Category Archives: F1 News

September 19, 2013 · 1:25 pm

Raikkonen the best on the market, says Alonso

Fernando Alonso insisted today that he was totally happy with the Ferrari’s decision to re-hire Kimi Raikkonen, and had agreed that the Finn was the best driver available heading into 2014.

“I was always informed about the team movements,” said Alonso. “And it’s true that I think until the last moment the team didn’t make a decision. And then when they decided that it was better to change Felipe, they asked me what was my opinion, my opinion was he was the best out there in the market, and especially for a championship with many changes for next year, in terms of developing the car in January/February, a team mate that is many years in F1 was important. The team chose Kimi, so I’m happy.”

Alonso denied that having Raikkonen on board would make any difference to his current motivation.

“I think the motivation will be always similar, I think I will do my best all the time. Sometimes you deliver the results that people expect, sometimes not, but I don’t think anyone will push me more than what I push now.”

He didn’t see any drawbacks in having two World Champions in the same team: “I don’t think that makes any difference, it’s something that you keep writing these days and many people try to say, which is exactly the same as when I arrived here with Felipe – it will be a disaster, Felipe is in Ferrari many years already, it will be a very difficult relationship. And after four years he’s one of the best friends that I have here.

“Felipe, I consider him like a World Champion as well, it’s not that one title will change anything in the relationship or in the team in terms of pushing. Felipe was World Champion when he crossed the line in 2008, so it’s not that he’s a rookie driver.”

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September 19, 2013 · 12:52 pm

Kimi Raikkonen: “It’s not like we are 20-year-old guys any more…”

Kimi Raikkonen confirmed today that the financial situation at Lotus played a big part in his decision to move to Ferrari.

It’s no secret that the team struggled to pay the Finn’s salary and point bonuses last season, and has fallen behind again this year. Nevertheless it was intriguing that he was so open about the issue in the public forum of a press conference. Now that he’s definitely leaving he has no reason to be coy about it.

“There was a lot of things and for sure they know what it is.” said Kimi when asked what Lotus could have done to keep him. “It’s hard to say which way it would have gone if that would have had happened but the deal’s done now, and I’m very happy with the new deal.”

Later he was asked why he continued to show up given that he had not been paid: “I like to race and then obviously that’s the only reason why I’m here; it doesn’t matter which team it is. The reasons why I left from the team is purely on the money side, that they haven’t got my salary, so it’s an unfortunate thing. But like I said, I want to try and help the team as much as I can and I like to race.”

Meanwhile Kimi seemed bemused by the fuss about his return to Ferrari.

“I just have to say things change in Formula One a lot. I never had a bad feeling with them really. But I mean I still have a lot friends and good memories from there. I knew that my contract will end at the end of this year, so obviously I had to make some kind of decision what to do for next year, and now it’s been done.

“I know the team and I know the people. Obviously there are some new people and some more have left since I was there, but most are the same. I don’t think this will be too difficult to go there and do well. The cars will be obviously different [in 2014] so I think that will be the most difficult thing, to get the cars right and get them running reliable, and whoever makes the best car will probably make the best out of it.”

Kimi says he sees no problems in the relationship with Fernando Alonso: “I don’t see the reason why it wouldn’t work. We are all old enough to know what we are doing and for sure the team is working for the right things to make sure. If there is something, I’m sure we can talk it through. It’s not like we are 20-year old guys any more. I might be wrong, but time will tell, but I’m pretty sure everything will be good.

“For sure, you always learn from different team mates; everyone does different things. Maybe they do something better than you but often there are a lot of things that only suit one guy and it doesn’t work if you try to do the same thing for yourself, it’s not going to work. I know the team, I know the people. Like I said, I have no worries to go there and have something that wouldn’t work. I don’t really worry about it, I’ve never worked with Alonso. I obviously know him from racing but I’m sure it will be fine.”

Raikkonen is confident that Ferrari will have a good turbo package in 2014.

“Obviously I hope so. They built very good cars and engines in the past, they’ve won a lot of championships as a team, and then you have to look on the other side at teams like Red Bull or Lotus with Renault who have done very well. It’s very hard to say which way it’s going to go with the new rules and who’s going to have the best package.

“There are a lot of stories about certain engines that will be much stronger than others, but there are so many different things that you have to look at and go through and make sure that it works that I have no idea which team will be strongest and which team will come out on top. We have to wait and see, really, for the first few tests.”

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September 11, 2013 · 2:45 pm

Alonso, Domenicali pay tribute to Massa

Fernando Alonso and Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali have both paid tribute to Felipe Massa, whose departure from the team was revealed yesterday.

“I want to thank Felipe for all the support he has given me and the team during this journey we have made together over all these years,” Alonso told the Ferrari website. “Come the end of the season, it will not be easy to say goodbye to a team-mate like him. He has always been truly professional and loyal to the team, and I am sure that right to the end, he will do his utmost for the Scuderia that he loves so much.”

Domenicali was equally positive: “I wish to thank Felipe with all my heart and also on behalf of all our fans around the world, for the extraordinary job he has done for the team over so many years. Felipe has always behaved like a real team player.

“Together we have lived through some great times and also a few dramatic moments, which have helped to cement a truly unique relationship on both a professional and personal level. He will always be part of our family and we wish him all the very best for the future.

“Now we must concentrate all our efforts on the remaining seven races of the season and we know that, as always, we can count on Felipe’s contribution, while we work together to reach our goals. Our determination will not waver one iota right to the very end.”

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September 11, 2013 · 12:03 pm

Ferrari confirms Raikkonen’s return to Maranello

Kimi keeps his hands warm on the grid at Monza last weekend. Photo: AC

Kimi keeps his hands warm on the grid at Monza last weekend. Photo: AC

Ferrari has finally officially confirmed that Kimi Raikkonen will partner Fernando Alonso in 2014.

The team said simply: “Scuderia Ferrari announces that it has reached an agreement with Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn will join Fernando Alonso in the driver line-up for the next two racing seasons.”

It’s believed that it is a ‘one plus one’ deal, with the second being an option.

It became apparent over the Italian GP weekend that a return to Maranello was becoming increasingly likely for the Finn, and by Sunday night team sources confirmed to this writer that the deal was indeed happening.

Last night Ferrari allowed Felipe Massa to break the news that he was leaving after he’d been told that his tenure with the team had finally come to an end.

The news means that Ferrari has an awesome line-up of two World Champions as the team prepares for what will be a difficult first season with the new breed of turbo powertrains, when experience will clearly count for a lot.

As noted here yesterday Nico Hulkenberg had long been the preferred choice, and a contract was apparently ready to be signed, but after the Hungarian GP the team switched its focus to Raikkonen. During August Red Bull in turn lost interest in Kimi, leaving Ferrari as his only realistic alternative to Lotus.

Ferrari was in contact with Kimi last year about replacing Massa for 2013. Given that Lotus was behind with his payments, he could have walked away from his contract, but he chose to stay loyal.

This time around his decision to move on has been swayed by the ongoing financial squeeze at Lotus, and presumably the team has not been able to give him any guarantees that the situation will improve. His faith in his current team was also dented by the departure of James Allison to  Ferrari.

Allison meanwhile would have been able to give the Italian team a good insight into Raikkonen’s current form, and what he brought to Lotus.

He’s also being reunited with Pat Fry, with whom he worked  during his McLaren career.

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September 10, 2013 · 6:47 pm

Massa confirms he’s leaving Ferrari

Felipe Massa has used Twitter to tell the world that he is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season – paving the way for a Kimi Raikkonen announcement.

The Brazilian was expected to have a meeting with Luca di Montezemolo at Maranello tomorrow, but he appears to have pre-empted that or been given permission by the team to do so.

He wrote: “From 2014 I will no longer be driving for Ferrari. I would like to thank the team for all the victories and incredible moments experienced together. Thank you also to my wife and all of my family, to my fans and all my Sponsors.

“From each one of you I have always received a great support! Right now I want to push as hard as possible with Ferrari for the remaining 7 races. For next year, I want to find a team that can give me a competitive car to win many more races and challenge for the Championship which remains my greatest objective!”

As noted earlier today, Massa could in effect do a swap with Raikkonen and end up at Lotus, perhaps helped by the presence of sponsor Richard Mille, a company close to his manager Nicolas Todt.

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September 10, 2013 · 8:25 am

Gloves are off as Ward accuses Todt

The gloves are clearly off in the battle for the FIA presidency between David Ward and Jean Todt after the challenger accused the incumbent of  “attempts to distort the FIA’s election process.”

In essence Ward alleges that Todt used FIA gatherings around the world earlier this year to garner support for his campaign for re-election. Ward is filing a complaint to the FIA’s Ethics Committee about the matter.

A release in his name says: “It appears that the FIA’s current Presidency has been using FIA resources to try to predetermine the election outcome even before the process had begun.

“The FIA arranges and pays for meetings around the world, including to discuss how regions will benefit from future FIA activities and resources.  It emerges that, at these meetings, a number of clubs have been asked to sign formal written commitments to support Jean Todt’s re-election bid, in the form of ‘support agreements’.”

Ward added: “It is vital that the FIA election processes are conducted in a fair, democratic and transparent manner. I believe that demanding signature of support agreements in these circumstances represents a serious violation of the FIA’s rules, regulations and ethical code. The complaint will enable the Ethics Committee to investigate the legitimacy of these agreements, the circumstances in which signatures were demanded, and whether it is an appropriate use of the FIA’s resources for its staff and management to pursue Mr. Todt’s personal re-election ambitions at official FIA regional meetings”.

Meanwhile yesterday Ward wrote to the FIA with a more general enquiry about how the election will be conducted, saying: “I note that the Election Guidelines requires the FIA Administration to maintain “a strict duty of neutrality and equality at all times” and that they should limit “their relations with the candidates strictly to the content of their mission.”

“I would like clarification that this duty of neutrality will apply not just to the employees among the FIA Administration but also to all external consultants and lawyers currently being paid by the FIA. It is of course, of the utmost importance that no FIA resources are used in a biased manner in favour of any particular candidate.”

The sentiments of that letter may amuse some cynics given that in 2009 Todt appeared to benefit from the heavyweight support of outgoing president Max Mosley and his associates – including Ward – while his rival Ari Vatanen struggled to get his voice heard…

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September 9, 2013 · 10:05 am

Christian Horner: “If he had any fillings he won’t have any more…”

Christian Horner says that his Red Bull team did an “incredible job” to deal with tyre and gearbox issues during what looked from the outside like a straightforward win for Sebastian Vettel in Monza.

Vettel made his life harder in the first stint by flat spotting a front tyre at Turn One, and later there were concerns about the gearbox. It says a lot that the German only set the 12th fastest lap as he nursed the car home – and for once he didn’t try to add to his tally in the record books.

“It was a fantastic weekend for us really,” said Horner. “We had a few issues to manage during the race, but an incredible team performance. We’ve been strong all weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We had a few issues that did need managing during the race – Sebastian locking up into the first turn created a big flat spot, which put a massive vibration into the car that he was certainly concerned about, and we were monitoring quite closely. If he had any fillings he won’t have any more!

“Then we managed to get into the one-stop window. A fantastic double stop by the guys, 2.6s and 2.7s. It was enough to get Mark ahead of Massa, get Sebastian back out into the lead on a round set of tyres, and control the race thereafter.”

Both Red Bull had their fifth, sixth and seventh gear ratios changed before the race – for identical replacements – and the team became further concerned when Webber had another issue in the race, which led to both drivers being asked to short shift to protect their equipment.

“The only issue we had after that was loss of gearbox pressure in Mark’s car in the closing laps, which we just needed to take some precautions with to get to the finish.

“We had a bit of damage to a couple of dog rings on both cars. Under parc ferme after applying to the FIA due to it being damaged they were allowed to be replaced. Of course when that’s hanging over you, and we weren’t sure why that happened, we’ve not seen that before, and it’s not something that happened on the Caterham gearbox, which is obviously something that we supply. We were concerned as to why that was there.

“When you’re sitting there in the race not quite knowing what’s caused that issue and then you start to lose gearbox pressure, obviously it was a bit of a concern.

“If it was happening to one, the chances were [it would again]– because yesterday it happened to both. So as a precaution we asked Sebastian to do the same thing.”

Meanwhile Horner was unconcerned about the booing of Vettel on the podium.

“I think anybody racing a Ferrari, and beating a Ferrari, at Monza, in Italy, is never going to be cheered! It was inevitable that there wasn’t going to be a big reaction for Sebastian beating Fernando Alonso in front of the tifosi who have come to cheer their car and team around. I don’t think it surprised any of us the reaction that there was. If anything it fuels the motivation of Sebastian just to go out there and continue to improve.”

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September 8, 2013 · 8:26 pm

Stefano Domenicali: “We need to be there like the wolf…”

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali says that second was the best that the team could have hoped for on a weekend when Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel were so dominant.

He also conceded that the Italian outfit has to rely on problems for Vettel to have any chance of winning the title.

“I think for sure today we clearly saw a Red Bull that was stronger,” said Domenicali. “We tried to do the maximum. We achieved I think a fantastic race with the position we had with Fernando, and it was a shame because I wanted also to have Felipe on the podium, but when you’re fighting with a stronger car you play with strategies, but it’s not always easy.

“It is clear that with the fact that also here Red Bull has shown a great pace in these conditions that the fight for the championship is very difficult, but it doesn’t change our approach. We need to stay there and as I said we need to take the opportunities if these opportunities will come. The experience of last year is still burning for us. In a sporting way if something happens with them, we need to be there like the wolf, to attack them, and to stay tuned and connected.

“With regard to the decision of how and when we are going to swap all the resource to the new car, I think we are very close to a final decision. We are already shifting progressively the resources as was planned by us before the summer break.”

Domenicali said that the decision to keep Alonso out for four extra laps after Vettel stopped – and which resulted in the gap growing from around 5s to 10s – was mainly to give the Spaniard fresher tyres for the latter part of the race, in the hope that it might be an advantage.

“At that stage the tyres were basically still in a good condition, and we wanted to minimise the use of the hard tyres. The second side was really to see if their tyres were having a drop on the last lap maybe we were able to close the gap at the end. The point is that when you have realistically speaking a car that is a big quicker you try to invent something, but today was not enough.”

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September 8, 2013 · 5:19 pm

Fernando Alonso: “We don’t have enough races…”

Fernando Alonso kept himself in the frame for the World Championship by finishing second in Monza, and while he lost another seven points to race winner Sebastian Vettel, he has at least now pulled clear of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

“I think the weekend we took the maximum from the car,” said Alonso. “Practice was OK, and we learnt some good information Friday. Saturday it was very good, both cars in the top five. I think the last time was Malaysia this year, so a very, very long time, so we were very, very happy.

“Today, being in the podium again, it’s a fantastic feeling here in Monza. The fourth year that I drove for Ferrari, four times that I was in the podium, and every year is something amazing, something unique again, to be there in that moment.

“And we did the maximum and nearly a perfect weekend. We didn’t close the gap in the championship, which is obviously the goal every weekend but when Sebastian and Red Bull dominate Friday, Saturday and Sunday and they win the race we have to congratulate them. They were the best all through the weekend, and we need to do hopefully a better job next time, but from what we had this weekend I think we did the maximum. So we are extremely happy.”

Nevertheless, Alonso accepts that his title hopes are getting slimmer.

“Well, I think we need to be realistic about the championship now there’s a very big gap. We don’t have enough races and probably we don’t have the speed right now to win some consecutive races and hope to reduce the gap just by pace. We need to be lucky and we need to have some DNFs from Sebastian or something to win the championship. With the races left and the points disadvantage, it’s hard, but in a way, it was exactly the same last year.

“We could only lose the championship, with 41 points advantage in front of Sebastian after the Monza race. It was difficult for him to catch up and so it was maybe up to us. We didn’t complete the job and we had a DNF in Suzuka, and some other problems. There’s still a long way to go; we will try until the last race to be as good as we can and score as many points as possible, and then in Brazil we will see how many points we have compared to him.”

Alonso says he’s open-minded about the car’s potential form in the next race in Singapore.

“Obviously we were expecting a lot from Monza, and it was a very good Monza. It’s true that we didn’t win the race, because Red Bull and Sebastian did an even better job and they were very, very good but in our level of competitiveness that we had this year, Monza is one of the best weekends, as we expected before.

“We came from Silverstone, from Nurburgring, from Hungary where we had Red Bull in front of us, Lotus in front of us, Mercedes in front of us and some other cars sometimes, so here in Monza we were able to beat all those cars and fight for the wins, so if we can repeat this good performance in Singapore, we hope so but this will be the real test for us. We made some changes in the car, they seemed to be positive in Spa, seem to be good and positive in Monza, but when we reach the maximum level of downforce in Singapore, like we had in Hungary, we need to check.

“If we still have Mercedes in front, Lotus in front and some other teams, we will be more or less the same as in Hungary and we don’t want to be. I think we prepare the car and we prepare everything to make a step forward and in Singapore hopefully we can see it.”

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September 7, 2013 · 6:43 pm

Floor damage hampered Hamilton, says Brawn

Ross Brawn admits that Saturday in Italy was a tough day for Mercedes, as the team failed to get pole for the first time in three months.

Nico Rosberg didn’t quite get his set-up right after missing most of FP3, and had to settle for sixth.

Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton damaged his floor at the Ascari chicane in Q2, which contributed to his later trip over the gravel at Parabolica.

That meant he had everything to do on his final run, and the damage – plus getting caught behind Adrian Sutil – contributed to him getting stuck in 12th place.

“It definitely wasn’t a great day for all of us today,” said Brawn. “We had a reliability issue with Nico in the morning which meant he lost most of the session, and for me Monza is always about confidence for a driver, getting a balance fine tuned and being confident in the car and building up.

“It’s very low downforce, high speed braking, so I think losing that amount of time was always going to be difficult. It meant as a consequence we didn’t really have a great balance on Nico’s car during qualifying.

“Lewis was looking OK, and unfortunately caught a kerb and damaged the car underneath and broke the floor, and we didn’t realise the consequence of that until a bit later in the session. It was irreparable, so that was unfortunate as well.

“It just wasn’t our day, today. Some of it is the nature of motor racing, some of it like the reliability problem with Nico we have to try and do a better job.”

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