FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

Discuss the sport you love with other motorsport fans

Formula One related discussion.
User avatar
By sagi58
#438825
We're almost at the end of the 2015 season. Most of the teams have already turned their back on this year and are looking forward.

Unfortunately, as usual, not all teams can agree on how to best move forward with rules and regulations.

Image wrote:">McLaren: Mercedes using 'safety' argument to serve their own purposes

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says Mercedes has been “pretty desperate” in its attempts to prevent rule changes being introduced for 2017.

New regulations were outlined in July which would result in F1 cars becoming “faster and more aggressive looking” from 2017 onwards, with a projected improvement in lap time of up to five seconds.

Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery has already said up to half of that gain could be found from the tyres alone, with wider tyres set to be introduced as a result of the changes.

However, while publicly backing any changes Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has voiced concerns over the new regulations, saying there could be safety worries if Pirelli is unable to produce tyres which will allow cornering speeds to increase greatly.

“We believe it needs to be a competitive platform,” Wolff said. “We believe it needs more teams to be competitive, more teams to win races, it makes the whole thing more attractive to us. We have a good setup and good organisation and we will take on every challenge.

“If it is more aero then we will take the challenge on as long as Pirelli is able to do tyres that can cope with that. If it is about changing some of the other regulations we will also be on board, it just needs to be reasonable.”

In response to the concerns from Mercedes, Boullier was blunt in his assessment of the motives behind the opposition to the regulations.

Asked if McLaren shares Mercedes’ concerns, Boullier replied: “Not really.

“I guess this is the usual game where you want to stop some changes so you just argue and going the safety way is pretty desperate from Mercedes.”

Our view
It was McLaren's very own legendary team boss Ron Dennis who first dubbed Formula 1 "The Piranha Club", referring to the teams' tireless efforts to undermine each other in every possible way. So when a McLaren chief debunks Toto Wolff's "safety" concerns, suggesting that they're purely self-interest, it's likely that he knows exactly what he's talking about.
#438826
I really want to see McLaren get back up there but I don't much agree with what Eric's saying.

“If it is more aero then we will take the challenge on as long as Pirelli is able to do tyres that can cope with that. If it is about changing some of the other regulations we will also be on board, it just needs to be reasonable.”


Over the past few years there have been many concerns voiced over pirelli tyres and more recently tightening up of the regulations over how the teams are allowed to use the tyres so I don't think the above quote is unreasonable, no one would want to see something like Indy 2005 happening again or worse.

Maybe Eric just hasn't had the chance to see the effect high speeds have on the tyres.

    See our F1 related articles too!