Monthly Archives: September 2010

Renault F1 tester Jerome d’Ambrosio has joined Virgin Racing and will drive on the Friday mornings of the next four Grands Prix. He’ll thus be the first Belgian to drive on a race weekend since Bas Leinders was a Minardi Friday driver in 2004. In addition he will take part in the young driver tests immediately after the Abu Dhabi GP.

Lucas di Grassi will have to sit out the sessions of the upcoming events, which will be particularly hard on the rookie, who has to learn the tracks. Co-incidentally in 2004 Di Grassi and D’Ambrosio were colleagues on the Renault Driver Development scheme, along with Heikki Kovalainen and others, although D’Ambrosio was dropped at the end of the year.

 The news shows the increasing influence of Gravity Sports Management, which is part of the Genii Group, which owns Renault F1. It must also cause some frustration for Andy Soucek, who walked away from the team when no Friday driving chances emerged, so clearly this deal must be worthwhile for Virgin. The team says that it is evaluating him and has pointed out that while it has a contract with Timo Glock for 2011, it only has an option arrangement with di Grassi.

D’Ambrosio is in his fourth year in GP2, and is currently with the Renault-affiliated DAMS team.

D’Ambrosio said: “My ultimate goal has always been to race in Formula 1 and I am delighted to get a step closer. I wish to thank Virgin Racing and Gravity Sport Management for their confidence. I won’t disappoint them. This drive is a fantastic opportunity and I am looking forward to helping the team in every way I can, as well as gaining experience on four of the most demanding tracks of the F1 calendar. Looking at the 2011 season, this will be very useful. Also, I will be very proud to wear the Belgian colours on my helmet during these official practice sessions, as it means a lot to me.”

CEO of Virgin Racing  Graeme Lowdon added: “We are very pleased to welcome Jerome to Virgin Racing and we look forward to providing him with the opportunity to drive the VR-01 during the first free practice session of the next four race weekends. He will also take part in our young driver test in Abu Dhabi at the end of the season. We have a contract with Timo Glock for another two years and an option on the services of Lucas di Grassi for next year.

“Both drivers have done an outstanding job for us in our debut season. We are always looking to progress new racing talent and the team out of which Virgin Racing was born has a long history of this. Jerome is a real racer and very deserving of this opportunity. We are looking forward to evaluating his performance with effect from next weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix. With both Jerome and Luis supporting the Team, we have two drivers with enormous future potential.”

Heidfeld had his last Pirelli test at Jerez this week

Pirelli has confirmed that Nick Heidfeld will leave his test role with the Italian company to take up his new job with Sauber.

He will be replaced by Romain Grosjean for the next test in Monza, although it’s not been confirmed who will continue the testing work after that, although inevitably Pedro de la Rosa – who brings current Bridgestone experience – had been mentioned. It remains to be seen whether Pirelli’s future customers, ie the teams, feel that Grosjean is the right man for such an important role.

Heidfeld finished his last Pirelli test at Jerez today, and his Sauber contract starts from tomorrow. Even it had been contractually possibly for him to do both jobs, the travelling involved in the upcoming five flyaways would have made it impossible.

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said: “We’d like to thank Nick for his very valuable contribution to our tyre development programme and we wish him all the best for the future. In order to avoid favouring any individual team, we have jointly decided to release Nick from his contract and now we have chosen Romain to test for us in Monza.

“He’s packed a lot of experience into a short space of time, including all our GP3 tyre development, so I’m sure he’ll be able to give us some very useful feedback. The tests here at Jerez have gone extremely well and we completed all the work that we planned over the two days. Now we move onto Monza, where our task will be to finalise the construction before we focus further on compounds.”

Brawn GP made a profit of £98.5m in 2009, according to accounts filed by current owners Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd, having made just £1.3m under Honda in 2008.

The team had sales of £234.5m – an increase of 38% over the last year under Honda. The sales figure includes sponsorship income, ‘Bernie money’ (but in essence owed from 2008, not based on 2009 performances), and payments from Honda. Sources say that one-off sponsorship deals were far more lucrative than may have appeared to outsiders.

One intriguing number suggests that Honda paid the team a total of £92.5m during the year – a figure that almost matches up with the overall profit. It’s known that Honda bankrolled the team fully until March, and in effect paid for the development of the car, but presumably the rest was a ‘dowry’ to help keep the team going.

The directors were paid £8.4m during the year, with one director – assumed to be Ross Brawn – earning £4.7m of that amount. The other directors were Nick Fry and three senior members of the former Honda team who took it over when the Japanese manufacturer pulled out, namely Nigel Kerr (finance), John Marsden (HR), Caroline McGrory (legal), plus Gordon Blair. All but Ross resigned as directors in December.

The filing also says that the directors loaned £3.4m to the team in March 2009, at a critical point in its campaign to survive. That loan was repaid during the year.

It’s also confirmed that Daimler (via Mercedes UK) and Abu Dhabi investment concern Aabar acquired 75.1% of the team between them as of December 24. Brawn and his colleagues mentioned above still own the rest.

The current shareholders, ie Mercedes, Aabar and the former Brawn directors, split a dividend of £20m between them based on the above percentages. In other words having bought the team the new owners instantly got £15m back.

Although paper figures don’t always fully reflect the real world, the profit figure will no doubt be of interest to Jenson Button, who took a massive pay cut prior to winning the World Championship, and then could not agree terms with the team for 2010.

Having said that the accounts also reveal a ‘Contract Settlement Fee’ of £10m paid to Button to formally end his Honda deal before the Brawn adventure started…

The FIA’s ‘Final Inspection’ of the Korean GP venue has been postponed by a week until Tuesday September 28.

Charlie Whiting was due to visit the track on his way to Singapore next week. However a national holiday in Korea made the logistics complicated, so he decided to postpone and go there afterwards instead.

The inspection will thus take place just 23 days before the official start of the Grand Prix meeting on Thursday October 21, rather than the 90 specified in the FIA Sporting Regulations. Whiting has however been updated with photographs of the work on a regular basis.

Although to the outside world the inspection is inevitably seen as a critical deadline, it seems that the FIA does not share that view, and it is assumed that the race is going ahead as planned even if work is not completed by September 28. In other words, the visit is unlikely to be followed by any kind of annoucement. However, that clearly doesn’t guarantee that there won’t be a last minute cancellation if work falls behind.

Incidentally, when Karun Chandhok did his demo he was not running on the final track surface. The ‘binder course’ layer that he drove on has had to be ground down since the Red Bull run took place in order to smooth out bumps. Apparently it has to be perfect, as any problems with it cannot be disguised by the final layer.

Meanwhile Tilke GmbH has sent its top asphalt man to Korea to keep an eye on progress…

Sauber has confirmed that Nick Heidfeld will replace Pedro de la Rosa for the rest of the season.

The Spaniard has not had much luck this year and has recently been overshadowed by Kamui Kobayashi. It’s worth noting too that of the remaining five tracks he does not know either Singapore or Abu Dhabi, whereas Heidfeld does. In addition his recent tests in the Pirelli-equipped Toyota have given Heidfeld a chance to get up to speed.

It remains to be seen what happens now to his Pirelli deal, because he was released by Mercedes specifically to test for the Italian tyre company on the basis that he would not be tied in any way to a current team. Logic suggests that de la Rosa – coming straight from using 2010 Bridgestones – will be a sensible choice for Pirelli to make.

In a team statement Peter Sauber said: “It was a hard decision for me to make as a Team Principal and I want to thank Pedro for his professionalism. By signing Nick we have a driver we know extremely well who will help us to further judge the comparative potential of our car.”
 
“I am surprised by the team´s decision, but I respect it and would like to wish everyone good luck for the remainder of the season,” said de la Rosa. “I still intend to be in Formula One for 2011.”
 
Meanwhile Heidfeld said: “I’m looking forward like crazy to having the opportunity to go racing again in a good car in Formula One from the Singapore Grand Prix onwards. After the last months I’m even more motivated than ever. For me it is like coming home, as I raced for seven years in total for the team from Hinwil. Without doubt I will be feeling at home straight away and this should help me to familiarise myself as soon as possible with the car. I want to thank Peter Sauber for the faith he has put in me.”

Stefano Domenicali was clearly delighted yesterday having seen Ferrari and Fernando Alonso get back in the title hunt, but cautioned that it’s easy for something to go wrong for any of the five contenders.

The win was the first for Ferrari at home since the day Michael Schumacher announced his retirement in 2006. Michael is also the only man in the last 20 races there to have won Monza and gone on to win the title, a feat he managed in both 2000 and 2003.

“Of course we are very happy to have done this performance here in front of our people,” said Domenicali. “It’s amazing when you are on the podium, to feel that live, with the people under you like a sea of red supporters singing the national anthem. We were just saying together with Jenson that it’s really unique and fantastic.

“So we’re very happy, no doubt. But on the other hand, as I said in Belgium, the only objective that we had to reach today was to try to close up the gap to the leaders. And we did it. So target accomplished today.

“Here you feel the extra pressure to be at home in front of your supporters. It was really a great response from everyone, to see how they were cool, and to do a crucial thing regarding the strategy of the race.”

Domenicali says the title is still very much up for grabs.

“For sure the championship will be open until the end, when mathematically you cannot do it, because as we have seen the races this year are very peculiar. If someone that is in front loses the opportunity or makes mistakes or goes out or crashes or whatever it is, then the others will jump very close. It’s really important to be consistent and stable up until the end, and then we’ll see in Abu Dhabi.

“We never give up. That’s for sure our approach, and this is something that I can guarantee.”

Amazingly enough Ferrari has yet to score a point after two outings in Singapore, although Felipe Massa led in 2008 until the infamous Piquet generated safety car period ruined his evening.

Asked by this blog about the team’s prospects in the next race, Domenicali said: “Personally Singapore is a race where you cannot be really relaxed up until the chequered flag, because it can happen everything at the last moment. So that is one fact. The other thing is Singapore in terms of performance – I cannot say where we will be.

“As I said I feel that Red Bull will come back again, at the normal pace – apart from this race I would say – they [had] since the beginning of the season. McLaren will be strong, because they’ve been very strong there always. I really hope that what we’re going to bring there will really help us keep the pace of our competitors.”

Sebastian Vettel’s brief scare in the middle of the Italian GP was caused by the brake pedal not returning fully.

Vettel first reported what he felt to be an apparent loss of power when he got up to seventh gear coming out of Parabolica to start lap 20. He continued to suffer later round the lap, and was passed by team mate Mark Webber at Ascari.

The problem then cleared itself almost as quickly as it had appeared, and he did not have any more issues with the pedal for the remainder of the race. The telemetry told the team that there was slight brake pressure applied during that lap, despite Vettel having his foot off the pedal.

One RBR team member such an occurrence is rare but not unprecedented given the tight confines of the pedal area of the cockpit.

Despite the problem he was ultimately able to get back in front of both Webber and Nico Rosberg with the unusual strategy of staying out on his original tyres until the last lap.

Seb at a function with some fellow ex-Formula BMW racers tonight

Well that headline got your attention! I make no apologies for using it because it shows that, despite recent stress and starting only sixth at Monza, Sebastian Vettel still has a sense of humour.

He said tonight that if he wants to he could live up to the expectations of his critics after Spa and be a “bowling ball,” taking out his title rivals in tomorrow’s race. Fortunately the German was only joking. I think…

“According to all the experts speaking up lately about giving me driving lessons and so on, I’m not sure what I want to do,” he said. “Either I can follow the experts and how they analysed it, I can be a bowling ball and try to get rid of the five cars ahead, or approach the race as I usually do, normal, and just try to do the smartest I can do…”

Despite his grid position, Seb is pretty hopeful of a good race: “It’s a long race tomorrow, we know it’s not an easy one, because simply we are not the quickest, we don’t have the pace here, we don’t have the speed on the straights, so we see what we can do.

“I think it will depend on the ambient temperature, how hot it is going to be. If it is hotter like this afternoon it might favour the people with more downforce on the car. For instance, someone like Jenson, who has more wing on the car. It you want to judge us, I think our hands are tied. They were tied before we came here already, simply because we know we don’t have enough power to play around, and try different options. What we have is what we have, and we have to deal with it.”

Meanwhile Mark Webber has his own unusual turn of phrase today. Asked whether he would take risks or adopt a cautious approach and just try to log some points, he said: “Yeah, Grandma Jones is not going to help me. But the chequered flag is also important.”

Who was Grandma Jones? A relative of Bob Dylan’s Mr Jones perhaps? Or of a previous Aussie F1 star? It had everyone reaching for the Encyclopedia of Australian Culture – or would have done if anyone could find one.

We think he was trying to say something like being cautious, or driving like an old lady, was not going to win him the World Championship…

Lewis Hamilton was not in a happy frame of mind after qualifying fifth in Italy, and he admits that the decision to run with no F-Duct but with a low drag Monza wing has backfired.

Team mate Jenson Button chose to go with the F-Duct and a bigger wing, and will start from second place.

Hamilton found that the car was sliding around too much in qualifying trim and conceded that choosing it was a mistake.

“It would appear so, maybe we took the wrong route,” said a clearly frustrated Hamilton after the session. “What can I say? I’m a little bit disappointed, I think we should have been higher up. Jenson did a good job, but I think we had the wrong wing on, maybe.

“We decided as a team just to use it, it looked good so we decided to stick with it. I have good high speed, but I can’t follow through the corners, so it will be tough tomorrow.

“I think it had quite a big impact on the end result. I struggled quite a lot on each tyre and I just didn’t have the downforce. A wrong choice, a bit of a mistake.

“The Q3 laps were terrible I think, they weren’t very good laps. But I have no downforce on the car, so I’m pushing as hard as I can, and the car was sliding everywhere. I can’t push any harder than what the car would give me, and it won’t give me any more.”

As of 10pm Friday night Button's car still has its F-Duct and big wing

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button look set to be running very different McLarens for the rest of the weekend in Italy after experimenting today.

In the afternoon session Hamilton ran a car with a standard ultra low drag Monza wing, and no F-Duct, while Button stuck with the F-Duct and a much larger wing than would normally be used at Monza.

Amazingly they produced lap times that were just 0.056s apart in that session – with Hamilton just ahead – but they did so in different ways, with Lewis as expected producing a higher top speed but having less downforce available in the corners.

Sources say that each driver feels happiest with what he ran and they have decided to stick with it, and while there has been no confirmation from the team as of 10pm tonight the cars were still being prepared with the same wings on.

It makes for a fascinating technical experiment as we see which one ultimately works out in qualifying and the race. In theory Button’s will be kinder on the tyres because his car will be sliding less, but other teams say degradation is not an issue. Equally his car could be more stable under braking, especially with a full fuel load, as he has a bit more downforce.

Although clearly their plans could change between Saturday morning practice and qualifying, that would seem to be highly unlikely.

“It felt fairly similar,” said Hamilton after the session. “We have two levels for us. One is slower down the straights and quicker through the corners and the other is quicker down the straights and slower through the corners, and they pretty much balance themselves out.

“It’s really trying to decide which one’s better on high fuel, and whether there’s more potential out of one or the other. We have to really to look at the data. And the balance of the car is not the same for the both of them as well, so it’s trying to optimise that. We have to decide tonight what we’re going to do tomorrow.

“I think it’s going to be a tough battle for me and Jenson against the rest, as clearly they’ve shown great pace. But I believe we can do it. Tomorrow will tell in terms of pace through P3 and then obviously going into qualifying.”