Melbourne – when the small Minardi Team finished ahead of Toyota

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While F1 teams are getting ready to switch on their V6 turbo engines to take part in the first event of the 2014 F1 World Championship to take place at the Melbourne circuit, we would like to recall the past and, to be more precise, the beginning of the 21st century, when, in 2002, a then-rookie driver Mark Webber gave the Minardi Team a fifth-place finish in the opening race.

“I remember that day with pleasure and I’m pleased to see Mark attending the Melbourne round as a spectator”, says Gian Carlo Minardi, “Congratulations to him for his bright career and good luck for his new challenge in the FIA WEC World Championship. He has made his return to covered wheel competitions, where his motorsport career started from.”

Thanks to Mark Webber’s 5th place, the Faenza-based team started the season by scoring 2 points which allow them to end the season ahead of a giant the likes of Toyota “Unlike today, at that time only the top six scored points. To score 2 points in the opening race meant to have some protection against unexpected surprises. To get a top-six finish was something extraordinary, as you had the chance to leave your mark in the standing. On that occasion Mark finished ahead of Toyota. Thanks to that amazing result, we managed to end the season at the 9th place, just ahead of the motorsport giant from Cologne…..Not a bad start for a small team”, continues the Faenza-born manager.

Melbourne was also the place where a certain Fernando Alonso made his debut in the Formula 1 World Championship, alongside the Minardi Team “Our adventure with Fernando started in 2001. During that season Nando showed up his talent by getting several top-ten finishes. According to the current point system, he would have finished in the zone points. We’ve been honoured to have brought to the top series a driver who is playing a very important role in the history of motorsport”, ends the President of the ACI-CSAI Speed Commission.

Gian Carlo Minardi speaks freely on Sky

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In conjunction with the F1 World Championship kick-off, a section called “A ruota libera” by Gian Carlo Minardi has been created on Sky.it. Every Thursday prior to each F1 racing week end, the founder of the Minardi Team and also talent scout who is currently the President of the ACI-CSAI Speed Commission will express a 60-seconds opinion about the F1 Championship.

The first episode has already been posted on the SkySportF1HD official portal as well as on our Facebook and Twitter official pages under the title: “Historic turning-point, one of a kind season due to technical and regulations changes. Stay focussed on fuel doping”.

The Australian GP preview can be also read on our website under the section THE POINT by Gian Carlo Minardi.

Australian GP – PREVIEW

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The long wait is almost over; the show is about to begin….uncertainty is the key factor of the 2014 F1 season kick-off due to many changes involving fuel doping, new penalties, reliability and safety car.

Teams and drivers are set to converge in Melbourne for the first race of the 2014 F1 World Championship, which might be remembered as the Championship of radical change and, above all, uncertainty and curiosity. According to what they stated, Team Principals and Team owners have great concern for reliability and fuel consumption. Everyone is well behind the timetable. Ferrari and Shell will play the lubricants and fuel card to fight against the uncertainty about fuel consumption. Also the other engine manufacturers will play the same card. With its 58 total laps and 307 km, the Albert Park is a scaring venue. Last year fuel consumption was equal to 160 kg/hour, while this year the limit is set to 100 kg/hour…This is the reason why my motto for the moment is “Slow and steady wins the race”. Nobody is 100% certain to be able to cross the line. According to what Mr. Roberto Dalla, the manager of Magneti Marelli (who started his career in Faenza, at the Minardi Team headquarter) stated, many cars as much as no one may see the chequered flag next Sunday. I think this is a warning point.

There are still many unknown things which it was not possible to analyse throughout the three pre-season sessions. For example, the safety car may be the biggest wild card for what concerning temperatures and cars’ reliability, as well as tyre changing. The Federation announced the possible deployment of the safety car in order to facilitate race officials’ on-track work. Pirelli, who will bring the P ZERO WHITE MEDIUM and the P ZERO YELLOW SOFT to Melbourne, have a proclivity for a 2-3 pit-stop strategy, instead. The path covered to get into the pit, along with the time needed to change tyre, may cause engine’s temperature to rise dangerously.

As we’ve said over these weeks, F1 is experiencing a radical technical and sporting change. FIA introduced a new 5-sec penalty– besides the license point system – to be taken at the end of the race if a driver has carried out all the planned stops, or during a pit-stop. In the last case, the driver must enter the pit lane, stop at his pit for 5 seconds and then re-join the race. A car may not be worked on until it has been stationary for at least 5 seconds; only after a driver has incurred a 5-sec. penalty, mechanics are allowed to carry out tyre changing. I have great concern about these penalties, as judgement parameters may change from a person to another. So, different decisions may be taken throughout the season. Luckily the Federation has appointed Emanuele Pirro for the first event. He has a long-standing experience as a driver and I think he’s the most knowledgeable among race officials. He should hold that position permanently. He was coherent, constant and objective as a race official last year.

Qualifying will change, as well. For the Sunday race, drivers will have to use the same rubber they used in Q2, while the drivers to be entitled to run the Q3 session will be given an extra set of tyre to be used only on that occasion.  Furthermore Q3 will last 12 minutes instead of 10 minutes as it was last year. This will permit each driver to run two fast laps (maybe not in the first races), making the show more and more interesting.

Changes are so many and I hope Federation will manage to keep everything under control, even if I think that many meetings will be arranged to amend regulations.

All we can do now is to set the alarm for very early in the morning, as next week end is going to be very interesting.

A trip into F1 – 2014 Technical Regulations

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After analysing sport regulations, let’s talk about technical changes which have unsettled engineers, team principals and drivers. In short, many changes have been introduced, so starting from the Australian GP on, many unexpected things may occur.

The Jerez and Bahrain testing sessions showed us how complicated the new technology installed inside the new cars is  – V6 turbocharged engine and electric batteries-. Many red flags were brought out throughout the 12-day-testing-session so, this makes us understand that there is still so much work to do. Many teams didn’t manage to complete all the laps they’re expected to run in a GP and, those teams who managed to do that didn’t use the Kers and had to limit the number of revs of their engines. At Melbourne, nobody will make full use of the 15.000 rev/min. The attention of all professionals is mainly focused on 2 aspects: Reliability and fuel Consumption.

Reliability, as only gaining miles and running laps all problems can come to light, therefore, reliability is the key factor which allow a diver to see the chequered flag. Fuel consumption, as, starting from this season, a new rule concerning fuel consumption has been introduced. Each driver is allowed to use max. 100 kg of fuel per race, this is currently one of the main problems teams haven’t managed to solve yet. I think the motto “Slow and steady wins the race” will be followed by many teams this season.

If we take the aforementioned aspects into account, some new scenarios would be expected:

SAFETY CAR: this aspect cannot be underestimated. Red flags were brought out many times during pre-season testing so, officials’ on-track activity was so intense. Lack of reliability could lead to a safety car’s overuse as, starting from this season, intervention times may be much longer. As a matter of fact, race officials will have to wait for green lights to switch on before getting into action. As a consequence, race direction may bring out the safety car. What is more, if the safety car will be deployed more often, drivers would have to run ‘low speed’ much longer, causing temperature rising- one of the biggest problems for the Renault-powered teams – and greater energy storage. Can you imagine the consequences of that?

ON-TRACK SAFETY: while drivers will have to perform acrobatics in order to get out of the car without touching the bodywork, race officials will have to follow the right procedures before performing corrective actions on the car.

REPAIRING TIMES: due to their complexity, cars repairing times have become much longer. Operation times to replace a gearbox or a power unit have become much longer. Can you imagine what it might happen if a problem occurs before the qualifying session? Cars might not be ready to race and staff access hours to the pit should probably be revised. Now regulations provide that all cars should be covered and ready to be affixed the FIA seal within 3 hours and a half from the end of qualifying session, so that they can be monitored until the following day. After that, no intervention is allowed, unless FIA allows it.

107% LIMIT RULE: At the end of the first session in Bahrain, 40% of the cars wouldn’t have been quick enough to qualify, as the lap time they set exceeded the 107% limit in comparison with Nico Rosberg’s best time. Things got better in the last session, during which only Lotus wouldn’t have been quick enough to race, however problems still continue to exist.

CHEMISTRY: with the introduction of the V6 turbo engine and the MGU-K and MGU-H, FIA agreed that fuel consumption limit for turbo engines shall be 100 kg/hour. Some chemical substances may be used to get around the fuel consumption limit. These substances adulterate fuel’s specific weight and evaporate, without leaving any mark. It could be the F1 doping. Great attention was also paid on lubricants to be used for gearboxes; in this regards Mercedes is supposed to have a slight advantage over Ferrari and Renault.

A troublesome start to the season is expected. Teams will make a great effort to get ready to race. In comparison with past years, when technology had been well tested prior to the Championship kick-off, this year the learning curve could be steeper and steeper and we will probably have to wait for F1 to move to Europe, before seeing significant improvements in teams’ performance.

 

A trip into F1 – 2014 Sporting Regulations

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Only 9 days are left before the official start of the 2014 Formula 1 World Championship. The Jerez and Bahrain testing sessions revealed how much complicated new cars are and, as a consequence, how difficult it is to understand real values.

F1 has experienced radical changes for this season. Changes involved not only the technical scope but also sporting regulations.

In these days we’ll try to focus on those aspects teams and race enthusiasts will have to keep an eye on to enjoy the show. We start our new trip by talking about Sport regulations’ changes.

LICENSE POINT SYSTEM: At the beginning of the Championship, every driver will have 12 points at his disposal on his Super-license. Every time he infringes regulations, race officials may decide to deduct some points, according to the severity of the offence committed. Once all points available are lost, the driver is not allowed to take part in the following GP.

NEW PENALTIES: a 5-sec-penalty was introduced. It is imposed when little offence is committed and it is imposed at the end of the race, after a driver has made his pit-stop or during the pit-stop. In the last case a driver will serve the 5-sec-penalty in the pit, thereafter mechanics will do tyre changing. In this regard some problems may arise, as it’s up to race officials to decide whether a penalty has to be imposed or not. As we saw in the last season, the criteria imposed by race officials were never the same. Since there is not a written code to set the severity of each offence in terms of points, personal criteria play a critical role. Personal criteria are different from a person to another, so common parameters don’t exist. The same is for the 5-sec-penalty (which is irrevocable). In a potential short standing, being imposed a 5-sec-penalty would mean to drop several positions. Even in this case race officials are free to take decisions…..But let’s go ahead:

DOUBLE POINTS RULE AND POLE TROPHY: Double points will be awarded at the Abu Dhabi GP and a trophy will be awarded to the driver who scores the most pole positions throughout the season. I think that the idea to award double points at the final race is simply absurd, as this way a driver may see all the work done throughout the season being nullified in a week end, without also considering that luck could play a key role, rather than a driver’s skill. I’m in favour of awarding points to the driver who scores the most pole positions. In this way, a driver’s performance would be rewarded, especially if we consider a driver’s first rival that is his team mate.

TYRES: starting from this season, teams will run a race using the same rubber which was used in Q2. All ten drivers will fight for the pole position in Q3 using special rubber – probably supersoft. As previously said, tyre changing was the real protagonist of the pre-season stage and, as we saw during test sessions, it caused several issues. Teams and engine manufacturers had issues with their power units and electric systems. In the last days we reported some team principals’ statements. A little more than a week prior to the Australian GP, they’ve jabbed at two key aspects such as reliability and fuel consumption.

In a couple of weeks teams will enter into new technical regulations which provide new rules about safety car, safety, chemistry, tyre changing…..but this is another story.

F1 takes stock of the situation before Melbourne

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After the three pre-season testing sessions were set aside, all eyes are on the upcoming March 14th, the date the free practice session of the Australian GP will take place.

Much attention will be paid on reliability, as it happened throughout the last Bahrain testing session. Gian Carlo Minardi told his website www.minardi.it about the importance of doing more test “Nobody, from Mercedes to Caterham, is fully satisfied with the work done, so this makes us understand that it would have been more intelligent to plan more test sessions, since F1 regulations changed so much.”

Some team principals have taken a stock of the current situation, with a view to the 2014 first F1 event.

Toto Wolff – Mercedes: “The testing stage ended, however, there is still a lot of work to do to get well prepared to the Melbourne event. The first event will be a test run for all teams. During pre-season tests we experienced highs and lows, especially in the final phase. The main obstacle is reliability. In the first races we won’t have to take anything for granted.”

Stefano Domenicali – Ferrari: “The rule changes for this season have been so radical that I’d say to get a consensus you would need further tests before the championship gets underway. In our case, we are taking a lot of data back home, which we will now analyse in depth. Some aspects deserve more attention to achieve the performance level we are looking for, while others maybe just need a bit of fine tuning. Once back in Maranello, we will do all in our power to rectify the things that aren’t working properly yet, so that we can be as well prepared as possible in Melbourne. I believe, we could see big changes from the first race to the second and from the second to the third, with everyone bringing in developments all the time. At first, reliability will be the key, because without it you don’t score points. I also think that some teams that are struggling at the moment will be able to catch up, while teams that currently seem to have a slight advantage could see a plateau in their performance, allowing the others to close the gap. From what we have seen so far, there are two teams out in front, Mercedes and Williams. After them, it could be us. From our side, we know there is still a mountain of things for our engineers to develop. What I’m interested in and what I have specifically requested is that we define a list of priorities and stick to it. One aspect we will definitely be looking at is the relationship between the turbo engine and the electric energy recovery systems and there’s much to do in this area. On the other hand, we return to Maranello knowing that the figures we saw from the car during the design phase have been correlated at the track and that’s already a good starting point.”

Rod Nelson – Williams: “We combined a total of 936 laps over the three sessions with the FW36 and we’re very satisfied with the work done. Unfortunately Valtteri had an issue on the last day, but after running so many km, to have an issue is something along the lines. We left Bahrain highly satisfied with the direction taken.”

Andrew Green – Force India: “Our programme ended slightly early with a suspected component failure, which was a result of high mileage, and so we didn’t manage to complete our target number of laps. Nonetheless our time in Bahrain has gone largely to plan with the mileage achieved during the previous three days leaving us in good shape going into Melbourne. We’re feeling positive about our reliability and have explored some encouraging directions for improving car performance. The other focus has been on our race readiness and we’ve done a great deal of homework to prepare the drivers for the challenge that awaits them in Melbourne.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara – Sauber: “Looking back at the first test in Jerez, we had a tough programme to get through and faced several unexpected problems, which meant we lost running time. The learning curve was very steep at the first test. Now it’s a bit flatter, but there is still enough to do. We will take our experience from the tests, evaluate the data and be ready for the first race in Melbourne. Our drivers managed to gain high mileage (158 laps completed).Nevertheless, I’m sure that we will still learn a lot over the first few races of the season.”

According to pre-season tests results, the Red Bull’s start to the season hasn’t been so brilliant. With a view to the opening race in Melbourne, Christian Horner jabs at a fuel consumption-related issue. Gian Carlo Minardi had already considered the fuel consumption-related problems on his website www.minardi.it a couple of days ago “Slow and steady wins the race” said the Faenza-born manager. His words have been echoed by Chris Horner: “I don’t believe this season drivers’ main concern will be to conserve tyres, as they’ll have to go easy on the gas in order to conserve fuel. My main concern is that we’ll probably lose the wheel-to-wheel face-off. We hope not to see drivers having to go easy on the gas to conserve fuel in order to cross the line.”

 

 

Bahrain 2 – THE POINT…BY GIAN CARLO MINARDI

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The last session of testing in Bahrain is over. The world Championship can start. The first event of the Championship will start in 15 days.

Formula 1 has never been as mist-shrouded as it is this year. That makes real values unclear to us, even though one thing is certain: there’s still a lot of work to do and reliability is the biggest unknown thing. Nobody is fully satisfied with the work done, neither Mercedes nor Caterham, so that makes us understand how unintelligent it was not to arrange more test sessions.

In the second session of Bahrain testing, teams ran many more km than in the first session (a total of 2314 laps in the first session and a total of 3280 laps in the second session) and they were much more performing. Day by day teams become more and more competitive, however we still don’t know anything about the first event of the Championship to take place in Melbourne. I think that for the first few events the motto will be “slow and steady wins the race”.

During the second session, time gap between teams became narrower and narrower. All cars managed to qualify within the 107% rule, but there’s still a huge time gap between Ferrari-Mercedes and the Renault-powered teams. Red Bull had more problems than Toro Rosso, Lotus and Caterham, even if the teams’ situation are different. Red Bull have to defend a world title, unlike the other Renault partners who have different goals. So, the exasperation of performance may have been different.

By Mercedes, the FW36 and the W05 almost set the same lap time; we also don’t have to forget McLaren, even though it is impossible to draw up a standing. Since Mercedes and their partner teams completed many more laps than Ferrari and their partners (1462 laps completed for the Mercedes four partners, in comparison with 948 laps completed by the “Ferrari club”), we can say that the German power unit is much more performing than the Italian one. If we compare the Scuderia to the Mercedes Team, we see that the Brackley-based squad outpaces the Maranello-based team, with the former completing 351 laps and the latter 337.

In two weeks the Circus will fly to the other side of the world, so, we’ll see what it’s going to happen.

May the show begin!

Bahrain session 2 – A dry run for Melbourne?

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Starting from tomorrow until Sunday March 2nd, teams and drivers will be at work again at the Sakhir-based circuit, for the last pre-season session. It will be the last session before the official start of the 2014 Formula 1 World Championship at the Melbourne-based circuit.

All teams will have to make a great effort and do a lot of work in order to identify and solve as many technical issues as possible.

Last week we saw how vulnerable cars are and how long it takes to repair them. That could cause troubles during race week ends. The Bahrain-4-day-session will be the last chance for teams to try to push the new power unit to the limit. No team has managed to get the most of all the 15000 rpm. available (the best teams were able to exploit 14.000 rpm.) and of the energy recovery systems. In the previous session, all the Renault-powered teams had to lap without using the KERS, in order to run as many laps as possible. Despite that, teams still had many problems. Helmut Marko admits difficulties “We still have to solve many complicated problems. We’re so behind with the work and each time we find out new issues.” Red Bull only managed to run 116 laps, Toro Rosso ran 139 laps and Lotus ran 111 laps. Only the Caterham of Kobayashi and the rookie driver Ericsson managed to run more than 200 laps, even though test times were not quick at all. The Japanese driver stated that his CT05 is currently slower than a GP2 car.

As Gian Carlo Minardi pointed out, the problem of the 107% rule arises “To date, 40% of the cars would have not been qualified because their lap time exceeded the 107% rule limit set on Nico Rosberg’s benchmark time. As a matter of fact, cars have troubles running a few laps in a row or, they have to disable the energy recovery systems (which is not easy to do), in order to run as many km as possible but, as a result, they are less performing. If we don’t want starting grid to be empty, I think it would be necessary to revise the 107% rule, without ruling it out”, says the Faenza born manager.

The situation is the same as last week, with Mercedes acting as a pacesetter as the team and its 3 partners McLaren, Williams and Force India managed combined total of more than 1000 laps. Among the Merc fellow teams, the Frank William’s team was the most impressive, since they managed to complete 318 laps over three days of testing – the first day the tem was stuck in the pit because of some technical issues, while the W05 of Nico Rosberg and Hamilton completed 70-80 laps per session, combining total of 315 laps. The Ferrari Scuderia’s F14-T, despite some technical issue, managed to combine 287 laps with Alonso and Raikkonen, gathering many useful data, as the Scuderia’s technical director James Allison stated “When we headed to Sakhir we had a lot of things to test. We wanted to streamline test time and get ready for the Australian round as best as we can. I have to say that, except for the third day, we achieved our goal”. Sauber and Marussia had several problems.

As it has been pointed out many times, due to the new cars’ complexity, rectification span is getting longer and longer. Now it takes 4 hours to get the gearbox replaced, while last year it took only one hour and it takes 7 hours to replace the power unit “Let’s think about what it might happen if some problems occur before the qualifying session. Some cars may not be ready for the qualifying turn”, highlights Minardi.

Reliability issues could affect also race results, since the safety car would be deployed many times, as the Faenza-born former constructor explained, “Intervention times to get a car away from the track may get longer and longer, since race commissioners will have to wait for the lights to switch on before getting into action. As a result, I expect the safety car to be deployed many times.”

Which scenario would be expected with the 107% rule?

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On Thursday 27th Formula 1 will go back to the Sakhir circuit, where the last session of pre-season test will take place until March 2nd – before the Australian GP, which is scheduled for March 16th, takes place.

Four days and three weeks before the first event of the season takes place, teams seem to still have many problems to face. In this last pre-season session teams will have to get their cars prepared for racing, besides moving forward with the cars development, however today a key factor is still missing: how about the 107%? “I don’t want to pour salt into a wound, but there are still many unclear points, especially in light of what we saw in Bahrain last week”, says Gian Carlo Minardi on his website www.minardi.it.

“Apart from having reliability issues, the 107% policy limit hasn’t been duly taken into account. If we take a look at the 4-day-session’s standings and timesheets, we realize that only 14 cars would have been qualified, if we compare the test times they recorded with Nico Rosberg’s best time”, continues the manager from Faenza.

So, today, 40% of the cars wouldn’t be qualified “Besides having reliability-related issues, the 107% rule should have been also taken into consideration. It’s true that exceptions exist (as we saw in the past seasons),however, it is necessary to record a time within the 107% rule, at least in free practice, to qualify….Today cars have difficulty running a few laps in a row, or they have to turn off the energy recovery systems (which is not easy to do) in order to run as many kilometres as possible, but, as a consequence of that, they become less performing. This season, using the KERS means to have a 4-second-advantage on a single lap, which is equal to 90 HP.” So the safety car could play a key role “I expect the safety car to be deployed very often, since its deployment is directly linked to the rescue crew intervention time. We don’t have to forget that the rescue crew cannot get into action before the green light, which is installed on top of each car, switches on. When the green light is switched on, the rescue crew can get into action and take a car away from the track. This could make intervention time much longer and, as a consequence, the safety car would be deployed more often.”

After the last test session in Bahrain, a new briefing will be scheduled to define regulations “After the last test session a briefing would be arranged to discuss the madness of the double-point rule for the season finale. At this point I think it’s necessary to revise the 107% rule, without ruling it out”, ends Minardi “I’d like to point out that this rule should only be revised, not ruled out because it would be difficult for race commissioners to deal with cars which have a huge technical gap between each other.”

Bahrain test – THE POINT…by Gian Carlo Minardi

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The Bahrain test session can be considered as the first real test session, since at Jerez teams did only a shakedown test. Unfortunately, because of the new “off the wall” regulations, teams have only one more test session to be held in one week.

Therefore teams have to make a great effort to get their cars ready for the first three/four GP to be held on the other side of the world. As expected, teams had to deal with some reliability-related issues, which might also affect the first F.1 events.

Mercedes demonstrated to be more closely knitted to his partners than any other team. The Technical choices taken by the German supplier (more than 1140 laps), were rewarded by the laps gained by Mercedes (315 laps), McLaren (299 laps), Williams (318), Force India (212). Ferrari’s performance as a team was as good as the one displayed by the Mercedes’ duo Rosberg-Hamilton, whilst the Italian team’s performance as engine supplier was less brilliant. Sauber had some chassis-related problems, while Marussia lacked in reliability and managed to complete only 26 laps. The Maranello-based team left Sakhir with 552 laps under its belt.

Among the three constructors, Renault turned out to be hard put once again. Even though they managed to run more laps than at Jerez, Lotus was practically non-existent, just like Red Bull and Toro Rosso. Only Caterham managed to gain a good number of miles (250 laps) even though test times were not quick at all. In order to run the highest number of laps, the Renault-powered teams didn’t use KERS, which, in terms of lap time, means to be 5/6 sec. slower.

Among uncertainty, the only certain thing is that with these cars, it takes much more time to solve technical issues. This makes us understand how complicated the systems installed are.

We’re entering a very intensive week, during which the last testing session will take place. Then the true Championship will start.

Teams will have to work hard to get to Melbourne as much prepared as possible, trying to limit problems.

In this moment it is so difficult to make further analysis, as we don’t know which set up was used by teams to test and what it was tested. So, I stop here, for now

The Made in Italy is reviving

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The new racing season will shortly start and, besides Formula 1, even preparatory Championships are completing their driver line-up. Like it was in 2013, the new year started in a positive way for the three-coloured flag, in fact, although our country is in a recession which makes everything more complicated, we see many Italian drivers taking part in the most important Championships on an international scale.

Gimmy Bruni, Davide Rigon, Luca Ghiotto, Antonio Fuoco, Raffaele Marciello, Riccardo Agostini and Antonio Giovinazzi are only a few drivers who will try to make the national anthem play in the most important circuits in different racing series such as FIA WEC, GP2, F.3 Euroseries “Go-karting and Formulas are experiencing a rearrangement phase. As ACI-CSAI and Federal School, we’re reaping the benefits of 6/7 years of work and Italy is regaining reliability even on a political scale, thanks to the President Mr. Sticchi Damiani”, says Gian Carlo Minardi on the website www.minardi.it. “The goal is to go back to the magnificence of the ‘80s. Today we have two first drivers such as Bruni and Rigon who are ready to defend the Italian flag in the FIA WEC Championship, driving the AF Corse’s Ferrari; Raffaele Marciello will take part in the GP2 Championship alongside Racing Engineering, Luca Ghiotto is ready to take the next big step alongside Draco in the WSR 3.5 Championship and the trio Fuoco-Agostini-Giovinazzi will compete in the European F.3.”, says also the Faenza-born manager.

Italy will be the first country to carry out the Formula 4 project, which was strongly supported by FIA and FIA’s President Mr. Jean Todt. The new Formula 4 car is completely made in Italy: the chassis is made by Tatuus, the engine is supplied by FIAT, and compounds are made by PIRELLI. “We’re very proud to launch the first F.4 Championship, where a car completely made in Italy will be raced. All companies who resulted eligible to become official suppliers are Italian. Only the gearbox comes from France as will of the International Federation. The first deliveries will be made in April and collective testing is scheduled for May at the circuits of Vallelunga and Adria.” Good results come also from the number of cars reserved for the Championship “More than 20 cars have been reserved, so far and many teams who are already engaged in other Championships will join this competition. There’s a strong will to prepare young drivers for competing in different racing scenarios, that is to say both in covered-wheel and in open-wheel Championships.”

A good sign of this rebirth comes also from the FIAT Group, who returns to car racing “This is a positive sign, for sure. In the’70s – ‘80s the Turin-based automaker was very active in the world of motorsport”, ends Minardi “Drivers coming from preparatory open-wheel Championships were secured a professional racing career thanks to the FIAT’s engagement into several racing categories, which is something that the group hasn’t done over the past few years. This may help motorsport get back to the magnificence of past times.”

Green lights on the Bahrain pre-season testing session

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Formula 1 is ready to turn its engines on for the second session of pre-season testing. The Circus will head to Bahrain where weather is expected to be warmer than in the first session and we’ll see the Lotus E22, driven by Grosjean and Maldonado, making its debut on the Arabic track. The Frenchman will be the first to drive the car and he will give way to his new teammate for the last two days (Friday and Saturday).

All eyes will be on the V6 Renault engine and on Red Bull, who started a troublesome season, completing only 21 laps. The reigning World Champion will have to do an intensive work in Bahrain, after working hard in the team’s factory. The first driver to get behind the wheel of the new car, designed by Adrian Newey, on the two first test days will be Sebastian Vettel, who following will give way to his partner Daniel Ricciardo. The French engine manufacturer will rely on all data gained by his partners to get prepared to debut in Melbourne.

Mercedes will try to maintain the good performance level displayed on the Spanish track, with Hamilton and Rosberg ready to make a relay race behind the wheel of the new W05. The two drivers will take turns making the car and engine development program progress. After a solid start in Spain, where Alonso and Raikkonen managed to run more than 1000 km, the Maranello-based team will go ahead with the fine tuning of the new F14-T, bringing some important upgrades to the Arabic track. After winning two constructors’ Championships, one drivers’ championship and taking 39 wins, getting 122 podium finish, 29 pole positions and scoring 48 best laps when it was powered by the 056 8 cylinders-2.4-liter aspirated engine (from 2006 to 2013), the F14-T will be turbocharged by the new-born 059/3 power unit. It will be a solid re-start for the Italian team, who completed more than 400 laps thanks to the contribution of the partners Marussia and Sauber, demonstrating a good level of reliability.

Eyes locked on the Mercedes-powered Williams driven by Massa and Bottas who will try to get redemption after experiencing a troublesome 2013. On the last day of testing at Jerez, the English team delivered the best performance, leaving a positive mark. The team will still bring a hybrid-dark-blue livery to the second pre-season session in Bahrain, before officially announcing the partnership with Martini Racing. The new livery – white with the traditional blue and red stripes which made the Turin-based company well-known in the world of car racing – will be unveiled on the occasion of the third and last pre-season test session to be held in Bharain from February 27th to March 2nd.

By McLaren, Kevin Magnussen will be the first to bring the new MP4-29 to the Arabic track, his teammate Button will wrap up the session. At Jerez Magnussen drew attention on himself by setting the best chrono on the third day of the first session. Sauber has announced his cooperation with Simona De Silvestro. The goal is to allow the Swiss driver who is currently engaged in the Indycar series to get the Superlicenza. De Silvestro will join the two test drivers Giedo Van Der Garde (serving as a reserve driver) and Sergey Sirotkin.

Formula 1 heads to Bahrain between confirmations and assumptions

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One month ahead of the first Australian GP and after the first pre-season test at Jerez, we’re witnessing many changes of technicians and teams, who, concerned about the engine issues occurred during the first session, are taking their first measures for the 2015 season. These changes are very similar to the ones occurring in football, where, during the pre-season phase, it can happen that some football coaches are relieved and some teams have to resort to the football market to replace some vacancies.

Despite Renault, Red Bull and Toro Rosso are putting a lot of effort into injecting calm and tranquillity to the audience by issuing comforting press releases and giving reassuring interviews, the situation seems to be more complicated than expected and it’s not easy to solve it. It is rumoured that Red Bull are thinking about changing their engine supplier in 2015 and Toro Rosso changed their Technical Director for the sixth/seventh time in their history. As far as engine is concerned, according to some information coming from abroad, Renault is trying to hire technicians beyond the transalpine borders (without success). This has never happened before, as the French company has always tried to protect its technology. News like that fuel some doubts about possible engine structural issues, which seem to be not so easy to solve over the short term. Some manufacturers, who are currently not engaged in the F1 Championship, have a personal unit already made and are taking into account the possibility to join the top series, even if they’re having some troubles finding an important partner to go into partnership with, unless they are capable to exploit Renault’s current failure. Obviously I hope to be belied in few weeks, during the second pre-season test session in Bahrain, where teams and engine manufactures will bring their technical amendments.

This is a very messy moment for Formula 1.

These days we’re hearing more and more about the Salary Cap, whose amount was set to 200 million dollars. Currently, only three or four teams exceed this cap, whilst all other teams’ financial situation is so far from that figure and all the troubles they have to deal with are plain for all to see. Maybe these topics are discussed to divert people’s attention from Formula 1 real problems. As we pointed out in the past (and it’s now also confirmed by some eminent people acting in the top series), F.1 has to be revised in all its aspects. It’s not acceptable to see some F1 teams having three Team Principals instead of a single General Director; furthermore cars don’t have a single “reputed father” who handles the whole project. Currently, each team has a person in charge of mounting the engine, another one who is responsible for aerodynamics, a production manager, a person responsible for track management, an electronic area manager, etc…This way, it’s impossible to have a complete view of the project and, costs increase so much and resources are not well exploited, furthermore, the number of people employed exponentially increase. No doubt this decision is a consequence of a sector which is more and more developed from a technologic point of view, but maybe this is not the right way to follow. Before talking about Salary Cap, it is necessary to take a few steps backwards.

In the past days I wanted to draw attention on the on-track safety aspect and FIA’s technical system. I was very pleased to see that this problem was discussed by professionals who underlined crucial matters. FIA has not yet drawn up some guidelines regarding the behaviour to take in case of car recovery. Confirmation came from Mrs. Rossella Amadesi, the CEA Responsible for the racing team division. The Lions of the CEA racing team division are the best in the world, so this assures the Italian GP maker an added value and a high level of on-track safety, however I think it’s simply absurd that by mid-February, all the necessary information to guarantee on-track safety haven’t been communicated, yet.  Measures to guarantee safety could presuppose further costs arising from the need to provide circuits with new safety equipment to be used throughout the 2014 season, in addition to training classes.

All the above-mentioned was already stated by me when I raised some objections with respect to FIA’s new regulations. Those objections were taken up by the Engineer Mr. Cadringher– the FIA responsible for regulations in the ‘80s – on a renowed Italian motorsport review (Autosprint), where he agreed that the people in charge of drawing up regulations don’t have a global vision of the situation. That being said, we’re ready to move to Bahrain and see if those teams who had some technical issues at Jerez, will demonstrate to have taken measures to solve them. We’ll also see if Mercedes will confirm the same reliability and competitiveness showcased at Jerez and if Ferrari, whose performance level was considered by the Maranello-based team as good as expected, will give positive sign for the forthcoming season.