f8vr993

This new season just started and looks like its Merc domination again...
Having said that I will still watch how rest of season unfolds cause its F1.
I hope Honda get their acts together quick for Ron Dennis & Alonso's sake but...
What have (Honda) done lately that proves they have the engineering prowess to make this work?
Their main cars SUCKS, what racing series are they currently winning? And do we not remember how Honda finished last time in F1???

pete95zhn

Homeboy, the little wannabe gangsta at Mercedes...

Land Jet

Pathetic, I turned it off after 1/2 hour. The FIA needs to be fumigated.

paradisenb

Well, it looks like we are in for a long boring year. I suspect LH will win 17 of the 20 races. The 3 losses will be from mechanical failures or a one-off spectacular drive by NR.

Ferrari a distant 2nd.
Williams on their heels in 3rd.
Red Bull comes on mid-season.
Honda starts looking competitive towards the end.
Alonso retires with 2 championships at the end of this year or next.
Yawn. Yawn. I hope I'm wrong.

PPo

I think people are forgetting the fact that there where some cars here with some bad luck... that ultimately could make the next few races more exciting.

Both Lotus and Williams have the Mercedes customer power plant, and by the first quarter of the race, Bottas, Maldonado, and Grossjean where out... Throw those guys into the mix and you have some very interesting racing coming up.

It was not Maldonado's fault that he crashed out. Amazing to say...

I feel bad for Max Verstappen...

Sauber did great all things considered, but the attrition helped them a whole bunch...

All things considered, when you look at how this season will shape you, there will be some exciting racing behind Mercedes.

...and finally...

FUEL SAVING IN F1 IS STUPID!!! IT RUINS THE RACING!!

There is a reason why we don't wake up early on a Sunday morning to watch the Prius Cup... for the sake of the children, please stop this fuel saving BS... PLEASE!!

multi21

Felipe Massa has suggested that Williams is not on a level playing field with Mercedes in terms of engines, which he believes is helping his former Ferrari team.

Massa finished the Australian Grand Prix in fourth place, a few seconds behind Sebastian Vettel, but reckons Williams is still playing catch up with Mercedes despite being supplied by the German manufacturer.

"We are pushing hard with the engine which I'm sure has some improvements that we can have and are pushing to have, because for sure the difference is too big," Massa said.

"I really hope that we really have the same engine, which I really don't see why we don't have.

"If we don't have the same engine – which I cannot say 100 per cent because – then we want to have it because it's not nice that we don't have it."

Massa also believes that Ferrari has made substantial progress across the winter, citing the performance of Sauber's Felipe Nasr as proof.

"Who finished fifth? Sauber," Massa went on to explain.

"From where they were last year and not having any money to put in the car... it's a team that doesn't invest so much and they just improved a lot which I think is coming from a different part.

"If you see how we finished the season and how they are now, it's a big step."

pontifex4

Looks like I only got 1/3.

PPo

Isn't it a fact that customer engines in F1 can be n-1 in the development cycle? Meaning that customer teams will never be running the latest spec?

Or is this a contract per contract arrangement?

I may dig into the FIA rules to check this out if I have time later... but I thought this was allowed, common, and expected. The comment from Massa got a "well duh" response from me....

multi21

Agreed that "OF COURSE" you don't have the same engine the factory team does. Bench dyne testing alone will guarantee that you're not going to get the best hp # engine from Mercedes. However, I read this more to be an indictment of Mercedes detuning their engines so as to not be challenged by a customer team. Massa has driven for Sauber who has had their engines supplied by Ferrari for a very long time. The difference in performance was always minimal.

Fast forward to 2015 and the performance of the factory Ferrari team and the customer team, Sauber was not huge as it is with Mercedes and Williams. Another example was the very minimal differences in the performance of the RBR team and Toro Rosso junior team.

Personally, I think Mercedes doesn't want to be challenged in any way by any team including their customers, but if Massa/Williams, Force India, Lotus etc. complain loud enough, they may have to address of wide valley of performance.

Larry Herman

The exact reason that McLaren has bitten the bullet and gone with Honda. Their feeling was that they will always be some percentage down on HP to Mercedes.

Circuit Motorsports

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the few bucks that is coming from Honda too.

Plus there was always the chance that it would have been a giant killer engine

Raven 666

I think you are right and it needs to change ............

PPo

That's another solid point... the fans are denied a show because of the failure of cars most likely due to inadequate testing.

So, the educated fans (not meaning to offend anybody) here can agree that:

1) More testing is required.
2) Fuel saving is BS, and needs to be addressed.
3) Turning down engines is BS, and needs to be addressed.
4) Customer engines need to be within 5% power of the factory team.

Does anybody have any suggestions to modify the list?

wanna911

I think they should base testing time on championship place. 10th and lower should get the old full off-season of testing. From there widdle it down to the champions having the least amount of testing. Make sure the power plants are relatively equal, and then leave it alone. This is still F1.

Horner is a hypocrite though, IMO. He benefited from the blown diffuser debacle that handicapped the rest of the field for most of a season. Then sandbagged their way to 4 straight championships, and now is whining. Whatever........

It isn't any less boring than the rest of the last 4 years. Actually less so because at least Lewis has a very good driver to battle with for the championship. Vettel had ZERO peers in remotely equal cars.

multi21

I like that idea of testing time based on Championship place! I would even go one step further and implement a sort of luxury tax like they do in the NBA or MLB where the teams that spend over a certain amount have to kick into the pot for those teams that can't spend a lot to help pay for testing because one of the problems with these lower teams is that they can't pay to go testing. the luxury tax fund would go directly to those teams that don't have the overall budgets of the big ones and tells them, if you want this money, it's specifically earmarked for testing purposes to drag you up the finishing grid. (Damn, I sound like a liberal democrat now)!

Horner is sounding off now, because everyone else was complaining when they were dominant. Same when Ferrari were dominant. The difference is that the RBR NEVER had the strongest engine and their trap speeds were always the lowest on grid, but they made up for it elsewhere. Brilliant if you ask me to compensate for lower hp with aero tricks. The MB is just more powerful which means they can put more downforce on the car and get better tire wear with more DF. But you can't blame MB for making a better engine.

Finally, you may be in the minority in thinking that this is not boring as compared to the RBR championship years. In 2 of the 4 years RBR won it, it came down to the last race of the year and there were multiple race winners in those 2 years. MB is head and shoulders above the rest of the grid and cannot be challenged except with mechanical issues. I Agree with you that Webber was no match for Vettel, but neither is Rosberg with Hamilton. Rosberg can be faster over a qualifying lap, but Hamilton is simply a better racer, and not willing to be beaten or accept being beaten by his teammate, much like Vettel did not accept Webber as an equal. To me, Rosberg appears a defeated man already.