Adam Cooper F1

Sebastian Vettel had a nasty moment at the end of morning practice in Silverstone when the entire nose of his car came loose and tipped forward, leaving the front wing dragging along the ground

The incident happened on the approach to the high speed new righthander at Abbey, and fortunately the German was able to run wide across the run-off area. Unaware of what happened he told the team that he’d just lost steering, and was told to return to the pits.

The team had done a ‘hot swap’ – ie a fast nose change – earlier in the session, but that was some time before it came loose. The nose is held on by four screws at the top and side which are tightened by mechanics before the car goes out. After the session Adrian Newey and the team engineers spent some time examining the front of the car.

“It’s a bit of a strange one,” said team boss Christian Horner.

McLaren has decided to revert back to standard specification for the rest of the British GP weekend after struggling with the update package on Friday.

The team experienced some problems with getting the car to work in its new configuration, especially after a set-up change between sessions made the car particularly difficult over the bumps. There were also some issues with cooling that had to be addressed. In the second session Lewis Hamilton was eighth and Jenson Button only 13^th.

The reversal is not as big a deal as it might first sound because the cars were scheduled for engine and gearbox changes anyway on Friday evening, so in effect the team is just rebuilding them with different bodywork, floor, exhausts and heat shielding.

If nothing else the team now has some useful knowledge with which to try again at Hockenheim with the new spec.

Jenson Button says he hopes that McLaren can get the most of its latest update package after a frustrating first day at Silverstone.

Button had a less productive day than his team mate, and was eighth in the morning session and just 13^th in the afternoon as the team chased a good set-up for the revised car.

“We’ve obviously driven it in the simulator and we’ve had it in the wind tunnel, but in reality we don’t have a lot of data,” said Button. “Today obviously we’ve got a lot of information to run through, and that’s why this evening is so important to us. We’re going to work as hard as we can to make it work, that’s what we’re here to do. We’ve got the best people in the pitlane I feel to do that.

“We’ve just got to keep working on the balance because I really want to run this update kit. The guys have worked so hard at the factory on getting it out to us at this race, it arrived very late last night. We want to make it work, and that’s got to be our aim.”

Button has a positive view of the changes to the track.

“It’s different. It takes away a bit from the flow of the circuit, but I think it adds something, which is a couple of slow speed corners. You need good mechanical grip, not just aero. It’s a possible overtaking opportunity as well, which would be nice.

“Abbey is very bumpy. We’ve struggled a little bit through there with our car, the car’s hitting the ground. We’ve had a few moments, so that’s an area where we need to improve.”

Mark Webber says he’s not worried about missing valuable practice time after a problem stopped him during the afternoon session at Silverstone.

The Australia was still quickest in the session, despite running only 15 laps to the 25 of team mate Sebastian Vettel.

“I had an electrical problem, which was a shame,” said Webber. “It would have been nice to complete the programme, but it’s not the end of the world, we still got some good information. The car worked pretty well and [we have] a lot of good stuff to go through tonight. I still did a bit of Sunday work during the day.”

Webber said he was impressed by the changes to the circuit.

“We expected it to be fast and it is, so they got it right. I don’t know if Tilke did this track [he didn’t], but whoever did they got the angles right, to make it difficult!”

He also expects stronger competition from McLaren: “I don’t think they’re showing everything. I think they’re waiting to unleash the car tomorrow.”

Lewis Hamilton was in a good mood after practice at Silverstone, despite finishing the afternoon session in eighth place after several spectacular moments.

The McLaren driver had been second fastest in the morning, and said that a set-up change in the lunch break went in the wrong direction. He’s confident that the car will be competitive again tomorrow when that is rectified.

This is McLaren’s first outing with its new blown diffuser package.

“Today we put on the new components, and I was well excited this morning,” said Hamilton. “The feeling in the car was positive. I was actually surprised at the pace we had this morning. We made some changes, and the changes we made to the car set-up actually didn’t make it better.

“Sometimes you find that’s the case. So we’ve got to go back to the set-up we had earlier on, and start from there again. Hopefully tomorrow the set-up will be better to drive. But generally I think the performance of the car is good.”

Lewis said he enjoyed the new track layout: “It was nice, it is bumpy, probably a bit more bumpy on our car for some reason, so that was we’re trying to fix. Otherwise it’s very fast, very flowing. I don’t think it upsets the swing of the track or anything. Like I’ve said it’s a little bit different turning right at Abbey instead of going left into the chicane. But it’s still very fast, it’s picking up grip bit by bit. There is a big bump going into Turn 11, but that just makes it more exciting.

“Through the couple of hairpins its very slippery. It’s low speed compared to the rest of the track, and obviously you set the car up for the high speed corners, but unfortunately that means at the low speed corners you struggle a little bit more, but that’s the sacrifice you have to make.

“I definitely feel we’ve made a step forward from Valencia. This is track a bit like Valencia where you’d normally see a second gap between us and Red Bull. I don’t think you’ll be seeing that gap tomorrow, I think it will be a lot closer hopefully. If we get the car set-up right, then we should have no problems.

“We knew that they (RBR) were going to be exceptionally fast this weekend, but we have not go the optimum out of the car yet. Tomorrow there’s more to come.”

He said it was hard to quantify the effect of the new package.

“I don’t know, all I can say is when I got in the car they didn’t know how much downforce it as going to give us. I had a big grin on my face when I got to full throttle. It makes a nice difference. I don’t know whether it makes as big a difference as perhaps they thought, but it’s something that you have to tweak.

“You saw the Ferraris ran theirs at the last race, and it didn’t just work. The same for Mercedes, it didn’t just work. You don’t just bolt it on and it works. It’s something you have to adjust. At least it’s running well. I do feel a difference. The front wing’s very good as well, and there’s clearly a lot of potential.”

HRT has confirmed that Bruno Senna will be back in the car from Germany onwards, but Sakon Yamamoto will finish the Silverstone weekend.

The first communication from the team confirmed that “Bruno Senna has all the support of the Spanish team, that he remains one of the Hispania Racing/HRT F1 official drivers and that he will be continuing to drive in the remaining races of the 2010 World Championship.”

The team has made no other comment about the situation but clearly there has been a dispute between team boss Colin Kolles and the Brazilian driver, and he has been ‘rested’ for one weekend.

Bizarrely exactly the same thing happened to his uncle Ayrton during his first year with Toleman in 1984, when he fell out with the team management and was replaced for one race.

No details have emerged of the current situation but one source said that the dispute did not involve either money or any performance factors.

Sakon Yamamoto has replaced Bruno Senna at HRT, not just for Friday morning practice, but the whole of the British GP weekend.

The news was confirmed by team boss Colin Kolles tonight, although he declined to be quoted officially ahead of any press statement from the team. He indicated that full story would come out shortly.

Senna is based in Britain and has a lot of fans here having done his early racing in the UK, so his absence will be especially disappointing for the Brazilian.

Yamamoto has done some Friday running this year, sharing the job with Christian Klien.

Adam Parr has been become chairman of Williams as founder and team principal Sir Frank Williams takes a further step back from frontline responsibilities.

The 45-year-old Parr joined the team as CEO from mining firm Rio Tinto four years ago.

In a team statement Frank Williams said: “Adam joined Williams in 2006 as Chief Executive Officer. He has taken the lead in putting the team on a stronger financial footing, developing new businesses and building our social responsibility programme. These initiatives have seen us partnering with such outstanding organisations as Porsche and Cambridge University Press respectively in hybrid technology and education.

“I have now asked him to step up to Chairman in my place to give him both the responsibility and the authority to ensure the good running of all aspects of the team and the company.”

MeanwhileParr commented: “It is both a great honour and a big responsibility to take over Frank’s role as Chairman of Williams. Frank remains our controlling shareholder and Team Principal and he will always be the name, the face and the inspiration of this team. My aspiration is to ensure that the team and the company are run to the high standards that Frank and Patrick Head have always demanded, both on and off the track. In this, I am fortunate to count on dedicated partners, a strong board and, above all, a great team of dedicated and talented people at Grove.

 “I am also pleased to announce that Alex Burns steps up from the role of Chief Operating Officer to that of Chief Executive Officer. In addition to his responsibilities for the production side of Williams F1, Alex chairs Williams Hybrid Power Limited and the Williams Technology Centre in Qatar.”

Last winter saw the first change of shareholding in the company since 1977 when Frank Williams and Patrick Head took on an outside investor.

Ferrari will use this logo from the start of 2011

Ferrari has revealed a new logo for 2011 which in effect replaces the controversial barcode. It will be used on the car and personnel from January 1.

Unveiling the logo, team boss Stefano Domenicali said that the team would continue to be called Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, adding that the graphic changes had been made in conjunction with Philip Morris.

“All the activities related to the activities of the racing department will use this logo,” said Domenicali. “It will be on top of the cars, on the uniforms, on the drivers’ overalls, on the Ferrari Driver Academy activities, and all the other things that we will do in the future through the racing department of F1. This belongs to our team and is a trade mark of Scuderia Marlboro Ferrari.”

The cynical view might be that it looks even more like a cigarette packet than the barcode did…

ART has announced on its website that it has withdrawn its bid for a 2011 entry. The news opens up the race as ART had been logical favourites, and it also heads off inevitable charges of nepotism should the organisation co-owned by Nicolas Todt have got the nod from the FIA.

A statement from the team blames unfavourable economic conditions but says that ART had forged good relationships with potential partners. It also says that the bid has been postponed, meaning the team might try again some time.

The reality is of course that potential sponsors and investors have seen how hard life has been for the new  in 2010.

This time last year potential entrants were able to cite Brawn GP as an example of what an ‘independent’ team could do, not withstanding the millions poured into the team by Honda.