Mercedes not ruling out Red Bull engine deal

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Mercedes executive director for business Toto Wolff is open to supplying Red Bull with engines – though last December Christian Horner said it would “never” happen.

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Merc 'open' to supplying Bulls (Sky)

"Toto Wolff has left the door open for Mercedes to supply rivals Red Bull with customer engines, making it clear that 'you need to consider all the options'."

Bottas says he could have pulled away (Autosport)

"I'm guessing (I could have gone) half a second per lap because on the in-lap I was nearly one second quicker."

Williams say they have no regrets at letting cars race (BBC)

"After a couple of laps when it had all calmed down we said 'it's absolutely fine, you are free to go racing again'."

Massa dismisses Williams team order qualms (Crash)

"He tried to go on the outside but he was never going to pass me on the outside of that corner."

Williams left stinging in the rain (Reuters)

"Since two years we are trying to understand why we are not quick in the rain"

Lewis Hamilton: ‘I am so elated you cannot imagine. It doesn’t seem real’ (The Guardian)

"When I had got the wets on, that is my ground, I enjoy that. I felt comfortable by the end."

Hamilton's judgment scripts perfect ending (The Telegraph)

"I noticed Ron Dennis called my BBC colleague a “village idiot” in the build-up to the race. Eddie (Jordan) is many things but he is definitely not an idiot."

Will Stevens left frustrated as team's pit error in British Grand Prix at Silverstone causes him to miss out on 12th place finish (Daily Mail)

"I reported it was raining and the team made a decision to bring me in but when I came in no-one was ready for me."

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Comment of the day

Red Bull, Aston Martin and Mercedes seems like an unusual combination – but could it work?

The two questions I have are, how serious is Aston Martin – in F1 it’s either all in or nothing – and would Mercedes offer one of their direct competitors the same engine? I’d imagine a Red Bull with a Mercedes engine might just twig the interest in Adrian Newey to come back [full time].
@Dragoll

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Keith Collantine
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32 comments on “Mercedes not ruling out Red Bull engine deal”

  1. Hohum, another 12 hours before I can see the highlights broadcast of the UKGP, sounds like it might be worth watching even though I know LH won, hope I remember to watch this time.

    1. Well mate, I tried to stream on the net with no luck, so I just watched a tiny screen low res replay of the race from youtube on monday morning,

      great telecast service in Australia now hey!!!! we are getting 10 races televised on ten/One so Im not paying foxtel $700 for the other races, someone is bound to help me with a reliable stream service , and I’m happy to pay a fair fee :)

      1. you should search better. I’ve watched today’s race from a sky in a decent resolution…

      2. Tip: when watching the youtube replays on those tiny screens (presumably to get around FOM copyright) you can zoom in when in full screen mode to make the video fill the whole screen, cropping out the frame surrounding the video

      3. @greg-c, I’ve had fibre-optic cable and a junction box running outside my house since January, I’ve had fibre-optic cable run to the house and a NBN box installed on the wall since May, but the only info NBN will give me is that work started in my area in Sept 14, In the meantime I’m stuck with ADSL via Telstra copper and it is useless for video in any resolution I am prepared to spend time watching, but thanks for the suggestion.

        1. Try this link http://live.realstreamunited.com/. I watched the Spanish GP and it was pretty good.

      4. Live streams are all over the place, just google it.

      1. Thank you Gent !

        1. +1
          Cheers country gent

  2. I can’t believe the amount of comments about F1 today. less than 2 weeks ago everyone was calling for change after the Austrian snooze-fest. People involved in the F1 circus (Team principals, media, FOM..) need to realize that just because todays race was entertaining, we still need improvements in the sport to make sure we have more races like this, not go back and forth wether or not F1 is still good or not.

    1. I gather it rained, Bernie will want to bring back his sprinklers idea.

    2. Do you remember the comments after Malaysia and after Bahrain? People have short memories.

      Whenever the dominant car is challenged, the race is good, if they’re beaten race is great! To fix F1, we must make sure there’s multi-team fights for P1 more often than not.

  3. So now Newey is gone, everyone wants to provide RB with their engine :)

    Such a puzzling feeling for RB. Do they be happy they are getting engines that actually work or do they be sad that the teams no longer consider them a threat.

  4. Toto: “we will give you engines if you give us Newey”

    1. But do they need him?

  5. So DC “defends” EJ there for not being an idiot. It was Ron reacting to a question from Brundle about EJ saying that the McLaren management (i.e. Ron Dennis) was a disaster and should resign over their miserable performance. He said that every tight knit community has something like a “village idiot” and that EJ nicely fits that role.

    The funny thing is, that the village idiot actually has a valuable role to play in that he is able to say the things one finds it unpleasant to talk about, he points to the big elephants in the room. So in that sense, Ron is actually giving EJ credit for calling them out on how bad they are doing, while at the same time saying that he dislikes EJ doing so!

    1. Thanks for this input @bascb
      I was wondering what Ron Dennis said about Eddie, now I no and from what you say it makes all sense. Eddie is not an idiot but he “attacked” Ron first…

      On a similar note I saw Coulthard’s interviewing Button by the grill and he made a similar joke to Jenson. Jenson complained about the smoke from the grill and DC says: “You are used to it now”.
      :-D

    2. The sad truth is that Eddie Jordan isn’t really some kind of jester or village idiot. He’s a sane analyst, who must’ve been rubbing his eyes in bewilderment for quite a while now, before stating the obvious: McLaren’s management has been disastrous in the past couple of years, and it has even become worse when Ron Dennis retook the reins. But for some reason, he appears to be the British media’s holy cow, as he is hardly ever criticized for his erratic behaviour.

  6. Ron Dennis… why old man?

  7. Eddie Jordan is an embarrassment, I cringe every time they throw a question to him or they turn to him to ask a question. When they interviewed Will Stevens after Q1, he was very polite to Eddie despite the inane questions.

    1. glad im not the only one that feels that way. mind you, the entire bbc coverage is pretty painful imho.

    2. I’m the same. When Sky got half the F1 coverage I didn’t like it on principle, and was worried about what they were going to turn it into. Then the first 3(?) races of the first season were only on Sky, so I watched them all and got a little bit used to their coverage. I went to watch the BBC for the next race and when Eddie Jordan started talking, I realised that I didn’t have to put up with it any more, and I switched over to Sky and have literally not watched any of the BBC coverage since.

      I really don’t care about any ideas which may or may not be useful in his head. Cringeworthy is exactly what he is on TV. I even had to pause-and-fastforward through the podium interviews which he did.

  8. This race highlighted the very problem that exists in F1 and why plenty of life-long fans are keeping up to date with the news and gossip, but not bothering to watch the races live. I certainly don’t anymore.

    Qualifying – No competition, the Mercedes blitz the field and Hamilton’s on P1. Not worth watching.

    Race – The Williams jump the two Mercedes and then essentially hold them up until the first round of pitstops. The Mercedes cars can’t overtake. Hamilton then nails his in-lap to stroll into P1 after the pit shuffle. It rains a bit towards the end of the race and Hamilton gambles well on the best time to come in. He wins the race.

    At no point was there a “chase” for the win, a gamble on slicks/inters or any reliability/fuel worries. Everyone in any kind of contention for points planned the same strategy. Indeed, the only time that Hamilton was in danger of not winning the race was when Rosberg gambled by staying out for one more lap. I bet on F1 and that brief Rosberg gamble was the only time that Hamilton’s odds budged an inch, it was a complete forgone conclusion. The only thing to bother writing home about was Vettel reminding everyone that he’s a class act by grabbing another podium.

    With all the changes since the “dull” 2000-2004 period, it’s still got all the same problems but without the BMW vs Mercedes vs Ferrari engine race, refuelling strategies, a tyre war or indeed any of the T-car/qualifying engine/engine noise excitement of that period. The few overtaking moves that do still exist don’t feel anything like as valuable as those of ten years ago because of DRS.

    This was not in any way an exciting race and if F1 wants to keep long-term fans interested then it needs to change.

  9. The one thing I will say about Eddie Jordan and Ron Dennis is that I would sincerely miss one of them if they were to leave the sport but wouldn’t be sorry at all to see the other one go…

    1. I always think of Ron as per the alleged Ecclestone comment on McLarens 2007 fine. 5 per cent for the team 95 percent for Ron being a ……

      I am sure Ron will once again be thrown out of McLaren as he was a few years back although not fully as he doe own 25 per cent.

      1. That wasn’t a comment made by Ecclestone, it apparently came from the mouth of Max Mosley.
        Enough said there then………

        1. I thought that but in the Mosley book review on here last week it was said in the book Mosley said Bernie said this and the word began with a c not a t. I think either sums up Ron. McLaren fans probably think the same after the past few years since he got back control.

          Eddie Jordan may be annoying to some but Ron Dennis is for me the worse person in history.

          1. Ron Dennis is perhaps the worst man in history but he’s built McLaren. He fought from the bottom to the top and he didn’t rename the team or sold it completely, where’s the ego. Eddie is a buffoon, the problem here is that Eddie is just making things worse for the team, as Ron said it, they are a family in F1, dysfunctional but still no team owner, tries to put the next out of business, at least deliberately, poaching all sponsors and engines doesn’t count.

  10. I think there were a couple more half spins down the grid besides Raikkonen’s. A man in the right frame of mind would’ve followed Vettel after being overtaken and then use his leading to retake position and then decide let the team decide when to pit as the sector times are a much better indicator than “let’s roll the dice I’ve just overreacted”.

  11. Arrivabene says “Unfortunately we may have afternoons like this at Spa and Suzuka as well”.
    That’s unfortunate. Considering their drivers’ history on those tracks.

Comments are closed.