Official 2011 Formula 1 Pre-Season Thread

it does mean my favourite soap is about to start in a short while! :woot:
 
2011 launch dates (announced so far):
- Lotus Renault - 15 January
- Ferrari - last week of January
- Sauber - 31 January
- Toro Rosso - 1 February

They're only a title sponsor. You don't write Vodafone McLaren do you? :p
 
They're only a title sponsor. You don't write Vodafone McLaren do you? :p

No, they aren't only a title sponsor. They are co-owners alongside Genii Capitals. Renault are just engine suppliers. So in your logic I should say Lotus, because I don't say McLaren Mercedes. :)
 
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No, they aren't only a title sponsor. They are co-owners alongside Genii Capitals. Renault are just engine suppliers. So in your logic I should say Lotus, because I don't say McLaren Mercedes. :)

They are co-owners, but this year they are title sponsors in terms of the name. The cars still have to be labeled as Renault in order to keep the revenue for the team's results from last year. If they submitted a request for a name change, it would have to be approved by all the teams, and I can think immediately of one team that would be against that change.
 
Nevertheless, it's owned by Lotus, so it's reasonable to call it Lotus Renault, politics aside.

It looks, that January 13 they'll only show new livery. Launch of the new car will take place January 31.
 
Politics aside the names Toro Rosso, Sauber, and Ferrari are the names of the constructors. Lotus Renault GP's constructor is officially Renault. Hence on that list they should be referred as Renault solely.
 
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So how often last year you called Sauber as BMW Sauber, because officially that was the name of the constructor? And as Vikirad said, the reason of that was similar. Changing team's name would take money earned for the previous year. Most people used team's new name so why don't do the same this time? It's F1, nothing is that easy these days. ;)
 
A random-ish sidenote: Gerhard Gribkowsky, ex-head of Bavaria's state-owned BayernLB bank, has been jailed for allegedly not paying taxes on fifty million dollars of income from unknown sources in Mauritius and the Virgin Islands.

That's F1 relevant insofar as the most likely source for the fifty million dollars is Bernie. See, in 2002 BayernLB took possesion of the shares in F1's marketing the Kirch Group, a large German TV conglomerate, held, when the Kirch Group went bankrupt. The idea was to compensate BayernLB for Kirch Groups massive, never-to-be-repaid debt. The bank intended to use it's rights as a stockholder to influence the way F1 was marketed in order to make as much money as possible from it.
This did not sit well with Bernie (who, as we all know, wants to run the show alone and as he sees fit) and for some reason, in 2005, Gribkowsky sold BayernLB's F1 shares to British investment firm CVC, co-owned by Bernie without having re-evalueted the stock's price beforehand, or, in other words, below market value.
At the same time, said 50 million dollars materialized on an Austrian Bank account of the "sunshine foundation", a foundation which, according to it's charta, is there to "benefit the financial well-being of it's founder, Mr. Gribkowsky, in his retirement".

While he's jailed "only" for tax evasion, authorities are looking into a possible bribery angle, too.
 
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Most people used team's new name so why don't do the same this time?

Renault is still Renault until the teams vote to change the name of the constructor. Until all the teams agree or a new Concorde Agreement is approved Lotus Renault GP's official constructor name is Renault. It doesn't matter who owns the team, or sponsors it, the constructor name has to be voted and approved to be changed. Sauber had to keep the BMW name this past season due to sponsorship entitlements, after the end of the season the teams will have voted and approved a name change.

Exhibit A: http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/teams/6/
Exhibit B: http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/teams/7/
Exhibit C: http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/teams/194/
 
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These are 2011 updated. In 2010 it was still BMW Sauber (like you can see in "constructor standings" on the right). And they kept BMW because of money for 2009 season, like (Lotus) Renault now (and it was explained some posts ago). Also there are "full" names there with title sponsors, so probably they'll update "Renault F1 Team" to "Lotus Renault GP" anyway.

And is it really such a problem for you if someone write Lotus Renault?
 
I am I the only one who finds it funny, that they go after Gribkowsky for tax fraud? He paid taxes in Austria, he invested around ?25m in that trust (Sonnenschein Stiftung), $50m was between ?37m and ?42m depending on when the money was exchanged, so he paid between ?12m and ?17m in taxes to the Austrian state. He would have paid for in Germany that is for granted, but with the other charges pending tax fraud seems like the smallest problem, but then tax fraud is always the one used when everything else fails. I would be laughing so hard, if the sale of the SLEC Holding would be void and the Ecclestone would be prosecuted as well :p
 
He would have paid for in Germany that is for granted, but with the other charges pending tax fraud seems like the smallest problem, but then tax fraud is always the one used when everything else fails.

That's the main thing here. As Gribkowsky had his primary place of residence in Germany at the time of the payments, he would have had to pay taxes in Germany (where that kind of trust fund AFAIK is not legally possible), so tax evasion is the obvious charge to get a hold of him. If the German prosecutors can prove that a) the money did indeed come from Bernie and b) the F1 shares were, in fact, sold at a bargain price, fraudulent breach of trust, stock fraud and a bunch of other typical white-collar offenses will be added to the charges later.

If the charges stick, by the way, we got another F1 related record: The highest sum ever paid as a single bribe in Germany.
 
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These are 2011 updated. In 2010 it was still BMW Sauber (like you can see in "constructor standings" on the right). And they kept BMW because of money for 2009 season, like (Lotus) Renault now (and it was explained some posts ago). Also there are "full" names there with title sponsors, so probably they'll update "Renault F1 Team" to "Lotus Renault GP" anyway.

And is it really such a problem for you if someone write Lotus Renault?

wasnt the 2010 car actually called something like BMW Sauber Ferrari?
 
That's the main thing here. As Gribkowsky had his primary place of residence in Germany at the time of the payments, he would have had to pay taxes in Germany (where that kind of trust fund AFAIK is not legally possible), so tax evasion is the obvious charge to get a hold of him. If the German prosecutors can prove that a) the money did indeed come from Bernie and b) the F1 shares were, in fact, sold at a bargain price, fraudulent breach of trust, stock fraud and a bunch of other typical white-collar offenses will be added to the charges later.

If the charges stick, by the way, we got another F1 related record: The highest sum ever paid as a single bribe in Germany.


If Gribkowsky earned that money in Austria (which is not true, but difficult to prove otherwise), then he is liable to pay taxes there first (which he did) and then the remainder up to the german level in Germany, so the fax fraud then ends up being a measly compared to the $50m bribe.
 
wasnt the 2010 car actually called something like BMW Sauber Ferrari?

Well, it's like that. Officially (by FIA) there is a team name and it was BMW Sauber F1 Team and there is constructor - in that case BMW Sauber. To constructor name there is often added name of an engine supplier - Ferrari for (BMW) Sauber.

When I think of that, it seams to be a good reason not to call Renault as Lotus Renault, because it can refer to Team Lotus as well. :lol:

In other news:
Force India to start 2011 testing with 2010 car
 
I think drivers were the last of HRT's problems. They had three which were all better than the car they had in Chandhok, Klien and Senna, so I can only imagine this deal comes down to money, ala Yamamoto.
 
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