Category Archives: F1 News

In the above video Kevin Magnussen shares his thoughts on the upcoming season, in the course of which he will be very much in the spotlight.

“You never reach a point where you feel completely ‘ready’,” he said. “There’s always more you can do. But I think every team and driver is going to be feeling uncertain going into the pre-season. Personally, I’m just working hard to make sure that I’m as ready as I realistically can be – so I’ve learned the cockpit systems inside-out, I’ve been in the gym at the MTC every day, and I’ve worked hard with my engineers to understand just what to expect from this new formula.

“In a way, the regulation changes makes things a little easier: at that first test in Jerez, everybody will be easing themselves into something new, rather than just getting in the car and driving away, so I’ll really be no different from any other driver. It’ll be how we react during the season that will define how successful we are. I know the engineers are working on new things all the time, but I think there’s still plenty of scope to move forward.

“I don’t think you’ll get a definitive read on who’s competitive and who’s not until at least the Bahrain tests – maybe even later.”

Above are some thoughts from Jenson Button about 2014, the new rules, and team make Kevin Magnussen – along with a lot of praise for the returning Ron Dennis…

Speaking about his hopes for the season, Jenson said: “Obviously, we want to get back to the front. We want to have a better season than we did in 2013, too. But it’s really difficult to accurately predict anything right now – these are such huge changes that they’ll have a massive impact on the competitive order, so we need to wait and just see how things shake out.

“Our aim must be to have a smooth and productive winter; I’m very keen to learn all about the new formula and our new car, and I want us to be in a position where we head to the opening flyaways feeling comfortable with our package, yet still ready to absorb and learn more as we go.

“I don’t think anybody’s anticipating the next few months to be easy – I can’t imagine anybody in the pitlane would admit to that – but our aim must be to make progress all the time, and to learn positively as we go.”

Here’s a cool video with McLaren sporting director Sam Michael on the new car and what the 2014 rules really mean.

The new McLaren shows its distinctive nose…

McLaren has shown the first pictures of its MP4-29, showing, as expected, a not very pretty nose.

Intriguingly Martin Whitmarsh is not quoted in the media kit accompanying the launch, with MD Jonathan Neale and sporting director Sam Michael doing the talking.

“We’ve made no secret of our disappointment at how the 2013 season turned out,” said Michael. “The aim now is to get back to winning – that’s what McLaren exists to do – but there’s a certain amount of growth and regrowth that needs to take place before we return to a position where we can challenge for the world championship.

“The good thing is that we’ve acknowledged that, and we’ve actually been working towards that goal for many months now. We have Honda waiting in the wings, we have a number of key technical staff bolstering our existing design and engineering teams, and we are fostering the careers of our young drivers, all of whom have an incredible amount of potential. The future for McLaren is bright, and we’re now putting in place the processes that will move us closer to our goals.”

Regarding the team’s hopes for this year he said: “For 2014, our aim is for continuous development; we’ll be refining and strengthening the car and the organisation throughout the year, so you’ll see a rapid turnover of parts and ideas on the car as we, like every team, wrestle with the many unique challenges of these new regulations.

“More immediately, our aim is to enjoy a smooth winter at all three tests, hopefully learning a lot as we go, and hopefully developing MP4-29 into something consistent, useable and quick.

“I think the key to the first quarter of the season could well be consistency. It’ll be critical in the pre-season tests – firstly, to enable the drivers and engineers to learn about and understand the behavior of the new car; but, secondly, to provide us with the mileage and data our designers at the MTC need to further refine and develop the car for the year ahead.

“It’ll be a season of complexity and subtlety; we won’t find ourselves in a situation where the guy who wins the first race goes on to win the championship, I think it’ll be unpredictable and exciting – and that’s fantastic news for Formula 1’s fans.

“One thing is for certain, though, there’ll be a lot of cross-pollination of ideas during the season as the best concepts and solutions proliferate. We’re proud of some of the concepts we’ll be introducing with this car but, likewise, there’ll be areas where we can learn and improve.”

Here’s the first image of the Lotus E22

Lotus has timed the release of the first image of its E22 to co-incide with the McLaren launch. The car appears to have different take on the nose scenario compared with other cars seen so far, with an unusual twin-pronged approach.

The team issued the image just as McLaren was unveiling its car online in what was clearly an attempt to gain some positive PR just hours after Lotus revealed that team principal Eric Boullier was leaving – possibly for a new job at McLaren.

The car now carries the logos of Pastor Maldonado’s sponsor PDVSA, while a new deal with Yotaphone was announced today.

Lotus has confirmed that Eric Boullier has left the team and that co-owner Gerard Lopez is taking over as team principal.

Boullier is believed to be on his way to McLaren, whose 2014 car will be revealed today.

The loss of Boullier is clearly a blow for Lotus, as he is highly rated in the paddock and is respected by Bernie Ecclestone.

A team statement said: “In order to continue strengthening its management structure, to further increase Genii’s role in the team and to close the gap between its strategic, commercial and sporting activities, Lotus F1 Team is pleased to announce that its co-Chairman, Gérard Lopez, will combine his position on the board with the role of Team Principal with immediate effect. As a result, the other chairmanship responsibilities will be shared with co-Chairman Andy Ruhan.

“The team will announce the arrival of new commercial partners and sponsors when it unveils its 2014 car, the E22, at the beginning of the first Bahrain pre-season test in February. The team will also confirm its organisational structure for 2014 ahead of this test. The team management, car and partner portfolio will illustrate the team’s will and desire to continue its quest to become one of the strongest teams in Formula 1 in every sense.”

Lopez added: “Lotus F1 Team has never stood still and we head into what promises to be an exciting 2014 season with an innovative new car, new partners and a new management structure at Enstone. Great things have been achieved over the past years and we need to continue this momentum.

“With this in mind, we are proud to announce that we have concluded an agreement with YotaPhone and its shareholders. YotaPhone shareholders will become important partners to Genii and YotaPhone a sponsor to the Lotus F1 team this year. We thank Eric for all his hard work over the past four years and we are confident we can continue to fight as one of the top teams in Formula 1 over the seasons ahead.”

Daniel Juncadella has joined Force India as reserve driver, and the Spaniard will take part in FP1 sessions for the team.

He will also continue with his DTM programme for Mercedes, suppliers of Force India’s power unit and gearbox.

“Over the last few years we have always tried to support young, talented drivers,” said Vijay Mallya. “And we will continue down this path by giving Daniel the opportunity to drive the VJM07 on Friday mornings at selected races. Daniel will also play an important role in our simulator programme at the factory, which remains an increasingly important development tool.”

Juncadella added: “Joining Sahara Force India is a dream come true. It’s a fantastic opportunity for me to learn and will hopefully take me a step closer to eventually racing in Formula One. To work with the team at the track and in the factory will give me some valuable experience and I will do my best to make a contribution to help the team achieve its goals in 2014.”

The FIA has confirmed its earlier plan to introduce cost control and cost reduction regulations for 2015, following a meeting yesterday.

The regulations will be presented to the World Motor Sport Council in June and will come into force for the start of next season.

An FIA statement said: “The FIA President reaffirmed to members of the WMSC the FIA’s intention to assure a healthy, affordable and spectacular FIA Formula One World Championship for the long-term future. At a meeting of the F1 Strategy Group yesterday, chaired by the FIA President, and attended by Bernie Ecclestone and the teams, it was unanimously agreed that cost reduction and cost control regulations will be presented to the WMSC in June 2014 for introduction in January 2015.”

Meanwhile, there have been some updates to the rules both for this year and beyond, although they have yet to be fully ratified. One of the most intriguing is that from 2015 teams can share suspension and brake duct designs:

Amendments to the 2014 Sporting Regulations were also approved, but are subject to ratification by the F1 Commission and teams. These include:

– The car minimum weight has been increased by 10kg, to 701kg, for 2015
– All tyre heating devices will be prohibited in 2015
– For safety reasons, the front part of the chassis will not be able to climb too steeply rearward of the front of the chassis.

Stoffel Vandoorne has been named as McLaren’s reserve driver, and the Belgian will also run a season of GP2 with ART.

Vandoorne lost out to colleague Kevin Magnussen in the fight for the Renault 3.5 title last year. He’s clearly being lined up for a promotion to a race seat should an opportunity arise.

“I’ve been a member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme for almost a year now, and I’ve learned an enormous amount in that time,” said Vandoorne. “I visit the McLaren Technology Centre at least once a week, sometimes more often than that, and I’ve done a lot of work in the MTC simulator to assist McLaren’s Formula 1 engineers develop the new-for-2014 MP4-29 Formula 1 car.

“Equally, I’ve worked very hard on my physical and mental fitness over the past year, and the McLaren Young Driver Programme has been absolutely fantastic in that respect. The guys at Woking really know how to prepare a driver for Formula 1, and I’ve really enjoyed working with them. I still do.”

Sporting director Sam Michael said: “Stoffel is a truly excellent young driver – fast, combative, consistent, intelligent and ambitious – and he’s already made an excellent impression on all at McLaren during the year he’s spent as a member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme.
“His technical input is first-class, he’s excellent in our simulator, and he isn’t afraid of hard work. He has a collaborative and engaging manner, and he’s therefore as popular at McLaren as he is helpful.”

Williams give us the first ‘official’ view of a 2014 nose

Williams has unveiled the first images of its new Mercedes-powered FW36, giving us the first ‘official’ look at what noses will look like in 2014.

“This is the first time that Williams has worked with Mercedes in F1 and we’ve been very impressed,” said chief technical officer Pat Symonds. “Their professionalism and commitment have been notable and we’re as confident as we can be that the power unit will be competitive.

“Overall the cars will need more cooling this year. The demands on water and oil cooling may be slightly diminished, but the ERS system is significantly more powerful and hence needs more cooling. We also have to cool the charge air from the turbocharger compressor which requires a substantial intercooler.

“The build of the new car has gone remarkably smoothly. But it’s been a challenge to get the car down to the weight limit. It’s been achievable, but it hasn’t been easy because the new power unit is heavier than the outgoing V8.”

The team says that the new gearbox ran on the dyno at the beginning of November, before running with the full power unit several weeks later.

“We finished the gearbox relatively early. It’s completed a lot of running on the test rig and at Mercedes HPP in Brixworth, but you can’t take reliability for granted. It’s a completely new ‘box and it has to cope with a lot more torque than was the case with the V8.”

The team confirmed that what we will see in testing is a launch spec aero package, with a revised one due for the first race. Most teams are likely to follow a similar path.

“F1 is still going to be an aerodynamic formula in 2014. There are some significant changes: the nose is lower than last year and the front wing is narrower, which means the end plates are now more shrouded by the front tyre. The rear wing isn’t as deep as last year and the beam wing below it is no longer permitted, and we’ve also lost the ability to use the exhaust to enhance aero performance.”