Would Mercedes really give Red Bull a competitive engine?

via Autosprint

That was the first thing that came to mind when the rumor of a deal that would have brought Mercedes power to Red Bull Racing.

However, a recent issue of Autosprint lays out a scenario that is, at the very least, intriguing to follow.

Let me summarize:

Next year Red Bull Racing would run a Mercedes Power Unit while junior team Toro Rosso would continue to use Renault.

The deal was started at the Monaco GP and would see Aston Martin come in as a sponsor on the RBR cars,  taking the place of Infiniti.    The engines would not be re-badged as Astons.

When Sergio Marchionne, in Montreal, declared he would be happy to provide Ferrari power to Red Bull, he was trying to derail a deal which had yet to be finalized because for Ferrari a Mercedes powered Red Bull is a problem, on track but also commercially.  There is the missed opportunity to sell €22Mllion worth of engines (yeah, that's for two engine supplies to one team!) and the added exposure F1 would provide Aston Martin, a direct competitor in road cars.

A deal between RBR and Mercedes, Autosprint continues, had been in the works years ago but had been blocked by McLaren.

The final turning point came at the Austrian GP with Dietrich Mateschitz  threatening to leave F1 because of Renault.  This shook not just Ecclestone who desperately needs a rival to the Silver Arrows for 2016 but also Mercedes who have interest in seeing the series thrive (as long as they are on top anyway).


Enter Aston Martin. In late 2013, AMG Mercedes signed a deal to supply engines for Aston Martin road cars and Mercedes has promised to acquire a 5% stake in the British car maker which is currently devided between an Italian private equity firm, Investindustrial, at 37.5%, The Kuwaiti Sovereign fund and David Richards among others.

Adrian Newey and Red Bull Technologies will, as part of the deal,. to be collaborating with Aston Martin on a future top of the line car..

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Niki Lauda had dismissed the notion at Silverstone but Toto Wolff was quiet.  Rumors have Lauda vehemently against furnishing a team with financial and technical capabilities to be a direct competitor with Wolff taking a longer term view with the welfare of the series in mind.

The deal became possible, always according to Autosprint, because Renault has finalized the purchase of 51% of Lotus (We have only been able to independently confirm top level talks have been taking place but nothing has been finalized yet).

The stake in Lotus would eventually increase but Renault is said to have asked Ecclestone for a dispensation so that the team may officially enter the 2016 season as Renault without the economic (revenue share) penalties of entering as a new team.    2016 cars would sport the traditional yellow and black of the Regie.

Winners and losers?  Red Bull gains the best engine available, Mercedes gains the best available client team, gets to monetize engines it was uncertain Lotus would fully pay for and gets to look magnanimous in front of the sport,
Renault would be largely free of the now damaged relationship with Red Bull and with Lotus gain a team which has good infrastructure and is free of much of the debt that saddles other available teams.   Renault would also be in the position to take better advantage of the exposure or running their own team.

Loser?  Certainly Ferrari who in 2016 will have Sauber, Manor and Haas as clients.


Will it happen?  Would Mercedes take the risk?  Would Red Bull accept the possibility of getting  a B-Spec unit?

Stay tuned, meanwhile here is Rosberg's pole position lap in Hungary last season.

Mercedes also won Social Media at the Austrian GP

Many Lewis Hamilton fans, in the public and the media,  are upset today.
A sizable segment actually feels the British driver was shortchanged by Mercedes who betray their preference for German driver Nico Rosberg.

First the Monaco debacle now Austria.

Hamilton was intentionally, in their view, kept out on old tires one lap too long, to allow Rosberg to keep his lead, a lead Nico had only gained because Mercedes switched Lewis' clutch to one supposedly not of his liking.

This would be funny of it were just random internet forum banter but when you get members of the media pushing the view it escalates to a new level.

NBC's Will Buxton, who happens to have as low an opinion of Rosberg and as he has a very high one of Hamilton,  tweeted those "accusations" after the race.

Normally one might attribute  Buxton's hyperbole to his having spent too much time chugging free Red Bulls in Dieter's hospitality suite and dismiss it but Mercedes did something different and quite new for F1:

They replied.

Not only did Mercedes politely but firmly shut down Buxton's conspiracy theories, they also engaged with fans following the thread, responding courteously,  with facts and figures when appropriate.

No, it wasn't a different clutch, it was the same one they used all year.   No, Lewis did not have the gap because even if Nico had a mediocre in lap, he has a blistering out lap.

This is fantastic,  more teams should take this approach and engage with commentators and fans, share and shed light.

Another way Mercedes is leading the F1 field.

Expand the tweets below to see the full conversations.

1. Safety Car on Lap 1 called an early end to side by side battle between the Mercedes drivers which was yet to be concluded.

— The Buxton Blog (@thebuxtonblog) June 21, 2015

@thebuxtonblog True! We were looking forward to seeing how that one panned out!! :)

— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) June 21, 2015

2. New clutch after the 4th race is not to Hamilton's liking. Rosberg has won 3 of the past 4 races, and HAM unhappy with all starts since.

— The Buxton Blog (@thebuxtonblog) June 21, 2015

@thebuxtonblog Clutch (used throughout 2014) gives more predictable and consistent starts for both cars.

— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) June 21, 2015

3. Team decision to leave HAM out an extra lap. ROS in lap was scrappy and slow. Gap would have been far closer had HAM pitted lap after ROS

— The Buxton Blog (@thebuxtonblog) June 21, 2015

@thebuxtonblog Not correct. Lewis didn't have the gap at any point - especially after the searing out-lap from Nico.

— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) June 21, 2015

Will the real sportsman please stand up?

Photo: Mercedes AMG Petronas

"I've just lost this race, didn't I?"

That "no shit Sherlock" moment was perhaps the last honest moment from Hamilton and Mercedes in Monaco,  everything that came after was pure Hollywood.

Motorsport media seemed eager to buy into the narrative of Hamilton first screwed by the team and then magnanimous on the podium with his proclamations of "we win and we lose together".  Some even praised him for his reluctant, no eye contact handshake with Rosberg.

Amazing.

Now, we don't want to say "I told you so" but we told you so.  It's pretty clear it was Lewis himself who instigated the idea of a pit stop...   in Monaco... when you're leading...with 14 laps to go....

I know, right?



The running over the 3rd place placard, the moping up onto the stage making sure everyone knew he was the victim of unfortunate events,   it was all for the cameras.  
Hamilton contemplated parking his car at Portier to go straight home and had to be told by Lowe to get his ass back to the grid.   I guess Lewis did not realize that when Senna stopped there in '88 he had crashed out of the race, not a podium finisher.   The whole scene was jst over the top,  a true sportsman would have just put his hand up and taken one for the team rather than hashtagging his misfortunes in instagram.

Mercedes of course is equally to at fault,  they should have stuck their plan and never allowed the pit stop to happen.
Wolff or Lowe should have gotten on the horn with Hammy and said something along the lines of "what have you been smoking Lewis,  stay out".   And they might have save for what happened last year, when Hamilton blamed his loss in Monaco on the team NOT pitting him.

Mercedes took the whole blame for the error after the race.  I suppose it would be bad form to suggest, in Monaco, in front of corporate big wigs and sponsors, that the guy you just signed for the next three years at something like $26,000 an hour could make laughably silly calls on track.

Interesting they would be willing to throw the staff, both at the track and in remote locations,  under the proverbial bus.  Their sole job is to work out every possible strategic permutation.

This calls into question the need for all this infrastructure.   If F1 is looking to cut costs, how come nobody mentions the number of engineering staff?  What's the point of remote "mission controls" if then this is the outcome?   Think of how Rosberg's car was bottoming out in the final phases of qualifying for example, how is that possible?  All those computer models and you still cannot set the proper ride height for Monaco.     Is it all a show?

Speaking of infrastructure,  can anyone explain why this elderly fan seemed so smugly excited and happy right after Hamilton pitted?    Because after he was blaming the team as well afterwards.

Also,  to clarify, we don't just pick on British media for being Hamilton fan boys,  I heard an Italian commentator claim Ferrari  were "brilliant" strategically for telling Vettel to get right up on Rosberg's gearbox while Hamilton was in the pits.

Well,  it's pretty clear from the video below, Vettel had no clue what was going on (he was weaving and warming tires on the front straight) and where Hamilton was up until the two were side by side.  

Ferrari have to thank Seb's presence of mind in that final split second for that second place.

No, Lewis Hamilton is not going to Ferrari.

Lewis in Red

It all started with Mr. E, the "good little dictator" as Flavio Flav called him this week, dictating to journalists recently that a Lewis in Red would be "great for the sport".   Maybe because headlines are easier than what would really be great for the sport.

It is true that Hamilton has yet to sign the new contract with Mercedes.  He now, as Vettel has been doing for years, negotiates his own deals and  contracts consist of a lot of pages Lewis has no time to read... because he's been very busy.

Indeed Hamilton has been quite busy since the last race in China, first showing the world he cares by showcasing his early morning stuff.

Then  Captain Morganing his Cobra in Malibu.  Modeling  hats, getting his Beeb on and showing up at the Party of the Year in NYC where, ironically, Axis ran into him (we were nice, as was he).


Contract signing keeps getting postponed.

There is no doubt Hamilton has spoken with the Scuderia.  If it's true he bought a LaFerrari, you can be sure that at the very least someone from the Gestione Sportiva stopped by the delivery area at Maranello to have chat.

But, while Ferrari may be extravagant in their promise to match Mercedes investments, they are not insane:  the most valuable commodity they got switching Vettel for Alonso is a the absence of drama.   Pairing Lewis with Seb would be suicidally insane at this stage.

If any discussion was ongoing, Maurizio Arrivabene put the kibosh on it yesterday stating Ferrari does not need Hamilton at the moment and  has signed a pre-contract with Valtteri Bottas.

You could very well imagine Mercedes management had a behind the scene hand in this:  Bottas is tied to Toto Wolff who perhaps traded a public statement from Arrivabene for a future Finn in case the current Finn loses interest or demands too much money.

Where does that leave Lewis?   Certainly delaying keeps Mercedes on their toes and any possible advantage in his corner even as he claims he does not demand #1 status.  It's a tactic which has little chance of backfiring.

If you want to get all conspiratorial you might imagine his long term plan might be to return, triumphantly, to McHonda and win his fourth Championship in a white and red car, wearing a yellow and blue helmet.

Certainly, he wants to get paid as much money as Vettel and Alonso are getting, which I suppose he deserves.