Category Archives: F1

The FIA has changed its procedures for measuring tyre temperatures and pressures on the grid in the wake of Felipe Massa’s exclusion in Brazil.

The move follows an internal investigation of Massa’s tyre issue by the team, the results of which were shared with the FIA by Pat Symonds.

One of the key issues for Williams was that no senior personnel were aware that Massa’s right rear tyre had been checked on the grid by FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer and his assistant Kris de Groot, and the team knew nothing of any discrepancy until an official message came from the FIA some way into the race.

Henceforth any FIA tyre check on the grid will have to be witnessed by the car’s race engineer, who will thus clearly be made aware of any issues. This is similar to the way car weight checks are carried out, when team members can observe and log any figures.

This will also resolve another key issue – the anomaly that allows the FIA to record that a car is “unsafe” before the start, given that the checks are in place at Pirelli’s request, and yet the car is allowed to start the race. This became a major talking point with Mercedes at Monza, as well as in the Massa case.

Now if the FIA records illegal numbers the team will still have the option to take the car off the grid, change its tyres, and start from the pitlane. The driver will thus head into the race with a legal car and thus won’t be wasting his time by running under the threat of an exclusion, although there could still be a penalty for the grid issue.

Meanwhile the Williams investigation indicated that the reading recorded by the FIA’s infra red gun was affected by heat reflected by the tyre blanket, and that the logged figure of 137C was not the true temperature of the tyre itself.

Although the FIA has not officially accepted that as an explanation it will adjust is tests in future by ensuring that when the temperature is checked the blankets are opened sufficiently, and the gun aimed into an are not shaded by the blanket, so that there is no risk of heat reflection having an impact.

The teams themselves also have the option to make sure that they are happy that the blankets are fully open when any test is conducted.

Williams explored the phenomenon of heat reflection by using a thermal imaging camera on a tyre in a blanket, which demonstrated what happened when the blanket was partially unwrapped. As the blanket was opened, the tyre temperature dropped dramatically.

“What we’re seeing is a heat reflection in exactly the same way that you get a light reflection,” said Symonds. “That reflection is occurring where the tyre is closest to the blanket, the reflection coming off the blanket. Where you are well away from that heat source you don’t see the reflection, so therefore the reading is good.”

Symonds also confirmed that had the team been informed on the grid in Brazil that a tyre had potentially been overheated – as happened on the Friday of the 2015 Russian GP weekend when a set was effectively ruined by a blanket issue – it would have reacted.

“Bear in mind this was a safety thing. If they really felt the car was unsafe, they should have told us straight away. If we had a tyre blanket controller failure, like we had in Russia, we would have taken the car off the grid, because we would not have felt safe to start the race.”

Only six of the 10 F1 teams will run their 2015 race drivers on Tuesday’s Pirelli tyre test in Abu Dhabi.

Pirelli requested from the start that teams utilise their race drivers – or failing that a third driver who has extensive experience of this year’s tyres – in order to get good feedback.

Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso have all nominated both race drivers, while Williams, Force India, Sauber have one apiece. Mercedes will rely on Pascal Wehrlein, McLaren on Stoffel Vandoorne, and Lotus on Jolyon Palmer – arguably the only one of the three who properly fulfil Pirelli’s requirement for a third driver who has done a lot of miles this year.

Sauber, Force India and Manor have taken the opportunity to sell the seats (in the first two cases only for half the day) in order to offset the cost of the test, which has to be covered by the teams. Pirelli is only paying for the hire of the circuit.

Although obviously teams could yet change their plans the full list that Pirelli is currently working from is as follows:

Mercedes: Pascal Wehrlein

Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen

Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo, Dany Kvyat

McLaren: Stoffel Vandoorne

Williams: Valtteri Bottas

Force India: Nico Hulkenberg, Alfonso Celis

Toro Rosso: Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen

Lotus: Jolyon Palmer

Manor: Rio Haryanto, Jordan King

Sauber: Marcus Ericsson, Adderly Fong

Christian Horner says that Red Bull Racing will announce an engine deal for 2016 “in the coming days.”

Although he wouldn’t be drawn on the identity it is now clear that Red Bull has finally agreed to stick with Renault, on the basis that the French manufacturer is accepting outside help on development.

Mario Ilien’s input was offered, and rejected, last year, but the Ilmor boss is now expected to play a role.

“Next year will be a transition year,” said Horner. “We have an agreement with an engine for next year which hopefully will be confirmed in the coming days. It will have a development path ironically in a way of what we were trying to achieve 12 months ago, and then we’ll see how that goes.

“Then the manufacturers are under pressure to come back by the 15^th of January with an affordable, available engine that addresses all of the current issues. If that doesn’t happen then I believe that the independent engine will be brought into play. So we’ll wait with interest to see what comes back on the 15^th of January.”

Asked if he was confident that the development would pay off he said: “It’s difficult for me to say at the moment without announcing what our engine plans are, but yes I believe we should be in a better position.”

Renault cannot build a “bespoke” engine for Red Bull, so any engine development will also be useful to the works Enstone team. However Horner says he isn’t worried about another team sharing any benefits.

“I think in the scale of things we don’t fear another team having the same power unit.”

The FIA has confirmed that the controversial plans for an alternative “client” engine for 2017 did not gain approval from the F1 Commission yesterday, as had been expected.

Given that a majority was required it was always likely that the votes of the teams would stop the alternative plan, which is being championed by the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone.

Instead the manufacturers have agreed to tackle the key issues that the alternative engine was supposed to address. They have to submit a proposal by January 15, with the first meetings on the subject taking place in Abu Dhabi this week.

Significantly manufacturers will have to supply a minimum number of teams, if required.

Regarding the alternative engine plan, the FIA noted: “The meetings acknowledged the four credible Expressions of Interest made for the manufacture and supply of a less expensive alternative customer engine.

“The F1 Commission voted not to pursue this option at this stage – however, it may be reassessed after the Power Unit manufacturers have presented their proposal to the Strategy Group.”

The latter reference makes it clear that the alternative idea could yet be revived if the manufacturers do not come up with answers.

The new proposal will seek to address the issues that the alternative engine was aimed at, most importantly cost and guaranteed supply.

It could be argued that such an outcome is exactly what Jean Todt and Ecclestone wanted in the first place, and that the threat of the alternative engine has in effect done its job.

The FIA noted: “The parties involved have agreed on a course to address several key areas relating to Power Unit supply in Formula One. These areas are:

– Guarantee of the supply of Power Units to teams
– The need to lower the cost of Power Units to customer teams
– Simplification of the technical specification of the power units
– Improved noise

“The manufacturers, in conjunction with the FIA, will present a proposal by 15 January, 2016 that will seek to provide solutions to the above concerns.

“The proposal will include the establishment of a minimum number of teams that a manufacturer must supply, ensuring that all teams will have access to a Power Unit.

“Measures will also be put forward to reduce the cost of the supply of hybrid Power Units for customer teams, as well as improving their noise.

“All stakeholders agreed that the developments will aim for the 2017 season at the earliest, and 2018 at the latest.

“The first meeting between the FIA and the Power Unit manufacturers on this topic will be held this week at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.”

Cosworth Engineering co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven says the company has decided not to pursue the FIA’s alternative engine route for 2017 – because the costs involved would not justify a development programme.

The key issue is that Cosworth would have to start from scratch, as it does not have an engine which could be used as a starting point for an F1 V6 project – in contrast to other known bidders Ilmor and AER, who respectively have Indycar and LMP1 engines that could form a base (see earlier story).

“We took a look at it and looked at who the potential customers would be,” Kalkhoven told this writer. “And the answer is essentially Red Bull, as they don’t have a long-term engine contract. Then we looked at the economics of developing an engine from scratch, which is what we would have to do.

“The economics of it just don’t work out. It would cost roughly £20m to develop from scratch, with everything else that goes with it. You’ve also got to pay for the on-track support, as well.

“It’s also too short a time to produce an engine unless you’ve already got a design. We could do it, but the company is extremely busy at the moment, and to take on a speculative investment without the return that our other projects bring is not good business sense. So we have politely declined the opportunity to lose money!”

Meanwhile Kalkhoven acknowledges that it will be hard for the FIA to create parity with the hybrid V6s: “How they would manage to balance the performance of two sets of engines is completely baffling.”