The 1.6s will be limited to 10krpm anyhoo, so there's going to have to be some kind of voodoo to get that level of power out of them. They are of course turbo'd which'll help a bit.

Oh I'm sure it will be and probably by a significant amount.

You're sacrificing reliability for power though. How long does that engine have to last?

That's easy... they'll build it out of tritanium of course.

Back in 1988 Honda had a 1.5l 2.5bar turbo V6 producing 685 hp (511 kW) at 12500 rpm in qualification.

Give it a couple of years and they'll be running diesel.

Renault F1 team to be renamed Lotus Renault GP in 2011:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 267715.stm

Hmm, so next year we'll have a Lotus Renault GP team and a Team Lotus Renault, er, team. Oh, and both want to use a similar black and gold livery.

That's not going to be confusing at all, then!

The Lotus goings on are indeed messy but shouldnt be too confusing. 2 black and gold (renault) cars near the front/mid of the pack and 2 black and gold cars (the other lot) at the back, much like Red Bull and Toro Rosso over the past couple of seasons.

Yeah, except when they come to lap them! Old Leggard gets confused at the best of times!

Think they should have the 'Proton' name in the title somewhere to promote that side of their business as well as Lotus cars.

They can just have 2 black n gold, then 2 gold n black ones. Simple.

Somebody sat at the table next to me today looked familiar. I overheard him talking about KERS, and then later on he mentioned Christian Horner in a way that suggested they were acquainted. I have no idea who he is but I did manage to take a candid photo. If it comes out alright I'll post it here and see if he is related to F! in some way.

Colin Chapman would turn in his grave.

F1 chiefs drop the ban on team orders in new rules
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9275796.stm

Seems sensible.

I'm not sure myself. There are separate championships for drivers and manufacturers and so two drivers swapping positions shouldn't really effect the manufacturers position in that championship. Of course it goes deeper than that in that one driver could lose more positions as a result of cedeing a single position, but then an important aspect is how they came into a posistion that is ahead of their faster team-mate. If it was through qualifying or overtaking then I think they should not have to cede at all, but then if it was due to a puncture or otherwise unfortunate racing incident then I can certainly see why the manufacturers would want to swap the positions.

At the end of the day I think the question causing most problems is this: Is there any kudos lost my a manufacturer winning a championship when neither of their drivers does?




I take this to mean that means that the wings will become available. I also wish that the BBC et al would publish the reporter's name so we could see which imbecile was responsible for such nonsense.

Well as the teams have always done it anyway and the penalty imposed when they get caught is ridiculously small then there is no point in having the rule, so removing it is the only sensible way forward IMHO.