2002...he was replaced by Alonso

 

I'd forgotten that! He's been around a long time.

 

It's funny, that this thread is dead after most races, but comes alive when the rumour mill starts up. I think that says a lot about the sport in it's current state

I would love to see Alonso and Button stay at McLaren next year, and see an improved Honda engine that gets them top ten finishes each week. That would be an amazing achievement considering this year has been a write off. I don't know or understand the current regulations regarding engine development during the season, but they sound like they are preventing anyone else to develop a new engine to compete. Do the FIA just want Ferrari vs Mercedes powered cars on the grid? Why would the VW/Audi wish to join F1, if the rules are so locked down, that if you don't make a great engine from day 1, your basically screwed.

For too long F1 has been about the rules that govern it and not about the racing on track. I think it's about time for a shake up and only the teams have the power to do that.

 

+1

 

I believe they have tokens that they can use to do upgrades. Each team has the same amount of tokens. However, Honda was given more to help with their development. From what I've heard it kinda seems like the Honda setup is progressing. But everyone else is progressing as well. So they are still at the back. I will see if I can dig up some stories about the development side of F1. I kinda like it.

 

"A rules loophole that allowed the use of 'tokens' during the current year has been closed off for 2016 by the FIA, which means all manufacturers have until February 28 next year to sign off the designs of their new power units."
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/an...ed-bull-in-f1/

 

I knew it had something to do with tokens, but not sure how much they could change their engine layout during the season. Sounds like they can make tweaks to the design, but not much else. Big Ron was spot on with his recent BBC interview. The rules in place are preventing anyone else from entering the sport and being able to catch up with the front runners. They need more wiggle room to develop a new power unit during the season. Existing teams/engine suppliers should be more limited after say two years for in season changes.

Just far too many rules.

 

Honda had at least a year with no restrictions whatsoever, and had the benefit of watching everybody else. As Ron said to spend the tokens first you need to have an upgrade. They can do what they like behind the scenes in terms of improving the engine; the tokens restrict how often they can implement the changes on the race engines. Honda haven't improved their engine much as they haven't worked out how to do it yet, not because the tokens are restricting them. And rather than being prevented in catching up, Honda have been given special help. They've been granted one engine extra per car and extra tokens.

If you think about it McLaren Honda this year aren't actually that much worse than McLaren Mercedes were in 2014, and that was with the best engine.

Maybe, but without the rules it would turn into whoever has the most money wins. By a huge margin. And you moan enough about F1 being boring as it is ;-).

 

The engine thing is a very difficult thing. They're trying to allow innovation whilst restricting costs. By allowing limited development, in theory that limits costs. However what it does do, is make catch up very hard. And why should an innovative engine be penalised? So yes, it's easy to give Honda some more tokens, but what about Renault? Why should they be given a hand just because they were a bit crap.

But if you remove the development restrictions, it becomes a game of money basically. And the new power units are already super expensive.

Maybe a new engine can be developed, but in return the cars using it get a weight handicap for a certain period? So it only becomes worthwhile if you're so far behind like Renault?

 

I remember something at the beginning of the season where Red Bull were bitching because Mercedes held most of the power over the technical regulations on the engines and engine upgrades during the season. Does anyone else remember that?