Archive for category: F1

There are news items that do good for sport and for Formula 1. Robert Kubica has once more taken the wheel of a Formula 1 racing car after more than six years from that terrible February 6th, 2011 when the Pole ran off the road during the Andorra rally and hit a Skoda Fabia.

Robert undertook 115 laps of the Valencia circuit at the wheel of a 2012 Renault E20. At 32 years of age I hope that he will be able to come back to the Circus as a leading player. With obstinacy and sheer hard-headedness he managed to return to the wheel of a racing car with important results.

Formula 1 today needs media personalities and Robert is one of these thanks to his frankness, sincerity and speed. This test was also an excellent promotional move for the entire milieu. As I have stated a number of times Formula 1 must find a point of contact with its fans. It cannot continue keeping itself closed within bunkers called motor-homes.

In order to guarantee a future this sport must earn a generational change even of its enthusiasts and it can be achieved by drafting new drivers and with personalities. The results in terms of the public of the Historic Minardi Day is the confirmation of how big is the desire of the motorsport enthusiasts and F1 fans to touch the cars and to see the cars and protagonists up close by entering the pits to meet the drivers, mechanics and engineers, or even only to observe the cars when they are dismantled for inspection or ready to take to the track.

Gian Carlo Minardi

It was a Monte Carlo Grand Prix under the sign of Ferrari. After having won the front row in qualifying they also brought home a fantastic, and just as important, double with a view to the world championship. The result will surely build morale, taking them to the top of the two ladders. It was also a weekend where all the records were broken. It was incredible seeing these young men hurtling around the streets of the principality brushing the guardrails

Vettel was fantastic in all the stages of the race and he deserved full marks. In the first sprint he stayed in his team mate’s slipstream, saving his tyres as much as possible, which then made the difference in the crucial moments with masterful laps before his first pit stop and the restart after the safety car following the accident between Button and Wherlein.

It was a grand prix with few overtaking manoeuvres, as per tradition, in which the strategies had an important role. With Max Verstappen’s pit stop Red Bull committed its umpteenth mistake in strategy which also made Mercedes fall into temptation with Bottas who finished the race off the podium and behind Daniel Ricciardo. By staying on the track as long as possible Vettel and Ricciardo had better luck than their respective team mates.

In light of the world championship it was important for Sebastian to win, not only considering Lewis Hamilton’s seventh place but also due to the possible penalties that could come following the substitution of components of the power-unit between now and the end of the season.

Carlos Sainz was very good with his sixth place for Toro Rosso. The Spaniard confirmed that he is just behind the big drivers, lapping with regular times for the entire race. Perez’s impetuousness was a pity because it spoiled Kyvat’s race. As happened in Spain it was interesting following the race on the timing monitors which were marked with many fastest laps.

In two week we will be in Canada, a track which will be a hard test for the braking systems.

Gian Carlo Minardi

The Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the F1 world championship, gave us another exciting race on the edge of hundredths of seconds between Ferrari and Mercedes. Strategies and team tactics played an important role in the final result, just as the overtaking manoeuvres and the close duels did, luckily unpunished by the marshals. The battle at the start was very good, as were Sebastian Vettel’s duels with Bottas first and then with Hamilton. The English champion then took the lead with a great display of force as he also took the fastest lap of the race two laps from the finish and thus claimed the pole, race and fastest lap triple.

Barcelona gave us a very reactive Ferrari that knew how to reply very well to the many changes introduced by Mercedes, managing to reduce the gap even more. The car from Maranello is a strong machine and put together very well that reacts to the developments.

The force of these two teams in regards to the other teams is devastating. Third placed Daniel Ricciardo finished 70 seconds behind and all the others were more than a lap from the winners.

It was a pity that the accident immediately knocked out Kimi Raikonnen, thus forcing his Ferrari team mate to fight alone against the two Mercedes that were able to take advantage of team tactics. Ferrari and Mercedes will go to Monte Carlo close on the two ladders where Fernando Alonso will be missing for his home race after having given a show of his enormous talent taking the McLaren-Honda to seventh spot (a near miracle) and improving his performance in the course of the race up to the final lap. I wish him the best of luck for his adventure in the Indianapolis 500, even though I do not agree with it as the race requires specific preparation.

This weekend we saw important signs of change on the part of Liberty Media. The interviews with the drivers in direct contact with the fans were excellent, as well as the quick reaction to the tears of the very young Kimi Raikonnen fan after the driver’s exit when he was brought to meet his idol in the pits. In forty years of activity I had never seen anything like it.

It was a grand prix that gave us important surprises in the back markers such as the precious points brought home by Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso.

We anxiously await the next chapter.

Gian Carlo Minardi

After a very long winter for all the enthusiasts we are at the start of a new Formula One world championship. For the first time in years and due to Nico Rosberg’s sudden retirement  Formula 1 will be without its reigning world champion. Also missing will also be Bernie Ecclestone after forty straight years at the helm of the Circus (as a master puppeteer). The stake at play will be in the hands of its new promoter, Liberty Media. It will be interesting seeing what will be the new guidelines.

We are about to reach Australia for the first grand prix after only eight days of testing on the Barcelona track which certainly rewarded Mercedes and Ferrari in regards to reliability and failed some others (see Honda). Beyond the times registered up till now we will only know after qualifying what the gauge of this season will be as in Spain many played with their cards hidden.

Amongst many uncertainties one thing is certain; the 2017 power-unit consumes much more and this will have the engineers scratching their heads. The 105kg fuel limit imposed by FIA would not be enough to finish the race. This increased fuel consumption also comes from the new Pirelli tyres (much wider than those of 2016) which allow for greater grip and faster speed on the bends. From what we have understood the tyres wear out very slowly. Thus we will see only one pit stop. For this first race the teams will have at their disposition the soft, SuperSoft and Ultrasoft mixes.

There is much curiosity about the season. As a fan I would like to see Ferrari very close to the Mercedes (which for me remains the car to beat) with a good contest between the two. Neither would I underestimate Red Bull.

Let us hope we will see a good grand prix and we will be in touch on Sunday after the race.

The sun has set on the last day of tests at Barcelona. The first session ended with the best time by Kimi Raikonnen in his Ferrari SF70H. The day was marked with a deliberately wet track to evaluate the behaviour of Pirelli’s wet and intermediate tyres. The slicks were then tested in the afternoon

It was a difficult day to judge as the track dried quickly, effectively thwarting the development and grip of the track, as well as having lowered the temperature of the asphalt and affecting that results of the rivers who took to the track on ultra soft, super soft and soft mixes.

Too early to judge the forces at play

At the present time it is too early to judge the forces at play even though there are only four days available before the departure for Melbourne. The cars will be back on track beginning Tuesday. Thanks to Pirelli’s colours we know the types of mixes, but we are missing one vital detail; the amount of fuel aboard each car.

Reliability

For now the only detail we can use is reliability. The numerous laps run by Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikonnen as a good calling card for the SF70H and also for Hamilton and Bottas’ W080. In the final minutes of yesterday’s session Seb had a problem with his Ferrari, whereas in the morning it was Hamilton’s turn to remain the in the box for an electrical problem for his Mercedes. Renault and particularly Honda fought with a few too many problems. The French, according to the Red Bull drivers, have yet to push their power-units to their limits.

Pirelli ready to change the mixes

Despite the thumbs up from the drivers Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport’s Director, announced that the mixes of the wets will be changed, especially the intermediates, as they had suffered significant deterioration. The decision came at the end of the final session on the artificially wet track at Barcelona. It is thought that two types of wets will be available according to the situation: one for the warmer tracks and one for those such as Silverstone and Spa which are always colder.

 As we await Thursday’s presentation by Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton’s statements hold the lime light. The three times world champion has declared that he is not willing to share his telemetry with new team mate Valtteri Bottas who replaced Nico Rosberg.

I do not agree with this and I find the decision and his attitude absurd. As already happened last year, one of Formula One’s highest paid drivers has put down his employer’s work and decisions which would place him at the peak of the sport. We are talking about a team which put together 51 wins in 59 grands prix. For Niki Lauda and Toto Wolff the priority is the constructor’s title, just as I find it unlikely that the engineers of the two cars do not compare the data gathered on the track. We are faced with a complicated season that will be conditioned by important changes to the regulations. For this very reason the team’s programme must take be more important than any single driver’s.

After Nico Rosberg’s retirement Mercedes was forced to back Hamilton who has been flanked by the Finn with a one year contract (with an option for a secondseason). In other circumstances the case would have been very different.

I never had the chance to work with a star, but within the Minardi team we all worked together to make the best use of and to improve the material available to us. Everything was directed towards the result.

Gian Carlo Minardi