McLaren remarkably outscored Red Bull Racing over the second twelve rounds of the year by points, whilst Ferrari hounded McLaren for the constructors championship over the final triple header weekends following the Singapore Grand Prix.
Should the performance differences be carried into this year, then Ferrari will come out on top over the early flyaway races, while McLaren who have had a poor start to each of the last two seasons will be playing catch up along with Red Bull Racing. This years F1 racing should be closer than ever as the teams are now in their fourth year of interpreting the latest set of car design regulations. Yet the enormous rule changes coming in for both power units and chassis design will force most of the competitors to abandon the majority of the in season development work much earlier than usual.
Come and the F1 grid will be expanded to eleven competitors, as Cadillac have been given the green light to join the sport. Yet the controversy over F1 admitting a new competitor into their ranks rolls on as the commercial rights holders management company, FOM, has yet to reveal the details of the commercial deal they have struck with the US automotive giant. As the US Justice department closed in threatening F1 with sanctions based on anti-competitive legislation, all hell broke lose amongst the paddock elite as Toto Wolff, Christian Horner and Lawrence Stroll arrived at the US Grand Prix in Austin with personal legal representation.
This was most recently signed in with another expected to replace it this year or next. Under the terms off the contract, any new team entering F1 would be forced to pay compensation to the others for the dilution of the prize money they would suffer. A host of reasons were given as to why Cadillac should not be allowed to enter the sport, including the fact that Zandvoort in the Netherlands had no more room in the paddock which is already very tight when F1 is in town.
Yet the Concorde agreement also binds the circuit owners and promoters and in fact provides for up to twelve teams as part of the F1 circus, so tracks and their promoters would have to comply with the number of competitors regardless. The speed at which FOM reversed its decision to refuse Cadillac entry into F1 caught most of the paddock by surprise. Speaking to German publication AMuS.
