Halo ‘holding up 2018 chassis design’

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In the round-up: Force India are concerned the Halo could delay completion of their 2018 chassis.

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A Porsche return to F1 in 2021 makes sense, @Jaymenon10 reckons:

For Porsche, it will be a marketing exercise more than anything. They’ve already tested and proven their technical nous with the 919. Point to note is that they are stating that the WEC doesnt offer the commercial reward for all its cost, which is in top tier F1 territory or more.

All of Porsche’s direct competitors in the Sports/Super car market are present on the F1 grid. From a brand exposure perspective, it would be sensible to start an F1 program. Keep in mind that although viewership of F1 has dropped, there is no denying that it still offers relatively large exposure. Couple this with the proposed “simpler” engine formula, its a win win.

FE will offer them reasonable exposure, but Porsche aren’t selling electric sports cars yet, they may eventually, but thats going to be a few years away. F1 makes sense for Porsche, and Porsche back in F1 will be massive.

Christian Horner will be smiling ear to ear.
@Jaymenon10

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On this day in F1

  • David Coultthard won the Italian Grand Prix on this day in 1997

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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49 comments on “Halo ‘holding up 2018 chassis design’”

  1. Porsche aren’t selling electric sports cars yet,

    The Mission E though is expected in the same year as the new PU era for F1.

    1. Here’s hoping they DO release that thing just like it was presented a few years ago. It’s ridiculously good looking in my view.

      1. @fer-no65 I’m confident it will look 90%+ similar to the concept. the 918 production model arguably looked even better than the concept and that was a similar halo level model.

    2. Yeah…I completely overlooked that part.

      But still…in the short term, it will be petrol/hybrid powered sports/super cars that will rule the roost. Electric variants may become mainstream in 15 to 20 years.

      1. @jaymenon10, Porsche’s current plans are to ramp up electric car production very rapidly – there is already a fully electric version of the Macan coming on the back of the Mission E, with Porsche planning to increase production of those two models alone to 60,000 by 2023. Given that Porsche’s current annual output is about 230,000 cars in total, those two models would, by themselves, make up a significant chunk of Porsche’s total annual production.

        With that in mind, Porsche’s CEO has talked in the German press about possibly having 50% of Porsche’s annual production switched over to electric cars by 2023 – if they do pursue that objective, then electric variants of their cars might well become the dominant sales force within Porsche in closer to 6 years. In that situation, would a hybrid really be that valuable to Porsche in 2021 if, after 2023, petrol-electric hybrids might be one of their minority products?

        1. I really don’t think the hybrids are going to be the minority products in 6 years. The whole industry is turning to hybrids. Either hybrids or electric with range extender. Not everyone can charge their car overnight, and a lot of people need the range.

          1. what if charging would take as long as filling up?
            @eljueta

            PS – a Tesla can swap batteries more than twice as fast as you can fill up your car.

          2. I always thought battery swaps would be the best solution for ‘filling up’ on the move, good to see Tesla has thought of that, although I’d be slightly worried that the batteries are going to plop out the bottom of my car.

            I do agree with @eljueta though, most people don’t have the facilities to charge at home, and most homes can’t cope with fast chargers without upgrading their electrics. Couple that with electric technology advancing so fast the cars must depreciate like crazy and it’s really just reserved for the rich for the time being. It’s a huge step converting the majority of cars to electricity, I can’t see it happening within ten years.

          3. @Just Saying If charging would take as long as filling up then you would need a small powerplant at your house. Imagine that at a time when everyone wants to get rid of coal and nuclear plants.

  2. The halo story is again just force india claiming its holding them upm however in the same article williams say its fine & no other team has made any mention of it.

    in the past force india have missed bringing there new car to pre-season test’s & have often been the last (or one of) teams to bring in there new car so maybe they should look at themselves rather than looking for excuses.

    if other teams were complaining about the halo holding them up & all that then i’d see it as a plausible excuse, but so far its just 1 team that have a history of been late with new cars so i don’t see it as a good excuse from them.

    1. yeah, that article is more or less FI complaining (or already putting blame for not being in time), while the only other team we get any statement from mentions that it is tight, but ok.

      1. I understand FI is stick in their development as they don’t know which colour to paint their Halo ;)

        1. That depends on the ranking if you ask Brown , so FI will do a lot of resprays.

      2. @bascb Though to be fair the one saying it’s too short is probably the most efficient team on the grid (money to performance ratio) and is clearly still developing its 2017 car while the one saying it will be ok is the one that is falling more than ever in WCC and has visibly halted 2017 development already a few races ago.

        1. I think they suffer from delay a lot is because they work mostly with external builders. Who want to be paid. Which means some work only gets started for real as soon as they get the first championship money transfer @spoutnik.

          And yes, they DO work very efficient with their money, and that is probably part of the reason why they struggle with this more.

        2. @spoutnik, @bascb, @hugh11 The lower budget of Force India is perhaps a factor, and if it was just about getting technical specifics the I could understand it, but:

          It was big shock to us all when the Shield got overturned and the Halo got introduced

          is clearly rubbish as it should not have been a shock to anyone.

          Halo was originally slated for introduction in 2017, then held back until 2018 (see this article)

          Halo remains a strong option for introduction in 2018.

          So it should never have been a big shock to an F1 team that it was being introduced given that it was always stated to be the most likely scenario 12 months earlier. The shield never really got anywhere with testing so even if it had been preferred it was probably always going to come in later with the Halo used from 2018.

          1. @jerseyf1 Indeed halo can’t be a surprise. It’s probably yet another PR talk trying to obtain more time or something.

    2. Well, Force India have a lot less money than Williams.

  3. I wonder where Porsche would leave Red Bull’s partnership with Aston Martin

    1. Unless Aston Martin intend to introduce an engine then I hazard it will make no difference. Just as their current relationship with Renault doesn’t affect it or their potential tie up with Honda in the future.

    2. Sundar Srinivas Harish
      7th September 2017, 15:37

      I don’t really see Aston’s partnership extending to the F1 track, and yes, this is despite their disastrous earlier attempt, given that those were the days when you could simply lop the roof and wheel arches off a sports car and call it an F1 car. They just haven’t been involved in motorsports for a while now. I believe that their success in LM-GTE doesn’t really count (at least this year), since that monstrous Ford GT was hit with BoP restrictions. And didn’t the AF Corse cars crash out of the race in 2014?

      Another reason I think they won’t enter F1 is that most automakers don’t seem to have a problem with the hybrid engine formula, it’s just the MGU-H (as per earlier reports) that has been criticized. Aston is still selling road cars with big V12s, without a battery in sight. They’ve only recently thought of developing a hybrid platform, which could take a rather long time to come to fruition, since they have never been around hybrid tech, whether in motorsports or passenger vehicles, nor do they have partnerships with marques that do manufacture hybrid vehicles since they started off independently.

      1. In fact, Aston road cars now use AMG powertrains, so the likelihood of their involvement in F1 beyond a bit of branding on the bull is virtually nil.

  4. Nobody would mind.

    Regarding inter team battle, last year really was grueling. Nico quitted on the spot.

    It must have been tough for Hamilton aswell. He wasn’t even winning. Bottas must be feeling like a soothing balm.

    Lewis now has found a new level to raise himself to. Results are evident, we will see how it goes on nextt few tracks.

    1. Hamilton won more races last year than anyone else, and should have won Malaysia. Not sure what you mean by “not winning”.

  5. Forget the chassis. What colour will the halo be?

    I fancy bright flourecent pink.

  6. I wonder what halo’s visible impact on the design of the cars will be. It disturbs the airflow to the centre air inlet over the driver’s head and further to the rear wing.
    I’m curious to see if there’s going to be changes to the front of the car to direct air differently around the halo or something like that. Let’s hope there’s not going to by any ugly trends in regards to this.

    1. @damon The FIA opted to allow teams to put some aero developments on the Halo so that they can direct more airflow into the air-intake if required.

      1. Aero bits on the halo? Its for safety. Little winglets could get knocked off by large objects the halo is designed to protect the driver from with potential to hit the driver. Surely no aero bits will be allowed on the halo?

      2. Let’s prepair ourselves for all kinds of wings and winglets.
        This should be a given:
        http://e0.365dm.com/12/02/800×600/2001-Jordan-EJ11-Mid-wing_2714064.jpg

    2. My question is how will the halo affect vision in the rain? I don’t recall it being tested in the rain and wonder how the deflecting water will impact the driver’s vision.

    3. I read a piece on here, maybe it was the story about teams being behind on 2018 cars due to halo integration but in terms of aero it isn’t a big deal as the lower rear wing works the air from the coke bottle shape mainly. If we still had the 2009+ rear wings on stilts it would have caused headaches.

  7. F1 is a money pit. The cash available is not shared properly and there is a serious risk of not getting a penny if you are last. The audiences are shrinking and new fans cannot be created as the asking price to see F1 is way too high. Porsche is insane to seek to join F1, I guess they have too much money and need to lose some for tax purposes.
    Sticking a huge carbunkle in front of the driver will affect aero on all the cars so Force India has a point.

    1. They want to enter as engine suppliers, not with a team, which means that they get paid anyway, even if the team that uses their engine is last.

      1. The cost they pass on to their customers will in no way cover all the R&D and production costs they will sink into an F1 project.

        Mercedes consider their F1 project to be a loss leader, but they can justify it to the board on the basis that the R&D is useful for the wider group and the publicity they get from winning everything is marketing gold.

        1. @geemac Your comment completely missed the point since Tiomkin argued that they would get nothing. I argued against that. You are arguing against something that I didn’t claim.

          1. @aapje Consider me suitably chastised. The perils of reading F1 articles when you should be working.

  8. I’m guessing McLaren engineers have more pertinent “missing information” than the halo.

  9. Christian Horner will be smiling ear to ear

    I’m still more excited for the prospect of McLaren-TAG vs RBR-TAG Heuer

    Oh and TIL TAG actually part-owns McLaren – though technically that particular TAG would be but a parent company to the one that might make a wee bit of sense to advertise.

    1. Different TAG.

      The TAG watches advertised on Red Bull is owned by Louis Viton,

      The TAG engineering involved with McLaren is a Saudi company

  10. And still no news from Mclaren, Honda, Renault or STR?

    They all seemed so confident over the Monza weekend that announcements would be made this week.

    1. Yes. McLaren are going to replace the Honda engine with a hamster in a wheel.

      1. And Honda builds the wheel?

    2. I’m hearing that McLaren is looking at one of Honda’s competitors for an engine supply, Briggs & Stratton.

  11. Keith, won’t there be an article on the 1997 Italian Grand prix soon as part of the flashback series?

  12. @keithcollantine my concern also, despite the 97 Italian GP being a follow my leader affair!

  13. Porsche has no chance, as I’ve said before, Vw can’t even make an equal f3 engine let alone an f1 engine, Porsche never threatened the top echelons of motorsport, not even a brand name porsche is going to do it, unless Mercedes leaves or they can buy f1 like vw did with Le Mans.

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