FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[Peter Smit]

The jist of the article is what needs to happen for Lewis to be driving a Ferrari, Kimi is not performing he leaves Ferrari (my opinion is it will depend if Kimi is not able to compete at the level of the other Ferrari then this is true), Sebastien has a veto in his contract where he can refuse other drivers he can't work with to come into the Ferrari, similar to what Alonso had there when the opportunity came up before when Lewis wanted to move from McLaren, if Seb doesn't use that veto than it is possible for Lewis to move to Ferrari. Alonso has exit clause in his McLaren contract so he takes Lewis's place in Mercedes. Full article here. http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/9811469?

However, I don't think a Ferrari move for Lewis is on the cards at all, rather it would be a Sebastien move to Mercedes, if he sees no matter the improvements to their car doesn't close that gap to Mercedes and he definitely wants to win more races in one season to put together a championship he will think about moving to Mercedes, Nico's place in that team would be the place he would fill (again like what I think about Kimi, it depends on Nico not being able to compete at the level of the other Mercedes that this is true).

I don't think any other manufacturer can get their engine to better the Mercedes engine. It just makes sense that if we are ever going to see Lewis and Seb in one team it would be if they were both in Mercedes.

But the same Bernie Ecclestone is saying that the engine now will be changed back next year to what they had before V8 engines http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/118530, and they can improve that engine rather than the new spec. If that's the case it blows everything I've said out of the water, then Lewis could move to Ferrari because it will be an aerodynamic performance and chassis competition only like before, engines won't be such an issue if they return to the old.

[LiamCatterson]

I would prefer to see V8s return than Lewis in Ferrari. Besides, Lewis shouldn't be in Ferrari for your opinions, Bernie. When Lewis says he should be there, then you can say that but he's happy where he is. Shove it!

[Peter Smit]

I would prefer to see V8s return than Lewis in Ferrari. Besides, Lewis shouldn't be in Ferrari for your opinions, Bernie. When Lewis says he should be there, then you can say that but he's happy where he is. Shove it!

What I meant about it only being worth it for Lewis to change to Ferrari is if the V8's were reintroduced into F1, the current spec of engine suits Mercedes not Ferrari. Otherwise Lewis is happy at Mercedes, and it is the better performing car excluding the tyre degradation issue in hot temperatures but Europe temperatures are not as hot as what we see in Malaysia or Bahrain during the day (but the race is a night race, we are waiting now to see if the tarmac has cooled at night). So this Ferrari being closer now won't be an issue when they come to race in Europe.

[darwin dali]

ESPNF1:
Formula One is closing on an agreement to have 1000bhp engines based on the current V6 turbos from 2017 onwards.

Over the winter pressure to up the power of the engines and rethink the look of the cars grew from certain stakeholders in the sport. Mercedes had been reluctant to completely rethink the layout of the power units or revert to V8s, but now it seems a middle ground has been found.

Bernie Ecclestone has been one of the main supporters of 1000bhp but also wanted a return to V8 engines as recently as last week. Now he appears happy to give his blessing to 1000bhp V6 turbos as long as they are supplied to the smaller teams at a reasonable price

"We need to make the car more difficult to drive," Ecclestone said: "But the two things that have to happen is that whoever supplies engines to the teams have to supply the same engine that they use. If it's going to be the current engine upgraded to 1000bhp then good, but they need to supply it at a price the teams can afford to pay."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the current engines will be producing up to 950bhp with normal development by 2017, so the best way to reach the 1000bhp mark is to up the fuel flow. The engines are currently limited to 100kg of fuel per race and a fuel flow of 100kg per hour, but Wolff warned that upping the fuel flow would result in increased costs when redesigning the engine.

"In 2017 these engines between all the teams are going to have north of 900bhp, and then it's a question of what do you want to tell [that story] and how do you want to market that," he said. "Does it make a big difference to have 950bhp or 1000bhp?

"I think there are easy tools to increase the horsepower and this is increasing fuel flow. If you want to increase the fuel flow by 10kg/hour or 20kg/hour you will have more than 1000bhp, but you have to redesign crucial components of the engine to make them more reliable and that again involves a lot of development cost.

"We all understand that we want to have a spectacular formula, not only on the chassis side but also on the power unit side, and this is what is going to be discussed at the moment, how to achieve it.

"I think all engine manufacturers are pretty clear that the current engine architecture with a hybrid component needs to stay in place. That is the direction we have headed to and this is at least at the moment the current status between Ferrari, Renault, Honda and Mercedes."

Wolff said a valuable meeting had taken place this weekend in Bahrain with Ecclestone and the FIA's Charlie Whiting.

"The discussion about 1000bhp engines has been around for quite a while and I appreciate very well that it needs to be a spectacular formula and if that's the way forward we should continue to work on it. There are various groups coming together in terms of how the 2017 rules can look like in terms of what the power unit and chassis can look like. Yesterday there was a very valuable meeting; Charlie was there and Bernie was there and concepts are being put in place to make it a spectacular new formula in 2017."