FIA WEC, kick-off in Silverstone for Davide Rigon

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The long wait is over: this weekend the curtain will be raised on the championship par excellence of the Endurance panorama, with the first race of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

A track of 5.891 metres and a 6-hours race on the historical British circuit of Silverstone – a location of the Formula 1 World Championship since the Fifties – will be the kick-off of the sporting season of Davide Rigon, driving the three-world title winner Ferrari Italia 458 GT #71, alongside the Amato Ferrari AF Corse. His goal is to be confirmed as a top driver at a worldwide level.

After winning in Shanghai, finishing second in Bahrain and Sao Paulo and finishing fourth in Fuji with 8Star Team, this year the talented driver from Veneto (Italy) will be an official pilot of Maranello Team.

“I can’t wait to be in Silverstone and begin this new adventure. We’ve been working very well during last winter and we’re determined to start the season on the right foot. There’s no need to remark that Ferrari 458 is an amazing car. With Team Amato Ferrari the feeling has been good since the beginning, the same with James. Considering the level of the participants, this will be a very competitive season, where the difference will be made by details”, Davide Rigon comments.

In this new adventure, composed by eight races – from Great Britain to Brazil, touching Spa-Francorchamps, 24 hours of Le Mans, Austin, Fuji, Shanghai e Sakhir – the 27-year-old pilot will drive the glorious 458 GTE-Pro with James Calado, ranked third in the 2013 GP2 Series.

“I’m really happy to have Davide Rigon in the Team, after last season’s experience with 8Star Team when he conquered the whole staff both at human and professional level. Our main goal will be to repeat the successes of last year, with the Manufacturer, Team and Pilot Titles”, Team Owen Amato Ferrari comments.

The spotlight will be turned on the WEC Championship with the first round of free practice, leading to Qualifying – on Saturday 19th April at 1 pm (Italian time) – to decide the starting grid of the “6 Hours”, in program on Sunday 20th April at 1 pm (Italian time).

EXCLUSIVE – BMW ready to come back in Formula 1

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After saying goodbye to The Circus in 2009 as constructor, BMW is ready to step back and return to Formula 1 as engine manufacturer.

Gian Carlo Minardi notices this piece of news on the website minardi.it. “The engine revolution that has marked this new era of Formula 1 has involved several engine manufactures, present and not present on the race field”, the manager from Faenza comments. “We’ve always affirmed that several constructors are testing these new power units, that will represent the future for standard cars, independently from their participation to the F1 World Championship. German rumour has it that a BMW Board of Directors has been fixed for the month of May to consider a coming back in F1 already for 2015. The promoter of this project is Steven Althaus, Director Brand Management BMW and Marketing Services BMW Group. A confirmation of BMW’s concrete will to evaluate future projects has been the continuous and steady presence of technicians, both in the pre-season testing and during the first races, gathering important information.

Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Honda (which entrance has been fixed long since for next year) might soon have a new competitor. “The entrance of the German engine manufacturer might be a breath of fresh air for this Formula 1, both from the technical and economical side, helping teams that – at present – are suffering a difficult situation. If the interest of a manufacturer such as BMW will be confirmed, this will be the answer to the technical choices adopted and the confirmation that F1 is and will be the World best expression of car racing”, the manager form Faenza concludes.

BMW’s history in Formula 1 World Championship is rooted in the 50s. In 1983, with Nelson Piquet driving Brabham-BMW Turbo, BMW was crowned World Champion, the first at the top in the new era of turbocharger. In that season, the successes for the German turbo power unit were four (three with Piquet and one with our Patrese).

More recently, they provided Williams with a power unit – from 2000 to 2005 – before acquiring team Sauber in 2006, renaming it BMW Sauber F1. Despite the success in 2008 in Canada with the Polish Robert Kubica – the first victory as constructor – they announced their withdrawal from the World Championship on 29th July, 2009. The structure was then acquired back by Peter Sauber.

Bahrain GP – Drivers’ Scorecard

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Before giving the marks to the protagonists of Sakhir, I ‘d like to say something in relation to the incident that involved the non-guilty driver of Sauber, Gutierrez, badly hit by Pastor Maldonado in the first corner. As we know, the delegates punished the Venezuelan Lotus driver with three points on his Super Licence and a five-place grid drop for the next race in China, besides the ten-second stop-and-go penalty during the race. Once again I’m astonished for the different parameters userd for judging and issuing penalties. If we compare the penalties given to Magnussen – for a millimetric contact in the Australian GP with Raikkonen – or to the non-guilty Ricciardo in Sepang, the mistake of Pastor is much heavier. Magnussen lost 2 points on his Super Licence, whereas Ricciardo paid with a stop-and-go and a ten-place grid drop for Bahrain – ten places that compromised the podium in Bahrain for the Red Bull pilot. Rules are still not clear and evaluations are too subjective. Now, I’m curious to see how a team will be able to replace a penalized driver with an untrained pilot…

But let’s skip to votes:

Lewis Hamilton – 9 A great fight with the teammate, keeping the show at a high level. Good job at start, overtaking his teammate in pole-position.

Nico Rosberg – 8,5 For the second time not a great performance at start. He will have to be careful, since starts could become fundamental for the final results, considering the huge advantage of Mercedes.

Daniel Ricciardo – 8.5 Amazing race, showing he’s not afraid at all of his teammate, who holds four World Champion titles. Despite all the penalties he had a great reaction: he’s the best surprise of this beginning of the season.

Sergio Perez – 8 He conquered on the field the third step of the podium, rescuing a not-too-happy beginning of the season.

Felipe Massa, Valtteri Bottas – 7 They brought both cars at finishing, scoring for Williams precious points that will count for the future.

Daniil Kvyat – 7 Even though he was soon out of the score-zone, he’s enhancing Toro Rosso’s name, overshadowing his teammate despite his young age.

Nico Hulkenberg – 6 A little down for all the weekend. He wasn’t able to answerback his teammate.

Sebastian Vettel – 6 He accomplished his mission, but he was a little nervous and not impeccable. It can happen, after four seasons at the top. With Massa he reached the limits of the regulations and fair play.

Fernando Alonso e Kimi Raikkonen – 6 An encouraging vote, as they couldn’t do better than they did.

Formula 1 – 8 For pleasing us with a great GP, with two Mercedes playing with each other. They wanted to make the race hot, but I think they perfectly knew Hamilton would have won. As already happened in other seasons, this year the issue is a team issue. The result of last Sunday is composed of 2 Mercedes, 2 Force India with – in between – 2 Red Bull, 2 Williams and 2 Ferrari. The fight will be most of all between teammates.

Bahrain GP – THE POINT… by Gian Carlo Minardi

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As I said in the last days, in the usual GP-Preview Analysis, there’s no point to cry wolf at this moment of the season, facing such an important technical change. We need to give time to this Formula 1 to grow from a technical perspective. In just one week we have shifted from a Formula-Boredom to a Formula-Show, with overtakings and duels.

Formula 1 is amazing because it involves a lot of elements: technique, sporting regulations and pilots. It’s hard to give judgements since the track, from one weekend to the following, can prove wrong everyone, particularly this year. Let’s just think to the situation during Bahrain tests: I expect forward changes in China, not to mention what might happen in Spain in one month. Today we have seen that the problem is certainly not the noise of the V6 Turbo: the main issues are cars’ competitiveness and the duels that pilots can perform during the race. We assisted to great fights, overtakings, strategies and crushes; safety-car, also, added something more to the last 8 laps.

No doubt, we have a Mercedes supremacy, both as a team and as power-unit: in the last laps, W05 realized an advantage of 24’’ on the third car at finishing. Rosberg and Hamilton are great champions, who will entertain us again and again. I had the impression that in the last laps they mainly wanted to play and please the public with a great show (also, to be spotted by cameras) given the unconvincing points where Nico tried the final attack on his teammate. Behind them, all the others, more or less close. In this moment the fight is for the third step of the podium. The final ranking sees two Mercedes, Force India, Red Bull, Force India, Red Bull, two Williams and two Ferrari. Which means: five Mercedes engines, two Renault and two Ferrari, with Ricciardo and Vettel between Perez and Hulkenberg, and Alonso and Raikkonen closing the Top 10. A praise goes to Aldo Costa: this success should make us think about the fact that Italian technologies and technicians are too often underestimated. We always think English are on a higher level, but the Made in Italy is still very successful. Costa is the head of a group that certainly follows him, since he certainly doesn’t design the car by himself. This gives food for thought to other teams, too.

Red Bull proves to be a car with a great chassis, only lacking those 40 hp that Horner would like to obtain from the Renault power-unit. Ricciardo performed an amazing race: despite an underserved 10-place grid penalty in qualifications – related to Malaysia, where he also was handed a stop&go of 10’’, not for his faults – he finished the race before his teammate. In one month they have been able to turn upside down a very difficult situation. Very good race for Sergio Perez and Force India. With Hulkenberg, in the previous GPs they proved to have a great car, which today stands in the second place of the World Championship, gaining approval and respect. The Mexican has come forward with great authority, showing he’s part of the games. With this podium he released himself from the negative echoes of last season, proving us that McLaren decisions were rushed. He fully deserved to be on the podium.

Let’s go to Ferrari. At present, they’re the fifth force of the Championship. I think the performance is rescued only by its two World Champions, Alonso and Raikkonen. Otherwise, I think they would have stayed out of the Top 10. The problem is not only the power-unit: competitiveness is lacking in several areas, as underlined by tyre skitting and pilots’ camera-car. I believe it’s important not to make up excuses or to accuse only one sector. They need to reflect with a cold mind, working at 360 degrees in all areas. Now it’s time for tests, before China GP. Excluding W05 of Nico and Lewis, all the others are close: therefore also Ferrari can compete for the third step of the podium and for the second place in World Championship.

Gian Carlo Minardi: “The loss of Formula 1 is not low noise”

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We have left behind only two of the nineteen Grand Prix of the current Formula 1 season, characterized by an epochal change, and we’re almost ready for the third weekend on Bahrain track.

In this beginning of season, we’ve heard and read many – maybe too many – criticisms about this new F1, which is said to have distanced the fans, with a consequent audience reduction, accusing for these damages the new and too silent power units and Technical Regulations.

On the contrary, Gian Carlo Minardi believes problems are coming mainly from other areas: “F1 has undertaken a hard and upward path: maybe too many novelties have been put together too quickly, but I’m sure it will be able to please us soon with great satisfaction. In the first two races we have seen a “compaction” of performances, with as many as 12-13 cars in 1’’. This is extremely positive from a technical perspective, in particular if we think that in Bahrain tests the teams accused a lot of problems”, the Faenza manager comments on minardi.it. “In the course of the next GPs, what now is defined as ‘boredom’ will turn into exciting races”.

Let’s not forget that Formula 1 has always been the highest motoring expression, in which technologies have been then applied into standard cars. “The world has taken a direction and issues like noise pollution and energy saving are themes of the present. Thanks to the resources made available by the Circus, new solutions might be quickly developed. For instance, in Italy all racetracks have to fight against the laws on noise pollution, which limit the activity on the track”, Minardi continues. “I’ve heard in these days that enthusiasts have taken a distance from F1 because the cars don’t make noise anymore. But are we really sure that the problem is the rumble of V6 Turbo? Out of the millions of spectators that have watched the GPs all over the World on Sundays, the ones with a possible right of complaining would have been the fans present at Albert Park and Sepang. All the others have watched the races on the TV”.

With his longstanding experience, Minardi has very clear ideas. “Instead of judging on mere intent, insiders and specialists should concentrate on serious elements such as penalties, their management by FIA and the subjectivity of decision makers. Penalties are the loss of Formula 1. Decisions taken against Magnussen, in particular, and Ricciardo, scare me and damage the F1 environment. Keeping this path, they’ll cancel those possible duels that have been part of the races’ DNA and have contributed to write the history of this sport, besides making the fans falling in love. With present parameters, legendary duels such as Villeneuve-Arnoux (Dijon, 1979) or Piquet-Senna in Hungary would be unconceivable.

Last Sunday, McLaren was heavily penalized for a normal race collision: Raikkonen himself, immediately after the race, admitted he hadn’t understood what happened. We are talking about a hit between a portion of the front right wing and a back wheel. I understand the safety issues, but if we cannot accept this kind of episodes, all we can do is playing with videogames. Regarding Red Bull, sporting delegates have been able to penalize Ricciardo twice – first with a Stop&Go of 10’’ and then with a 10-place Bahrain grid penalty – but he was actually guilty of nothing. The team saw immediately that the wheel wasn’t well-secured and so, before he was back on the track, he was stopped and brought back. Which kind of damage did he create? What scares me more, by the way, is the non-objectivity of delegates in decisions, given the fact that the working team changes at each race. Furthermore, in the same Grand Prix, no decision has been taken regarding Vettel’s behaviour, who squeezed in Nico Rosberg: this was actually a situation of danger”.

The manager from Faenza tries to give his solution to bring the show back and keep the fans close to F1. “FIA has to make a quick intervention, choosing a unique working team which has to be the same for all races. In this way, unpleasant episodes – conditioning the result of the race with non-homogeneous decisions – would quickly be avoided”, Minardi concludes. “And also: let’s not deprive drivers of the emotion of trying a braking at the limit, for the fear of being handed a penalty”.

Malaysia GP – Drivers’ Scorecard

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Waiting for the third GP of the season in Bahrain, let’s step back to Malaysia to give the marks.
Lewis Hamilton – 9 Exemplary through the whole weekend and in all conditions.
Nico Rosberg – 8 A performance slightly under the level of his teammate, who had a higher incentive due to the Australian KO.
Sebastian Vettel – 9 He surely drives a car with an excellent chassis, but he also has the less powerful power-unit of the lot. In these three days he showed his prowess, doing a great job.
Daniel Ricciardo – 8 Mainly an encouraging mark, since he is hard hit by sporting judges’ penalties and the misfortunes of Red Bull-2 keep going on.
Nico Hulkenberg – 8 He showed to deserve a top team: he drove his India Force very well.
Fernando Alonso – 7.5 Exemplary in qualifications and during the race. On Saturday, despite an inferior car, he conquered Q3 and the fourth ranking. Once again he has been able to employ the “material” in his hands to the full potential, as proved by the continuity in the laps in all conditions. Nevertheless, at Ferrari there’s still a lot of work to do to fill the gap.
Kevin Magnussen – 7.5 An encouraging mark, because – in my opinion – judges have too heavily penalized him.
Daniil Kvyat – 7 He turns the lights off on his second weekend in Formula 1 with a tenth place and one point for Toro Rosso, after scoring two points in the opening race in Australia.
Felipe Massa – 7 Hearing that kind of message at the second race of the season is a thoughtless, also because I don’t think Bottas had the potential to overtake Button.
Mercedes engine – 10 Seven cars in the Top Ten is an excellent result. Team Mercedes deserves a 10 too, for the way they managed the car and for the competitiveness showed in all conditions. They’re working really very well.
Ferrari mechanics  – 9.5 They almost did a miracle during the qualifications, allowing Alonso to be in the game for Q3.
Red Bull – 9 A mark related in particular to the reaction after the initial problems. The many penalties on Ricciardo might be a result of the arm wrestling undertaken with FIA.

Malaysia GP – THE POINT… by Gian Carlo Minardi

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Second race of the season, second seal marked by Mercedes. After Rosberg, this was Hamilton’s turn to climb up the podium, getting on the top step. The result speaks for itself: a neat supremacy in all possible conditions. From free practice to the race, from dry to wet road. They are doing very well in scoring as many points as they can, in oder to manage them in a World Championship perspective. Seven Mercedes engines in the first ten positions: this is an outstanding achievement.

Ferrari’s performance slightly improved, with a gap of 35’’ from the winner, though 10’’ slower than Red Bull: Maranello has still a lot of work to do. Bad luck for Kimi: without the collision with Magnussen, he could have scored important points for the World Championship chart. Once again, Fernando was capable to get the maximum out of his Ferrari, performing very similar laps in all conditions: but F14-T is still in need of an important evolution, in order to step on the podium or fight for the first place.

Red Bull shows to be the car with the best chassis: this is particularly clear in corners, even though suffering the problems related to the Renault power-unit. They are certainly on the right path, but the gap with Mercedes – whose hidden resources are remarkable – is still wide. For the French motorist, it won’t be easy to solve his problems, but Red Bull could be advantaged on those tracks where the engine is less important. If we look back at pre-seasonal tests, they have achieved considerable improvements both in terms of performance and reliability, even though they now have to figure out what happened on Ricciardo’s car. Once more, all the misfortunes are hitting Red Bull-2.

Nico Hulkenberg proves himself to be a top team driver, even though Force India is showing a very good performance,  trying to achieve the fifth place in the World Championship: that’s an excellent result, obtained driving very well and with one less pit-stop. As it already happened in the last season, they have a car which is very “gentle” with Pirelli tyres: this is a further technical solution and a strength point. Good result also for Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso’s rookie, who scored one point. At present, it’s not simple to be in the first ten places with seven Mercedes engines at finish, considering that Kvyat’s engine is a Renault too.

In Malaysia, the new penalty of 5’’ has come into play: it was imposed by FIA representatives on Kevin Magnussen, after the collision with Kimi Raikkonen. I personally find this sanction too heavy, since in my opinion it was a normal race collision. This could become a problem as we proceed with the World Championship’s races, because it represents a too subjective decision. Today FIA representatives have decided it was an action to be penalized, but what will happen with another “board of judges”? I observed with great attention the execution of pit-stops with penalties and I noted that McLaren mechanics did very well and quickly. His previous pit-stops had been around 24’’7’-25’’5’, whereas, when the penalty was assigned, Kevin left the pit-lane in 30’’. This penalty has concealed the true value on this track of MP4-29, which did not experience a positive grand prix. Nonetheless, the two drivers have been able to bring home points.

We need to underline the weird team indications of Williams. I don’t believe Bottas had the strength to create problems to Button: I don’t see the point of creating tensions in the team at the second weekend of races. I can foresee a polemic debate coming up, even though Massa took the right decision, choosing to keep its place and not to be overtaken by his team-mate.

In seven days it will be time for Bahrain and we’ll see what happens, though we’ll hardy see a change of the situation already in place.

Gp Malaysia – PREVIEW

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We have finally brought the curtain down on Australia, with the first disqualification directed towards Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull and the clear victory of Mercedes and Nico Rosberg: Formula 1 is ready for the second race of the season in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

For this renewed Formula 1, the Sepang circuit will be a real test bench, almost a “degree”, giving its technical features and geographical position. In fact, we are talking about a track 5.543 Km long, with 15 corners (5 left, 10 right), 8 straights, two of which almost 1 km long, with the engine running at full for 70% of lap time; also, we have to consider the weather issue. It’s actually pretty hot and torrential rains are usual, though temperatures stay high: despite the rain, thermometers keep registering at least 30°C. More than in Albert Park, in Malaysia the eight speeds of the gearbox could give a hand to the survival of the power units. This weekend, we’ll also see the debut of Hard Orange tyres, besides Medium ones.

Teams and drivers will find a much harder situation in comparison with the context they’ve experimented so far, both in Australia and in Bahrain during tests. Previsions are almost impossible to be made, since we are still in an “apprentice” phase and the variables in place are many. It could happen everything and its opposite. In fifteen days – from the last test in Bahrain to Australian GP – the cards of the play have radically changed: giving  this, I cannot imagine what might happen with 15 additional days on teams’ hands.

Current hierarchies see the Mercedes engine ahead of Ferrari and Renault, and the French are not that far from Maranello. Regarding teams, an eye must be kept on Red Bull – let’s just consider what they’ve been capable to do in 15 days – while Rosberg and Hamilton’s W05 is not only a great Power-Unit, but also an amazing car.

As I said before,  many are the variables that might come into play to determinate the final result and everyone – FIA included – is committed to solve the problems emerged in the first race of the season.

The episode arisen from the FIA mistake on Maranello’s power units – Ferrari, Sauber and Marussia – is a risky variable that might compromise the history of one race. Therefore there are many elements that need to be verified and revised, without leaving aside the fuel sensor that received the ultimate trial in Melbourne. Thus, the constructor might have carried out some changes, even though the decision of discussing Red Bull’s appeal only on April 14 doesn’t help to throw light on the situation. A weird silence around this episode, any team taking an official stance, the opening of Jean Todt with respect to possible modifications of the Regulations, decreasing the Km of races or increasing the minimum fuel quantity: all these aspects might signify that something is cooking up in the pot.

We just have to wait and see what might happen from Friday onwards, with the first round of Free Practice.

Which scenarios are in store?

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It’s time for the week of the second race of Formula 1 World Championship, that will take place in Malaysia, on the circuit of Sepang, Kuala Lumpur.

In the cold light of day, we can start giving some explanations on the episodes that marked the first race in Australia, in particular what happened after the race, with the exclusion of Daniel Ricciardo and Red Bull determined by their breaching of Article 5.1.4 of Technical Regulations and Article 3.2 of Sporting Regulations.

“Ignoring the warnings of the FIA Sporting Representatives, it’s clear that Red Bull has consciously triggered an arm wrestling that needs to be monitored, because done on purpose by RB itself”, Gian Carlo Minardi says in his analysis. “In my opinion, if Ricciardo had respected the limit of maximum consumption fixed by the Technical regulations at 100kg/hour, at worse he would have closed the race after Kevin Magnussen, therefore in third place”, the manager from Faenza goes on. “Whereas, with their choices, they are risking to compromise a second place and the first points of the World Championship. The disqualification punctually was stated, even though the Milton Keynes team appealed the decision. Sincerely, it’s hard to understand this behaviour, unless they’ve decided to force the hand in order to gather attention and open the discussion on a technical issue, taking advantage of a weak point of FIA regarding the fuel sensor”.

In the last days, Team principal of Minardi Team F1 focused on how unlikely is a positive response of the appeal for the team of Horner: they actually infringed two rules, breaching both the Technical and the Sporting Regulations. In particular, the Article 3.2 of Sporting Regulations verbatim states: “ [..] Competitors must ensure that their cars comply with the conditions of eligibility and safety throughout practice and the race”. Not only RB ignored a precise sporting disposition coming from FIA: in that moments, car #3 didn’t respected the conditions of “eligibility and safety throughout practice and the race” necessary to compete in a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

As we know, Red Bull Racing’s appeal will be discussed by FIA on April 14th, in Paris, after the Gran Prix of Malaysia and Bahrain. “At this point, which scenarios might be in store? Knowing the weaknesses of the system, a possibility is the triggering of radio discussions between Team and Sporting Representatives to throw into crisis the device”, Gian Carlo Minardi points out. “While there has not been, as far as now, any official stance by Team Principals in favour or disfavour of RB, the Federation President, Jean Todt, in an interview with TG1 RAI, committed himself declaring: ‘[..] The proposal of 100 kg/hour came directly from the World Championship participants, but there’s no problem if they want 110 kg/hour [..]’.

No doubt, at this point the works for making changes to the Regulations have started”, Gian Carlo Minardi concludes.

How solid are the basis of Red Bull’s appeal?

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After the exclusion of Daniel Ricciardo once the Gran Prix was over, Red Bull Racing announced they would have appealed the decision since the team didn’t agree with the statements of the FIA technical representatives in Melbourne.

But are we really sure that the Milton Keynes team has the upper hand to proceed with its action? As we know, the defending World Champions have been excluded from the race results because car #3, driven by the Australian pilot, breached Article 5.1.4 of Technical Regulations and Article 3.2 of Sporting Regulations.

Since the beginning, Horner has questioned the reliability of the FIA-homologated fuel sensor, the system designed by Gill Sensors to control the fuel flow rate, which is limited to a maximum consumption (stated in Article 5.1.4) of 100kg/hour once the car is over 10.500 rpm; Horner observed that the FIA sensor revealed inconsistencies on varying parameters – fuel density, temperature – without guaranteeing, therefore, the declared margin of error. On Thursday Charlie Whiting put in a good word for the system, declaring: “We are confident regarding the precision of the fuel sensor. It will always be correlated with the data of fuel injectors, to prevent any divergence”. He confirmed also a “zero-tolerance” policy with cases of noncompliance with the data of the FIA-homologated fuel sensor.

As indicated in the last days, the FIA Representatives warned several times team Red Bull to reduce the fuel flow such that it was within the limit, as measured by the homologated sensor and ad stated by Technical Regulations. Similar warning were directed also to Ferrari and Mercedes but, unlike Maranello and Brackley teams, Horner’s men chose not to make this correction, ignoring FIA indications. Here Article 3.2 of the Sporting Regulations comes into play, verbatim stating: “Competitors must ensure that their cars comply with the conditions of eligibility and safety throughout practice and the race”.

Independently from what has been affirmed by RB, the team ignored a precise sporting warning coming from FIA. Therefore the car, in that moments, didn’t comply with the conditions of “eligibility and safety throughout practice and the race” necessary to compete in a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Australian GP – Drivers’ Scorecard

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Leaving the first GP of the season behind, still with some echoes of debate and controversies – see the exclusion of Daniel Ricciardo – we are ready to give the first marks.

Nico Rosberg – 9,5 He managed the whole weekend very well, considering this was the kick-start of the season with a Gran Prix full of surprises and uncertainty. Just one flaw in Q3, where he lost just those two seconds to be able to score the fastest lap, which maybe cost him the pole position.

Daniel Ricciardo – 9 Despite the pressures arising from the “home” GP and the kick-off with the colours of Red Bull Racing, he made a very good race with no mistakes.

Kevin Magnussen e Daniil Kvyat – 9 These rookies, at their debut with McLaren and Toro Rosso, showed us excellent results. Perhaps Magnussen deserves even something more, but we need to recall that he’s driving a car that has gained respect since the first collective tests. Another story for the young Daniil, who is getting his hands on Faenza’s car – a car that was experiencing loads of problems until just some days ago.

Fernando Alonso – 8 Once again the Spanish driver was able to conceal the limits of Ferrari. His qualities played a substantial role in the fifth place of Q3 and in the fourth place at finish.

Nico Hulkenberg – 8 Nico has proven himself to be a great pilot, fighting until the end of the race, whereas in the first part he engaged a correct face-off with Alonso, causing some problems to the Spanish driver.

Jenson Button – 7,5 With the fourth place – eventually turned out in a podium – he gave his contribution to score important points for McLaren. Good job with the team as it regards the strategies, being the first to stop at his box after the Safety Car left the track.

Valtteri Bottas – 6 The mistake during the race compromised his final result. Otherwise, he could have even been able to create problems to Alonso and score more points.

Kimi Raikkonen – 5.5 He didn’t match the expectations for the whole weekend: as a World Champion, he should at least been able to make the difference, that – on the other side – was actually made by his team mate.

Sebastian Vettel – 5 Honestly, too nervous. The strength and the character of a World Champion have to be shown even when things go wrong: he needs to react in a better way, to be able to make the difference.

Mercedes – 8 The reliability issue with Lewis Hamilton’s car cost them some points.

McLaren – 7 They fought with both cars hitting the targets of podium and zone points with the two drivers.

Ferrari – 6 An encouraging mark to Maranello’s team, that was able to have both F14-T finishing the race at the chequered flag.

Red Bull – 5 The exclusion from the race results of Daniel Ricciardo arrived for the violation of both the Technical Regulations (article 5.1.4) and the Sporting Regulations (article 3.2). On the Sporting side, Red Bull ignored the warnings of FIA’s technical representatives, whilst from a Technical point of view, during the race the fuel flow on Ricciardo’s car was too high (over 100kg/h).

And now… We look ahead to what will happen in Malaysia in two weeks, with an eye focused on the developments and evolutions that will be studied and carried out by F1 teams.

Ricciardo excluded from Melbourne GP

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Just a few hours of glory for Daniel Ricciardo. After getting his first career podium, the neo-promoted pilot of Red Bull Team was excluded from the race results of Australian GP as he didn’t comply with the consumption limits rule.

In fact this year, among the various novelties, two new limits have been fixed concerning the maximum consumption of fuel:

1)      For each GP, each pilot can use a maximum fuel amount of 100 Kg;

2)      Cars are limited to a fuel flow rate of 100kg/hour when the engine goes over 10.500 rpm;

as stated by article 5.1.4 of the new 2014 technical regulations and article 3.2 of the sporting regulations.

Red Bull Racing has immediately appealed the decision, but as far as now the second place on the podium has been taken by Kevin Magnussen of McLaren, on his debut day, and third place by his team mate, Jenson Button.

Australian GP – THE POINT… by Gian Carlo Minardi

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In Melbourne it happened just the opposite of what we could expect. In fifteen days, Formula 1 has been capable to overturn any kind of forecast.

We saw a podium made of three pilots belonging to as many teams: Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren. The only confirmation came just from Mercedes – as a team and engine manufacturer – which affirmed itself to the top.

The W05 of Hamilton and Rosberg confirmed the supremacy both in the single qualifying lap and in the long run, and – much to the benefit of the others – with some reliability lacks. Otherwise they would have scored a double-declutch.

Great comeback for Red Bull, which reveals as the car with the best aerodynamic downforce, even if it suffers the handicap related to the Renault power-unit. Jenson Button’s words during the first tests in Bahrain have been validated by facts. Once the engine issues are overcome, it will be hard to hold them back. On the other hand, the World Champion Sebastian Vettel was let down by that control unit that was able to make the difference just last year.

A rebirth for Mclaren, which perhaps has found in Kevin Magnussen the new Hamilton, with a podium on the day of his debut and a fourth place for Button. A hint of bad luck kept Williams away from a good result: at the green lights Felipe Massa was hit from Kobayashi, at his return in F1, whereas Bottas made a mistake probably caused by an excessive strength in transmitting the power to the road.

Toro Rosso deserves to be praised, as they were able to have both cars scoring points. A great result, if we consider that it sprang not from others’ faults but, on the contrary, has been well achieved on the race track.  Good performance also for Force India with Hulkenberg, a little worse with Perez: Nico is a great pilot, no doubt.

Now it can be useful to analyse the lap times to have a better understanding of the real gap separating the teams’ performance.  Rosberg’s Mercedes has been steadily around 1’32’’-1’33’’ low, whereas all other pilots drove around 1’34’’. Just towards the end Fernando Alonso (fifth at finish) drove around 1’32’’ low, getting close to the fastest race lap set by Rosberg (1’32’’478). Surely an encouraging result, even though a correct interpretation is not straightforward: we should know the data about fuel consumption and strategies too. In the current season the learning curve of teams will be very high: therefore, after each race, we can expect substantial evolutions and important adjustments.

Even Lotus, after closing the first race of the season with two retirements, has been able to gain an experience thanks to the number of driven kilometres during the whole week-end, gathering important data to investigate and find a solution to the problems annoying the transalpine power-unit and the E22.

Mercedes plays the fox of the race, while Ferrari, both as car and engine, is the second force. When RB fully exploits the Renault power, it will be hard to keep the pace. The season kick-start has proved how hard is the dialogue of the 15 control units, but the progresses of the teams with a Renault engine show that these operations can be done indoor as well.

The Gap can thus be reduced.

Important note: this analysis has been done straight after the finish of the race.