Adam Cooper F1

After trying for decades it looks as though Bernie Ecclestone will finally succeed in bringing F1 to Russia in 2014.

Having missed the Japanese GP Ecclestone is in Sochi today with Vladimir Putin, who has made his support for Vitaly Petrov and Renault clear in the past by helping to direct sponsorship their way.

Reuters reports today that ‘government sources’ say a five-year deal has been agreed from 2014. That does at least give the Russians three complete years during which to get the project together, which should avoid the hassles faced by Korea and Austin, who faced a much tighter schedule.

Inevitably it means that there will be even more reason for Renault to keep Petrov on board next year as interest in Russia builds.

Sochi will host the Winter Olympics in February 2014, and presumably the preparations for that mean that F1 cannot go there any earlier. A huge effort is being put in to improve transport links, including modernisation of the airport.

Intriguingly there have been a lot of environmental concerns regarding the Olympics, which caused some events to be moved. It remains to be seen how much of a welcome F1 receives.

By strange co-incidence Sochi’s twin cities include Long Beach and Monaco neighbour Menton – plus Espoo, home town of several Finnish F1 drivers…

Lotus has a firm grasp on the lucrative 10^th place in the constructors’ World Championship following the team’s 12^th and 13^th place finishes in Japan.

Virgin Racing will have to better that result – and in effect rely on high attrition ahead as well as problems for Lotus – in one of the last three races.

“Really we had a great weekend,” Mike Gascoyne told this blog. “We were really solid in qualifying. Suzuka is a circuit where it’s car handling, as the drivers will tell you. If the car’s controlling you, you’re going nowhere. In qualifying Jarno did a great job, Heikki was a couple of tenths behind and a second clear of the Virgins.

“Then in the race we had a real, solid performance as the best of the new teams. Strategy didn’t work out for Jarno. If there was an early safety car we were always going to stop one car, and that was the car in front – which was Jarno. Yamamoto didn’t stop, so Jarno got bottled up for a few laps.

“And well driven Sakon, he’s a lovely young lad and he drove a cracking race in front of Glock. He defended his position and that really ruined the strategy for Jarno. We also had a hydraulic issue, which nearly stopped him.

“But Heikki was flat out the whole way through, and it was a great result for the team. The whole team felt that we gave Tony and the shareholders, who weren’t in Suzuka, a good result. And they deserved it.”

Gascoyne says that while the battle over the Lotus name is a distraction, the team has plenty to look forward to, with more news on 2011 and beyond to come.

“The engine one, everyone can guess what the announcement is, but you’ve got to announce it at the right time. There’s several other things happening with the team. We’re in a very positive frame of mind.”

It looks like Korea will happen come what may...

The FIA’s Charlie Whiting is in Korea today to conduct the final inspection of the GP venue, more than 80 days behind the schedule specified by the governing body.

Some kind of announcement is due on Wednesday, but in Japan sources suggested that a cancellation at this stage is now highly unlikely, certainly compared to the dire situation a few weeks ago. The F1 freight has already started its journey from Suzuka.

Meanwhile the organisers have issued pictures showing that the track surface is complete, although the surroundings are clearly something of a mess…

Sunday in going to be a massive test for all five of the World Championship contenders, for while there are still three (or maybe two) races remaining, the lottery conditions in Japan mean that it could be a case of triumph or disaster for any of them.

The indications are that qualifying will at the very least start on a damp track, and clearly anything can happen, especially as everyone will almost certainly stick with a set-up to cater for what is expected to be a fully dry race.

When the McLaren drivers met the media at the end of a day of little activity this blog suggested that while none of the five contenders could win the title tomorrow, it was certainly possible to lose it, given the likely crazy nature of the day.

Jenson Button made the very valid point that the Red Bull drivers will be the guys under pressure, and specifically championship leader Mark Webber, because they clearly have the dominant car here.

“When you’re leading the championship I think this is the condition you probably don’t want when you’re in a fast car,” he said. “But for all of us behind this is not a bad situation. It can turn out to be a very positive weekend, and also a very negative weekend.

“But I think it’s looking like it’s going to be a very exciting Grand Prix, possibly with wet qualifying in the morning, drying through the session, and then a race that’s pretty much dry. It should be a fun Sunday, and we can hopefully take some points off some of our competitors.”

“I think every race is critical,” said Lewis Hamilton. “Of course the drivers and the teams are all on a knife-edge – well we’re all on the limit – trying to be consistent and score as many points as possible. Tomorrow is definitely a race where we need, or I definitely need, a strong result. I think we all do, but especially after the last few races that I’ve had.

“So I’m looking forward to another chance. But there are still four races, and if you look at the past for example in 2007 Kimi came back [from 17 points behind] after just two races. So four races is still not the end of the world, if you don’t score tomorrow.”

It’s going to be one helluva day…

Lewis Hamilton’s weekend got a little worse tonight when McLaren confirmed that he needs a gearbox change before tomorrow’s qualifying.

He thus goes into the 10am session knowing that he will have a five-place grid penalty.

A team statement said: “In P3 today, we noticed abnormal gearbox oil pressure on Lewis’s car, which we believed we had corrected ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session.

“This afternoon, as we fired up Lewis’s car several times in preparation for qualifying, we became aware that the symptoms were worse than we’d originally diagnosed, and a decision was later taken to change the gearbox ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session and the Grand Prix.
 
“As a result, Lewis will receive a five-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s race.”

Hamilton did only a few laps yesterday after his morning crash and only ran briefly in the wet this morning.

Sebastian Vettel says Suzuka qualifying could have turned into a farce had it continued in today’s rain.

Vettel is arguably the guy with the most to lose in the lottery conditions of this weekend, having won last year and dominated practice on Friday. In fact things could move back in his favour if it is dry on Sunday morning.

“It’s a tough call from race direction because obviously there’s lots of pressure from media all around the world, because the people at home they want to see us qualifying,” said Vettel. “And there was no chance today. Obviously the worst time today was for the fans. They waited all day long since practice for us to come out. In the end I think it was the right decision, because in these conditions there’s just too much water, and it becomes a farce, as we are not controlling the car anymore, and we are just passengers.

“Right now there are all sorts of possibilities as to what might happen to the qualifying. Right now what everyone is trying to do and hoping for is to have a normal qualifying, but time is limited, so we will see what will be the decision. The weather, because so far the rain is forecast until late this night, or even tomorrow morning, we will see.

“I think there is no reason to panic right now. Obviously what everyone is hoping for is a fair chance to qualify at his best, and then we’ll see. But surely it’s a new situation for most of us, apart from those who have been racing in 2004, when here as well they had qualifying and the race on the same day.”

Vettel agreed that it might not be easy for fans to understand how tough the conditions were.

“It’s probably a difficult thing to understand for the people outside. You just think OK put the rain tyres on and you’ll be fine. It’s not as easy as that. The cars are very light, we only have around 600-700kgs, which is half of a road car. The cars are very low, and so very easily with some standing water on the track we catch aquaplaning.

“And then it becomes undriveable for us. I think it was the right decision, there was no chance for us, as we would only be passengers rather than controlling and being able to push to our limits and to the limits of the car.”

Fernando Alonso said this afternoon that he is not too concerned about Red Bull’s superiority in Suzuka on Friday, and added that Ferrari has to keep the pressure on its rivals.

Alonso was fourth today, but almost a second off the best time of Sebastian Vettel.

“I’m sure there’s speed to come tomorrow,” said the Spaniard. “Always on Saturday you put everything on the car, all the best pieces, best set-up etc. But I guess for them, there is more to come as well. Always Saturday you put the race package. So surprises, we knew Red Bull was quick here, maybe the best circuit of the four. And we need to push them, as I said yesterday, and try to make them push as well, and not to have an easy weekend.”

Alonso believes that the expected wet weather could create some action tomorrow, but makes it clear that teams will also have to focus on the fact that Sunday is likely to be dry. In other words he thinks it’s better to focus on a set-up for Sunday, even if that compromises grid position.

“You always mix things in wet conditions. I expect a difficult day for everybody. You need to be at the best position possible, and knowing that the race is on Sunday, and with the dry conditions for Sunday as well, anything can happen.

“It’s a circuit that you normally have a possibility to overtake, so we don’t have to be too worried tomorrow in any of the positions we are. I expect tomorrow some teams will be quick in wet conditions, maybe Mercedes, Renault, Williams, and maybe they have a very good qualifying.”

Alonso says it’s hard to predict Ferrari’s own wet form: “Not much experience, to be honest. We did a couple of laps in Australia, then we switched to the dry tyres. In China as well we were OK. And in Spa it rained Friday morning, and we were P1. Overall I feel not too worried about the wet performance.

“We also know that in wet cases the luck factor is a big thing. You can have a lap with a little bit less water and you gain two seconds. You need to be in the right place at the right moment with the right tyre, so these kinds of things mix everything up.”

Lewis Hamilton had a frustrating day at Suzuka after damaging his car in an off at Degner early in the first session.

Repairs lasted all through the lunch break and he finally got out with only eight minutes to go. However, he had to do without the latest rear wing, having damaged his example in the off. The team is hoping to have one back on the car tomorrow.

Inevitably on the back of his Monza and Singapore collisions the accident has raised questions about the pressure he has been under lately.

“I was in the early stages of the session, I was literally on my second real fast lap, second or third timed lap, and just went wide,” said Lewis. “I didn’t actually go very wide, but I couldn’t stop the car. Just very slippery on the marbles, and I went on the gravel. The gravel pulled me even further towards the barrier and destroyed the car.

“Probably pushing hard too early. I don’t know, it wasn’t even that big an off. It was just unfortunate that the gravel was really slippery at that point when I was on it. You’ve seen a couple of people that went off there and they got away with it. They say bad things come in threes, so hopefully it’s over and done with.

“The guys did an incredible job, they really had to work hard. But they are just so good. They worked so hard and got the car out and obviously we did the last 10 minutes of the second session, but a lot of time was lost. Nevertheless tomorrow is another day, and hopefully it’s going to rain. I guess everybody has to start again tomorrow.”

Lewis admits that he doesn’t know too much about the behaviour car, and matters were complicated by the loss of the new rear wing.

“I literally did a couple of laps with the updates, and then I broke the update that I had, so I didn’t have it on that last run there. I did four times laps just now. Obviously I’m on a different wing on the rear, so just trying to get back into the groove of things. I didn’t really get a feel of where the car is exactly. Tomorrow will be a little bit different and we have another session, which is good.

“Hopefully we’ll have an updated rear wing, so it won’t be a problem.”

Renault veteran Bob Bell has left the team, handing his managing director role to team principal Eric Boullier.

Bell was technical director until taking over the management role just over a year ago, following the departure of Flavio Briatore. The news signals the cutting of another link with the Briatore era.

A short statement from the team today said simply: “Eric Boullier, Team Principal since 5 January 2010, will take over the role of Managing Director with immediate effect following the departure of Bob Bell.”

Gérard Lopez said: “We would like to thank Bob Bell for his contribution to the performance of the team and for helping see us through a period of transition since Genii Capital became a shareholder in the Renault F1 Team. We are entrusting the post of Managing Director to Eric Boullier and we have every confidence that, under his leadership, we will achieve our racing objectives. Throughout the 2010 season, we have been assessing what is required to continue improving our level of competitiveness and we believe we are well positioned for the challenges ahead.””

Boullier added: “Since the beginning of the season, the Renault F1 Team has demonstrated its ability to react to a need for change. The results of the tremendous efforts made have been immediately apparent on the race track. Today, we have a competitive car and an incredibly motivated team. I am proud of the trust being placed in me to continue this good work, and I will make every effort to ensure the Renault F1 Team returns to the front of the grid as soon as possible.””

Former Lotus and Wolf F1 boss Peter Warr, who worked with an extraordinary list of big names over his time in the sport, has died at the age of 72.

Warr joined Lotus in the very early days in 1958, and was initially a salesman. Initially he had racing ambitions of his own, and famously won the first ever Japanese GP at Suzuka in 1963, when it was a invitational sportscar race.

For the 1970 season he became team manager of Team Lotus, running the day to day operations of the race team on behalf of Colin Chapman. Jochen Rindt won the title posthumously that year, and two years later Emerson Fittipaldi triumphed.

Warr also worked with Ronnie Peterson, Jacky Ickx, Mario Andretti and Gunnar Nilsson before leaving to join the new Wolf team for the 1977 season. Jody Scheckter won three races that year, while James Hunt briefly drove for the team in 1979. Warr was reunited with Fittipaldi when Wolf was merged with the Brazilian driver’s own team, and was involved in yet another future World Champion in Keke Rosberg.

When the team’s fortunes took a dive Warr returned to Lotus in 1981, and he took charge as team principal after Chapman’s death in December 1982. He had something of a strained relationship with Nigel Mansell, but established a good rapport with Ayrton Senna, who scored his first Grand Prix wins with the team in 1985-87. When Senna left he was replaced by Nelson Piquet.

Warr left Lotus in 1989 but retained links with the sport working with the FIA and BRDC. In recent years had been living in retirement in France. Last year he returned to Suzuka as part of the track’s re-opening celebrations, driving his Lotus 23 around the track.