The F1 Thread 2014 Season

The return of RonSpeak. The ability to say a lot without saying anything and proceed to make people fall asleep.
 
"My fellow shareholders have mandated me to write an exciting new chapter in the story of McLaren, beginning by improving our on-track and off-track performance," he said.

"Over the coming weeks I intend to undertake a thorough and objective review of each of our businesses with the intention of optimising every aspect of our existing operations, whilst identifying new areas of growth that capitalise on our technologies, and where appropriate further investing in them."

Running translation from Ron Speak to English......

Translation: "bye bye Martin"
 
Bye bye Di Resta

Sensible move really, he is just an also-ran in F1 that never really kicked on from solid years. Another one like Sutil who people say "give them a car!" and teams never do, namely because they know how good drivers are beyond what we see on track.

Now he goes back to the premier Touring Car series in the world and gets paid to drive one of the best cars on the grid. Good luck to him, he is better off there. I think he might use it to bridge the gap to an Indy Car move though, which would be good.
 
gets paid to drive one of the best cars on the grid.

Mercedes aren't quite the force in DTM anymore, BMW & Audi have ruled the roost since Di Resta left.

Di Resta isn't as bad as others are making out, he's better than most on the grid currently but just doesn't have the budget to buy a seat. He, and more Force India, suffered big time from the Pirelli change last year. Before Silverstone he actually had some good form.
 
Di Resta isn't as bad as others are making out, he's better than most on the grid currently but just doesn't have the budget to buy a seat. He, and more Force India, suffered big time from the Pirelli change last year. Before Silverstone he actually had some good form.

Better than most? Not really, he is mid-level bracket. I'd agree that he is better than some of the pay drivers and the lower end dreck but he isn't anywhere near the level of the front 6-7 and unless you bring massive sponsorship that only gets you so long in F1.
 
I agree with Leg-End, Di Resta was overhyped in my eyes, mostly because he's British I expect. He made a string of errors in 2013 and I'm not surprised he's lost his place in F1 when he doesn't have the financial backing to buy himself a seat. Good luck to him in DTM, but I don't think he's a loss to the grid.

On an unrelated note; McLaren are seemingly going to run without a title sponsor this year, but claim to have the biggest operating budget in their history. Honda already pumping money in? I'd like to see Jenson have a good season but feck me I hate Ron Dennis so I'm quite torn as to how I want their season to go.

I wonder if we'll see Orange McLarens again in 2015.
 
Love that new livery. You can't really see the nose though from that angle and apparently it's going to get even uglier, but you can see the bit where it's supposed to get thinner (shading under the green text on the nose).

On an unrelated note; McLaren are seemingly going to run without a title sponsor this year, but claim to have the biggest operating budget in their history. Honda already pumping money in? I'd like to see Jenson have a good season but feck me I hate Ron Dennis so I'm quite torn as to how I want their season to go.

I wonder if we'll see Orange McLarens again in 2015.
There've been rumours that Honda are already at least matching what Vodafone put in, but they are only rumours of course. Considering though they were originally supposed to be announcing the sponsor on December the 2nd, postponing it to the car launch and now not even then, something's certainly gone a bit tits up. Hopefully it's just another 2006 season with the deal kicking in next year. I'd love orange McLarens again but apparently they're still silver.
 
I dunno, you'd think the year they go without a title sponsor would be the year they have the ability to do it. Will be fun to see what they come up with on Friday anyway.
 
A livery change to orange will create extra buzz when tied in with the Honda deal, there's no way they'd go back to it before running Honda engines. That's if they're even planning on going back to it at all - it's been a hell of a long time since we saw an orange McLaren, apart from that testing session they did.
 
Didn't McLaren do a quick 1 year deal with Emirates back in 2006 to bridge the gap to Vodafone? Thought they would have something in place really.

I like that Force India have gone to a black base car, but I can't say I love the livery yet. Have to see it from angles, the nose and on-track really, but it is better than the boring designs they have had the last couple of years.
 
I think McLaren are simply syphoning off money from their sportscar business to fund the years gap from sponsorship.
 
Screen-Shot-2014-01-23-at-09.58.43.png


The Williams cocknose

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2014/...-noses-we-will-have-to-learn-to-love-in-2014/

I know that Jean Todt is the FIA president, but forcing the entire paddock to look like him is going a bit far.
 
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Didn't think the stepnoses could be beaten for ridiculousness, but these certainly come close...

Didn't McLaren do a quick 1 year deal with Emirates back in 2006 to bridge the gap to Vodafone? Thought they would have something in place really.
Yeah, they're still in talks with a few companies though according to autosport, whether that's for the title sponsorship or just an interim it didn't say. Emirates didn't join till the actual week of the Bahrain GP in 2006, so still time yet. Will have to see if any areas of the car are left blank tomorrow.

Edit - just seen rumours Sam Michael will be given the job as team principal tomorrow. Please no.
 
Sam Michael, he is basically the Moyes of TD's, seems to be rated but never actually wins anything.

That nose :lol: It really is going to be the year of the cocknose, any team that risks not having one will automatically have the best looking car, I bet they all have it though.
 
I've seen predictions of some even greater monstrosities, having a high nose as before (disguised as a "vanity panel") with the little knob bit sticking out lower down as the "actual nose". So essentially like a xenomorph, but without the awesome.
 
If you think the Williams one is bad, this is possibly what Caterham's could look like....

ZV0dXDW.jpg
 
I can't believe the double points for the last race have been agreed. It makes the whole thing feel gimicky. Maybe I'll get used to the idea but at the moment I feel like it devalues the credibility of the sport
 
I can't believe the double points for the last race have been agreed. It makes the whole thing feel gimicky. Maybe I'll get used to the idea but at the moment I feel like it devalues the credibility of the sport

It does devalue the credibility of the sport.
 
The livery is fantastic, the car is not. Jesus christ the cocknose!
 
If it didn't have that nose it would look very very nice but its like a having Scarlett Johansson wear one of those big plastic joke noses.

It's also pretty much identical to the Mercedes which will be annoying in the races unless Merc have gone with something a bit different liverywise this year.
 
The Lotus

BevlO5ACQAEyFE1.png:large

It looks like it has the connecting piece to McLaren's nose, I'm gonna call it the baggy vagina.
 
That looks like the end of the hammer you use to pull out nails. This season is going to be a horror show.