So is Scuderia Ferrari now the second-oldest team in F1 since Alfa Romeo have rebranded Sauber? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Brawn becomes Mercedes-- the F1 world goes "Yeah! The return of the silver arrows!" Sauber becomes Alfa Romeo -- the F1 world goes "Oh gee, another marketing ploy"
At least Mercedes bothered to buy an engine factory and owns part of the team. Alfa Romeo just put some stickers on a Sauber with Ferrari engine. P.S: ...and I didn´t give a **** when Mercedes returned either.
An engine factory in England that also made Chevy Indy motors . Atleast the Alfa Racing Ferrari engines are put together in Italy.
You could say the Mercedes F1 is a British team financed by a German sponsor and partly owned and managed by 2 Austrians, no?
I believe they also made the Mercedes "stock block" engine for Penske that dominated the 1994 Indy 500 and then was outlawed.
So will the "Alfa Romeo" engines they use be the same as the engines in the Ferraris, or will they be kept one iteration behind?
I don't know if it had to be "stock block", but the régulations then said it had to be pushrod. Roger Penske famously exploiting a loophole in the rulebook that was soon closed ! It was surprising that no one else saw a possibility there ...
I did at the time but so what? I believe it originally was intended for normally aspirated V8s of 305 cu.in displacement, then possibly revised in the turbo era to accommodate engines like the Buick V6. I could be wrong, I am not an Indy car expert.
Remember, Roger has always been one to look for the "Unfair Advantage". That's part of why he's been so successful for so long.
There's a fine book called BEAST about the development of the engine. I was at Indy that year and the Penskes would simply squat coming out of the turns and rocket away down the straights.
[La Gazzetta dello Sport] The authoritative sports newspaper claims the new Alfa will have a radical shape as it has been designed with "as little caution as possible". It is claimed team boss Frederic Vasseur has also recruited staff heavily over the winter period, thanks in part to the collaboration with Ferrari and the signing of Kimi Raikkonen. The 2019 Sauber has been designed by former Ferrari designer Simone Resta, and will reportedly feature "interesting innovations" not seen on any other F1 car so far. La Gazzetta dello Sport also said Finn Raikkonen was seen at Sauber's Hinwil factory several times in January.
Back about 15 years ago, I knew the a chappie in the F1 team at Ferrari. He noted that Ferrari was good at developing ideas, not having success with them, and then discarding them. It might be that Resta is using some of those ideas, and further developing them to get better performance. I guess we will soon see what comes forth.
I wouldn't compare Sauber to Stewart racing: Peter Sauber established a team a LONG time ago building up through the levels to F1. Very much like Williams but without the same success. Stewart racing was a rather artificial construct when they just took over a team, branded it as such and kept it running for a couple of years before selling it again.
[Autobild] FIAT paid 6 million € for changing Sauber‘s name into Alfa Romeo Racing, a team that still belongs to Islero Investments. It is revealed that Fiat boss John Elkann has been given an option to buy the whole Sauber F1 Team. This option is valid until summer. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I'm glad to see the Alfa Romeo name prominently plastered on an F1 car. Even if it is name only. Happy that Kimi will be in the car and liking the circular nostalgia with Ferrari power on board (as previously mentioned). Maybe Liberty Sells and V-10s return as F1 looks to the past and finds itself (not holding my breath).
I would grin from ear to ear if they came up with something like the 2009 Brawn double diffuser and Kimi just shot off into the distance at Melbourne !
Absolutely yes. That has always been my answer when someone explains to me that "Mercedes F1" is the best example of german discipline and ingenuity. Rgds
The pity is that Alfa Romeo doesn't have very good car range to promote right now. Alfa has terrible feedbacks in customers surveys too, being one of the least reliable make. As a promotional tool for its brand, running in F1 is rather a wasted effort, IMO.
