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[Nin-Chin]

McLAREN are looking to ditch Mercedes and reunite with Honda — as they do not want to pay £8million for their engines.
The Formula One outfit, led by Jenson Button, have been partners with the German car giants since 1995.

McLaren get their F1 engines for free but will have to start paying from next season.

A source said: “There is no way McLaren will stay as a customer for Mercedes engines.”

McLaren and Honda dominated F1 in the late 80s and early 90s.

[Nin-Chin]

Anthony Davidson thinks Jenson Button is equally good as Lewis Hamilton – Formula 1 news

Former Formula 1 driver, Anthony Davidson believes that McLaren driver Jenson Button has proven himself equally good as his teammate, Lewis Hamilton since 2010 until now.

Button joined the Woking based team couple of years back after winning the world championship title with Brawn GP and almost everyone expected that he would be outclassed by his compatriot. However, the 2009 world champion has performed remarkably well and has matched the performance of his younger teammate.

Davidson said that he had been amongst those who thought that the 32-year-old won the title with Brawn just because of the car’s competency and would be completely outperformed by the 2008 world champion in McLaren.

“I was not one of those who felt Jenson would be blown away by Lewis,” Davidson told the Express. “After Jenson won the title in 2009 with Brawn some people said it was down to the car so he wanted to go up against Lewis.”

Nevertheless, he said that Button has been just as good as Hamilton in every area of the sport and can be considered as one of the most talented drivers because of his tremendous skills.

“As Lewis leaves, Jenson is a solid equal not just in terms of results and reputation but also the way he has blended with the team,” he added. “Jenson has proved himself to be one of the best drivers in the world, because he has gone up against one of the best and more than held his own.”

At present, he is standing at 6th position in the drivers’ championship. Besides, he is ahead of Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and is behind his main rival, Mark Webber.

On the other hand, the 27-year-old is at 4th place in the drivers’ rankings. Additionally, he is ahead of Webber and is behind Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus. It will be important to mention that he is going to leave the British team at the conclusion of this season and has already signed a new contract with the Brackley based team for the next year.

Let’s see how the British drivers perform in the remainder of the season.

[Nin-Chin]

LEWIS HAMILTON has finally had the chance to say an emotional goodbye to his McLaren team.
The Brit will end his 14-year stay with the Woking-based outfit at the end of the year after agreeing a £60million switch to rivals Mercedes.

The 27-year-old had planned to take the engineers and mechanics to a bowling alley ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix only to find they were doubled booked to go on a fun-run.

But he has now managed to speak to them about his departure when he addressed the staff, and 600 lucky Vodafone customers, at the team’s MTC factory on Friday night.

He said: “I’m massively proud to have worked for McLaren for so long.

“I remember the day I first went to the old McLaren factory when I was 13.

“I’ve spent half my life at McLaren. The team, the cars, the place, the people — they’ll always be special to me.

“The Mercedes building definitely isn’t as spectacular as the MTC.

“The challenge of moving to Mercedes will be working with that team’s engineers to take a car that doesn’t win regularly, and turn it into a car that does, like my McLaren.

“I hope to bring great success to Mercedes, but McLaren will always have a special place in my heart.”

Hamilton is now looking to end the season on a high – despite admitting he was out of the drivers’ championship following his 10th-place finish in Korea.

But ahead of this weekend’s Indian Grand Prix, he says he is driving better than his recent points total suggests.

He added: “It’s frustrating that the last three grand prix have been disappointing for McLaren in terms of points scored.

“This year’s McLaren car has a lot of pace, but the world championship will now be a tall order for us this year.

“I didn’t have a particularly tidy weekend in India last year, but I feel I’ve been driving better than ever recently – even if the results haven’t quite shown it.

“So I’m heading to India determined for another good result.

“I think we’ll have a car that’s a match for the circuit and I can’t wait to get out there and start practicing on Friday.”

[LewEngBridewell]

Re: the top article.

There was rumours circling last year about a re-union between McLaren and Honda. Interesting to see it being revived.

[andrew]

The second one has already been posted in the Team Button thread and the third belongs in teh Hamilton support thread, not the Indian GP thread.

[Denthúl]

If it did happen, it wouldn't be until 2014 at the earliest.

[What's Burning?]

Will they get the Honda engines for free? On the one hand you've got Ferrari and Bernie saying the new engines just don't "sound" right and they want to scrap the whole thing. On the other hand you've got Honda hinting that they'd consider coming into the sport if the engine regulations were made interesting where true ROI for the real world could be gained from a commitment into F1, and McLaren looking for deep discounds (or free?) engines?

Let's see what 2014 brings. IMO the most exciting thing 2014 will hopefully bring is the NJ GP.

[spankyham]

Apparently Ferrari spent their remaining 3 days of straight line testing (last one yesterday). Basically there are quite a few parts that needed to be sorted out that the team has been trying to add to the car for some time. Hopefully some will be added/working now.

Most significantly the Acer ducts/exhaust ramp the team showed up with at the first tests are coming back. Having seen Red Bull apply a similar solution recently with success proves the idea can work, lets hope the team can finally get it working on the F2012.

[What's Burning?]

Timing for the remainder of the season will be critical. You've got two back to back races with a two week period in between. Development over those breaks will be critical.

[Denthúl]

Aren't they shipping parts tested in the Toyota wind tunnel out to all the remaining races? Should hopefully make for an interesting fight for the title now.

Never thought I'd say it, but I really hope Alonso comes out on top.

[andrew]

Massa admits development snags with Ferrari F2012

[Hammer278]

LEWIS HAMILTON has finally had the chance to say an emotional goodbye to his McLaren team.
The Brit will end his 14-year stay with the Woking-based outfit at the end of the year after agreeing a £60million switch to rivals Mercedes.

The 27-year-old had planned to take the engineers and mechanics to a bowling alley ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix only to find they were doubled booked to go on a fun-run.

But he has now managed to speak to them about his departure when he addressed the staff, and 600 lucky Vodafone customers, at the team’s MTC factory on Friday night.

He said: “I’m massively proud to have worked for McLaren for so long.

“I remember the day I first went to the old McLaren factory when I was 13.

“I’ve spent half my life at McLaren. The team, the cars, the place, the people — they’ll always be special to me.

“The Mercedes building definitely isn’t as spectacular as the MTC.

“The challenge of moving to Mercedes will be working with that team’s engineers to take a car that doesn’t win regularly, and turn it into a car that does, like my McLaren.

“I hope to bring great success to Mercedes, but McLaren will always have a special place in my heart.”

Hamilton is now looking to end the season on a high – despite admitting he was out of the drivers’ championship following his 10th-place finish in Korea.

But ahead of this weekend’s Indian Grand Prix, he says he is driving better than his recent points total suggests.

He added: “It’s frustrating that the last three grand prix have been disappointing for McLaren in terms of points scored.

“This year’s McLaren car has a lot of pace, but the world championship will now be a tall order for us this year.

“I didn’t have a particularly tidy weekend in India last year, but I feel I’ve been driving better than ever recently – even if the results haven’t quite shown it.

“So I’m heading to India determined for another good result.

“I think we’ll have a car that’s a match for the circuit and I can’t wait to get out there and start practicing on Friday.”

Not for the first time, I think he's being too much of a softie here. As the guy who delivered a WDC for this fail of a team after a decade of waiting for one, he owes them absolutely nothing...but talks like he does.

Just move on to pastures with more potential, and do whatever you want for the final 4 races Lewis...crash the car on the 1st lap even, its not like you'd be allowed to win anyway.

Massa admits development snags with Ferrari F2012

This belongs in the Thats Massa thread, not the Indian GP thread.

[andrew]

Read the comments above re. Ferrari. It's relevant to the discussion in hand, and it actually would belong in a Ferrari thread if there was one as it is about the team rather than a driver.

Peace out.

[Hammer278]

Read the comments from Nin Chins thread...Lewis talks about his approach to the Indian GP and since he's contesting at the Indian GP, there's no harm it being posted here. Not everything where Lewis is concerned needs to be in the Lewis thread.

[andrew]

It helps if it is though.