The Motorsport Thread 2015

Yeah, its thought that the car will be very quick, probably right behind Merc, once they get it sorted but they're struggling to get through a bunch of niggling little problems at the moment which is curtailing their running.

Looks like Marussia will be back this year as Manor GP, they officially left administration on the 19th, Ferrari have said they have an agreement to supply 2014 spec engines for the year and the team are booked in for crash testing, no doubt to get a new nose that conforms to this years regulations passed that they can then bolt onto last years cars. They'll be dead slow, but if it means they can get themselves set up for next year nicely then I'm all for it. It's thought that Justin King, the former boss of the Sainsburys supermarket chain who at one point last year was considered as a replacement for Bernie,  is one of the main investors. His sone Jordan is the 2013 British F3 champ and is racing in GP2 this year so could be a future driver.

Nice.

Technically the team has always been John Booth's Manor GP but they've had to use the sponsors/investers name for the team name, hence Virgin and then Marussia, they're a team with quite a pedigree in the junior ranks with multiple British Formula Renault and F3 titles (Lewis Hamilton won the 2003 FRenault title with them for instance).

Manor Marussia's (Marussia name kept so that they can get last yearsprize money, no remaining links to former Russian owners though) entry has been confirmed by the FIA today, with Will Stevens, who raced for Caterham in Abu Dhabi last year and arguably did a better job against Kobayashi than Ericsson did all year, taking one of the seats and It's been confirmed they intend to use an updated 2014 car to start with and then bring in an all new car mid season. Speculation has linked Kevin Magnussen to the second seat, kind of strengthening the rumors that McLaren might be behind their resurgance and intend to use them as a B team from 2016 onwards.  

It's been confirmed that Alonso will miss the season opener due to his testing crash. He's pretty much fine but the doctors have advised against it due to the risk of double impact syndrome if he has another head injury. Magnussen will take over.

I remember watching the 97 season final where Schumacher hit Viellneuve and bounced off into the gravel. Verstappen was born a week later! Trackside observers during the winter have said he's the real deal and has looked very impressive in testing.

Speaking of Schumacher, his son Mick his making the step up to car racing this year in German F4.

I think Munoz has the talent but I doubt he'll get the oppotunity, I see long Indycar career instead. Daly isn't good enough for F1 IMO, though not a bad driver but he'd be like Max Chilton, I gather he's after Indycar these days though. Alex Rossi is the American still over her in Europe, racing in GP2 again this year.

I don't think there's any worry about that, Alonso is pretty much fine now it's the risk of double impact syndrome, where a second head injury so soon after the first can be very dangerous.

^I will yield to your expertise and put away my concerns.  Alonso being starting off one race in the hole is a bummer.

I'm a fan of Alonso's as well, he will without doubt go down as one of the all time greats. People talk about drivers not being able to make a difference these days but when you look at it it's very rare for the best car not to win the championship, 95 might have been the last time and even then it's one of only a handful of times, yet Alonso came within 3 points of winning the 2012 title in a car that could only be considered 3rd best at a stretch, I think for his performance that year alone I'll be a fan for the rest of his career.

i am excite