sunsalem

IIRC, Honda is supporting only TR?

Anyway, with the current formula this has become an engine series.
For example, Singapore showed McLaren's chassis is one of the best, but it can't make up for the lack of power...and that's unfortunate for fans.

We have 3 more seasons of this engine formula before the new one kicks in.
I can hardly wait to count how many championships will MB will rack up.

Nowanker

Thought I heard on one of the race broadcasts that Sauber signed with Honda for 2018. That was prior to the big announce of TR.
Love to know just HOW much M-B spends on the F1 program every year. $1B? More?
Holy sh*t!

chuntington101

Just like all holomagation cars they will sell them at a massive loss just to get by the rules. And everyone will do the same. As MB has done with the one they will use it as a massive advertising stunt. Which in effect is exactly what F1 is for the big players!

I don't have an answer to what the solution is. I don't even know if there needs to be an answer. The sport must still work for the teams that are taking part otherwise they would move to another Motorsport.

I guess that's the thing with F1, it's kind of self governing. The teams invest that much into the sport that they want it to remain THE top of motor racing. If there was only one team in it no one would watch it and there would be no point in investing in it. If it's a constant battle for the no.1 spot there is tons of news time and the like of MB, Ferrari, red bull etc all get air time and advertising.

Just my thoughts.

sunsalem

I have read the big teams (MB, Ferrari, RB) have a yearly budget of between $400-500 million...you know, chump change!

chuntington101

To be fair that's probably what they spend on a new production road car engine!....

Nowanker

Ballpark figure I heard about ten years ago was "~$100million/car/season", sure that's gone up a bunch, and I'm sure the really big players drop way more still.
Saw something on the BMW F1 team a while back where they had 40 full time people just for their wind tunnel...

sunsalem

New F1 Chat Thread:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ad-2017-a.html

chuntington101

As said above, actaul tests are only half the game these days! There is about as much (and only because that's all the rules permit) in the virtual testing!

In fact OEMs don't really bother testing things like engines anymore . They tend to model them on a computer and iron out all the obvious bits before casting anything up! Saves masses of time and money.

Same will be the case for F1 teams. That's why they can bring aero changes to races mid session / so quickly after another team has!

sunsalem

Here is a new twist to what transpired between the 2:
http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/6...rior_to_split/