Adam Cooper F1

Lewis Hamilton expects Ferrari’s latest upgrade package to give the Italian team a major boost this weekend, on the back of Fernando Alonso´s strong showing in Montreal.

Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes have all chosen to introduce their versions of Red Bull’s blown diffuser in Valencia, although the real benefits will only been seen at a track with fast corners, such as Silverstone. McLaren meanwhile is saving its big step for that race.

“I’m going to be very interested to see [what happens],” said Hamilton of Ferrari’s prospects. “But I think they are going to be very, very quick. I think the updates that they have have less effect here, but it Silverstone it’s a big effect, and in Barcelona it would be a big effect. I think on the street circuits it’s less of a step. I think inevitably it’s going to be a couple of tenths, maybe three tenths.

“Ferrari have got the upgrade, and they were very close in the last race, so they’ll be very quick this weekend. Mercedes weren’t that close in the last race, so I’m not expecting them to overtake us, but maybe catch us up. And Renault have been very quick. But I think the main one you have to think of is Ferrari.

“We’ve got an upgrade coming, but ours is just as race later than the others. How good their upgrade compared is to maybe our upgrade is the interesting thing.

“I’m as excited as you guys to see how their new components pan out in the next couple of days. We’re just going to continue on the route that we’re on, and hopefully that will work for us.”

Lewis says that despite McLaren’s back-to-back one-twos, the team should not be regarded as favourites.

“Red Bull I still think are in contention, and this weekend you’ll see Ferrari step up to it. Just on those weekends we came out as favourites. We’re only half way into the season and there’s still a long way to go. There’s going to be quite a lot of changes in the last bulk of races. What is it, 11 races now? It’s a lot of races, so still a long way to go.

“It feels great to finally get the results, but you don’t just live off those, you put those races behind. You don’t live off the past. You’ve got to take each race one at a time, and it’s going to be tough. I think the next couple of races are going to be very tricky races.”

Pirelli CEO and chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera says that the company’s new involvement in F1 will in effect not cost anything, because the 13 teams are paying.

In addition the company is scaling back other motor sport activities, notably the WRC. That will help to release funds for F1 and create capacity at Pirelli’s motor sport facility in Turkey, where the F1 tyres will be built.

“The experience of our people has been growing,” said Provera today. “And in the last few years we organised in Turkey an investment, which is dedicated to motor sport, where we have competencies and a willingness to do better and better. We will supply starting next year F1, and we have this opportunity thanks to the fact the world is changing.

“F1 understands also the problem of suppliers, and we have been able to reach an agreement to serve F1 with what they need in terms of tyres, and they have been helpful with us, the different teams, paying us for the service.

“At the end of the day for us, the cost, taking into account all items, will be zero compared to our budget. The advertising campaign which is linked to F1 will be switched from other races where we reduce our presence. First of all for rallying, where there are new rules starting next year. We were the only supplier, and there will be staring next year different suppliers, so we will definitely reduce and w will move these investments to F1. We will reduce our budget on other races, and we will be fully dedicated to F1.

“This for us a great challenge, a great opportunity, and we have already dedicated a specific team to this task.

“The capacity we have in place is enough to serve F1. As I mentioned we will switch from other categories to F1, so no need to change anything.”

Provera denied that Pirelli had any problems with Jean Todt, despite the FIA President apparently favouring Michelin’s bid: “There’s no issue between us and FIA. I personally spoke with Jean Todt, he knows that we are committed to this, and he also mentioned the commitment of FIA in order to make our life normal and easy to be ready for the first F1 race of next season.”

Maurizio Boiocchi, Head of R&D, said that F1 tyre development is already well under way.

“We have already met FOTA, the organisation for the teams, in order to clarify and have all the details in terms of technical information needed to develop and supply tyres accordingly with their request. We have simulations and calculations in line with their expectations so we have started already developing our tyres.”

He added that the move to 18ins rims for 2013 is still on the agenda, but has yet to be confirmed: “This is not only in our hands, we have to develop pros and cons, relating tyre and vehicle technologies, in order to match data and development times.”

Boiocchi denied that Pirelli has done a deal with Toyota for the provision of a test car.

“We have several offers. This is one, more or less available on the market. This does not mean that we will use it, because we have other options.”

He suggested that the first tests could be done with a GP2 car, since Pirelli is also developing new tyres for the junior category.

“After this quite soon we will have a discussion with the teams in order to see what could be the first and the best opportunity to have confidence about our development and their needs in terms of the 2011 championship. This has also to be agreed with the FIA, because as you know this is not allowed formally from the rules of today.”

The FIA has finally confirmed that Pirelli will be the official F1 tyre supplier from 2011, and Jean Todt´s suggestion that there could still be tender process has not materialised.

The Italian manufacturer will thus be back in the top level of the sport for the first time since 1991.

In other news the World Motor Sport Council has addressed the anomaly of a last lap safety car by confirming that drivers are not allowed to pass, which is how the FIA interpreted the rule when Michael Schumacher overtook Fernando Alonso in Monaco.

The WMSC has also confirmed that drivers cannot drive excessively slowly on their in lap during qualifying, in reference to Lewis Hamilton stopping to save fuel in Montrel. In a further clarification with immediate effect there is a new rule that ensures cars are driven back to the pits under their own power if a fuel sample is required.

The 107% qualifying rule will be back in 2011, although there is scope for considering practice times in cases of force majeure.

Also for 2011, the minimum weight will rise from 615 to 640kgs, giving teams ample scope to run KERS even if they have heavy drivers.

Next year will also see the introduction of ´driver adjustable bodywork` in the form of a movable rear wing. However it can only be used in the slipstream of other cars, as an aid to passing, and only after the second lap. It will be deactivated when the driver touches the brakes.

Meanwhile there is a ban on any aero device operated by driver movement, which as expected means an end to the F-Duct.

Finally the FIA is looking into a licence system for team members which will enable it to directly penalise them. That was not the case with the likes of Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds.

Ferrari has confirmed that Pat Fry will join the team as assistant technical director as of next week.

A short statement from the team said: “Ferrari announces that, as from 1st July, Pat Fry will join the Scuderia’s Technical Department. 46-year old Fry, who has previously worked for Benetton and McLaren, will take on the new role of Assistant Technical Director, reporting directly to Aldo Costa, while the current structure of the Technical Department remains unchanged.”

The move is an interesting one as Ferrari had appeared to shy away from hiring many English speakers in the post-Ross Brawn era, although Rob Smedley and Aussie Chris Dyer retained senior engineering positions.

The news will no doubt be frustrating to McLaren, because Fry had been a key player for years, with detailed knowledge of all aspects of the car, and he had only recently left the team.

Fry was an electronics engineer involved with missile technology before he got into motor racing. He joined McLaren in 1992 having been Martin Brundle’s race engineer at Benetton that year. His various jobs there included spells as race engineer for Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, as well as a role overseeing both team cars. Latterly he has been the engineer with overall responsibility for cars built in even numbered years.

Sebastien Buemi says that Scuderia Toro Rosso should be more competitive in Valencia than Montreal, thanks to the move to a higher downforce spec for the Spanish venue.

Although the Swiss driver put in a feisty drive to eighth in the actual race in Canada, he and team mate Jaime Alguersuari could not better 15^th and 16^th in qualifying, as the team appeared to lose out to its regular rivals on pure speed.

“I think in terms of pure lap time Valenecia should be better for us because we drive with more downforce,” Buemi told this blog. “When we use more downforce we seem to be a little bit more competitive. In Montreal we seemed to take a step back on low fuel, compared to the Williams and the Mercedes. Next time we should again be close to the Williams.”

Buemi put in a great performance in Montreal, briefly getting into the lead when he started on prime tyres and stayed out after a long first stint.

“It was a lot better than the last few races. Finally everything went well, from the start to the pit stop strategy. I’ve been really unlucky this year, so it was a really good result and the team did a really good job. They did fantastic work with the strategy. They made difficult calls, and the pit stops were all fine. Sometimes with so many pit stops you can lose a lot of time, and it was not the case.

“I started on the prime, and it had a lot less degradation. It was my idea. The engineers were pushing for the option to start with, and I was really pushing for the prime, so I’m really happy that it turned the right way. I was lucky on the first lap to come a little bit through the incident, which was not really the case in the last races. This time I had no issues.”

Buemi’s Montreal adventure even included a pass on Michael Schumacher: “It looked good, I think! We were really quick on the straight, and lucky to have less wing. I could exit the chicane better than him and then take the slipstream and pass him. I was running with Alonso and Hamilton at the beginning, and I had to close them. It was really good fun, finally a really good race. It was important for me, and to have four points is really good.”

Timo Glock has rarely made the flag in 2010. This is Monaco

Timo Glock admits that he’s frustrated by the continuing reliability problems at Virgin Racing after another retirement in the recent Canadian GP.

Glock’s race in Montreal was spoiled by early aero damage, although ultimately he succumbed to a mechanical failure.

“It’s every time something different, and that’s quite frustrating,” he told this blog. “But that’s the situation and we have to work on a better baseline for 2011 and make it general stronger and see where we are.”

The German admits that while Virgin is progressing, the goalposts are moving all the time.

“That’s the problem. I think we are a bit closer in terms of lap times, because the gap is not as big as it was before. But in general, it’s still difficult. Everyone is moving forward and we’re moving as well, but not quick enough. We’ll get a little bit of a mechanical update for Valencia, so we’ll see where we are then.”

Glock’s race in Canada was compromised by an early clash with Bruno Senna: “It was not perfect. The car was quite difficult to drive on Friday. We made a good step for Saturday, but unfortunately the race was over after one lap. Senna crashed into the back of my car in Turn 8 and pushed me off the track. I just lost downforce, because there was massive damage on the rear end.

“Then the car was really, really difficult to drive from that point on, and we couldn’t do anything. I was just trying to cruise around and keep the car going, but then I had a hydraulic problem and a steering rack failure, and the race was over.”

Nico Rosberg was one of the unsung heroes of the Canadian GP, despite starting a modest 10th and dropping even further back when delayed by the Massa/Liuzzi incident at the start.

From a lowly 14^th, he was able to get back to sixth place by the flag. He also set the third fastest lap, which actually equated to the second best lap, because Robert Kubica took new supersoft tyres with an extra stop 11 laps from home. In effect only Lewis Hamilton was quicker on a similar strategy, and only by 0.026s.

“I’m pleased because I had disastrous qualifying and disastrous first lap,” said Rosberg after the flag. “I was just unlucky, because I had a big mess in front of me the whole time. And then from then on I picked up the positions and could push well. I was pretty quick I think at times. The tyres finally worked a little bit better on our car, because they were really struggling all weekend. So, sixth place is a good result for me.”

Nico admitted that managing the tyres to the flag over a 43-lap stint was a huge challenge.

“It’s really, really difficult. First of all you have a lot of settings in your cockpit, so you can put down the front wing, change the differential settings and all this to help. Then you have to take it very easy. For 30 laps towards the end for the whole 30 laps I never had one wheelspin, never one oversteer, I just drove so smoothly, and that just helps.

“But even then, even though I was driving smoothly I kept looking in my mirrors, and each lap the tyres started breaking a little bit more and a little bit more, and if it breaks completely I know that I am in trouble, especially when trying to race Kubica. But it held on, so it was good.”

Rosberg denies that Mercedes has experienced a drop-off in form recently, and says the team’s problems in Canada related solely to struggles with tyres in qualifying.

“It’s not the case. For the first few races we benefited from doing a better job than we actually deserved, because of weather conditions and things like that.

“Our car is on a similar level still now, and this weekend one really can’t look at, because out tyres weren’t working and other people could get their tyres to work, so you couldn’t even see the performance of our car. So you can’t take it very seriously, this weekend. You need to wait to see where we are in Valencia.”

Mark Webber lost his World Championship lead in Canada, but fifth place represented handy points and some damage limitation at a track which was never going to play to the strengths of the Red Bull.

Webber also had to recover from a gearbox penalty that dumped him from second to seventh on the grid, and had he started from his rightful place, he might have come away with more.

The Aussie ran two stints on prime tyres and by staying out before his final stop on options, he led the race for a while. However he was caught by Lewis Hamilton even before he visited the pits, and fell back to fifth. His race was compromised by an earlier than planned first stop, after the tyres went away.

“We knew it was going to be a bit like that here today, the tyres playing a huge role in the race, when we made the pit strategies that we did,” said Webber. “I think in the end we did the best we could do.

“Obviously they split the cars, with Seb on the option in the middle while I stayed on the prime, and was going to finish the race on the option. It’s dangerous waiting for a safety car as well, in terms of when that happens obviously your race is pretty much over when you’re in the front as the race is neutralised.

“So mixed emotions, after the penalty this morning, but then I had a good first few laps and I managed to get into a few people and that took its toll a bit on the first set of tyres, so I was in trouble a bit earlier than I would have liked. It wasn’t too bad.”

Webber said he wasn’t surprised to drop from the lead down to fifth when he made his last stop: “I knew everyone was pretty close together, I was obviously monitoring the gaps to Lewis. I was going away a little bit at the start, because I knew he was pacing to get to the end. I was just trying to hold my pace constant, and in the end the tyres didn’t want that pace, so in the end they go away.

“It’s virtually impossible to keep them happy, the tyres, they keep degrading no matter how slow you drive. So in the end it wasn’t really a surprise, because I knew people were tightly packed up behind Lewis. To come back out fifth… It would have been nice to get a few more places, and I wanted some champagne today, but in the end, it didn’t happen.”

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says that Fernando Alonso had the performance with which to win in Canada, despite the team adding nothing new to the car since its lacklustre performance in Turkey.

Alonso led for a while but lost both the lead to Lewis Hamilton and second to Jenson when he fumbled behind other cars.

“Today we could have done much, much more than what we’ve got,” said Domenicali. “The performance that we had today was really good, honestly. And the car was exactly the same as it was in Turkey, where we were nine-tenths behind. So we need to be prudent before doing something exaggerated on one side or the other side.

“For sure the tyres are a key factor, no doubt about it. I think today we did the right choices, in that respect. Today we could have done much more because certain unfortunate situations led Felipe on one side to start in the middle of two cars, and it was not possible to go anywhere else. Fernando was in the middle of backmarkers which unfortunately spoiled his race on the laps that were crucial for the race. Part of the game.

“But on the performance side we have to make sure we keep developing the thing, and the things that we are doing are real, and we bring more downforce on the tracks where we need it, and above all on the tracks where we have certain kind of tyres connected to the need of downforce, that is the key point.”

Domenicali insisted that Ferrari is very much in the title hunt. Alonso lies fourth, 15 points behind Lewis Hamilton.

“Going back to the championships, they are very, very open. If we would have won the race, we would have been leading with Fernando. That means everything is really very open, and that’s the motivation that we should leave inside to make sure that we push race by race. Today was a picture that was totally different from the picture that we had two weeks ago.”

Ferrari has a lot riding on a major update package for Valencia. Domenicali admitted that the team has spent too much time chasing its version of the F-Duct, which has slowed down development in other areas.

“For sure there is a need of a more aggressive push. If I may say, it was clear that we had concentrated too much effort on this ‘beep’, blown rear wing. I want to say ‘beep’ because I cannot say what I think!

“So we spent a lot of effort there, not being focussed on the other areas of the car. Now from Valencia onwards will be to develop the other parts of the car apart from this ‘beep,’ because it’s a very complicated system that took a lot of resources out of the global project.”

Mark Webber has had to drop five places on the Montreal grid after a gearbox change.

The Aussie drops to seventh, which means that Sebastian Vettel is alongside Lewis Hamilton on the front row, with Fernando Alonso moving up to third on the more favourable side of the track.

Jenson Button starts fourth, Tonio Liuzzi fifth, and Felipe Massa sixth.