[Hatari]

Paddy Lowe claims the 2015 Ferrari PU on the Toro Rosso is the lowest powered unit of all, and that Renault and Honda have overtaken. That is really surprising, translating into a huge jummp for Honda, and yet are still 2 seconds behind. Baffling.

Even if there is 4-5 tenths more to come from the PU, the gap is too much.
Tough days ahead.

[Fullrevs]

After talking about reverting back to the 2015 style qualifying for the Bahrain GP. The FIA have formally accepted it to be applied from this weekends Chinese GP.

Formula 1's return to the qualifying format used throughout the 2015 campaign has been formally approved by the FIA's World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), ahead of this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

Last week, after teams penned a letter, FIA President Jean Todt and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone backed down over the new-for-2016 elimination system, and cleared a return to last year's system.

It required unanimous approval from the F1 Commission and WMSC, which has now been given.

"The World Motor Sport Council today approved, via e-vote, the decision to revert to last season's qualification format for the remainder of the 2016 FIA Formula 1 World Championship," read a statement.

"The format, where the slowest six cars are eliminated at the end of the first two qualifying sessions before a final 10-car shootout for pole in Q3, will return for this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix."

Formula 1 teams have proposed a "global assessment" of the race weekend format ahead of the 2017 season, with Ecclestone suggesting a Saturday qualifying race as a potential outcome.

Reminder: 2015 qualifying format

Q1
18 minutes in duration
16 cars progress
6 cars knocked out
Positions 17-22 on grid

Q2
15 minutes in duration
10 cars progress
6 cars knocked out
Positions 11-16 on grid

Q3
12 minutes in duration
Positions 1-10 on grid

Source:F1racing.net

[a*ed]

Ricciardo accepts Felipe Massa Jr's challenge and here's the showdown

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzW1HoQ9di0

What a class act Daniel is! My respect for him increased a lot after watching this. And that constant grin on his face

[jfxavier]

The FIA is pleased to announce that, following extensive work done in conjunction with the four Power Unit manufacturers involved in the FIA Formula One World Championship, and with the support of the Commercial Rights Holder, a global agreement on power units has been reached for the 2017-2020 period

The agreement has been approved by all levels of the F1 governance structure, including the World Motor Sport Council, and will now be included as Technical and Sporting regulations for the 2017 and 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship.

The global agreement on power units covers four key areas relating to the cost and supply price, obligation to supply, performance convergence and the sound of the power units.

As part of the power unit agreement, adherence to the measures outlined below will see the FIA commit to supporting power unit regulations stability and the maintaining of the current Formula One governance structure for the 2017-2020 period.

COST

Agreement has been reached on a significant reduction in the price of power unit supply to customer teams and a reduction in cost to manufacturers over the coming years.

- In 2017 the power unit price for customer teams will be reduced by €1m per season compared to 2016.

- From 2018, the annual supply price will be reduced by a further €3m.

- Cost reduction on power units will be driven by changes to the Sporting and Technical regulations in 2017 and 2018, with a progressive reduction of the number of power unit elements per driver per season.

SUPPLY

Supply of power units to customer teams will be ensured, as the homologation procedure will include an “obligation to supply” that will be activated in the event of a team facing an absence of supply.



PERFORMANCE CONVERGENCE

The new agreement includes a package of measures aimed at achieving performance convergence.

- The token system is to be removed from 2017

- Additionally, constraints on power unit part weights, dimensions and materials, and on boost pressure will be introduced in 2017 and in 2018.



SOUND

Manufacturers are currently conducting a promising research programme into further improving the sound of the current power units, with the aim of implementation by 2018 at the latest.

Source : http://www.fia.com/news/fia-announce...ne-power-units

[Hatari]

Report suggest Max Verstappen will swap seats with Daniil Kvyat as early as the Spanish GP!
Kvyat's been under pressure for a while and Sochi appears to be the final nail in the coffin..

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by Hatari

Report suggest Max Verstappen will swap seats with Daniil Kvyat as early as the Spanish GP!
Kvyat's been under pressure for a while and Sochi appears to be the final nail in the coffin..

When I read this, I thought this was an April fool joke. But then I realised its Redbull and anything is possible.

Its confirmed, Redbull's philosophy seems 'Perform otherwise perish'. They do put their drivers under tremendous pressure. Hmm, lets see if Max can live up to his expectation since Daniel is a known benchmark.

Source
Source

[a*ed]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Its confirmed, Redbull's philosophy seems 'Perform otherwise perish'. They do put their drivers under tremendous pressure. Hmm, lets see if Max can live up to his expectation since Daniel is a known benchmark.

Seems a bit harsh on Kvyat!
This was expected but, this soon is a surprise.
Looks like Marko was just waiting for a reason to swap them.

Let's see how this will pan out. Max has a lot to learn and looking forward to see if all the hype around him is justified.

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Its confirmed, Redbull's philosophy seems 'Perform otherwise perish'. They do put their drivers under tremendous pressure. Hmm, lets see if Max can live up to his expectation since Daniel is a known benchmark.

Originally Posted by a*ed

Seems a bit harsh on Kvyat!
This was expected but, this soon is a surprise.
Looks like Marko was just waiting for a reason to swap them.

Let's see how this will pan out. Max has a lot to learn and looking forward to see if all the hype around him is justified.

I feel this is more about keeping Max and Jos happy rather than Kvyat.
They were already threatening about speaking to Mercedes/Ferrari for 2017.
Sochi just gave Red Bull the ammo for the swap.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by Hatari

Report suggest Max Verstappen will swap seats with Daniil Kvyat as early as the Spanish GP!
Kvyat's been under pressure for a while and Sochi appears to be the final nail in the coffin..

it's official now.

There is more to it than what Kvyat has been doing. He was doing pretty ok before Sochi compared to Ricciardo. He even outscored Ricciardo last year, which was quite good.

Real reason seems to be that Redbull doesn't want to lose Verstappen to some other team like Ferrari who may consider him as Kimi's replacement, so this is a way of keeping him within the family.

[ecenandu]

Interview with Max after joining the RedBull team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvBp1I7Yfss

He looks relaxed, his answers were diplomatic. I hope he will start respecting the team orders, this is different ball game all together. He has to keep his shenanigans under check until he proves his worth on the track.

Poor Kvyat was bound to get replaced by Max by next year, his poor performance during the start of this season and the incident during the Russian GP made Helmet Marko to pull the trigger.

I was surprised by Kvyat's promotion to the Redbull team in 2014, its not like he has outperformed his then teammate Jean-Éric Vergne in the Toro Rosso. At that time, I trusted the teams decision as they have access to more data and Ricciardo's performance was also outstanding till that moment. It is always difficult to assess how good a driver is, in a under performing car.

Looks like Kvyat didn't quite liked when baptize with fire. He himself admitted his move to the Redbull team came one year too early. I hope this demotion will motivate him further to perform better and show his real worth.

Redbull's junior driving program is brutal, it is perform or perish. Its interesting to note that Vettel is the only ex-Redbull driver currently on the grid, that means your F1 career is over, once rejected by RedBull, at least statistically.

[Fullrevs]

Massive promotion for Max and I think he is up to the task as well. Dont know about listening to team orders and so on. The kid is a bit brash but he is godly talented. Daniel has some stiff competition now but he isnt slow in anyway and will be up to it. Looking forward to this pairing.

[One:1]

Originally Posted by Fullrevs

Massive promotion for Max and I think he is up to the task as well. The kid is a bit brash but he is godly talented. Looking forward to this pairing.

No doubt that Max is Massively talented. Some of the overtaking moves by him were fearless. Good move on promoting him to the parent team . Just imagine what it would have been like with Max and Vettel teamed up during the 2010-2013 season ( yes, ignore the age factor for a second )

[SilentEngine]

Kvyat handled it brilliantly in this press con, with a subtle dig at his now former team.

http://www.facebook.com/Formula1/vid...0056160151370/

[sajands]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

Kvyat handled it brilliantly in this press con, with a subtle dig at his now former team.

Nice answer at the end what were you watching.... fits the bill well. Hope he bounces back with a bang.

[Fullrevs]

Originally Posted by One:1

No doubt that Max is Massively talented. Some of the overtaking moves by him were fearless. Good move on promoting him to the parent team . Just imagine what it would have been like with Max and Vettel teamed up during the 2010-2013 season ( yes, ignore the age factor for a second )

I also get the feeling that Red Bull are also evaluating drivers to see who will be best suited for the team if Daniel leaves. There's a lot of talk about Ricciardo heading to Ferrari next year. Although Kimi is really looking refreshed and supremely quick this year.

Max really reminds me of a young Kimi during his sauber days. Ice cold personality, cut and dry in his statements.