In the round-up: Manor, which competed in F1 last year as Marussia, has cleared one obstacle to returning to F1 after coming out of administration.
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Marussia creditors approve exit from administration (Reuters)
"Administrators FRP Advisory LLP said in a statement that a Company Voluntary Arrangement had been agreed to allow control of Manor Grand Prix Racing, which traded as Marussia F1, to be passed back to directors."
Wolff and Nasr blame each other (Sky)
"I went straight over to him and said 'what the hell went on'? He was a bit speechless and to be honest with you I was also a bit speechless because it was one of those things that happened and you said to yourself 'how the hell did that just happen?' It's stupid."
Renault not where Red Bull wants it (Autosport)
"We are still fine-tuning definitely, we are not where we want to be yet with engine and driveability."
Tweets
@ianparkesf1 I would have thought the same thing about them being allowed to use the 2014 car…
— Formula Money (@FormulaMoney) February 19, 2015
I find it odd williams, still has double thickness sections where the pillars meet the nose pic.twitter.com/pSjTZDy9Dp
— Craig Scarborough (@ScarbsF1) February 19, 2015
A very rare sight, with two LEC F1 cars in the same garage here at a busy test day Donington! #lovedonington pic.twitter.com/2vQgWaQ8g2
— Donington Park (@DoningtonParkUK) February 19, 2015
2015 cars are under construction and staff being recruited. For once, a good news story in #F1. Let's hope #F1 doesn't get in the way
— Kevin Eason (@easonF1) February 19, 2015
Final day tomorrow It's been an honour and a pleasure to work for @McLarenF1 for the last 7 years! Good luck for 15 pic.twitter.com/9OsMBcgfvM
— Tom Briggs (@1derpony) February 19, 2015
Young gun #MaxVerstappen had a nice sunset lockup tonight in his @ToroRossoSpy. #Formula1 pic.twitter.com/H5BWpeicwG
— Jamey Price (@jameypricephoto) February 19, 2015
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Comment of the day
It’s not been a great start to testing for McLaren but @Robbie is staying optimistic:
These are such early days. There is no rule that says they have to be challenging the Mercedes in race one. This is a process and they’ve only just begun.
Red Bull could barely pile on the kilometres a year ago at this time, and they weren’t dealing with a new marriage.
Are they frustrated? I’m sure. But are they looking at each other in dismay saying things are falling apart? I think the opposite really.
Things are coming together as they find their issues, resolve them, and move on. I highly doubt they themselves were fully expecting perfection out of the box. Teething issues for their particular scenario should be considered normal for this complex formula.
@Robbie
Snapshot
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ColdFly F1 (@)
20th February 2015, 2:55
Ferrari and McLaren are amongst Manor’s biggest creditors. One or both of them must have agreed to the Company Voluntary Arrangement (to get the majority vote through).
It is unlikely that they would agree to this unless they know that Manor will be able to race and collect last year’s prize money (otherwise they would have risk to be diluted even further as creditors).
I look forward to see Manor racing this year.
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
20th February 2015, 3:49
@coldfly Agreed!
Neil (@neilosjames)
20th February 2015, 3:10
Don’t really like FE but that London race looks a great experience. Probably decent weather, park setting, great city, no idea what ticket prices are but can’t see them costing a fortune. And it’s not big enough to spike hotel prices so could get a decent deal there too.
frood19 (@frood19)
20th February 2015, 8:54
agreed. it should be a good event. i’m curious to see what the spectacle is like in person. and i live about 2 miles from battersea park so there’s no excuse not to go really.
Diego (@ironcito)
20th February 2015, 6:54
That MP4/4 looks so simple.
Brian Frank (@brianfrank302)
20th February 2015, 9:00
The London circuit is full of straights and FE cars seem very slow on straights.
CP
20th February 2015, 10:16
Full of very short straights. This is a very compact, narrow and tight circuit. Not a stunning circuit, but one much in keeping with it’s circuits elsewhere. The racing has been pretty good so far, so should be a good event hopefully.
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
20th February 2015, 17:34
@brianfrank302 Hence the amount of chicanes that have been added! Long Beach only has one..
petebaldwin (@)
20th February 2015, 9:42
@Robbie – re: COTD, The other thing I haven’t seen mentioned is that we’re not really sure at what point the teams started using their PUs 100%. I’m sure several were still turned down a bit for the first few races to ensure they finished. If similar happens with McLaren, they are going to look off the pace initially but they also should make the biggest gains from Australia – Abu Dhabi throughout the field. I think it’ll be too early to really understand where McLaren and Honda are until the European races begin.
Robbie (@robbie)
20th February 2015, 12:40
@keithcollantine Thanks for the COTD mention.
@petebaldwin Agreed. Everything is ahead of them and everything in F1 is always a work in progress. As you point out, there will be stages of planned development for them, and all the teams, and it remains that often teams have upgrades ready for the beginning of the European races. I think it is going to be exciting to watch them grow, and already is. These are professionals who will look at their issues as challenges, not problems, and they’re there ready, willing, and able to meet those challenges head on.
Oliver (@vpoliver-2)
20th February 2015, 11:11
I would like to see them competing…. suppose MANOR – Ferrari with drivers Gutierrez and Magnussen (while VdG or Max Chilton as reserve drivers). Good luck to them!!!
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
20th February 2015, 17:33
@vpoliver-2 I can see that happening, which should help write off the rest of the debts. Stevens could be the reserve driver, not heard about VdG since his Sauber ousting.
Maciek (@maciek)
20th February 2015, 13:13
Re: Scarbs’ tweet – does anyone know what he means by ‘double thickness sections where the pillars meet the nose’? …and why it’s ‘odd’ that Williams ‘still’ has them?
Strontium (@strontium)
20th February 2015, 15:15
@maciek I really didn’t understand that one either. It could be talking about how the pillars get wider, but I don’t get what is odd about that at all.
Didier Peppironi (@boxboxbox)
20th February 2015, 15:16
If you look at the Mercedes pillars in comparison they are much thinner and the front wing is just barely attached. I assume what Scarbs is trying to get at is that they have been unable to pass the front wing crash test with the slightly thinner pillars and may be at a disadvantage aero-wise.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
20th February 2015, 15:37
Manor have a verbal agreement with Ferrari to run 2014 engines.
So there going to be in an under developed car (Once there 2015 car is ready) running engines that are about 50bhp down on the 2015 units. I can see them failing to get within 107% a lot of the time. Perhaps they should look at ditching the 107% rule for at least 2015 to help Manor get back on there feet because no investor is going to stick around if there car is struggling to make the race.
TheBullWhipper (@thebullwhipper)
20th February 2015, 16:19
I believe that they only have to turn up and make every attempt possible to race, but if the failure on the 107% stops them making the grid, they will still have taken part in the event (qually) and will still get their 1st instalment from Bernie.
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
20th February 2015, 17:32
@stefmeister Depends on how much of the 2015 car they kept (information wise), and how much was lost to Haas. Did Haas buy the CFD data to start from, in addition to the CFD model? Racecar engineering seemed to think that the unique Marussia 2015 front suspension was now known amongst other teams as they had picked up some of the ex-Marussia staff.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
20th February 2015, 20:04
I wouldn’t scrap the 107%, really. I wouldn’t make an exception in the sportng rules.
Strontium (@strontium)
20th February 2015, 21:26
@spoutnik I agree with not scrapping 107%. The rule exists for a reason!
Bullit
20th February 2015, 22:57
Hoping this is just a trick to get at the prize money and they drop out after the necessary few races as I don’t want to see any more mobile chicanes in F1, sorry.
Bullit
20th February 2015, 23:02
About the Wolff incident, it was ironic that not-looking-in-mirrors is the typical thing many would expect from female drivers, even if we don’t know exactly who’s to blame here…