McLaren looking to sign 'superstar' driver for 2015.

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Early reports are suggesting McLaren have open tentative talks with Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel to become their lead driver in 2015.

I would rule Hamilton out of the picture straightaway. I wouldn't imagine Mercedes F1 would allow their prime marketing tool to leave.

That leaves Alonso and Vettel.

Reports from Maranello claim Ferrari opened new contract talks with Alonso as soon as McLaren interest became know. A new deal that would take Alonso to the end of the 2018 season.

Alonso's made no secret of his displeasure of the woeful cars the Scuderia have provided him for the last 5 years. It's 8 years since his last WDC and times is rapidly running out. But Ferrari is the holy grail for the Spaniard. 50% chance I'd say.

Sebastian Vettel is clearly struggling in 2014. Not helped by the terrible Renault power unit. Renault are rumoured to be exiting F1 in 2016. So a move to Honda could be the correct move for the 4 time reigning world champion. There seems to be a souring of relations at RBR and their star man. At 26, Vettel can afford a year with Honda and not being a championship contender. For the return in the long run would be Red Bull like(2009/14). I think there's a 60%+ chance if this happening.

What are your thoughts?

Also McLaren are considering ditching both current drivers.

Ferrari have signed the wonderfully ungifted, slow & mistake prone Esteban Gutierrez as their test & reserve driver for 2015.

John wrote:Ferrari have signed the wonderfully ungifted, slow & mistake prone Esteban Gutierrez as their test & reserve driver for 2015.

Bewildering decision when Jean-Eric Vergne was available...I'm sure he'd have jumped at the chance.

John wrote:Ferrari have signed the wonderfully ungifted, slow & mistake prone Esteban Gutierrez as their test & reserve driver for 2015.

You forget though if Ron Dennis is right about 2 teams not making it to 2015 then Esteban & Magnussen are 1st in line for 3rd cars since it's RB/Ferrari/Mclaren get 1st choice i believe...

I quite enjoyed Esteban got better after 1st season that being said the Sauber was dogshit so can't judge him on that really.

Quite a blow for Lewis Hamilton, his race engineer Jock Clear has left Mercedes to join Ferrari. I understand Jean Eric Vergne has also joined Ferrari in a testing role.

Quality signing for Ferrari.

Sad that JEV isn't in F1, went toe to toe with Ricciardo. Meanwhile donkeys like Maldonado buy their way in

GSC wrote:

Sad that JEV isn't in F1, went toe to toe with Ricciardo. Meanwhile donkeys like Maldonado buy their way in

That is what you get for lauding F1 as a rich man's sport.

Interesting that the supposed 'done & dusted' contract extension for Hamilton has gone quiet. Is Lewis thinking what many people think, that after 2015, when there could be an engine overhaul, Mercedes' advantage will be gone. Mercedes seem to be worried seeing as this has been released on Eurosport, Fernando Alonso would be top of the list for Mercedes if Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton fails to agree a new deal with the team beyond this year, according to motorsport director Toto Wolff.

News coming out this week is that the FIA has allowed engine upgrades to happen during next season (2015), after accepting that the teams had found a loophole in the regulations. It means that manufacturers now have the option of introducing upgrades to their engines throughout the season - as long as they stick to the 32 development token limit that is laid down within the rules and do not exceed the four-engine per car limit for the campaign.

The Alonso to Merc media is typical silly season tactics by Wolff to try and make sure Hamilton's contract demands aren't too large.

The news about engine development isn't really true: they can't have four different engine specs, but they can delay homologation of a 2015 PU, although this would itself have several disadvantages as the 2015-spec PU would have to be introduced for all of their teams/drivers at the same time and then the 2014-spec PUs would not be usable even in practice, greatly increasing the risk of engine penalties later in the season. Then there's the competitive disadvantage of running the slower engine in the early races as well as the aero disadvantage of having to have a chassis which can accommodate both PUs, possibly resulting in a b-car.
It is very unfair to insist on an end of February homologation date for Honda when that isn't specifically in the regs; Honda should have been allowed until before the first race in March.

pob wrote:It is very unfair to insist on an end of February homologation date for Honda when that isn't specifically in the regs; Honda should have been allowed until before the first race in March.

Regulations are always written badly & then loopholes are found & exploited, but the FIA are clamping down on Honda, which is right in my opinion. Not much difference between end of February & the first race anyway but, that's not what Honda are annoyed about. Honda are annoyed that everyone else, bar themselves, will be able to upgrade engine power units throughout the 2015 season, whereby they won't. This is their first year returning to the sport, therefore they should have a fixed engine unit, like everyone had to endure back in 2014.

I can fully see both view points here. The FIA have to make sure every team goes by the rule book otherwise you'd have chaos. However, I see where Honda are coming from in that they are re-entering the sport and feel they will be dealt with an immediate handicap due to the rules where other teams can upgrade engines whilst they can't.

McLaren's new engine partner Honda has won its fight to be allowed to develop its engine during 2015. Formula 1's governing body the FIA has backtracked on an earlier ruling that allowed Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari to upgrade their engines but not Honda.

The move comes after Honda expressed its unhappiness about what it considered to be an unfair situation. Honda will now be allowed to develop its brand new engine within limits explicitly laid out by the FIA.

Not sure I totally agree with this, due to the fact teams had to endure restrictions throughout their first year in 2014. Huge boost for Honda though.

John wrote:McLaren's new engine partner Honda has won its fight to be allowed to develop its engine during 2015. Formula 1's governing body the FIA has backtracked on an earlier ruling that allowed Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari to upgrade their engines but not Honda.

The move comes after Honda expressed its unhappiness about what it considered to be an unfair situation. Honda will now be allowed to develop its brand new engine within limits explicitly laid out by the FIA.

Not sure I totally agree with this, due to the fact teams had to endure restrictions throughout their first year in 2014. Huge boost for Honda though.

I really don't have an issue with this at all. Honda were already at a disadvantage being that they are just back in the sport so are learning so why make their job even more difficult and cheese them off by restricting them. That is hardly going to encourage new engine suppliers/manufacturers into the sport is it?

I'm not totally against this, would be funny though if the Honda is massively competitive though. The u-turn decision could be important & create a storm. Not sure sure I agree with Honda being massively disadvantaged, yes, they haven't done much running, but they had all year to understand the engines complexities & peeking in at the Mercedes unit at every race in the McLaren garage. They are historically very good at developing Turbo's, so I think they have a bigger head start on the teams that were in the same position in 2014. That can't be argued in my opinion

The funniest thing about the Honda engine saga is that they owe a debt of gratitude to Ferrari for pointing out that the rules did not explicitly state when the engine designs had to be submitted by.

That came after Ferrari, who had the worst engine in 2014, pointed out to the FIA that the rules did not clearly define when the modified engines for 2015 should be submitted for approval.

Whiting admitted in his note to the teams on Friday evening that that ruling left "unaddressed uncertainty" within the rules on the permitted engine development.

If Honda do end up being dominant, I bet the other teams take it in turns to stick Marco Mattiaci's head down the nearest available toilet and flush it repeatedly.

Honda won't be dominant, they haven't had the running or year's experience running this technology to it's limit. Let's not forget, as Jonathan Noble points out, people seem to think the unfreeze & ability for Mercedes' rivals to now develop throughout the season, means Mercedes won't be as dominant. Think again. If anything, all this has done, has taken the shackles off Mercedes developing their engine at an even faster rate, they know all the avenues to improve upon & I fully expect another dominating year for the team. As Pat Symonds has said, "In reality very little has changed. It doesn't just allow us to develop, it allows Mercedes more time to develop and believe me these are clever guys. Mercedes aren't a stationary target, with the unfreeze, they could enhance their advantage'.

Well, as long as they all have the same opportunity to develop their engines, thats all that counts.

Shouldn't be any restriction on newcomers, just because they haven't had to work within previous seasons' restrictions.