2025 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[diffuser]

That points more to corruption in the FIA than anything else. Like Merc knew the direction of the regs before they were actually chosen.

I hope that isn't the case this time.

Its a grey area whether its outright corruption or not. F1 has and will always favor big brand names because thats what gives it credibility as the premium racing series. If Ferrari and Mercedes decided to race in another serries and leave F1, nobody would think its the premier series. This is why Ferrari has a special revenue deal and why it used to be a joke that FIA stood for Ferrari International assistance. Now, Mercedes is the branding behemoth which gets coveted by them. Mercedes was coming in at the back of the financial crisis and many brands like Honda were struggling to stay in F1.

FIA may not have know the extent to which Mercedes had advantage when they formulated the rules. And ultimately other teams agreed. Paddy Lowe even claimed they hid true performance from everyone to prevent rule changes to close the gap.

I dont think it'll be as bad as 2014, but a mini version of 2-4 years seems very possible.

All the teams were involved, this time, to draw up the plans. So it is better. It kind of mind boggling how long it's taken F1 to get out of the dark ages.

[zoroastar]

One thing I'm really looking forward to is pre-season testing and the car reveals. In previous years following Alonso I always got the sinking feeling soon after the cars were launched that Alonso was in another dud while looking over at the competition (especially at whatever Newey was cooking). Next year it will be nice to hopefully be on the other side of that and Alonso can finally be in one of the performant cars.

Why people think newey will build a fast car with 100% chance? He could make mistakes

everyone can make mistakes, but the problem with aston has been being clueless on how to fix them. thats not gonna happen with newey running things. there arent gonna be years going by without a single update working with him in charge, as much as youre seemingly willing it to happen. the fundamentals will be solid, with a firm knowledge on what to do when problems arise. if hondas pu is good im not worried at all that theyll be well ahead of where they are presently.