pushing hard. If he doesn't finish at least fifth in Austin and Hamilton wins again, the championship chase will be over definitively.

"I don't think you have to be a maths genius," said Vettel when asked if the title is slipping away. "But we still have a chance. It's just not in our hands as we would like it to be."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff was seen consoling Arrivabene on the Ferrari pitwall after Sunday's race.

"I get on very well with Maurizio and they must all feel awful," he said.

"Maybe it is the development slope of the team. They made a huge step forward from 2016 to 2017. Their car is super-fast, it just lacks reliability and that is the next step."

However, Wolff insisted it's not over until it's over, and his fellow Mercedes boss Niki Lauda agrees.

"I feel sorry for Sebastian," said Lauda. "Thank God it's them and not us, but Ferrari need to look where these small mistakes come from and correct them.

"Sebastian has a big deficit, but I always say that as long as the title is not won or lost, it is not won or lost."

 

Blaming the Japs, eh?
Maybe Arrivabene has never heard of quality checks on outsourced parts ?
They are as important as quality control for in-house components.
Those are current practice in engineering, but evidently Arrivabene wouldn't know anything about industrial environment.

 

Yes, you are right...like any other manufacturer they should have run the spark plug for at least 1000 KM on the test bench before installing her into the car...

With the parc fermé rules: was that not the same plug that run without fault the day before in qualy? So how could one figure out it will missfire the next day?

 

You have to admit that it's weird. I haven't heard about a plug failure for years now. Maybe it wasn't the right grade of plugs ...

 

This

 

Yes you are right...they went to the next local store and bought the next best they could find...

 

Hahaha fer sure ....No!! Steve control yourself I know this is crying out for attention, but you must resist, resist you must...

 

They were too busy fixing Seb's damaged back end ..

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/feature/7761/the-mounting-woe-that-killed-vettel-title-hopes - Below from this link on Autosport+

That's all Vettel can do now - go for broke. But that spark plug failure is likely to sound the death knell for his shattered championship dream.

The funny thing is, Mercedes changed Hamilton's sixth-cylinder spark plug in parc ferme ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, as Ferrari left Vettel's car untouched.

Success in F1 is often about taking care of tiny details. In this case, they have almost certainly now undone Vettel and Ferrari.

 

Nonsense. Arrivabene didn't blame NGK at all (at least in what is quoted here).
He says the error wasn't with the team and this might well be true.
The spark plug has passed at least two quality control steps, one at NGK (likely multiple) and one at Ferrari (possibly multiple). People gotta do homework and figure out what happened and why. It might be something they didn't test for, something tests didn't detect or something entirely new/unknown. That is why there is engineering...

 

Go back to Magnetti Marelli

 

Agreed. They are their supplier(other components) and they do make spark plugs but why would Ferrari use NGK??? Not sayin that they are'nt good. Weird.

 

NGK could be a sponsor arrangement.

 

Lucas!