Archive for category: F1

After the second round of four days on Montmelò track, winter test sessions have officially ended. From next round, it will get serious. In Melbourne, it will be there real World Championship. Everyone, or nearly so, will demonstrate 100% of the potential. Almost everyone because for Mercedes its 90% could be enough for dominating the weekend.

After playing hide and seek in the first two sessions, Rosberg and Hamilton have given a preview of their potential, scoring the best chronometric results on Friday and Saturday, using only Soft tires. Therefore, with SuperSoft tires the gap will be even greater. Stopwatch in hand, we talk about a lead of 1” from the first rivals, Williams of Massa and Bottas, and we must add additional 2-3 tenths to find the rest of the group.

Looking at the data of Barcelona, the many kilometers of Sauber emerge; the team collects more than 159 laps, which is more than 2,500 km, leaving behind the rest of the group, including Ferrari. Vettel and Raikkonen still stop at 2,000 Km. This is certainly an important and positive result for Maranello, that can rely on a good reliability of the new Power-Unit.

And it’s the sam also for the German engine. The Achilles’ heel of last season at Mercedes was exactly reliability, variable which allowed to hear different anthems from the English and German ones of two bearers. According to the various laps done, we can, however, rely no more on this variable.

Just in the last three days, the new Force India VJM08-Mercedes has finally made its debut, slowed by serious financial problems. Despite everything, however, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez managed to collect more than 360 laps – that’s to say 1680 km and 2.5 GP – demonstrating that the new car of Force India is born under the lucky star.

Still remains to identify the real potential of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull, motorized Renault, that has driven far fewer kilometers than their cousins of f the Toro Rosso-Renault. And it’s RBR that has launched in these days the new livery. After spending the winter with “camouflage”, in Melbourne it will race with the traditional livery, although on the side pods more space has been given to purple. Finally, we have McLaren-Honda, forced to numerous and long pit stops, and also slowed by Fernando Alonso’s accident, on which still linger too many doubts. Meanwhile, the official news has arrived: Alonso will not be in Melbourne. In his place, McLaren will line up Kevin Magnussen. The MP4/30-Honda collected an average of 700-800 km per session. Too few. The car shows certainly interesting solutions and once solved all the defects, they will make up for delay. Let’s not forget the leap that F1 has been able to put on track between the last test and the first race in Australia, in 2014.

While days run by and we get quickly to the second session of collective winters test at the Spanish track of Barcelona, we have met Gian Carlo Minardi at his Headquarters in Faenza (and could not be elsewhere).

Although he had left behind the nr. 21 in Via Lazzaro Spallanzani (Faenza) – Headquarters of his Minardi Team since 1984 – with his going out from the Formula 1 World Championship, in the new office it continues to breathe the air of Formula 1, through the helmets of the many drivers who have worn the yellow-blue colours, through the cars’ wheels, the models and the Cosworth F1 – TJ 2005 10V engine, used as coffee table. The eye focuses on a photo album that we readily open. The mind begins to travel quickly back in time, as if we had the DeLorean of “Doc” Emmett Brown and Marty McFly. There are photographs that seem prehistoric times, but that are part of the history of Italian Formula 1 World Championship. Today we are used to hearing about the wind tunnel, the latest generation of simulators, able to reproduce reality, but it was not always this way. “Having a look to these photographs, you have the impression that a century has passed. But we talk about only 30 years ago“, Gian Carlo Minardi says.

Our travel begins from the years ’84 -’85. “It’s amazing how the world has changed, without realizing it, and the great strides made by technology. But let’s also ask questions. Is all this necessary? Let me explain. In the ‘80es to build two Formula 1 cars 22-23 people were employed. The technical office was a room of 26 square meters. Today, despite the help of technology, teams are more than 400 employees. Certainly cars and aerodynamics are more complex, but, still giving space to the evolution, I think we have reached incredible levels of staff“, the former Team Principal continues. “In 1984, the chassis were built with composite materials, in particular Carbon fiber and Kevlar and the bodywork was created manually, as all the equipment for its realization (models), using materials for easily workable modeling. The required geometries were obtained manually. The difficulty was to do equal left and right sidepod. The cars were really handmade. It was also very frequent to produce parts or bodywork components, such as the closing element of dampers compartment, obtained in metal sheets molded by hand from the trusty Otello, historic Ferrari bodywork builder of the late ‘60s. So, until the early ’80s, each piece was handmade, before taking it in the wind tunnel“.

The next step was the introduction of computers and, subsequently, of 3D modeling. “In 1988 he made his entrance in the Headquaters the FTP machine with three-axis nurmerical control. Once made the drawing, you could see the car growing. This machine was followed by the “JOBS“, a machine tool with the control on five axes that allowed to realize the full shape of the body, shaping a block of resin through the mathematical calculation of the external surfaces, produced by CAD designers. This first model was used to obtain the mold on which realize the car chassis made of carbon.

The real revolution arrives in the 2000s, when it starts to use the machines for rapid prototyping, or stereolithography.

Through the solidification by laser of a liquid resin, you obtained very useful “finished” elements, especially for creating the components necessary for aerodynamic tests in the wind tunnel. Technology that has allowed to speed up the production of these components“.

Rapid prototyping comes in Faenza. “Minardi was among the first companies to have this technology, certainly the first in F1 to install a 3D Systems SLA® 7000, a step followed shortly by some top teams. Made the first study with Cad tecnologies, the first model on ½ scale was built, in order to go in the wind tunnel“.

Finally, a nice as unpublished gem. “Here is the model of the Minardi 2006, which unfortunately never saw the light. It is the last creature of Eng. Gabriele Tredozi. We were already ahead in the design of the body“, Gian Carlo Minardi says,  concluding the story,” when in September 2005 began negotiations with Red Bull for the transfer of ownership“.

A special thanks to Eng. Gabriele Tredozi for the invaluable technical support. On our official FaceBook , there is a wide gallery with more photos also of the Minardi PS06.

Turned off the engines, the spotlights are now focused on Strategy Group’s decisions: on the agenda, there was the exception to let Marussia (or Manor GP) be on track with 2014 car. At the time, however, unanimity is not reached. Some teams, principally Force India, would be opposed to its comeback.

For team’s revival, the administration relies on the income of commercial rights, but times is short. Despite not having participated in the last three 2014 Grand Prix, the team from Banbury ended the season in ninth place, before Caterham and Sauber, thanks to the two points won by Jules Bianchi in Monaco Grand Prix. The team most in need, Force India and Sauber, opposing against its comeback, point to share proceeds. “An absurd and unsportsmanlike behavior”, Gian Carlo Minardi comments on his website www.minardi.it. “Opposing, small teams hope to split up the amount due to Marussia, but perhaps they did not count to ten. Get rid of the two Cinderellas, Marussia and Caterham, it means shortening the grid. Consequently, last line would be occupied by teams with far greater budgets and ambitions (see Force India itself, Sauber and Lotus), with commercial consequences and in terms of image to be verified”, the manager from Faenza analyses.

“This situation reminds me of the ’96-’97 seasons, when I defended very strongly the importance of small teams. I argued that without teams participating with great passion but limited means – hoping, who knows, to find the right funds for the future – in the last row there would inevitably finite big manufacturers. Situation that has repeatedly occurred in the 2000s The manufacturers are not waiting years to grow and achieve positive results; they have commercial and image objectives in the short and tangible consequence of the choices in those years, was that year after year we have lost almost all of them”, concludes Minardi. “I hope that it is not the final decision and that there is room for reasoning; Now as then, this sport needs also all those laboriously take part and hope to find the means for a more glorious sport future”.

The countdown has begun. There are less than twenty days before the official event of 2015 Formula 1 World Championship with the four days of Jerez. Everything seems apparently calm and silent, but within the various Racing Departments a real race against time is taking place, to assemble all the components and pass the crash tests. The last team, in chronological order, that has announced the overcoming of the dreaded exam, has been Toro Rosso, which posted on his Twitter profile a small detail.

We heard Gian Carlo Minardi, who has experienced this wait with his Minardi Team for 21 years: “We are in a time of the season where everything seems still and calm, but actually teams are doing their best on all fronts. The part of design and construction is involved in testing and passing crash tests, that are needed to get on track, according to new regulations“, said the manager from Faenza on www.minardi.it. “In a little less than twenty days, the war will start. Days are really hectic. The “carrier pigeons” – or pickup trucks – are constantly on the road, to bring all new components into the department. All team departments work 24H and there is the feeling of not succeeding until the day before launch. Then, in the last hour, like a puzzle, the car takes shape. I experienced this feeling for 21 years, but when you see it complete and all coloured, satisfaction is great. It is something incredible. For me, it is like the birth of a child. Every year, it is your creature, the result of a job that starts in April / May and ends the next January. Everything starts from notes on sheets of paper, passing to the hectic work on computers, tests in the wind tunnel, simulator…. and, day after day, you see the car growing. You work in view of Melbourne and plan the job for the first evolutionary step in Europe and all subsequent ones“. Action is also taken on the entire organization, to refine production processes, in order to improve performance without incurring unexpected.

“Logistical outsourcing” is crucial. Arranging material’s transfer, assembling the hospitality, managing hundreds of guests and the overnight from 80 to 150 people per team are very complex things. “Organizing all transfers and overnight stays is up to logistical department“. The way to move materials has changed in recent years. “With the rise of air transport’s prices per kg, teams opted to ship containers by ship. Nowadays, every team has about five / six containers to move during the season and where the heavier materials are loaded, such as lifters, jacks, spanners trolleys and box“. Teams in first 10 positions are awarded a bonus for two cars and 10,000 kg of material. “All the extra is charged to the teams, which ship on average from 25,000 to 40,000 kg of material“.

For all fans, the first appointment is the launch. “With the arrival of Internet and social networks, we have passed from shows to virtual launches. It is definitely the best way to involve all fans, all over the world and real-time, while in the past it was almost an exclusive event for press and insiders“.

When you read the name “Minardi” or you see the historical colors yellow/blue, mind turns quickly to Formula 1 and the historical Italian team founded by Gian Carlo Minardi in 1979, that for over twenty years has attended F1Grand Prix. And rightly so. But not everyone knows that the brand of the team from Faenza is also linked to the world’s most famous race in rally field: the Paris-Dakar.

The project was born in 1985, in conjunction with the debut of Minardi Team in Formula 1 World Championship, materializing in 1986 with the participation in the eighth edition of the competition conceived by Frenchman Thierry Sabine.

Gian Carlo Minardi provided all its structure and experience in races to transform a CVS truck for special freight and Iveco-motorized, to participate in the tough competition in the desert. “During an intense season and not without problems, since the debut in F.1, the Paris-Dakar project started. We transferred our experience in F1 on the vehicle, which proved to be extremely balanced with a 40% load on the front and the remaining 60% on the rear, managing to jump over the dunes at high speed“, Gian Carlo Minardi says. “Unfortunately, the crew, formed by Gaudenzio Mantova experienced driver in F.2 and F.3), Denis Biffi (co-driver) and Adriano Antolini (navigator and father of the adventure, as strongly desired), was forced to retirement, while it was firmly in second position. The vehicle“, continues the manager from Faenza, “burned into flames in the middle of the desert. In all likelihood, we create an electrical system too small in the design phase. The mistake“, concludes Minardi, “based on the inexperience in this type of competition, was fatal“.