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.

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.

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.

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.