A MERCEDES JUNIOR TEAM?

The team that stands to lose most in the redistribution of Formula 1 revenues is Mercedes, because Liberty Media is believed to be offering Ferrari an annual payment of $40 million for its heritage value to the sport, plus $10 for being an engine supplier. This will mean that Ferrari would lose around $100 million in special payments, but would get back $50 million plus around $25 million in increased prize funds. This the overall loss to the Italian team would be only $25 million and, if Ferrari and Fiat were to collaborate on technology, the increase in money by way of Sauber would help to offset the overall impact.

The problem is that Mercedes Benz does not have any obvious secondary brand to support in F1 to reduce the budgetary impact and to create the opportunity for another F1 team to push Mercedes products. It might be possible for a deal which would see a team such as Force India or Williams brought more into the Mercedes orbit, and for the AMG and Concept EQ brands to be split between the two.

There was much discussion some time ago after the possibility of starting a Mercedes Junior Team, to counter the influence of the Red Bull-Toro Rosso alliance and the Ferrari-Haas alignment. At the time the idea was to use the team to help develop youngsters, such as Esteban Ocon and George Russell and prepare them to move up to the big team, in much the same way as Red Bull has done with its teams. That would also offer the company the chance to develop new skills amongst its staff. At the time the suggestion was that the team might be headed by James Vowles, who is currently the chief strategist at Brackley.

Source: JSBM

Without Lewis, Mercedes would only be third behind Ferrari and Red Bull.

HAMILTON SET TO SIGN €150-MILLION DEAL WITH MERCEDES

Four times Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton on the verge of signing a mega €150-million deal to stay with Mercedes until the end of 2021.

Sport Bild report that the three-year deal, at €50-million per year including bonuses, is in the legal process and they quote Mercedes boss Toto Wolff saying, “The deal is as good as done.”

“We are absolutely on the same wavelength, but a contract like this is over 100 pages with a corresponding number of points to address. And all that has to be done first,” explained Wolff ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

Although Hamilton, like most Formula 1 drivers, has in the past admitted admiration for Ferrari, it was always unlikely that he would sacrifice his dominant team for one chasing it for the foreseeable future.

The reigning F1 world champion is also believed to have been part of the sweetener for the Hilfiger deal that the team signed this year, while Mercedes are happy being associated with the Briton and his image both on and off the track.

Since the departure of Nico Rosberg at the end of 2016, Hamilton has become the ‘elder statesman’ of the team and at the same time has become more his team than it was in the past.

At the end of the 2021 season, Hamilton will be 36-years-old with 15 of those years spent as a Formula 1 driver and all of them with Mercedes power.

The four or so million he will earn per month is around 20% up on what he banked with his previous deal with the team, which was enough to see him end up tenth on the 2017 world’s richest sports person’s list.

Former F1 diver and team boss Gerhard Berger said, “Without Lewis, Mercedes would only be third behind Ferrari and Red Bull. Hamilton is the fastest driver in the field. He can make the difference. So Mercedes has to do everything to tie up Lewis. ”

DALLARA FIRST ROAD CAR

Production has begun at Dallara for the company's first road car to bear ths company name. Giampaolo Dallara turned 81 last November but he remains hard at work. Last autumn he announced the project, with the goal being to create a car that would mirror the racing cars for which he is famous: simple, light, stiff and fast. Work on the Dallara Stradale began back in 2015 and what emerged was essentially a track car built around a carbon composite monocoque, as one would expect.

There are no doors, although they can be added along with a rear spoiler or a roof. The chassis is mated to a 2.3-litre turbo Ford EcoBoost, as used in the Focus RS. Despite the engine, the car weighs in at only 855kg although extra weight builds up quickly if one chooses the options.

The gearbox is manual but a paddle-shift option is in the works, while steering is unassisted and stability control, traction control and ABS are standard. The car is expensive at $190,000, but the plan is to build around 600 of them in the course of the next six years. 

Styled by Belgian Lowie Vermeersch of GranStudio in Turin, a former design director at Pininfarina, the car was developed by Loris Bicocchi, Bugatti's test driver. Dallara has been involved in low volume road car programmes in the past, notably with the Bugatti Veyron, the Maserati MC12 and the KTM X-Bow. The firm was also involved with Alfa Romeo for the 4C and the 8C. It is now building racing sports cars, although it is best known for its single seaters.

Originally a Ferrari engineer (back in 1959) Dallara moved on to work with Maserati and Lamborghini, notably on the Miura. He then designed the De Tomaso F1 car before setting up his own business in 1972. His initial racing success came in the early 1980s in Formula 3 but success followed success and company now supplies a vast range of racing cars around the world, most of them to one-make racing series, including IndyCar and Formula E, while he is also busy with an F1 partnership with Haas.