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McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari call for unfreezing F1 engines

Formula One is a hugely expensive sport. Not only do you have enormous salaries and logistical expenses, as you would in any other sport, but each team also spends huge sums developing their own chassis from the ground up – and so too do the participating automakers in developing the engines. One of the ways the series organizers mitigate those costs is by freezing development. So once the new crop of V6 turbo hybrid powertrains were developed, that was it. But now three of the of the sport's leading teams are calling on the FIA to unfreeze engine development. Their reason? Unfair advantage. There's little question that Mercedes did the best job of developing its "power unit" to meet the new regulations that took effect at the beginning of this past season. That's how the Mercedes team won all but three of the grands prix this season and finished with at least one car on the podium at every single race. It's also a big part of how the teams that bought their engines from Mercedes this season managed to consistently outperform the other non-works-supported teams. That clear advantage is why Red Bull, Ferrari and now McLaren are calling for engine development to be unfrozen. Their argument is that, under the current locked-down status quo, their engine suppliers (Renault, Ferrari and Honda, respectively) cannot possibly catch up. So unless the FIA and Formula One Management want the next few seasons to be the kind of absolute blow-outs that this past season was, these leading teams argue, the powers that be are going to have to make some changes. For its part, Mercedes naturally counters that unfreezing engine development would send costs spiraling out of control. But then of course it stands to lose the most by re-opening engine development. If those three teams, however, closely intertwined as they are with the three other engine suppliers participating in next year's championship, manage to solicit enough support from the other customer teams and bring the matter to a vote, Mercedes may very well find itself out-numbered. News Source: ESPNImage Credit: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Motorsports Ferrari McLaren Mercedes-Benz F1 engine

Next Mercedes-Benz GLK to get AMG variant? Not likely...

If you think Mercedes-Benz will slap an AMG badge on anything with wheels, think again. Word has it the German manufacturer will not offer buyers a performance version of the GLK, with Tobias Moers, director of AMG vehicle development, saying that he doesn't see a market for the car. That's not to say the picture won't change in the near future, however. According to CarAdvice.com, AMG is keeping a close eye on the arrival of the Porsche Macan.
"Maybe there will be a change in the market when the Porsche [Macan] comes up," Moers said, "but right now, no."
The real hitch in the giddy-up seems to be cost. Moers says developing the machine into something worthy of an AMG would represent "a huge investment." We can't exactly argue with that. Fortunately, AMG buyers have plenty of Mercedes-Benz models to choose from.

Rosberg survives the Mexican mess | 2016 Mexican Grand Prix recap

Roughly ten messy laps defined the Mexican Grand Prix – five laps at the start and five at the end. Those laps included a couple of actual wrecks and a few more near wrecks that turned the entire day into chaos. To have any chance of winning the 2016 Driver's Championship, Lewis Hamilton needed to get his Mercedes-AMG Petronas across the finish line ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. Once again we got a weekend full of vintage Hamilton, the Brit dominating the from Friday to Sunday, except for the first corner of the first lap. Pole-sitter Hamilton reached Turn 1 clearly in front of the field. But he couldn't make the corner and stay on track, so he zipped into the runoff area and over the grass, rejoining at Turn 3 still ahead of the field. The stewards didn't penalize Hamilton, one commentator's explanation being that Hamilton "was not battling another car." The non-action left car #44 to enjoy a lights-to-flag win. At that very same corner, Rosberg also availed himself of the runoff area. His infraction seemed destined to incur a penalty until replays showed that Max Verstappen in the Red Bull slid wide and bumped Rosberg, causing the German to go off track. No penalties were handed out there, either. Verstappen would return to hound Rosberg later in the race when angling for second place. Verstappen took a stab through Turn 4 on Lap 50 of the 71-lap race, but ran off the track and lost touch with the Mercedes by Lap 55. Ferrari got half of its strategy right in Mexico, putting Sebastian Vettel hard on the charge in the final stint. The German got within DRS range of Verstappen on Lap 67, with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo a little more than a second behind Vettel. On Lap 68, Verstappen pulled the same move as Hamilton at the beginning of the race: the Dutchman ran wide through Turn 1, zoomed over the grass and rejoined the track at Turn 3, staying ahead of Vettel the whole time. With three laps remaining, the stewards chose to investigate after the race. In spite of Verstappen's own team telling he probably needed to cede position to Vettel, Verstappen stayed in front and slowed just enough to put Vettel under threat from Ricciardo. On Lap 70 Ricciardo had closed up to Vettel's gearbox. Headed for Turn 4, Vettel swung outside to take the corner. When Ricciardo moved inside to pass, Vettel moved inside to block the Aussie while both cars were in the braking zone. The Ferrari made light contact with the Red Bull, but Vettel held his position through Turn 5.