Category Archives: Grand Prix News

February 2, 2015 · 9:54 am

Alonso on McLaren: “The mentality is very open”

Fernando Alonso says that McLaren is a very different team from the one that he left at the end of 2007 season.

The Spaniard stressed that there have been a lot of personnel changes, such as the arrival of Eric Boullier from Lotus and aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou from RBR.

“I think it’s different, it’s more open now,” he said when asked by this writer. “I’m different as well, I was 25 years old when I joined McLaren the first time, so definitely I’m different. We are now at the perfect time to rejoin, because we share some goals, and the team I think is now, with the arrival of Eric as well, much more open, and let’s say international.

“There are people working from many teams that joined McLaren this year, so the mentality is very open. The design of the car is quite different compared to the last couple of years, with the arrival of Peter as well. Honda, after 22 years coming back, so the whole team is believing in the project, and very excited to do well. The commitment is maximum from everyone, so that’s fantastic.”

Alonso also emphasised his belief in the potential of Honda.

“Definitely, I see a lot of potential. I’m delighted to work with the Honda guys, I saw from the first day they are about motor racing in general, it’s not just the F1 project. It’s just about the way they live, and the way they think.

“It’s just the culture. I’m a big fan of Japanese culture and they carry on that experience in life, and also for their work. They have a motor racing passion. I know that sooner or later we will deliver what we want to do. With Honda I really feel that if they want to do something, they will achieve it.”

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February 1, 2015 · 7:55 pm

Dennis promises that McLaren livery will change

Ron Dennis said today that he would only change the current McLaren livery if there was a commercial reason to do so – and then went on to confirm that it will indeed change, but he would not say when.

McLaren is known to still be in discussions with Santander about a continuation of its sponsorship deal, and that could be one of the triggers for a change from the colourscheme that has not proved popular with the public.

“We’ve got the same thing inside [the company],” he said. “You’ve got people who say ‘Why don’t we make it orange?,’ and I say, ‘Why?’ ‘That was the old colour of McLaren.’ ‘Well yeah you just said it, why the hell do we want to go backwards?’ Then what do you do? Do you create an aesthetically pleasing design? For what purpose do you produce an aesthetically pleasing design?

“This is the livery of McLaren, it’s always been a combination of these colours, and it will only change for commercial reasons, it wont change just to make a few people in the company happier because they want it orange, or they want it yellow. We tried to put a bit more of our real colour, which is dayglo.

“Fluorescent red is our colour. We’ve got more heritage in fluorescent red than any other colour. But again what I prefer to do is put a stylish design and as we evolve… it will be far more recognised if we suddenly come out with a light green car for the following reason, you’ll all go, yeah they’ve got a big amount of money coming in. Why would you react to Twitter?

Asked by this writer about the widespread association of the current livery with Mercedes he said: “The car’s got a minimal amount of mirroring on it, I wouldn’t even call it silver. You’re voicing an opinion which lots of people voice, in the company, on Twitter, everything. But that’s a problem without a solution. Yes we could change colour, yes we could do something more daring, we could all these things, but give me a reason why? And if it’s just to aesthetically more pleasing, that’s not enough reason to me.”

However, pressed on the Mercedes connection, he finally admitted: “It will change, but I’m not going to say when…”

Meanwhile when asked for his opinion by this writer Honda F1 boss Yasuhisa Arai said: “I can’t say what colour I like. It depends on the sponsors, the fans, our future direction. We have to think about many things.”

The likelihood of a change was predicted by this blog last week: https://adamcooperf1.com/2015/01/29/will-mclaren-change-its-livery-for-start-of-the-season/

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February 1, 2015 · 7:09 pm

Eric Boullier: “You have to go through some pain and some glitches”

McLaren and Honda had a difficult first day with the MP4-30 in Jerez today, as Fernando Alonso logged only six laps – and did not set a representative time.

As at the Abu Dhabi test with the interim car last year Honda spent the day chasing electrical gremlins, mainly relating to a sensor.

“We have been quite extreme let’s say in packaging our car,” said the Frenchman. “And every technical solution which we brought to the car is something which we believe will help us to close the gap quite quickly with Mercedes. Being ambitious or brave doesn’t mean that we can be reliable. Obviously we are struggling with a few electrical issues, which are quite difficult again to fix.

“I think they are fixable, they could be fixed by tomorrow, but we may end up with some other issues somewhere else. I want to be a little but cautious on this because every time we try to fix one we open up something else further. We will get on top of this, I don’t know when, but obviously as soon as possible.”

Boullier said it was inevitable that there would be problems, despite some issues having cropped up already in Abu Dhabi.

“Simulation, dynos, whatever you want, you need the track to get the package all together and to work together. We have the car here, the 2015 car, and obviously you have to go through again some pain and some glitches to allow us to run. We obviously don’t want to take any risks either, because if you blow up the engine you can face something damaging the car and you can lose more time. We have only 12 days. We would have loved to run more today, but we have to go step-by-step.”

Regarding the car’s potential he said: “When we do more laps I will tell you, but based on simulation at least better than the end of last year.”

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February 1, 2015 · 11:01 am

Lotus E23 on way to Spain after missing first day

The Lotus E23 is expected to arrive in Jerez later today after the team failed to make the first day of testing.

The car is being flown to Spain rather than carried by a transporter in order to save time. The engineering trucks are already in place at the circuit, and another vehicle carrying equipment has been spotted on a Spanish highway.

Lotus has of course made the switch to Mercedes this season after 20 years with Renault, which has given the team a bigger challenge over the winter.

A team spokesman told this writer: “The car’s on its way. Fired up and final checks in Enstone yesterday – we wanted to be happy with everything at the factory before turning up.”

The team has yet to confirm whether the car will take to the track on Monday.

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February 1, 2015 · 8:48 am

Red Bull can make some big steps with RB 11 says Horner

The Red Bull livery is certainly different…

Daniel Ricciardo gave the new Red Bull RB11 its first outing as testing got underway in Jerez before.

The car, which had not been seen even in the form of the renderings issued by other teams, features a dramatic ‘camouflage’ livery.

The car made Jerez despite passing its final crash tests at a very late stage.

“We’ve been pushing to the limit as usual,” said Christian Horner. “We had a very tight timescale for the car to be prepared in time for the first test, but that’s normal in this team. If you’re not on the limit you’re not trying hard enough.

“The relationship with Renault is a lot closer now. Red Bull is the only partner for Renault now, through ourselves and Toro Rosso, and that focus from Renault together with a close involvement with our design team is yielding good results and a far closer integration between the power unit and the chassis side. Working in unison with Renault we can really make some big steps forward this year.

“Our target is simple: to close down the gap to Mercedes yet further. We were the only team other than Mercedes to win a Grand Prix in 2014 and we won three with Daniel Ricciardo. Our target is to close the gap down and put Mercedes under as much pressure as we possibly can. We know what we’re aiming at, we know what we need to achieve and I believe that with the RB11, with the drivers we have and with the new structures put in place we should be able to do that.”

“The design of the RB11 has been very much about understanding what we learned from last season,” said Adrian Newey. “Which was a big regulation change as far as the power unit is concerned and the packaging that goes with that and setting about optimising the car from those lessons.

“We have been working very hard with our partners Renault to help them develop the engine. What we have to remember is that the internal combustion engine and its very complicated associated items, the ERS and turbocharger, are long lead time items. Those are things where if one team takes an advantage then it takes time to overthrow that or get back on a par with or hopefully ahead.”

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January 31, 2015 · 6:40 pm

Carlos Sainz Jr: “I think it’s the moment to learn…”

Carlos Sainz Jr says he has not given himself any specific targets for his rookie season with Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Although he has more racing experience than his team mate Max Verstappen, he has less F1 mileage than the Dutchman. Both men drove the STR10 at a filming day in Misano this week.

“I think it’s not the moment to put any expectations or objectives,” he said in Jerez today. “I think it’s the moment to learn, to develop the car with Max and do a good job with the whole team. So far they have done the job because we have been the first team to put a car on track, and do those first 10-20 laps with the car.

“For sure we’ll be pushing each other, every F1 driver will be pushing the other team mate. Max and I will have to learn a lot this year, we’ll have to learn together also, especially 12 days of testing, six each – we’ll have to join our experience, let’s put it like that, to help the team as much as possible. Obviously our experience is not the same as the McLaren pair, or any other pair, but I think working together in the tests we can do a good job.”

Meanwhile while Verstappen’s age has ensured that he’s been in the global media spotlight, Sainz says he’s been busy at home:“In Spain I also had a bit of attention, everyone with ‘the new Fernando Alonso’ and all that. It’s things that must happen, and it’s normal. I don’t complain. I’m happy, it’s your dream come true, you cannot complain about your personal life.”

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January 31, 2015 · 3:50 pm

Real Toro Rosso STR10 will be seen in Australia, says Key

The new STR10 is an interim car

Scuderia Toro Rosso unveiled its new STR10 in the Jerez pitlane on Saturday – making it the first 2015 car to be physically seen in public after a string of online launches and releases of mocked-up images.

Technical director James Key says that the team has had a much smoother winter preparing the new car than it did last year- but says the result is a more complicated car.

For 2014 STR had to deal not just with the new rules but also with a switch from Ferrari to Renault.

“It’s definitely been a more straightforward winter,” Key told this writer. “We went about designing the car in quite a different way this year. You won’t really see it yet because this is an interim car effectively, not at all what we are going to race.

“The packaging of the car is a massive step forward, and I think you have to do that sort of thing in Year Two of the regs. There’s a stabilising period in Year One, and then how much progress can you make in Year Two?

“We sat back and really thought about it. In fact we extended our design time quite a lot further than last year, and still hit everything on schedule. So definitely the winter went a lot smoother. It’s really been a case of making life more difficult for ourselves with a much more complicated car.”

Key confirmed that the aero package seen at Jerez will change for the next test in Barcelona, and again for the first race in Australia.

“A lot of stuff is still work in progress. We’re finishing off Melbourne in the wind tunnel now, so we’re going to run the car here and still be working on the Melbourne package. We’re looking at everything on the car. Safe to say the car we’re launching today is a conservative car. You’ll see last year’s front and rear wing on it, you’ll see a big cooling exit which is probably not necessary but it makes sure we can cool without any concerns.

“Some of the cooling layout is an evolution but recognisably an evolution but a pretty heavy evolution from what we had last year, and we’ve worked very hard on packaging, and we’ve been able to use that data to very good effect.

“The nose is not the nicest looking thing! But I expect it will change. The plan for us particularly for our new drivers is to put mileage on. So we’re not looking for peak performance or whatever in the first two tests, we want to get all the basics done as best as we can. Then in Test 3 we’ll see the real STR10.”

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January 30, 2015 · 1:34 pm

James Allison on what’s different on the Ferrari SF15-T

Ferrari technical boss James Allison says that the Italian team has made big steps with its power unit, which was a major weakness last season.

“The power unit has along with the rest of the car been an area of extremely high effort to improve,” said Allison. “We had a number of issues with last year’s engine and power unit. Early on in the seasons the power delivery was not particularly sophisticated, and it was quite tough for the drivers to get the type of throttle response that they wanted. It was improved a lot during the season and we take that a step further for the SF15-T.

“A definite weakness of last year’s car was that the amount of electrical energy that we were able to recovery from the turbo was not really good enough for producing competitive power levels during the race.

“That’s one of the reasons why Ferrari’s qualifying performance was relatively stronger compared with their race performance last year. That’s an area where we’ve tried to change the architecture of the engine to make it a better compromise between qualifying and racing performance.

“And then plain simple horsepower. A tremendous amount of work has gone into all aspects of our combustion efficiency to try and make sure that in this fuel limited formula where every team is only allowed to burn the same amount of fuel that every single compression stroke, every single ignition stroke, is extracting the maximum amount of horsepower and putting it on the road.”

The Ferrari car clearly represents a major step forward relative to its predecessor, at least in terms of appearance. As well as much more attractive front the car has a more tightly packaged rear, which is a characteristic of other 2015 cars seen so far.

“I think all the cars on the grid are going to be more appealing around the front, around the nose, because after a few years of trying I think we’ve finally invented a regulation that gets what we wanted from a safety point of view, but also doesn’t create the rather unappealing features of the last few years. So I think everyone will look a lot prettier at the front, and the 2015 Ferrari is I think nice in that regard.

“However the back of the car is something that it noticeably different from the 2014 car, where we have been successful in pulling the bodywork much tighter to all the stuff underneath the skin. And that’s been done through a lot of work, not just in the wind tunnel but also in the design part of the company to try to find radiator designs that were fundamentally more efficient, so that for every square centimetre of radiator we’re able to extract more cooling this year than last, and therefore are able to close the car down at the back as a consequence.”

Regarding whether the car will help Kimi Raikkonen he said: “We will only know for sure once we are running on the track, but I hope that the SF-15T will be much more comfortable for him with both a stronger front end in mid corner and more support from the rear under braking.”

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January 30, 2015 · 12:15 pm

Ferrari boss Arrivabene on the new SF15-T: “It’s really sexy…”

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has reiterated that he has targeted at least two GP wins for the team this season.

Arrivabene, who made a similar statement last month, shied away from a more ambitious target.

“I’m just realistic,” he said. “Nobody has the magic to change things when things are unchangeable. We applied certain modifications that in our opinion are quite interesting. With that I don’t want to say that we are going to win the World Championship, but for sure we are committed at least to win two races.”

Regarding the SF15-T he said: “Enzo Ferrari said a long time ago the best car is a winning car. Last year we had an ugly car and it was a non-winning car on top of this. I like the car of this year in terms of aesthetics. I don’t know about the performance, but it’s really sexy.”

He says the personnel changes do not mean a change of philosophy at the Italian team.

“It doesn’t impact the philosophy of Ferrari. The philosophy of Ferrari was dictated by the founder, Enzo Ferrari. The work we have to do is to enhance the team spirit, and the passion, that was a little bit lost in the past few years, and to look forward, to work together very hard, with one objective – to win as much as possible.”

On the subject of the drivers, he added: “They have to work together as team mates, they have to work with the team. Things I want to avoid, talking about the overall team and not only about the driver, is that everybody is pushing and working together in the same direction. I’m expecting the drivers to do the same.”

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January 30, 2015 · 11:01 am

Ferrari shows the new SF15-T

Ferrari has unveiled the SF15-T, the car with which Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen hope to reverse the team’s fortunes after a difficult 2014 season.