F1 2012

[Daniel 7]

Another gaffe by McLaren today again, getting the gear ratios wrong. Its been one set of disasters after another under Whitmarsh. Its amazing they've stayed competitive really.

Yep, it will be interesting next season, though I'm not convinced Perez is going to be any real competition for Button in the short term.

I was reading that McLaren are also looking to dump Mercedes and are going back to Honda.

[RichC]

I think the Merc deal is up and it's being forced upon them, could be wrong though

[Daniel 7]

it is yeah, £8m a year as a customer engine. Honda want back in, so makes sense as long as Honda are going to give it their full attention.

[RichC]

Very much so, I think this has to be the make or break season for whitmarsh

[paulg]

Newey is a genius - he's the true power behind the world championship. He's the Kingmaker. He even managed to get Damon hill a championship, who was probably the worst driver to win the title in the modern era.

Was it Newey who Ferrari offered a £10m per year contract to, in order to make their cars the best aerodynamically? He turned them down as he loves working for Red Bull.

[Daniel 7]

Every top team has been after him. Sure Ferrari managed to beat him at the start of the century, so his cars can be beaten, but they needed everything to be lined up in place fror them to win. They had so many liberties during that period, they couldn;t fail to win.

[CJ]

he was chief aero man at williams during their dominance in the late 90s.

he wanted a stake but they refused. he went to Mclaren and thought he would get to work on an americas cup boat. (its an ambition of his) he designed hakinens winning cars.

then jaguar almost tempted him he changed his mind ford sold out to redbull and he ended up there.

people say he almost intuitively understands airflow around a car. he always designs aggresive cars but sometimes they are too fragile and also he is known to prefer having very small drivers for packaging reasons.

[G]

Ferrari still want him.

Damon Hill asked him would he like to design a Ferrari

He said "I think it is like a driver wanting to drive for Ferrari, but I am happy at Red Bull."

Alonso in a Newey car would be untouchable

[CJ]

He does produce the odd dud. Well he can push it too far with an aggressive design and reliability can suffer.

[Rich]

In a couple of weeks I get to drive the Vettel edition Infiniti FX.

Only £100k

[Daniel 7]

Rumblings of discontent between Ferrari and Alonso.

[G]

He should have won it 2 years ago but their disastrous strategy cocked it up and their inability to develop the car competitively is ruining it for him this time.

He should have had his third championship by now. If Whitmarsh is under pressure at McLaren I would say Domenicalli should be too.

[Daniel 7]

http://thejudge13.com/2012/10/30/alonso-rebuked-by-montezemolo-is-furious-at-ferrari

[Gaz]

If Vettel ends up getting a grid penalty for stopping out on track after qualifying it could really spice up the championship run in

[RichC]

anyone know what was wrong with the car in the end? A pen would really make it interesting but Alonso really needed a better qualifying session.