Adam Cooper F1

The FIA World Motor Sport Council has confirmed that it is willing to sanction F1 cost-cutting measures, which will have to be agreed before the end of this month.

The FIA has not given any details of possible amendments to the technical regulations, but issued the following statement today:

“At their request, the FIA is having active discussions with teams regarding cost control and any amendments to the technical regulations resulting from a further limit on expenditure on the chassis will be submitted to the WMSC via a fax vote before 30 June. The intention is to help all teams participate in the Championship in a fair and equal manner.

“Constructive Concorde Agreement discussions are on-going between the FIA and the Commercial Rights Holder, with the intention of finalising an agreement in the coming weeks. It was also decided that the deadline for the closing of entries be deferred to 30 September.”

The ‘invisible’ garages were not popular with teams or fans last year

The garages of the top F1 teams have been moved to the middle of the pit lane for the British GP, so that fans will be able to see them.

At the first race with the new Silverstone pit complex last season the garages of Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and to some extent Mercedes disappeared into the unusual ‘railway cutting’ at the far end of the pitlane, and could not be seen from the spectator area opposite.

An additional concern for RBR was that the last garage was so close to the white line marking the pit exit that its drivers were not able to accelerate up to the speed limit before crossing it, which created a small disadvantage at each stop.

The allocation, which is decided by FOM rather than the FIA, has been changed for this year. However on a one-off basis instead of the World Champions being at one end and the remaining teams laid out in 2011 championship order, the top teams have been put in the middle, and the rest spread out on either side.

“The pit lane is a little bit unusual,” McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh told this blog. “Last year some of us enjoyed no view of the stands, and consequently presumably they enjoyed no view of us. It’s easy after the event to be critical of that. But this year we will have a different garage allocation, and we’ll see a bit of sun in our garage.

“We’re more or less in the middle. No one’s explained exactly why! I imagine the desire is to put us in front of the grandstand, which is a good thing. If I was a grandstand ticket buyer and I got there and I couldn’t see my favourite teams, I’d be a bit non-plussed by it.”

Lotus is hoping improved qualifying form will give it a better chance of scoring an elusive win in the near future.

Romain Grosjean used a one-stop strategy to finish second in Canada, 2.5s behind Lewis Hamilton, having started only seventh. The team has had several near misses this year.

“In qualifying we were struggling a bit, and we have been struggling in qualifying, that is where we need to work,” director of trackside operations Alan Permane told this blog. “I think some of that is driver, and some of that is car. I think Romain would acknowledge himself that he’s not 100% comfortable with things in qualifying, but stick some fuel in it and get into a nice rhythm, and it’s fine.”

Permane says that while Grosjean played a part, it was the car that allowed him to do a long second stint on the soft tyres in Canada.

“I don’t want to take anything away from the drivers, but a lot of it is the car. It’s no accident that two drivers can make a one-stop work in this car, and two drivers in the Ferrari can’t make it work. Fernando is a fantastic driver, and if anyone can make a one-stop work, he can. So that’s down to the car, but the drivers are then doing their bit to make that work for sure.”

Permane says the team was not disappointed with Kimi Raikkonen finishing only eighth, despite being on a similar strategy to third placed Sergio Perez. In fact the Finn finished only a few seconds behind fifth placed Alonso.

“It kind of worked OK, he started 12^th and finished eighth, you can’t expect a great deal more than that on a track with low degradation and where it’s very difficult to make up places at the start. I think if we would have started on the option with him we would have just been matching what everybody else did, but we’ll have a look.”

He added that the E20 has the potential to be fast everywhere: “Honestly, I think all tracks will suit us.”

Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo has made clear his support of controlling F1 costs as discussions about the new Concorde Agreement and the future of the sport continue in the background.

Di Montezemolo used his company’s website to send out a clear message, while also expressing support for the FIA.

“The world economic situation and that of Europe in particular, is very serious and the world of Formula 1 cannot ignore the fact,” he was quoted as saying. “We cannot lose any more time – we need to tackle urgently and with determination the question of costs. Ferrari is in agreement with the FIA’s position that drastic intervention is required. We are absolutely convinced that, as I have always said, the teams and the commercial rights holder must work together with the Federation on this front.

“This is no longer the moment for getting bogged down in sterile discussions or the meanderings of engineers, usually only concerned in defending the interests of someone or other. The question has to be tackled at the highest level, without further delay.”

Meanwhile Di Montezemolo said he had no complaints about Ferrari’s failed strategy in Canada, seeing positives in the fact that the team was in contention for a win until the closing stages of the race.

“I am not used to dealing with regrets as I prefer to always look forwards. In Montreal, I saw a team with a great will to win and that was seen right to the very end, maybe even taking some risks that might have been excessive.

“To see a Ferrari fighting for the win right to the end is just what I want to see and so do our fans. I am pleased with the progress seen over these past few races, but my thoughts and all the efforts of the Scuderia are already focussed on Valencia and then Silverstone, where we must make further steps forward. We must continue down this road, aware, as I am keen to repeat one more time, that success in this championship depends only on ourselves.”

Martin Whitmarsh has praised Lewis Hamilton for his superb drive to victory in Canada, and especially the way he worked with the tyres over the course of the race.

Hamilton scored his third Montreal win after re-catching Alonso and Vettel following his second pit stop in dramatic fashion. It was his first success of the season, and came on the fifth anniversary of his first ever F1 win.

“Lewis is really on top form with these tyres, they’re particularly difficult,” said Whitmarsh. “He could turn them on, and you could see at various times he held and controlled the gap with Fernando. We prompted him a bit and he’d suddenly go purple. It was classic Lewis, very much in control, of his pace and very much in control of the race as a consequence.

“It was massively well deserved. He’s been unfortunate this year, and he should have had one or two wins before now. It’s pretty fitting to come here, the scene of his first ever Grand Prix victory. It’s special for me, I joined him on the podium for his first victory here. I don’t often go up, but I was delighted to go up for this one.”

Whitmarsh says it’s still impossible to judge how the formbook is going to develop in the coming races.

“Today we were strong. I wish we could guarantee that we’d be strong in Valencia, but I can’t! We’ll try our best. We keep saying it, but it’s seven races and seven winners. I think we’ve virtually run out of options anyway, so we’re probably going to have a duplicate at the next race.”

He believes it’s too early suggest that the top three established teams will now start to collect more race wins and pull away from the rest.

“You’ve got us much data as me! I hope so but I have no idea. I actually do think this so close, the tyres are so tricky, it can swing any way. It’s so critical. You see that going through qualifying. It’s bloody difficult to get through, conserving your tyres, and you’ve got to be absolutely every step of the weekend now making the right engineering decisions, making the right operational decisions, being error free. It’s massively tough.

“But it’s great, it’s how it should be, isn’t it? I’m delighted for F1. I’d love us to be walking away comfortably with the championship, but it’s not going to be that way. This is an abnormal season, and I think it’s going to be like this right to the end.

“We leave here with Lewis leading the championship, but we don’t think this is now in cruise mode, we’re going to win. Who knows, it could go horribly wrong in an instant at the next race. That’s how it should be. The team responds well to that, we’re fighters.”

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali says that valuable points went astray in Canada, and admits in hindsight the team made mistakes, especially by not pitting in response to Sebastian Vettel’s second stop.

However he insists that it was a positive weekend overall, and that the team has made a step forward.

Domenicali said that the evidence suggested that staying out was the right thing to do, and that the Spaniard’s tyres had gone off unexpectedly dramatic fashion.

“At the end of the day the race was once again disappointing for myself because we didn’t bring back the points that the car that we have seen here this weekend should have provided,” he said. “This is the bitter [side] that we have today here in Canada.

“But on the other side I think the people should be happy that the car is once again on the right line in terms of competitiveness, and this is the most important thing, considering that the championship is completely open, Hamilton now is leading Fernando is second by two points. The only thing is to keep pushing and put the performance on the car, up to the moment where we at least we will not be in pole position, we cannot be happy.

“We will bring new updates for Valencia, because that’s the only way that we have to do to make sure [we progress]. As we said, the first objective is not to fight as we did here for pole position, but to be able to do a pole position after such a long time, of course there will be another evolution, but I’m sure the other teams will do the same. It’s a matter to see how the package is performing on the track, and that will be the difference.”

Domenicali expects the top three drivers to now emerge as the title contenders.

“I think that the end of the day I believe that looking how things are, the championship could be a fight between Fernando, Lewis and Sebastian, that’s what I think. Maybe after Valencia things could be different, but honestly I think the championship could evolve towards a fight between the first three drivers.”

Domenicali also defended Felipe Massa: “I think that apart from the mistake that he did in corner one, he did a really good race, when he came back into the rhythm he was really good. It was unfortunate because without that mistake he could be much higher in terms of position, 100%.”

Sebastian Vettel says he has no regrets about the strategy Red Bull employed in Canada, despite losing out at the end of the race.

Vettel and Fernando Alonso both stayed out when Lewis Hamilton pitted, only to suffer severe tyre degradation. Vettel eventually chose to stop after all, and ultimately salvaged fourth, so in the end he dropped only one position.

“We found ourselves in third place,” said the German of the latter stages ofof the race. “I think initially I could have gone a little bit faster, but then we were more or less at the same pace, so I tried to stabilise and try to make the one-stop work, which looked quite promising, let’s say 15 laps to the end. But as it turned out it was the wrong strategy, and the same for Fernando really.

“Obviously when you are in the race you don’t know what will be the final outcome. At the time Lewis decided to box when he was in the lead I think Fernando and myself were a little bit surprised because the tyres seemed to hold up fairly well, but then all of a sudden they started to go off in the end.

“Obviously we were hoping to get the place back against Lewis, but it was pretty obvious then there was no way to hold him. In the end we decided to box again, we lost a podium but I think we made the right decision, because at the time we went for the stop we were three or four seconds behind Fernando, and we finished ahead. I think you saw how much he was struggling, he had no more traction. It was very similar when I decided to pit three or four laps before it.”

Vettel insisted that despite turning pole into fourth, it was a good weekend for himself and the team.

“As I said now it’s easy to know everything, but it’s nevertheless a very good weekend for us. Very consistent, and if we keep going in that direction then hopefully we can make another step forward for Valencia.

“It’s a different track. We’ll see. We have two weeks now, maybe we are allowed to open the holes in the floor again! I don’t know. Obviously the whole team back in Milton Keynes is pushing very hard. I think we’ve been close again, and as I said in the end it was good points, but surely at some stage it looked more promising for a podium.

“It’s always easy to step out of the car and say here and there we should have done this and that. It’s up to us to learn a lesson, and then make a step forward.”

Sergio Perez bounced back from a recent run of disappointments to take an impressive third place in Canada after charging from 15th on the grid.

Like runner-up Romain Grosjean, he did it on one stop. However, while the Lotus driver started on supersofts and went to the soft, Perez did it the other way around, starting on the softs.

He pitted on lap 41, leaving himself with a marathon 29 lap run to the flag on the supersofts. He kept them in good shape and in the closing laps he was able to get ahead of Vettel and Alonso to claim second.

Without his qualifying crash – now confirmed as being due to a steering problem – Perez could well have been on the podium in Monaco, so the result came as a timely boost.

“It was a great race for the whole team,” said Perez. “After such a disappointing qualifying that we had yesterday, with so little pace as well – we didn’t have the pace we wanted to – so we had to fight in a different way with the strategy, and try to make it work and make it happen with the strategy.

“We didn’t have any reference on the long runs. The long runs we did with the tyres, it was 10-15°C less track temperature. So, it was a lottery, basically, but I think the team has done a great job with the stop and the strategy, myself too, keeping the tyres alive and being so consistent.

“It’s been a great result for the whole team. We have been so unlucky since Malaysia. We had the pace but for some reason or another we don’t manage to get the result in the end. I think it’s great to come back into the points with another podium.”

Perez expects to be a player for the rest of the season: “The thing is we long to fight for a podium every race. Today was a very crazy race, as we have had many of this year. But I think we have the potential to do it. This has to be the target, to get the first win this season for our team.”

Romain Grosjean surprised rivals by making a one-stop strategy work in Montreal while the likes of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel failed to do so, allowing the Frenchman to steal a remarkable second place in the closing laps.

Grosjean was able to stretch his first stint on supersoft tyres out to 21 laps, while Vettel pitted on lap 16 and Alonso on lap 17.

However he kept his soft tyres alive even longer than those lap differentials suggest, and while Alonso and Vettel struggled with degradation, he kept up a good pace.

Grosjean dedicated his result to his friend Guillaume Moreau, who was injured in a Le Mans testing crash last week.

“It wasn’t easy at the start because basically I was fighting in the traffic and I didn’t know whether the guys were going to do one-stop, two-stops,” said the Frenchman. “And then I tried to jump Rosberg on a pitstop, but it didn’t work, so I was behind him again. And when you follow a car it’s not easy to save your tyres and protect a little bit.

“I know that we were trying to go for one-stop and I didn’t really know what to think about. Then I saw Nico coming to the pit and thought ‘good news.’ And then I caught Mark. Mark was quite the same pace as I was, so it wasn’t easy, and then he went to the pit as well. Then I was more safe and I couldn’t realize from P9 – I think – on my pit board to P2 in a few laps.

“I didn’t really understand what was going on, but I knew that we had to carry good pace. Again, the team did an incredible job to give me a good car in the race.”

Grosjean said having a decent result after so much frustration was a big boost.

“It means quite a lot. It means that we’re in good shape for working with the team who are improving every time. We had a bad Friday with quite different conditions compared to today and having to learn the track and the set-up of the car wasn’t easy and I’m sure we could have achieved better but we know it for the rest of the season.

“We are working quite well, so I’m pretty pleased with this podium. It means that we are still here after seven races and it was not one shot that we could get in Bahrain. We are still fighting at the front with good performance and the team is doing well with the Lotus E20.”

Good strategy and some great driving ensured that Lewis Hamilton became the seventh winner in as many races this season with his superb victory in Canada.

Hamilton moved himself into the lead of the World Championship, and also continued his record of either winning or crashing in Montreal.

He made his second pit stop on lap 50 and then successfully chased down Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, who had stayed out on their old tyres.

“I think the team did a really great job with the pitstops and the strategy,” said Hamilton. “I was very, very surprised that I was able to look after my tyres and then push at the times that I needed to push. I was very, very surprised in the first stint, that I was able to close up on Sebastian. I never thought they would have such degradation.

“And so to catch them, and see them go in, and then still be able to push, was a real pleasure to see, because it’s very, very rare. But I knew that Fernando was going to be the one to beat. When he was behind me I thought he was going to be the one to beat today, as he generally has great pace on long runs. But we did it. I wasn’t able to do a one-stop. I don’t think I would have been able to do it – I think I would have fallen back as they did, perhaps even further. I think a two-stop was just right.”

Hamilton said a two-stop was always the plan: “Of course we went into the race knowing that we’d be doing a two-stop. And when the guys were behind me, I kinda had a feeling that Fernando would be doing a one-stop, so I knew I had to make a gap while looking after the tyres. I was able to make a gap and then hold it, even though Fernando started to pick his pace up. It was one of the best stints that I’ve had for a long, long time.

“And then at the end I had a serious gap to catch up but I was able to be 1.5-1.7 seconds faster than Fernando each lap, which was fantastic. And the greatest thing here is that at this circuit you can overtake. Even if it’s not the back straight, you still have opportunities to overtake, which always gives us good races.”

Lewis says he expects the unpredictability to continue as the year goes on.

“I think this mix-up is normal, this is what is going to be normal for the season. It’s just my feeling, but then again my guess is as a good as yours. I think it will continue to be like this throughout the year. We’re still trying to fully understand these tyres. Sometimes you’re overheating them, sometimes you’re not heating them up enough.

“We don’t understand why sometimes a Lotus is quicker than us, or a Mercedes is quicker than us and then we’re quicker than them another time. But I think it’s great for Formula One, it’s great for the fans to see. I’m guessing there was a lot of overtaking today and a real mix-up and as I said, seven different winners in seven races – I can’t remember hearing of anything like that. I hope there’s no more, I hope there’s not eight winners!

“I’m definitely not going to change my approach, but I think it’s working reasonably well so far. I probably definitely had to be more on the limit today to catch the two guys ahead, perhaps a little bit more risky than in the past, but it is about consistency this year.

“I think it will be about consistency. It’s unbelievable to see just how close it is. We got a win and 25 points and I only have a two point lead, so it’s incredible how close it is and I think it will stay that close throughout the year. Again, it just highlights how important consistency is.”