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Forum Name: eyrie.private-mail
Topic ID: 681
#0, Motorsportsball
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-17-16 at 02:00 AM
LAST EDITED ON Apr-17-16 AT 02:03 AM (EDT)
 
Why no one will ever truly understand Formula 1, part 19482 in a series:

Last year, Red Bull (an F1 constructor that is also a soft drink company and otherwise does not make cars) got so fed up with their engine provider, Renault, that they announced midway through the season that they were going to drop them and find somebody else for this year.

They then failed to find anyone else for this year, on account of all the other engine providers in the sport declined to sell them any engines.

They bitched and whined and threatened to ​take their ball and go home leave the sport if one of the other suppliers wasn't compelled to do business with them. No soap. The sanctioning body was not impressed.

However, their management had made far too public a noise about never working with Renault again to be seen this year to be working with Renault again...

... so while they are, in fact, using engines manufactured by Renault, they first cross out "Renault" on the crates they come in and write in "Tag Heuer". Which is a company that makes expensive wristwatches. Not engines or indeed anything to do in any way with anything automotive.

And this evidently satisfies all parties concerned.

And that is reason 19482 why no one will ever truly understand Formula 1.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#1, RE: Motorsportsball
Posted by Mercutio on Apr-18-16 at 00:52 AM
In response to message #0
>Last year, Red Bull (an F1 constructor that is also a soft drink
>company and otherwise does not make cars) got so fed up with their
>engine provider, Renault, that they announced midway through the
>season that they were going to drop them and find somebody else for
>this year.
>
>They then failed to find anyone else for this year, on account of all
>the other engine providers in the sport declined to sell them any
>engines.

Now, I only follow Formula 1 like one year out of every five, but isn't Red Bull's other Formula 1 team powered by Ferrari? Would Ferrari just... not sell them more engines for their marquee team?

-Merc
Keep Rat


#2, RE: Motorsportsball
Posted by Gryphon on Apr-18-16 at 01:07 AM
In response to message #1
LAST EDITED ON Apr-18-16 AT 01:08 AM (EDT)
 
>>Last year, Red Bull (an F1 constructor that is also a soft drink
>>company and otherwise does not make cars) got so fed up with their
>>engine provider, Renault, that they announced midway through the
>>season that they were going to drop them and find somebody else for
>>this year.
>>
>>They then failed to find anyone else for this year, on account of all
>>the other engine providers in the sport declined to sell them any
>>engines.
>
>Now, I only follow Formula 1 like one year out of every five, but
>isn't Red Bull's other Formula 1 team powered by Ferrari? Would
>Ferrari just... not sell them more engines for their marquee team?

That is correct! For the same reason why Mercedes-Benz wouldn't. Scuderia Toro Rosso is not a threat to the top-echelon teams; they're running outdated hardware, essentially last year's Red Bull (with last year's Ferrari engine), in any given season, and their two drivers have a combined age of about 12. They're a farm team, AAA ball, grooming drivers for the main show. Power unit troubles the last couple of years notwithstanding, Red Bull Racing still have Adrian Newey developing their chassis and Daniel Ricciardo driving one of their cars. Nobody who is trying to operate a top-level team is willingly going to turn around and sell engines (even outdated ones) to that. It'd be like the Germans air-dropping ammo and food to the Allied troops holed up in Bastogne.

As it happens, this year Renault is trying to make a go of it with a works team again as well (having bought out Team Lotus over the off-season), but they're not realistically in top-level contention like M-B and Ferrari, and frankly they need the money more than either of those two companies do. In their case it was mostly just a question of wounded pride, hence the weird sleight of hand with Tag Heuer.

For a while it looked like VW was going to swoop in and save the day by jumping in as an engine provider, if not a full-on constructor this year; but then, well, that thing that caused a bunch of executives at VW to get fired and the company to lose a whole fuckton of money happened, and the idea kind of quietly went away. And Honda won't sell to anyone other than McLaren at the moment; besides which, until a couple of weeks ago, the idea that anyone else would actually want Honda's power unit was laughable, given how much the new engine rules made certain their offering sucked last year.

F1 is kind of a nightmare in the Hybrid Era; I'm not sure why I still watch it. It's sort of reached that point where you've come to dislike the show but you're too invested in the characters and you can't quite bring yourself to delete the SP off your TiVo.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#3, RE: Motorsportsball
Posted by Meridias on Apr-18-16 at 11:46 AM
In response to message #2
>F1 is kind of a nightmare in the Hybrid Era; I'm not sure why I still
>watch it. It's sort of reached that point where you've come to
>dislike the show but you're too invested in the characters and you
>can't quite bring yourself to delete the SP off your TiVo.

It could also be like knowing that a train wreck is coming and you want to be in a good spot to watch it when it happens.