[Hatari]

Increasingly, it looks like Kimi's 2016 seat is up for grabs.
Prime contender is Bottas ofcourse, but Ricciardo too?

What a shock that will be for Vettel!

[myavu]

True, I need Ricciardo in Ferrari and Vettel will be like OMG .

But Kimi has three more races in his bag to impress Arrivabene.

Cheers!

Vinu

[GTO]

No ways. I think Ferrari is just holding the contract back in hopes that Kimi will push harder this year. They might have already made the decision to let him go after the season is over.

Other than Ferrari, not too many musical chairs among the top drivers. Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Alonso etc. are firmly screwed to their current seats.

Apparently, there are going to be 21 races in 2016? Wow! That's a long season. Hope the New Jersey GP finally becomes a reality! Bernie appears hopeful.

[ebonho]

Can we please have proper cars and some racing as well next year?

[mayankk]

Nasr, I think, may move on to better things.

Originally Posted by ebonho

Can we please have proper cars and some racing as well next year?

2017 is when we'll be able to go back to glued to the seats action.
Refuelling, 1000bhp, Wider tyres.....Bring it, fast!

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by GTO

Other than Ferrari, not too many musical chairs among the top drivers. Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Alonso etc. are firmly screwed to their current seats.

That's a good point. Unlike last year, we might not see a big shuffle by the end of this year.

Originally Posted by GTO

Apparently, there are going to be 21 races in 2016? Wow! That's a long season. Hope the New Jersey GP finally becomes a reality! Bernie appears hopeful.

I hope these are 21 true races, and not just a play to work around the ruling of 4 engines/components for 20 races, 5 if there are more than 20 races!

[anachronix]

I really wish Bianchi was around for the 2nd Ferrari if Kimi's time is up this year. I really miss the old Kimi magic on track and I think its fair to assume he is getting closer to the end of his time in F1!

Ricciardo in a Ferrari is not going to happen! However, the Bottas connection could be true. There were a few tweets about a pre-contract that was signed by him with Ferrari!

Keep a keen eye on the McLaren garage too, Alonso's stay at McLaren seems to be hanging on to a significant upgrade that's due in Austria promising the drivers to get them close to the podium!

[Octane_Power]

We all know this well and its time to accept the fact that Kimi is past his prime and it'd be better if he is made to vacate the seat for someone more deserving. Dangling a carrot in every race to motivate Kimi to give his best wouldn't work for long.

Ricciardo moving to Ferrari and ending up performing better than Vettel. That'd be interesting . Even Bottas seems a fit choice. How he will perform as compared to Vettel that's open to discussion. The Flying Finn seems the most probable choice.

P.S. Is there any scope of Alonso's move to Ferrari? I know its not possible, still...

-Bhargav

[Hatari]

2016 will also set the benchmark on how many other teams want Honda engines for 2017. Arai expressed the desire to supply more than McLaren.
Renault's future will also complete the puzzle, dont believe they will exit. Though, I believe they will buy over a team only if they are convinced they can fight at the top with their own engine. So engine development will need to open up.

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

T
I hope these are 21 true races, and not just a play to work around the ruling of 4 engines/components for 20 races, 5 if there are more than 20 races!

Originally Posted by GTO

Apparently, there are going to be 21 races in 2016? Wow! That's a long season. Hope the New Jersey GP finally becomes a reality! Bernie appears hopeful.

Out of the 23 venues contracted for 2016, the New Jersey and Korean GPs did not figure in the "leaked" 2016 provisional calendar.
Hopefully more venues will not disappear for not having enough money to give to BE.

Whatever the F1 musical chairs for drivers will turn out, one thing's for sure young Max Verstappen will be known as the youngest F1 driver for a while.
The process new drivers go through in order to qualify for a superlicence will be changed, with additional restrictions put in place. Applicants must be at least eighteen years old, hold a valid driver's licence for roadgoing cars, and will be required to spend at least two seasons competing in recognised feeder series. A point system for feeder series has been introduced, and new drivers must also have scored 40 points in a three-year-period from these series, in order to obtain a superlicence.

[myavu]

Originally Posted by Hatari

2016 will also set the benchmark on how many other teams want Honda engines for 2017. Arai expressed the desire to supply more than McLaren.

No, something is already in cooking

Manor could move from Ferrari to Honda F1 engines from 2016

Source: http://www.thisisf1.com/2015/06/15/m...nes-from-2016/

Cheers!

Vinu

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by myavu

No, something is already in cooking

Manor could move from Ferrari to Honda F1 engines from 2016

Source: http://www.thisisf1.com/2015/06/15/m...nes-from-2016/

Cheers!

Vinu

Since Manor owes money to McLaren, it is very much possible, otherwise there will not be a long queue for it by looking at the way things are with Honda. “Unfortunately I don’t have any offers right now,” Arai told F1i earlier. “Maybe after the summer break, I hope someone calls me and says ‘please give me our good engine’! Right now we don’t have it, but I hope we get it." Ron would have been the first one to call him after that interview to ask for the "good engine", since McLaren seems to have got all the crappy ones so far.

Maybe ART will also apply for entry into F1 as FIA has opened the tender process for a new team to join the F1 grid from 2016. Prospective candidates will have to formally notify the FIA of their interest by June 30, with full applications then to be made by September 1. A decision will be made on September 30.

On a separate note, the debate on "Franchise cars" vs "Third car" in case more of the existing teams go out of business dominated talks at last month's Strategy Group meeting. It is only in a proposal stage at present, but momentum is building. The idea is nothing new as far as the 'big four' are concerned. They still say that the talks are all for "contingency" situations whereby more teams are deciding to leave F1 or goes bankrupt.
The third cars, catered for in the bi-lateral agreements between the teams, the commercial rights holder and the FIA says the prize money due to a team that goes out of business will be distributed equally to those teams that provide a third car.
The other proposal for keeping a smaller team on the grid is to make them a "customer" with 2 cars. The parent team would be paid for the two cars from championship earnings, probably the whole of it and any income over and above that (sponsors, pay drivers etc.) would be retained by the customer, ensuring it makes a profit. The parent, however, would have full control of the car as the customer would hand it back after a race and not see it again until the Wednesday ahead of the next event. One further regulation could be that there would only be one customer per parent, so not everyone could choose to sign up to Mercedes for instance and the others would have teams to sell their stuff to.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by myavu

Manor could move from Ferrari to Honda F1 engines from 2016

It could be a way of McLaren ensuring they aren't last on the grid!

Originally Posted by jfxavier

Since Manor owes money to McLaren, it is very much possible, otherwise there will not be a long queue for it by looking at the way things are with Honda.

But on a serious note, there might be symbiosis in this approach:

• Honda stands to gain by doubling their road mileage with another team
• Manor stands to gain from cheaper engines

[carpacman]

.

Originally Posted by mayankk

Refuelling, 1000bhp, Wider tyres.....Bring it, fast!

If am not wrong, refueling has been already voted out. Pirelli is already introducing new and varied compounds for 2016, will be interesting to see if the engine capacities go up

[myavu]

Originally Posted by myavu

Manor could move from Ferrari to Honda F1 engines from 2016

McLaren and Honda play down Manor power unit rumours

Source: http://www.thisisf1.com/2015/06/17/m...-unit-rumours/

Cheers!

Vinu