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2016 German Grand Prix race recap: so-so racing, great questions

We can summarize the 2016 German Grand Prix in one sentence: Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Lewis Hamilton started second on the grid, passed pole-sitter and teammate Nico Rosberg before the first corner, and dominate to the finish. In fact, Hamilton turned his engine power output down on Lap 3 and still took the checkered flag seven seconds ahead of Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen crossed the line another six seconds back. Rosberg fell to fourth at the first corner and couldn't find the pace to reel in the Red Bulls. His questionable pass on Verstappen didn't help when the stewards penalized Rosberg five seconds; the overtake reminded us of Rosberg's move on teammate Hamilton in Austria. That penalty turned into eight seconds when the Mercedes-AMG Petronas stopwatch didn't work in the pits. Ferrari pilots Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finished fifth and sixth. Those six drivers all started in the top six, too. Behind them, on Lap 28 of the 67-lap race the next four drivers were Valtteri Bottas in the Williams, Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India, and Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso in McLarens. Low fuel and old tires put the kibosh on Alonso's pace just four laps from the finish, allowing Force India's Sergio Perez to pass, rounding out the top ten. The issues up for debate during the four-week break are far more interesting than the weekend's race. As bad as Ferrari's day might have been – and we'll get to that – Rosberg probably took the biggest hit, losing the race before the first corner for the second weekend in a row and falling 19 points behind Hamilton. Rosberg won the first four races of the season, then the teammates tripped over one another in Spain. Hamilton's won six of the seven races since Spain, Rosberg's best result in that time is a second-place in Hungary. Hamilton turned his engine down on Lap 3 (!) because he's used his entire season's allotment of five turbochargers and five MGU-Ks. Those early-season gremlins now have him on edge of grid penalties. Unless Hamilton's momentum cools off in August, however, that reliability danger might be the only dent in his armor. Rosberg, who once led the Championship by 43 points, will surely drown in his thoughts – and maybe schnapps – over the summer break. Whatever the Italian word for "meditation" is, there'll be a lot of it at Ferrari during the F1 summer break.

Formula One speeds towards radical thousand-horsepower shakeup

The teams, the drivers, the fans, the circuits... few, if any, were satisfied with how Formula One has shaped up since the current regulations took hold last year. But that doesn't mean they aren't working on it. At a recent meeting of the F1 Strategy Group, the leading parties in the sport outlined a new framework that would radically shake up the cars themselves while keeping costs in check. And the biggest change could see the engines producing around 1,000 horsepower. Although a proposal put forth by Ferrari to ditch the current V6 hybrid engines in favor of new twin-turbocharged units was rejected by Honda and Mercedes, the members of the group approved in principal to increase the fuel flow in the existing engines to dramatically boost output. As it stands, the current 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 engines develop around 600 horsepower, with an additional 160 or so kicked in by the electric Energy Recovery System, for a combined output of about 760 hp. What's not clear at the moment is whether the increased fuel flow would necessitate either the return of mid-race refueling (currently banned) or the installation of larger fuel tanks. Red Bull and McLaren also submitted proposals to radically redesign the shape of the cars as well, however a more evolutionary approach was adopted instead. Though far from finalized, the new design would keep the same basic form of the current chassis, but with adjustments to make them more aesthetically pleasing while producing more downforce. Wider tires are also said to be part of the mix. With more power and more grip from the tires and aero, the resulting cars would most certainly end up going much faster than the current ones, which are already starting to nudge the lap records at some of the circuits, many of which were set during the V10 era. The F1 Strategy Group is made up of representatives of the FIA, Formula One Management and six leading teams. The next step will be for the teams' technical directors to iron out how to implement what their bosses have agreed to. If they settle the details fast enough, the revised regulations could be pushed through in time for next season. News Source: AutosportImage Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Motorsports Ferrari Honda Infiniti McLaren Mercedes-Benz F1

Have McLaren F1 values topped out?

The McLaren F1 was a game-changer when it came out in the early 1990s, and it's still widely regarded as one of the finest supercars ever made. It's little wonder that values have been climbing in recent years. The question for collectors is now: Will prices keep rising, or have they reached their zenith? As recently as 2006, you could pick one up for less than $1 million: the database at classic car insurance firm Hagerty shows that an example in fair condition 10 years ago was worth around $700,000, while a top-notch, concours-ready specimen was valued at about $1.15 million. That seemed like a lot at the time, but just two years later, that range had skyrocketed to between $2.3 million and $3 million. Suddenly those 2006 prices seemed like a smart investment in hindsight, but after that initial jump, they stayed around that level for several more years before things started getting crazy. "Buyers over the last several years have been end users as opposed to speculators and they routinely drive and enjoy the cars." – Jonathan Klinger, Hagerty By the start of 2013, values had jumped to between $4.1 and 5.3 million. By the end of that year, they were up to between $6.5 and 8.9 million. And by the end of 2014, they had reached $7.9 million for one in fair condition, and over $10 million for a pristine example. But then things leveled out again. "Values have risen quickly," notes Jonathan Klinger, vice president at Hagerty, "but it isn't a bubble situation. Buyers over the last several years have been end users as opposed to speculators and they routinely drive and enjoy the cars." Sports Car Market records that the last F1 to change hands at auction was a 1998 model that RM Sotheby's sold for $13.75 million as part of the Pinnacle Portfolio in Monterey last summer. But that example had the rare best-of-both-worlds combination of the LM performance upgrades with the road-spec interior to make it stand out above the rest. Gooding & Company sold another F1 over the same weekend in 2013 for $8.47 million, but a year later, a seller refused a high bid of $10.75 million for a mint-condition example. "For the time being, we see a very stable market for F1s," says David Brynan, senior specialist at Gooding.