Monthly Archives: April 2011

Nick Heidfeld has sent an ‘open letter’ to Robert Kubica via his website and the Bild newspaper.

In it he tells his former BMW Sauber team mate that he was thinking of him during the Malaysian GP, in which Nick finished third.

The letter read as follows: “Have you seen that? I printed your logo on the front of my helmet, and the Polish flag on the side. I wanted you to see that and to let you know that I’m thinking of you. I wanted to show your fans that you are a part of Formula 1 and of this team.

“This 3rd place is also yours! During the race I had often been thinking of you. Crossing the finish line, happiness totally flooded my head. I know what you are thinking right now: “Lotus-Renault has built such a wonderful car this year. I want to get back as soon as possible and drive it!” You can do it, I wish you all the best for your rehabilitation. Get well soon!”

Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo has been making positive noises today, despite his frustration about the team’s disappointing start to the season.

Montezemolo said today that Ferrari will bounce back soon.

“I am definitely not satisfied with the way the season has begun, but I have complete faith in the people here who know how to react when the situation is tough,” he said.

“I am sure there will be an amazing response. I know everyone is working flat out and I have great faith in the human and technical strengths of our people. I believe the period when the most we can hope for is a podium will soon come to an end.”

However Montezemolo is not expecting any miracles in China: “I hope we see some improvement, especially in qualifying and to see us be competitive as we were yesterday in the race. But I reckon that will be difficult as I don’t think Ferrari can turn it around in the space of a week.

“I know from Domenicali, with whom I have just spoken, that everyone has got their heads down working hard. Yesterday in the race, I saw Ferrari at the same level as the best and barring a couple of incidents we were definitely heading for the podium. I also spoke at length with Alonso for get his impressions of the car and I could tell he was confident in how things went in the race, even if we have a lot of work to do to improve.”

Felipe Massa was frusrated to lose over six seconds at his first pit stop in Malaysia after the Ferrari mechanics had to deal with a wheelnut problem.

For the second time his year the Brazilian had got ahead of Fernando Alonso at the start, but the delay cost him a couple of places. He eventually recovered to fifth.

“I think it was a good race, taking away the pit stop,” said Massa. “I lost a lot of time in the pit stop, and a lot of positions, so I was fighting for every position. Unfortunately I had to wait so long in the pit stop, and it put me backwards to where I started, and I had to start again, which was not easy, but I was lucky at the end, so I think due to what I lost in the pit stop, the luck was pretty acceptable.

“It’s something that we need to fight not to have these problems any more, and be consistent all the time in the pit stops strategies, everything.

“Apart from that, the race was good. The start was even fantastic and the pace on the soft tyres was quite good, a little bit less competitive on the hard tyres, compared to the other guys, but on the soft tyres there was a good pace.”

Massa is hoping that the team can address its qualifying issues for the next race.

“I expect a better race everywhere, not just China. I expect a better qualifying. We were suffering not just in Australia, we were suffering here in the qualifying, so we have to fix the problem that we had in qualifying to be strong in the next race and the next qualifying. If you are better in the qualifying you have more possibilities to fight in the race.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner was full of praise for Sebastian Vettel after the German lodged his fourth consecutive GP win in Malaysia, having dominated the race from pole.

The relegation of Mark Webber to fourth after a KERS failure and poor first lap was the only downside for the team.

“We’ve managed to get the pole and we’ve managed to lead pretty much every lap of the race this afternoon,” said Horner. “To me that’s a job well done with Sebastian. Obviously with Mark we need to make sure we learn from today. It was a KERS debut on our car, and we’ve learned a lot of lessons.

“You can see that performance can ebb and flow. Ferrari looked to be having a very strong race today, so we just need to focus on optimising our own performance. We managed to win the two opening Grands Prix of the season, which is a tremendous start, and we’ll obviously look to build on this form as we head to China next week.”

Horner said Vettel had put in a perfect drive: “A great performance by Sebastian again today. He had a great start, led into the first corner and then his pace was excellent. He was able to build a lead, which gave us options. We then responded to the cars behind us, and we then had the option of going a three or a four stop. In the end we didn’t need to do a four stop, and he brought the car home with a very, very mature and level headed drive.

“He’s in great form. I think he was the coolest man in Malaysia today! Sitting on the pit wall we were getting a bit hot, and whenever you spoke with him it all sounded totally under control and pretty relaxed. He’s in a really good place, his confidence is high, and he’s really delivering.

“It was a very mature performance from him today, and a very controlled drive. He’s just gaining experience. It’s sometimes easy to forget that the guy’s only 23 years of age.”

Webber lost the use of KERS right at the start of the race, and thereafter struggled to regain ground. He eventually recovered to fourth.

“He was unlucky at the start, because he had the worst of all worlds. He had a poor start and then on top of that KERS went into a safe mode. There was an electrical issue that we actually haven’t seen before, so he had a combination of a bad start and no KERS at the second longest run to the first corner, and not a great first lap where he obviously lost another place to Kobayashi.

“He was actually 10^th at the end of the first lap, so we decided to go aggressive with him and we went with a four-stop strategy. He needed to make it work, and he made a great recovery. A combination of strategy and his performance so nearly got him back onto the podium.

“These points are invaluable. In difficult weekends he’s picked up a fourth and a fifth place finish. They will all count at the end of the year. It was a great drive from him today, a great performance from him today. Just a shame that obviously he didn’t got the start that he or we wanted.”

Stefano Domenicali insists that the DRS failure on Fernando Alonso’s car cost a potential podium in the Malaysian GP.

Alonso was without the use of the moveable wing from an early stage of the race, which made it harder for him to pass Lewis Hamilton when he got caught behind the McLaren.

“We could have overtaken Lewis on the straight, because there’s a clear difference in terms of pace,” said the Ferrari boss. “So we had the chance for Fernando to really go there and attack Jenson.”

Domenicali says that Alonso was in effect forced to take more risks, although he wouldn’t admit that the Spaniard made a mistake when he damaged his front wing.

“When you are trying to overtake, because you see there is a difference of performance, you cannot say that. I like the way that he’s driving, it’s fantastic. The other consideration we have this year is that if you go off line, it’s a big problem, If you see all the track, it’s all dirty, with all the marbles outside.

“The problem is you try to keep the line, and suddenly if you just go off the line you basically put the marbles on the tyres, and you lose performance. I think it’s a tricky situation this year if you don’t have the chance to overtake in a clear situation, you have to take – how can I say – some risks, because it’s not easy. That’s how it is. It’s a shame because without the problem on the rear wing with him, we could have really attacked.”

Ferrari was encouraged by the pace of the cars in the race, but the team admits it needs to find more downforce and more speed in qualifying.

“We know that for sure our race pace is much better than qualifying. I think that the most important element to understand is how is the usage of the tyres during the race, because we have seen it very clearly today how there are differences between drivers that are driving the same car. So this has an important effect.

“But for sure one element where we have to have a big step is really to create better downforce on our car, that’s the key on our performance. Because if we do that, we can start closer to the front on the grid. We have seen that today both our cars were behind Mark who didn’t have such a fantastic start, so we lose performance there, then you are in the traffic at the first corner, and it’s always a race that you have to climb instead of going down.

“So it’s clear the main thing where we have to focus is to understand how to work better in qualifying because the gap we’ve seen yesterday is too big. If you take the comparison – and as I’ve said before you have to take out Vettel at this moment – with Webber and McLaren today, I think really we were fighting for a podium position in a crystal clear way. So a lot of things to understand. A lot depends really first of all on the downforce of the car, and secondly understanding on how to use the best of the tyres, because that’s another element that’s very important.”

Domenicali says that the new style of multiple stop racing is confusing even for the teams, and the number of stops increases the chance of a mistake.

“For sure it’s not easy for the public viewer to understand what’s going on, because it’s also difficult for the teams to understand. But that’s the way it is. It s part of the game of this year, we need to consider that, and we don’t have to take an excuse from this point. For sure what I can say is that the number of pit stops more and the chances of having a problem at a pit stop puts a lot of pressure on the team to be perfect.

“And unfortunately we had a problem with the pitstop of Felipe, on the tyre, and it cost a lot of positions. It’s a lot of pressure on the guys, and you need to be perfect every time. You’ve seen when you lose so many seconds then you full behind and then the race is difficult. Then you have to push and then you use the tyres, so it’s all connected. That for sure is a new situation for this year.”

Mark Webber went into the Malaysian GP with one hand tied behind his back after losing his KERS on the lap to the grid.

He thus didn’t have it for the start, but he also lost ground with a bad initial getaway even before KERS would have clicked in later on the pit straight. Having tumbled to ninth he eventually recovered to fourth.

“It was a tough race,” said Webber. “Even out of the box it was not a good start, and then obviously you get killed on the long run [to Turn One] with no KERS, and also after Turn Two. Then also on the first three or four laps you try to pass them and they come back, so it’s tough to clear people without a bit of KERS.

“Anyway it was an interesting Grand Prix, and we keep learning. It’s not our day yet, but we’re pushing for it to come.”

Webber said he lost time around three quarters of the way through the race when he was caught behind Hamilton, who was in tyre trouble.

“Lewis was in strange trouble very early with his set. I would like to have gone a bit longer with that set, my fourth set, then have a better condition set at the end to nail the guys in trouble. I was losing a lot of time behind Lewis, who was in trouble, but that’s the way it was.”

Lewis Hamilton has been penalised for making more than one change of direction while defending his position.

Hamilton and Alonso were called to see the stewards after the race.

Lewis has received a 20 sec penalty – the equivalent of a drive through issued post race.

The effect is to drop him one place behind Kamui Kobayashi, who now claims seventh place.

Meanwhile Alonso got a 20s penalty of his own for causing a collision. It would have dropped him behind Lewis, but because Hamilton has his own penalty, it makes no difference!

The Formula One Teams Association confirmed today that Martin Whitmarsh will continue in his role as chairman in 2011.

However Stefano Domenicali has stepped down from the vice chairman role, and has been replaced by Eric Boullier of Renault.

Ferrari will still have a close interest in FOTA as Aldo Costa has replaced Ross Brawn as the chairman of the Technical Working Group. RBR’s Christian Horner remains chairman of the Sporting Working Group.

In making the announcement FOTA trumpeted recent developments, including the Resource Restriction Agreement: “FOTA is also extremely active in the monitoring and controlling of the costs associated to F1 racing. On the one hand, it has made possible the definition and implementation of the Resource Restriction Agreement, which, for the first time ever in the history of the sport, has seen the Teams sharing information about their costs and defining a pattern for the reduction of their overall expenditures. On the other hand, FOTA, also thanks to the collaboration of CMEFE (aerodynamics department of the Haute École du Paysage, d’Ingénierie et d’Architecture – Geneva), is verifying the expenditures and methodologies applied in CFD and wind tunnels R&D, auditing the procedures of each Team.

“The successful collaboration among the Teams, together with a positive engagement with the other stakeholders, namely the FIA and FOM, shows how important results can be achieved for the development of Formula One.”

Fernando Alonso says he was happy to be fifth on the grid and ‘best of the rest’ in Malaysia after struggling on Friday.

Alonso was ninth in both sessions yesterday as he tried to find a balance, but was much more comfortable with the car after making some set-up changes through the course of Saturday. He’s also pleased to be starting on the clean side of the grid.

“I’m extremely happy with the result today,” said the Spaniard. “Yesterday we suffered a little bit with the pace and the balance of the car. We made a lot of changes overnight, and the car felt much better today.

“Also we made another big change before qualifying, and the car improved again in qualifying, so I was much more comfortable driving now the car in these conditions, this set-up. We were expecting more problems in qualifying, or a worse position. I think if we finish the race, we will be on the podium.

Alonso says it’s clear that that the team needs to improve the car, but is confident that it will get better.

“Some teams maybe did a better job than us at the moment in these first races. Unfortunately we were not quick enough in Australia, not quick enough here to fight for pole. China is in five days so I expect a difficult weekend as well. We’ll see.

“At the moment this is what we have, and we need to score as many points as possible every weekend, and maybe tomorrow with the weather conditions things can change in the race. We need to maximise and take any opportunity that gives us.

“I’m very optimistic for the championship chances. This is a long championship, many races, many things can happen. Last year it’s true that we struggled in some races. I remember Turkey, I was out of Q3, I was P13, then one week later we fight for the pole position in Monaco [Monaco was actually two weeks earlier, but you get the idea!]

“We have to be really concentrated. There is no secret, we need to improve, we must improve, for the next coming races, because we were not quick enough at the moment. But also we have to remain very calm and very focussed, because the championship is very long.

“We did only one race, and in that race we finished in front of Button, in front of Webber. We’ll see tomorrow what is the final position, but in one lap pace, we are not quick enough.”

Jenson Button was much happier this afternoon after changes to the McLaren MP4-26 transformed the car between sessions.

Button was 15^th and struggling with lack of grip in FP1, but was second – and just 0.005s off Mark Webber – in the second session.

“We found it a little bit difficult this morning,” Button admitted. “It’s very different conditions to what we’re used to. I think we went a direction after Melbourne with the car to try and solve the issues we had there, and it’s very different here, so we’ve gone back on a lot of the changes, and really turned the car upside down.

“It’s performing much better now. I’m happy with that. This session is so much better than the last session on short runs, and also on the long run at the end.

“I think for everyone it’s rear grip, that’s what’s difficult round here. The tyres are doing what was expected, they have low rear grip, but it’s very different to what we saw in Melbourne. But the last run on the soft tyre was reasonable, but when they drop off, they fall off a cliff. It’s very tricky and there’s a lot of degradation. That’s pretty much what we saw in testing, so we’ve got experience.

“It’s tough out there on these tyres, especially in the heat, but it’s the same for all of us.”

Button says he has no idea what the real gap to Red Bull might be.

“I don’t know. We don’t know what fuel they’re running, as always. Normal Friday comments I know, but that’s the way it always is. We’ve just got to do our own thing. And for me the balance improved a lot today, and that’s the important thing. We changed a lot on the car, and we found that we made positive steps.”

Button expects the DRS to be a useful tool: “It’ll work really well round here, because you’ve got such a long straight. In a way it will make it too easy to overtake. This is a circuit where if you get within one second of the car in front, normally you can have a chance of overtaking. I think the difficulty will be to get within that one second.”