March 4, 2016 · 4:07 pm

Fernando Alonso: “I am sad for the sport…”

Fernando Alonso pulled no punches yesterday when expressing a jaundiced view of the current state of F1 and the way regulations are made without input from the drivers.

The Spaniard has been left confused by the changes to the qualifying format, and the general direction the sport appears to be taking.

Drivers have no formal role to play in shaping future rules, although on Wednesday a group of them met the FIA’s Charlie Whiting in what was a highly unusual meeting to discuss qualifying, among other subjects.

“I am sad for the sport because it doesn’t look right, from the outside,” Alonso said in Barcelona. “When in one week, we change the qualifying format three times… If I was a sportsman from another sport, I would look at F1 a bit surprised about that. I don’t think it’s right. And the changes, too many changes. The complexity of the rules, also for the spectators, is quite high.

“All my friends here in Spain, they want to switch on television, watch battles, big cars, big tyres, big noise and enjoy the race, like they do with other sports. But for us they only know MGU-H, MGU-K, state of charge, supersoft, use mandatory mediums. Things like that. It’s no wonder they switch off the television.”

Alonso didn’t attend Wednesday’s meeting, but said he trusted his colleagues to put their views across.

“I was not in the meeting, but any of the things that my mates will say, I will agree completely, because I think it’s a unanimous thing. We want simplicity in the rules – and even the one-lap format, the super pole [one lap format] that we did in 2005, I think, 2006, was spectacular.

“Everyone has one lap of television coverage, it’s simple: one lap, you brake late, maybe you start 15th. There is some adrenaline on that lap as well. But I don’t know. Whatever they decide, we will go for it as we did for the last 16 years.”

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February 27, 2016 · 9:01 am

Ecclestone says new qualifying system delayed

Bernie Ecclestone has said that the revised qualifying system will not be introduced until Spain because of issues with readying the new timing software, which has to deal with the complex elimination process.

The timing system is the responsibility of FOM and not the FIA. The new system had been discussed behind closed doors for some months, so the delay reflects a lack of joined-up thinking at the top of the sport. The FIA is also likely to be frustrated by the situation given that the change has already been announced, albeit with the proviso that it will “potentially” be introduced for 2016.

As reported last week that there were already concerns in the paddock about the software being readied in time.

“There’s a lot of work to do in the next few weeks,” said Pat Symonds of Williams. “Not just for us but for FOM to redo the software that handles the timing systems and things like that. It’s quite a tough call.”

Ecclestone has now confirmed that the work cannot be completed by the start of the season.

“The new qualifying won’t happen because we can’t get everything together in time,” he told The Independent. “It was going to come in at the start of this year but we are not going to be able to get all the software done in time. So the qualifying changes will probably be in Spain. In Australia it will be the old qualifying. All of the software has to be written so it’s not easy.

He added: “It’s not what I wanted in the end. All I’m trying to do is muddle up the grid so that the guy that is quickest in qualifying doesn’t sit on pole and disappear because why should he be slow in the race if he is quick in qualifying?”

Ecclestone also confirmed that he wanted time penalties added in order to mix up the grid.

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February 26, 2016 · 2:12 pm

Nico Rosberg: “You can really see how far we’ve come as a team…”

An upbeat Nico Rosberg says he’s been impressed by the start to the season that Mercedes has enjoyed in Barcelona this week, and especially by the fact that the team has not been afraid to add new elements to the package.

He also noted that while the car has appeared to run like clockwork the high mileage has pinpointed some reliability issues, even of they haven’t cost a lot of track time.

“It’s been a good start, and reliability is looking very good,” said Rosberg. “It’s quick, I love the way it looks, if you look at it there’s some real innovation on there, and I’m very impressed by that. You can really see how far we’ve come as a team.

“If you look five years ago we were unable to make such innovation, and now there are so many things which are ahead of the game. I’m not saying we’re definitely the quickest, but there’s some good stuff on the car, which is impressive. For sure you can feel it. Small steps every time, you know.”

Regarding the reliability problems, he said: “We found a few bits and pieces that broke on the car, and we wouldn’t have found them if we’d only done 2000kms. So that has been useful, because for sure that will help us now in the beginning of the season. No race stoppers, but still things which you don’t really want to see happen.”

Mercedes stuck with medium tires and a conservative run plan all week, and Rosberg admitted he’s looking forward to being let off the leash in next week’s test.

“Of course I love to go really fast with low fuel, I am looking forward to that. Pounding round with mediums and a lot of fuel is eventually not going to be so exciting at the end of it! So I do look forward to taking away some fuel.”

Rosberg also said that Mercedes has a good idea of where it stands in the pecking order, although inevitably he didn’t want to elaborate.

“I’m paying attention of course. We have strategists and they’re doing calculations already, so more or less we already know where we are. Would you like to know? Sorry I’m not going to say! So we know where we are, with a band of errors. Because they are able to see full tanks and so on, and after a while they get a picture of where everybody is. That’s quite fascinating to see that work, so we do have a good picture.”

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February 25, 2016 · 8:37 am

Massa expects new F1 qualifying system to create “chaos”

Felipe Massa said today that the new F1 qualifying rules are likely to cause “chaos” as frontrunners get it wrong and find themselves bumped out of the session.

The Williams driver also said it was too early for him to decide if he prefers the new arrangement.

“I don’t know if it I like it or not,” said Massa tonight. “I think I need to have a little bit of time to sit down and understand the rules, understand the change. The only thing I understand is that they want to create some chaos around, and this will happen for sure.

“I’m sure it will happen, some chaos, cars that should maybe qualify more in the front have problems and they need to start in the back. So this is something that can be interesting for you [the media], but if it’s better or not, I don’t know yet.”

Asked if qualifying was the area that the sport needed to address he added: “I think the most important thing is that fans want to see fights, they want to see cars overtaking, cars close by. Fans don’t want to see only one car winning the race. Whenever you can make a championship better, the fans will be happy. I think that’s the main issue.

“Which is not something easy to fix. Maybe the noise of the car, but apart from this I think the fans want to see different cars winning the race, that’s the main target, which is the most difficult thing for F1 to make happen.”

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February 24, 2016 · 4:50 pm

Pat Symonds: New qualifying system “might not be as exciting…”

Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds says that the elimination F1 qualifying format proposed for 2016 won’t necessarily improve the show on Saturday, but it will shake up the grid for Sunday.

Symonds stressed that all teams have a lot of work to do by Melbourne if the system is confirmed for the first race.

“It’s going to be quite tough,” he said. “We certainly need to spend a lot more time thinking about it. I don’t think it’s going to improve qualifying itself, in fact I think there’s a danger qualifying might not be as exciting, it may not build up to that final crescendo. But what it has a good chance of doing is improving the race.

“It’s quite a difficult situation, it’s done at very short notice, we’re not going to have a lot of time to get our thoughts together and optimise everything and write loads of software to help us optimise it. And so I think all of us are going to make mistakes, especially early on and that means there will be occasions when cars are out of position. We will see some of the quicker cars a bit further back, and we all know that’s given us some great races in the past.

Teams have already made their tyre selections for the early races, and Symonds admitted that those choices might have different.

“This year we have more say in the selection of the tyres. We’ve already the nominations for the first few races, and we’ve done that without the knowledge that the qualifying procedure was going to change. I’m sure that as we analyse it we will say has we known this, we would have chosen differently, but the fact is we are in the same boat, so I don’t think it’s such a big deal.

“There’s a lot of work to do in the next few weeks, not just for us but for FOM to redo the software that handles the timing systems and things like that. It’s quite a tough call.”

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February 24, 2016 · 1:05 pm

FIA says new qualifying format will “potentially” be introduced for 2016

The FIA has confirmed details of the new qualifying format. However the governing body has stressed that it is being “evaluated for introduction, potentially as soon as the beginning of the 2016 season.”

The rules were discussed yesterday by team bosses without any input from engineers or team managers, and there is likely to be some refinement. Some sources have suggested that there was a plan to have a single session – but it was pointed out that TV broadcasters factor ad breaks into the gaps between Q1 and Q2, and Q2 and Q3.

The FIA describes the format as follows:

– Q1

  • 16 minutes

  • After 7 minutes, slowest driver eliminated

  • Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag

  • 7 drivers eliminated, 15 progress to Q2

– Q2

  • 15 minutes

  • After 6 minutes, slowest driver eliminated

  • Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag

  • 7 drivers eliminated, 8 progress to Q3

– Q3

  • 14 minutes

  • After 5 minutes, slowest driver eliminated

  • Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag

  • 2 drivers left in final 1 minute 30 seconds

The final elimination in each session occurs at the chequered flag – not when time is up.

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February 24, 2016 · 8:37 am

Fernando Alonso: “I’m not here just to travel around the world…”

Fernando Alonso returned to McLaren-Honda duty in Barcelona on Tuesday, and the Spaniard enjoyed a trouble-free day as he logged a respectable total of 119 laps – in stark contrast to the form the team showed last year.

Alonso was in relaxed mood afterwards, and he made it clear that recent suggestions he might stop if the packaged was uncompetitive are wide of the mark.

However, he stressed that there is still much work to do for the team and its engine partner.

“It’s good to be back and good to complete a good number of laps which I missed last year,” he said. “We did seven laps the first day, 25 the second, 13 the third day, and then we went to Australia… I think by race five or race six we were still discovering little things on the car that were hurting us a lot in terms of points and in terms of performance during the year. That was the first priority for the team and for this winter, make sure that we went through the problems that we had last year.

“We put some solutions, and we did I think, at least on the reliability side. I’m proud of the team and proud of the job that everyone put together in this car. I enjoyed the day, but there is performance that we need to unlock in the car.

“Most of the work we did today were laps for aerodynamic study and laps for reliability study, temperatures, brake temperatures, water temperatures, many things that from a driver point of view were not very exciting, anyone can do those kinds of laps and those studies let’s say, and I’m looking forward to do some set-up change or some soft tyres or different fuels to really enjoy the driving as well.”

He was adamant that the power unit is better, but made it clear that it had to be, given its poor performance last year.

“Definitely yes, but this is let’s say an answer that we could not have any doubts, because the starting point or the power and deficit that we had last year compared to the top teams, it was just too high. We did improve all the areas of the car. I think on the aerodynamic side there are parts which are quite innovative and quite new, in our car, at least. Maybe the others had these ideas in the past, but for us they are quite new.

“We need a little bit of time to mature the project, the package. And in the power unit the same thing. For us last year there was a lot of learning, a lot of pain, but we learned many things, and now with a completely new design, or philosophy of power unit, we still need a little bit of time to understand and exploit the potential.”

Asked if the targets can he achieved Alonso said: “Honestly, I don’t know. There is not a crystal ball in F1 that you can bet or you can know more or less which direction the year will go after the first day of testing, or even after the two weeks of testing. I think we need to wait for Australia when we are all in the same conditions, with supersoft tyres and low fuel, same track conditions, and then we see. And even that I think we need to wait for two or three races to know for sure how the year will turn to you.

“Sitting here, or last week, in the factory, or even taking the plane to Australia, the ambition is very high. I’m not here just to travel around the world and jump in the car and have some fun on Sunday. I’m here to win. All the 22 drivers, they want the same, and for me it’s no different.”

Meanwhile Alonso joked about rumours that he will stop any time soon if the car is not competitive saying that with the long winter break there was a “dangerous tendency of being creative with the news. Asked if he will see out the season he said “of course, and the next one.”

Fernando did not want to comment on the Honda management changes, saying that he had only just found out about them.

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February 23, 2016 · 8:33 am

Arai out as Honda changes F1 management structure

Honda has instigated a surprise management reshuffle of its F1 programme on the eve of the new season, and erstwhile boss Yasuhisa Arai will lose his job as of March 1st.

The move appears to have happened quickly after a Honda board meeting in Tokyo, as Arai is present at the Barcelona test this week.

Arai, who faced a lot of criticism last year, will be replaced as Executive Chief Engineer and Head of F1 Project by Yusuke Hasegawa. Honda says his role role is to “oversee the development, manufacturing and management of the F1 project.”

Meanwhile as of April 1st Yoshiyuki Matsumoto will take on a new role as Supervising Director that was not previously filled. His job is to “oversee and supervise all F1 related undertakings to strengthen the organizational structure for Honda’s F1 project.”

 

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February 22, 2016 · 8:22 pm

Eric Boullier: “The car is better than last year”

McLaren boss Eric Boullier says that the team has had a good start to its test programme with the new MP4-31, although the Frenchman prefers not to speculate about its ultimate potential.

Jenson Button gave the car its first miles at Barcelona this morning, and the Brit ultimately completed 84 laps and finished the day in sixth place, some 1.7s off Sebastian Vettel.

“All the numbers we found on the car are correlating with what we expected,” said Boullier. “So if you base your winter work on simulations and expectations, it’s a good sign, that means our tools are working properly, so that means the car is better than last year. We’ll see.

Asked how much better it might be he said: “It’s better. I’m not going to answer you how much, because you build the wrong expectations outside our world. And even us, we don’t know what the others have been doing over the winter.”

Boullier refused to talk in any detail about how much progress Honda has made over the winter.

“We need all the tools to do it properly. As far as I’m concerned I’m in charge of the chassis part, drivers, some of the stuff like this. On this part we are trying to be on target. As far as the engine part, you need to ask Honda. But we will win when we have the best drivers, the best chassis, the best car and the best engine.

“I think there has been some good improvement on the engine side. Clearly they are on the right path, and they have clearly fixed a few issues which were hurting us last year, so it’s good so far.”

Boullier insisted that the team is heading in the right direction.

“I think there is a good base now. If you look at the other cars like Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, the current regulations force you to develop your car concept over a couple of years, or three years let’s say. So you need time, first.

“We decided last year to go radically different, and it paid off, or sort of paid off, because we caught up on some big teams last year in terms of performance. We have to see now where we are this year. I think the base is good, the confidence is there now, everybody is working hard and jointly, which is important.”

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February 22, 2016 · 8:21 am

Force India: VJM09 a progression from 2015

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Force India revealed its new VJM09 in Barcelona today amid optimism about the team’s chances of at least retaining its fifth place in the World Championship.

The team says that the car is based on last year’s as it preferred to devote resources to next year’s project.

“You can say the b-spec car from last year formed a basis on which to build our 2016 one,” said technical director Andy Green. “We were in a situation in which the performance on track was very good, and in which the data we were getting correlated well to what we were expecting, so we knew we could continue to develop on a solid platform. With the regulations likely to change for 2017, it didn’t really seem like an efficient use of our resources to start from scratch on a project that would have such a limited lifetime.”

“I want us to begin 2016 in the same way that we ended 2015,” said team boss Vijay Mallya. “Our technical team is excited about the progress we have made over the winter and there’s every reason to believe we can stay at the front of the midfield battle.”

As in previous years the team has a solid update programme in place: “The wind tunnel programme in Cologne is maturing nicely and I’m encouraged by the gains we have made over the winter, “ said COO Otmar Szafnauer. “The first major aero updates should be on the car in time for Melbourne and we also plan another big step for the start of the European season.”

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