Adam Cooper F1

Canada promises to be an exciting and unpredictable race, not least because of the different tyre strategies being employed.

Christian Horner says he’s surprised that only Robert Kubica among the top 10 runners joined RBR in running the harder prime tyre, but McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh says he’s happy with the choice of options.

“Frankly Lewis was quick on both types of tyres,” said Whitmarsh. “We had quite a lot of debate in the team as to which way we should go, I guess we’ll know in 24 hours whether we got it right. Inevitably everyone has to use the option tyre at some point, and I think it will be difficult for someone who starts on the prime to say run 20-30 laps and then switch to the option and then go to the end. So I think then definitely you have to two-stop if you start on the prime.

“Obviously we’ve got two guys who have got to look after the tiers at the start of the race, and we’ll see how it works out. If there are some safety cars that will either make it look a better decision or worse decision, but in terms of getting to the end you have to run at some point with the option tyre, it’s clearly going to be a short stint, or relatively short stint, and as everyone had to do that, we’re choosing to do it at the beginning of the race.”

Clearly it was a close decision, even within McLaren: “There are people in the team who felt we should have qualified on prime, and others who felt that we should have qualified on option. I don’t think we’re going to share all of our strategic thinking. I think we’re in reasonable shape. We’ll see tomorrow. It’ll either work or it won’t…”

Lewis Hamilton has got away with a $10,000 fine for his transgression at the end of qualifying (see previous story). He will thus keep his pole position.

It seems that the fact that the requirement to return to the garage in a minimum time is enshrined in an FIA memo, rather than the sporting regs, left a loophole for McLaren to exploit.

The bottom line was that Lewis was able to complete his flying lap at a lighter weight than he would normally have done, although in this case the difference was probably not enough to have secured pole.

McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh kept a straight face when asked if he was ‘disappointed’ to get a fine: “There was a memo requiring cars to get back in a time. It’s not a regulation. But I think we’ve accepted it, we’ll pay it, and we’ll move on. I think we’re happy with the outcome…”

Whitmarsh also outlined what happened: “We have complied with the regulations. We didn’t set out to do this. It’s not Lewis’s fault, a mistake was made. We had a choice, we could have got back to the garage, but having done so we would have been short of fuel for the sample. The regulations require a sample, so we felt that was the dominant requirement rather than an FIA memo, which isn’t a regulation, which talked about a lap time required to come back.

“There’s nothing in the regulations that says that after qualifying you have to return to the garage. If you had broken down or a wheel had fallen off or something else, then those things happen.

“Not enough fuel was put in the car – there was a miscommunication.”

He also said he didn’t expect other teams to try the same in the future: “I think they would run the risk then of it being decided that it’s systematic, and you then run the risk of what is the opnion of the stewards on the day. So I don’t think it will happen en masse…”

The FIA is looking into Lewis Hamilton’s actions on his in-lap after securing pole in qualifying in Montreal.

Hamilton was told by the team to stop on the circuit because he was so marginal on fuel that he was in risk of not having enough left for the FIA sample at the end of the session. The car must have at least 1-litre in the tank for scrutineering purposes.

He stopped on the straight before the pits and after coasting for a while, got out and pushed, before being picked up by the medical car and given a lift home.

The question mark is over the fact that drivers are given a lap time within which they have to return to the pits during qualifying, a legacy of the fuel saving days of several seasons ago.

The FIA view is that if a driver suffers a genuine problem and has to stop, it would be treated as force majeure, and that does not apply in this case.

Furthermore, in the two sectors that he completed he was well over the prescribed 30% limit. His first sector was 33s (as opposed to around 21s on a normal quick lap), and the middle sector was 55s (compared with 24s). In other words he would not have made the time even if he had finished the lap.

One chief engineer from a rival team told me: “It’s definitely illegal, they took advantage by cheating. Otherwise next time we’ll all put one less lap in the cars.”

While clearly there has to be some provision for drivers suffering a genuine mechanical problem after setting a time, it would seem that McLaren has some explaining to do. It’s thought they told the FIA there was a miscommunication in the team about the fuel level in Lewis’s car.

Jenson Button says he was satisfied with his fifth place lap in Montreal, but admitted he was impressed by the pole effort of team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Button had a slightly scrappy qualifying session, and at one stage had to fight his way out of Q2.

“It was alright,” said Button. “I struggled in Q1, but I realised I wasn’t getting enough heat in the tyres. I ended up doing longer runs, I was doing three laps in Q3, instead of the normal two that most people did. It worked for me and I’m pretty happy with the lap.

“The problem was the tyres were cooling down too much, and I had one rear brake that for some reason was getting very cold, I had to really hammer the brakes on my out laps. It was a fun Q3. I’d rather be further up and alongside Lewis, but I’m happy with the lap.

“I crossed the line thinking that was it for me, so Lewis did a phenomenal job. He’s very quick round here, I think he’s qualified on pole every time he’s raced here.”

Button says that thanks to the different tyre choices at the front, the race will be a fascinating one.

“It’s good to see that people are running different tyres in Q3, it’s the first time this year. We’ve got primes and options, our main rivals, which are Red Bull, are running primes. It’s going to be an interesting start of the race, seeing if they can overtake.

“It’s a quicker tyre the prime tyre, but at some point, they are going to have to run the option. If they are stuck up behind Lewis, I’m sure they are going to be frustrated. It’s going to be a fun race, I’ looking forward to it. Strategy is going to be important so working with your tyres quickly. So being flat out every lap might not be the quickest way to the end of the race.”

Lewis Hamilton likened the Montreal circuit to an ice rink after struggling with a serious lack of grip on Friday. Hamilton branded the option tyres “useless,” and said they were so bad that he had to give up on them and pit early.

Although the McLarens were quick in the morning, the team seems to be in more trouble than most as it attempts to find a set-up.

“I’m not happy with way this afternoon went,” said Hamilton. “Today in general the track has been incredibly difficult to drive, just very difficult to switch the tyres on, and get the heat into the tyres. It’s just like being on an ice rink out there, it’s so slippery, and it’s such a huge difference to when I was here before. We’re struggling a little bit, that’s for sure.

“I find when you go out there, and the tyre should be coming in, the car is just sliding all the time. Masses of oversteer everywhere, you’re just correcting the car all the time.”

Asked where the car could be improved, Hamilton said: “Everywhere! We’re not pulling away down the straights, we have a lot of bottoming. There’s areas we can improve, We’re going to have a big debrief now about where we want to go with the car. But it’s a bit of an unknown, because we tried a few things, and it was just as bad, if not worse. On the option tire it’s unbelievable. The graining I had on the option tyre, I had to come in, it was so difficult.”

There’s speculation that the tyre situation could lead to a variety of strategies come Sunday.

“It’s going to be an interesting one. I don’t think you’re going to be seeing a long first stint on the option tyres, that’s for sure.

“It just chews up, it’s useless, so maybe you will see a two-stop. I am sure it will be quicker than what I just drove…”

Sebastian Vettel topped the times on Friday afternoon in Montreal, but like most drivers he struggled towards the end of the session when he had severe graining on the option tyres.

That made life difficult for everyone, and few drivers were really able to set representative times. In the circumstances Vettel was understably cautious about his potential for the weekend.

“Friday lap times are not that important obviously,” he said. “All that matters is that you are on top of the ranking after qualy and on Sunday after the race. So we’ll see. I think we are in decent shape, so it’s looking good, I feel comfortable in the car.

“Obviously it’s very slippery. For two years we didn’t have a race here, so the circuit needs time. But I think it was already much better in the afternoon than in the morning.”

Vettel said he was really struggling with the tyres: “Everybody is, I think it looked quite funny. If you had a look in the end when people put a bit more fuel and stayed out a bit longer all of us were sliding probably. It was more like rallycross than F1…”

Fernando Alonso gave Ferrari some encouragement by taking second place in the Friday afternoon session in Montreal, but typically he was not getting too excited about the performance.

His team mate Felipe Massa was fifth in the same session, and intriguingly the Ferrari drivers appeared to have less severe graining problems than their rivals.

“I think it was OK today, a little bit better,” said Alonso. “But also in Istanbul I remember we were fourth and fifth on Friday practice, and then in qualifying we were out of Q2. So we need to stay concentrated, stay focussed for tomorrow, because everything can change when everybody goes flat out in qualifying.

“This is only Friday, only practice, we used these sessions to try the tyres and work a little bit on the brakes as well. This is a very hard braking circuit, so I think we just concentrate on the race situation and we don’t pay attention to the times. Tomorrow everything can change.”

Alonso had a few moments under braking during the day, but he said it was due to experimentation.

“Braking we know is one of the key facts in this circuit. One in terms of performance, because we know how much you can gain in braking zones, and then as we said now we’ve been working on the brakes all day long, just trying different materials, different cooling levels etc, to make the car perfectly ready for Sunday. On those occasions it was not easy the car sometimes to brake. Hopefully tomorrow it will be OK.”

The Spaniard says the track, which has in large part been resurfaced, is in good condition:“I think it’s good. New asphalt in most of the corners, just Turn 8 remains with the old asphalt. No problems at all today, so everything was fine. In terms of level of grip and how smooth is the circuit, it’s improved as well, no bumps. I think it will remain good all the weekend, because there are no signs of anything.”

Do the teams own the garage signage rights?

Bernie Ecclestone is said to be threatening a clampdown on F1 teams displaying sponsor signage in and outside their garages.

For decades teams have displayed logos in their garages without any outside interference. However yesterday they received a letter from Allsport, the organisation that controls trackside advertising, which in effect pointed out that it owns the garage advertising space.

Teams have no doubts that Ecclestone is behind the letter. The suggestion is that it’s part of a wider political game that is going on in relation to Pirelli and the deal it will have with teams, with some teams apparently still trying to negotiate their own special arrangements with the Italian company.

However when questioned by this blog, Ecclestone denied any involvement with the letter or its aims.

“It’s nothing to do with me,” he said. “It’s Allsport that look after all this stuff. Apparently these people [the teams] are putting up signs where they don’t have the rights.”

Asked if Allsport really did have the rights to the garages, Bernie said: “Yes. Everything on the circuit.”

He also denied that there was any connection with the tyre negotiations: “It’s nothing to do with Pirelli. I hope Pirelli don’t get the contract, and Michelin don’t get it, and we can have Avon…”

Teams say that they can find nothing in the Concorde Agreement that suggests any restrictions on advertising in their ‘designated garage space,’ which is defined by the FIA.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens next…

Jenson Button confirms that as far as he was concerned he was racing Lewis Hamilton when the pair traded places in Turkey, and a miscommunication led Lewis to not expect an attack from his team mate.

Hamilton had asked his engineer whether Button would try to pass, and was told he wouldn’t. The team has subsquently said that was an opinion, rather than any reflection of instructions given to either driver.

“It was definitely a miscommunication,” said Button when asked by this blog. “I was there to race, and Lewis was there to race. I was told to save fuel, I was given a lap time.  That was a 1m31s, on lap 46. I passed him on lap 48 and I did a 1m30.85s, so almost a 31s – you can’t judge the lap time exactly. And the next one was a 31.9s. So it wasn’t that I went quicker to overtake him. Lewis had done a 1m33s, so he was 2s off the lap time we were given.

“We had a good battle. I completely believe that when I came up behind Lewis on the exit of Turn 8 he knew that I was closing on him and he understood that I was going to try and pass him. It’s not like I overtook him and he let me have the position. We had a lot of fun and we were wheel to wheel. We never touched. It was a fun battle to have with your team mate, who you have a lot of respect for.

“Afterwards we were told you still need to conserve fuel, I was told it was critical. So I conserved fuel. I was doing mid-31s most of the time from then on.”

Button said he had no chance to stop Lewis coming straight back past: “I got a bad exit onto the last corner, because I was on the outside through Turn 12, I picked up some shit on my tyres, I think. I turned into the last corner, I got oversteer – you can’t see it on the TV – and I lost traction on the exit. It screwed me a little bit for the straight.

“Obviously I would rather have finished first, but it was a fun battle, and if you can’t finish first, it’s the second best thing, fighting with your team mate and fighting for a win.”

He thinks it’s inevitably that they will be fighting each other again:  “We’re all here to race and to fight, and sometimes it’s going to happen, if you’re racing wheel to wheel. If you’re both competitive drivers and you’re both quick, you’re going to find yourself next to each other on the grid quite often. You’re going to be racing each other, and you both want to beat each other, and sometimes you obviously go a little bit too far, and you touch, and things happen.”

Jenson thinks that the Vettel/Webber collision was a little unusual: “The accident with Sebastian and Mark was very strange. It wasn’t like they were fighting in a corner, collided because they got a bit too close or they were wheel banging.

“It looked to me as though Mark was just carrying on a straight line, and Sebastian thought he was going to move to the right to take his line for the corner, but Mark didn’t, he stayed still. That’s what it looked like. Sebastian went right and he didn’t expect that Mark was still going to be there.”

Meanwhile Jenson believes that Montreal will suit McLaren and its F-Duct, although he thinks Red Bull won’t be too badly off.

“Because there aren’t any high speed corners, I don’t think they will have that advantage. But I don’t think that you can forget that they have very good mechanical grip also. Also the way that their car works, there are a few things on their car that are different to most. I think those things will help them around here, with so many traction areas. They are still going to be quick. You can’t forget about Red Bull, they’re going to be for sure up the front.

“But this is a circuit that should work for us quite well. There’s long straights, and we’re very efficient. I think braking for us is a reasonably strong point, and mechanically we’re quite strong. I don’t think we’re going to be alone up front, the Red Bulls are going to be very quick, and I even think that Mercedes will be competitive. And you never know about Ferrari, they’ve been very up and down the last couple of races, but this is such a different circuit to Turkey, they could be competitive here also.”

Mark Webber says he has put the Turkey incident behind him and is ready to move on with the season. Despite all the fuss of last week, he says his views on what happend have not changed.

“Same as I said Sunday night to be honest,” he said in Montreal. “A tough day for the team, it was unfortunate. Move on.”

However, he did elaborate on what happened: “I turned my engine down because I had to save a bit more fuel, asked what position Seb was in with his fuel. I didn’t need much clarification because I knew that he was all over me. He’d saved a bit more fuel in the slipstream, so he could have a few more laps in a better fuel mixture if you like. We raced each other, and we knew what happened.

“In terms of these messages from the pit wall, it all happened in 70 seconds, basically. Everything was fine and 70 seconds, ‘Use to push to pass, don’t, where is it?, I don’t know, shit what happened?….’ Bang, it was all over. It happened fast. You guys [the media] have had 10 days to get your stuff together, and we had 60 seconds, and that’s actually what happened.

“I’m cool, absolutely fine. I’m totally over it, and ready to go this weekend. I’m looking forward to getting on the track.

“I was disappointed with the consequences, absolutely, but we’re moving on from there. You can talk as much as you want about it, but it doesn’t change anything.”

Webber says that the incident will not stop the two team mates racing each other.

“Yeah, we need to race each other still. Sometimes when you’re even more careful, different things happen. It was such a fine line what happened, the result wasn’t great obviously, one car didn’t finish, and in the future there is a big chance that we will race each other again.

“Your judgement as F1 drivers needs to be correct, whether I’m lapping Chandhok or racing Seb for the lead of the race, always as drivers we’re doing what we can to make the right calls from the cockpit, as I have done most of my career. When you’re racing at the front week-in, week-out, sometimes you’re going to have some action.”

Asked if he would now give Vettel more room he said: “Or vice versa? We’ll see. Every situation is different. Off the start we’ve Malaysia, we’ve had China, we’ve had stuff last year. I think the fans want drivers to race each other as well. The team had done their best to keep us driving at the front, and when you’re spending every fortnight on the same rows of the grid together, potentially racing each other all the time, you’re going to be close to each other. So we try to get the balance right for us, also as individuals in the team. Milton Keynes is working for both of us, and they want the best results out of whatever car that is.”

One of Webber’s biggest critics after the accident was Red Bull motor sport boss Helmut Marko, but Webber says he has no problem with him.

“Helmut wasn’t fully up to speed with all the facts at the time. Obviously he went pretty quick with his comments, we probably all learn and move on from that. Had a good chat to Helmut at the factory, he’s fine. He brought Seb along, he speaks the language, all those types of things. So you can expect a bit of emotional support that way. But I’m fine with that. There’s a lot of things that have happened with this time through his support, and I’ve been off the back of that as well.”

Meanwhile the Aussie recently signed up for another year with the team, a development that did much to calm things down in the camp.

 “We were very close to signing the contract before… Friday in Barcelona we were talking and very close to getting things done, and obviously Barcelona went very well for me. I’m bloody comfortable in the team, and have been since I arrived.

“Obviously when Seb arrived there was some nice momentum, you new charger, all that sort of stuff. I’ve just kept my head down and tried to do my job. It’s turned out pretty well for me this year, and the team have been great for both of us. That’s why we’ve got a good package and we’re pushing each other.”