Gossip Grip: the cars

By Kunal Shah and Mithila Mehta | “From T-bone to T-wing” – that’s one of our comments on the new cars that have been unveiled in the past week. Did Ferrari have to work overnight after Mercedes unveiled the T-wing first? However, the one striking part of the Ferrari is the white Italian flag it flies on the white board attached to its engine cover. We’ll admit that the 2017 Formula 1 cars look sexier, but the FIA should work swiftly to get these ugly shark fins banned!

We’re kind of glad that the 2017 regulations haven’t seen (yet) designers use adult body parts on their cars (a la 2014!). However, this time we’ve noticed regular body parts such as the “forehead” and “nostrils” appear on the Force India racing car.

In terms of colour choices, McLaren seem like a Spykar + Midland child, with its Trump colour orange-black splitting votes on social media. While McLaren is trying all they can to evoke nostalgia and the legendary status of the team, we hope they realise soon that points, podiums and wins are probably the best way to reinforce that. By the way, the front wing assembly seems awesomely exaggerated on the car. Let’s pray it adds some desperately-needed speed, because with Honda claiming that their 2017 powertrain matches Mercedes’ from 2016, it is akin to Sauber using a year-old Ferrari engine. But that’s what’s left of McLaren – a mid-field status!

The team trying to occupy the vacuum left by McLaren is Force India – at least in their colour scheme, to start with. Their silver-orange-green livery looks cool, but we’d still prefer the Indian tricolour design and that’s not necessarily because of the land we hail from. Sauber’s cool blue, Renault’s taxi-copied yellow-orange and Haas’ dark grey-red mean that we’ll at least be able to distinctly identify teams from each other in 2017. Let’s hope them being in close quarters adds to our difficulty because we prefer wheel-to-wheel racing over all else.

Sauber’s cool blue, Renault’s taxi-copied yellow-orange and Haas’ dark grey-red mean that we’ll at least be able to distinctly identify teams from each other in 2017.

We’ve also had a few dislikes regarding the car launches. We’re not too amused that Ferrari’s 2017 car isn’t named after Jules Bianchi. The SF70H was actually to be called the SF17T-JB. There was a leak on social media regarding its possibility by a media handle associated with one of Ferrari’s sponsors. Given that Bianchi could’ve been racing the 2017 car, a tribute to their late prodigy would’ve done better than flying the Italian flag on their car.

But the biggest dislike of all was the manner in which the first-ever 2017 Formula 1 car was unveiled. No, we’re not referring to Williams’ cheeky digital unveil that snatched from Sauber its best chance to garner attention and eyeballs since a few seasons back. We’re talking about how Formula 1 could’ve (and should’ve) done better, working with the teams to ensure that the first of the much-hyped and much-anticipated 2017 racing cars was launched in an extravagant manner by one of their superstar drivers. Williams’ digital unveil took the human element out of the suspense; not that Sauber’s unknown drivers would’ve delivered any better.

The drivers have been aggressively posting videos on social media of their off-season pursuits to become fitter. But for Kimi Raikkonen, a video of him attempting karaoke did the rounds. There’s news that a Finnish Grand Prix is being pursued by organisers and that the race could be held at a circuit called the “Kymi Ring”, which at first sight looks like how someone spells “Kimi” while drunk. How does a certain Mika feels about this name though?

Mithila Mehta is a travel blogger and, well, loves Formula 1. She co-hosts the Inside Line F1 Podcast, you can also read her travel stories on www.miss-wanderlust.com or follow her on Twitter – @mith_m
Kunal Shah is a former single-seater racer who works in the sports business industry. He pens his thoughts on F1 on his personal blog www.kunalsf1blog.com and co-hosts the Inside Line F1 Podcast. Catch him on Twitter too – @kunalashah
About the Inside Line F1 Podcast: this is a weekly podcast that aims to add a funny touch to an otherwise serious sport of Formula 1. It’s nearing 150 episodes of production with nearly 100,000 listeners each year. The podcast is available across popular listening and streaming platforms such as iTunes, Sound Cloud, YouTube, Mix Cloud, Daily Motion, etc.