Adam Cooper F1

The new McLaren shows its distinctive nose…

McLaren has shown the first pictures of its MP4-29, showing, as expected, a not very pretty nose.

Intriguingly Martin Whitmarsh is not quoted in the media kit accompanying the launch, with MD Jonathan Neale and sporting director Sam Michael doing the talking.

“We’ve made no secret of our disappointment at how the 2013 season turned out,” said Michael. “The aim now is to get back to winning – that’s what McLaren exists to do – but there’s a certain amount of growth and regrowth that needs to take place before we return to a position where we can challenge for the world championship.

“The good thing is that we’ve acknowledged that, and we’ve actually been working towards that goal for many months now. We have Honda waiting in the wings, we have a number of key technical staff bolstering our existing design and engineering teams, and we are fostering the careers of our young drivers, all of whom have an incredible amount of potential. The future for McLaren is bright, and we’re now putting in place the processes that will move us closer to our goals.”

Regarding the team’s hopes for this year he said: “For 2014, our aim is for continuous development; we’ll be refining and strengthening the car and the organisation throughout the year, so you’ll see a rapid turnover of parts and ideas on the car as we, like every team, wrestle with the many unique challenges of these new regulations.

“More immediately, our aim is to enjoy a smooth winter at all three tests, hopefully learning a lot as we go, and hopefully developing MP4-29 into something consistent, useable and quick.

“I think the key to the first quarter of the season could well be consistency. It’ll be critical in the pre-season tests – firstly, to enable the drivers and engineers to learn about and understand the behavior of the new car; but, secondly, to provide us with the mileage and data our designers at the MTC need to further refine and develop the car for the year ahead.

“It’ll be a season of complexity and subtlety; we won’t find ourselves in a situation where the guy who wins the first race goes on to win the championship, I think it’ll be unpredictable and exciting – and that’s fantastic news for Formula 1’s fans.

“One thing is for certain, though, there’ll be a lot of cross-pollination of ideas during the season as the best concepts and solutions proliferate. We’re proud of some of the concepts we’ll be introducing with this car but, likewise, there’ll be areas where we can learn and improve.”

Here’s the first image of the Lotus E22

Lotus has timed the release of the first image of its E22 to co-incide with the McLaren launch. The car appears to have different take on the nose scenario compared with other cars seen so far, with an unusual twin-pronged approach.

The team issued the image just as McLaren was unveiling its car online in what was clearly an attempt to gain some positive PR just hours after Lotus revealed that team principal Eric Boullier was leaving – possibly for a new job at McLaren.

The car now carries the logos of Pastor Maldonado’s sponsor PDVSA, while a new deal with Yotaphone was announced today.

Lotus has confirmed that Eric Boullier has left the team and that co-owner Gerard Lopez is taking over as team principal.

Boullier is believed to be on his way to McLaren, whose 2014 car will be revealed today.

The loss of Boullier is clearly a blow for Lotus, as he is highly rated in the paddock and is respected by Bernie Ecclestone.

A team statement said: “In order to continue strengthening its management structure, to further increase Genii’s role in the team and to close the gap between its strategic, commercial and sporting activities, Lotus F1 Team is pleased to announce that its co-Chairman, Gérard Lopez, will combine his position on the board with the role of Team Principal with immediate effect. As a result, the other chairmanship responsibilities will be shared with co-Chairman Andy Ruhan.

“The team will announce the arrival of new commercial partners and sponsors when it unveils its 2014 car, the E22, at the beginning of the first Bahrain pre-season test in February. The team will also confirm its organisational structure for 2014 ahead of this test. The team management, car and partner portfolio will illustrate the team’s will and desire to continue its quest to become one of the strongest teams in Formula 1 in every sense.”

Lopez added: “Lotus F1 Team has never stood still and we head into what promises to be an exciting 2014 season with an innovative new car, new partners and a new management structure at Enstone. Great things have been achieved over the past years and we need to continue this momentum.

“With this in mind, we are proud to announce that we have concluded an agreement with YotaPhone and its shareholders. YotaPhone shareholders will become important partners to Genii and YotaPhone a sponsor to the Lotus F1 team this year. We thank Eric for all his hard work over the past four years and we are confident we can continue to fight as one of the top teams in Formula 1 over the seasons ahead.”

Daniel Juncadella has joined Force India as reserve driver, and the Spaniard will take part in FP1 sessions for the team.

He will also continue with his DTM programme for Mercedes, suppliers of Force India’s power unit and gearbox.

“Over the last few years we have always tried to support young, talented drivers,” said Vijay Mallya. “And we will continue down this path by giving Daniel the opportunity to drive the VJM07 on Friday mornings at selected races. Daniel will also play an important role in our simulator programme at the factory, which remains an increasingly important development tool.”

Juncadella added: “Joining Sahara Force India is a dream come true. It’s a fantastic opportunity for me to learn and will hopefully take me a step closer to eventually racing in Formula One. To work with the team at the track and in the factory will give me some valuable experience and I will do my best to make a contribution to help the team achieve its goals in 2014.”

The FIA has confirmed its earlier plan to introduce cost control and cost reduction regulations for 2015, following a meeting yesterday.

The regulations will be presented to the World Motor Sport Council in June and will come into force for the start of next season.

An FIA statement said: “The FIA President reaffirmed to members of the WMSC the FIA’s intention to assure a healthy, affordable and spectacular FIA Formula One World Championship for the long-term future. At a meeting of the F1 Strategy Group yesterday, chaired by the FIA President, and attended by Bernie Ecclestone and the teams, it was unanimously agreed that cost reduction and cost control regulations will be presented to the WMSC in June 2014 for introduction in January 2015.”

Meanwhile, there have been some updates to the rules both for this year and beyond, although they have yet to be fully ratified. One of the most intriguing is that from 2015 teams can share suspension and brake duct designs:

Amendments to the 2014 Sporting Regulations were also approved, but are subject to ratification by the F1 Commission and teams. These include:

– The car minimum weight has been increased by 10kg, to 701kg, for 2015
– All tyre heating devices will be prohibited in 2015
– For safety reasons, the front part of the chassis will not be able to climb too steeply rearward of the front of the chassis.

Stoffel Vandoorne has been named as McLaren’s reserve driver, and the Belgian will also run a season of GP2 with ART.

Vandoorne lost out to colleague Kevin Magnussen in the fight for the Renault 3.5 title last year. He’s clearly being lined up for a promotion to a race seat should an opportunity arise.

“I’ve been a member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme for almost a year now, and I’ve learned an enormous amount in that time,” said Vandoorne. “I visit the McLaren Technology Centre at least once a week, sometimes more often than that, and I’ve done a lot of work in the MTC simulator to assist McLaren’s Formula 1 engineers develop the new-for-2014 MP4-29 Formula 1 car.

“Equally, I’ve worked very hard on my physical and mental fitness over the past year, and the McLaren Young Driver Programme has been absolutely fantastic in that respect. The guys at Woking really know how to prepare a driver for Formula 1, and I’ve really enjoyed working with them. I still do.”

Sporting director Sam Michael said: “Stoffel is a truly excellent young driver – fast, combative, consistent, intelligent and ambitious – and he’s already made an excellent impression on all at McLaren during the year he’s spent as a member of the McLaren Young Driver Programme.
“His technical input is first-class, he’s excellent in our simulator, and he isn’t afraid of hard work. He has a collaborative and engaging manner, and he’s therefore as popular at McLaren as he is helpful.”

Williams give us the first ‘official’ view of a 2014 nose

Williams has unveiled the first images of its new Mercedes-powered FW36, giving us the first ‘official’ look at what noses will look like in 2014.

“This is the first time that Williams has worked with Mercedes in F1 and we’ve been very impressed,” said chief technical officer Pat Symonds. “Their professionalism and commitment have been notable and we’re as confident as we can be that the power unit will be competitive.

“Overall the cars will need more cooling this year. The demands on water and oil cooling may be slightly diminished, but the ERS system is significantly more powerful and hence needs more cooling. We also have to cool the charge air from the turbocharger compressor which requires a substantial intercooler.

“The build of the new car has gone remarkably smoothly. But it’s been a challenge to get the car down to the weight limit. It’s been achievable, but it hasn’t been easy because the new power unit is heavier than the outgoing V8.”

The team says that the new gearbox ran on the dyno at the beginning of November, before running with the full power unit several weeks later.

“We finished the gearbox relatively early. It’s completed a lot of running on the test rig and at Mercedes HPP in Brixworth, but you can’t take reliability for granted. It’s a completely new ‘box and it has to cope with a lot more torque than was the case with the V8.”

The team confirmed that what we will see in testing is a launch spec aero package, with a revised one due for the first race. Most teams are likely to follow a similar path.

“F1 is still going to be an aerodynamic formula in 2014. There are some significant changes: the nose is lower than last year and the front wing is narrower, which means the end plates are now more shrouded by the front tyre. The rear wing isn’t as deep as last year and the beam wing below it is no longer permitted, and we’ve also lost the ability to use the exhaust to enhance aero performance.”

Bernie Ecclestone has received some respite in his ongoing legal battles with the news that an action in the USA has been dismissed by the Supreme Court of the State Of New York.

The action was taken by investment company Bluewaters Communications Holdings, which lost out to CVC when the F1 business was sold in 2005. Bluewaters complained that CVC had actually made a lower bid.

The action was taken against Ecclestone, CVC and related companies Bambino, Alpha Prema, Alpha Topco and Delta Topco, along with the BayernLB bank and its former employee Gerhard Gribkowsky.

Bluewaters was seeking $650m in damages, based on claims of “fraudulent concealment, tortious interference, unjust enrichment and aiding and abetting tortious interference and fraudulent concealment.”

The defendants – with the exception of Gribkowsky – subsequently contended in essence that New York was not the right place for the case to be heard.

Bluewaters in turn said that this was a “multijurisdictional action with no single convenient forum available to all parties.”

However, the NY Supreme Court has disagreed, and its judgement says “what it ignores is that this case involves a foreign plaintiff and that all eight defendants are foreign; the crucial events happened in Europe; the bulk of the discovery will happen abroad; the dispute is governed by either English or German law; and at least three more convenient forums are available – England, Germany, and Jersey.”

It remains to be seen whether the case now fades away or Bluewaters does indeed attempt to relaunch it in Europe.

Vijay Mallya says he’s excited ahead of a new season that sees Force India running a new driver line-up as well as a fresh livery.

The VJM07 is the first 2014 car unveiled to the public thus far, albeit with one side view photo.

“I always enjoy seeing a Formula One car come to life, but I can’t remember so much anticipation ahead of a new season,” said Mallya. “The rule changes have presented us with a huge challenge, but I’m very proud of the approach we have taken and the direction of the technical team. It will be fascinating to see how different teams have interpreted the rules and at this stage it’s impossible to predict who has done the best job. It’s this uncertainty that should make for a very entertaining season of racing, which is great news for the fans.

“We’ve got to aim higher than last year. It’s an ambitious goal, but I believe it’s a realistic one because we have to look forward and take the fight to the teams ahead of us. We have the key elements in place to continue moving forward, such as our expanded agreement with Mercedes-Benz to include the complete power unit and gearbox. As I’ve said before, I believe they represent the best partner to work with in this new era of Formula One. Combined with our strong driver line-up there is definitely the potential for 2014 to be our strongest season yet.”

Mallya says he’s excited about the driver line-up.

“I’m very happy to have such an exciting pairing of Nico and Checo. My philosophy has always been to choose drivers based on their speed and ability to perform, and we’ve done that again this year. Nico has been with us before, so we understand him and know how quick he is. It’s great to have him back. As for Sergio, he’s an exceptionally talented driver who I have watched carefully over the last three years. He’s clearly got incredible speed and at just 23 has great potential. “As a combination we thought they would make a strong pairing. Nico will be a good benchmark for Sergio, and vice versa, and they will bring out the best in each other.”

“The new car livery reflects the way Sahara Force India is evolving. I’ve always believed the saffron, white and green livery has made our cars the most eye-catching, but adding black as a main colour gives us a fierce new look. The national colours of India remain an integral part of the car, but the tiger has become a panther! As we enter our seventh season with new partnerships and new names on the car, our contemporary new look helps signal our ambition.”

Force India has shown a picture of its new car

Force India has unveiled a picture of its new VJM07, featuring a dramatic new livery. However the side view doesn’t give much indication of what the new nose looks like.

Technical Director Andrew Green said: “Almost every single part is a new design, from the front wing right back to the diffuser. The genetics of the VJM07 still lie in the 2013 car, but we’ve had to achieve the same results in a slightly different way.

“It’s been a massive job to accommodate all the changes to the power unit – it’s the biggest change I’ve witnessed in the sport since I started in 1990. Cooling has been the biggest challenge with most of last summer taken up trying to understand the cooling requirements of the power unit, and how best to optimise it in the chassis.”

Green says that outwardly the car looks similar to its predecessor, apart of course from the nose.

“From where we stand it doesn’t look hugely different, but it is, every single part of it is different, from the front wing right back to the diffuser. Its genetics still lie in the 2013 car, and it’s based around the same concepts, But we’ve had to achieve the same results in a slightly different way. The nose is a stand out, but from the nose backwards, it looks quite similar. It’s a little bit ‘fatter’ for the cooling requirements, but we hope to trim that fat out during the early part of the season. If you want to be competitive you have to develop, because there are so many areas that need refining if you’re going to optimise the car. It’s a big challenge.

“The aerodynamic changes in themselves would have been significant, even if there had been no other changes. There’s quite a dramatic reduction in downforce, especially with regard to the exhaust – there’s very little you can do to capture the exhaust energy. That’s a big loss on the exit of corners, so traction becomes a premium. That combined with a change in the front wing width changed all the flow structures on the car completely. That was a big task, rebuilding all those structures from the front, and then there’s a smaller rear wing as well.

“The loss of the lower wing, or beam wing, leads to a signifcant loss of performance. That lower wing helped connect the diffuser to the top wing, and gave those two areas a lot of support. Without it it became very difficult to extract performance, and it’s going to be quite a tricky area to keep stable. So there’s quite a dramatic loss in headline downforce numbers, while there’s also a drop in drag, which has fallen quite dramatically as well.”