Category Archives: F1 News

The FIA has delayed the decision on a future F1 team entry, which was due to be made today.

The governing body has written to the candidates but apparently not given a reason for the delay, or an alternative deadline. However it’s worth speculating that Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone might have different ideas about which team should get the nod.

It’s believed that only one slot is up for the grabs, although there is no reason why the field could not be extended to 26 cars, and that may be one of the factors behind the delay. There’s also the question of whether all the existing teams will survive over the next couple of years – and rejecting a viable candidate now might prove to be short sighted.

Intriguingly it seems that realistically Gene Haas is aiming for a 2016 start, while the Romanian project is ready to kick off in 2015, should it be given the go ahead.

Meanwhile it appears that the driving force behind the latter is Ion Bazac, a qualified doctor and former Romanian health minister. The 45-year-old has a number of business interests and is the country’s Ferrari importer, under the name Forza Rossa – an ironic twist given that the rival Haas project is Ferrari-backed. He’s also a past chairman of loan company Global Finance & Leasing.

He is the president a consortium of private and state funded investors whose motive is to promote the interests of Romania, and who have the support of the government. Indeed the country’s sports minister joined team representatives for the meeting with the FIA in France last week, where he stressed that F1 was seen as a valuable tool for that purpose – and a better option than building a circuit and hosting a Grand Prix, a strategy that has now been abandoned.

As noted here several weeks ago Dacia is also in the loop, which explains the team’s plan to use Renault engines.

Although Ecclestone was not represented at this week’s meetings he is fully aware of the state of both projects, and one would assume that the Romanian government involvement has considerable appeal for him.

The Formula One Teams’ Association has officially folded, in a move that had been expected for some time.

A short statement said: “As of the 28th of February 2014 FOTA will be disbanded, as a result of its members’ having re-evaluated their requirements in the face of a changing political and commercial landscape in Formula 1.”

FOTA was formed in 2008 amid much fanfare, and was originally championed by Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo. Its key objectives were to to “promote the development of Formula One and enhance its worldwide image and reputation,” and “to represent, defend and promote the interests of its members.”

Recently the organisation had represented the interests of just seven teams, after the defections over the years of Ferrari, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Sauber. Its influence had diminished accordingly.

With chairman Martin Whitmarsh having given up his team principal role at McLaren FOTA lost further momentum.

The news means the end of the popular FOTA fans’ forums, which gave F1 enthusiasts a rare chance to have their voices heard.

Vitaly Petrov will race for Mercedes in the DTM this year, the manufacturer has confirmed.

Petrov did some promotional driving in Moscow last year, and had his first test in Portimao last month.

“I’m aware that I’ve got a steep learning curve ahead of me, but I love a challenge and accept it gladly,” said Petrov. “At my first test in Portimão, I was able to make my first acquaintance with the team and get a feel for the car, which is very important for me in order to play to my strengths.”

Mercedes motor sport boss Toto Wolff said: “Vitaly had a successful test in our DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupe at Portimão and I’m sure that he will be valuable member of our team. Vitaly is a great sportsman and representative of his country, who has already demonstrated his ability by achieving, among other things, a podium finish in Formula 1. He will also be a great asset for Mercedes-Benz, especially in the Russian market. I am looking forward to see how things will develop within DTM.”

Williams has finally confirmed the arrival of Felipe Massa’s long time Ferrari race engineer, Rob Smedley.

He will take up the newly created role of Head of Vehicle Performance.

Williams says that he will “strengthen the trackside team whilst also supporting the development work back at the factory to help bring more performance to the car throughout the season.”

Andrew Murdoch will be engineer to Felipe Massa, and Jonathan Eddolls continues with Valtteri Bottas. Meanwhile Richard Lockwood joins from Marussia as Head of Race Strategy. He will work with strategist Randeep Singh.

“Williams is undergoing change and these new appointments reflect how high our ambitions are,” said Pat Symonds. “We have a number of senior people joining us to assist us in the pursuit of those ambitions and I am extremely excited to welcome them on-board. 2014 gives us the biggest change to the technical regulations that I have seen in my career, and so it will be important to add further depth to the talent we already have here as we head into the new season.

“Williams has always prided itself on engineering excellence and this latest announcement is part of our continued goal to bring success back to the team.”

Jacques Villeneuve is set to return to the Indianapolis 500 19 years after he won the event.

The Canadian is expected to be announced this week in a third entry for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, alongside Simon Pagenaud and Mikhail Aleshin.

He raced in the then Champcar series in 1994 and 1995. He scored his maiden win at Elkhart Lake in his first season and went on to win both the title and the 500 the following year, before heading to F1 with Williams.

Villeneuve, who turns 43 in April, is also competing in rallycross this year.

Susie Wolff will run two FP1 sessions for Williams this season in her ongoing role as a development driver, the team has confirmed.

She’ll be the first female to take part in official track action on a Grand Prix weekend since Giovanna Amati tried to qualify for three races with Brabham in 1992.

Logic suggests that she will drive at Silverstone, where she made an impressive apperance in the Young Driver test last year.

“Susie has become a valued member of our driver line up,” said Pat Symonds. “And 2014 will see her take on more responsibilities as we seek to make a strong step forward in performance. Susie has demonstrated a natural talent for developing a car and providing strong feedback and these sort of characteristics will be key this season as teams seek to quickly understand and refine the radically overhauled 2014 cars.”

Wolff said: “’I’m grateful for the support and belief Williams continue to show in me and 2014 promises to be a very important milestone in my career. My responsibilities within the team have steadily increased as I have proved myself, culminating in the opportunity to test the car at Silverstone and conduct straight line aero tests last season. Competing in two FP1 sessions, alongside an additional full test day this season will be a big step and I am looking forward to the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the FW36 on a Grand Prix weekend. It’s a challenge that I will relish and it will be a great chance for me to continue assisting the team.”

Inevitably Renault was again in the spotlight at Bahrain this week, although the problems experienced by its four cars were by no means all down to the power unit supplier. After the test the company issued this Q&A with Rob White, Renault F1’s deputy managing director (technical).

Q: What were the key steps taken between Jerez and Bahrain?

“We made a number of specification changes to the Energy Store (battery), involving modified hardware, requiring some gymnastics in engineering, procurement, assembly and logistics. We also introduced two levels of PU control system software updates; the first being effectively what would have been a decent starting point for Jerez. It eliminated some bugs that allowed us to make mapping and calibration corrections, which subsequently allowed us to operate the cars in a more robust way to gather mileage. The second layer of software changes had more functionality to allow a greater authority to the control systems, giving better performance and driveability, and a larger degree of Power Unit systems integration. All the cars started on the first route and all 4 cars migrated to the second solution as we gathered mileage.”

Q: How has the test in Bahrain gone this week?

“We have had some set-backs, but we have definitely made progress and have taken several steps forward. The changes have improved the PU behaviour in the car and we are have accumulated valuable mileage. There have been stoppages, on our side and on the chassis side as well, but we have ironed out some important faults and allowed the teams to gain crucial experience of the car as a whole. We have seen that minor incidents can cause downtime that is difficult or impossible to recover. In particular, we lost more time than anticipated on the final day. While we are not at the level of operation and performance we would want to be, we have a more solid basis to work from, and we are moving in the right direction.”

Q: Would you say you are back on schedule?

“We have made some good headway, in terms of PU performance and operation in the car, we are now in a situation we could have accepted mid-Jerez. We have solved some problems and revealed some others. We are not back on schedule but we are moving in the right direction – the running we have done is very valuable. The challenge is to improve the rate of progress, because the gap to where we wanted to be at this stage remains substantial. We are some weeks behind where we wanted to be, and we acknowledge it will take time to unlock the full performance of the PU. We are working hard to get there and we are determined to succeed. We remain confident in the PU and its sub systems, we are just not at the level of operation and performance we want to be. The immaturity of the PU combined with the time lost to incidents, means the chassis work to prepare for the season is also behind schedule. From this point on we must pursue and accelerate an upward curve.”

Q: What is the plan in the short break between tests?

“We run again in Bahrain at the end of next week. The homologation deadline is looming, the race engines for Melbourne are in the early stages of build. There is a huge amount of work in progress. The Viry team is working night and day to solve our problems. The collaboration with our teams is closer than ever. The rate of development is extremely rapid away from the track and that we can create and validate effective solutions very quickly shows the resolve and tenacity of all our team members. We now have a list of issues from this test we will address. There are of course priority calls to sort out the most important ones from the background noise, but we will come back stronger at the next test and continue to learn about the Power Unit and prepare for Melbourne.”