SHREYASCONF1

Following the huge Panama Papers leak scandal, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg and ex-F1 driver Jarno Trulli are among the 11.5 million people affected by the leak. 

The Panama Papers is a leak of confidential financial and personal documents from a law firm based out of Panama known as Mossack Fonseca with the main purpose of the company to hide wealth and financial information in order to evade taxes.

German media claim the leaked information has confidential information relating to Nico Rosberg’s current contract at F1’s championship winning team; Mercedes. Claims from the same media outlet however confirm Rosberg is highly ‘unlikely’ to face legal tussles, as everything done between Rosberg and the law firm is ‘completely legal.’

In addition, F1 Hub has learned Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes deal was not directly with the driver, and was a link between Ambitious Group Limited and Mercedes.

However, Mercedes haven’t made any comments on the matter, nor did Nico Rosberg or his law firm saying it was a “private matter.”

Nico Rosberg isn’t the only Formula 1 personality who has been affected with the ‘Panama Leak’, ex Formula 1 driver, Jarno Trulli’s information has also been leaked in the huge scandal, however the Italian driver hasn’t given much information on the matter saying: “I have several companies in the world and all are run in a transparent manner.”

The Briton, 31, who begins his title defence at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, posted videos on Snapchat of him travelling on a motorway.

It is illegal to use phones whilst driving in New Zealand.

Police reviewed the incident but will not be taking further action after citing a lack of "sufficient evidence".

"Auckland City Police will be taking no further action in relation to recent media publicity about Lewis Hamilton and his motorcycle journey in Auckland," a police spokesperson said.

"The video footage available does not provide us with sufficient enough evidence that an offence has occurred."

It is not the first time three-time world champion Hamilton has been involved in driving incidents.

I honestly think no other driver would've done that.

Red Bull and Renault went to the brink last year as competitive struggles and a public war of words left their relationship in tatters, and them all set for an acrimonious parting of ways.

In the end, as Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda refused to play ball,Red Bull had to return cap in hand to Renault to renew their deal, albeit under very different circumstances.

From now on, Red Bull is no longer the preferred partner: for Renault has its own works team and everything is being done is to ensure that its Enstone operation gets back to the top.

And secondly, Red Bull will have a tougher time criticising its engine partner – for the TAG Heuer rebranding should help a little in ensuring that Renault's name does not get dragged through the mud.

Embracing the future

Mercedes dominance a factor

Title chances

“Pascal is a sharp driver with a very promising future; Manor Racing is excited to have him aboard. We’re a small team up for a big challenge this season, so we’ve chosen a driver with the talent and hunger to match our own on-track ambitions. Pascal has impressed in testing for Mercedes and Force India, together with commanding performances in DTM, culminating in the championship win last year. Manor Racing is perfectly placed to help Pascal make a big impact in his first season. We’re looking forward to it!”

“Manor Racing is a great place for me to start my Formula One racing career – I’m very pleased to be here. It’s a small and totally focused team and I soon hope to know everyone. Though it’s my first F1 season my aim is to help Stephen and the guys achieve their goals. It will be a tough challenge but I think we should be able to challenge for points along the way. It’s going to be good fun. A word for my racing family at Mercedes-Benz, and particularly for Toto, who have guided my career this far and made this opportunity possible. Thanks for the incredible support to help me achieve my dream; now it’s down to me to grab the moment and perform on track.”

FROM “racingclothesline”

There are a number of issues with today’s Formula One. Viewership is steadily declining and talented drivers are finding it harder to make it to Formula One because of a lack of sponsorship. There have been a lot of criticisms about the way that the sport is being run, but not nearly as many rational solutions. Could something that happened in the past be the solution to our current issues?
GP2 is the feeder series for Formula One, meaning it is supposed to produce the future Formula One drivers. However, there is a kink in the F1 driver production hose. Because the sport of Formula One has become so expensive to compete in, the current teams in the sport are placing a heavier requirement on funds from sponsors. This means that drivers who want to race in Formula One need to get more sponsorship contracts than they did in the past. As a result, the wealthy drivers are managing to find their way into the sport easier than the truly talented drivers that may not have the funds required.

Could a GP2 and Formula One partnership be the solution? Although it may seem like an outrageous idea to have Formula One cars racing in the same event as GP2 cars, it’s not that uncommon. In fact, in the earlier years of Formula One, many non-championship events were held in which Formula One and Formula Two cars could compete. This didn’t only happen for non-championship races, but there were also some events in the championship where Formula Two cars were welcome to compete, like in the 1969 German Grand Prix. Sure, it happened in the past, but how could this fix the issues today?

© GP2 Series Media Services

The way that the currently feeder structure is setup, new drivers pretty much require a lot of financial backing that they can use to get a contract with a low ranking Formula One team. The drivers hope that by racing with a Formula One team, they can get their foot into the door and be noticed by other teams. Having Formula One and GP2 cars racing at the same time could potentially give the future Formula One drivers a way to get exposure without having to collect as many sponsors or spend as much of their life savings. Currently, the F1 bosses sort of have to be in the process of looking for a new driver before they notice a GP2 driver, but when GP2 drivers competing in the same event as you, it would be quite difficult for team management not to notice a driver in GP2 that is performing well.

This would also benefit the team and sport sponsors. The sponsors in GP2 would have their brands exposed on a larger scale, as the global Formula One audience would now also be watching GP2. This also gives Formula One sponsors a cheaper alternative without losing as much brand exposure. This also brings me to the next benefit, regarding a larger audience size. Although this would probably benefit GP2 more than Formula One, seeing as many GP2 fans are also fans of Formula One, combining both GP2 and Formula One fans has the potential to attract more viewers to broadcasts and create a larger fan base.

The races could also be more exciting. In any motorsport that races in classes, you are always overtaking someone. Part of the excitement in Formula One is when you come up to overtake a backmarker. It also provides more competition at the front by preventing the leaders to create a sizable gap, as they will need to slow down to navigate through the backmarkers and GP2 cars. However, the GP2 cars are not that much slower than Formula One cars, so they wouldn’t be a hazard to the faster Formula One cars.

Finances can also be improved. In the current financial situation, Formula One is seeking ways to cut costs. GP2 cars are considerably cheaper than the current Formula One cars, so it’s possible that the current Formula One teams could learn from GP2 and find various ways to cut costs and save money. Don’t get me wrong: this layout wouldn’t be all positive.

Every idea has negatives and this idea is no different. One of the main drawbacks of this plan would be the way that GP2 is currently organized. Unlike Formula One, GP2 has a feature and a sprint race setup, meaning that they participate in two races per weekend. This would mean that GP2 could only merge with Formula One for the feature race and hold the sprint race after the Formula One race or drop the sprint race all together. Race length would also be an issue, as GP2 races are a little more than half the distance of a Formula One race. This means that fuel consumption could become an issue and reliability could also play a factor.

Unfortunately, there are also too many cars. With Formula One’s grid size of 22 and GP2’s 26 cars, the grid would increase to a staggering 48 cars! You may be able to race at the larger circuits, but it would be virtually impossible to race with all of these cars at the smaller street circuits. This would mean that some of the GP2 cars would not be able to take part in the events or certain circuits could not use the F1-GP2 combined events.

© Pirelli & C. S.p.A.The other major issue with this plan would be the increase in the cost of television broadcast rights. The rights to broadcast Formula One on television already costs an arm and a leg, but once you add GP2 to the mix, they will want a slice of the pie too. This means that the rights will have to become more expensive to adjust for that. This could also present an issue if the Formula One Management Group ever decided to buy out the GP2 rights, as FOM are ultra-restrictive on who uses their footage.

Although you might think that this is a complete ridiculous idea, there would surely be a good and a bad side. However, there would probably be too many hurdles to overcome to implement this idea, not to say that we couldn’t find a way around these challenges.

So could be have some non-championship races like in the past? Probably not. The current schedule is far too hectic for teams to spend time racing in events that won’t count for anything in the championship. Not to mention, the expenses associated with entering a car in an event without championship gain would be an obstacle for teams.