Monthly Archives: November 2012

Ferrari said today that it accepts the FIA’s explanation regarding Sebastian Vettel’s pass of Jean-Eric Vergne in the Brazilian GP and accepts the matter is now closed.

Ferrari wrote to the FIA on Wednesday asking for official clarification about the move despite evidence on the internet showing that a green flag was being waved, making the pass legal.

While the team is fully entitled to pursue such a route it might have been wiser to have taken a more low-key route and accepted the inevitable somewhat earlier, given that the furore of the last few days. The affair has unfairly cast a shadow over Red Bull’s win although ultimately Ferrari may have shot itself in the foot in PR terms, having initially accepted defeat on Sunday in a dignified manner.

A Ferrari statement said today: “The request for a clarification from the FIA, regarding Vettel’s passing move on Vergne, came about through the need to shed light on the circumstances of the move, which came out on the Internet only a few days after the race. The letter to the FIA was in no way intended to undermine the legality of the race result.

“We received tens of thousands of queries relating to this matter from all over the world and it was incumbent on us to take the matter further, asking the Federation to look into an incident that could have cast a shadow over the championship in the eyes of all Formula 1 enthusiasts, not just Ferrari fans.

“Ferrari duly takes note of the reply sent by the FIA this morning and therefore considers the matter now closed.”

Meanwhile the FIA said: “The FIA received a letter from Scuderia Ferrari, seeking clarification on Sebastien Vettel’s overtaking manoeuvre in Sao Paulo on Sunday.  In the spirit of transparency and goodwill, the FIA wishes to make public the receipt of this letter.

“The Federation also informs it has replied to Scuderia Ferrari, in the same constructive spirit, stating that as the overtaking manoeuvre was not in breach of the regulations, and therefore there was no infringement to investigate, it was not reported to the Stewards by Race Control.”

Ferrari confirmed today that it has formally contacted the FIA regarding the Brazilian GP yellow flag controversy – but the team is wasting its time.

Yesterday the team said that it was reviewing video footage apparently showing Vettel passing Jean-Eric Vergne before a yellow light board and with yellow signals on his dash.

An official Ferrari Tweet then confirmed today: “Ferrari asked, by means of a letter, for a clarification from FIA regarding VET’s overtaking move on VER during lap 4 of the Brazilian GP.”

However FIA sources have confirmed what this blog said yesterday – footage also shows that Vettel clearly passed a green flag on the left before he started the passing move, and before he used KERS. And that means that the pass on Vergne was legal, and there is no case to answer, as I suggested here.

As stated yesterday, traditional flags have priority over dashboard lights and trackside light boards. In effect the first flag or board passed denotes a yellow or green zone.

Unfortunately Ferrari is likely to emerge from this affair looking like a bad loser, a shame given that the team initially seemed to accept defeat with some dignity on Sunday afternoon…

Nobody would have had a problem had Ferrari flagged up (no pun intended!) the incident with the FIA during the race, or even in its immediate aftermath, before the results were official. Teams are always contacting race control pointing out potential indiscretions by others, in the hope of generating penalties.

While there was a lot going on one wonders why at this critical race the team did not have a staff member dedicated to following the Vettel on-board feed and looking out for yellow flag passes, any advantage gained from an off-track excursion, or other possible crimes. That would have been a logical move.

If they did have someone doing that job and he didn’t spot the Vergne incident then perhaps the team should be asking him why.

Instead this matter developed from some good ‘citizen journalism’ by internet-savvy fans who brought it to the world’s attention, and who between them ultimately presented both sides of the story. Well done guys…

Did Vettel celebrate too early? Ferrari would like to think so. Photo: AC

Not surprisingly the internet is buzzing tonight after Ferrari indicated to the BBC that it is reviewing footage of the Brazilian GP which appears to show Sebastian Vettel making an illegal pass under yellow flag conditions.

Should the team bring the matter to the FIA and an appeal be heard – and that is possible despite the results being declared on Sunday – Vettel could in theory earn a 20s time penalty, which would drop him from sixth to eighth place. Alonso would win the title by a single point.

On Sunday the most talked about incident involved Vettel passing Kamui Kobayashi. This blog checked with the stewards who had reviewed it, and they confirmed that it was legal.

At the start of this week attention turned to a lap 4 pass on Jean-Eric Vergne. Full speed onboard footage floating around the net shows Vettel passing Vergne with yellow lights on his dash, and before a green light indicating the end of the yellow flag zone.

It looks clear cut. However, head-on screen grabs, and super slow-mo of the onboard, appear to reveal a green flag on Vettel’s left (see clip at bottom of story).

Usually this human intervention takes priority over the electronic devices in the car and at trackside, and Vettel does not begin the pass or use KERS until he has gone past the flag.

The FIA does of course have access to a lot more data and footage than is floating around the net, and will be able to confirm that the various images we’ve seen do indeed relate to the same incident.

Alonso was generally gracious in defeat on Sunday, but he couldn’t help himself by referring to “strange decisions” by the FIA, while in turn Vettel referred to “dirty tricks.” It could now get very messy.

Clearly Ferrari should be 100% sure of its case before doing anything, but whatever the outcome, taking the matter further could be a PR disaster for the Italian team and for the sport as a whole. Even if it does nothing now, the comment to the BBC and the furore that has erupted will already have cast a shadow over Vettel’s win, which is a little unfortunate. But that may have been the intention anyway…

Of course it could be that the FIA and/or Ferrari state sooner rather than later that no further action will be taken, and the matter closed.

Ironically had a pass under yellows been picked up during the race, Vettel could well have overcome a drive through penalty. It would have compromised Seb’s race, but he would have regained lost ground at the first safety car and still had plenty of time to get himself in a position where he won the title by finishing higher than eighth.

His pal Schumacher was always going to make his life easy, and if necessary RBR also had the option to slow Mark Webber, who finished fourth, to give him an extra place.

This clip shows the green flag which ends the yellow zone…

Having lost his Williams seat to Valtteri Bottas Bruno Senna says he’s happy with his 2012 season.

Senna has scored points regularly this year, although he hasn’t been as fast over one lap as team mate Pastor Maldonado.

“Since the beginning of my programme with Williams I accepted that I had to share the car with Valtteri Bottas in 15 Fridays as a part of his preparation for a likely début in 2013,” he said on his website.

“It has been extremely satisfying to be the team’s most regular point scorer and for me to demonstrate my pace in all 20 races. I have learned a lot and improved considerably through the season. I have had a relatively short career so far and feel as though I have come a long way in just a few years.

“I would like to thank the whole team and particularly Frank for giving me the chance of completing my first full season in F1. It has been extremely rewarding to develop the Williams FW34 into a consistently competitive race car and cracking the challenge of the Pirelli tyres has been just one of the satisfying points.”

Senna pointed out that he’d had some good races: “I had some notable achievements this year, such as the fastest lap in the Belgian GP, my favourite track, scoring points on a regular basis and making up many, many places through the races.

“Regularly racing in the top ten has certainly been a step forward in my still relatively short career and has allowed me to further sharpen up my race craft. Working with a competitive and supportive engineering team like Williams has left me well prepared for the next step in my career.”

Intriguingly his website noted that “Bruno will confirm his F1 plans soon.”

Given the potential of the Williams this year and the fact that he’s had a lot of mileage Valtteri Bottas could make a big impact next year – possibly the biggest by any rookie since Lewis Hamilton in 2007. Here’s what he said in a Q&A provided by Williams today.

Q: You’ve been part of Williams since joining the team as a test driver in 2010, how does it feel to finally be race driver for the team?

“It feels incredible to be driving in Formula One next season and to be with a team like Williams, with all its pedigree, is even more special. I’ve worked hard to get here ever since I started karting at six years old, but the real work starts now as I prepare myself for the biggest challenge of my career. The fact that I’ve been with Williams since 2010 will help a lot though because I know the engineers really well and have a good working relationship with them.”

Q: What are your objectives for the 2013 season?

“It’s difficult to set objectives before the season starts, so I’m just trying to make the most of this opportunity to prove the team has been right to promote me to a race seat. I want to look back on 2013 and feel that I’ve improved as a driver and helped the team improve its performance on the track.”

Q: After being GP3 Champion in 2011, you spent last season out of racing focusing on your Reserve Driver role at Williams, how much will that effect you?

“I’m a naturally very competitive person and I’ve been competing in triathlons throughout 2012 to keep fit and keep my mind sharp. Obviously I’ve missed racing a great deal so can’t wait to get back onto a starting grid, but I’ve been racing constantly since a very young age so when the lights go out in Australia It will be business as usual.

Q: What do you make of your now team mate, Pastor Maldonado?

“Pastor showed at a number of tracks in 2012 that he’s very quick and the win in Barcelona showed that he can cope well with pressure. We get on well off the track as we’ve spent a lot of time together travelling to the various races, and I’ll certainly benefit and learn from his greater experience.

Q: How much of an advantage is it to know the engineers, team and Williams procedures so well already?

“I’ve been part of the Williams family since the start of 2010 and feel very at home both at Grove and at the track. I know my engineers very well so we already know how to get the best performance from each other. I also live in the UK and last year moved just down the road from the factory so I am there quite a lot and know everyone well. Because of that we can focus immediately on the 2013 season and what we can achieve together.

Q: How much will the 15 FP1 sessions you drove in 2012 help you moving forward?

“This will be a big help as it means there are only a handful of circuits on the 2013 calendar that I have never driven, in Australia, Monaco, Valencia, Austin and Singapore. There will still be a lot of work to do but it means that I do have some knowledge to work from heading to most races next season.

Q: Williams Executive Director, Toto Wolff is part of your management team. How much was he involved in the decision to promote you to race driver?

“Toto is part of my management team and has always supported by career, but because of his involvement with Williams he wasn’t part of the negotiations for my contract with the team. As with all decisions at Williams, Sir Frank and the Board of Directors get to make the final decision. I’m grateful to Toto for helping introduce me to the Williams F1 Team, but it has been up to me to prove to Frank and the rest of the team that I have the talent and commitment to deliver the results they desire.”

Q: What do you think it means for Finland to have another F1 driver on the grid?

“Hopefully they are proud to have another Finnish driver in Formula One and I hope to get a lot of support from the Finnish fans who have always been very good to me. To have another Finnish flag on the car next year will be very special.”

Q: You have considerable support from Finland, can you tell us about that?

“I’ve had a lot of support from back home, starting way back in karting and since then I have been lucky to have been supported by some great Finnish companies. Without this sort of backing I would not be where I am today, so I’m very grateful and hopefully I can taste success with Williams and pay back those who have helped me get to Formula One.

Q: Fast forward to this time next year, what achievements would you be happy with?

“As a team I think we should be aiming to score more points than this year and really get the most out of the car. Personally I hope to look back and feel that I have learnt a lot and developed as a driver over the course of the season, having scored a lot of points for the team.”

To no one’s great surprise Williams has confirmed that Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado will drive for the team in 2013.

Bottas has looked like a dead cert for the second seat for some months after impressing in FP1 sessions this year.

Sir Frank Williams said: ‘’In Pastor and Valtteri we have two of the most exciting talents in motor racing and I am especially excited about what 2013 can bring for Williams. Pastor has always demonstrated remarkable pace and this year has seen him mature as a racing driver.

“Valtteri is quite simply one of the most talented young racing drivers I have come across and we expect great things from him in the future. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our departing driver Bruno Senna for his hard work over the past year and wish him the best of luck going forward.’’

“I’m really enjoying my time with Williams and I was obviously very happy when I was told that I would be continuing with the team in 2013,” said Maldonado. “2012 was a memorable year for me with the win in Barcelona and we made a big step forward in terms of performance. I have a lot of confidence in the team and hopefully next year will see us move even further up the grid and taste more success.’’

“I’ve really enjoyed my three years with Williams so far and feel very at home here so my goal was always to stay for 2013 and progress to a race seat,” said Bottas. “I’m looking forward to getting my Formula One career started and enjoying a lot of success with Williams.’’

Christian Horner says that Red Bull Racing can still get better as it learns lessons from a tough 2012 season.

The Red Bull boss said the team’s ambition is its strength.

“This team has not been around too long and we’ve achieved a great deal in a very short period of time,” said Horner. “Sebastian now joins a list of elite drivers that are triple World Champions, and the team joins an elite group of only three other teams that have achieved three consecutive constructors’ World Championships. It’s a phenomenal achievement and one that we’re all incredibly proud of.

“I think we’ve got such a strong group, but you can always learn. We’ve learned a lot of lessons from this year, and we’ll look to apply them. One of the strengths of this team is that we’re never satisfied.

“We’ll always look inwards, whether that’s the drivers, whether that’s the engineers, whether’ that’s technicians, whether it’s people in production – in all the different departments, where we can we improve, what can we learn. I think it’s that spirit and that desire which has kept us at the top for three years.

“We were restrained last week because we felt the job was only half done. It’s been a tough weekend but everybody’s kept their focus, held their nerve. Then what we were faced with today could not have been more stressful.

“It’s not just about today, it’s about the season as a whole, the 20 races, the way this championship has ebbed and flowed. We’ve fought our way back into it, and Sebastian in particular has never given up.”

Horner was full of praise for Vettel.

“He really wanted this championship, he’s driven with great determination. It doesn’t ever get any easier. I have to congratulate Fernando Alonso, he’s been a formidable opponent. He’s pushed us all the way, and at one stage we looked like we were out of the championship, But we fought back and fought back delivered what we need to in the end here in what couldn’t have been a more mixed and stressful race.”

Asked by this writer about Vettel’s accusation of ‘dirty tricks,’ he said: “It’s been a tough competition. F1 is a tough business, and you’re up against some big opponents. The fastest way to become unpopular is to have repeated success. We’ve ignored what other teams are doing and just really focussed on ourselves.”

Perhaps not surprisingly Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali insists that Fernando Alonso would have been a more deserving World Champion than Sebastian Vettel.

Domenicali stressed once again that the first lap retirements in Spa and Suzuka had been very costly.

“We are proud of him, and we are very disappointed because I think the one that deserved the championship was really him,” said Domenicali. “It’s a shame because after such a long season when we really fought in all conditions that we raced in 18 races and not 20. Being second only three points for that hurts a lot. But that’s the way it is, we need to take it and congratulate Vettel who has won the championship.

“Sometimes it’s a sign of the destiny that you really can appreciate what is the direction of the wind. Because after the first lap, after you see what has happened, seeing what was the outcome of the first lap, you start to think well maybe… For sure we need to do a better job next year.”

Asked by this writer about the tricky strategy decisions in the race, he said: “It was a very difficult race, in difficult conditions. The first situation if I remember only Button and Hulkenberg decided to stay out with the dry tyres it was a decision that at the end as always when you take this kind of decision you are fantastic but if two more drops of rain took them out it would have been a wrong decision.

“So I think that we took the decision in a way that was most correct for what we had to do, without risking too much either in a conservative or a strange way what we should have done. On that respect I think the team managed very well the situation. Not easy.”

Domenicali praised the consistent job that Alonso has done in 2012.

“I said before this Grand Prix that in my view Fernando did his best season, always at the limit. Not always from the technical point of view, because this is something you expect from a World Champion like him, but also from the way he was working with the team.

“For me this is something that we have the privilege to have, but unfortunately in the last three years we lost two times at the last race, and we need to make sure that when we start next year we’re going to arrive in the last race to win.”

Regarding preparations for next year, he said: “This is a fact, don’t forget that in the last four races we are the team that has scored more points. In racing we were maybe the best on average in terms of managing the pit stops, managing the strategy, the best on reliability. These are facts. We didn’t have the fastest car at the beginning of the season, and maybe in the second half of the season we were not able to improve the car.

“For sure this is something, that we need to work harder to improve it, and we have of course ideas because we know where we lack a bit. And we also know unfortunately that we were paying a big price in the qualifying that hurts our performance in the race.”

Jenson Button ended the 2012 season as he started it, adding his success in Brazil to the ones he scored in the opening race in Australia and in Belgium in August.

Famous for getting it right in wet/dry races, the McLaren driver didn’t put a foot wrong on a difficult day for all the drivers.

“It was one of the toughest races I’ve had,” said Button. “It was very tricky. It was on that point many times when you think Inters is the right tyre. I kept asking the team “what’s going to happen with the weather, it’s supposed to be light showers?”

“Well OK, we’ll see how we go but it was so, so difficult. You’re locking up tyres here and there, but you’ve just got to push to the limit. You have to wait for the team to give you the information about all the other people on Inters so it’s not just about driving the car at that point. You need every single piece of information that’s out there to know that you’re doing the right thing. But it was a really good race.”

Button’s life was made harder by the safety car, which cost him the advantage that both he and Nico Hulkenberg had built up by not pitting.

“I lost 40 seconds, the race was between me and Nico then. It was made a lot more difficult. And then when the safety car came in I grained the front-right tyre. I really struggled, but when that went away it was good. The two guys in front obviously had a coming together, which helped things but in that sort of race you never really know what the outcome is going to be. We still had a lot more rain coming.

“We still had to make the right call on the pit stop again, which I think we did, and then we just tried to hold the gap really to the Ferraris, which was about 20 seconds, which was difficult in itself, because there was so much water out there for inters.”

Button said he was happy to end the season on a high.

“We started the year so strong, and we’ve ended it so strong. Just a few areas that we need to improve in the middle of the season. It’s sad that Lewis isn’t here to enjoy his last race with the team, but it’s racing, and these things happen.

“I’d like to bid him farewell. We’ve had a good time together over the last three years and I think we’ve proved that on the first ten laps of the race with how close our fighting was. I hope he has a good career in his next team. Lastly, I’d like to congratulation Sebastian on his third title in a row. He’s very, very impressive so congratulations to him and also Red Bull for clinching the Constructors’ at the previous race.”

Fernando Alonso was in philosophical mood after losing the World Championship to Sebastian Vettel by just three points.

Alonso said his mood was very different to Abu Dhabi in 2010, when he went into the final race with a 15-point lead.

“I’m very satisfied. I think it’s very good feeling what I have now,” said the Spaniard. “It was very frustrating maybe in Abu Dhabi two years ago because we had it in our hands and we lost it. It was some kind of frustration there. Here is completely the opposite.

“I’m so proud and I’m so happy to fight until the last lap with the package we have in hands. That is the best thing for me, to feel proud of myself, it was by far the best season of my career and I will remember this 2012 like some dream season. Obviously we didn’t achieve the points to win the title but I won so many things this year: so much respect from everybody.”

Alonso had hoped that the wet conditions would play into his hands.

“It was more or less what we wanted. Mixed conditions, and a very, very difficult race. It was one of the most difficult races we ever drove, I think with the conditions out there and you feel that you are with the wrong tyre every lap, but you ask the team and everyone is in the same position so you need to keep fighting.

“There was a lot of risk every lap to crash and have an accident and finish the race there.  So we could not afford this for sure because we needed a podium finish to have any chance, so it was a very delicate situation but we managed very well and again we starting in eighth or seven or something like that and we finished in the podium one more time.  As usual in the last couple of races.

“So this can only be achieved with perfection from the team, with good strategies, with good start, with good pace in the car. And today we mixed all again and it was very fine.”

He admitted that all he could do was hope that Vettel hit trouble.

“Obviously you are not in control of what your rivals do. And I think we need a second place and Sebastian eighth or something like that, which we know that is a very strange combination of results, because to be out of the first eight positions for Red Bull in this race is not so easy.

“So we were hoping for a little miracle, as we were hoping for all through the year. I think from the start to the end it was a dream, and we had this little present to fight for the championship until the last race. So we enjoyed the race, we did our job and the dream continued until today.”

Asked where he thought he had lost the championship, he said: “Obviously I have two retirements in the year, over 20 races and the two retirements was not engine problem, not gear problem, not driver error. It was nothing. It was one car puncturing your rear tyre and one car passing over you.

“Nothing really you could do in these two starts. So for sure there you lose a couple of points. There were also some races that we have some strange decisions let’s say, and some penalties, so maybe we lost also there.”