Adam Cooper F1

The FIA could take another look at the Felipe Massa/Sergio Perez incident at the Canadian GP after Force India claimed that it had “new elements” to back up its case.

Perez received a five-place grid penalty for this weekend after the last lap incident.

The Austrian GP stewards will examine the Force India evidence at 9am on Friday, and if they decide that new elements have indeed emerged they will convene to formally consider if there should be any impact on the original decision.

The FIA rules allow the Austrian stewards to take the place of their counterparts in Canada, who due to logistical issues cannot reconvene in their own right.

“We know he’s a good driver,” said Perez of Massa. “He has his opinion, I have my opinion. We just have to sit down. We will get the opportunity tomorrow with the FIA to review the accident once again as we believe we have enough evidence to prove that I did nothing wrong.”

Luca di Montezemolo has written to Bernie Ecclestone and Donald McKenzie of F1 shareholder CVC to express his concerns about the future of the sport.

The Ferrari boss wants to host a meeting of key players in order to discuss what might be done. Montezemolo has made it clear recently that he is not happy with the current regulations. He also wants F1 to officially embrace social media.

The Ferrari website outlined the contents of the letter today, and its statement is worth reproducing in full:

“Ferrari has had Formula 1 coursing through its veins for over half a century and that’s why it has decided to make a move to turn the sport away from the wrong turn it appears to have taken.

“Finding the right mix of these ingredients will be vital for the sustainability and the future success of our much-loved sport.”

Christian Horner says that the Canadian GP win is a big boost for both Red Bull and Renault, but stresses that the gap to Mercedes remains huge.

“Let’s not beat about the bush, Mercedes were the quickest car today,” said Horner. “They ran into their issues, whatever they were. We’ve had issues at other points in the season. They were very, very strong here this weekend. We’ve still got a lot to do. I think we were 12-15km/h slower compared to a Force India or a Williams on the straight, and that’s where we need to improve. It’s great motivation for Renault to get a double podium here, to get the first win of the year. It’s a fantastic performance.”

Horner agreed that the team has made progress, even if it still lags behind its main rival.

“If you think where we were three months ago, it’s an enormous effort by all the team in Milton Keynes, all the team in Viry, everybody doing their bit to get us into a position to not only win the race but have two cars on the podium.

“You guys were asking at one point can Mercedes win all the races? I think I said theoretically they could, and in all probability they wouldn’t. What we’ve managed to do is to keep chipping away, we’ve managed to improve the car, managed to improve the engine, and we were there to capitalise on the misfortune of Mercedes today. We’ve got to keep pushing and keep closing that gap down, because it’s still significant.”

Horner was full of praise for Ricciardo: “The way he’s driven, the way he’s made his passing moves when he’s needed to this year, he’s driven faultlessly all season. He’s grabbed his opportunity today and I’m delighted for him that he’s won his first Grand Prix. It’s a wonderful feeling for any driver. It was nice to have Sebastian up on the podium to enjoy it with him, and it’s a very special day in his life and career. It will probably take a day or two to sink in.”

Both Mercedes drivers were hit by an unexpected overheating problem with the Motor Generator Unit (Kinetic) in Canada, and it was just bad luck that saw Lewis Hamilton retire while Nico Rosberg was able to carry on.

The problems arose around the time of the second stops, just as Hamilton passed Rosberg for the lead. It was the time spent at rest in the pit lane – with no cooling air going through the system – that tipped Hamilton over the edge and led to his retirement.

Rosberg was forced to run the remainder of the race without the benefit of power derived from recovered braking energy.

“We had a failure of the engine control systems on the ERS, on the MGU-K,” said Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff. “We had a peak in temperatures. They had exactly the same power units and they were racing at exactly the same pace and had exactly the same temperatures. In that particular part of the MGU-K we saw temperatures which were higher than expected, but we weren’t aware that they could have such a detrimental effect. The MGU-K just shut down, and we couldn’t reset it.

“We are keeping all those temperatures under observation, and we know where we are critical and where it’s important. In that case it was something that we didn’t spot before. It’s just another part which we have to analyse and understand, and I guess this can happen. The consequence was obviously detrimental to the whole car, to the brakes.

“We told both drivers to manage the brakes, because when you lose the electric motor, you lose the electric braking. The brakes were overheating massively, so we changed the balance within the braking system, and told them to be more careful. It’s what both of them did, both of them complied to exactly what they’ve been told. It’s very marginal – Lewis entered into the pits, the car is static, the temperatures rise, and when he went out the pedal just went soft and then fell down completely. On Nico’s car he was lucky not to have that.”

Wolff was full of praise for Rosberg’s efforts: “It was really damage limitation for him, so what a drive.”

Red Bull has put a stop to speculation about Ferrari’s interest in Adrian Newey by confirming that he will be with the company for the long haul.

Intriguingly he will get involved in some new projects, and it’s apparent that he will be taking a step back from his current F1 duties.

A statement said: “Red Bull is pleased to confirm that it has extended its successful relationship with Adrian Newey with a new multi-year agreement.

“As part of this new agreement, Adrian will work on new Red Bull Technology projects, as well as advising and mentoring Infiniti Red Bull Racing as it develops its Formula One cars over the next few seasons. The details of the new projects will be announced in due course.”