Adam Cooper F1

Red Bull and McLaren are embroiled in a legal tussle over the former’s new head of aerodynamics.

Red Bull confirmed today that Peter Prodromou is now on gardening leave pending his future arrival at McLaren, and that he has been replaced by Dan Fallows.

Fallows had also been destined for McLaren, but unlike Prodromou has clearly been convinced to return, and in a more senior role.

The team said in a statement: “Dan has worked as part of the team’s aerodynamic department for many years. Previously working as a Team Leader (Aerodynamics), he left the team for a short time last year. He has now returned to Infiniti Red Bull Racing to begin working in his new role.” It added: “We can confirm that Peter Prodromou has commenced a period of gardening leave; we would like to thank him for his valuable contribution during his time with the team.”

However McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said in a teleconference today that Fallows had a “legally binding” contract with the Woking team, and that the matter was in now in hands of lawyers.

Christian Horner says he was happy to bag a fourth and sixth place in Bahrain, a track that did not favour Red Bull.

Daniel Ricciardo did a particularly impressive job to move up from 13th place as both drivers were able to run quickly in the final stint, on the soft tyres.

“To get some points on the board is in many respects damage limitation, but we can also draw encouragement,” said Horner. “We were pretty competitive at the end of the race there, particularly with Daniel, but it’s a not insignificant gap that we’ve got to close to the Mercs.

“I think in clean air we could run at a reasonable pace, the problem that we’ve got is when we get into the DRS we just don’t have the straightline speed to make a passing move, and then you end up in a bit of a mess. I think that certainly that last stint, the way we planned it, worked out extremely well, getting rid of the primes on Seb’s first stint and Dan’s middle stint to be in reasonable shape at the end.”

Horner was happy that when they were on different tyres Vettel responded to a message to let his team mate past.

“That was team work as it should be. Both were on different strategies, it was something that we talked about prior to the race. Both were totally co-operative where they worked together. Sebastian said I’ll let him through at Turn 11, sacrificing as little speed as possible, leaving Daniel to get on with his race. Of course it switched through the pit stops back again, and then they were free to race over the last sector of the race.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will be allowed to race each other throughout the season.

He also acknowledged that it was important to have two drivers who could be trusted by the team.

“You need to have the drivers who understand where the team came from, and that it’s important not to risk the image of such a brand,” he said. “We’re representing a big brand, so you need to know what you do. And they did it in a fantastic and spectacular way. I’m happy.”

He confirmed that the situation would remain unchanged.

“Yes, until we lose some front wings! Then we sit down again and discuss if this was [the right] strategy. They’re racing drivers, it’s academic… Let’s leave it there!”

Asked if he has any doubts about allowing them to race, in Bahrain he said: “Turn 3 after the start of the race I had doubts! I was like, ‘No please, not for one and a half hours now!’. And then at the end when we had the restart we discussed that we trusted the drivers. We knew that they wouldn’t risk their own car and the one of the other driver. Nico is still in the championship lead, it’s about collecting solid points.”

“You know what we said was exactly the same sentence to both of them, just reminding them in a moment before the heat would start just to say don’t forget what we discussed. This was not at all a strategic call, it was just a gentle reminder of where we came from.”

Regarding the decision to put Rosberg on primes in the middle stint, he said: “We knew that the second car only had a chance to win if you offset him with the strategy. Both cars were on a strategy to win the race.”

Wolff said that the team thought Rosberg would be able to pass Hamilton in the closing stint.

“That was the theory, but Lewis had an amazing first couple of laps on the prime. We saw it in a previous stint, one of the Force Indias proved to be really quick on the prime.”

Meanwhile Wolff said he was not frustrated by the negative comments from Bernie Ecclestone and Luca di Montezemolo.

“We had some good discussions with all of them today, and I think it’s pretty clear that we love F1 and we don’t want to talk F1 down, and this is the kind of spirit that we want to have in our future discussions. It’s not frustrating. It’s good that they came here, and I think that race came at the right time.”

Lewis Hamilton called his brilliant Bahrain GP win one of the toughest of his career after he just managed to outfox team mate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton snuck past the pole man at the start, and survived a series of attacks from Rosberg, who was handed a second chance when the safety car cut the gap before the final sprint to the flag.

“This weekend started off well and then I seemed to lose pace while Nico picked up his pace,” said Hamilton. “Today, I knew I needed to get a good start and things generally went my way, except when the pace car came out.
“I think the last time I had a race like that would probably be Indianapolis, 2007. So, a long, long time. Nico drove fantastically well. When you’re with you’re team-mate it’s very, very hard to make the right decisions of where to put your car, where to brake, all these different things, but yeah, it was great.”
Hamilton admitted it wasn’t easy to fend off Rosberg in the final stint, when the German had the advantage of the softer tyre.

“It was incredibly tough. As I said, it was one of the toughest situations I’ve been in for a long time. The Option tyre, for us, we believe it is worth six-and-a-half tenths. To hold that behind, to keep him out of my gap, out of my slipstream and the DRS was very, very hard. To be pushing flat out for ten laps…

“It was an exceptional race, I think, to be able to have that. Me and Nico haven’t had a race like that since back in our karting days. I did think today, I was just saying to him today, there was a race we did years ago in… I don’t know what year it was, in karting, our first race together. He was leading the whole way and in the last lap I overtook him and won the race. I thought today for sure he’s going to do the same to me, and get me back. That’s what was going through my head.”

Regarding how close their fight was, he said: “A lot of times he was in my blind spot and I had no idea if he was there or not, so I tried to leave space. You don’t know whether he’s attacking or braking later into the next corner because you don’t even know where he is. That was very difficult.

“But for me it feels like a long time that I’ve been able to have a real racer’s race and really use whatever skills that I’ve acquired over the years as a youngster in karting. Being able to apply them in Formula One is a lot harder but to be able to pull them out of the bag and use them again… The time that I went round the outside or got back, just timing it right – you know, it’s a fantastic feeling to be able to do that. It’s one of the greatest feelings when you obviously come out on top.”

Luca di Montezemolo has reiterated his desire for future changes to the F1 rules – but insists that he doesn’t want to rein in Mercedes by implementing those changes in 2014.

The Ferrari presisdent is meeting with Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt this weekend.

“We want to increase the value, passion, the success of F1,” he said today. “The three problems are we cannot have an F1 that is energy/fuel economy formula, we have to push from the first lap until the last. If an engine drinks less fuel, good, it means that you can do the race with less fuel if you want.

“This is one point. The public doesn’t like a taxi driver that has to respect the fuel, this is not F1. The second problem is the music of the engine, not the noise, the music of the engine, that is F1, and the third is that the rules are too complicated, particularly for the people on the track, how can they understand the fuel meters? It’s really complicated.

“We have to do a formula that’s less complicated. For the short time, it’s good not to do anything, but maybe there are some ideas that we can share together, I emphasise together, to improve the situation. Because I don’t like to think even to think of the possibility of the F1 decline.”

When it was suggested that Ferrari and Renault need to do a better job, he insisted that his frustration was nothing to do with Ferrari’s current performance.

“You make a big confusion, as always happens when things are not clear. What I am saying is nothing to do with the today rules. Ferrari has already said that they were against the limit of fuel, because this is not F1, and I told lost Christmas in front of all the journalists that I was very afraid that the new formula means that the drivers are taxi drivers. But this is nothing to do with the today formula.

“We have to take car of some indications from the public to look ahead and to change something without interfering with the today rules. I think if somebody is in the lead, as is Mercedes, it’s absolutely correct not to change something now, even if cut, it’s a proposal from Bernie Ecclestone, one lap, just to give the public the feeling that you can push from the start to the end, it doesn’t change anything for anybody.

“Ferrari, with the rules of today, they have to be more competitive, so I’m pushing to be more competitive. It’s not a question to change the rules now. For the future, it’s a different situation.”