Tag Archives: F1

March 18, 2014 · 10:13 am

Ron Dennis: “We know when we can realistically expect to win…”

On Sunday evening Ron Dennis made no secret of his satisfaction with not just at the performance of Kevin Magnussen, but also of the whole McLaren team, which earned second and third places after Daniel Ricciardo’s exclusion.

The pit wall made some particularly good calls with Jenson Button, which helped the Brit to leap frog up the order.

“The team was very structured, very focussed, and made the right decisions in the right way,” he said when asked by this writer. “It’s good. We’re not here to come third, we’re here to win. We certainly won’t be satisfied until we win. The structure is maturing well, and we will win.”

Prior to Australia Dennis said his role wouldn’t involve being on the pit wall, and while he changed his mind, he said he wasn’t taking over from Eric Boullier.

“I wasn’t on the pit wall telling him what to do, I was really just trying to understand the strategy as it was being remodelled through the race. I’m a racer, so the thought of not understanding and contributing doesn’t come across my mind. It’s just when you observe things it’s good to say, ‘Why not this, why not that?’

“It’s a luxury not to have a role in the team, if you stand back, you can watch what’s going on. The thing is everybody is receptive to change, everybody knows we have to change, and when you change things you get better. The outcome of today was a really good team effort. They called the pit stops at the right time, they were agile with the safety car, stops were all well executed tyre utilisation, fuel, everything was well executed.

“I’m pleased about the discipline of the team. Everyone knows what we have to do, and we’ve just got to get on and do it.”

Regarding the team’s potential he said: “We don’t have the pace yet, but this earlier races are when you can accumulate points. We have very clear mile stones of input performance, we know when we can realistically expect to win races, don’t ask the question, I’m not going to tell you. You don’t arrive back where you want to be just overnight, it takes time.

“I’ll come to more than 10 [races], and less than 16, I don’t know where that will fit. Most of the reason I come to the races is either investors or shareholders, or meetings that need to be attended.”

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March 18, 2014 · 9:57 am

Williams should have been on podium, says Wolff

Toto Wolff is not underestimating the opposition, and the Mercedes boss says both Williams and Red Bull could have been more competitive in Australia.

Wolff suggests that Red Bull would have been more of a threat had Sebastian Vettel not had a troubled weekend.

“If you see where they [RBR] were two weeks ago, we need to be very careful,” said Wolff. “We haven’t seen Sebastian running with a reliable car and a fast car, and you would expect him, with his experience, to go even faster. So we have to keep on pushing.”

While his Williams team mate Felipe Massa was out at the first corner Valterri Bottas was one of the few drivers who could overtake in Australia, and he finished fifth despite losing time when he clipped the wall early on

“I guess if you look at Valtteri’s pace before he hit the wall, and then I think his steering wheel was not completely straight, and then his pace afterwards, I would say if they have a normal race and they qualify better than here, probably they would have ended up on the podium. I’m quite sure they would have ended up on the podium.”

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March 17, 2014 · 3:24 pm

Mercedes not resting on laurels, Wolff insists

Toto Wolff admits that he would regard it as a failure if Mercedes does not win the 2014 World Championship – although he insists that the team’s advantage is not as big as outsiders might think.

“I don’t see it as a big advantage, to be honest,” he said. “You can see if you have a DNF, you lose points. McLaren is leading the constructors’. So we cannot pause in the whole thing. Yes, we have a little bit of a margin at the moment, and losing that margin now is something that I would consider as a failure.”

Wolff says that the team has to keep on pushing, and not rest on its laurels.

“The good thing is that we are very integrated, it’s not that you work on reliability and not on the other parts. The whole thing is so much integrated, and the guys work with each other so well that, yes, we have to continue to work on reliability, but equally drive performance. You need to add downforce to the car, you need to make all the systems work with each other, you need to improve on cooling, you need to improve the whole package of the car.

“You have to look on yourself, and improve everything, and improve the organisation, and improve the car. Whether you are ahead or behind, it doesn’t change the approach.”

He acknowledged that the next race is a big challenge: “I guess that all the teams are fighting with cooling at the moment. We tend to find out every test or race weekend that we are going into that it’s more challenging than expected, so I guess Malaysia will be quite a big challenge to manage heat.”

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March 17, 2014 · 7:59 am

Video: Nico Rosberg on his Australian win

Here’s what a very happy Nico Rosberg has to say about his Australian GP victory.

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March 16, 2014 · 1:44 pm

Christian Horner: “It’s impossible to rely 100% on that sensor…”

Christian Horner is adamant that Red Bull Racing complied with the regulations during the Australian GP and can win its appeal against the exclusion of Daniel Ricciardo from his second place.

Ricciardo was deemed to have consistently exceeded the fuel flow limit of 100kg/hr, which is monitored by the FIA in real time.

The team was unhappy with its sensor on Friday, changed to a different one which had a problem in qualifying, and was told by the FIA to change back to the original for the race. In effect the team ran the race to its own fuel flow readings as it did not trust the sensor.

However the bottom line is that the sensor is the regulatory device and all teams have to comply with its readings.

“Hopefully through the appeal process it will be quite clear that the car has conformed at all times to the regulations,” said Horner. “These fuel flow sensors that have been fitted by the FIA to measure fuel which have proved problematic throughout the pitlane, and since their introduction at the start of testing, there have been discrepancies.

“We had a fuel flow sensor that was fitted to the car that we believed to be in error, and therefore based our calculation on the fuel that the injectors were providing to the engine, which is a calibrated piece of equipment that is consistent and standard across the weekend that we’ve seen zero variance in.

“We wouldn’t be appealing if we didn’t think that we had a defendable case. It’s disappointing that this has happened, it’s certainly no fault of Daniel. I don’t believe that it’s the fault of the team, I believe that we’ve been compliant with the rules, and the investigation and documents that will be submitted within the appeal will demonstrate that.”

Horner confirmed that the sensor had been changed over the weekend.

“We had an issue with a sensor that changed its reading through Friday practice, that sensor was then replaced for another sensor on Saturday that then failed during qualifying. We were then asked to put the sensor from Friday back in the car and apply an offset. That offset we didn’t feel was correct, and as we got into the race we could see there was a significant discrepancy between what the sensor was reading and what the fuel flow, which was the actual injection of fuel into the engine, was stated as. That’s where there was a difference of opinion.

“It’s immature technology, and it’s impossible to rely 100% on that sensor, which had proved to be problematic in almost every session that we’ve run in.”

Regarding the fact that the team ignored requests from the FIA to make an adjustment during the race, he said: “They informed us and we informed them that we had serious concerns over their sensor. We believed in our reading, otherwise you are in a situation where you are reducing significant amounts of power with the engine, when we believed we fully comply with the regulations. If we end up with that situation, depending on the calibration of your sensor, the plus and minus, it will dictate quite simply who is competitive and who isn’t.”

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March 16, 2014 · 11:09 am

Nico Rosberg: “I have an unbelievably quick car…”

Nico Rosberg got his 2014 season off to a perfect start as Mercedes fulfilled the promise it showed in winter testing,

The German jumped Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton at the start, and when the latter retired almost immediately with engine issues, Rosberg won as he pleased.

“The car was just really, really quick today and the whole team did such a good job on it,” said Rosberg. “A really good engine, not much of a problem with fuel consumption, I didn’t have to worry much about that, pretty much as usual. It just all worked perfectly. Reliability was great. So, fantastic. I’m just so happy for everybody. They work so damn hard, I don’t think people can really imagine how hard everybody works in my team and I’m sure in other teams too – so that’s just the best reward possible. To dominate in such a way the first week, the first race out.”

Rosberg’s only problem was a tyre issue: “I got into a bit of a strange situation in that middle stint because I got graining on the front, and then somehow I was losing temperature, and somehow it started to get really difficult out there. So, I thought I was going to have to come in soon and they just said try to stay out, try to stay out and I did, and then the graining cleared on my tyre and I was off, I was able to go again. It was a bit of a strange period but then it was fine again after that.”

Nico said he wasn’t thinking about leading the championship.

“I don’t think about that. I’m really just in the moment. I have an unbelievably quick car or I had an unbelievably quick car today. It’s such a pleasure to drive. It’s such a great feeling, and I really look forward to the next races so much now, having this.. It’s so fast, it’s great. Of course, it’s still going to be tough and reliability is not 100 percent sorted, there’s still lots of work we need to do and there’s a lot of work ahead of us but it’s a great start and I’m just excited about the result today and sharing it with the whole team. It’s just fantastic.”

He admitted that reliability could still be a weakness.

“I’m not sure what happened to the other car, but for sure it’s a fact that we’re not 100 percent sorted yet. We know that, and the team did a great job to get my car working so well in the race today, but there’s still work to be done. We have two weeks now. We need to identify all the things that we can still do better because even leading up to this weekend, there were still a lot of changes on the car and you don’t really want to be doing that just going to the first race. And also in testing there were still a couple of problems at the end there, so great job, but still things to get sorted.”

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March 15, 2014 · 10:13 pm

Nico Rosberg: “There will be battles between Lewis and I…”

In all likelihood the Australian GP will quickly develop into a battle between Mercedes team mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, which begs the question will they be allowed to race?

Given the potential challenges of fuel consumption, tyre durability and of course reliability a team boss could be forgiven for imposing orders, especially when his cars have such a big advantage over the rest. Why waste a guaranteed one-two when the cars are still potentially fragile by risking retirement?

Mercedes has had some issues in the past, notably in Malaysia last year when Rosberg was told to sit behind a fuel saving Hamilton, but team boss Toto Wolff says his drivers won’t be reined in this year.

“They are completely free to race, because this is why we’re here,” said Wolff. “You need to establish rules if you have somebody in the car who doesn’t understand the concept maybe, or is just looking at himself. But I don’t think this is the case with Lewis and Nico. We’ve had some discussions about it, and I don’t think this going to be an issue or a problem.

“I think if you look back at Malaysia last year it was a bit of a perfect storm for us. We were caught out by surprise running third and fourth, then Lewis ran into a bit of a problem, and then Nico caught up, and we weren’t quite sure if Nico would run into a problem, and he got a call, which was quite a direct call, and maybe we would do it in a different way today. This is why it was a tricky and difficult situation to manage.”

Wolff insisted that the ground rules are flexible: “I think it’s very difficult to establish parameters and say that whoever has the first corner stays in front. We’re not doing this. We had a long discussion with Paddy and the boys. It was a very good discussion, and everybody gave his opinion on how we should proceed, and we defined that even if this is difficult to comprehend, where we came from as a team, our main competitors are the other teams. And then we need to make sure that as a team we are running strongly.

“And then it’s to be decided on a case-by-case what’s going in in the cars. I think it could go one race in one direction, and the other race in the other direction. I think pretty much all possible situations we have discussed and found a solution which is acceptable to Nico and to Lewis, and the team.”

Meanwhile Rosberg admitted that the key thing was that everything had been discussed and possible scenarios planned for.

“That is the main thing, yes, it’s to really have a clear picture of what’s going on. I can already, that’s important for the TV, for everybody, for us as a team. That’s exciting, that’s what we’re here for. But within certain limits. Of course you can’t go crazy as team mates because at the same time we’re both racing for Mercedes, we’re both here to have great success for Mercedes, and help bring Mercedes to the front of F1.

“At the same time we want to go racing, have a good time, and do some exciting stuff on track, so we need to find the fine line, and we have done so with preparing for it. We’ve really gone through it in detail, so we know what to expect, and that’s the most important thing. Once everybody knows what he has to do, you’re good to go.”

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March 15, 2014 · 4:01 am

Grid penalties for Bottas and Gutierrez

Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez will both take five-place grid penalties in Australia after being forced to change their gearboxes.

All teams put their race gearboxes in for today, and both drivers suffered problems almost immediately having recorded only two laps apiece. Their teams have confirmed that they will need a change.

Under the 2014 rules gearboxes are required to complete six consecutive Saturday/Sundays. Gearbox use remains free on Fridays.

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March 14, 2014 · 8:42 am

Lewis Hamilton: “I didn’t even get round half a lap…”

Lewis Hamilton bounced back from a disastrous start to finish the first day in Australia on top of the times, emphasising that as expected Mercedes will set the pace this weekend.

Hamilton stopped on track at the start of FP1 due to a sensor issue, but ran 37 troublefree laps in the second session to head team mate Nico Rosberg by just 0.157s.

“To miss the first session is kind of unusual, I didn’t even get round half a lap, I had to stop,” he said. “It’s a shame because there was the 10-15 minutes when no one was running, they could easily have brought the car back. I felt I was really on the back foot already. But I got up to pace quite quickly and found the balance relatively fast as well, so I feel positive.

“I think basically we got a nice foundation in P2, so I hope I can build on that in P3, and see where we end up in qualifying. Of course it would have been great to have had P1, but at the end of the day I got enough running thankfully in P2, so I feel quite comfortable in the car. I’ve got a good understanding of what’s going on on the car on the track and fuel and all that kind of stuff. I feel positive. I’m glad I got through it.”

Lewis said he hadn’t had time to assess the opposition: “To be honest I’ve not really looked at anyone today, I’ve just focussed on myself. We’ll see tomorrow.”

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March 13, 2014 · 7:38 am

Sebastian Vettel: “We’re not in the best shape yet…”

Sebastian Vettel insists that he hasn’t given up hope of challenging for a fifth World Championship this year – and believes that Red Bull still has enough time to catch up after its bad start in testing.

However he also conceded that the team still has a lot of work to do.

“It’s a long year,” he said today. “Our pre-season testing, our preparation, hasn’t been ideal and, yeah, we’re probably not in the best position for this race but I think it’s a different story when we think about the championship. There’s a long way to go. Two years back Fernando was on the grid with 1.5 seconds to pole position but he was very close to beating us to the title at the very last race. Anything can happen. That’s why this race is important, just as any other one. But there are a lot of races this year.

“It’s obviously a tough step for all the teams, all the drivers, a lot of new things to get used to. We know that obviously we’re not in the best shape yet. There are a lot of things we need to solve. Unfortunately, you can’t solve them overnight. We’d love to but we can’t. So you really have to go step by step, together with Daniel, I think just trying to be as precise as we can, trying to give the engineers the best feedback possible about the whole power unit so that we move forward on that and also talking about the car because at this stage it’s a bit unknown where we are.

“It’s not a secret: you need very, very strong reliability to be a title contender, so we’ll see… I’m looking forward to tomorrow and especially Sunday to get a feel for the new regulations and see where we are.”

Vettel says that the team has already changed a lot on the RB10 since the last test in Bahrain.

“I think it will be a very different car. Obviously, for us, we had a lot of problems during the test so we didn’t get to test a lot of stuff and we hope we do some more running here and obviously put the parts to the car that we think are better for overall performance. It will be a bit different but I think it’s the same for all of us.

“The target, for sure, is to finish and the target for sure is to finish in the best possible position, so that’s the mind-set, fairly straightforward and for the rest of the year, I think we’re a strong team, we have a lot of good people on board, we have strong resources so I’m confident we should progress as the season goes on.”

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