Formula 1 is back! Once again we'll be spending most of our weekend mornings on the couch as Formula 1 returns for a new season.
As the excitement built this week we heard from lots of folks -
Bernie Ecclestone is looking for your sympathy...
David Coulthard said something stupid.
Suzy Wolf lost her licences.
Ross Brawn said something stupid. Then he said some smarter things.
Fernando Alonso told us he's still not happy with Honda.
Eric Boullier repeated what Eddie Jordan had to say about Honda back in 2015 - that they've completely misjudged the competitiveness of Formula 1 - Eric just used more words to do it.
The cars are on the track for the first time in 2017, and as expected it was a mixed bag with some teams meeting and exceeding expectations - and others ending up much worse than planned.
It really wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Formula 1 felt a seismic shift this past week. The sacking of Bernie Ecclestone from the role he has held over Formula 1 for 40 years may have been expected to many, but yet still came as a surprise to all who follow the sport. What happened this week was arguably one of the biggest events in Formula 1 in the last 30 years. We discuss what happened, why it happened and wonder where the sport goes from here.
There were other stories this week though - Pirelli is concerned that the racing won't be great this year.
Filipe Massa will test a Formula E car.
Esteban Ocon will not serve as a Reserve Driver for Mercedes.
Stewards have new guidance for assessing penalties - and we're not sure it's better.
This week we got an answer to a burning question that we know has been at the forefront of everybody's mind - what has Pastor Maldonado been up to?
Turns out he's still holding out for a "competitive" race seat, which is why he was apparently in talks with the virtually defunct KV racing to get an IndyCar seat - as long as he didn't have to drive on ovals... Pastor says that he also had talks with Sauber but couldn't come to an agreement and was hopeful that Nico Rosberg's retirement would have led to an opportunity for him to join a competitive team...
As everyone had pretty much expected by now - Valteri Bottas is moving to Mercedes and Filipe Massa's retirement has ended almost before it could actually begin.
The Halo is done, although we don't know if F1 will actually adopt it.
Every track will be making changes for this year's new rules - while the BRDC insists that it hasn't activated the exit close to get out of hosting the British GP.
And Franz Tost thinks Formula 1 should roll out e-races...
Happy New Year! We're back from vacation and ready to go.
This week we have word that Max Chilton will be remaining with Chip Gnassi racing for the 2017 IndyCar season.
Could Liberty Media try and introduce a cost cap to F1?
More annual reviews...
Pat Symonds has left Williams, Suzy Wolf received and MBE, and Filipe Massa - appears to be coming out of retirement right after he left for retirement...
We're getting ready to join F1 on our respective mid-winter breaks. Just a reminder there won't be a show next week, but we'll be back right after the New Year.
Patricia got to pay a visit to Puma's North American Headquarters this week, Puma provides team wear for several teams.
One of the check boxes needed for Liberty Media's takeover of F1 got ticked this week.
Drivers are completing their year-end reviews for their team's HR departments.
Fernando Alonso says that he's committed to McLaren.
Mercedes won't announce a new driver before the and of the year, and Toto Wolf after saying that he wouldn't consider Valtteri Bottas to replace Nico Rosberg - is considering Valterri Bottas to replace Nico Rosberg, which might bring a recently retired Williams driver back to Williams...
This week we're officially bringing the 2016 Formula 1 season to a close - and start off talking about Indycar... There's an F1 tie though, Alexander Rossi's Indy 500 winning car was presented to the IMS Museum this past week.
In F1, the return of the French Grand Prix was officially announced with races resuming at the Circuit Paul Ricard in 2018.
Is Paddy Lowe headed to Williams?
After saying Mercedes wouldn't consider Fernando Alonso, Toto Wolff says that Mercedes is considering Fernando Alonso. Meanwhile Fernando's manager Flavio Briatore says that Fernando Alonso isn't leaving McLaren...
Finally, we dive into the Bloke and A Bird vault and pull up or predictions for 2016 to see how we did, and it turns out we were better than we thought...
As the week ended we had this week's show fully planned out, everything was all planned out and we were going to have a in depth conversation about the tactics in play last weekend in Abu Dhabi - and then a certain newly minted World Champion destroyed all of our plans.
We're pretty sure that Mercedes was left saying something similar this past week as Nico Rosberg's sudden announcement that he was retiring from Formula 1 pretty much trashed their plans for the entire offseason and into the 2018 season. However, if you watched their Twitter feed from the last 3 days, the team is certainly having as much fun as possible with the announcement.
The Strategy Group met this week and sorted out next year's calendar, 20 races instead of 21, which means that teams have to get through the season on just 4 engines. Monza will be returning in 2017, and Bernie says that France will be back in 2018 and after learning who owns the circuit we really don't understand why it didn't come back sooner...
Finally, McLaren looses yet another long time sponsor and partner, somebody is already lined up to take their place, but still...
And with that we reach the last race of the season, and it was certainly one of the better races in Abu Dhabi.
But before we get to that we have news that Montreal is probably going to happen next year, Malaysia probably won't happen after 2018 - and Imola is still trying to get on the calendar. We'll know more in a few days.
McLaren has a new boss - who has to go find a title sponsor.
Sauber confirms a driver, but the future of another is still in limbo.
We say farewell to Jenson Button.
And we have a special intro to this week's race...
We fully planned on doing a show last week but life got in the way and we pretty much ran out of hours in the weekend. Honestly, we're thankful that we didn't have a race to watch too, because we don't know when we would have gotten to see it.
We had a lot planned for last week, so this week we're giving you a longer show to make up for last week.
Obviously we discuss the end of the Mexican Grand Prix. While it was rather exciting at the end, it also wasn't one of F1's finer moments. Why did Max Verstappen get a penalty and not Lewis Hamilton - we'll tell you. We'll also tell you why Sebastian Vettel's penalty wasn't the same as the one gifted to Max, and why sometimes you should be careful for what you wish for.
Ross Brawn's been everywhere the last two weeks it seems - but it's still not clear if he'll be getting an office with FOM.
Drives are finally being sorted for 2017 - and why Jolyon Palmer now has a confirmed seat for 2017 - he now should consider some media consulting.
And what does a rhinoceros have to do with Sao Paolo?
