Well, it sounds like 2016 is going to be like 2014 where they lock in the engine design after the second race and that's it. If one engine dominates by the 2nd race, we will already know who the champion is going to be. :cryin:
Also, they're meeting tomorrow and planning to discuss things like changes to that engine development freeze. I don't expect anything good to come from it given any changes require unanimous approval, but who knows?
How does that work with the token upgrades? If a supplier makes a change, can they run the engine without changing all of them first? I'm wondering about a similar situation like when a team only has updated aero for one driver and the other driver uses the old wings.
Yup, they do the same with engines. Merc did it recently, giving both of their drivers the same engine upgrade but then swapping back to the previous version for Rosberg when they found issues. I think that's how it went...
That's not the same as using previous year engines but it still makes you wonder about how they control upgrades within the season and how long they take to provide them outside their own team. It's an ongoing issue right now with Merc saying their customer teams aren't likely to get the recently upgraded version of their engine before the end of the season. But it wont be a mid-season issue during the 2016 season if they clamp down and don't allow any upgrades after Feb 28 (I think that's the current cut-off date).
Yep, they have 25 tokens that they can spend between the end of this season and Feb 28, after that the only changes they can make are to enhance safety and/or reliability....
I didn't like when the rules were all decided by the FIA with no say from the teams. But I thing the unanimous agreement thing is worse. The team leading gets to keep the rules in their favor. If it had been like that in the oughts Ferrari would have still been winning. The annual "stop Ferrari rules" would have gotten vetoed.
Never afraid to court controversy, Bernie Ecclestone says in a revealing interview with RT in Sochi that "there's no place for democracy, anywhere".
Elsewhere, the 84-year-old says that he's the "biggest supporter" of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and that FIFA president Sepp Blatter "should not have stepped down":
Looks like a Bernie smoke screen / strong arm bargaining attempt. As in, do what I want you to do (sell Red Bull engines) or I'll make you do something else (resort to a new, uncertain baseline and without time to perfect it). Or he wants something in the middle and this is his way of establishing room to haggle. Or maybe it's just Bernie being Bernie...again.
Ecclestone wants to force V8s for 2016 (gpupdate.net)
Love the life-sized bust of Bernie sitting directly behind Bernie. You can ask questions of either the lifeless statue or the person it represents and you'll get virtually the same answers.
Strange to see Mad Max still around. I wonder if he is still a bad boy? :wink:
Can't decide whether this is good news or bad. Racing in the wet at COTA for, I think, the first time could be interesting but they're talking about a LOT of rain...measured in multiple inches rather than fractions.
Given the drivers' championship could be decided already with 3 races still to run, I would rather see them finish in the unlikely order Rosberg, Vettel, Hamilton...with other finishers between them to tighten the points battle and keep it going.
