spitfire
Walty McWaltface
And Max obvs.
F1 2021
- Thread starter 1%er
- Start date
And Max obvs.
Zapp Brannigan
Built like a steakhouse, handles like a bistro
People who think of Hamilton as "uppity". Which probably includes Nelson Piquet, his daughter and her fiancé.
spitfire
Walty McWaltface
Apparently not, (yet).
McLaren Group is aware of a news media report stating it has been sold to Audi. This is wholly inaccurate and McLaren is seeking to have the story removed.
McLaren’s technology strategy has always involved ongoing discussions and collaboration with relevant partners and suppliers, including other carmakers, however, there has been no change in the ownership structure of the McLaren Group.
McLAREN GROUP STATEMENT
Update regarding news media reportMcLaren Group is aware of a news media report stating it has been sold to Audi. This is wholly inaccurate and McLaren is seeking to have the story removed.
McLaren’s technology strategy has always involved ongoing discussions and collaboration with relevant partners and suppliers, including other carmakers, however, there has been no change in the ownership structure of the McLaren Group.
MrCurry
right after this urgent rest
Me! I got 3.75:1 on Max for WDC and 4.25:1 on Red Bull for constructors champions directly after pre-season testing, so I put a bet on both as it seemed like good value given they’d shown the most pace in testing.
So I’ve hedged - if Lewis wins I’ll be ecstatic as I’ve been a fan since he came into the sport and achieving more championships than anyone else will be a wonderful, historic and lasting achievement which he really deserves. If Max and or Red Bull win then I’ll be quids in and I can tell 1%er to stop telling me never to bet against Lewis, which will be the biggest win!
1%er
Well-Known Member
McLaren Group/Audi isn't over I believe. In very recent times McLaren sold both the Applied technology division and their Woking headquarters along with a minority stake in the McLaren Racing Formula 1 team. They also received a cash injection of £550 million from a number of investors including the Saudi Arabian public investment fund, they received £170m for the sale of their headquarters plus £185m for the minority stake in the McLaren Racing Formula 1 team. It is unclear how much they got for the sale of the Applied technology division.
Now I'm not an account and these sales and cash investments were made in 2020 and 2021, I don't know where or how this massive injection of cash sits on the McLaren books, but I do know they have made an operating loss of £12.4 million in the first 6 months of 2021. This could mean that they have hundreds of millions of pounds in the bank I guess, I don't know I don't know how the accounting system works for UK businesses'.
Reading a little about McLaren, in 2020 Operating profit was negative £291 million vs. a positive £25 million in 2019. McLaren finished the year with total Liquidity of £105 million, Cash on hand of £67 million and long term Net Debt of £630 million. On top of the debt mountain (£630 million), there is the not so minor issue of £802 million in un-amortized new product development costs that will need to be taken to the P&L at some point I'm sure.
The McLaren F1 Team finished 2020 in 3rd place in the constructor’s championship and with the most point scored since 2012. In mid-December, an initial 15% stake (which will grow to 33% by 2023) in the McLaren F1 Team was sold to a US based consortium in return for a commitment to invest £185 million into McLaren Racing over the next 3 years. As a result of this investment, F1 Team has been decoupled from the McLaren Group’s financial results. From an accounting perspective, the F1 Team will now be treated as a joint venture based on the equity method.
A while ago (F1 2020 thread) I posted a few times about McLaren financial problems and their "Guaranteed Future Value" situation, this is still coming back to hit them along with the depreciating value of their cars on the secondhand market, for example: the 720s which was supposed to be the car that would have taken Mclaren to new heights, lost half of its value in less than 2 years and this is still happening with new models. Raising the residual value of a car provides a GFV (Guaranteed Future Value) which means that at the end of your ownership of the car (depending on your contract), a particular amount of money is what Mclaren predicts for the car to be worth. And if the car turns out to be anything less valuable than the GFV set by the Mclaren authorities, then you don't end up paying any extra money to the financing company and you can peacefully return the car. This problem extends to almost every McLaren car sold, so who is going to cover the loss on the "Guaranteed Future Value" payments. Do you think the finance companies will cover that or will they (as many are now doing) look to McLaren for recompense, as it was McLaren that gave the car the GFV. So, if you take how much money Mclaren owes the finance company and multiply it by the number of cars sold, they are eventually gonna need lots of cash. Mclaren and their dealerships are going to have a bunch of their cars returned to them with depreciating values. What about the finance companies? Are they going to continue to finance the sales of McLaren cars?
I think this story is far from over.
Now I'm not an account and these sales and cash investments were made in 2020 and 2021, I don't know where or how this massive injection of cash sits on the McLaren books, but I do know they have made an operating loss of £12.4 million in the first 6 months of 2021. This could mean that they have hundreds of millions of pounds in the bank I guess, I don't know I don't know how the accounting system works for UK businesses'.
Reading a little about McLaren, in 2020 Operating profit was negative £291 million vs. a positive £25 million in 2019. McLaren finished the year with total Liquidity of £105 million, Cash on hand of £67 million and long term Net Debt of £630 million. On top of the debt mountain (£630 million), there is the not so minor issue of £802 million in un-amortized new product development costs that will need to be taken to the P&L at some point I'm sure.
The McLaren F1 Team finished 2020 in 3rd place in the constructor’s championship and with the most point scored since 2012. In mid-December, an initial 15% stake (which will grow to 33% by 2023) in the McLaren F1 Team was sold to a US based consortium in return for a commitment to invest £185 million into McLaren Racing over the next 3 years. As a result of this investment, F1 Team has been decoupled from the McLaren Group’s financial results. From an accounting perspective, the F1 Team will now be treated as a joint venture based on the equity method.
A while ago (F1 2020 thread) I posted a few times about McLaren financial problems and their "Guaranteed Future Value" situation, this is still coming back to hit them along with the depreciating value of their cars on the secondhand market, for example: the 720s which was supposed to be the car that would have taken Mclaren to new heights, lost half of its value in less than 2 years and this is still happening with new models. Raising the residual value of a car provides a GFV (Guaranteed Future Value) which means that at the end of your ownership of the car (depending on your contract), a particular amount of money is what Mclaren predicts for the car to be worth. And if the car turns out to be anything less valuable than the GFV set by the Mclaren authorities, then you don't end up paying any extra money to the financing company and you can peacefully return the car. This problem extends to almost every McLaren car sold, so who is going to cover the loss on the "Guaranteed Future Value" payments. Do you think the finance companies will cover that or will they (as many are now doing) look to McLaren for recompense, as it was McLaren that gave the car the GFV. So, if you take how much money Mclaren owes the finance company and multiply it by the number of cars sold, they are eventually gonna need lots of cash. Mclaren and their dealerships are going to have a bunch of their cars returned to them with depreciating values. What about the finance companies? Are they going to continue to finance the sales of McLaren cars?
I think this story is far from over.
1%er
Well-Known Member
Guanyu Zhou becomes first Chinese driver after signing for Alfa Romeo
Guanyu Zhou has become Formula 1's first Chinese driver after signing to race for Alfa Romeo in 2022. Alfa Romeo described the Formula 2 frontrunner as a "trailblazer who will write a pivotal page in his country's motorsport history". Zhou, 22, will partner Valtteri Bottas, signed from Mercedes after veteran Kimi Raikkonen decided to retire this year. He replaces Antonio Giovinazzi, who has raced for Alfa since 2019 but now has no place on the F1 grid next year.Zhou, who is second in the F2 championship with three wins this season and two rounds still to go in Saudi Arabia next month, said: "I dreamt from a young age of climbing as high as I can in a sport that I am passionate about and now the dream has come true. "I feel well prepared for the immense challenge of Formula 1, the pinnacle of my sport, alongside a proven, world-class talent in Valtteri Bottas." The move means all F1 teams have confirmed driver line-ups for 2022.
Why have Alfa signed Zhou?
Zhou was part of the Ferrari driver academy from 2014-18, and moved to join Renault's young driver stable in 2019. He has been test driver for the French company's F1 team for the past two years. He will take with him to Alfa Romeo a sizeable financial package said to be worth many millions of pounds. Team principal Frederic Vasseur admitted in an exclusive interview with BBC Sport that this was a factor in signing Zhou, saying: "The financial side can't be hidden." But he said that Zhou's talent had also been a key consideration. Vasseur pointed to his F2 victories in Bahrain and Silverstone this year as evidence that he "has the ability" to compete at the highest level. "I don't know if in the end he will be a champion or not in F2," Vasseur said. "But this won't change the potential that he is a frontrunner against some other very experienced guys He also has the advantage that he was able to do some test days this season in F1 so he is not with zero mileage."
Vasseur, who previously ran the successful ART team in the junior categories, said he had been watching Zhou's progress for some years. "For China, it makes no sense to bring someone if the guy is nowhere [on performance]. They want to be successful," Vasseur said. "When he was at the beginning of the story in F3, we said: 'Perhaps this one is a potential [F1 driver].' And then he won some races in F3 Euroseries before moving to F2, and he did well. The most important thing for me is that he is a clever guy because he is always improving from year to year, always doing a better job and putting everything together."
Zhou brings significant financial boost
Vasseur said the extra income Zhou brings to Alfa Romeo would mean that the team would be able to operate at F1's cost cap next season - their budget is "massively" under the $145m (£114m) figure this year, he said. "In the end, our sponsors also want to be happy and develop their commitment to the future, and the financial side can't be hidden," Vasseur said. "The first Chinese driver in F1 - it's mega news for us, for the company, for our sponsors and also for F1 in general. A team has to become sustainable at one stage. It is not just about the Chinese sponsors, it is about the exposure we will give to our current partners. F1 today is a bit tough. If you are not in the top two plus Ferrari, the exposure is very low and this is probably the best way we will have to move up the classification of exposure."
Why did Alfa Romeo pick Bottas as team leader?
Bottas was signed in early September, after Mercedes decided to sign George Russell as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate for next season. Vasseur said conversations with the Finn, who drove for the Frenchman in the junior categories before making his F1 debut with Williams in 2013, began at the start of this season. "We always kept a very good relationship, and very early into the season we were in the same hotel and we discussed it together one evening," said Vasseur. "I said: 'OK, if one day you are looking for a team, Valtteri, I will be there. We started the discussion like this and moved forward step by step. We have a strong personal relationship and I knew he was in a tough situation. OK, Mercedes is probably the best team on the grid and to be part of the team is the dream of 18 drivers on the grid today. But it was not an easy situation and he was trying for the next stage [of his career] to be central to a project and it was what we discussed from the beginning. We said: 'OK, if we want to improve as a team, we need to develop the project around a driver.' It was always the case with the successful stories - with [Sebastian] Vettel at Red Bull or [Fernando] Alonso at Renault or [Michael] Schumacher at Ferrari or Lewis [Hamilton] - to try to build something up around someone and that was the project with Valtteri." Vasseur said Bottas' status as a leading driver would give the team a benchmark as F1 heads into a major regulation change this winter, with new cars aimed at closing up the grid and making the racing more competitive.
MrCurry
right after this urgent rest
Is hanging by a thread now.Maybe he can resurrect his career...
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
I know fuck all about driving, letalone F1 driving, but comments seem to be pretty unanimous that this is suss, and/or Verstappen didn't take the corner in good faith.
spitfire
Walty McWaltface
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
This is a sentiment I heard a lot at the time, too. Basically "weird we haven't seen Verstappen's on-board yet". I think they had (and showed) Hamilton's fairly quickly after the incident, right?
souljacker
innit
Max doesn't make any attempt to turn until he's way passed the apex. He doesn't really aim for the apex at all.
Ax^
Silly Rabbit
he should get a 5 place drop for the next race
in my opinion, he should get a harsher result for his basic shitty petulant reaction ffrom being under the believe if he had pitched Hamilton into the barriers
he could of claimed well its what hamiltion did to me in silverstone
Lewis tried to make the apex is the difference
max move teams and get away from the toxic pairing at your stable
will end up like alonso if he is not careful
in my opinion, he should get a harsher result for his basic shitty petulant reaction ffrom being under the believe if he had pitched Hamilton into the barriers
he could of claimed well its what hamiltion did to me in silverstone
Lewis tried to make the apex is the difference
max move teams and get away from the toxic pairing at your stable
will end up like alonso if he is not careful
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Limejuice
Well-Known Member
Part of Max's problem is Whinger's and Marko's belief that near-star nucleosynthetic processes are luminously visible through Max's rectum.
They keep telling him he's in the right all the time. (Even when they know how the Laws of Physics operate - or at least Adrian Newey does.)
They say this season's conflicts with Hammy are all Hammy's fault. Or Mercedes. Or Toto. Or sunspots. Or Covid...
But as we all know: Sometimes when you keep repeating the same actions, and the same outcome keeps happening, then the problem is you.
Max throughout this season has displayed a Schumacher-esque inclination to make contact. He keeps turning into space that cannot be available. When he's on the outside, he cuts in. When he's on the inside he drifts out. He's not stupid enough to imagine he's immune to Isaac Newton's stern Laws. He also had a season or two racing beside All-Bran who pulled precisely the same manoeuvres on Hammy and equally ended up off the track. So why does he do it?
1. Because Hammy backed off - for the first half of the season. Thus emboldened...
2. Max felt he was entitled to any disputed space on the tarmac regardless of the racing dynamics...
3. And having been told by his
4. He consistently underestimates how resolute and how strong a driver the seven-times world champion is...
5. Which he does because he has started to believe that near-star nucleosynthetic processes are luminously visible through his rectum.
I have put this thesis before Mrs Limejuice, who has formulated a briefer, more pithy explanation: "He's still an immature little prick."
I defer to her superior wisdom in this and many other things.
Zapp Brannigan
Built like a steakhouse, handles like a bistro
Barely half lock on the steering until he's already well wide of the apex.
He'll get a grid penalty, and we'll have the unedifying spectacle of Horner et al complaining that it shouldn't be a penalty but if it is then it should have been a 5 second penalty on the day. And if that's what he gets, they'll complain that if Max had known he could have put 5 secs on Bottas, so the real outcome with penalties applied is for Max to be given 2nd place anyway. But it shouldn't be a penalty.
Zapp Brannigan
Built like a steakhouse, handles like a bistro
souljacker
innit
She's nailed it. But you also nail it with your lengthier explanation, especially the Schumacher comparison. There is a desperate urge in Max to block everyone at all costs. He needs to grow up.
MrCurry
right after this urgent rest
I wonder if the stewards will request the telemetry comparison of that lap with a previous one, to show them the full story of what he did differently with brake pedal, steering angle, etc. That will be quite revealing too.[looks at on-board footage]
Blimey.
Pretty blatant, IMO.
Kind of mind boggling they’re asked to make a judgement during the race without the benefit of the on board footage. Martin Brundle is always banging on about how much more info the stewards have available to them when deciding these matters…
Max does need to get penalised for this or he will only get worse. He already pushes the limits of the rules when trying to avoid being overtaken and has done for years, with jinking sideways after the following car commits in the braking zone, etc. Someone like Max will take as much leeway as he’s given, so they need to give him less.
1%er
Well-Known Member
I think they are having the meeting now, the FIA don't like to look back at a race and then give a penalty, they like it even less if it means they have to overturn a decision they have already made. It is embarrassing for them.
At this hearing they will have much more information, they will have all Verstappens telemetry not only for this lap but also for other laps, but what can they really do? What penalty can they apply?
I think if they find him guilty of pushing Lewis off track the maximum they will do is give him a 5 second time penalty, on the other hand if they find that he was dangerous in his actions (which I don't believe they will) they may well give him a 5 place grid penalty. My money is on them giving some kind of warning or advice, but I hope they send him home for the rest of the season as that would mean free meals until the end of the season for me and the governor
At this hearing they will have much more information, they will have all Verstappens telemetry not only for this lap but also for other laps, but what can they really do? What penalty can they apply?
I think if they find him guilty of pushing Lewis off track the maximum they will do is give him a 5 second time penalty, on the other hand if they find that he was dangerous in his actions (which I don't believe they will) they may well give him a 5 place grid penalty. My money is on them giving some kind of warning or advice, but I hope they send him home for the rest of the season as that would mean free meals until the end of the season for me and the governor
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
"Hey, Max, we thought it would be interesting if you tried sticking more within the boundaries of the rules? And, y'know, the track? Just see what happens, not telling you how to do your job, just some friendly advice
"
