FORMULA 1 - 2014

[MIKA27]

McLaren fears for the worst

McLaren fears that last week's disappointing race in Malaysia will be the first of many if they fail to dramatically improve their MP4-29 in the coming weeks.

After their double-podium finish in Australia, Jenson Button finished sixth and his McLaren team-mate Kevin Magnussen in ninth place at Sepang last week.

With those results in mind, as well as the tempo with which the Woking team's rivals are improving their cars, McLaren racing director Eric Boullier fears for the worst at this week's Bahrain Grand Prix.

"I don't think it's going to be a one-off, that's the problem," Boullier told Autosport ahead of this week's race at Sakhir.

"We said in Melbourne we were happy with the result because we had been opportunistic.

"But obviously we knew the others were going to massively catch up once they started to fine-tune their balance and ride and everything on their cars, especially the electronic parts. It's exactly what happened."

"This is the down spiral when it's very hot.

"Our lack of downforce is making the car slide more and when the car slides more the tyres get hotter, and if you pass the limit of the surface temperature you get in trouble.

"This is exactly what happened to us. It was very hot and we were struggling with the grip.

"Strangely there was not much reliability issue here [in Malaysia], and it's true our strategy to be reliable was good in Melbourne and here it didn't pay off because most of the cars saw the chequered flag.

"We know performance-wise we have to massively catch up and aggressively develop the car."

[MIKA27]

Podiums remain Grosjean's target

Despite their struggles so far this season, Lotus go to every Grand Prix with a podium finish as a target, according to Romain Grosjean.

The Frenchman has a good record at Sakhir, where this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix takes place, finishing in third place in the last two races behind winner Sebastian Vettel and then-team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

The Frenchman was also buoyed by his 11th place finish at Sepang last week, the first time he has completed a full race this year.

"It's a good track and I'm happy to go back there," Grosjean told crash.net ahead of this week's Bahrain GP.

"I'm especially looking forward to the first night race at a circuit I like. Twice I've raced there in Formula One and twice I've been on the podium. So that's a good record! We were not very successful in the pre-season tests, but hopefully there will be some more updates and performance from our side.

"I'm sure everyone is going to work hard even though there are just a few days before Bahrain. The race finish at Sepang is a big encouragement. No matter what the challenge, we are aiming for podiums and strong performances wherever we go.

"To make major progress we need more days like Saturday and Sunday in Malaysia, where we learned a lot about the car. There are some encouraging signs. We know we have a lot of work ahead, but we also know which areas to work on. We will try new things in Bahrain and I'm confident the car will be better."

[MIKA27]

A BIG MONTH AHEAD, BEHIND THE SCENES IN FORMULA 1

In the back corridors of F1 the next month will be an interesting one, and the next week in particular. Bahrain is set to be a meeting point of key players to discuss changes to the new Formula 1.

From a simple raising of the engines’ decibel level, to more radical ideas like shortening the races and abandoning the controversial fuel flow meters, it seems that discussions held so far will channel into a significant meeting of teams, FOM and FIA, a gathering of the F1 Strategy Group to frame a new policy and then possible ratifications of any changes at the next FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting on April 11.

FIA president Jean Todt will make his first appearance of the season in Bahrain, so will Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo and McLaren’s Ron Dennis will no doubt be there too with his Bahraini powerbroker shareholders.

One significant pre-meeting takes place today in London, with the Ferrari president flying in to meet with Bernie Ecclestone at FOM’s Princes’ Gate headquarters to discuss changes to the sport, ownership of the sport and other matters of the moment.

Montezemolo has criticised the new hybrid F1 as “Formula Noia” (Formula Boredom) with drivers not pushing to the limit for energy management reasons, incomprehensible rules around fuel flow meters and not enough noise to impress on TV or in the stands.

And he wants to shake the tree at this early opportunity, with the third Grand Prix of 19 taking place this weekend in Bahrain.

Cynics would argue that if Ferrari were in Mercedes’ position they would not want the tree to be shaken, however bad the sound or the spectacle. And they would be right.

Mercedes will see the attackers coming over the horizon, after two Grands Prix which have shown clear domination from the works team – two poles, two wins – and a healthy points count for their three customer engined teams; McLaren, Williams and Force India. They occupy first, second, fourth and fifth places in the Constructors’ Championship (the table on which prize money is calculated) and have amassed 150 points between them already.

This group will be resistant to change, but at the same time will be forced to accept some ground “in the interests of the sport.”

Niki Lauda, chairman of the Mercedes team, admitted over the weekend that something needed to be done about the noise. Although Melbourne’s Ron Walker has been vocal about the lack of noise and spectacle, other promoters are believed to have had a quiet word with Ecclestone that they want F1 cars to sound more impressive.

But the suggestion emanating from Maranello that the races should be shortened so each driver can push harder, will be met with resistance as will anything which harms Mercedes’ competitive advantage at the moment. The German giant has been building up to this shot at the world championship for six years and will not let its advantage go easily.

Also on the “Urgent” section of the agenda at the moment is cost cutting, after the decision taken by the F1 Strategy Group and World Council in December to introduce a cost cap in F1 for 2015. Todt and the FIA are keen to see this and they would be the ones to regulate it.

To achieve this, the teams will have to agree to it and set a budget level by June 30th, the deadline for legislation for the next season. This leaves just three months to square the circle.

At the moment the signs are that several teams are not in favour of a cap. McLaren, now under the leadership of Ron Dennis, has stated that they have given enough “for the common good” during the FOTA years and now want to focus on what is good for McLaren. Red Bull has always opposed a cap and is the most difficult of all teams to bring to the table when it comes to reducing spend in F1.

Also under discussion at the moment is what happens next in F1′s ownership and its management once Bernie Ecclestone’s bribery trial begins in three weeks in Germany.

CVC, the managing shareholder, has made some indications recently that it does not intend to sell its remaining stake as it sees great opportunity ahead to monetize the sport.

There are suggestions that Ecclestone’s plan is to try to reacquire the sport from CVC, possibly with the teams, while there are also suggestions that CVC is considering putting an interim CEO in to Formula One Management, alongside Ecclestone, to steer the ship while he is in court in Munich and for whatever comes afterwards.

Ecclestone, CVC boss Donald Mackenzie and Christian Horner spent many hours in a series of meetings on Saturday in Kuala Lumpur, with Ecclestone on the record as wanting the Red Bull boss to work alongside him.

Much is on the table, then, in this fascinating month ahead.

[MIKA27]

Renault: Impossible to make the engines louder without major regulation changes

The engines can't be made louder without making major changes to the regulations, the way the power unit operates and the exhaust layout, according to Renault's Remi Taffin.

It's been reported that Bernie Ecclestone has asked the three engine manufacturers to advise on the best way of 'turning the volume up' for 2015, but Taffin says it's impossible to do, without widescale changes.

"There's two big items that drive [noise]," he told Autosport.

"Firstly revs: we went from 18,000 to something like 12,000 this year.

"It's important to say it's based on the regulations, because they set 15,000 as a maximum, but the fuel flow limitation means the maximum we're running, whether it's a Ferrari, a Mercedes, or a Renault, is 12,000 and at the end of the straight it could be 10 or 11,000. "

The other item is the turbo. You put one thing through the path of the exhaust gases, which is like if you would put a pillow on someone's face. It acts as a muffler.

"If you combine these two, we've got the result we've got."

He suggested the FIA would need to scrap the current fuel flow limit of 100kg/h, which would in turn reduce efficiency, and then increase the maximum rev limit.

"If you want to have a different noise you have to go up on revs, but there would be no point going up on revs if you look at the fuel flow, because you would have to get the fuel flow up. But then you bring get your efficiency down," he concluded.

FIA president Jean Todt recently admitted he would be in favour of reduced fuel efficiency in return for a louder noise, if that's what fans wanted.

[MIKA27]

McLaren's Secret Underground Test Track Is Unfortunately Not Real

For the last decade, McLaren’s top secret, high speed, underground test track has been the source of countless rumours for Formula 1 fans and supercar aficionados alike. Bad news — it’s not real.

The 50 year old racing car company’s April 1st leak of a supposedly confidential blueprint on Twitter should have been the first sign that something was up. The blueprint above, clearly quickly cobbled together in Photoshop, shows a scaled-down version of the Silverstone GP circuit hidden underneath McLaren’s giant cylindrical Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey.

McLaren’s Twitter team followed up a few hours later with another tidbit, showing anyone still gullible enough to look a teaser of the underground test track’s interior.

McLaren ✔ @McLarenF1

Ok, here goes: first ever pic of the McLaren underground test track. Turn 7: a tricky 6th gear right. #MTCsecrettrack

8:25 AM - 2 Apr 2014

284 RETWEETS 353 FAVORITES

The “first ever pic” of the underground complex? It’s the tunnel under the Fairmont Hotel on the Circuit de Monaco. Either McLaren’s underground circuit is real and is the most amazing driving experience on the entire planet, or someone sitting at a computer at company HQ is having a quiet chuckle.

Bonus: here’s a fantastic tour of the Technology Centre courtesy of /DRIVE on YouTube.

[MIKA27]

Williams: We apologise, our fans expect us as a team to let our drivers race

Williams apologised to their drivers and Formula One fans on Thursday for a clumsy, and ultimately failed, attempt to impose “team orders” in Malaysia last weekend.

Deputy principal Claire Williams told reporters at the Bahrain Grand Prix that the team had erred in asking Brazilian Felipe Massa to let team mate Valtteri Bottas pass because he was faster.

Massa ignored the request – which was delivered over the team radio and heard worldwide via the television feed – and finished seventh, one place ahead of the Finn.

“Our fans expect us as a team to let our drivers race, and that’s the overriding disappointment,” said Williams.

“For our fans we want to apologise for that because we didn’t handle it in the best way, and to let them down is not the way we want to go.

“We didn’t handle the situation for either of our drivers particularly well, so of course we’ve apologised to our drivers.”

The order scratched several old sores, coming early in the season at a circuit where coded instructions to Red Bull and Mercedes drivers last year triggered a lingering controversy and talk about the pecking order within those teams.

The phrase used by Williams was also almost identical to an infamous one that Massa heard when he was leading the 2010 German Grand Prix while Fernando Alonso’s team mate at Ferrari.

“Felipe, Fernando is faster than you,” has haunted Massa ever since and the Brazilian, who did as he was told that day, has ranked it among the worst moments of his career.

Williams, who took only five points in a miserable 2013 season but already have four times as many on the scoreboard after two races, said the team would make sure things were done differently in future.

She said the team had simply been caught out by a scenario that arose on the day.

“Now we have procedures in place so if it does happen again then we are prepared for that and, although you can’t prepare for every scenario, hopefully we’ve got things covered.

“The instruction that was given in the way it was given, considering history, wasn’t the most advised. But engineers – sat on a pitwall that is a highly pressurised environment – are people and people can sometimes make the wrong calls.

“We’re only human, at the end of the day,” she added. “But as long as we correct them and hold our hands up, that’s the most important thing.”

Massa, who spent much of his time at Ferrari battling in vain against the perception that he was the number two driver, was happy the air had been cleared.

He said his relationship with the former champions he joined at the end of last season, bringing with him some important Brazilian sponsors, had not been damaged and there were no lingering tensions.

“I believe that what’s happened on the last race won’t happen again,” he told reporters.

“Team orders is part of our sport but it needs to be part of our sport when it’s necessary. Everybody here is intelligent enough to understand when it’s necessary and when it’s not.

“When I do something that is my mistake, I will be the first one to say sorry. And the team was the first one to say sorry as well.”

Bottas was also confident everyone was now clear about procedures.

“Things are okay,” he said. “There are some things which are quite confidential with the team’s rules and how you play it. We don’t want to get into the finer details. There are different scenarios, and everything’s sorted.”

[MIKA27]

Perez: Once we have no issues and problems we should be really competitive

Force India’s Sergio Perez hopes Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix will mark the real start of his Formula One season after dismissing last weekend’s Malaysian race as ‘boring’ on Thursday.

The Mexican did not start at Sepang due to a gearbox problem and spent the afternoon watching as a spectator instead.

It was not an experience the 24-year-old is in any hurry to repeat.

“Malaysia for me was quite a boring race, with Mercedes dominating and actually nothing happening in the midfield,” he told reporters at a gusty and cloudy Sakhir circuit. “I think it was a boring race.

“Here hopefully we can see good racing. Hopefully for the fans and for the good of Formula One we can have a good show here,” he added.

Perez has just one point to his credit from two races in his first season with Force India, and that was thanks to Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo being disqualified in Melbourne – a controversial disqualification (as they usually are) which remains subject to a controversial appeal…

The former Sauber and McLaren driver’s German team mate Nico Hulkenberg meanwhile has 18 points after finishing fifth in Malaysia and sixth in Australia.

Perez, whose Australian Grand Prix was ruined by a collision with the Sauber of compatriot Esteban Gutierrez on the first lap, said that he had just had bad luck.

“The first two weekends have been really unfortunate for me with too many issues. Hopefully now that the car has the pace…Nico has shown that it has good pace, we can have a clear weekend without the issues,” he said.

“He has had two very strong races and a lot of points, so I am quite [far] behind…Basically this is my start of the season so hopefully we can have a great result.

“I think there is good potential in the car, every weekend we are learning a lot. Once we have no issues and problems we should be really competitive,” he added.

[MIKA27]

Hamilton: Di Montezemolo didn’t say a thing when Michael won five titles in a row

Lewis Hamilton defended Formula One against accusations of being boring on Thursday, suggesting that those raising their voices now Mercedes were on top had kept quiet when their teams were winning everything.

Mercedes have won the first two races of the new-look V6 turbo era with Nico Rosberg and Hamilton looking dominant while champions Red Bull and glamour team Ferrari are having to play catch-up.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has been a prominent critic of the 2014 technical changes, with quieter cars and an emphasis on fuel-saving, that he says have taken away the excitement and turned F1 racers into taxi drivers.

Montezemolo is expected to attend this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix and discuss the situation with commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who has also been critical of the new engine sound, and the head of the sport’s governing FIA Jean Todt.

Hamilton, the 2008 world champion with McLaren, would not be drawn on the politics of the sport but clearly disagreed with the Ferrari boss.

“Di Montezemolo didn’t say a thing when Michael (Schumacher) won those five world championships (in a row),” smiled the winner of last weekend’s race in Malaysia who will be chasing a third successive pole position on Saturday.

“It’s the same when McLaren won all their championships that they didn’t say anything, and the same with Red Bull when they won, they weren’t saying anything,” he continued.

“Someone else gets in the lead and they’ll say something. It’s the nature of the game.”

Mercedes are favourites to win on Sunday at the Sakhir circuit, with other Mercedes-powered teams also benefitting from a power unit that has been performing better than those made by Ferrari and Renault.

Ferrari have yet to get one of their drivers on the podium this year, with Fernando Alonso fourth in Australia and Malaysia.

The Italian team published on Thursday the results of a survey conducted through their website with 50,000 fans responding, mainly from Italy, Britain, France and Australia.

Unsurprisingly, it found that 83 percent “were disappointed with the new format, dismissing it mainly because of the drivers being forced to lift off (the throttle) to save fuel.

“In addition, the fans don’t like the noise from the new engines and are confused by rules that are too complicated,” Ferrari said, adding that the ‘no’ vote increased substantially after Mercedes’ one-two in Malaysia.

Hamilton suggested fans should be more patient, while accepting that other series such as go-karting, GP2 and MotoGP might have more thrills for those seeking out-and-out excitement.

“Go-karts are the best races to watch because you get to see such natural talent because everyone has the same car and similar engines and you get to watch a train go round, with overtaking from corner to corner,” he said.

“Formula One is different. It has different technology, is a different competition… we’re in a period of time when technology is everything, and the fact Mercedes have developed better technology than everyone, have generally done a better job this year…

“Red Bull have had the best car overall but now it may change this year. That’s a positive… it needs some time before you judge this season.”

[MIKA27]

Raikkonen: It will take time, but we will get there

Kimi Raikkonen is keen to get racing this weekend, after early promise in Malaysia was wiped out by Sunday’s first lap coming together with Kevin Magnussen.

“In Malaysia, the car was more or less the same as in Australia, although clearly we learned more from doing a lot of running and of course, the circuit layout in Sepang is different,” the Finn told the media at his usual Thursday press meeting.

“Those factors make a difference and overall, we were much better in Malaysia, even if not quite where we want to be. Then my race was destroyed, which was not my fault, but that’s how it goes. There are a lot of things to improve in all areas, but we have the right people and all the tools we need to fix those things.”

“It will take time, but we will get there. As for this weekend, if we start well as we did in Malaysia, but then don’t have the problems we had in the race there, we can have a better weekend.”

As for how life was going with Fernando Alonso as a team-mate, the 2007 world champion explained that he has more pressing matters on his mind.

“I don’t know have any real opinion formed yet as I’ve been putting all my effort into sorting out my side of things,” he said. “If I can do that, then we can get the results we want which is our aim. I haven’t given much thought to Fernando, apart from seeing his lap times and data of course. There’s nothing there I would not have expected.”

Asked about whether or not he liked the current Formula 1 so far this season, Kimi was his usual pragmatic self. “It makes no difference if we like it or not, as we do not make the rules. We cannot change it and it is what it is.”

“Sometimes you end up in areas that you would not choose, but you just have to make the best of it. I don’t see the point in talking about the sound of the cars or whether I like it or not.”

[MIKA27]

Ecclestone says Haas looking good for 2015 Formula 1 entry

NASCAR team boss Gene Haas is set to take his place on the pitwall as Formula 1′s newest team owner, starting in 2015.

Having earlier played down Haas’ chances of securing the twelfth team entry, Bernie Ecclestone said this week: “I think Haas will be accepted.

“They have got the money but it’s a question of whether they are going to spend it,” the Independent newspaper quotes him as having told Formula 1 business journalist Christian Sylt.

It is believed that the FIA recently delayed a decision over Haas’ 2015 application pending Formula 1 Chief Executive Ecclestone’s ‘OK’.

Money seems to have been the 83-year-old Briton’s main concern.

“A billion would last a new team owner four years,” Ecclestone said. “I’ve spoken to Haas, but I don’t know what they are going to do. It’s America, so I don’t know.”

He also didn’t rule out the possibility that more teams could soon be following Haas into Formula 1.

“Every year we or the FIA have approaches from new teams,” he said.

[MIKA27]

Permane: Our car is faster in the corners than a Williams or McLaren

Lotus claim have claimed that their troubled 2014 car, designated the E22, is often better than a Williams or a McLaren, particularly in corners.

The Enstone based team is badly suffering with its car, which has been plagued with issues related to the problematic Renault V6 turbo Power Unit.

“We are still in the learning process,” chief engineer Alan Permane told Auto Motor und Sport. ”I suppose we need to make exactly the step that Red Bull made between the Bahrain test and Melbourne.”

There was, however, a glimmer of hope for crisis-struck Lotus in Malaysia, when Romain Grosjean at least managed to finish the race, albeit outside the points.

“For us it’s a big step,” Permane insisted, “even though we’re not usually happy with eleventh. ”But the times in the second sector showed that our car is fast in the corners. Faster than a Williams or McLaren,” he claims.

Pastor Maldonado struggled with lack of grip in Melbourne

“In the other two sectors we are behind, especially in braking,” Permane admitted.

“We have a decent car, but we’re lagging behind with the Power Unit, even compared with other Renault teams. But that’s our fault,” he admitted.

Permane also admitted that skipping the first official test at Jerez has had consequences.

“We are just behind in time,” he explained. “We missed the opportunity to recognise the problems early on and sort them out.

“We will make a development step with the drivetrain in Bahrain, a major one in China and then another one in Spain,” he revealed.

[MIKA27]

Raikkonen: I want more fights, wheel-to-wheel battles, racing should be exciting again

Formula 1′s man of few words Kimi Raikkonen has been quoted as lamenting the end of Formula 1′s more exciting days.

The Finn went into the 2014 season playing down the likely impact of the sweeping 2014 rules, featuring limited fuel and quieter, energy recovery-dominated turbo V6 engines.

Raikkonen has however struggled for form since returning to Ferrari to race the Italian marque’s 2014 car, and he is quoted by Austria’s Laola1 as yearning for a bigger thrill.

“The racing itself should be more exciting again,” Raikkonen said. At 34 he is one of Formula 1′s oldest active drivers.

“I want more fights, real wheel-to-wheel battles, but that’s not so easy when at the same time you want to bring in sophisticated cars.”

As for his personal struggle with the new Formula 14-T car, Raikkonen added: “It doesn’t fit my style yet but that’s not a disaster, at least I can still collect points.”

Raikkonen’s struggle and his aversion to the ‘new’ Formula 1 could ramp up reports that he might not stay around on the grid much beyond 2014.

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali was photographed meeting in the paddock with Red Bull’s reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel not once, but twice last weekend in Malaysia.

Domenicali played down the reports to the official F1 website, ”We as Ferrari are very pleased with what we have, and I am sure that Sebastian is also pleased with his situation because it looks as if he can fight again.”

Unlike Raikkonen, apparently much happier in 2014 is Formula 1′s other 34-year-old, Jenson Button, who is set to mark his 250 th Grand Prix this weekend in Bahrain.

“The positives of a guy my age outweigh the negatives,” he was quoted on Wednesday by British newspapers. “So maybe the best years are to come.”

[MIKA27]

Smedley begins work with Williams team in Bahrain

Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley is finally starting work at Williams. He will don the white team gear for the first time, this weekend in Bahrain.

More than a month ago, the British team confirmed long speculation the 40-year-old Briton, famous for his close relationship with Felipe Massa at Ferrari, will soon become ‘Head of Vehicle Performance’ at Grove.

Brazil’s Globo said Smedley has now served his mandatory gardening leave and will be on the pitwall in Bahrain.

“Rob will be at the track and I will work in the factory and at the tests throughout the season,” Williams’ chief engineer Rod Nelson is quoted.

“He will bring a lot of experience and a lot of good ideas,” Nelson added.

[MIKA27]

F1 must wait at least a couple of years for Long Beach race

1981 United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach

Formula 1 will have to wait at least a couple of years for its return to the iconic Long Beach venue, after it emerged recently that Formula 1 was interested in racing on the Californian streets, if the city opened up the bidding process at the end of Indycar’s current 2015 contract.

But the Long Beach Press-Telegraph now reports that Indycar’s contract will be extended through 2018, with confirmation due within weeks.

However, it also emerges that the bidding process will be opened up to include the possibility of a Formula 1 race in the future.

“This is precisely what we wanted,” Indycar’s Long Beach Race Chief Jim Michaelian said.

“They [the city] have every right to explore other options, but by the same token we have the certainty of conducting the event through 2018. That’s important because we have lots of sponsorship agreements,” he added.

Chris Pook, Formula 1′s Long Beach founder, welcomed the news.

“I’m not knocking the Indycar race,” he said, “but Formula 1 will bring the economic value the city enjoys”.

[MIKA27]

Bahrain to light up for tenth anniversary of Formula 1 duel in the desert

The spotlights, all 5,000 of them, will be on Mercedes team mates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton on Sunday when Bahrain adds another novel twist to an already changed Formula One landscape.

The pair are one-two in the new-look championship after a win each from the first two races of the quieter-sounding, fuel-saving and less reliable V6 turbo era that started in Melbourne last month.

Neither driver has won before at the Sakhir circuit but they are clear favourites to fight for the top step on the podium after their one-two finish for the Silver Arrows in Malaysia last weekend.

What would normally be a sweat in the afternoon heat, with temperatures soaring to 45 degrees Celsius, will be a cooler duel in the dark with the race switching to an evening format for the first time.

The Bahrain International Circuit, celebrating the 10th anniversary of a race that had to be cancelled in 2011 due to bloody civil unrest that continues to simmer in the background, has followed Abu Dhabi in becoming a day-to-night event.

Some 500 km of cabling has been installed to power the 5,000 lights needed for the Gulf kingdom’s showcase sporting event.

Rosberg, who will be starting his 150 th grand prix, leads the championship by 18 points but Hamilton, chasing his third pole in a row, can score an important psychological blow if he takes his second successive win.

“I’ve never managed to get the win [in Bahrain]. Until last week it was the same story for me with Malaysia, so fingers crossed that this can be the year of breaking those cycles,” said the 2008 champion.

“We know it’s going to be tough to maintain our current form, particularly at a circuit where every team has had so much running time over the winter, but I’ll be pushing hard to keep those results coming,” added the Briton.

Two of the three pre-season tests were held in Bahrain and Mercedes will be carrying out a Pirelli tyre test at Sakhir next week along with Williams and Caterham.

The teams have no shortage of data about the circuit but Bahrain, following on from Malaysia, is the first time this year that they have had to race on successive weekends.

That will be an extra challenge for reliability and teamwork as well as providing the first real insight into the endurance of engines and gearboxes.

The long straights should suit the Mercedes well, and the dry conditions will also play to their strengths.

“It’s a great track and I really enjoy driving it. I’ve never had much luck on race weekends here, but it’s definitely the one I’m best prepared for this year,” said Rosberg, who made his F1 debut at Bahrain, in 2006.

Red Bull’s quadruple champion Sebastian Vettel has won the last two Bahrain Grands Prix but he knows a third is a long shot this time with the Renault Power Unit still lagging the performance of the Mercedes PU.

“We still have a long way [to go], these guys are bloody quick, congratulations to them. They did a good job but we are trying to catch-up,” the German said after finishing third in Malaysia for his first points of the year.

That was also his full first race distance since Brazil last November.

Nobody has ever won Bahrain from further back than the second row, which realistically rules out Australian Daniel Ricciardo’s hopes in the other Red Bull after he collected a 10 place grid penalty in Malaysia for an unsafe pitstop release.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, three-times a winner in Bahrain, will be seeking to improve on two successive fourths this season while McLaren’s Jenson Button hopes to mark a big personal anniversary with something special.

“Sunday’s race will be my 250 th grand prix start. That’s crazy,” said the 2009 champion. “It feels like only yesterday that I was celebrating my 200 th, with a win for McLaren in Hungary back in 2011.

“It’ll be interesting to see what sort of race we have under the floodlights – racing at night always adds to the atmosphere and sense of occasion, and I think this weekend will be no different.”

Reuters Formula 1 Stats & Facts

• Lap distance: 5.412 km. Total distance: 308.238 km (57 laps)
• Race lap record: Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) McLaren one minute 31.447 seconds, 2005
• Start time: 1500 GMT (18:00 local)
• 2013 pole: Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 1:32.330
• 2013 winner: Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull
• Tyres: Medium (White), Soft (Yellow)
• Quadruple world champion Vettel has 39 career wins, Fernando Alonso 32, Lewis Hamilton 23, Kimi Raikkonen 20 and Jenson Button 15. Rosberg, winner in Melbourne, has four.
• Vettel needs two more race victories to equal the late Ayrton Senna’s tally of 41. Only Alain Prost (51) and Michael Schumacher (91) have won more.
• Ferrari have won 221 races, McLaren 182, Williams 114 and Red Bull 46.
• Hamilton’s win in Malaysia put him ahead of 1996 champion Damon Hill in the all-time standings and level with Brazilian Nelson Piquet.
• Vettel took nine poles last year and now has 45 for his F1 career. Mercedes and Red Bull were the only teams to start on pole in 2013.
• Hamilton is the only driver to start on pole this year and is chasing his third in a row for Mercedes.
• Hamilton now has 33 poles, equalling the late Jim Clark’s British record which has stood since 1968.
• Ferrari have finished a record 69 successive races with at least one car in the points, a run that dates back to the 2010 German Grand Prix.
• Caterham and Marussia have yet to score a point after four seasons in F1.
• In Australia, Magnussen and Russian Daniil Kvyat became the 60th and 61st drivers to score points on their Formula One debuts. Both scored again in Malaysia.
• Toro Rosso’s Kvyat is Formula One’s youngest points scorer – aged 19 years and 324 days.
• This year’s race is the 10th edition and under floodlights as a day-to-night event for the first time. The grand prix was first held in 2004 and not held in 2011 due to civil unrest.
• The Bahrain International Circuit has installed 495 lighting poles, ranging in height from 10-45 metres with more than 500 km of cabling.
• The race will be the third staged under floodlights, after Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
• Alonso has won three times in Bahrain, more than any other driver. He triumphed with Renault in 2005 and 2006 and Ferrari in 2010.
• Brazilian Felipe Massa, now with Williams, and Vettel have both won twice. Vettel has won the last two races in Bahrain, winning from second on the grid last year.
• Ferrari are the most successful constructor with four wins. McLaren, who are 50 percent owned by Bahrain’s Mumtalakat investment fund, have yet to win in the country.
• The driver on pole in Bahrain has won four of nine races to date. It has never been won by anyone starting below the front two rows.
• Eight out of nine winners have been from the team that ended up winning the constructors’s title.
• Rosberg made his F1 debut in Bahrain in 2006.
• Last weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix was Mercedes’ first one-two finish as a works team since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, when Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio won and Italian Piero Taruffi was second.
• McLaren’s Jenson Button, race winner in 2009, is marking his 250th grand prix.
• It is also the 150 th race for Rosberg.

[MIKA27]

Ricciardo needs 'points on the board'

Daniel Ricciardo says his goal in Bahrain is to score his first confirmed points of the season as he waits to learn where his Australian 18 will be returned.

Although Ricciardo finished second at the season-opening Australian GP he was later excluded from the results when his RB10 was found to have exceeded the fuel flow limit.

Throw in a retirement at the next race in Malaysia and the Red Bull racer now heads into round three, Bahrain, without a single World Championship point to his name.

"I'm going to Bahrain thinking that I have to be starting 11th, and need an aggressive start to get me back into contention," Ricciardo said.

"I need to get some points on the board and that's not going to happen if I'm cruising around in the middle of the pack.

"That said, I don't think I need to change anything much. I think I'm driving with good intensity, so I don't need to do anything dramatically different."

The 24-year-old, who joined Red Bull at the start of this year from Toro Rosso, added that while he is hoping for a solid race, he knows his RB10 is down in straight-line speed compared to its main rivals.

"We know we're a little bit down on straight-line speed and that really hurts somewhere like Sepang. But through sector two [the twisty section] we were strong all weekend and on the pace of the Mercs.

"We'll see how Bahrain treats us but once we get to China and, even better, Barcelona, I think we can really take the fight to them."

Red Bull's appeal hearing into Ricciardo's disqualification will be heard in Paris on 14 April.

[MIKA27]

83% of fans disappointed with new format of Formula 1

Ferrari started an online survey a few weeks ago asking fans if they liked the 2014 version of Formula 1. Today the team have released the results:

Maranello, 3 April –The poll which began a few days ago on www.ferrari.com to sound out people’s opinion on the show put on by the new Formula 1, has come to an end with over 50,000 fans expressing an opinion.

83% are disappointed with the new format, dismissing it mainly because of the drivers being forced to lift off to save fuel. In addition, the fans don’t like the noise from the new engines and are confused by rules that are too complicated.

Interesting to note that the “no” vote increased dramatically after the Malaysian Grand Prix. The most vociferous in their opinions were the Italians, British, French and Australians, these countries having long links to Formula 1. But there were also plenty of votes from large countries such as the United States and India.

[MIKA27]

F1 Performance Insight: McLaren vs Ferrari and the real picture behind Williams team orders

Why was McLaren faster than Ferrari in Melbourne, but slower in Malaysia? And how much faster was Valterri Bottas than his Williams team-mate Felipe Massa in Sunday’s Grand Prix – enough to make a pass on Jenson Button ahead, as the team believed?

With the help of JA on F1 technical adviser Mark Gillan we can attempt to answer these questions, thanks to the latest performance graphs.

NB – The vertical axis is the lap time in seconds, with the faster lap times lower down and the slower ones higher up. Click on the graphs to enlarge them.

McLaren vs Ferrari

The two graphs from Melbourne (Fig 1 above) and Sepang (Fig 2 below) tell a very clear story. They compare the fastest McLaren and the fastest Ferrari in the two races. In Melbourne McLaren was faster, and in Malaysia it was the Ferrari.

This will be disappointing to McLaren as the team brought an update to the second race, but didn’t seem to get a benefit from it. The team has indicated that part of the reason for this is that their car struggled in the hot conditions. This is partly due to having to open up the bodywork for cooling. This hurts the aerodynamic efficiency of the car, which in turn hurts stability. That means the tyres slide more, overheat and then grip is lost.

However, another key point is that it highlights the risks of bringing updates to cars in these early flyaway races without sufficient opportunity to test them. If you are not able to get a clear read from Friday practice then it is hard to say whether an update is better or worse. Some teams prefer to only run updates when they know for sure that they make the car faster. There is a danger in throwing new parts at a car at this stage of the season, as it can make it harder to understand where the problem areas are if the car is changing and so are the conditions, from hot tracks like Malaysia and Bahrain to the normally cooler conditions experienced at the Shanghai International Circuit.

McLaren will this week have carried out a deep analysis to understand what happened in Malaysia and it will be interesting to see their response at another hot venue this weekend. The car lacks rear downforce and that hurts the corner stability and in turn makes the car slide more on the tyres.

Williams team orders: Was Bottas fast enough to pass Button in Sepang if he’d been allowed through?

There has been a huge amount of talk this week about the controversy at Williams last Sunday when the team asked Felipe Massa to let team-mate Valterri Bottas through to have a crack at passing McLaren’s Jenson Button. Both drivers have now said the matter has been resolved, with Massa saying the team has apologised to him. The question remains, however, did Bottas have the pace to pass Button?

The graph above, taken in conjunction with the race history chart (below), shows that in the last stint Bottas was significantly faster on tyres that were two laps fresher than Massa’s and four laps fresher than Button’s.

Button pits on lap 39 and Massa picks up his pace by half a second on lap 40 and another half second on lap 41, before pitting on lap 42. Bottas stops on lap 44 and from lap 46 onwards he pushes his tyres hard to catch Button and Massa. By around laps 49-50 he is much faster.

It is here that he has the pace to attack Button but isn’t given the chance. Looking at his traces it appears that his tyre degradation is higher than Massa’s (look at the upward curve in his second stint above, compared to Massa’s), so there was a narrow window in which to make the attack, but after that the pace is not there. He catches Massa on the sixth lap and Massa turns the speed up a little, as does Button, looking at lap 50 in particular.

Looking at his approach speed at that moment, when the tyres were in the sweet spot, it is understandable that Williams’ instinct was to ask Massa to let Bottas through but once the degradation kicks in it is not quite as night and day in terms of pace as one might have initially thought.

The conclusion is that for Bottas to have had any chance of passing Button he needed to be allowed through tyne moment he caught his team mate, early in the stint when he had the pace.

After that the moment – and the opportunity – were lost.

[MIKA27]

Lauda: When Lewis is fully focused on his work, he is almost unbeatable

Malaysian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton will be hard to beat for the 2014 Formula 1 World Championship title, according to Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda.

Hamilton’s former McLaren teammate, Jenson Button, this week said that while the 2008 world champion is “super fast”, he is also “very up and down emotionally”.

When Button’s comments were put to Sepang winner Hamilton ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, he admitted: “I would say that is quite accurate.”

Since debuting in 2007, the now 28-year-old Hamilton – amid other turmoil – has dumped his father as his manager, fallen out with another mentor Ron Dennis, and had a famously off and on-again relationship with his popstar girlfriend.

Hamilton told the Independent: “I’ve always talked about trying to put the right pieces in place to get through my year in a positive way without having those spikes, and I feel like I might have found it. But you never know!”

If Hamilton has found his happy place, it might be very timely, given the five-year gap since his sole title triumph and the current dominance of the Mercedes package.

Triple world champion Lauda told the Swiss newspaper Blick: “When Lewis is fully focused on his work, he is almost unbeatable.”

Given the potential for title trouble between Hamilton and his Melbourne-winning teammate Nico Rosberg, Lauda’s words could be explosive.

Hamilton and Rosberg’s relationship dates all the way back to their karting days, but as the Briton insisted on Thursday, they are not friends.

“In Formula 1, we can count our friends on one hand,” said Hamilton. “Nico does not come in the five friends I have and I don’t come in his.”

The relationship could be strained even further if German Rosberg has more races like the one in Sepang, where although he finished second, he was easily beaten by Hamilton.

Asked if the 2014 situation has affected their relationship, Rosberg said: “It has not changed at all. Yet.”

But he admits that could be because the title battle still has so many races – 17 – to run.

Indeed, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was asked on Thursday if he sees Hamilton or Rosberg as the ultimate favourite.

“I think it’s 50 per cent each way,” he is quoted by the Spanish sports daily AS, “but there is also Kimi and myself and of course Vettel.”

[MIKA27]

Marko: Finally we have an Australian who starts who can put Sebastian under pressure

Red Bull team consultant Helmut Marko has hailed the start of Daniel Ricciardo’s tenure with the world champion team by slamming his predecessor Mark Webber.

“Finally we have an Australian who starts (races) well and can put Sebastian (Vettel) under pressure with fair methods,” Red Bull’s always-outspoken director is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Actually, Ricciardo is yet to put a single point in his 2014 account, despite a strong drive to his later disqualified podium in Melbourne and a competitive yet horror race in Malaysia.

And for his Sepang troubles, featuring the botched pitstop, he will start Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix ten places down the grid.

But Ricciardo insists: “I am pleased with my performance so far, but I do need to work on some areas. Seb has been faster than me in some places.

“Obviously I’d love to have points, but most of all I’m very happy with what I’ve done behind the wheel.

“I have showed the team that they made a good choice.”

As for the botched pitstop at Sepang, Ricciardo said: “The team has assured me that it won’t happen again.

“We are going to build in a bigger safety margin, because the punishment for mistakes is brutal,” said Ricciardo.

[MIKA27]

Red Bull have the best F1 car in 2014 claims Hulkenberg

The Red Bull RB10 is the best car on the 2014 Formula 1 grid, according to Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.

“For me, Red Bull is in front with the chassis,” said the German, acknowledging that, as an overall package, the powerful Mercedes is leading the pack.

But “No car steers so well or comes out of the corners like it (the Red Bull),” Hulkenberg is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport in Bahrain.

“Mercedes and Ferrari are not far behind,” he added.

World champion Sebastian Vettel appeared to acknowledge that Red Bull’s only problem is the underpowered Renault engine.

“If we do our homework well and set up the car perfectly, then it is possible I can make up some time to the others in the corners,” he said.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, however, said the works Mercedes W05 is also a very good car.

“We know they have a power advantage,” said the Spaniard. “But you only have to look at the gap to their customers’ cars to see that the works team has a very good car.”

Another very good car is the Mercedes-powered Williams, which is expected to be perhaps the quickest car overall on the long Bahrain straights.

It is also reported that Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas started the race in Malaysia with only 90 kilograms of fuel each in their tanks — 10kg under the limit.

“They (Williams) have really good fuel consumption,” agreed Hulkenberg, whose Force India team uses the same Mercedes engine.

[MIKA27]

Caterham staff hospitalised after fire at factory in UK

Seven Caterham staff were hospitalised following a fire at the team’s Leafield factory late on Thursday.

The team confirmed that it was extinguished “very quickly” but staff were hospitalised for smoke inhalation.

“Six were released soon after and one kept in for observation, but he’s ok,” said Caterham.

“We know what caused it and steps have been taken to ensure we don’t see a repeat. The machinery was operational again within hours,” the team added.

[MIKA27]

Formula 1 heading for €150-million says Todt

It appears that Formula 1 is heading towards a budget cap of €150 million per team for the 2015 season and beyond.

FIA president Jean Todt said he is confident the controversial new regulation will be agreed by June of this year, as the governing body aims to urgently bring down costs and keep struggling teams in business.

“If the teams don’t want it, we won’t do it,” he told Auto Motor und Sport. ”We do not have the mandate to do something against the will of the majority.”

“But from all of my discussions I conclude that the majority of the teams, the FIA and the rights owners do want this cost limitation,” revealed Todt.

Asked to name the figure for the 2015 cap, he answered simply: “150 million euros.”

That ties in with Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone’s recent claim that a figure of about 200 million dollars has indeed been broadly agreed.

“If the revenues are higher, the team makes a profit,” Todt said. “That would be a healthy model.

“A team like Ferrari should make money through Formula 1, just as can be done with a Le Mans project.”

[MIKA27]

A dream I have

Formula 1 is about speed, technology, strategy, engineering and singular driving skills—at least it used to be. Today, it’s about something else.

Regulatory power was transferred from former FIA president Max Mosley to a new protagonist in the diminutive form of Jean Todt. Jean is a man who doggedly gets things done and his agenda, once set, becomes a singular focus just as it was in the heady days of Ferrari’s domination with the Frenchman at the helm.

The FIA’s mission of road safety was unceremoniously placed on the back burner while sustainability and “Green” initiatives became the grandest quest for Jean Todt. This quest was wrapped in ideology from world-saving to series-salvaging to manufacturer-luring proportions. Who are we to disagree!

This march toward “green” begat the V6 turbo engine which, comparatively speaking, sounds like a kidnapped engine with a duct-taped mouth in the trunk of a car. Regardless, fans just need to shut it and get used to the sound…nothing to see here, I’m sure we’ll all come to love the throaty whine of the turbo era.

The “innovation” also produced new battery technology called Energy Store and a beefed up KERS unit that many claim was the enlightenment of the road car industry as those chumps are incapable of designing any of this creative technology that F1 has graced them with—never mind they’ve been doing this for some time now and need no help from Formula 1 thank you (let’s stop marginalizing road car engineers, they are brilliant people doing brilliant, innovative work).

Becoming a series that mirrors the future of road car and racing technology isn’t easy and F1 has proven that hundreds of millions of dollars can be spent to go from a V8 engine that gets 3 mpg to a brand new sustainable, “green” V6 turbo power unit that gets 5 mpg. Wow! That's a saving!

A circuit as long as Spa Francochamps will go from 63 gallons of fuel used, to 38 gallons for the race and that’s a total saving of 550 gallons per race (22 cars) if I have my calculations correct on my Formula 1 abacus. At $4 per gallon, that’s a whopping $2,200 saved for that weekend! Not all circuits are as long as Spa but even if they were, that would recognize a total of $41,000 of fuel savings for the entire year.

Ok, it’s race fuel and perhaps it’s more like $8 per gallon and with that "staggering" per-gallon price, the series would save roughly $83,000 for the season! With that kind of saving, you could purchase one steering wheel and a couple Gil fuel flow sensors for a Mercedes car! Maybe that on-track saving takes a small bite out of their off-track fuel expense when they fill up their haulers at $900 per truck.

Some boast that all of this innovation happened in less than 18 months but I recall writing about these plans well over two years ago so I am not sure where that figure comes from—but it really doesn’t matter because clearly F1 has the right formula now. The driver is back in the driver’s seat and managing some increased torque that makes the car twitchy on throttle out of a corner...

The gambit worked! Fans are over the moon with the new look, sound and strategy of Formula.

Fuel mileage races are what the fans asked for and more passing, which we haven’t seen yet but these are early days…give it time, give it time. I’m sure being a second or more slower than the cars last year will pay dividends in the end and we need to be patient and stop complaining before the new format has time to stretch its green legs.

If we truly love Formula 1, we’ll remain silent and follow the current narrative. We’ll garner equal passion for “green” technology, manufacturer enticement, technological constructs that attempt to thwart the elephant in the room which is aerodynamics (the holy grail of Formula 1 that is not to be touched) and do all of this while sending checks to 15-year-old kids so they can start building a war chest of cash in order to pay a team for the privilege of driving one of these machines of inevitability.

Formula 1 is about power. The new power of the hybrid system really has drivers challenged and hanging it out there although Romain Grosjean said they are actually driving at less than 50% these days. That twitchy torque has sated my desire for awesome racing and I no longer care if the drivers and teams are going flat out for as much of the race as they can because we all know that not everyone goes flat out for 100% of the distance.

I have become sensitive to all of the hidden elements that fans can’t see that comprise or conspire to make F1 the most technologically advanced racing series in the world. Things like MGU-H and MGU-K utilization (I have no idea when they are being used but I know they are and that’s good enough for me ), DRS button presses, graining or degrading tires and narrow operating temperature windows in which the tires actually work (I love Pirellli!!)

I’ve grown to love the way in which pit stops are measured in nanoseconds and how the series has adopted a nanny state mentality on penalizing all but the most minuscule of altercations under the broad umbrella known as “causing a collision”.

Formula 1 has finally got it all right. They’ve sussed the entirety of their “show” and found that elusive formula that makes watching F1 fun. Change is good even if it isn’t better. These days, good is good enough. If we want great, well, we need to right-size our expectations.

Sure, we need to recognize that F1 has changed and must change to stay relevant with the future. We certainly wouldn’t want to be “on the wrong side of history”.

We need to stop being so negative and find the good things in the series. There is racing going on, the cars are very technologically complex and this benefits road cars somehow (you just need to trust that this is happening now because it did in the past) and we need a cost-cap in F1 and we need to be more environmentally sensitive. These are facts, not opinion, mind you, and it’s time we see this as F1’s new mission…for all we know, our very lives may depend on it according to the FIA and its world vision.

I have often thought that in the hereafter of our lives, when Formula 1 owes no more to the future and can be just a racing series… that we may meet, and F1 will come to you and I and claim "us" as its fan, and know that I am its fan. It is a dream I have…

[CQloh]

Great write up Mika, i can't believe that i'm reading more about F1 on FOH than anywhere else. keep up the good work!