F1 Thread

[Chazza]

At least this should be a bit more entertaining with the Mercs down the grid.

[CJ]

Right wing ****s

[RichC]

Volkswagen close to buying Red Bull F1 team

German car giant Volkswagen is close to agreeing a deal to take over the Red Bull Formula 1 team, says BBC F1 chief analyst Eddie Jordan.
The agreement would see VW buy the team and build its own engine, while Red Bull continues as a major sponsor.
Jordan says a VW engine would not enter F1 until 2018 and Red Bull would use Ferrari power in the interim.
The team will split with current engine partner Renault after this season, ending their contract a year early.
It is not clear which of the VW Group's brands would be promoted in F1, although Audi is the favourite. The company also owns the Porsche, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley, Seat and Skoda marques.

Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz told his company's Speedweek website on Friday that his team's split from Renault was concluded "a few weeks ago".
He said using a Ferrari engine would be "a very acceptable solution for the next two or three years" but a contract with the Italian company was not finalised.
Any VW deal would represent a triumph for Martin Winterkorn, the chairman of the VW board of directors, in an internal power struggle.
Winterkorn has agreed the deal with Mateschitz and the drinks giant's motorsport adviser Helmut Marko, Jordan says.
VW and Red Bull have long-time links and are currently partners in the world rally championship.
BBC Sport understands Winterkorn agreed a deal to buy out Red Bull last winter but the plan was vetoed by former VW Group chairman Ferdinand Piech.

Piech was ousted in a boardroom power struggle and resigned in April.
In May Marko said: "If we don't have a competitive engine in the near future, then either Audi is coming or we are out."
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has consistently denied that the team have held talks with the VW Group.
He told BBC Sport in June: "There has been no dialogue with VW or Audi."
On Thursday and Friday at the Singapore Grand Prix, Marko and Horner repeated the threat that Red Bull would quit F1 if they did not get a strong engine.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/34297046

[Leyton388]

That's funny that as a few weeks ago I was thinking it would be interesting if Audi came into F1.

[Chazza]

Looks like Volkswagen are taking over Red Bull.

[Vermilion]

Surprised they didn't realize that before sparking off this investigation.

Looks like Merc had it about right, so that by the time the race began, their tyre pressures would have been as near the limit as possible.

[meffin]

Taking the pressure 5 minutes before the race start and even before the rolling lap is ridiculous. The pressures will have changed significantly from when they tested to when the race actually started.

[Vermilion]

Tyre pressure issues explained.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/34169041

[RichC]

You'd say it was almost there really, without the debacle of Monaco he'd be even further ahead as well. Rosberg is simply not as quick as Hamilton.

[Daniel 7]

Rosberg looking very much a number 2 this season - there'll have to be a point pretty soon where he's asked to tow the line to get behind Lewis in his championship run.

[RichC]

53 point lead with 7 races left, I think it's more likely Vettel catching Rosberg than Rosberg catching Hamilton.

2 clear races with Lewis getting no points and he's still in the lead.

[Daniel 7]

Lewis wins then - its all looking forlorn for Nico, unless Lewis gets some ****ty luck in the next few races. Mercedes are prone to the odd reliability issue.

[RichC]

Sounds like there is no penalty then. All very odd tbh.

[RichC]

Either way another race down and Hamilton has a lead of over a clear race win with Rosberg not getting any points.

[Daniel 7]

Or its a Pirelli revenge mission after Rosberg last time out - they couldn't do Ferrari at Monza, but they're next!