Monthly Archives: June 2012

Anthony Davidson’s crash was one of the biggest talking points of the Le Mans 24 Hours, and while the Brit ended his Saturday evening in hospital with a back injury it clearly could have been a lot worse. Toyota provided this Q&A which – given the concern for Ant’s wellbeing – I thought was worth running here in full. Get well soon!

How do you feel?

I have felt better, that’s for sure. I am in a bit of pain, in my lumber area, the middle area of my back. That’s the only thing that hurts really so I’ve been lucky.

What’s the diagnosis and when will you be back?

Basically I have two broken vertebrae; T11 and T12. The doctors say the average recovery time is three months, but that’s an average person not a professional sportsman or athlete. That estimate is to get back to an absolutely healed bone; as strong as it was before. It’s more like three weeks until the pain subsides and I get my mobility back fully.

Can you describe what happened to cause the accident?

I was almost completely past the car after the apex of the kink. I passed a Corvette and a Ferrari with the pro driver sticker on. They were fighting each other and I just assumed the Ferrari ahead was part of their group and therefore another pro. The car was all the way to the left as you would expect a pro driver to do. It was only when I got right up to the back that I realized it was one of the amateur-stickered cars. But I still wasn’t alarmed, I still felt it was a completely legitimate move and thought he would stay to the left, which it looked like he was doing. I made the apex of the corner, started to brake and I was almost out of the corner when I felt contact on the left rear.

Can you describe what happened then?

Instantly it spun the car, pivoted round to the left, then took off and turned upside down. At that point I felt I was in an aeroplane out of control. I knew how close the barriers were, and travelling at that speed I was going to be there in no time. That part of the crash was pretty petrifying. It crashed back down to the ground, I felt an almighty punch up my spine when the car hit back down on four wheels. I still had my eyes closed and my hands off the wheels, in the brace position. Half a second after that I had the forward impact into the barrier.

What happened when the car came to a stop?

I reopened my eyes and realised I was still here, albeit in a bit of pain. I had feeling and could move my feet; everything was working. I know I should stay in the car, especially with back pain, but initially I felt full of panic and claustrophobia, I just had to get out of the car. It was really odd. I banged the door open and clambered out carefully because I knew I was in pain. I had to stretch out and the closest point was the side of the car, then the medics came over.

Has the team visited you already?

All the drivers have been. Stéphane and Sébastien turned up last night, the #7 guys this morning and it was a nice touch that my team-mate last year Sébastien Bourdais came to the medical centre. It was nice to see a familiar, friendly face at that moment. All the team came over this morning to check how I was.

What is your feeling about the TS030 HYBRID’s race debut?

When the team visited we all gave each other a pat on the back for our performance. More than anything, we wanted to show the speed of the car. When we look back, even from my hospital bed, there were a lot of positives. We needed to tick many boxes this weekend and being fast was one of them. We had a great qualifying session, splitting the Audis, and showed great pace in the race to take the lead through Nico in the #7. I think that was really good for the fans.

Toyota has confirmed that Anthony Davidson suffered a back injury in his Le Mans crash, which will take some three months to heal.

Davidson went off at the end of the Mulsanne Straight after his Toyota was sideswiped by a Ferrari GTE car that he was passing. The TS030 went sideways and took off when air got underneath it, and the Brit suffered a heavy landing before sliding head first into the tyre wall.

Initial reports said he had back pain but was walking OK, but a hospital check up revealed a more serious problem.

Toyota said this morning: “After getting out of the car on his own, he was taken to the circuit medical centre suffering from shock and back pain. Despite no obvious injuries, he was taken to hospital for checks which revealed breaks to his T11 and T12 vertebrae.

“Those injuries are expected to heal fully in approximately three months and he will remain in hospital until Monday.”

Davidson, who one assumes have to skip his Sky TV duties for at least the next race in Valencia, is evidently in good spirits, saying on Twitter:  “Lying in a French hospital with a broken back is not what I had in mind at this stage of the race…”

We wish him a speed recovery.

CVC has sold a further stake in the F1 business in the aftermath of the decision to postpone the planned float on the Singapore stock exchange.

On May 22 CVC announced that it had sold 21% of the F1 company to Waddell & Reed, Norges Bank and BlackRock, for a total investment of US$1.6 billion in cash.

Waddell & Reed and its associates have now spent a further $500m, bringing its share up to nearly 21% on its own.

A CVC statement said: “CVC Capital Partners is pleased to announce that several funds managed by Waddell & Reed Investment Management Company and Ivy Investment Management Company have today agreed to invest a further $500m in a private placement in Formula 1 at $9.1bn enterprise value, increasing their aggregate stake to 20.9%.”

It remains to be seen what the long term plans are regarding the IPO.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has confirmed that it is willing to sanction F1 cost-cutting measures, which will have to be agreed before the end of this month.

The FIA has not given any details of possible amendments to the technical regulations, but issued the following statement today:

“At their request, the FIA is having active discussions with teams regarding cost control and any amendments to the technical regulations resulting from a further limit on expenditure on the chassis will be submitted to the WMSC via a fax vote before 30 June. The intention is to help all teams participate in the Championship in a fair and equal manner.

“Constructive Concorde Agreement discussions are on-going between the FIA and the Commercial Rights Holder, with the intention of finalising an agreement in the coming weeks. It was also decided that the deadline for the closing of entries be deferred to 30 September.”

The ‘invisible’ garages were not popular with teams or fans last year

The garages of the top F1 teams have been moved to the middle of the pit lane for the British GP, so that fans will be able to see them.

At the first race with the new Silverstone pit complex last season the garages of Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and to some extent Mercedes disappeared into the unusual ‘railway cutting’ at the far end of the pitlane, and could not be seen from the spectator area opposite.

An additional concern for RBR was that the last garage was so close to the white line marking the pit exit that its drivers were not able to accelerate up to the speed limit before crossing it, which created a small disadvantage at each stop.

The allocation, which is decided by FOM rather than the FIA, has been changed for this year. However on a one-off basis instead of the World Champions being at one end and the remaining teams laid out in 2011 championship order, the top teams have been put in the middle, and the rest spread out on either side.

“The pit lane is a little bit unusual,” McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh told this blog. “Last year some of us enjoyed no view of the stands, and consequently presumably they enjoyed no view of us. It’s easy after the event to be critical of that. But this year we will have a different garage allocation, and we’ll see a bit of sun in our garage.

“We’re more or less in the middle. No one’s explained exactly why! I imagine the desire is to put us in front of the grandstand, which is a good thing. If I was a grandstand ticket buyer and I got there and I couldn’t see my favourite teams, I’d be a bit non-plussed by it.”

Lotus is hoping improved qualifying form will give it a better chance of scoring an elusive win in the near future.

Romain Grosjean used a one-stop strategy to finish second in Canada, 2.5s behind Lewis Hamilton, having started only seventh. The team has had several near misses this year.

“In qualifying we were struggling a bit, and we have been struggling in qualifying, that is where we need to work,” director of trackside operations Alan Permane told this blog. “I think some of that is driver, and some of that is car. I think Romain would acknowledge himself that he’s not 100% comfortable with things in qualifying, but stick some fuel in it and get into a nice rhythm, and it’s fine.”

Permane says that while Grosjean played a part, it was the car that allowed him to do a long second stint on the soft tyres in Canada.

“I don’t want to take anything away from the drivers, but a lot of it is the car. It’s no accident that two drivers can make a one-stop work in this car, and two drivers in the Ferrari can’t make it work. Fernando is a fantastic driver, and if anyone can make a one-stop work, he can. So that’s down to the car, but the drivers are then doing their bit to make that work for sure.”

Permane says the team was not disappointed with Kimi Raikkonen finishing only eighth, despite being on a similar strategy to third placed Sergio Perez. In fact the Finn finished only a few seconds behind fifth placed Alonso.

“It kind of worked OK, he started 12^th and finished eighth, you can’t expect a great deal more than that on a track with low degradation and where it’s very difficult to make up places at the start. I think if we would have started on the option with him we would have just been matching what everybody else did, but we’ll have a look.”

He added that the E20 has the potential to be fast everywhere: “Honestly, I think all tracks will suit us.”

Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo has made clear his support of controlling F1 costs as discussions about the new Concorde Agreement and the future of the sport continue in the background.

Di Montezemolo used his company’s website to send out a clear message, while also expressing support for the FIA.

“The world economic situation and that of Europe in particular, is very serious and the world of Formula 1 cannot ignore the fact,” he was quoted as saying. “We cannot lose any more time – we need to tackle urgently and with determination the question of costs. Ferrari is in agreement with the FIA’s position that drastic intervention is required. We are absolutely convinced that, as I have always said, the teams and the commercial rights holder must work together with the Federation on this front.

“This is no longer the moment for getting bogged down in sterile discussions or the meanderings of engineers, usually only concerned in defending the interests of someone or other. The question has to be tackled at the highest level, without further delay.”

Meanwhile Di Montezemolo said he had no complaints about Ferrari’s failed strategy in Canada, seeing positives in the fact that the team was in contention for a win until the closing stages of the race.

“I am not used to dealing with regrets as I prefer to always look forwards. In Montreal, I saw a team with a great will to win and that was seen right to the very end, maybe even taking some risks that might have been excessive.

“To see a Ferrari fighting for the win right to the end is just what I want to see and so do our fans. I am pleased with the progress seen over these past few races, but my thoughts and all the efforts of the Scuderia are already focussed on Valencia and then Silverstone, where we must make further steps forward. We must continue down this road, aware, as I am keen to repeat one more time, that success in this championship depends only on ourselves.”

Martin Whitmarsh has praised Lewis Hamilton for his superb drive to victory in Canada, and especially the way he worked with the tyres over the course of the race.

Hamilton scored his third Montreal win after re-catching Alonso and Vettel following his second pit stop in dramatic fashion. It was his first success of the season, and came on the fifth anniversary of his first ever F1 win.

“Lewis is really on top form with these tyres, they’re particularly difficult,” said Whitmarsh. “He could turn them on, and you could see at various times he held and controlled the gap with Fernando. We prompted him a bit and he’d suddenly go purple. It was classic Lewis, very much in control, of his pace and very much in control of the race as a consequence.

“It was massively well deserved. He’s been unfortunate this year, and he should have had one or two wins before now. It’s pretty fitting to come here, the scene of his first ever Grand Prix victory. It’s special for me, I joined him on the podium for his first victory here. I don’t often go up, but I was delighted to go up for this one.”

Whitmarsh says it’s still impossible to judge how the formbook is going to develop in the coming races.

“Today we were strong. I wish we could guarantee that we’d be strong in Valencia, but I can’t! We’ll try our best. We keep saying it, but it’s seven races and seven winners. I think we’ve virtually run out of options anyway, so we’re probably going to have a duplicate at the next race.”

He believes it’s too early suggest that the top three established teams will now start to collect more race wins and pull away from the rest.

“You’ve got us much data as me! I hope so but I have no idea. I actually do think this so close, the tyres are so tricky, it can swing any way. It’s so critical. You see that going through qualifying. It’s bloody difficult to get through, conserving your tyres, and you’ve got to be absolutely every step of the weekend now making the right engineering decisions, making the right operational decisions, being error free. It’s massively tough.

“But it’s great, it’s how it should be, isn’t it? I’m delighted for F1. I’d love us to be walking away comfortably with the championship, but it’s not going to be that way. This is an abnormal season, and I think it’s going to be like this right to the end.

“We leave here with Lewis leading the championship, but we don’t think this is now in cruise mode, we’re going to win. Who knows, it could go horribly wrong in an instant at the next race. That’s how it should be. The team responds well to that, we’re fighters.”

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali says that valuable points went astray in Canada, and admits in hindsight the team made mistakes, especially by not pitting in response to Sebastian Vettel’s second stop.

However he insists that it was a positive weekend overall, and that the team has made a step forward.

Domenicali said that the evidence suggested that staying out was the right thing to do, and that the Spaniard’s tyres had gone off unexpectedly dramatic fashion.

“At the end of the day the race was once again disappointing for myself because we didn’t bring back the points that the car that we have seen here this weekend should have provided,” he said. “This is the bitter [side] that we have today here in Canada.

“But on the other side I think the people should be happy that the car is once again on the right line in terms of competitiveness, and this is the most important thing, considering that the championship is completely open, Hamilton now is leading Fernando is second by two points. The only thing is to keep pushing and put the performance on the car, up to the moment where we at least we will not be in pole position, we cannot be happy.

“We will bring new updates for Valencia, because that’s the only way that we have to do to make sure [we progress]. As we said, the first objective is not to fight as we did here for pole position, but to be able to do a pole position after such a long time, of course there will be another evolution, but I’m sure the other teams will do the same. It’s a matter to see how the package is performing on the track, and that will be the difference.”

Domenicali expects the top three drivers to now emerge as the title contenders.

“I think that the end of the day I believe that looking how things are, the championship could be a fight between Fernando, Lewis and Sebastian, that’s what I think. Maybe after Valencia things could be different, but honestly I think the championship could evolve towards a fight between the first three drivers.”

Domenicali also defended Felipe Massa: “I think that apart from the mistake that he did in corner one, he did a really good race, when he came back into the rhythm he was really good. It was unfortunate because without that mistake he could be much higher in terms of position, 100%.”

Sebastian Vettel says he has no regrets about the strategy Red Bull employed in Canada, despite losing out at the end of the race.

Vettel and Fernando Alonso both stayed out when Lewis Hamilton pitted, only to suffer severe tyre degradation. Vettel eventually chose to stop after all, and ultimately salvaged fourth, so in the end he dropped only one position.

“We found ourselves in third place,” said the German of the latter stages ofof the race. “I think initially I could have gone a little bit faster, but then we were more or less at the same pace, so I tried to stabilise and try to make the one-stop work, which looked quite promising, let’s say 15 laps to the end. But as it turned out it was the wrong strategy, and the same for Fernando really.

“Obviously when you are in the race you don’t know what will be the final outcome. At the time Lewis decided to box when he was in the lead I think Fernando and myself were a little bit surprised because the tyres seemed to hold up fairly well, but then all of a sudden they started to go off in the end.

“Obviously we were hoping to get the place back against Lewis, but it was pretty obvious then there was no way to hold him. In the end we decided to box again, we lost a podium but I think we made the right decision, because at the time we went for the stop we were three or four seconds behind Fernando, and we finished ahead. I think you saw how much he was struggling, he had no more traction. It was very similar when I decided to pit three or four laps before it.”

Vettel insisted that despite turning pole into fourth, it was a good weekend for himself and the team.

“As I said now it’s easy to know everything, but it’s nevertheless a very good weekend for us. Very consistent, and if we keep going in that direction then hopefully we can make another step forward for Valencia.

“It’s a different track. We’ll see. We have two weeks now, maybe we are allowed to open the holes in the floor again! I don’t know. Obviously the whole team back in Milton Keynes is pushing very hard. I think we’ve been close again, and as I said in the end it was good points, but surely at some stage it looked more promising for a podium.

“It’s always easy to step out of the car and say here and there we should have done this and that. It’s up to us to learn a lesson, and then make a step forward.”