Adam Cooper F1

Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg say that Mercedes is in good shape going into the first race in Australia, following the recent test in Barcelona.

Mercedes has appeared to be struggling in February testing, but Ross Brawn always maintained that later winter updates would make the difference.

“We are well prepared,” said Schumacher. “All of the hard work over the winter will start to come together over the first few races and then we will know more about the position we are in, and what still needs to be achieved as Formula One never stands still of course. I feel very ‘at home’ with the team after one year of working together and this experience has really benefited our pre-season preparations.”

“We’re in good shape,” added Nico Rosberg. “The team and car have progressed a lot over the winter, we’re pleased with the performance from our upgrades and the car is handling well. Our aim is to make a good step forward from last season and I am confident that we will be able to achieve this.”

Meanwhile Brawn said: “Our pre-season programme has gone as well as we could have wanted. However, as always, the first race will be the real measure of where we are in terms of competitiveness. Everyone is eagerly waiting to see how the grid shakes out in Melbourne, and wherever we find ourselves, we will respond accordingly.

“Our ability to react strongly has improved considerably over the past twelve months and we have a robust development plan in place for the season. 2011 will be the second season with our drivers, Michael and Nico, and this continuity, together with our well-established relationships, has enabled both the drivers and team to prepare well for the challenges ahead.

“I believe that we can expect a very exciting season in 2011. The strategic battle is going to be fascinating with the Pirelli tyres, combined with the new adjustable rear wing and the return of KERS, increasing the challenges for the teams and drivers, and hopefully providing lots of track action for the fans.”

The Prost and Senna names will be connected once again in 2011 after Nicolas Prost joined Gravity Management, the sister organisation to the Lotus Renault F1 team.

Prost will do some demo runs in a Renault R30 at Renault World Series events – a job that you might have expected third driver Bruno Senna to be invited to do, at least on occasion. Prost has already done a Renault demo at Magny-Cours last year.

At 29 Prost appears to have missed the boat as far as an F1 career goes, and he is currently at Sebring for the 12 Hours with Rebellion Racing. It will be interesting to see what plans Gravity – who placed Jerome D’Ambrosio at Virgin – have for the Frenchman.

Prost said: “I’m thrilled to have signed up with Gravity Sports Management. I have a busy year ahead and the pace is already hotting up for the start of the ILMC season out here in Sebring. Our pace looked good during the test at Paul Ricard so we’ll really hope to make the most of that this weekend.

“I’m also looking forward to the chance to drive the Lotus Renault F1 car during the year. It will be great to get another taste for the very latest top-of-the-range machinery, after the run I did with Renault F1 Team in Magny Cours last year. After all, it’s fair to say I have Formula 1 in my blood!”

Bernie Ecclestone has re-iterated his opposition to the 2013 turbo engine rules, and emphasised that he’s not happy with the FIA’s pursuit of the new formula.

His main concern is that the the sport will lose engine sound that helps to make it so special.

“I meet people worldwide in all different walks of life – sponsors, promoters and journalists and I think there are two things that are really important for Formula One,” Ecclestone said on Australia’s NineMSN website. “One is Ferrari and second is the noise. People love and get excited about the noise. People who have never been to a Formula One race, when they leave you ask them what (they liked) and they say ‘the noise.’

“I brought some Russian gentlemen to Singapore and I met them afterwards in Russia – it was the first race they’d ever been to and I said what was it that impressed you. I didn’t even think about the noise and they said the most important thing was the noise – it’s incredible, it really gets to you. It’s unbelievable that even more so the women – the ladies – love the noise.”

“I’m anti, anti, anti, anti moving into this small turbo four formula. We don’t need it and if it’s so important it’s the sort of thing that should be in saloon car racing. The rest of it is basically PR – it’s nothing in the world to do with Formula One. These changes are going to be terribly costly to the sport. I’m sure the promoters will lose a big audience and I’m quite sure we’ll lose TV.”

Ecclestone admitted that he didn’t see eye-to-eye with Jean Todt: “He’s not a promoter and he’s not selling Formula One to be honest. Jean and I are a little bit at loggerheads over this engine. I don’t see the reason for it. We had the KERS system and this was supposed to solve the problem that Formula One is not green and now we’ve got something else.”

Lewis Hamilton has signed a management deal with Simon Fuller. Fuller’s XIX Entertainment company manages a number of big music and sporting names, the latter group including David Beckham and tennis Andy Murray.

His previous F1 venture was as marketing guru to the Honda team – a period that is widely regarded as a failure. He was behind the Earthdreams scheme that saw Honda pumping millions into a car that didn’t carry its own branding or indeed that of any sponsors. Honda withdrew from F1 at the end of the second season.

The new deal will clearly open up new earning potential for Hamilton, although McLaren drivers are very restricted in terms of what they can do outside the team, and he’ll also have to sign away a large percentage.

Hamilton said: “It was important I took my time to make this decision as it had to be right for my career and my long-term future. I spoke to many interested companies in recent months but I felt Simon Fuller along with his team at XIX Entertainment not only wanted to help me become an even better racing driver, but they also shared my ambitions for the longer term. I look forward to working with them closely.”

Fuller said: “Lewis is not only one of the leading sportsmen of his generation, he will I believe become one of the best of all time. It’s an honour to be partnering with Lewis in what will be a very exciting stage of his career.”

Co-incidentally Fuller is a long time friend of McLaren boss Ron Dennis, and got the Spice Girls to perform at the launch of the new silver livery in 1997.

Red Bull Racing has confirmed today that Sebastian Vettel has extended his deal to stay with the team until 2014.

That means the current World Champion will have at least four more seasons with RBR, putting an end – for now – to any hopes that Ferrari might have had about tempting him away.

A short statement said simply: “Red Bull announces today that it has extended its agreement with Sebastian Vettel – meaning the current World Champion will remain with Red Bull Racing until the end of 2014.”

What isn’t clear however is whether Adrian Newey intends to still be working at the same rate in 2014 as he is now…

McLaren has completed fewer testing miles with its 2011 car than any other team except HRT, which has failed to run at all.

Indeed chart topping Ferrari has completed nearly twice as many kilometres as McLaren with its new car.

The figures are skewed by the fact that McLaren chose to complete the first three days of testing at Valencia with its 2010 model. However since then it has still run fewer laps than either Force India or Virgin, who adopted the same strategy, underlining just how unreliable the silver car has been.

Even when the old and new car totals are combined – useful when considering the team’s knowledge of Pirelli – McLaren is still only ninth in the list.

The numbers do not include any straightline running (McLaren shook the car down at Idiada) or Ferrari’s Fiorano ‘filming days.’

Kms in 2011 Cars Only

1. Scuderia Ferrari, 6985kms

2. Red Bull Racing, 6129kms

3. Sauber, 5914kms

4. Mercedes, 5778kms

5. Toro Rosso, 5352kms

6. Renault, 5031kms

7. Williams, 4985kms

8. Force India, 4127kms

9. Lotus, 4084kms

10. Virgin, 3709kms

11. McLaren, 3603kms

Kms in 2010 Cars

1. HRT, 1949kms

2. Force India, 1308kms

3. McLaren, 1116kms

4. Virgin, 876kms

(Thanks to Forix for the basic numbers)

Better late than never! The F111 breaks cover today

The HRT F111 has finally been unveiled in Barcelona today, althoyfh ;ack of parts meant it did not run.

That gives the team just a day of testing in the wet tomorrow before it’s shipped to Melbourne, unless they can squeeze in some private running somewhere, on the basis that they have not used all their days yet.

The car has been designed by a team led by technical director Geoff Willis and chief designer Paul White.

It uses a 2010 Williams gearbox, and like the other new teams, HRT will not have a KERS system this year. The chassis was made in Austria by CarboTech.

“Starting the programme to develop the F111 has been an enormous challenge,” said Willis. “The group of engineers working from many separate locations had to produce the 2011 HRT chassis to meet the new regulations, package the Williams LG14 transmission, design all new rear suspension to suit and develop a complete aero package.

“Given the tight time frame, I am very impressed with the result and the enormous efforts everyone has put in to achieve the objective. However we have to be realistic in our expectations of performance; this is very much a baseline car which the team must develop in 2011.”

Pedro de la Rosa has rejoined McLaren as the team’s official test and reserve driver.

He displaces Gary Paffett to a test and development role that will see the Brit continue to be busy in the simulator.

Although a return for de la Rosa was rumoured some weeks ago in the Spanish media it seemed unlikely given than Paffett was well established in the third driver role, and that de la Rosa – who recently turned 40 – had an ongoing programme with Pirelli.

Presumably the Pirelli job is now set to fade away given that the FIA has confirmed that the teams can conduct tyre development testing on Grands Prix weekends, and thus there is less need for its own programme. At one stage Pirelli was even talking about running the Toyota test car on Grand Prix Fridays.

McLaren will also clearly be able to use Pedro’s extensive Pirelli knowledge in the coming weeks, and that may be one of the main reasons for getting him back on board. He also has more value for McLaren in marketing terms than Paffett, if only because the latter has not raced in F1.

De la Rosa said: “Of all the teams I’ve driven for in Formula 1, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes is the one that really feels like home. So I’m very excited about returning to the team to help push the development of the MP4-26.

“Lewis and Jenson already have an extremely positive and productive working relationship – so, building on and adding to their existing rapport, I’m aiming to do everything I can to help them get even more from our car, our engineers and our technical resources back at the McLaren Technology Centre.”

Martin Whitmarsh added: “I know I speak for all my colleagues when I say that I’m delighted that Pedro has chosen to return to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. He rejoins us with even greater experience, and his motivation and attention to detail remain as sharp as ever.

“His recruitment adds considerable strength in depth to our driver line-up. With two world champion race drivers in Lewis and Jenson, and two of the world’s most experienced and capable development drivers in Pedro and Gary, we feel we have a quartet of talent that is absolutely second-to-none.

“Meanwhile, we wish Gary a very successful season in the DTM series with Mercedes-Benz – and are delighted that, away from the world’s racetracks, he’ll continue to give us the benefit of his considerable technical and developmental abilities.”

Just over two weeks before the start of the season Hispania has finally confirmed that Tonio Liuzzi will drive alongside Narain Karthikeyan this year.

The news comes as no surprise, and indeed team boss Colin Kolles told this blog recently that there were no other serious candidates.

Liuzzi’s signing will be a boost for a team that has been criticised for taking paying drivers. Both men are due to try to new F111 in Barcelona later this week.

HRT will be Liuzzi’s fourth team after Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Force India.

“I am really happy to have signed this agreement with Hispania Racing,” said Liuzzi in a team statement. “I never lost hope to be in Formula One as I knew I have the experience and the right attributes for a young and ambitious team. I face a new challenge now and this excites me.

“I also face a lot of hard work in guiding Hispania Racing through the development of our new car. I am extremely grateful to José Ramon Carabante and to Colin Kolles for giving me such an opportunity.”

Kolles said: “I have known Tonio for many years as he raced with me in lower categories. He is a very professional driver who will bring a lot of benefits to the Team. I am convinced about his skills to develop a car and his speed.

“He has shown this in the past having contributed to a large extend developing and moving a back grid car to the front. I had the pleasure of working with him and I am very happy and proud to have him racing with Hispania Racing.”

The FIA has agreed to Pirelli’s request to allow the teams to do some extra tyre testing on Fridays of Grand Prix meetings.

The teams will now get their hands on four extra sets of development tyres (two per driver) of a different spec to the primes and options specified for that weekend.

Apart from anything else the change will help to ensure that the track remains busy on those Fridays, as there have been fears that cars would do limited running over the two 90 minute sessions due to lack of tyres.

The downside is that Friday’s overall times will become even harder to assess without keeping a close eye on what each driver has used, because three tyres will be in play, and quick times could be set on tyres which can’t be run for the rest of the weekend.

The FIA explained the change as follow: At certain events, one additional specification of dry weather tyre may be made available to all teams for evaluation purposes. Teams will be informed about such an additional specification at least one week before the start of the relevant event. Two sets of these tyres will be allocated to each driver for use during P1 and P2, and any such tyres must be returned to the tyre supplier before the start of P3.

There could also be weekends where teams get an additional set of that weekend’s prime tyre, for use on Fridays, which will also help to keep the track busy:

One additional set of ‘prime’ specification tyres may be made available to all drivers. Teams will be informed about such an additional set at least one week before the start of the relevant event. In this instance, the additional set will be available for use during P1 and P2. One set of ‘prime’ tyres must then be returned to the tyre supplier after P1, and two further sets of ‘prime’ and one set of ‘option’ specification tyres returned before the start of P3.

Finally, there are some tweaks to the safety car rules, as follows:

The safety car speed limit (an approximate 40% decrease in lap time) will now be enforced over two laps instead of one. The purpose is to ensure that cars are driven at a safe speed until they reach the safety car.

During a safety car period the pit exit light will remain green for the duration, unless the race is subsequently suspended.

Other than when the safety car has been asked to use the pit lane, no car may enter the pits while the safety car is deployed unless it is for the purpose of changing tyres.