Monthly Archives: November 2010

Fernando Alonso gave McLaren an unexpected vote of support today after Lewis Hamilton topped the afternoon session in Abu Dhabi.

For obvious reasons it suits Alonso to have Hamilton in the mix and potentially taking points of the Red Bulls. Fernando himself finished the second session in third, albeit just 0.001s ahead of Mark Webber.

“I don’t really care where Lewis is in the times today,” he said initially. “For us it was a good Friday, because we managed to do a lot of laps. We tested some set-up possibilities for tomorrow that we need to analyse today. Overall it was a good Friday in terms of time on the track, in terms of how competitive other people are. We know that Friday is not very representative, and for sure Red Bull are still favourites for tomorrow. Hopefully McLaren can do a good job here and be on pole, but I guess Red Bull wasn’t 100% today.”

Asked by this blog how the track had developed into the evening, Alonso said: “It did change. Especially in first practice it did improve a lot. It was wet or damp in the installation lap in some corners, and sure it did improve. And then they ran some other categories between the two sessions, and overall we ended up with a good level of grip. We expect some more to come tomorrow as usual, and better on Sunday. I think Bahrain, Korea, Singapore, here, every lap you do on the track you feel better and better grip. We need to think also on that in terms of set-up for tomorrow etc. We know the track will come to us.”

He acknowledged that the Bridgestone supersofts are a concern: “Probably the supersofts were having some high degradation today, which was more or less expected, because tyres are one step softer or even two steps softer than last year’s tyres. We expect some extra degradation this year, but there is some big evolution in this track from Friday to Sunday, so if it doesn’t rain tomorrow or Sunday, I think supersoft can be OK even in the race.”

Alonso insisted that he’s not feeling any stress.

“I’m still feeling good, very relaxed, yesterday and today.  Sure tomorrow and Sunday will be more stressed, because you approach an important race. But I think all of the contenders at this point we have enough races, enough experience. We’ve been racing from go-karts all of us, 15 or 20 years ago. We know it’s an important race. At the end of the day it’s 25 points, the same as any of them. So we need to do a good weekend, a competitive lap tomorrow, a good start, good pit stop, and good race pace.”

Mark Webber finished both practice sessions today in Abu Dhabi in fourth place, but is satisfied with progress so far.

Webber was a tiny 0.001s behind Fernando Alonso in the second session, and 0.170s behind team mate Vettel.

“Pretty good, a normal session,” said Webber. “We had an engine change between the two sessions, so that was planned. The usual suspects at the front. Lewis has done a pretty good lap. It was a pretty good day. After us four I didn’t really take much of a notice.”

Webber said he slept well last night, despite the stress of the title decider.

“Good, I slept like a baby last night. Ready to go again tonight. You can only do what you can do. It feels like Bahrain [the first race] in the engineering office, in the car.

“It’s a normal weekend, but obviously there’s a lot more at stake this weekend, that’s the only thing that’s changed. You can’t try any harder.”

Sebastian Vettel was a little cautious when assessing Red Bull’s prospects after practice in Abu Dhabi today saw Lewis Hamilton outpace the blue cars.

Although Vettel was top in the first session he was beaten to the tune of 0.257s by the McLaren driver in the evening session. As ever there’s a question mark over fuel levels, but Vettel conceded that things are tight this weekend.

“Not bad,” he said after the session. “The car felt obviously very strong early afternoon, tonight a bit different with the conditions. All in all I was pretty happy. I think there is still a bit of lap time to gain, and we need to see. Obviously now we need to analyse the lap times of the other cars, how strong we are compared to them, and then hopefully we’ll pick up some pace and have a good day tomorrow.

“I think we’re up there, we were always pretty close. I think it looks quite good but as expected, tight, I think especially in the late evening Ferrari looked competitive, and McLaren. So as I said, tight as expected, hopefully we can pick up some pace and be ahead tomorrow.”

Asked how he would sleep on Saturday night Vettel joked: “Usually I get tired at night. I don’t know what you do, but usually I get tired and fall asleep…”

"Michael, where are you?". Ross Brawn looks for his man...

Michael Schumacher has infuriated Bernie Ecclestone by failing to show up for an end of season photo in the Abu Dhabi paddock.

For the first time all the team principals joined the drivers and Bernie for the traditional photo. The Crown Prince was also supposed to be there, but he was detained at the last minute.

Schumacher had indicated that he would come, but failed to show up. This writer spotted him disappearing into Mercedes hospitality, unusually attired in a pair of denim shorts…

Michael wasn’t the only driver to be missing. Bruno Senna was excused as he was busy with the FIA Stewards after an incident with Lewis Hamilton, while Bernie’s people were Timo Glock was having a massage on an injured foot – although he later told this blog that he’s simply gone to the wrong place, at the wrong end of the paddock. He arrived just as the photo session was ending.

However Schumacher was the one notable by his absence, and he probably hasn’t done himself any favours…

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton won’t take part in next week’s Pirelli test in Abu Dhabi, despite it being the only chance to try the new tyres before next year.

Most top teams are using their regular drivers, some of whom insisted on being there. However Button says that the Pirellis will change before next season.

“I wanted to do the test,” he said. “But the team said we don’t think it’s the right time for you to be testing the tyre, because it’s going to change a lot. And it’s not through driver comment, it’s just the tyre will change a lot before we can properly do some testing with the new car and get some useful information from a race driver’s point of view.”

Gary Paffett and GP2 driver Oliver Turvey are on hand for McLaren this week.

Meanwhile Pirelli continued its testing this week in Paul Ricard, where Pedro de la Rosa ran wet tyres on an artificially soaked track.

Lotus Racing wants to revive the black and gold livery

Lotus Racing says it intends to run in a black and gold livery in 2011, and the team wants fans to help design it.

The colours first appeared in the 1971 Italian GP when Emerson Fittipaldi ran under the ‘Worldwide Racing’ banner to avoid any legal problems after Jochen Rindt’s accident the previous year. Team Lotus then ran in JPS colours from 1972-78, and again from 1981-86.

It’s an intriguing twist in the battle for the use of the Lotus name, because Group Lotus clearly wants to use green and yellow, as seen on Takuma Sato’s Indycar, in any racing activities.

Head of Marketing Silvi Schaumloeffel explained: “We have worked all year to make sure our fans are given unprecedented access to our team. We are all very excited about the move to a black and gold paint scheme for next season, and we want our fans to help us design the livery that will be racing around the world next year. We will shortly be announcing exactly how the fans can take part in our design process, so keep an eye on our website www.lotusracing.my for more details.

“The person who designs the livery we finally choose will be joining us at our first test next year to see the car out on track for the very first time, so for Lotus and F1™ fans it is the chance of a lifetime to help us take the next step forward in our amazing story in 2011.”

In case you haven't seen one, this is a Marussia. Nice...

Supercar maker Marussia Motors has taken a ‘significant shareholding’ in Virgin Racing.

The team will be known as Marussia Virgin Racing in 2011 as the Russian company tries to increase its profile internationally.

Marussia boss Nikolay Fomenko said: “This is the realisation of a dream for Marussia Motors. While manufacturing, launching and marketing the Marussia B1, B2 and other concepts in Europe we will have an F1 team to promote these activities and demonstrate to the world that a new car manufacturer has arrived from Russia with truly international ambitions.”

Marussia was founded in 2007 by Fomenko, a TV presenter and sometime racing driver. It has not yet delivered any cars to customers but show appearances have attracted attention.

McLaren Racing, the company name behind the F1 team, declared a profit of £50.1m in 2009, up from just £5.9m in 2008.

In addition to the leap in profits, turnover – which includes sponsorship and ‘Bernie money’ related to the Concorde Agreement – rose from £139m to £175m.

The team also paid a dividend of £15m to its parent company, the McLaren Group.

The numbers emerged last week when the team’s accounts finally reached the public domain, several weeks later than scheduled.

As is often the case with F1 team accounts all is not what it seems, and the profit figure was impacted by some changes within the McLaren Group, mainly relating to the Automotive division being moved out.

“Firstly it was not a bad year,” team principal Martin Whitmarsh told this writer in Brazil. “But the fact is it was enhanced by an artificial situation, which was the transfer or sale of Automotive by Group. So Group had an income from the sale of Automotive. It was more of an accounting issue. Overall it was a good and profitable year, but enhanced by some artificial organisational changes within the Group.

“It’s an unusual year because of what’s been going on. Racing has been the cash cow in our portfolio, Group has been loaning money to Automotive, we separated Automotive out, and Automotive had to pay money back into the group to balance that, so it was an accounting process. The fact is on our racing operation we are profitable, and all the other companies in the group have been making a profit.

“Inevitably any income helps – looking back at the last 20 years, if you look at it from an F1 perspective, we’ve generally had an operating profit. As a group we have been investing in diversifying, and that has influenced the shape of the accounts.”

One intriguing aspect is the payment from Mercedes. That fell from £44.2m in 2008 to £34.8m last year, presumably reflecting the fact that from the autumn onwards the manufacturer was in the process of backing out of the team to do its own thing.

That figure does not represent pure cash flow, but also takes into account the supply of ‘free’ engines. However Whitmarsh did not elaborate on the fall in 2009.

“I can’t comment on it because we have a confidential contract with Mercedes. We have an obligation within our accounts to disclose certain information, but our contract with Mercedes requires both them and us to treat it as confidential. So I can’t add to anything that it says in the accounts.”

The number of employees rose from 611 to 643, although the wage bill went down, presumably reflecting success bonuses paid out in the light of Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 title win.

The accounts also confirm that as of January 1 this year the shareholding in McLaren Racing was split between Bahrain’s Mumtalakat group (42%), Ron Dennis (21%), TAG Holdings (21%) and Daimler (16%).

Those figures have not changed since, but will do for next year, when the first three are expected to take control of Daimler’s stake.

“At the moment it is the Group that is buying back the equity from Daimler,” Whitmarsh confirmed, “unless there’s another interested investor.”

One intriguing number is the value of £5.4m accounting number placed on McLaren’s large collection of historic cars, including many driven by the likes of Senna and Prost. One assumes that their insurance and sale value is rather more than that…

Hamilton says he faces no pressure going to Abu Dhabi

Lewis Hamilton says this year’s title showdown feels different from his previous experiences in 2007 and 2008 because he is such an outsider, needing to win with Alonso not scoring and Vettel and Webber well down the order.

Given the situation he says he doesn’t face any pressure.

“I’ve been in the hunt for the world championship at the final race of the season on two previous occasions, so I know all about the pressure you feel when the title is almost within touching distance,” he said in a team preview.

“This year, it feels a little different – although I’m still mathematically in with a shout, I’m fully aware that, being 24 points behind, I’ll not only need to win the race on Sunday but see the championship leader finish outside the points. And, even then, that might not be enough. So I’m not feeling the pressure in quite the same way as I did in 2007 or 2008.

“That’s not to say I’m going into the race weekend feeling any less determined or motivated: we’ve seen before that this championship can be unpredictable and volatile – and I think this last race of the year could be even more unpredictable than normal.

“I know from personal experience that the championship isn’t over until you cross the line on the final lap – so I’ll not only make sure I’m up there at the end, but pushing hard until the very end. It’s going to be a brilliant spectacle, and a great event for Formula 1 fans around the world – I absolutely can’t wait.”

Meanwhile team principal Martin Whitmarsh says the team will be going all out this weekend.

“While it was deeply frustrating for every single one of us to finally be ruled out of the hunt for the constructors’ championship in Brazil last weekend, we’re all absolutely determined to hold on to second position, and to extend the gap over third-placed Ferrari,” he said.

 “Both Jenson and Lewis drove absolutely superb races at Interlagos, and the reality is that another double points-finish would likely push us beyond the reach of our closest rivals.

“Even more importantly, we are still in the hunt for the drivers’ championship with Lewis, albeit by the very narrow margin of a single point. Nonetheless, we all know that Lewis is a fearsome competitor and is absolutely fired-up to secure a second world title.

 “Indeed, let’s not forget that Lewis has gone into the final round of the season in the hunt for the title in three of his four Formula 1 seasons – a quite incredible record. And, knowing Lewis as I do, he will be absolutely determined to drive a relentless race in order to pressure his rivals as much as possible in order to maximise his position.

 “For this final race, the team’s role is simple. We must provide Lewis with the support he needs to sustain his title challenge – that will call for faultless reliability, a slick and decisive strategic plan and perfectly executed pitstops from his pit crew. It may sound like a long-shot, but I’m absolutely convinced that Lewis, Jenson, and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, will all be players in what promises to be an absolutely enthralling world championship showdown.”

Felipe Massa’s frustrating 2010 season took another turn for the worse in Brazil when he had a problem with the right front wheel at his pit stop.

The wheelnut was cross-threaded, and he had to tour round to the pits and make a second stop. It was perhaps Ferrari’s good fortune that the problem happened to Felipe, and not on Alonso’s car…

Later while trying to recover he had a tangle with Sebastien Buemi before eventually finishing 15^th. His luck has been so bad that it was the fifth time that he failed to score points in 2010, and only one of those was an actual retirement – his first lap crash in Japan.

“Everything happened in the race,” said Massa. “It started in the first pit stop. I changed tyres and the front right was not tight on the car, so I couldn’t turn the car to the left, so I had to come in again. My race was completely destroyed, because stopping twice in a row was a disaster for this track.

“And then after the safety car I had another possibility, but when I was passing already in front of Buemi he touched my wheel, and then he pushed me out of the track. That was really a shame. But anyway, in the race everything happened. The worst thing was the pit stop.”

“It was unfortunate because the strategy he chose was correct,” said Stefano Domenicali. “In fact without the problem he was in front of Jenson at the exit of the pitlane, and the race would have been totally different. He would have been fifth.

“Unfortunately there was a problem on the side, with the wheelnut cross-threaded. He was very lucky not to lose the tyre, so it was fortunate that he came back. After that the race was spoiled for him. For sure the season was not easy, but we can totally count on him for the next one.”

Meanwhile Massa says he’s ready to support Alonso in Abu Dhabi: “The championship is still very much alive. For sure we need to concentrate on the next race. It’s a track I don’t know, it’s the first time I’m going to race there. But anyway I’m just going to try to do my best.”