Joe Pineapples
Distinguished Member
All sessions live on Channel 4
Thursday
08:55 - Practice 1
12:55 - Practice 2
Saturday
09:55 - Practice 3
11:55 - Qualifying
Sunday 12:00 - Race
Last edited:
It's a tricky situation for all involved really. The benefit recently was the announcement of Sauber using Honda engines next year. The glass half full approach would deduce that means more R&D that would benefit both teams. The glass half empty approach would deduce it leaves McLaren with a way out of the deal (on a performance basis) but still leaving Honda with a customer for their engines (they wouldn't be seen as leaving their power unit supplier out in the cold).Hi Chevyronfuel,
Just wish to ask you something since you are probably the only one here who has actual working experience in tyne motor racing/F1 arena - do you think the McLaren/Honda relationship will last or soon falter?
I ask as McLaren must be losing tons of sponsorship monies & deals from lack of results which in turn must/will affect the budget for further/future R&D? They must know that it will take at least a few years before the Honda engine gets anywhere near competitive & that has got to raise concerns for the long term - can McLaren afford to be wandering aimlessly for say the next 3-5 years before Honda are able to produce an engine capable of podiums?
My view is that 2019 might very well be a cut off point if the 2018 season does not produce meaningful results but that is just my thoughts at present.
I was reading about over at the Indy series how badly the Honda engines were doing against the Chevrolet ones for quite some time & the reasons given by the teams was the very conservative & closed, dogmatic approaches Honda continued to take despite things going from bad to worse - they just would not/did not listen to the teams & were extremely resistant to implement outside assistance or changes that were not their own.
Things only really changed (& changed very dramatically) when an F1 ex-Ferrari Head of Engine Development was brought in to get the engine competitive which worked wonders.
I read that Ilmor is now helping Honda with the F1 engine apparently but even then, I doubt it will be anywhere near a rapid an improvement due to the complexities of both the engine & the rules in F1 compared to that of the Indy series.
Maybe if Renault have a decent power unit in 2019, McLaren might have no choice but to go with them - I cannot see Mercedes giving them engines again - just my take but then again, it's all about the money in F1 so anything can happen!
Suave!
Gonna come right out and say it. I bloody hate the Monaco weekend , yup I know it's a street circuit and the prestige and history of it. The cars have evolved to the point that they have out grown the track ( not only this one I might add ) and I hope the new owners force a change on this front.
Glad to see Pascal's ok. Hopefully it's not brought that back injury back. It was nervy waiting to hear anything.
Great to see a Ferrari 1-2. Sucks for Kimi but Seb was the faster man. Otherwise a bit of a really, really really really really dull race.