Category Archives: F1 News

Kimi Raikkonen says he’s feeling 100% fit after his heavy accident at Silverstone 11 days ago.

The Finn was forced to miss the test at the same venue to give himself a chance to recover.

“I had some pain but it’s all fine,” he said today. “Actually it was in my ribs the most, that’s why I didn’t do the test, but it’s all gone away.”

Asked if he’d ever had a bigger accident, he said: “Yeah, probably I have had. Hopefully not too many more but it’s just part of the thing. It hurt a little bit but quite often you can have a quite slow accident and get badly hurt, so it’s not about that really, it was just an unfortunate thing. Nothing serious happened. It’s part of the sport.”

Meanwhile Kimi said he’s still hopeful that his season will improve.

“It’s been a difficult year, hopefully it will turn around at some point – it must, it cannot go much longer like this, it’s not fun. But this kind of thing has happened to me before and we always managed to turn it around, so I have a strong belief it will turn around. We have to just fix issues and get things as I want and I’m sure we can be back where we should be.

“I’m sure we can fix them. How fast? I hope quickly but it depends on many things. I have a contract so I’m not worried about that for the future.”

Alexander Rossi has parted company with Caterham, putting an end to plans for him to take part in FP1 in Austin again this year.

Rossi has also left the Caterham GP2 team, although it is does not come under the same new ownership as the F1 outfit. Rossi last drove the F1 car in FP1 in Canada in June.

Speaking on Twitter, he said: “It’s been an emotional couple of years with Caterham F1. The highlight being driving with them in Austin last year. Now it’s time to move on.”

The debut of Pirelli’s low profile concept tyres was the highlight of today’s testing at Silverstone.

Charles Pic ran 14 laps on the 18ins tyres at the wheel of the current Lotus E22. With few adjustments made to accommodate the very different wheel sizes – and the lack of suspension movement provide by the tyre – he was well off the normal pace. However, the point of the exercise was mainly to allow the sport’s key players to judge the appearance of the new tyres.

Pirelli is keen to make the switch in order to encourage road relevance, and says that it could be ready to supply the new rubber as early as 2016.

“In our view, the new tyres looked stunning fitted to the Lotus,” said Pirelli F1 boss Paul Hembery. “And the reaction has already been felt all over the world. These are just a prototype concept, but if the teams decided that they wanted us to proceed in this direction, we have the capability to carry on development in this area and come up with a production-ready version in a comparatively short space of time.

“We’ve heard a lot of opinions already and we look forward to canvassing other opinions in the coming weeks and months. Even though performance wasn’t by any means priority here, the new tyres still behaved exactly in line with our expectations, so we’re clearly potentially at the beginning of a huge development curve, with the wheel and tyre size rules having remained unaltered for many years.”

Pirelli says that the stiffer sidewall helps retain the structural rigidity of the tyre, and it’s also easier to maintain a constant pressure, as there is less air inside it.

Pirelli adds: “The new tyres tested today have the same width as the current 13-inch tyres (245mm at the front and 325mm at the rear) but a diameter that is bigger by 30mm. The weight is approximately the same as the 13-inch tyre, because although the diameter is bigger, there is a smaller sidewall. The total weight, including the rim, is around 4 kilograms heavier.”

The FIA is planning a clampdown on ‘FRIC’ or front-to-rear interconnected suspension systems, which have been in widespread use in recent seasons as a tool for controlling constant ride height.

In essence Charlie Whiting has decided that teams have been pushing the limits – and feels that systems planned for 2015, and that the FIA is already aware of, will be a step too far. He has cited the rule that outlaws moveable aerodynamic devices.

As has sometimes happened in the past with contentious technical items, Whiting’s view is that such systems can remain in use until the end of this season. However, in order to green light that approach all 11 teams have to agree – and clearly some have more to lose or gain should FRIC systems be banned immediately.

If there is no agreement, then the stewards of an upcoming event could look into the matter.

A technical directive sent from Whiting to the teams today read: “Having now seen and studied nearly every current design of front-to-rear linked suspension system, as well as reviewing future developments some teams have shared with us, we are firmly of the view that the legality of all such systems could be called into question, particularly with respect to compliance with Article 3.15 of the F1 Technical Regulations.

“As these systems, in one form or another, have been in use for some time we are inclined to permit their continued use for the remainder of the current season, however, we feel we would need the agreement of all participating teams to take this approach. We would therefore be very grateful if you could indicate whether you may be in a position to agree with such an approach.

“Failing this, we would have to consider making a report to the stewards about the non-compliance of any car fitted with a system which appears to allow the response of the suspension at either or both of the rear corners to drive the response of the suspension at either or both of the front corners (or vice versa).”

If a ban is imposed in the short term it will clearly cause problems for the teams who have most successfully optimised it, while those who hadn’t will hope to benefit.

One team insider told this writer: “We should have had clarity on this a long time ago not in the middle of the season.”