Category Archives: F1 News

Adrian Newey has made clear his dissatisfaction with the 2014 rules – and questioned the green credentials of the new technology.

The Red Bull technical director was initially asked how he compared the current cars to those of the past.

“That’s a very complicated question is the truthful answer to that,” he said. “I guess the other obvious answer to that is probably whether you have a Mercedes engine, a Ferrari engine or a Renault engine will cloud your answer to it, in truth. Such is the nature of Formula One.

“When you get into things like batteries then an electric car is only green if it gets its power from a green source. If it gets its power from a coal-fired power station, then clearly it’s not green at all. A hybrid car, which is effectively what the Formula One regulations are, then a lot of energy goes into manufacturing those batteries and into the cars, which is why they’re so expensive. And whether that then gives you a negative or a positive carbon footprint or not depends on the duty cycle of the car – how many miles does it do, is it cruising along the motorway at constant speed or stop-starting in a city.

“So this concept that a hybrid car is automatically green is a gross simplification. On top of that there are other ways, if you’re going to put that cost into a car, to make it fuel efficient. You can make it lighter, you can make it more aerodynamic, both of which are things that Formula One is good at. For instance the cars are 10 per cent heavier this year, a result, directly, of the hybrid content.

“So I think technically, to be perfectly honest, it’s slightly questionable. From a sporting point of view, to me, efficiency, strategy etc, economy of driving, is very well placed for sportscars, which is a slightly different way of going racing. Formula One should be about excitement. It should be about man and machine performing at its maximum every single lap.”

Newey said it wasn’t easy to judge why public reaction to the new rules has been negative.

“It’s a big subject and I guess ultimately the spectators and the television viewers are going to vote with their feet. The old classic [was] Coke completely turning Coke around compared to Pepsi in the States, so you can always skin these things various ways.

“I think obviously all the talk is about the engines. It’s not just about creating a formula which looks at how many litres of fuel you use per kilometre with everything else fixed, because everything else isn’t fixed in reality. If you go into the real world, cost isn’t fixed, the cost has gone up hugely to create this. As I said before, if you put that cost into weight saving, you might be better off in many cases so to automatically say that this is some huge benefit for mankind I think is taking a bit of a big leap myself.”

Newey also had some interesting comments about the relative performance of 2014 power units: “I think when we talk about the power unit we talk about it by manufacturer. We should also include the fuel company of course. I think you’ll find within an engine, depending on what fuel it uses there can be very significant differences. That can also create differences.

“We certainly can see that in our own GPS analysis between our rivals that some appear to have significantly more power than others, even though they have the same engine. At the moment I think it is an engine formula that has tended to reshape the grid more than anything else, compared to last year. How that develops as we move forward is unclear.”

Lewis Hamilton continued where he left off in Malaysia by dominating the first day of practice in Bahrain.

Hamilton headed team mate Nico Rosberg in both sessions, by margins of 0.231s and 0.365s respectively.

“Generally the car has been feeling good this weekend,” said Hamilton. “We’ve just been trying to get a feeling for the tyres, the soft tyre is quite a lot better than the tyres we’ve been using, so quite a big difference. There’s lots to learn.

“The car feels better than when we went testing here, balance-wise, it was feeling really good. There’s still some tweaks we need to make to make it feel perfect. We have a better understanding of the car, we know what kind of ways to set the car up a little bit better than we did in the testing. When you’re testing you’re testing so many different things, you can’t really set the car up. Here we’re working on the car set-up for the race weekend, and it feels good.”

Hamilton said keeping the soft tyres alive will be key: “That’s the trick! We did a session just now, we struggled a little bit on the tyres, as everyone does.”

Meanwhile he said he enjoyed driving the track at night.

“It was great, [but] you don’t really notice a lot of difference. It was quite nice being cooler for the tyres and for the long runs. I think they’ve done a great job with the circuit, I think the circuit looks even better at night.”

Michael Schumacher’s agent Sabine Kehm has said that the former World Champion has experienced “moments of consciousness and awakening” in the most positive message yet to emerge since the December accident.

The statement reads: “Michael is making progress on his way. He shows moments of consciousness and awakening. We are on his side during his long and difficult fight, together with the team of the hospital in Grenoble, and we keep remaining confident.

“We would like to thank you all for the continuous sympathies. At the same time we again ask for understanding that we do not intend to disclose details. This is necessary to protect the privacy of Michael and his family, and to enable the medical team to work in full calmness.”

Fernando Alonso still thinks that Ferrari can be in the fight for the World Championship all the way to the finale in Abu Dhabi, despite the gap to Mercedes that was apparent in the first two races.

“It could be extremely said if I say no,” he said when asked by this writer if he really believed it was possible. “It’s the third race in the championship, Thursday afternoon. So definitely, yes. I’m still thinking that we can do a good job. It’s a very young car, very early days on the development of the car.

“All the things that we find, either on the wind tunnel or in the power area, they are not the steps that we are used to seeing in the last years, when you saw half a tenth, half a tenth. Now you see a couple of tenths in any steps, so I think there is very good room to improve in all areas, to become more competitive.

“And at the same time it’s the same for everybody, so we just need to be a little bit more clever than the other teams and find this extra. Unfortunately it seems that we started with a deficit, so we need to close that gap. But the potential is there and there is no question that we think that in Abu Dhabi we will be in the fight, that’s for sure.”

Asked about whether Hamilton or Rosberg was the favourite, he joked: “In fact Hamilton is one point behind me, so theoretically I’m more favourite than him right now! We’ll see Sunday afternoon, but right now…”

Alonso says it’s impossible to judge how much of the deficiency to Mercedes was down to the power unit to the chassis.

“It’s difficult to split the difference of the areas that they are stronger. We all know that the power unit of very efficient and quite strong, because we see all the cars they are very competitive with the Mercedes engine. If we see the McLaren car for example, finishing 84 seconds I think behind Hamilton, the Mercedes car has something also good. It’s not only the engine because they are performing well.

“We just need to improve the package, we just need to improve in all areas, and so better. We have the Red Bull example also. After a tough winter and some difficulties they managed to change the situation and become competitive very quickly. We will try to do better. It’s only the second race, a long way to go, and we are ready to fight.”

Felipe Massa says that the Malaysian GP team orders saga was “a mistake” by Williams – and insists that the team supports his opinion.

Massa insists that it had not been discussed in advance.

“This scenario was not discussed, definitely, before the championship,” he said. “Anyway what’s happened in the last race was a mistake. And this will come from the team as well, not just myself.

“What happened in the last race was not correct, and I’m sure the team will answer as well, what’s happened. Everything was clear in the table, I put my ideas in the table, with everybody inside the team, and I think that’s the most important thing. Going into details now, this and that, will not be the right thing. The right thing will be to speak inside, and I spoke, and I have no problems to say what I did in the last race for me was the correct thing to do.

“For sure I’m a very professional driver, I always was, and I will carry on being very professional, doing the best for my team, but doing the correct thing as well, doing the best for myself as well. We know that we need to do the best for the team all the time, but definitely I race for myself as well, my career is very important to me.”

His main point was that Malaysia was not the right time for team orders.

“Everything is agreed inside the team now. I have no problem to work for the team when it’s necessary, and when it’s the correct time.

“Team orders is part of our sport, but it needs to be part of our sport when it’s necessary, and I think everybody here is intelligent enough to understand when it’s necessary and when it’s not necessary, and this is when it counts.”

Massa admitted that the fact that the infamous phrase “faster than you” was used, as in the Alonso/Hockenheim affair. had not gone unnoticed: “Also in the same words as well! It was funny…”

This year’s Amber Lounge Fashion Monaco event will be in aid of the Brain & Spine Foundation.

The annual show, held on the Friday evening of the Monaco GP weekend, sees F1 drivers and their partners take to the catwalk.

The charity was chosen in the light of Michael Schumacher’s accident. Founded in 1992, the Brain & Spine Foundation assists people afflicted with severe brain and spine conditions.

“When I first heard news of Michael, it absolutely shattered me,” says Amber Lounge founder Sonia Irvine. “My brother, Eddie, had raced alongside Michael at Ferrari, and that’s when we became friends. I knew that the very least I could do was to help people who were in a similar condition to Michael but who do not have the resources to overcome their condition. Michael and his family will always have a close place in my heart and this year’s event will aim to raise as much as we can to support the Brain and Spine Foundation.”

The show features a charity auction and this year a new VIP experience called U*NITE. Amber Lounge says that “with one all-inclusive ticket, guests can dine on an exclusively designed menu, sit front row at the fashion show, set to be creatively spearheaded by luxe resort-wear design team Odabash & Macdonald, and dance until dawn alongside a buzzing crowd of celebrities and F1 drivers – whilst being given the opportunity to donate to the Brain & Spine Foundation.”

More information can be had from: http://www.amber-lounge.com/

Ferrari technical director James Allison is confident that the team can make good progress in the coming weeks, citing the improvement already seen between Australia and Malaysia.

“We are working in a constant way and with the highest levels of dedication in all the areas of potential development,” said Allison on the Ferrari website. “We brought a useful upgrade to the Malaysian GP, and were duly rewarded with a more competitive performance than at the first race, but the whole team is in no doubt about the size of the challenge that remains ahead of us this season.

“We are not disregarding anything. Much has been spoken about the new power units on the 2014 cars, but it is rarely mentioned that 1% of engine power is not so different in its effect on the stopwatch as 1% of aero efficiency.”

Allison is adamant that the team will move forward.

“Our development programme will keep delivering steps to the efficiency of the F14-T; aero, power unit, mechanical grip – race by race these steps will help to hunt down those in front. If we can keep up the progress that we made between Melbourne and Malaysia then it will start to tell in both in grid positions and in the Championship.”

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says that the team hopes to be in a strong position in Monaco and Montreal, even if it is still struggling with a lack of downforce.

He accepts that the next three races, which feature a lot of high speed corners and put a premium on aero efficiency, are going to be tough.

“It’s going to be quite, quite painful, we know this,” he said when asked by this writer. “This is why we are in aggressive development mode already. Every race we bring parts, and I feel a bit of a relief today, for a lot of reasons. We spent the winter ensuring that we had a good correlation between the wind tunnel and the track, and it looks like it works out.”

Regarding Monaco and Montreal he agreed that the team could be at less of a disadvantage.

“Yeah obviously, because less downforce [in Montreal], and Monaco will be a different story as well, because in terms of fuel management you don’t have to worry. I think by then we should have recovered.”

Meanwhile Boullier said it was unwise to make too many judgements based on Malaysia, where McLaren lost performance relative to the season opener in Australia.

“You have to be careful. We struggled this weekend, because of the heat. If you look back at Friday morning we were OK. We were not in a position to win the race, but our relative pace was much better compared with the others. I think with the heat we knew we would suffer because the tyres were degrading much more, and overheating, and this is where the other teams gained.”