Category Archives: F1

September 19, 2015 · 5:15 pm

Hamilton mystified by tyre performance in Singapore

Lewis Hamilton was at a loss to explain why Mercedes is so far off the pace in Singapore after he and Nico Rosberg qualified only fifth and sixth tonight.

Hamilton said he was happy with the feel of the car, but was mystified by the loss of speed relative to rivals.

“The only way I can really explain it is it’s a bit like doing a good lap on the prime tyre, then you go and do exactly the same lap on an option tyre, but it’s a second and a half faster,” he said. “And then I do the lap, and say it’s a really good lap, but it’s a second and a half slower than the guys up ahead. We’ve not lost any performance on our car, the drivers have not lost any performance, so there’s only one way it can come from, and that’s obviously the rubber. But I don’t know why it is the case.

“I’m very interested to find out. I actually challenge all of you guys to go and find what the reasons may be, I’m challenging my team to find out what is, where we lost time, whether it’s in tyre pressures, temperarures blankets, ride heights, I’m challenging everyone to find out, because I want to go and win tomorrow.”

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September 18, 2015 · 11:31 am

Pirelli and FIA agree to new tyre pressure checking procedures

Pirelli and the FIA have agreed to new procedures for tyre pressure checks in order to avoid the confusion that followed the Italian GP.

In Monza the FIA undertook last minute checks on the four top cars only for it to emerge that there was a lack of clarity over exactly when Pirelli measured starting pressure. The Monza stewards called for new procedures to be agreed, and that led to a meeting between Charlie Whiting and Pirelli’s Mario Isola in Singapore.

In essence they have agreed that during practice and qualifying the starting pressure will be that measured when tyres are first fitted to the car.

For the tyres used at the start of the race the pressure can be measured at any time after the five minute signal on the grid – which means that teams will have to allow for a possible pressure drop after they remove the blankets on the grid.

Crucially teams will be allowed to adjust the pressures if an anomaly is found.

The FIA has now sent the teams a Technical Directive which notes: “We have been informed by Pirelli that their tyres may only be operated safely if the prescriptions set out in their Preview document at each Event are strictly followed.”

In explaining the new procedures, the FIA noted: “During all practice sessions, qualifying and race, excluding the set used to start the race, it will be the pressure measured immediately after the set of tyres in question is fitted to the car.

“The race start set will be measured at any time after the five minutes signal.”

The FIA adds that in all cases: “When measured, the pressure must be equal to or higher than the minimum set out in the Preview. If the pressure is below the minimum requirement teams will be given the opportunity to adjust it.

“Measurements may be taken from any corner of the car.

“Measurements must be made with a gauge calibrated at or by Pirelli, and subsequently sealed by the FIA.

“After the checks have been carried out, and any necessary adjustment made in the presence of a scrutineers, no further adjustments may be made.”

With regard to blanket temperatures the FIA has confirmed that checks will be made on the tread and the sidewall, and that “the temperature must be equal to or lower than the maximum set out in the Preview.”

There is no change to checking camber limits.

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September 17, 2015 · 4:05 pm

Button confirms he’s not interested in Haas drive

Jenson Button is adamant that he’s not interested in a drive with Haas – and says that if he’s in F1 next year, it will be with McLaren.

Gene Haas has made it clear that he’s waiting for the silly season to shake out before committing to a 2016 driver line-up, and he remains keen to employ one driver who raced this season.

Along with Romain Grosjean Button is one of the few logical candidates who has yet to be confirmed for next year. However, he insists that joining a new project did not appeal.

“If I’m in F1 it will be with this team,” he said when asked by this writer. “I’ve had some tough times with this team, but I’ve got a lot of respect for the whole team and for Honda. I think this team is the team for the future. I don’t think there’s any point in looking at a smaller, younger start-up programme.

“To be fair to this team it’s very young still in terms of our relationship with Honda, and the powerplant itself, and also the direction of the aerodynamics, with ‘Prod’ [Peter Prodromou] it’s completely different to every other McLaren, so that’s young as well.”

Asked what the timescale on any McLaren news might be, he said: “I said the next couple of weeks at the last race, and I was wrong. I think the next couple of weeks… So by the end of the month, definitely.”

It’s understood that McLaren’s option on Jenson’s services ends on September 30. Meanwhile Button said he was not frustrated by the wait.

“Not at all. It matters whose decision it is. Not frustrating at all. There’s a lot you’ve got to think about over that period of time. It’s an important couple of weeks. I’m in a good place.”

He added: “I think it’s a massive different to last year, I think everyone’s learned from last year being a bit of a mess. It’s nothing like last year, it’s a very different situation. I’m very happy with what I’ve done this year and I think the team are as well. It’s not what you might think. Hopefully the fans understand, whatever happens.”

Meanwhile Jenson says he’s paying close attention to McLaren’s future prospects.

“Of course, you look forward and you look at how many years it will be until you’re fighting at the front, because that’s what we’re here to do in the grand scheme of things. We’ve both been World Champions and we have that hunger for winning, and addition to winning.

“This year’s been interesting, because I’ve had Fernando as a team mate, and it’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed the year. When you’re fighting near the back you’ve still got the challenge of fighting with someone who’s very talented, and has experience like myself in the sport.

“That’s been a lot of fun, bit it doesn’t last that feeling, and you want to start winning races very soon. I do feel that everyone is working very hard at MTC and Sakura, they’re not just waiting for things to happen they are making things happen, but it’s a time thing. Who knows. At the moment it’s very difficult to know how long it’s going to take, but I’m a very positive person as I think Fernando is, and you hope for the best.”

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September 17, 2015 · 10:22 am

Manor race drive came as a surprise, says Rossi

Alexander Rossi admits that his race drive with Manor F1 came as a surprise – and says that the deal was put together so quickly that he only booked his flight to Singapore two days ago.

Rossi, who was a Manor reserve driver last year, will contest five races that don’t clash with GP2 commitments.

“I was on a plane Tuesday evening, and I booked the flight Tuesday morning,” he said today. “It was quite a last minute thing. The discussions started taking place shortly after Monza. Obviously I’ve had quite a bit of history with this team, in ’14, so we’ve always had good communication over the beginning of this year. But I wasn’t expecting 2015 to be a year where I was racing an F1 car.

“My GP2 season is going very well and I feel very committed to Racing Engineering in that programme, and I’m very pleased that they kind of opened their doors and allowed me to do this programme, and at the same time a big thank you to Manor. Obviously it’s difficult for them to have me in and then not in for a couple of races. It took work on both sides, and I’m very pleased and thankful that we were able to do it.”

Inevitably his appointment at Manor has led to speculation that he will be in a stronger position with regard to a future drive with Haas, even if it may already be too late for 2016.

“I think the big thing that I’ve been missing for the past three years in my F1 career is actually racing. We’ve been close quite a few times. It’s very surreal now that it’s about to happen. This is a major step in kind of really firmly putting myself on the F1 map and the radar, and I’m just focussing on doing a really good job in these five races, and showing that I am capable of being in F1 and doing a good job.

“My goal is to race full-time in F1, in whatever situation that is, in whatever situation that may present itself I’m going to jump at that with open arms. What this may lead to, I don’t know. I’m hopeful that doing a good job in these five races will prove that belong here, and that I’m capable of doing it just as much as anyone else.”

Regarding his target for the weekend he said: “I think it’s going to be a moving target. I haven’t been in the car since Spa, of ’14, so I’ll just kind of being reacclimatising. But it’s not that much different to GP2, so I’m hoping to be on the pace quite quickly.

“It’s be a learning experience, I think. You have to appreciate that you’re here to do a job, but at the end of the day you’re kind of only racing one other car, and you have to respect the others on track, so that will be something that I’ll need to be very aware of. Through Friday and Saturday I’ll get quite used to that, so I don’t see it really being an issue.”

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September 15, 2015 · 9:15 pm

Magnussen injures hand in cycling accident

Kevin Magnussen has suffered a hand injury in a cycling crash while training, and thus the Dane will not be travelling to this weekend’s Singapore GP as McLaren’s reserve driver.

He said on Twitter: “Broke my hand after falling off my bicycle. Better stick to four wheels.”

A McLaren spokesman added: “Kevin has been training extensively on his bicycle over the past few weeks and months, but unfortunately he fell off it the other day. He has sustained a small fracture in his left hand, but is expected to make a full recovery within the next three weeks or so.”

The incident comes just as Magnussen is in negotiation for a 2016 F1 drive with Haas. Contrary to reports that suggest his option with McLaren ran out on August 31, he remains contracted to the Woking team. It’s believed that it has an option on his services until September 30.

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September 14, 2015 · 5:54 pm

Mercedes customer teams waiting for upgrade news

The three Mercedes customer F1 teams are still waiting to see when they will be offered the upgraded engine used by Lewis Hamilton to win the Italian GP.

Mercedes utilised all seven of its 2015 development tokens on the engine, which is actually a 2016 project that it opted to bring forward into this season.

The logistical complication is that it’s Mercedes policy to treat all teams equally, so Brixworth would in theory have to make six units available on the same race weekend for the customers, as well as having enough to service the needs of Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

In addition the teams would have to have access to an upgraded fuel spec in order to take full advantage of the changes.

The other issue is that the three teams would have to fit the new engine into their planned usage schedules, without it becoming an extra change.

“We haven’t been promised anything at this point,” Force India’s Bob Fernley told this writer. “It’s a Mercedes decision really. The original decision was this wouldn’t come out until 2016, the fact that it’s come out now, they may want to extend it to the customer teams.

“It depends what the directive is from Mercedes. I think the answer is to find out from Mercedes what they want to do, and then we’ll adjust our programme. It just depends where are are in the schedules. We lost an engine with Nico [Hulkenberg], so he’s a bit out of synch, but then Nico missed the race in Spa. So we need to look at the whole picture of where we are with engines.”

Meanwhile Claire Williams said that the Monza performance gave her confidence that her team would eventually get a boost in its fight with Ferrari.

“It does, towards the end of the year,” she told this writer. There’s a development plan in place, so we’re having that conversation.”

Rob Smedley added: “It certainly looked as though it has a bit of pace on it, so we’d love that in our car as soon as we can get it.”

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September 13, 2015 · 4:12 pm

Rob Smedley: Monza had to be clean weekend for Williams

Rob Smedley says that it was important for the Williams F1 team to enjoy a troublefree weekend in Italy, where Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished third and fourth.

Smedley adds that the key was to bring home the maximum available points given the pace of the car, and not make any mistakes by being too ambitious.

The Grove outfit has had a lot of frustration in recent months, most notably in Spa, where Bottas was fitted with set of mismatched tyres.

“The message to the team at the start of the weekend was that we had to have a clean weekend,” Smedley told this writer. “And if the car was the third quickest car, then we had to finish fifth and sixth. Other people dropped off for different reasons, reliability or starts, which is the two cars we got ahead of.

“But we didn’t drop the ball, and we just went through trying to have the most calm and easy weekend that we could, and getting the most out of the car rather than reaching for the moon and falling way behind. We’re reasonably pleased with it.”

At Monza Nico Rosberg got ahead of both Williams drivers by pitting early, and Smedley admits that Massa did not have a perfect pit stop.

“We reacted immediately with Felipe, and the pit stop was slow. We took a long time to gun the wheels off. Without that there’s a fair chance that we could have come out in front, we lost more than a second in the pit stop compared with what we do in practice.

“Whether that was enough to hold Nico off for the rest of the race I’m not sure, barring what happened with his engine, obviously. With Valtteri it was then a case that we’d sit it out for a little bit and make sure that he was rock solid at the end. That’s where we went with that one.”

Smedley says that there were no team orders in the closing laps, when the cars ran close together: “They were absolutely free to race. The only message that they got from the pit wall, and Pat [Symonds] and I discussed it up on the pit wall, was you need to give a little bit more room as it’s your team mate. But apart from that, get on and race.”

Deputy team principal Claire Williams agreed that the weekend could not have turned out any better.

“I’m really pleased with that,” she told this writer. “They made really good starts to get around Raikkonen’s car at the beginning, and just drove a really solid race. The pit stop guys did what they needed to do. We obviously benefited from Rosberg, it was unfortunate for him to retire so late, but Felipe got a lovely podium.

“That’s what we wanted, just a straightforward, easy race with with no issues, and we got that, and we got some great points, which we needed to do. It was about points for us, to try and close the gap to Ferrari, but more importantly extend the gap to Red Bull.”

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September 11, 2015 · 2:43 pm

Title is not won yet, says Mercedes boss Zetsche

Daimler and Mercedes boss Dr Dieter Zetsche has cautioned that it’s too early to consider Lewis Hamilton as a shoe-in for the World Championship, despite the Briton’s healthy lead.

After Monza Hamilton heads team mate Nico Rosberg by 53 points, or more than two race wins, while Sebastian Vettel is now 74 points adrift of the leader.

“We saw with Nico [in Italy] how fast you can lose a significant amount of points which you already calculated in,” Dr Zetsche this writer. “So let’s wait until the mathematics tell us where we are.”

Meanwhile Zetsche said that his satisfaction at Mercedes winning on Ferrari’s home ground in Italy was tempered by Rosberg’s engine failure.

“Of course, it was a very exciting race. At the same time we are very unhappy for Nico who had bad luck throughout the weekend. But that’s racing. It was the sixth race for his engine, and normally nobody’s running six races on an engine.

“Our engines are very, very reliable. He had to push to recover, and all the data showed that the engine was perfect until two laps before the end.”

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September 11, 2015 · 2:11 pm

Force India expects to confirm Perez soon

Force India expects to announce that Sergio Perez is staying for 2016 in the coming days, despite the Mexican and his sponsorship being linked to the Renault/Lotus deal.

The team has already confirmed Nico Hulkenberg for next season, but deputy team principal Bob Fernley says that the delay on Perez is simply because the deal he has to conclude with team boss Vijay Mallya is more complicated than that involving Hulkenberg.

“Vijay is finishing off the discussions with him, and I think by Singapore we should be clear to announce everything,” Fernley told this writer. “One deal is more complex, there are commercial issues involved, whereas the other is a driver contract.”

Fernley insists that driver continuity is good for the team, and says that Hulkenberg’s decision to stay was an indication of his faith in the Silverstone outfit.

“We have two drivers that get on well within the team, they’re pushing each other all the time. Both of them are excellent racers. I’m not sure that we could do better, that’s the key.

“I think that they are both very happy at Force India. Obviously Nico had a choice, and he’s made that choice, and I think it’s the same thing probably with Checo. Nico was out of contract, Checo’s is a renewal.”

Meanwhile Fernley says that the sixth and seventh place finish in Monza was the best the team could expect, given it had the fourth fastest car and there was only one retirement ahead.

“It was optimal for us, and you can’t fault optimal. It was a good race. Nico had some handling issues, he wasn’t happy with the handling of the car through all the race, so he did very well to keep Ericsson behind him for the distance, and he delivered it home. He was uncomfortable with it even when the tyres were new.”

Regarding the next race he said: “Singapore should be good, I don’t see any reason why we can’t fight for the top 10 again. What helps us now is that we’ve got a little bit of a cushion on the points, without worrying too much.”

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September 10, 2015 · 5:30 pm

Daniel Ricciardo: “I think the car has got better and better”

Daniel Ricciardo says his eighth place finish in Italy felt like a podium after engine penalties forced him to start at the back – and the Aussie believes that RBR can challenge for a real one in Singapore.

Ricciardo started on the prime tyre and ran a longer first stint than anyone else, giving himself soft tyres for a sprint to the flag at the end. He relieved Marcus Ericsson of eighth on the last corner.

“It was cool, it was a bit like last year,” said Ricciardo. “We had good pace at the end, and we were able to go longer on the first stint. I think we could have gone longer again, but I think we had to cover Dany [Kvyat] coming out, he pitted a few laps earlier. Anyway, I was happy with the car.

“We know we struggle on the straights, it was always going to be hard to get in the top 10 here with our package, but the chassis itself again I’m really pleased with, it’s handling well. To get in the top eight – I said at the start of the weekend if we can crack the top eight it will be like a podium for us.

“To finish top eight exceeded our expectations, to say the least. I just got Ericsson on the last corner, much to his dismay I guess. My smile got bigger.

“Some other positives, since we’ve had the new start procedures, I don’t know if it’s luck, but both my starts have been pretty awesome. I’ll take that as well as a positive from the weekend.”

Regarding prospects for Singapore he said: “I don’t want to get too excited, but we can all go in there with some confidence. I think the car has got better and better in the last few races, and Singapore will bring our car to life. Hopefully we can challenge Ferrari for a podium.”

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