[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by scuderiamania

I am sorry if this is off-topic but has anyone noticed that most of the european races will be telecast at 6:30 in the evening instead of 5:30? Please visit www.formula1.com to confirm the same. Does anyone know why this change was put in?

There is no change to race start timing. Races start at 14:00 local time. However, DST is not in use now, so most places in Europe will be 4.5hrs behind IST. This will change by the time the European part of the season starts.

[jfxavier]

McLaren continues to bleed their managerial staff.
Hopefully all these changes at the top will not affect the core team working on the next year's car.

Jost Capito has officially left his post as McLaren's chief executive.
McLaren confirmed the same now as expected after Ron Dennis's exit.

"Jost Capito joined McLaren after four successful years at VW Motorsport, with a strong commitment to bringing success back to McLaren," a McLaren team spokesman said.

"He wanted to build again a winning team and fully focus on making the McLaren Formula 1 car competitive, with the aim of winning World Championships in coming years.

"Regrettably, we have not been able to find common ground with Jost with regard to what is and will be needed to make the team successful again.

"As a result, we have agreed that he will leave McLaren Racing and will now consider other opportunities. We wish him success in his future endeavours."

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/124...ture-continues

McLaren Team Manager Dave Redding also left the outfit for Williams.
They have promoted people within the team to take up the responsibilities.

"We can confirm that David Redding is leaving McLaren Racing."

"He will be replaced by Paul James, who will become Team Manager, with a focus on the operational and managerial nature of the role.

"Our Head of Race Operations, Andrea Stella, will assume some of the role's sporting responsibilities and engagement with the FIA.

"Kari Lammenranta will replace Paul as our new Chief Race Mechanic."

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/3...-manager-role/

Meanwhile McLaren fans worldwide are all keeping themselves happy by being excited about the livery of MCL2017 (as the new car will be called post "Big Ron"s departure).

Here are a couple of the latest fan arts. For the people who want orange or those who would like more of Dennis' grey





http://www.mclaren.com.br/

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by jfxavier

McLaren continues to bleed their managerial staff.

McLaren Team Manager Dave Redding also left the outfit for Williams.
They have promoted people within the team to take up the responsibilities.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/3...-manager-role/

Apparently his wife, Lindy Redding was a Ron Dennis loyalist and founded Absolute taste, the company that catered to the team. McLaren have parted ways there as well.

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by Hatari

Apparently his wife, Lindy Redding was a Ron Dennis loyalist and founded Absolute taste, the company that catered to the team. McLaren have parted ways there as well.

Lots of changes at McLaren and some of it seems to be in order to remove any associations with Ron Dennis. People and even the car name has ditched the Project4 association. A bit sad for some of the fans considering that Big Ron was part of the team for almost half it's existence.

Here's EB talking about all the changes happening to the team.

http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/team...llier-6122998/

On the Honda side of the team, things have been real quiet this year.
McLaren has not apparently received the 2017 PU yet. Maybe at Sakura they are still making the final tweaks before waking up the monster.

On other news, in the Geneva meeting held two days ago the technical directors seemed to have not reached a unanimous agreement to define what is permitted on the trick hydraulic suspension elements which allow teams to vary the ride height of the car dynamically.
Looks like some have advocated a return to a conventional suspension, some even proposed the reintroduction of active suspension and also the possibility of status quo.
An FIA technical directive on this could be released soon.



The Mexicans are taking President Trump head on.
Perez has backed his home race's decision to display the #BridgesNotWalls hashtag protesting U.S. president Donald Trump's controversial plans to build a wall on the Mexican border.
It's not just in India, the entire world has been politicized.

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...ump-initiative

[jfxavier]

As we move closer to the car launches, I have listed the main changes to the regulations happening in 2017 so that we know what to expect.
The various technical directives will alter the rules applications in due course.

Here are the regulations in full for those interested.
1._formula_one_-_technical_regulations_-_2017.pdf
1._formula_one_-_sporting_regulations_-_2017.pdf

TECHNICAL REGULATIONS CHANGES:

Tyres and wheels
New tyres will be 25% wider than in 2016. – the front tyres will be 305 mm wide (previously 245 mm), a rear 405 mm (previously 325 mm).
Diameter of the tyre is increased by 10 mm (670 mm for dry-weather tyres and 680 mm for wet-weather tyres) but the wheel size remains 13 inches.
Minimum wheel thickness is reduced from 3.0 mm to 2.5 mm.

Brakes
Maximum disc thickness is increased from 28 mm to 32 mm. Maximum outside diameter remains 278 mm.

Front wing
Front wing width is increased to 1800 mm (2014. – 2016. was 1650 mm wide).

Rear wing
Rear wing will be wider (950 mm instead 750 mm) and lower (800 mm instead 950 mm). Endplates are swept in side view and tucked in front view.

Diffuser
Larger diffuser which is 50 mm taller (175 mm instead of 125 mm), 50 mm wider (1050 mm instead of 1000 mm) and starts 175 mm in front of the rear axle (instead of at the rear axle).

Sidepods
Maximum width is increased from 1400 mm to 1600 mm, and minimum width is increased from 1300 mm to 1400 mm. Exclusion zones around front wheels are reduced allowing larger bargeboard to control turbulent airflow from rotating front wheels more efficiently. Overall width of the car is increased from 1800 mm to 2000 mm.

Weight
The minimum weight increase from 702 kg to 728 kg.
The weight applied on the front and rear wheels must not be less than 331kg and 390kg respectively at all times during the qualifying practice session.
If, when required for checking, a car is not already fitted with dry-weather tyres, it will be weighed on a set of dry-weather tyres selected by the FIA technical delegate.

Power unit
During any GP weekend, if a driver introduces more than one power unit element that leads to grid penalty, only the last element fitted may be used at next races without further penalty.
Power unit price for customer teams is reduced by 1 million euros per season compared to 2016.
To ensure the supply to customer teams, homologation now includes an ‘obligation to supply’ which means if any team doesn’t have an engine for next season, manufacturer with least customers has the obligation to supply that team, which will be Honda.
‘Token system’ is removed for 2017. which enable manufactures to develop their engines in-season.

Gearbox
A competitor may re-nominate gear ratios, which must be declared as a set, once within the Championship season. In such cases the original nomination will become immediately void, however, gearboxes currently in use and part way through their six race cycle, may continue to be used with the originally nominated gears until the end of that cycle.

Fuel
Increased maximum amount of fuel for the race from 100 kg to 105 kg, but maximum fuel flow rate remains 100 kg/h.
No competitor may have more than five fuel formulations approved for use during a Championship season and have more than two approved fuels available during an Event

SPORTING REGULATIONS CHANGES:

Wet-weather starts
If the race has to start behind safety car due to bad weather, normal standing start will occur once the track is deemed safe to race and safety car returns to the pit lane.

Helmet livery
Drivers must use the same helmet design at all races for easy recognition in the car. But in 2017. every driver can use a special livery at one event of his choosing. Also, drivers can change their helmet design if changing teams during the season.

[jfxavier]

Will the EU play spoilsport for Ferrari & friends during 2017?
The European parliament has thrown its support behind calls for Formula One to be investigated for allegations of anti-competition practices.
They have been looking into F1 since Force India and Sauber lodged formal complaints about the sport's system of governance and allocation of prize money in September 2015.
Anneliese Dodds, a UK member of the European parliament, submitted an amendment to the report calling for "an immediate investigation into competition concerns" in F1. On Tuedsday, the amendment was passed by 467 votes to 156, with 86 abstentions.
Dodds went on to say there are also concerns about F1's recent sale to Liberty Media and whether the FIA benefited financially -- the governing body cashed in its one percent stake in F1 when previous owners CVC Capital Partners agreed to sell the sport last year.

There is also significant conflict of interest over the recent sale of the sport to Liberty Media, after the regulator received a $79.5million (£63.7m) profit from authorising the sale. I have written a number of letters to the European Commission calling for a full investigation and I am grateful that the rest of the European Parliament has added its voice to this call.

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...vestigation-f1

Meanwhile Renault is continuing to strengthen their team for an earnest shot at the titles again. They have announced that Pete Machin will join the team as head of aerodynamics in July, having been recruited from Red Bull.
Machin previously worked on the wind tunnel development of Red Bull's championship-winning RB6, RB7, RB8 and RB9 cars.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/h...-red-bull.html


In other news, teams have started posting their PU fire up sounds as usual.
I loved the Honda PU turbo spooling down sound at the end of this clip.

https://twitter.com/McLarenF1/status/831539885630689286

[ecenandu]

James Allison joins Mercedes as technical director.
Ex-Ferrari technical chief James Allison will join the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team as its new technical director as Paddy Lowe's replacement.

Source

[jfxavier]

For those of us who are interested in the history of Formula1 rule changes, Formula1.com had been doing a series on the regulations change through the decades.

Here are the links to the features.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/t...nd-effect.html

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/t...o-stepped.html

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/t...ved-tyres.html

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/t...-and-the-.html

Personally I dont like too many restrictions put in place to control costs as well as domination by a single team.
But this is what we have got to at this point of time.
Hopefully, the Americans will shake things up a bit.

Not a day goes by without a new livery speculation.
STR will appear in light blue livery, apparently to remind you of the BedBull low calories drink.

Some spectacular renders had appeared in the name of "leaked" McLaren livery.

Of course McLaren has denied that it's their car. But they look good I must say.
RealtimeUK automotive artists Chris Blankley and Carlos Pecino took their F1 passion to another level to create this photo-real CG animation predicting the 2017 McLaren Honda.

http://www.realtimeuk.com/video/f1reveal/

If this indeed is the shape of new McLaren, then they and RBR are going to be the odd ones out without a shark fin.
Here are some more of the pictures to keep you entertained till the actual launches.



Meanwhile, Ekrem Sami announced his decision to leave McLaren Marketing. Another Ron Dennis man to go.

[jfxavier]

Williams have become the first team to release pictures of their 2017 car.



Images of the team’s Mercedes-powered FW40 - named to mark Williams’ 40th anniversary was published via the internet.

Here are the launch dates for the cars.

Sauber : February 20
Renault : February 21
Force India : February 22
Mercedes : February 23
Ferrari : February 24
McLaren : February 24
Williams : February 25
Toro Rosso : February 26
Red Bull : February 26
Haas : February 26

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by jfxavier

Williams have become the first team to release pictures of their 2017 car.

Slightly enhanced pics of the same.









Twitter

[ecenandu]

I think liberty media is doing a good job to promote F1, I can see their presence in social media is on the rise. Previously all the footages are so guarded, it is almost impossible to find an accident or controversial moves online. Now they themselves are posting them via official channel. Atleast now they have people who understand the importance of social media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1DGhiYX_4g

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Slightly enhanced pics of the same.



Twitter

Here is a picture comparing the 2016 car to 2017 Williams from wtf1.



However, I doubt if the aero kit will be same on the car rolling out of the pits in AUS.
This is just an initial 3D render I think.

[deetjohn]

The new Williams look great all around but for the proboscis. I really hoped the teams will ditch it this season. I guess we can expect to see it now in many cars.

The stance looks great given the lower and wider car, and the wider rubber helps as well.

[jfxavier]

Sauber F1 Team have become the first team to show true pictures of the 2017 contender, named C36. It features a brand new livery with gold touches to highlight the team's 25th anniversary.



Noted amongst the new design elements are some of the old style stuff as well.
C36 brings the rollblade back.
Two large, split inlets, along with small ones underneath.
Winglet on the cockpit shoulders.
Thumbnose is retained.
Complex vanes in the freed up bargeboard area.
Change in sidepods with a high line at the back to make room for airflow above diffuser.



















Pictures : Courtesy F1 Tech.

[Fullrevs]

Toto Wolff and Nikki Lauda have extended their contracts up to 2020 with Mercedes. James Allison has signed as technical director.

I am quite keen to know what went sour with Allison and Ferrari. Surely it wasn't just the "family issues" that went on in the press. Looking forward to reading about it as its bound to make noise some time during the mid season.