Monthly Archives: September 2011

Team Lotus has announced that Jarno Trulli will stay on for another season in 2012.

Tony Fernandes had already suggested that the Italian would be retained after he was willing to step down for Karun Chandhok at the German GP.

Fernandes said: “We are all delighted that we have been able to reach an agreement to keep Jarno on board for at least one more year with our team. He has shown in qualifying in Monza just how much pace he has and how he can wring every last drop of performance out of his car and since day one with us he has brought a level of professionalism, insight and raw speed to our team that has helped accelerate our development on and off track.”

Trulli added: “I am very pleased that we have been able to confirm today that my contract with Team Lotus has been extended into 2012. The challenge I first accepted when I joined the team is becoming more exciting every day, and I am very proud that I can keep helping the team take steps forward for at least another year.”

An upbeat Fernando Alonso is hopeful of a podium tomorrow after qualifying fourth for Ferrari’s home race.

Alonso was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of qualifying, given that he is still not entirely happy with the car. Last year he won in Italy after a tussle with Jenson Button.

“We didn’t find the right balance or the right speed all weekend,” said Alonso. “Yesterday we struggled a little bit with the balance of the car and the top speed, today we’re still lacking a little bit of braking stability, a little bit of top speed on the straights. We were never happy with the balance, and that’s the negative point of the weekend so far, because we’re not totally confident with the car.

“But the positive thing is the result. I think fourth opens you a big possibility for tomorrow. At the start you’re in a very good position, and you will be fighting in the first places for the first couple of laps. So it opens for us a little bit of a possibility of a podium for tomorrow, which regarding how the weekend went so far, is very good news.”

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh insists that Jenson Button will indeed stay next year, ending any doubts about the Briton’s future with the team.

McLaren has an option on Button for next year, but has yet to take it up. Sources say that money is not the key sticking point – in any case his 2012 salary would have been specified in his original contract – and the discussion is about the length of a potentially extended deal, as well as details such as the level of PR commitments.

The McLaren drivers do far more work away from the track than their Ferrari or Red Bull colleagues, and Jenson believes that it can be distracting.

“I can guarantee you that he will be with us next year,” Whitmarsh told the BBC today. “We both want to work together for a long period of time. It’s a non-issue.

“The nature of a contract is not something we are going to talk about publicly. I don’t think there’s any rush to go to a single year contract.

“Jenson’s done some of the most spectacular drives in the history of Formula 1 this year. And I think he’s capable of even more.”

Sebastian Vettel was fastest in the afternoon session at Monza today but unusually he was only second overall, as Lewis Hamilton did a quicker lap in the morning.

Nevertheless Vettel and Red Bull have looked good all day, and any fears the team had of being overshadowed on the fastest track on the schedule appear to have been allayed.

“It was an interesting day,” said the German. “Obviously it’s a track that usually doesn’t suit us, but today I was pretty happy with the car. McLaren looks very quick in particular, and it’s difficult to judge on Friday, it’s always a bit of a mess with traffic, so it’s hard to judge the raw lap time you see at the end of a day on a piece of paper. But the car felt good and we had no problems. We can be quite satisfied.”

Asked about his good times on older tyres over a long run, Vettel said: “I don’t know, maybe we had more fuel on board. The car felt good all day, and then it doesn’t matter how much fuel you have.”

McLaren had a visibly bigger rear wing than most rivals today, and Vettel admitted that his team would discuss whether it is a better route..

“We’ll see. Obviously we saw that everyone is more or less in the same ballpark except McLaren. We’ll have to take a deeper look, and see how quick they really are, and then make our decision.”

The Indian GP could be under threat because of a dispute between the F1 teams and the country’s tax authorities.

The Indian government is claiming what it believes to be its share of the annual incomes of the 12 teams, and directors of teams could apparently be held personally responsible for ensuring that the requested taxes are paid.

Driver earnings are also involved in the saga, and while they face issues in a number of countries, the teams as such are not usually involved in tax situations.

“It’s a serious issue and it needs to be resolved,” FOTA’s Martin Whitmarsh told this blog today. “And the teams need to receive the appropriate reassurance to be able to go to India.

“There is a significant worry and concern among the teams, and it needs to be resolved. I am sure it will be, but if it weren’t to be resolved then it would threaten the race, wouldn’t it?

“It’s an issue of withholding tax. It’s not an unfamiliar one. There are tax treaties between countries and it’s an extraordinarily complex matter. All of the financial directors within FOTA are working together and are very concerned about it. We’ve employed Ernst and Young as consultants to help find a solution, and hopefully we will.”

Red Bull has extended its deal with Renault into the turbo era by agreeing a deal to use the French engines for a further five seasons.

There will be two more years with the V8 before the new engines come on stream in 2014. It also leaves the door open for RBR to extend its sponsorship arrangement with Infiniti.

Intriguingly the deal covers far more than just an engine and KERS supply as Renault appears to be forging the sort of technical relationship it previously enjoyed with the team now known as LRGP.

In a statement Renault said: “Within the new agreement, a technical joint venture will be set up, in which Red Bull Technology an Renault Sport F1 will collaborate to develop innovative technical solutions for the V6-based power unit that will be introduced from 2014. Red Bull Technology and Renault Sport F1 will contribute their respective know-how, experience and specialist personnel to the project to achieve a competitive and reliable power train to be used by Red Bull Racing and other customer teams.”

Renault Sport F1 boss Bernard Rey noted: “We are delighted that the Red Bull Racing-Renault partnership has been extended for a further five years, which will take us to a decade of collaboration. Red Bull Racing and Renault share the views that stability is a fundamental condition to perform at the top levels of competition. As well as being a unique opportunity to showcase the performance of the Renault engines at the highest possible level, it is also is a fantastic arena to develop the technology and expertise within the Renault-Nissan Alliance.”

Christian Horner added: “We’re obviously thrilled to announce this significantly enhanced agreement with the Renault-Nissan Alliance, who we have enjoyed a close working relationship with since 2007. Renault Sport F1 has always been very straightforward to work with, which has been a contributing factor to the on-going success of the Red Bull Racing-Renault partnership.”

Jenson Button says that Monza presents some interesting strategic and set-up challenges, and that the ideal solution is far from clear cut.

Last year Button ran a high downforce spec, with some success, but he says that the advantage of doing that has been negated.

“This is a very interesting race,” said Button. “It’s not straightforward, this race. Strategy is difficult, there’s a massive camber limit on the front which is going to hurt a lot of people. The tread on the front on the soft tyre is less than normal, so it will be difficult to get heat into the tyre. There are so many different things for this race that we haven’t experienced before. It will be good to see who can work with it and come out on top. Hopefully it will be us.

“It’s quite different to last year because we don’t have the DRS every lap of the race like we had the F-duct last year. So you won’t have cars running massive amounts of downforce here, because you’ll be a sitting duck in the race. It will be much lower downforce this season.

“But I think even with a very small wing we’ll still have more downforce than most people had last year here. We’ll be close to what I had, I think, from what other people were running last year.”

Meanwhile Button says he’s driving as well as he ever has, after a recent run of good races.

In Spa he charged up to third after a disastrous qualifying, and team sources insist that had he not damaged his front wing on debris at the start he could have won the race.

“I’m very happy with what I’m doing with the car,” said Button. “With the tools I have available to me I think I’m doing the best job I can. I’m really enjoying it as well, which is massively important.

“I feel good in the car and I have the confidence to really throw it around, which is maybe the biggest thing which is different from previous seasons. I think that will show in qualifying in the next few races.

“I’m still going to make mistakes, and we made one in qualifying at the last race. But more often than not we get it right when it comes to strategy and the calls we make during the race.”

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he might have been knocked unconscious in the aftermath of his crash in the Belgian GP.

Onboard TV pictures showed Lewis not moving his head or arms when the car came to rest, and he didn’t show signs of movement until some 15s after the initial impact.

At the time the team said he’d been winded, but asked by this writer if he had now accepted that he had been knocked out, Lewis conceded that it may have happened.

“I don’t really remember much from hitting the wall, so it’s potentially possible I was out for a couple of seconds, but I’m not really sure,” he said today. “I don’t remember the whole hitting the wall and how I got to where I was. I remember going into the corner, or trying to go into the corner, and getting hooked, but after that, a bit blurry.

“I hit it quite hard. I was doing 200mph or whatever it was at the end of the straight. There wasn’t much slowing down time between hitting him and into the wall, it was directly into the wall, so I hit it with a lot of force.”

After leaving the track Hamilton sent a Twitter message taking responsibility for the crash.

“When the incident happened, there are doubts in your mind whether it was your fault, whether or not you were hit. I didn’t really know what happened, I just knew I’d been hit. But I was still doubtful whether or not it was my fault.

“After I’d left they sent me some information, and a video clip. Immediately I knew it was my fault. I was pretty upset with it, but it was important to set the record straight and apologise to Kamui and the team.”

Meanwhile Hamilton says he’s paid no attention to recent media criticism: “I’m not really focussing on that, I’m trying to get back to having some good results so I can stop negative stories being written about me! I don’t read them, I just hear there are pretty bad stories written about me. I’m thinking it will be good to give you guys something good to write about.

“I’ll continue to drive the way I do, I’ll just try my hardest to stay out of trouble.”

Last year McLaren split its aero strategies for this race, with Jenson Button on high downforce, and Hamilton with a more traditional low downforce rear wing. Lewis says that low downforce will probably be the way to go this year.

“I don’t know what to expect. We’ll find out tomorrow if we’ve got competitive end of straight speeds. I’m not quite sure. You look in the garages and you see some people with really, really thin wings, and some people with similar wings to what they had in the last race. We have a similar wing to what we had in the last race. I’m hopeful that it will work and we’ll be competitive.

“Last year we didn’t have such a strong blown diffuser, this year’s are much stronger, so I think you can run less downforce on the wings and still have similar downforce to the heavier wing in low speed corners. Yes, Jenson was very competitive, but it’s a bit different with the DRS, particularly in the race, it’s a little bit different compared to last year. You’ll lose a lot more with heavier downforce.”

Amid recent talk of an Iranian GP plans for a race circuit in the country have been formally announced.

The initial intention appears to be more modest, with a Grade II FIA licence the target – which will allow the track to host events such as the WTCC and FIA GTs.

The iLand Race Resort is being built not by Tilke, but by UK firm Apex. Like Korea and Abu Dhabi, it is part of a much larger development.

A statement today explained: “The directors of TSI Group and their iLand resort, a 1,700 hectare resort city currently under construction in Parand city on the outskirts of the Iranian capital city of Tehran, are pleased to announce their plans for the exciting new iLand Race Resort development.

“The iLand Race Resort will comprise a 5.0km race circuit built in the style of the classic ‘naturally contoured’ circuits such as Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), the Nürburgring Nordschleife  (Germany) and Donington Park (UK). It is to be built on a parcel of land of 75 hectares that is 1,100m above sea level, with a natural topography range of 22m.

“It will be serviced by a country club, expo centre and road safety training school and will be linked to the wider nearby development through the iLand Central Business District. Initial groundworks have commenced for construction and Phase 1, the West circuit, is scheduled for completion in 2012, with full construction and operation anticipated in 2013.”

“The circuit and the adjacent development is to be designed and the construction project management supervision is to be provided by the British motorsport design consultancy Apex Circuit Design Ltd., with support from their co-consultants Ridge and Partners and Mott Macdonald in the UK, teamed with the iLand technical group in Tehran and their locally appointed architects, engineers and contractors.

“The aspiration for the circuit is initially to attract an FIA Grade 2 license and to accommodate regional and International race events and Iranian corporate entertainment, education and motorsport activities; the circuit development will be contained within an economic free zone and is only 5km away from Tehran Iman Khomeni Airport.”

Williams may be struggling on the track but the team has reported an improved financial performance in its half-yearly results.

Turnover and earnings per share of Williams Grand Prix Holdings are up compared with the same period in 2010. The team says that “full year results are expected to show revenue growth of around 12% to 20% over 2010 as a result of new business development and activity in Williams Hybrid Power.  Overall profit before tax is expected to be in line with 2010 despite investment in Williams Hybrid Power and Williams Technology Centre, Qatar.”

“The first half of 2011 shows momentum in our diversified growth, building on the foundations we laid in 2010,” said Frank Williams. “We have upgraded and extended existing partners Randstad and Oris, and added Interbrand as a new partner.  Our new partnership with Jaguar Land Rover was followed by an exciting alliance announced with Renault, which will further strengthen our medium term performance both on and off the track.”

Chairman Adam Parr added:  “We are pleased to report interim results that demonstrate further progress of our Group strategy.  Our core business has performed in line with expectations, with greater costs incurred in the first half.  We have made several senior new appointments in engineering and aerodynamics, bolstering both our team devoted to improving track-side performance, and supporting our Jaguar Land Rover partnership.

“The June 2011 results benefit from full period ownership of Williams Hybrid Power, which has reported its first significant revenues, where we are ramping up commercial flywheel production following success with motorsport OEMs.  We have also accelerated the development of Williams Technology Centre Qatar, where efforts to secure our first customer are progressing.”

Former Jaguar boss Mike O’Driscoll and banker Edward Charlton have joined as non-executive directors.

For the record, the numbers as reported by Williams are as follows:

• Turnover up 5% to £47.3 million (1H10: £45m)
• Core EBITDA up 21% to £4.7 million (1H10: £3.9m)
• Core profit before tax up to £2.9 million (1H10: £1.5m) due to increased revenue and reduced financing costs
• Reported profit before tax up 37% to £1.7m (1H10: £1.3m), after investment of £1.1 million in Williams Hybrid Power and Williams Technology Centre Qatar
• Earnings per share up 49% to 19.31p (1H10: 12.98p)
• Net cash significantly increased to £11.6 million (1H10: net debt of £0.5m)
• Interest expense down 69% to £83k, due to late-2010 debt reduction, supported by strong cash flows
• No tax charge for the period. Estimated carry-forward losses for taxation purposes of approximately £90 million

In addition the team reports the following developments:

• Partnership announced with Jaguar Land Rover to jointly develop the C-X75 supercar
• Historic Renault partnership renewed through an alliance to supply its championship-winning F1 engines for the 2012 and 2013 seasons
• WHP’s development of commercial flywheel production continues apace, following its success in the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid
• Additional non-executive directors appointed to the Board