GTXFFF1 2017

[balki]

Cuda, those was my original picks. As much as I like Alonso, McLaren has disgusted me.

dodint, yes, they're 0.5 each, so you have to get both (I guess you can dump Wehrlein if you have somehting against him)
1 Sauber 1 + 2 Ericsson + Wehrlein

Thanks Reynard (all [but KMag] clear #2 drivers, interesting)

Team changes allowed until the start of next Friday's first practice (next Thursday on for the Western Hemisphere)

Mario, in the 12 races both Haas's finished it was a 6-6 split. I really wanted to put a single drive at a cost of 1, KMag was the best choice once I decided to up Vandoorne to 2
Lowe is borderline awesome, not sure if Williams have the budget to develop much this year though. Even if they do they seem to be a clear #4 with no threat of going up to 3rd (and Force India and Renault being either too little or too late).

[CudaMan]

My Alo pick is banking on McLaren putting a Mercedes PU in the car at some point later in the season and scoring some points.

Which means they'll plod on with Honda and 150-place grid penalties for the second half of the season after they've run through their 4 PUs.

[Random]

The remainder of Team Finn:
Kimi (13)
Bottas (19)

plus Fred (3), Hulk (4), and Magnussen (1) for no particular reason.

edit: I guess those last three differentiate me from Reynard's team. Ha.

[Alan P]

My Alo pick is banking on McLaren putting a Mercedes PU in the car at some point later in the season and scoring some points.

Which means they'll plod on with Honda and 150-place grid penalties for the second half of the season after they've run through their 4 PUs.

I like how you think they'll manage on 4PU's until then. I suspect their first grid penalty will be in Malaysia!

[balki]

I like how you think they'll manage on 4PU's until then (October 1st); Malaysia is the 15th GP this year.
The gamble may pay off: even if they're pointless until then they can get past the bottom four teams in October and November.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Has this ever happen before? Switching engine manufacturer mid-season? This must be way more challenging than swapping drivers mid-season, right?

If Cuda can think of it, maybe McLaren has thought of it too and already has the chassis ready to mate up with a Mercedes PU? (Pointless to actually talk to Mercedes if they haven't even figure out a way to accept Mercerdes engine...)

Although no longer a fan of Honda, but still feel sorry for them. I feel even worse for Alonso.

[FaultyMario]

Surely in the DFV era or maybe with the rebranded (and disserviced) Renault RS5/6/8s.

[IMOA]

Wouldn't have been toooo difficult back in the 60's-70's-80's when the engine was really just an engine. These days though, it's way to integral in the overall car design I would have thought

[Freude am Fahren]

Renault blamed their terrible car last year on it being designed for a Mercedes engine.

[balki]

"It's absolutely possible to win a championship as a customer" - Paddy Lowe
"The engines are actually all the same between the different Mercedes teams, as they are supposed to be between all the engine suppliers, with identical hardware," he said.