NOTÍCIAS DA FÓRMULA 1

[P44]

É o mais óbvio. Caso contrário é certinho que o Alonso os manda passear no final da época.

[akivrx78]

Se a Honda continuar pode esperar mais uns 2 anos para eles desenvolveram este novo motor, aposto que ate a metade do ano eles ainda vão estar com o motor limitado para não quebrar mas mesmo assim vai quebrar, durante este tempo eles vão tentar entender e resolver os defeitos, evolução mesmo somente no final do ano ou próxima temporada

Para os problemas serem resolvidos mais rápido a Honda teria de montar um centro de desenvolvimento de motores junto com a Mclaren na Inglaterra mas a Honda não parece afim de investir tanto na F1, eles apenas construíram uma linha de montagem de motores em Milton Keynes, e já foi dito que eles querem desenvolver o motor em casa utilizando somente mão de obra caseira.

A Mclaren esta em declínio já faz um bom tempo, vem perdendo patrocínio ano a ano eles vão botar a culpa em qualquer coisa menos no chassi, para a Honda seria interessante fornecer motores para outra equipe em 2018 se eles continuarem na F1.

Ninguém foi pego de surpresa no meio do campeonato do ano passado o chefe da Honda já dizia que se optassem por um novo projeto do motor o desenvolvimento seria mais demorado e complicado, pois praticamente nada seria reaproveitado, seria mais sensato terem continuado com o motor do final do ano passado com melhorias e introduzido este novo motor no meio do ano porem não sei se o chassi seria compatível e se o regulamento permite isto.

[P44]

ora aí está!!!!

McLaren approaches Mercedes for engine supply!
By Phillip van Osten, 16/03/2017 at 10:55

McLaren has apparently touched base with Mercedes, and inquired about the possibility of using the German manufacturer's power unit should Honda fail to resolve its engine problems.

Poor reliability coupled with lousy performance have dogged McLaren's pre-season efforts, with the Woking-based outfit looking to start the season in Australia on the back foot.

McLaren and Honda's current contract runs until 2024 and while McLaren executive Zak Brown believed the partnership would be made to work and continue until its full term, another poor season would most probably break the relationship once and for all.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is said to be open to working with its former partner although the recent contact between the two parties has been characterized as brief and informal.


Given the importance of its contract with Honda, estimated to be worth $100 million annually in addition to what the Japanese company pitches in for the team's driver salaries, McLaren will be thinking long and hard before changing engine suppliers.

But carrying on with the team's current state of affairs would also lead to inevitable consequences.

For starters, another non-competitive year without any clear resolution for the future would seriously complicate Zak Brown's efforts to secure a title sponsor for 2018.

Secondly, Fernando Alonso would certainly jump ship and search for greener pastures elsewhere.

"He wants to be competitive because he has talent to show the world and to himself," Said Mcmaren racing director Eric Boullier last week.

"And we need to be competitive to keep him happy. If we're competitive he'll be happy and if not he'll take his own decisions."

This is McLaren's conundrum, in a nutshell!

http://en.f1i.com/news/262025-mclaren-a ... upply.html

[P44]

DOUBLE WORLD CHAMPION MIKA HAKKINEN REJOINS McLAREN

The original Flying Finn becomes McLaren Partner Ambassador
McLaren is delighted to announce that double world champion Mika Hakkinen will take up the position of Partner Ambassador with immediate effect, in a multi-year deal.

The Flying Finn, 48, drove 130 Grands Prix for the McLaren team between 1993 and 2001, winning 20 of them, and taking two Drivers’ World Championship titles (in 1998 and ’99). Mika’s on-track battles against Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher have become part of Formula 1 folklore, and Mika therefore endures as one of the sport’s most iconic, ironic, laconic and popular superstars.

In his newly established role, Mika will sit alongside McLaren Executive Director Zak Brown and the staff of McLaren Marketing, working with established partners and exciting new business prospects alike. He will also work closely with McLaren Automotive Chief Executive Officer Mike Flewitt and his marketing team.

Commenting on the deal, Mika said:

“I’ve always considered McLaren to be my home in Formula 1, and I still have an enormous place in my heart for everyone in the team. Of course, the past few years for McLaren haven’t been easy, but I’ve always believed that it’s only a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ McLaren will come good again – and I want to play my part in helping that happen.

“Returning to McLaren was an easy decision for me – I’ve never really lost contact, and I still know a lot of the hard-working men and women there from my eight-and-a-bit seasons with the team.

“I’m also really looking forward to working with Zak, who owns one of my race-winning McLarens from 2001. We’ve spoken about how we can work together, and I can see that he’s putting in place the building blocks needed to help McLaren get back to the front. I’ll be collaborating closely with him during the exciting years ahead.

“Equally, I’m looking forward to immersing myself in the exciting world of McLaren Automotive. I have a modern-day McLaren in my fleet of road cars, and it’s a truly superb machine. I firmly believe that McLaren makes the very best high-performance supercars in the world today.”

McLaren Technology Group Executive Director Zak Brown said:

“Mika [Hakkinen] is one of my all-time racing heroes, and a driver who remains one of the bravest, greatest and most iconic champions in Formula 1 history. His success with McLaren, and his battles with Michael [Schumacher], have become the stuff of Formula 1 legend, and underline Mika’s place among the pantheon of Grand Prix greats.

“Just as important, Mika is a hugely impressive individual away from the cockpit – sharp, intelligent, wise, calm, witty and still a huge fan of the sport. He’ll be an incredible asset to McLaren as we look to build on our partner portfolio and return to full competitiveness.

“It’s our intention to provide our partners with the best possible business and social experience, and having Mika as Partner Ambassador will certainly establish our presence at the pinnacle of Formula 1 team marketing and hospitality.”

McLaren Automotive Chief Executive Officer Mike Flewitt added:

“Mika Hakkinen doesn’t just stand as one of the best drivers to have raced for McLaren; he’s one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers in the long history of the sport. Even now he’s still considered by many who worked with him to be the fastest man to ever race for McLaren – and that alone tells you just how revered and respected he remains within our organisation.

“He’s also remained enormously loyal to McLaren, he’s a proud owner of a McLaren P1 ™ and he’ll be an incredibly powerful and versatile ambassador for McLaren Automotive.

“Mika will be a thrilling addition to the McLaren family.”

http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/heritag ... n-3183643/

[Bourne]

É mais um indicativo. O casamento Honda-McLaren no fim.

No entanto, não quer dizer que a Honda desista da F1. É uma possibilidade.

Outro caminho pode ser o inicio de busca de uma nova parceria. Já falavam no passado recente a associação com a RedBull. Só que nesse caso, a RedBull exigiria um motor competitivo e que possa ter um casamento feliz com o chassis. Algo que a Honda tem tempo para fazer para 2019/2020.

[P44]

O Hakkinen nao estava a trabalhar para a Mercedes?

[Bourne]

Não. O Hakkinen fez uns trabalhos para Bacardi, Smirnoff e agora com a Johnnie Walker.

Dizem que fez bicos na Uber. Já que não está fácil pra ninguém.

[P44]

Fez bicos????? :\

[P44]

Shark fin return made "frustrating" by earlier rejection - Brawn



Ross Brawn says Formula 1’s reluctance to ditch shark fins is especially frustrating given that teams didn’t want them several years ago, when there was a push to use them for displaying car numbers.

F1’s new managing director of motorsport has made no secret of the fact that he does not like the shark fins and T-wings that have appeared on cars this year.

However, he is well aware that the sport’s governance structure means that now only unanimous support from teams will be enough to get rid of them, unless the FIA can cite safety grounds.

Speaking about the situation, Brawn says that the arrival of shark fins is proof that F1 moves in ways that are often not in the best interests of the sport.

He recalls a resistance from teams about the use of shark fins back in 2012, when FIA president Jean Todt wanted them to show off car numbers.

“Part of the sales pitch for these new rules was nicer-looking cars,” Brawn told Motorsport.com in an interview discussing his new role.

“We’ve only half achieved that, haven’t we, because we’ve got all these oddities – shark fins and t-wings and more bits surrounding the turning vanes than I’ve seen for a long time.

“That’s OK, that’s understandable with a new set of rules, but the next iteration has got to make sure that we don’t – even if it’s only for aesthetics.

“You know, the frustrating thing is that Jean Todt has had this bee in his bonnet, which is valid in a way, to put the number on the side of the car so that the fan in the grandstand can see what car he’s looking at. Because not every fan is knowledgeable enough to recognise the helmet and all the rest of it.

“We came up with the shark fin [idea for that], because the shark fin was the easy addition to put a big number on. And half of the teams said 'we’re not going to have that on our cars, that’s terrible'.

"It was tested. We had photographs and everything, and everyone said, 'that’s horrible, we don’t want that.' ”

Team openness

With Liberty Media mapping out its plans to change F1 for the better, Brawn is hopeful that teams are open to ideas put forward to them.

He is well aware that breaking down the self-interest of teams will be tough, but reckons it won't be impossible.

“There’s no switch you can turn, it’s just people hopefully understanding that we have that interest in the sport at heart," he said.

“But let’s not be naive, Liberty Media want to make money out of Formula 1. They are not in it for charitable reasons. But they believe that the sport can be much better and much bigger with investment and with time. So the philosophy is different.

“They are into building businesses. And if you look at their history, a lot of the businesses they’ve had they’ve had for a decent amount of time.

"They put an operating team in, and support that team and give it the opportunity to grow from internal or external investment. So I hope people will recognise that our motives are just to improve Formula 1. We have got no other motives.

“And as long as we don’t fall in the trap of trying to distort the competition because somebody is winning, which I would never want to do, then people shouldn’t have a need to question our motives.

"They might disagree with what we want to do but they shouldn’t question our motives, which is purely to make Formula 1 more successful, more entertaining, more appealing and more commercially successful, because that goes hand in hand.”

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/shar ... ontent=www

[P44]

Vandoorne the latest to ‘slam’ Honda

Belgium driver Stoffel Vandoorne has become the latest McLaren employee to slam the efforts of Japanese engine manufacturer Honda.

The disappointing ‘two test’ form of the McLaren-Honda collaboration, highlighted further reliability issues which threaten to ruin Stoffel’s long awaited return to the grid.

Stoffel has waited patiently for his opportunity in Formula one, after winning the GP2 series back in 2015. This year was to be his big break, after impressing last year when he stood in for an injured Fernando Alonso. Vandoorne’s second coming, also comes at a time when the Honda power unit is under even more scrutiny than ever.

After being part of the McLaren-Honda partnership from the start, the frustration is now starting to show.

“It is true I have been with McLaren-Honda since the beginning and the last two years were difficult for us and we have seen some progress in that time which has been encouraging,” he said.

“Everybody came to testing expecting with a definite step forward so to see the problems we are facing now was a bit unexpected which is far from ideal.

“This is the situation as it is now so we can’t sit still and do nothing we have to work very hard together and make sure we push everybody in the right direction to make sure we move on.”

Spanish team-mate Fernando Alonso has already spoken of his frustration over the Japanese firms lack of progress, on the back of a major engine design change over the winter. However, Vandoorne insists the two of them are working hard to move the team forward.

“We’ve spoken a lot together which is normal because it is winter testing at the start of the season. We know the situation is not ideal yet and we are pushing very, very hard together to make the team move forward.

“I think the team has been very, very professional in difficult moments. All the mechanics and the guys back at the factory have kept their head down being professional and trying to get the most out of every lap we do.”

All eyes are on Honda to make the step change many expected in 2016. If this fails to materialise then we will most certainly be in for some fruity radio chat, aiming straight for Honda HQ.

https://thejudge13.com/2017/03/16/vando ... lam-honda/

[P44]

McLaren Honda F1 crisis: What would you do next in McLaren’s shoes?

There are increasing signs that McLaren Honda’s reliability and performance issues, which came to light in winter testing, are much more severe than at first realised and that it is time for some serious decisions to be made.

One option being considered is a switch of engine supplier – but what does that entail?

We have the answers below.

As well as simply getting a car to run quickly and without breaking down, there are many broader factors at play here in any decision on McLaren’s strategy, such as finance, engineering resource and long-term plan.

And there is also the question of Fernando Alonso. He has made it clear that he plans to stay in F1 beyond the end of 2017, he does not want his career to end on a down note, so McLaren’s Eric Boullier has told a leading Spanish media outlet that McLaren has to consider what steps to take to ensure it can keep him beyond the end of his current contract.

“I think Fernando is being honest with us, just as we’re being honest with him. He first wanted to see how the new car was. And how the new regulations are. And I think he likes the new F1. He wants to be competitive because he has talent to show the world and to himself,” the Frenchman told AS.

“And we need to be competitive to keep him happy. If we’re competitive he’ll be happy and if not he’ll take his own decisions…”


So what would you do in McLaren’s shoes?

There are three options:

1. Stick with Honda while they resolve their problems, but insist on a plan involving external assistance to ensure that they get a competitive product going forward.

Advantages: Continuity of $60m a year plus free engines, contribution to drivers salaries, stability, manufacturer support.

Disadvantage: 2017 campaign virtually a right-off, Alonso likely to leave, hard to sell sponsorship for 2018 against low level competitiveness and a negative story.

2. Activate a break clause at the end of 2017 or urge Honda to withdraw and appeal to the other manufacturers for a supply from 2018 onwards

Advantages: Continuity of funding, especially if Honda withdraws and pays-off the team, as it did with Brawn in 2008/9, time to develop a competitive 2018 package

Disadvantages: 2017 season a write-off, low points. Alonso may well look elsewhere.

3. Break with Honda and re-engineer the 2017 car around a new power unit

Advantages: Team would be likely to compete higher midfield from Spain onwards (after starting the season with Honda) and would probably score somewhere up to 100 points, better chance of retaining Alonso, better chance of selling sponsorship for 2018

Disadvantages: Huge engineering exercise requiring two months to optimise, expense and loss of financial support unless they leave funding as in clause 2, embarrassment for Honda, would expose any weaknesses in McLaren chassis. This could lead to Honda taking the rest of the year to develop the engine outside and come back in 2018 or withdraw from F1 if they feel they will not be able to get on top of F1 hybrid engine technology.

Either option 2 or 3 would be controversial, but it’s clear that something has gone fundamentally wrong in the trust and communication between McLaren and Honda and they cannot be ruled out.

At the launch of the MCL32, Honda’s Yusuke Hasegawa said that the 2017 Honda unit would be on the same level as the 2016 Mercedes.

“We have modified our engine with a much lower centre of gravity and lighter weight. However, it means we have a great challenge for the development, so I am very proud our team members have made a great job for this season. Of course we are not making any promises for this season, but our aim is to make the progress and catch up the frontrunners so that we keep pushing to make more progress.

“I don’t know how much gain Mercedes is hoping to make. But of course we are aiming to achieve the top level of the PU, which is Mercedes at this moment, but we don’t know how much power they are making now. But I am feeling that we are not behind from them (from start of 2016), but I think we will catch up with them at the beginning of the season.”

Given the reality as it was exposed in Barcelona testing from the outset, that it wasn’t even going to on the level Honda was at in 2016, it appears that Hasegawa wasn’t in possession of the full facts from his engineers in Japan about the engine and neither were the engineering staff at McLaren who liaise with Honda.

Trust is such a strange thing in an F1 team; it’s tough between team mates sometimes as we have seen with Vettel/ Webber and more recently Hamilton/Rosberg. But between a team and its engine partner it is fundamental.

So there will be some tough and frank conversations going on now about what happens next and it will be fascinating to see which way the partnership goes.

If they go for Option 2 or the ‘nuclear’ Option 3 then the team needs to adapt to a customer engine from one of the other manufacturers. The new rules say that one of the other manufacturers must supply them.

While McLaren and Ferrari have always been culturally estranged, Ferrari is well equipped to supply a new team having dropped Toro Rosso from its roster. They have enough people to staff that. Likewise Mercedes, after losing Manor from its customer roster.

Renault do not have as many people on staff, having gone from two supplies to three for 2017.

As for the engineering, although the rules say that the main mounting points have to be standard, it’s far more complex than that. Brawn famously engineered its 2009 car at late notice around a Mercedes engine and more recently Toro Rosso had a very late call to switch to Ferrari engines.


So here is what it takes to switch F1 engines.

Phase 1. Answer the big general questions: What are the heat rejection figures? How are the oil and water cooled and where do the pipes go? What is the cooling layout? Are there areas in the sidepods that need re-allocating? How does the rear suspension fit with the new engine? How does it connect to the gearbox?

Phase 2. Answer the physical questions: Where are the drives, the pump drives, the shafts coming out of the engine to the fuel pump, the ERS drive? Sometimes things are built into the back of the chassis, moulded around the oil tank design for example and if they are well out with the new unit it could mean a new chassis design. This could also mean having to re-homologate the chassis with the FIA and repass crash tests.

Phase 3. Electronics: The control unit for the battery can be placed quite differently for different power units. Some place them above the battery. The battery is around 30cm x 30cm with a depth of around 120mm and is located underneath the fuel tank, just behind the driver. Moving its control unit could be a real pain.

Phase 4. Finer details: How do the wiring looms run? Everything is as tightly packaged as possible under the skin of an F1 car and modifications can require revisions to the bodywork and that means valuable wind tunnel time. Gear ratios are another key consideration. They are set for the season based on power and torque numbers. But a new engine will have different numbers and this may require new ratios. Some take 10 weeks, others 4 weeks and are fabricated by outside suppliers.

In the case of McLaren going for Option 3 ideally you would like to have a month to do the redesign and manufacturing and another month to test it on a chassis dyno rig. But manufacturers are sensitive about rival manufacturer’s staff being around when these things are tested.

A new F1 car typically gets around 4,000km of testing at Barcelona before the season starts. So from the point at which you started running your new engine in the chassis, you’d have to allow at least that much running with the new package before you were confident of reliability.

That’s around 800 laps of a typical F1 circuit and would mean that the first four races after you relaunched would be challenging. So if you went for a change now, you’d be looking at racing from Spain onwards and then around Baku in June you would have a settled package. So that leaves 12 races to make the most of it. It’s a massive undertaking and a massive headache, especially during the season.

But they have a headache already. So what is the answer?

https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2017/03/ ... ens-shoes/

[P44]

O tweet que causou (mais) polémica:

18/03/2017 09:04
McLaren joga 'fogo na fogueira' com publicação em que resgata carro com motor Mercedes. Mas apaga horas depois

A McLaren jogou ainda mais fogo na fogueira na crise que vive com a Honda. Em uma publicação sobre a nova era da F1, a equipe britânica decidiu misturar imagens do novo carro e com modelos mais antigos e escolheu um de seus bólidos que foi equipado com os motores da Mercedes. Diante da repercussão, o time teve de apagar o post feito nas redes sociais

A McLaren vive uma crise interna com a Honda. E isso não é nenhum grande segredo. Os recorrentes problemas de confiabilidade apresentados pelas unidades japonesas durante os testes coletivos da F1, em Barcelona, geraram críticas e cobranças. O próprio diretor de corridas da equipe inglesa, Éric Boullier, revelou que as relações com a montadora seguem tensas, embora os nipônicos tenham garantido que continuam 100% comprometidos com o projeto firmado em Woking. Ainda assim, uma informação revelada pela imprensa alemã, nesta semana, expôs uma vez mais o ambiente tumultuado no time de Fernando Alonso e Stoffel Vandoorne.

De acordo com a publicação 'Auto Bild', o acionista Mansour Ojjeh conversou com representantes da Mercedes para iniciar uma negociação. Mas, logo de cara, a equipe britânica já ouviu o ‘não’ dos alemães. No entanto, ao ser questionada sobre os rumores, a esquadra não negou.

E foi em meio a esse cenário que a McLaren colocou, ainda que talvez de forma despretensiosa, 'fogo na fogueira' nesta sexta-feira (18). A equipe britânica publicou em suas redes sociais e em seu site uma fotomontagem em que mistura imagens do atual carro e de modelos mais antigos, entre os quais os que foram empurrados pelos motores Mercedes, como forma de comparar os bólidos dentro do novo regulamento da F1.



Na imagem que foi ar, a McLaren quis resgatar o melhor de cada era – ‘A perfeita mistura entre o velho e o novo?’, dizia o post – e, ao sobrepor as fotografias, escolheu uma versão de seus carros em que aparece na tampa do motor o logotipo da Mercedes – a parte que chamou mais atenção, apesar dos pneus Goodyear de 1986 e de detalhes aerodinâmicos de modelos dos anos 80 e início dos anos 2000.

Claro que a publicação foi notada e ganhou enorme repercussão nas mídias sociais, especialmente devido ao momento vivido dentro de Woking, gerando ainda mais especulações. E foi tanto que a esquadra decidiu, cerca de três horas depois da publicação, apagar o post e também tirar do ar a matéria de seu site oficial. Mas o estrago já estava feito.

http://grandepremio.uol.com.br/f1/notic ... ras-depois

[P44]

http://www.autosport.com/f1/2017/teams-drivers

[Bourne]

Boullier: Honda precisa abraçar a cultura da F1
quarta-feira, 22 de março de 2017 às 10:48

A Honda precisa compreender melhor a cultura de competição da Fórmula 1 para superar suas dificuldades na categoria, de acordo com Eric Boullier, diretor de corrida da McLaren.

“Eles só precisam de uma coisa, que é compreender e se integrar à cultura de competição da F1”, declarou Boullier ao site Autosport.

“O que quero dizer com isso é: o modo como nos comportamos nas corridas e na F1 é totalmente ditado por um calendário, por algumas metas e datas fixas, ganhos em tempo de volta; nós sempre tentamos adotar a melhor solução o mais rápido possível”.

“Quando uma montadora está executando um projeto, você pode ter um atraso de algumas semanas e isso não mudará o produto ou o modelo de negócios. Nas corridas, se você não trouxer sua atualização para a primeira corrida, não conseguirá nada”.

“Essa é a mentalidade das corridas. Chega ao ponto de conversar com os fornecedores e garantir que se eles fazem algo em um mês, da próxima vez façam em três semanas, e depois duas. Nós valorizamos mais o tempo ganho do que o dinheiro gasto. É uma abordagem diferente do resto do mundo”.

A Honda investiu em uma fábrica de motores em Milton Keynes, mas Boullier avalia que a permanência de sua sede no Japão e o trabalho sob a cultura corporativa de sua companhia mãe tornam a operação de F1 lenta demais para lidar com as demandas atuais da categoria.

“É por isso que a Mercedes tem sua sede na Inglaterra, e acho que eles se beneficiam da cadeia de fornecimento, de pessoas com experiência na F1”, acrescentou Boullier. “Nossos fornecedores provavelmente custam o dobro (dos da Honda), mas são três, quatro ou cinco vezes mais rápidos”.

“De algumas maneiras, pode-se perceber que a influência corporativa não está ajudando na eficiência. Quanto mais você se comporta como uma companhia corporativa e mais processos herda dela, mais lento e menos ágil você é, o que não se encaixa na cultura das corridas”.

http://www.autoracing.com.br/boullier-h ... ura-da-f1/

[P44]

Mas até parece que a Honda nunca esteve na F1...