Category Archives: F1 News

April 17, 2015 · 8:59 am

More power won’t spoil McLaren’s handling, says Alonso

Fernando Alonso insists that a lack of power is not masking any unexpected deficiencies in the McLaren chassis – in other words he expects its handling to remain consistent as the engine performance is ramped up in the coming weeks.

Both drivers have expressed their satisfaction with the MP4-30. Alonso noted yesterday that: “It’s a car that’s not too tricky, or it’s not picky, let’s say. It’s a car that gives you confidence, every lap you do you can push more and more, and it doesn’t make you any funny surprises.”

Some observers suspect that the chassis might not prove to be so user friendly as the power unit becomes more effective, but Alonso is confident that that won’t happen.

“No I don’t think so,” said Alonso. “I think we are aware of this problem, and we are making sure that the directions we go with the car are suitable with the power we have now, and the power that we may have.

“Maybe it will change some things, some braking performance, some downshifts, some traction problems or whatever that maybe with more power it raises a problem, but we are making sure we are ready when that day arrives.”

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April 16, 2015 · 2:47 pm

Felipe Massa: “A driver cannot do everything alone…”

Williams head of performance Rob Smedley paid his old pal Felipe Massa a big compliment in China last week when he said that the Brazilian was driving better than ever in 2015.

Today Massa was a little reticent when asked if he thought that was true.

“What I can say is I’m pretty happy with the way we’re working with the team, with my engineer, with everybody,” he said in Bahrain today. “If you go back to last year the first half of the season I was unlucky and so many things were happening in a different way, and not a consistent way. But the second part was very good.

“How I did the last four races of the season and how I did these three races is no different, it’s in a similar way. I think the consistency with how I finished the season until now I can bring everything I can to the car and use the car in the best way I can, with very good laps in the qualifying but also a good way of managing the tyres and using the car in the race.”

However, Massa did then agree he was driving at least as well as in 2008, when he fought for the title until the last corner of the last race.

“I think so. The only thing you cannot say is that we were fighting for the championship in 2008, and now not! For sure we had maybe the top car in 2008, and now we are maybe the third team in the championship, but I feel really good, I feel that I am driving really well, and can use the car in the best way I believe I can.

“It’s nice to have that feeling, it gives you extra confidence, the team are working for you, to understand everything you say, to take everything you say, to try to develop everything you say but also what they believe is correct together, and I think really that’s fantastic. A driver cannot do everything alone. You need to have the whole group working for the best of the driver, and I think that really counts a lot for me. Also many of you wrote my accident changed completely my driving, and maybe it’s not correct…”

Asked about his sometimes disappointing form in his later years at Maranello he said: “I had some reasons, but I don’t want to put the reasons on the table. But I have some reasons for not being so strong in the last seasons with Ferrari. The past is the past, we work for the present, which is better.”

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April 16, 2015 · 8:46 am

Franz Tost: “Renault will find a good solution”

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost remains convinced that Renault eventually sort out its problems, after a string of failures for both of the Red Bull-backed teams.

Tost is of course still hoping that STR will become the de facto works Renault team at some stage in the future, if a deal can be concluded.

“For sure it doesn’t help,” he told this writer when asked about the reliability issues. “But all the parties try to do the best, and hopefully we will sort out these problems in a short period of time.

“We cannot change anything currently. We have to work together and get the most out of it. We have to work on this, and it doesn’t help if we talk now about it. I’m convinced that Renault will find a good solution.”

Tost admits he’s concerned about the looming threat of penalties: “I’m nervous about this, because we will face a lot of penalties, because we have already used two engines and two MGU-Hs and so on.”

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April 14, 2015 · 9:59 am

Nasr keen to make points scoring a habit

Felipe Nasr followed up his fifth place in Melbourne with eighth in China as Sauber logged its second double finish of the season.

The Swiss team’s fortunes took a dip in Malaysia, where both Red Bull and STR scored well.

“It was great to be back in the points,” said the Brazilian. “That was the goal from the beginning of the race, although Toro Rosso and Lotus were much quicker than us. It was difficult to hold them back, and early on in the race I saw already they were super fast and it was difficult to keep them behind. And I think we extracted the maximum we have in the car, so we have to be satisfied.”

Felipe says Sauber has to target points in every race now.

“That’s what we have to aim for every time. What I can see is our car doesn’t seem to like the hot weather too much, so we’ve got to anticipate some changes for Bahrain already. Let’s try to keep it up.”

Meanwhile Nasr had some issues with cockpit comfort over the weekend: “It’s not really the shoulder, the HANS position was wrong. I got it fixed before the race. I think it was just in the wrong position.”

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April 11, 2015 · 9:20 am

Felipe Massa: “The lap was really an amazing lap…”

Felipe Massa will start the Chinese GP from fourth on the grid after the Brazilian outqualified both Williams team mate Valtteri Bottas and the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

Massa was pleased with the way the session went, and is adamant that Williams can still take on Ferrari.

“The lap was really an amazing lap,” he said. “I managed to take the best out of the car at the right time, so it was really a good lap. I’m happy for the performance today. We showed that we are still in the fight, we showed that even if Ferrari are very competitive – and they will be tomorrow anyway – we are there, and we will try everything tomorrow to achieve the maximum points our car can achieve.

“I think it will be tricky for everybody. We saw many, many cars and a small difference between them, not the first two, but the others, yes. So the race will be tight, but let’s try everything we can.”

Massa said that the last race at Sepang was compromised by qualifying: “In Malaysia the qualifying was in the wet, and we were struggling massively. For sure we could have been better in the qualifying, maybe in the race we achieved the best. The most important thing is to achieve the best we can for the team, that’s all we need to fight for tomorrow as well.”

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April 6, 2015 · 5:27 am

Former Red Bull chief mechanic Handkammer joins Tesla

Former Red Bull Racing chief mechanic Kenny Handkammer has taken up a new role with Tesla Motors.

After 25 years of F1 he has become Global Director of Service Training for the electric car company, and will be based in the USA.

Handkammer previously worked for Benetton and later Renault, and contributed to the 1994 and 1995 titles won by Michael Schumacher. He remained with the team into the Alonso era.

He was an early recruit to RBR, and was a key player in the team that won eight constructors’ and drivers’ titles with Sebastian Vettel. However, he left RBR last October.

“I believe I had the best years in F1,” he told this writer. “We won 13 world championships with the best people in the sport. I wanted a new challenge and I’m now with one of the biggest innovators with road cars ever.”

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April 3, 2015 · 12:35 pm

Mick Doohan: Malaysian GP steward role a one-off

Mick Doohan says he’s not scheduled to be a driver steward again this year despite enjoying his first taste of the role in Malaysia.

The five-times 500cc World Champion was invited to take on the job by Jean Todt and Charlie Whiting.

“Jean spoke to me last year, and then Charlie,” Doohan told this writer. “So I thought why not? I’ll give it a go. At this point in time I’m not intending to do any more, but you never know. We’ll take it one step at a time. I agreed to do it because Malaysia is just up the road, the track is nice and wide and fairly flowing.

“Compared to the bikes, the race control is more high tech. We don’t have a lot of the communications that F1 has – all the data that you can retrieve from the cars. So really a job like mine as a race driver’s steward is trying to find out the mental side of it. Bikes and cars, the only difference is it’s a bit harder to do anything too intentional on a bike because you’re going to take yourself out as well. Other than that the logic behind it is very similar.”

Doohan says he was fascinated to see F1 up close: “I’ve not done much behind the scenes in F1 so it’s interesting to get my head around how it all operates. I’ve seen it from the outside for many years, and been involved with the Australia Grand Prix Corporation as a board member, but this was a bit different.

“Other than being involved with Dorna as an advisor, and being chairman of karting in Austraia, I’ve not really done too much. But at the end of the day the job description is pretty straightforward.”

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April 1, 2015 · 3:52 pm

Ron Dennis: “It’s challenging at the moment…”

Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button both retired from the Malaysian GP, but McLaren chairman Ron Dennis says that nevertheless it was a positive weekend for the team and Honda.

Prior to stopping the drivers had at least demonstrated that the cars were closer to the pace of those ahead, and in addition they ran a respectable amount of laps in practice.

“Both drivers were extremely complimentary about high-speed cornering performance, and braking characteristics,” Dennis told this writer. “A whole range of positives came out of the weekend. I think we’re very strong in certain parts of the circuit. Clearly we aren’t where we want to be with the engine, and nor is Honda, but we are getting there.

“The retirement reasons were slightly related but not identical. The primary engines have not been damaged, because we stopped. They’ll be the engines for the next Grand Prix, albeit with some reliability components changed.”

Dennis has no regrets about committing to the Japanese manufacturer, and says it’s just a matter of time before things come together.

“We have a steep learning curve, and of course we want to win races, but we want to be on a path to World Championships. And to do that you need the complete support, and focussed support, of an OEM. Yes it’s challenging at the moment, but we’re working hard with Honda and we will get there sooner than people realise. It goes step by step. It will be Europe before we’ll have a pace we can measure.”

Regarding the return of Alonso he said: “It’s great, I think he’s done a great job all weekend, in every way.”

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March 29, 2015 · 2:41 pm

Niki Lauda: “Ferrari were unbeatable today…”

Niki Lauda made no excuses as he said that Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel simply did a better job than Mercedes in winning the Malaysian GP.

The former World Champion was quick to congratulate Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene immediately after the race.

“Very simple, they were unbeatable today I would say,” he said. “Because they did a perfect strategy, and Vettel did an incredible job. The car performed, the tyres lasted. For us it was a three-stop strategy. Why? Because with the tyres at their peak, for us it was important to make three stops. Ferrari was less hard on tyres altogether, therefore they had to do a two-stop, and one race.

“I went to Arrivanbene right away and congratulated him, from my heart, because he is competition, and more competition is better, and if Ferrari wins Bernie can’t complain about boring Vettel, which he said. Vettel is not boring any more! I think it’s very good this result for the total image if F1, which we’re always complaining about – I’m not, but some other people.”

Lauda said that the Ferrari win would be a wake-up call for Mercedes: “Normally in sport when these things happen, and you don’t win every race, the bell rings. The bell will ring loud because we all will hear it and we’ll react to it, which is normal. But nevertheless we’re second and third, we won the last race, so the world is not finished yet after one Vettel victory But nevertheless they were better today.”

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March 28, 2015 · 10:07 am

Jenson Button: “We’ve made a massive step with the engine here…”

McLaren’s current form was benchmarked again in Malaysia as Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso qualified 17th and 18th.

However Button was adamant that the team is making progress and that the gap to the opposition is closing.

“When you get out of the car and you’re 17th on the grid, obviously you’re disappointed, it’s always the way,” he said. “But you’ve got to look at what we’ve done in terms of progress. It is a lot of progress, tomorrow I think we’ll show that a lot more with the higher fuel runs, I think we’re a lot more competitive with higher fuel.

“We’ve made a massive step with the engine here, I think you’ll probably see that tomorrow in the race in terms of efficiency and fuel usage as well. We were saving crazy amounts of fuel at the first race, up to 20% at one point. It’s going to be a lot easier for us, and I think our pace will show that tomorrow. It’s still going to be tough, but we’re making progress.”

Regarding prospects for the race he said: “Same as always, head down and see where we end up. It’s a lot of data gathering again, but we obviously want to do the best we can as well, already getting onto the back of the cars in front. At the last race I was 38s behind the second to last guy, so if we can get a lot closer than that, we should be happy with progress. It’s only two weeks, there’s no testing in F1, so this is good progress. I hope we continue like this.”

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