Funny sort of situation though.

Seems like any deal with Brawn is likely to happen sooner rather than later.
I mean, it's probably only going to, what?, May or June when they start work on the 2015 car so if Brawn rocks up at McLaren toward the end of the year, his first opportunity to get involved in the design of a car will be for the 2016 season with success probably not expected until 2017.
The only way to speed that up would be to get him on board before McLaren start work on next year's car.
Maybe there'll be some kind of deal where Brawn "consults" this year, with input on next year's car and Whitmarsh works 12 month's "notice"?

Feel a bit sorry for MW if the writing is on the wall.
I can't help thinking that, whoever was in charge of whatever team, the last few years were always going to be in RBRs favour.
Sometimes a team just hits a "sweet spot", as was the case with McLaren in the 80's, Williams in the 90's and Ferrari in the 2000s.

I bet Ron's hoping that RBR don't do well this year so he can offer Adrian Newey a job too.

Unless he decides to take a sabbatical and goes off to design a yacht or something!

Adrian Newey on board as design consultant for the British entry for The Americas Cup skippered by Ben Ainslie? Now there's a dream team!

Knowing Newey's love of downforce we'd end up with a super-fast submarine!

Not long to the first test in Jerez. I cannot wait to see the new cars in action.

Be interesting to see if Newey is prepared to get involved in this.

The whole theory behind aerodynamics is Fluid Dynamics but Newey's real ability is in understanding how that relates to air rather than water.
They could probably find any number of engineers who can help with construction techniques and I'm not sure Newey would want to risk his reputation by building a yacht which turns out to be sub-standard.

Does Newey have a design consultancy of his own?
I wouldn't be surprised if his company gets involved but I can see him, personally, keeping a low profile.

Much less air resistance if it's completely under water! Wonder if there is a regulation in the America's Cup rules which says you must have 75.82% of the craft above the mean water surface at all times. But doesn't the "host" of the cup race dictate the type of craft to be used anyway - Newey would have a field day!

Sorry, I appear to have gone wildly off topic.

Back on topic, I don't know AN at all, but do wonder if he'll get tired of winning all the time and set himself a new challenge. Whether that's with another team or an entirely different project such as yacht building, I don't know.
Last edited by Smiley433 : 20-01-2014 at 11:41

As they seem to be racing multi-hulls which are mostly out of water then understanding fluid dynamics in air is very relevant. Even more so when it comes to sail design, I would have thought.

Totally. The AC72 yachts use wings rather than sails to generate forward motion and once they're up on the hydrofoils the boats have something like 99% of the hull out of the water, even when going up wind! Assuming the USA stick with the AC72 or some derivative there will be a huge opportunity for F1 design to influence the next Americas Cup series. Given the UK's dominance in this field we really should be able to mount a decent challenge but as with all things it comes down to money. I think Oracle Team USA's budget for the last AC was well over £100m... very F1!

I was watching Gordon Murray's 'F1 Architects' interview on Sky last night and one thing he said was that the dominance of aerodynamics as the area of technological innovation in F1 has lead to a drying up of the trickle down of F1 technology into road cars as there's very little need for advanced aerodynamics in the vast majority of models. I guess it would be good to see more cross-overs like this so that all the time and money spent on F1 is not totally wasted.

Stumbled across THIS by complete accident.

Always thought he was a bit of an arsehole, as evidenced in THIS article.

There's questions over whether Swervin' will ever need to serve any of that sentence.

Just reading on Lee McKenzie's tweets, Kobayahsi is driving for Caterham and "revealed he is driving for no salary and thanked his fans for raising well over £1 million in donations".

Also, Paul Di Resta going back to DTM for 2014 with Mercedes.

force India have revealed a pic of their new car online.

Its only a side shot, so more likely just showing of the new sponsors livery. I have to say I quite like the new black colour scheme.

No evidence of a hook-nose on the FI either.

Looking good so far.

You have to ask the question, if it doesnt have a hook-nose, why not post the front on pic?

Either that, or they are still working on/finalising the nose details.

According to journos it does have a hook nose.

Can you serioulsy see Newey going back to a team like McLaren after working in such a fun place like RBR? Never! They cant even afford him now

Williams release a pic of their new car. The car does have a skinny nose. It doesnt look all that bad, but certainly not better than the 'traditional' noses of the past.

Well that crazy idea by Bernie of awarding double points for the last race will go ahead in 2014 after NO attempt to overturn it by the teams

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25859321

What a stupid decision.

Boullier has left Lotus, and is rumoured to go to Mclaren. Although at the start of the week, reports were saying Brawn would go to Mclaren.

Will wait and see who fills the team principal role at Mclaren. Although Boullier does look more likely than Brawn to me.

It seems that whenever a driver dominated, the FIA look at some way to balance things out. When Schumacher was dominating, they changed the points system. Now that Vettel is dominating, double points will be awarded for the last race.

The teams have to shoulder most of the blame here. They should have got together to overturn the decision.

So, was just looking at some stuff about the new engines...

In addition to the current KERS system, which is now called an MGU-K (motor generating unit - kinetic), there'll be an MGU-H (-heat) which, as far as I can see, is going to be a honking great generator fitted between the two turbines of the turbo which'll harvest even more power from the exhausts and (I love this!) will also supply power to spin the turbo when the driver is off the throttle and get rid of turbo lag.
How brilliant is that!?

Anyway, 10 minutes until the start of McLaren's unveiling ceremony...

*EDIT*

Also, FWIW, I see there are pic's of the new Williams doing the rounds and that definitely does have an ugly hooked nose. Boo!

*EDIT2*

Some pic's of the NEW CAR now up on the McLaren website.
Not exactly a hooked nose but still kinda fugly.

*EDIT3*

And what the hell is going on with the Lotus HERE?

The nose of the Mclaren certainly looks worse than the williams. It looks like the Mclaren wont be the best looking car in the grid this year. Must be the first time in years thats happened.

See Lotus have gone a different route, and split their nose. Would love to see a front on shot, rather than the angled shot from the side. Then you can properly judge the aestheticisms of their nose.

Also notice the amount of parts on the Mclaren front wing? Theres loads of them, quite a lot going on, on that wing.

I thought the McLaren looked a tidy solution, shocked at the displeasure at it that's going around. I think the Lotus looks awful!

I suppose it's the old beauty...eye... beholder thing, but I think the MP4-29 looks good, given the restrictions imposed by the rules. Certainly better than the Lotus, which reminds me of those nauseating split tongues that some weirdo's adopt. And is their decision to publish the pic during the McLaren launch a case of sour grapes? Seems to confirm Boulliers destination, as if there was any doubt.

I suspect that the pile of planes on the McLaren front wing are just old bits from last year.

I like the mclaren but the Lotus!

But I don't mind the Mclaren.

Is it just me or has every year in the past few seasons started with "yeah next year we'll sort these noses out" ?

Having said that, not minding the Mclaren one particularly. Nothing like as ugly as that Williams walrus from back in the day.

I quite like the addition of all the black to the FI livery, too.