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^^^ Bob Bell, technical director left last week! WTF is going on at Manor? They get MBZ works engines with complete factory parity and they self-destruct.
Didn't know Bob Bell was at Manor. Sharp technical director, surprised he left MB last year. Jenson Button owes his car setup and development skills alot to Bell who worked with him at Benetton/Renault when Briatore ordered Bell to literally to school Button in that area.
Originally Posted by Tonyware
Whoops!!
Williams front suspension deserves a round of applause !
Shame to see all the departures happening at Manor after they made it through all the unknown and have a great motor on lock for next year. Something really terrible must be happening behind the scenes.
I also had hoped that the few drives Rossi had gotten would get him the seat at Haas. He has beat his teammate every single time he has raced and like was said he has never crashed. I wonder how much Ferrari had to do with the signing since it is their reserve driver.
I'm not a huge Ron Dennis fan but I do think he has a very valid interest to protect in light of the absolutely horrific season the team has had with Honda. Remember when RBR/Renault was in the weeds when the new engine formula debuted? They had gotten less laps than anyone except for maybe Lotus then turned things around and actually won three races. Honda is still in the weeds after a full season of basically testing to get its engine unit competitive.
I'm not a huge Ron Dennis fan but I do think he has a very valid interest to protect in light of the absolutely horrific season the team has had with Honda. Remember when RBR/Renault was in the weeds when the new engine formula debuted? They had gotten less laps than anyone except for maybe Lotus then turned things around and actually won three races. Honda is still in the weeds after a full season of basically testing to get its engine unit competitive.
Ron has a point. It would be unfair for Red Bull to come in and get a good Honda engine that's been developed for a year. On the other hand, having two teams mean twice the number of cars, and maybe a quicker development time.
I'm not a huge Ron Dennis fan but I do think he has a very valid interest to protect in light of the absolutely horrific season the team has had with Honda. Remember when RBR/Renault was in the weeds when the new engine formula debuted? They had gotten less laps than anyone except for maybe Lotus then turned things around and actually won three races. Honda is still in the weeds after a full season of basically testing to get its engine unit competitive.
I kinda like Ron's management style and there's no doubt it works despite occasional drama. None the less, I'd bet McLaren worded the Honda engine agreement very thoroughly. He's been here before, when McLaren and Lotus both had Honda engines in 1988, but McLaren's relationship with Honda was pretty special. They even promoted the Honda and McLaren personnel to share hotel rooms when on the road at races or tests.
Originally Posted by F-C
Ron has a point. It would be unfair for Red Bull to come in and get a good Honda engine that's been developed for a year. On the other hand, having two teams mean twice the number of cars, and maybe a quicker development time.
RedBull may also influence engine design and characteristics too, and yeah having a Newey chassis may prove how good or bad the Honda motor really is. Personally after Monza and the corning speeds, it still looks like a pretty pathetic power unit.
I think it will be disastrous to F1 if Red Bull doesn't find an engine partner for next season. Finally supposed to have a grid with more than 20 cars again and then this goes and happens and we might only have 18 now. They really screwed this up big time.
Ferrari is important of course, but I can't even picture F1 without Red Bull right now. They spend much more than Ferrari on outreach to the public. They are involved in all kinds of junior formulas. Red Bull truly is the new Marlboro, and Bernie knows this.
There is another option, common in the industry (any industry actually). Lease the technology, the design, the blueprints etc to another manufacturer and let them use that to build their own engine. It is not uncommon in the automotive industry to do that. I mean look at ZF transmissions. Honda builds their own ZF, licensed by ZF Friedrichshafen AG of Germany (OK, they aren't that good at it, but at least they do it!)
I wonder why they just don't do that? I mean its not a big deal for a corporation like BMW to reproduce a design. They have the skill and tools to do that.
PS. I mentioned BMW because I am secretly hoping to see them back in F1 some day
There is another option, common in the industry (any industry actually). Lease the technology, the design, the blueprints etc to another manufacturer and let them use that to build their own engine. It is not uncommon in the automotive industry to do that. I mean look at ZF transmissions. Honda builds their own ZF, licensed by ZF Friedrichshafen AG of Germany (OK, they aren't that good at it, but at least they do it!)
I wonder why they just don't do that? I mean its not a big deal for a corporation like BMW to reproduce a design. They have the skill and tools to do that.
PS. I mentioned BMW because I am secretly hoping to see them back in F1 some day
Well, the whole point in sports is to get a competitive advantage over the other guy. It's different somewhat different to business, where the focus is on profit.
There is another option, common in the industry (any industry actually). Lease the technology, the design, the blueprints etc to another manufacturer and let them use that to build their own engine. It is not uncommon in the automotive industry to do that. I mean look at ZF transmissions. Honda builds their own ZF, licensed by ZF Friedrichshafen AG of Germany (OK, they aren't that good at it, but at least they do it!)
I wonder why they just don't do that? I mean its not a big deal for a corporation like BMW to reproduce a design. They have the skill and tools to do that.
PS. I mentioned BMW because I am secretly hoping to see them back in F1 some day
Originally Posted by F-C
Well, the whole point in sports is to get a competitive advantage over the other guy. It's different somewhat different to business, where the focus is on profit.
Well, the whole point in sports is to get a competitive advantage over the other guy. It's different somewhat different to business, where the focus is on profit.
Well, I'll be damn! I thought everyone in F1 was in for the money.