Archive for category: F1

While all teams are engaged in the fourth and last testing day at Jerez- Formula 1 will move to Bahrein on February 19th to run a further testing session – let’s try to play with numbers. Leaving testing times aside, let’s “tidy up” the number of laps completed by engine manufacturers and teams.

After the first three days, Mercedes tops the standing, since the four teams whose engine is supplied by the German manufacturer, successfully completed 466 laps (McLaren, Mercedes, Williams and Force India), followed by the Maranello-based manufacturer who completed 235 laps, thanks to the Ferrari-powered Sauber C33 and the Ferrari-powered Marussia M03, who joined testing only yesterday and successfully completed 5 laps. The new Energy Renault-powered teams follow behind with a huge time gap from other teams. The total amount of laps which were successfully completed by them is 81; the world champion team only managed 14 laps. The only team who is not present in the standing is Lotus “As we can see, Mercedes as an engine manufacturer had the best interpretation of new regulations, as well as Ferrari, whose drivers gained several miles. The Renault-powered teams had a troublesome testing session. Maybe Lotus was forward-looking…”, wrote yesterday Gian Carlo Minardi on his website www.minardi.it.

As per what is heard, no teams are exploting all their engine unit power “Some external observers, through the employment of some phonometric tools, affirm that cars don’t exploit the 15.000 revs/min. that can be performed by their engines. It is for this reason that we carefully look at testing timesheet, but it’s too early to judge”, says the manager from Faenza.

Among the Mercedes-powered constructors, the Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton’s W05 turned out to be the most performing car by completing 177 laps. The second most performing car is the MP4-29 driven by Button and Magnussen, who completed 135 laps, followed by Williams, whose drivers Massa and Bottas successfully managed 89 laps. Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India completed 65 laps.

Among the Ferrari-powered constructors, the two partners Alonso and Raikkonen completed 136 laps. Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez’s C33 completed 94 laps. Max Chilton’s Marussia only managed 5 laps.

Among  the Renault-powered constructors, Scuderia Toro Rosso leads the standing, successfully completing 45 laps and it is followed by Caterham who completed 22 laps. Red Bull is the Jerez testing’s tail-end , as they only managed 14 laps with Sebstian  Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo.

“We don’t have to forget that this is only the fourth day of shake-down. In the past, teams took private testing sessions, while today they have to do it publicly. The problems some teams are dealing with throughout the Jerez testing session are ordinary problems, especially because Formula 1 has been fully revised”, ends Minardi.

Waiting for the new Red Bull, Mercedes, Marussia and Caterham to be officially launched and after the McLaren MP4-29, the new Ferrari F14-T, the Sauber C33-Ferrari, the Williams, the Force India and Lotus have been unveiled on the net, the first day of testing is about to start at Jerez.

Formula 1 is ready to write a brand new chapter of its history, not only from the point of view of technical changes, but also from the point of view of communication.

“We’re living a historic moment. Communication is quickly changing, thanks to Internet, but newspapers and reviews usually get left behind. On-line news released by social networks and websites, always get the jump on reviews and newspapers”, says Gian Carlo Minardi in his website  www.minardi.it. “The top series is trying to make the best use of the new means of communication, so media are challenging each other to be the first to reveal the new F1 cars. I get the feeling that everybody wants to claim the authorship of a technology solution.

It takes only a few seconds to spread news or a picture across the world, which was something unimaginable a few years ago, when the main means of communication to spread news were newspapers and cameras. I do think this is the best way to launch a new car as, in my opinion, there’s no point in spending money to make a spectacular launch which has nothing to do with technology”, continues the manager from Faenza, “There’s still much room to improve, but we have to try to attract more audience, above all in Europe. Investors coming from new markets are supporting F1, but  the top series lost its appeal in the old continent.”

These days Formula 1 was upset by the Lotus Team Principal Eric Bouiller’ s sudden abandon. In the first instance, Bouiller was supposed to replace the 55-year-old British team principal Whitmarsh who is ready to join the Enstone-based team “I consider Lopez’s decision to re-join the team as the team owner to be a very good thing. I’ve always disapproved the presence of managers in Formula 1. Now a manager is also the head of the squad, but he can quit at any time. In the past, the team principal was also the owner of the team”, says the founder of the F1 team of the same name.

The Drivers line-up has been replaced at Caterham. Pic and Van Der Garde have been replaced by Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson.

After spending a year as a GT driver for Ferrari, the former Japanese Sauber team driver re-joins the top series alongside the Tony Fernandez-owned F1 team. He will partner the 23-year-old Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson, who steps up to Grand Prix racing from GP2 and Formula 3.

With today’s announcement, the Formula 1 World Championship drivers line-up is completed. The Championship will start next week by a-three-day collective test session to take place at Jerez circuit.

After exiting from Caterham, Giedo Van Der Garde will join Sauber as a test and reserve driver and will theoretically partner Sergey Sirotkin.

This is a crucial week for Formula 1. Next Wednesday, all F.1 Team Principals will meet the President of the FIA Jean Todt to discuss future and present decisions. On the same day, some single-seaters will be virtually revealed, as well as the first session of collective testing scheduled at the Spanish circuit of Jerez starting from January 28^th.

The Salary Cap, which is expected to be introduced in 2015, is a fundamental subject for the survival of the circus, however, F1 current issues should be at the top of the meeting schedule, despite the statements made by the people concerned.

In this moment, several teams are dealing with the increase in costs, which is caused by the important technological upgrades which have been introduced this year and by the lack of sponsorship. Except for the two or three top teams, all other teams are in a quite bad situation. In the past, the ordinary matter was the survival or the closure of small teams such as the Minardi, while now we see Lotus, the fourth team in the standing, undergoing a financial crisis and McLaren failing FIA crash tests.

Formula 1 has always represented the highest expression in terms of technology and all the technological upgrades introduced for the 2014 season will be also applied to standard cars: energy recovery, restrictions on fuel and the introduction of turbos to replace aspirated engines. Only car racing can foster technological research, however I think that this is not the right moment to embark on such a demanding adventure. The worldwide financial crisis has not been seriously taken into account. We don’t have to forget that the Formula 1 Championship is the most followed media event after the Olympic Games and the World Cup, with the last two events being held every 4 years, while F1 GP are held every 15 days. Therefore the Circus can’t afford to take choices which are not sufficiently though out, such as points doubling, in order to make the Championship more attractive. In my opinion this is an illogic decision. In my opinion the current regulations is too severe. The number of engine units available per driver was significantly reduced as well as test days; I think this is a too radical reduction, especially if we consider that several changes have been introduced and teams have to deal with a larger number of issues. Delays on the schedule are clear and this will influence cars’ reliability, performance and safety.

The first half of January has passed and the first session of collective tests will be shortly held on the track of Jerez. Who will take part in that? What will be their technical features? How will they face up to the first race events? I get the impression that the World Championship won’t be won by those teams who will have the best technical features, but by those teams who will manage to cross the line. Reliability will be the winning feature. In a highly competitive and technological framework such as F1, economic issues have a deep influence not only on technological research, but also on the reliability of the different parts.

F1 is going through a critical moment and has to deal with the lack of a real leader. Mr. Ecclestone’s issues have repercussions on the F1 environment; despite he stated he can rely on the support of all teams.

I hope that F1 issues will be seriously considered with regards to the 2014 season, so that the highest level of competitiveness is ensured for this sport.

FIA has officially announced the 2014 drivers’ line-up. It immediately stands out that Max Chilton has been retained as a Marussia team driver and he will partner the FDA French member Jules Bianchi for the second season.

At the same time the Federation has revealed the race number each driver will use for the remain of their career into F1. Starting from the 2014 season, numbers will not be awarded according to the constructors’ standing, but each driver will have his own personal number.

Red Bull’s World Champion will run with number #1 being displayed on his car, while his partner will run with number #3. Sebastian Vettel also chose number #5 as his race number in the case he loose the world title. At Ferrari, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen will run with number #14 and #7.

Number #44 and number #6 for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, number #8 and number #13 for the Lotus pair Grosjean and Maldonado, number #22 and number #20 for Jenson Button (the number with which he won the world title) and Magnussen (the number with which he won the WSR 3.5 title in 2013).

Max Chilton hasn’t chosen his race number yet, as well as the two Caterhams; the team drivers’ line-up still has to be announced.

1* Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull

3 Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull

44 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

6 Nico Rosberg, Mercedes

14 Fernando Alonso, Ferrari

7 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

8 Romain Grosjean, Lotus

13 Pastor Maldonado, Lotus

22 Jenson Button, McLaren

20 Kevin Magnussen, McLaren

27 Nico Hulkenberg, Force India

11 Sergio Perez, Force India

99 Adrian Sutil, Sauber

21 Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber

25 Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso

26 Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso

19 Felipe Massa, Williams

77 Valtteri Bottas, Williams

17 Jules Bianchi, Marussia

TBA Max Chilton, Marussia

TBA, Caterham

TBA, Caterham

Double points, new penalties, pole Trophy…Is this really the right way to make the F.1 Championship more engaging? It looks like some innovations have to be necessarily introduced to make the Championship more and more attractive, but I don’t think the result achieved will be as good as expected. In my opinion, what is necessary to do is to introduce more understandable regulations, rather than making use of those stopgap measures. A marketing strategy should be carried out to attract race enthusiasts, instead of shutting oneself up in one’s own motorhome, which is locked down more than a fortress.

It would be nice that enthusiasts could live the paddock’s atmosphere and see with their own eyes the race week end, have an autograph signed by their idol and a picture taken with him. I’ve got the feeling that many people cannot even recognize drivers, instead (apart from those who got onto the podium).

I think that the rule according to which drivers will be awarded double points at the last race, it’s simply ridiculous. A driver runs the risk to see all his work being ruined by only one race. It’s the same for third-tier teams. Marussia got the tenth place in the constructors’ championship, thanks to a 13^th-place-finish (the team’s best result), one position ahead of the Caterham team. It’s a –one-position-gap which is worth at least 10 million dollars. The Russian-English team fought tooth and nail throughout the season. Next year, it could take only one race week end to ruin all the work done. This could be done more by the luck of rivals, than by their skills…..

In these days FIA has announced it wants to add a new team to the list of the teams which have been taking part in the World Championship for years. Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi have already declined the invitation, as they’ve been already engaged in some covered-wheel-Championships such as Le Mans and other World Championships. The causes of that can be many: car companies consider endurance competitions as a better way to promote their image and devolve technology to standard cars. Another reason is that nowadays it’s so difficult for car companies to partner with a chassis manufacturer who can ensure good results in F.1. At the beginning of the year Porsche was very close to close an agreement with Red Bull, but, due to some reasons, the agreement was never closed. The point is that next year the Le Mans competition will be very interesting, as important car companies the likes of Toyota, Audi and Porsche will take part in that. They’ll show us a breathtaking challenge. The participation of those big companies will make those Championships more and more interesting. Ferrari, through President Montezemolo’s statement, announced to be interested in those Championships. After all, a constructor such as Ferrari, who won the GT2 World Championship, cannot ignore these scenes.