Adam Cooper F1

Keiji Matsumoto, one of the biggest names on the Japanese racing scene from the seventies to the early nineties, has died at the age of 65. He had been battling illness for some time.

Although not as well known internationally as contemporaries Satoru Nakajima, Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Masahiro Hasemi, he was highly regarded not just by his compatriots but also by the many overseas drivers who raced against him in Japan.

Born on December 26th 1949, he started racing in 1969, and first really made his mark by winning the 1979 Japanese F2 Championship. He went on to finish runner-up in both 1982 and 1985 before the category was replaced by F3000. He was an F3000 race winner as late as 1990, when he took two victories and finished fourth in the championship.

He was also successful in Grand Champion, for ‘CanAm’ bodied single seaters, and was a big player on the Japanese sportscar scene. Although usually associated with Nissan he also drove Vern Schuppan’s Porsche 962 on occasion.

In 1985 he was credited with winning the FIA World Sportscar Championship Fuji 1000kms, but the race was stopped early due to heavy rain, and only team mate Hoshino actually drove their March Nissan in the race.

He rarely ventured outside Japan, but he did contest one European F2 race at Donington Park in 1981. He also competed in a works Nissan Group C car at Le Mans in both 1987 and ’88, failing to make the flag on both occasions.

Remarkably when well into his forties he was still competitive in F3000 against the likes of Eddie Irvine, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Mika Salo, latterly while driving for the Dome team.

He retired from racing at the end of the 1992 F3000 season. At his last race I was asked by a TV company to interview all the overseas drivers about him for a farewell video, and all had nothing but good things to say about a tall and quietly spoken man who always seemed to have a smile on his face.

Force India has expressed its frustration over the push for third cars and ultimately customer cars at yesterday’s F1 Strategy Group meeting.

Although not specifically outlined in today’s FIA statement – there was only a reference to “a comprehensive proposal to ensure the sustainability of the sport” – plans for a proper study of how customer cars would work were supported, despite opposition from the Force India’s representative, deputy team principal Bob Fernley.

The Silverstone outfit has a presence in the Strategy Group after finishing as the ‘best of the rest’ in the 2014 World Championship, and as such is in effect the only team representing the interests of its fellow struggling independents, namely Sauber, Lotus and Manor.

All want to continue as constructors in their own right, and regard any move towards an alternative future as a threat – especially after the meeting failed to properly address the financial squeeze that the midfield teams are facing.

“There was no interest at all from the manufacturer teams in discussing anything to do with cost controls or more equitable income distribution,” Fernley told this writer. “It was completely abandoned in favour of the customer cars.

“In some ways it makes things abundantly clear where F1 is going. We’ve suspected that customer cars were wanted for quite some time, but this is the first time that it’s really moving through as the only alternative as far as the manufacturer teams are concerned.

“It’s not finalised as to what the package is, but there’s a clear process that’s going to happen now. If any teams fail, the manufacturer teams will run a third car, and in the mean time they will get on with putting together a proposal and a format for customer cars.

“Their intention would be to give the independent teams first refusal on those to see if they want to switch from being a constructor to a customer car team.

“However there will be significant downsides to that, as you can imagine. But the devil will be in the detail. In the mean time we’ve got to determine the direction that we want to go on in and look at how we protect our position.”

Fernley doesn’t believe that supplying customer cars would work for the big teams: “The question will be whether it’s even viable to have a customer car programme? That’s the bit that they’ve got to prove. They are adamant that it is, but I’m not convinced on that, and that would be the best way of putting it, I think. The independent teams are not involved in any of the solutions.”

The ongoing debate over teams being allowed to use a fifth engine in 2015 without a grid penalty will be one of the highest profile elements of Thursday’s F1 Strategy group meeting.

Last year the rules allowed teams to use five engines without penalty, but the figure went down to four this year as it was deemed that the manufacturers would be on top of reliability. However Renault has had a worse time than last season, while Honda is of course now in its own debut year.

The fifth engine originally emerged in the context of ensuring that teams do not start to sit in the garage on Fridays as the season goes on in order to save mileage, which is why Bernie Ecclestone gave his support.

However Renault and Honda’s ongoing problems have meant that extra engines and grid penalties are now inevitable for RBR, STR and McLaren, and there’s been a push for the fifth engine to simply be added to the pool, rather than reserved for Friday use.

The consensus is that its supporters will struggle to get the idea voted through. Mercedes will only support the fifth engine if it’s strictly related to Fridays. Meanwhile engine customers – such as Force India – are adamant that they don’t want to pay for the extra engine.

“We’re not against it,” Force India’s Bob Fearnley told this writer. “But we are absolutely against paying extra money for it, so on that principle the answer would be we wouldn’t vote for it.

“We’ve lost an engine with Nico [Hulkenberg], and we lost it very early in its life, so effectively we’re running a three-engine programme for one of our drivers. So the question is can we somehow or other eke it out, assuming we don’t lose another engine? If we’re going to do that obviously we’re doing it to try save money. We’d vote against the principle of it costing us more, that’s for sure.

“The thing is we don’t know what we’re voting on, because the original concept for this fifth engine was based around Fridays, so until we know how it’s addressing the Friday issue it’s very difficult to make a decision. For me it’s what are they trying to achieve with it? The original conversations were about making sure Fridays are still fully supported.”

McLaren and Honda are obviously keen for the change to go ahead, although team principal Eric Boullier admitted that he’s not hopeful.

“As far as McLaren is concerned obviously we would be happy to have a fifth engine,” said the Frenchman. “I think having [us as] a new engine manufacturer in F1 it would be fair to have the same conditions that the other ones had when they were running last year. So yes, we are in favour of a fifth engine. But I’m not sure it will be that easy.”

Meanwhile Ecclestone has admitted to this writer that the cost issue was the major problem: “We agreed, or all the teams agreed, to have five engines during the year. We’ve got four in the regulations, and now people are saying maybe it should stay four. People who supply the engines don’t want to supply more unless they get more money, and the teams can’t afford it.”