FORMULA 1 - 2014

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Lauda rewarded Hamilton with lift home on private jet after China triumph

Niki Lauda gave Lewis Hamilton a ‘money can’t buy’ reward for securing his first-ever Formula 1 hat-trick – a ride on his own private jet.

“I told him ‘If you win, I’ll fly you back’ (to Europe),” Mercedes’ team chairman told Bild newspaper.

Lauda, not only a Formula 1 legend but also a world-famous aviator, was true to his word after the Chinese Grand Prix, as the pair returned from Shanghai aboard the Austrian’s Bombardier Global 5000.

“Otherwise, Lewis would have been on a regular flight,” the German daily said.

Hamilton’s third win of the season also moved him equal to Lauda’s career tally of 25 grand prix victories.

Lauda revealed in Shanghai that, last year, he had advised the now on-form Briton to drop his travelling “baggage” of dogs and rap stars.

Indeed, Hamilton is well on track for his second world championship with a permanent travelling entourage of just one – his trainer.

“This year I’m just able to arrive and drive with no other worries,” he confirmed this week.

“It’s the combination of lots of things. It’s where I am in my life, family, girlfriend, all things: where I live, having the right people in place, management, being in the right team,” Hamilton explained.

His teammate Nico Rosberg, however, is still leading the world championship by a few points, which Hamilton admits will be keeping the German’s hopes afloat for now.

“In this racing business it’s all psychological,” said Hamilton.

“Nico’s very, very fast but I’m grateful that I’ve been able to put some really good performances in, but I owe it to the team. It’s incredible what they’ve done.”

Beyond Hamilton versus Rosberg, Mercedes appears to be on a stroll to the 2014 title, notwithstanding the efforts of improving rivals like Red Bull and Ferrari.

“Everything is fine,” Lauda agreed, “but there are so many races left.

“The most important will be the next three weeks,” he told Spain’s EFE news agency, referring to the gap between the initial ‘flyaway’ phase of the 2014 season and the return to more familiar European soil.

“We’ll see who makes the most progress, who is faster and who wins in Barcelona,” added Lauda.

“It will be important to see how the rest of the season is going to go. If you’re on top in Barcelona, everything will be a little easier,” he said.

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Vettel struggling with the challenge of not having the best F1 car at his disposal

Sebastian Vettel has forgotten how to drive something other than the best car in the field according to Formula 1 experts and rivals.

That is Niki Lauda’s view, as the entire world of Formula 1 contemplates the reigning quadruple world champion’s current struggle even to keep up with his new Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Lauda, the Mercedes team chairman, told German television RTL: “He has been very spoiled in the past with many highs and victories, but that performance has gone.

“He has forgotten how to drive another car. With the [blown] diffuser cars, he had come up with a driving strategy that made him faster than everyone else.”

“But now Ricciardo, who has never driven another Red Bull, only knows this one – and he is taking it in his hands and driving it,” added Lauda.

Lauda is not alone with his theory. Felipe Massa thinks Australian Ricciardo has arrived to be Vettel’s teammate at precisely the right moment.

“The best time to change is when everything is changing,” he told the Brazilian press.

“I’m sure it would have been harder for him if he had arrived last year, when Vettel was already used to the car for many years.

“I think that is helping Ricciardo, but he’s also showing that he is a great driver with a lot of talent,” said Massa.

Massa also thinks it will be a tough task for Vettel to get back to the top of the tree at Red Bull.

“When he had a team that was all working for him, for all the years when he was with Webber, life was much simpler, easier,” he said.

“But now he is under a little more pressure and that changes the situation – the pressure effect,” said Massa, who switched from Ferrari to Williams over the winter.

“I am not knocking Vettel’s talent, the driver that he is, because everything he did deserves the recognition. But this is a situation that now he has to overcome,” the Brazilian added.

“Without doubt it shows that Ricciardo is a good driver, fast and with the talent to be there. He has arrived at a great team and so far he shows he can do a great job,” said Massa.

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Magnussen enjoys Button as teammate but won’t mind Alonso

McLaren rookie Kevin Magnussen says that he is happy having Jenson Button as his teammate, but he also says that he wouldn’t mind partnering Fernando Alonso.

Alonso – arguably the most sought after driver in Formula 1 – has often been linked with a 2015 move to McLaren to spearhead the British team’s new Honda era.

That speculation looks set to ramp up even more, given another difficult start to the Spaniard’s Ferrari championship campaign, and the latest turmoil at Maranello in the form of Stefano Domenicali’s shock exit.

The cockpit most likely to be vacated in the event of an Alonso arrival at McLaren is the one currently occupied by Button, as the 34-year-old’s contract is expiring.

But McLaren’s impressive newcomer Magnussen sounded nonplussed when he was asked if he would welcome Alonso to McLaren.

“I wouldn’t mind,” the 21-year-old Dane answered. “The truth is that I’m happy now.”

“I think having someone like Jenson – easygoing, speaks very good English, knows how to explain things and very experienced and fast – is ideal.

“I couldn’t ask for a better teammate,” Magnussen is quoted by the Spanish sports daily AS.

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McLaren should focus on track not court says Horner

Red Bull have ‘advised’ McLaren to focus on upping their game on track rather than taking the Formula 1 reigning world champions to court.

A bitter spat has broken out between the British-based teams over a highly-rated aerodynamicist called Dan Fallows, who was recently due to start work at McLaren.

But Fallows ultimately decided to return to Red Bull with a promotion, triggering a furious rebuke by McLaren supremo Ron Dennis.

In Shanghai, Dennis accused Red Bull of having “induced” Fallows to breach his contract.

But the latest paddock report is that Fallows originally decided to leave Red Bull because he was seeking a more senior position, having worked as Peter Prodromou’s ‘deputy’ for the past several years.

McLaren then subsequently also signed Prodromou, sparking Fallows’ change of heart.

It has also been claimed that Fallows signed the deal expecting the now ousted Martin Whitmarsh – not Dennis – to be his boss.

“With the changes that happened at McLaren he decided he didn’t want to join,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says.

Horner denies Dennis’ claim that Red Bull “induced” Fallows to break the deal.

“He approached us to see if there was a situation still open, so it was 100 per cent his choice,” he said.

Horner also took the opportunity to advise McLaren – whose Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen finished out of the points in China – to take the focus off Fallows and put it back on upping their game.

“We have to be careful that this is not detracting from their focus, which should be a little closer to home,” he said.

“Obviously it’s easy for McLaren to be drawing focus away from their bigger issues – it’s obvious why they are looking for aerodynamicists.”

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McLaren feeling effects of Whitmarsh absence says Lauda

McLaren is going through a ‘Whitmarsh’ effect, according to Formula 1 legend Niki Lauda.

Just two weeks ago in Bahrain, Jenson Button said the only quicker car in the field was the dominant Mercedes.

But in China, both the 2009 world champion and Kevin Magnussen were non points-scoring midfielders.

Button sounded particularly frustrated.

“I don’t think [other] people brought that [many] new parts here, so I don’t know what we’re doing really,” he said.

“Hopefully back at the factory they can stay positive and update the car because at the moment this isn’t good enough.”

McLaren’s new boss in 2014, Eric Boullier, said that he sat with Button and Magnussen after the race in China, because “they are both frustrated”.

“But I can promise you that if you look at the data, you can see that McLaren are coming back, and that’s what is most important,” he is quoted by the Mirror.

Lauda, who is Mercedes’ Formula 1 chairman, thinks that after the depths of McLaren’s 2013 crisis, the British team is now struggling for form in the wake of recent management reshuffles.

“You have to say that last year the McLaren was also not a top car,” said the great Austrian.

“So you have to overcome this bad performance from last year and the new formula. If you have the new ingredients, you can be lucky.

“But if you don’t have them and there is a big change with [Martin] Whitmarsh going and Ron [Dennis] coming back, these things take time to change. They don’t happen overnight,” Lauda explained.

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Raikkonen: If I was not motivated I wouldn’t be here

Kimi Raikkonen has lashed out at suggestions that his struggle at Ferrari so far in 2014 might be due to flagging motivation.

While teammate Fernando Alonso raced to the Italian team’s first podium of the season, Finn Raikkonen struggled all weekend in China in the sister Formula 14-T.

Spaniard Alonso couldn’t help labelling Raikkonen’s deficit at the chequered flag as “a minute”, even though the true gap was just over 50 seconds.

But no matter the gap, the Finn did not appreciate being asked if a dip in motivation, three years into his Formula 1 comeback, might help explain his troubles.

“I don’t know why this comes up again and again,” Raikkonen hit back, according to German-language reports.

“If I was not motivated, I wouldn’t be here and I definitely wouldn’t be answering your questions,” he bristled.

“I’ve been around long enough to know that sometimes it is just like this.”

Raikkonen admitted, however, that he is not quite sure why he is struggling so much.

“In the race I was just too slow,” he said, “but there is not one big problem that we have found.”

Raikkonen was using a different chassis in China, but he thinks the issue is “probably something to do with my driving style and the track and the temperatures”.

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Bottas wants more from Williams

Valtteri Bottas is somewhat disappointed with the start Williams have made to the season, even though he has scored 24 points in the Drivers' Championship.

Williams have consistently been one of the quickest teams behind Mercedes throughout pre-season and the first four races of the year, but doesn't quite have the results to show for it.

The best finish so far this year is a fifth place in the season-opener in Melbourne, where the Finn finished behind Nico Rosberg, Kevin Magnussen, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso.

Speaking to crash.net in an exclusive interview, Bottas admitted that he is pleased to have scored points in every race so far this year, but added that he is eager to improve his finishing positions.

"You always want more," he told crash.net when asked if he is satisfied with his 24-haul so far this year.

"It's still positive being consistently in the points but you always want more. I think we need to keep pushing really and keep solving the problems so we can try again next time."

While Williams are clearly an improving team, Bottas believes he has become a better driver as well this year.

"My overall technical understanding; this season especially you learn so much from the testing and the first few races. And I think also some racing situations now I have a bit more experience in those," he continued.

"So maybe those two things are the main things but you keep getting better at everything so it's difficult to say."

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'Much work to be done at Williams'

Williams head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley has admitted that the Wantage team has several areas that needs improvement if they are to have a successful season.

Smedley joined Williams from Ferrari in the off-season, but only started in his new role at the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier this month.

After a disappointing race in China last week, though, where Valtteri Bottas finished seventh and Felipe Massa 15th, Smedley admitted that much work had to be done at Williams.

"There are areas that we need to improve, there's no doubt about it," he told crash.net.

It's clear and I'm not going to hide behind that and say that there isn't and it's all fantastic; it's clearly not. That's part of what I'm here to do, to help the middle management structure create a much slicker, better operation.

"It's not down to any one individual, the issues that we have. I spoke with all the guys after the race and even the guys who brought the tyres out for the pit stops or whatever, I said 'if you want to blame anyone then blame me, because that is what I'm paid to do'. I take that s**t on my shoulders; that's my position within the team.

"I'm not going to stand here and make excuses that I've only been here three weeks because that's not acceptable either. I have only been here three weeks but I'm in charge now. So I need to get the whole thing working better, working more efficiently, cut all the slack out of it, cut all the mistakes, all the reliability issues and that will undoubtedly move us up the grid.

"When you come from somewhere where it's all very well sorted - certainly operationally-wise - it's pretty good down at the old place. So perhaps things are quite obvious to me which aren't quite so obvious to the other guys. The analogy I use is at the old place if you wanted to get the apples off the trees you needed a longer and longer stick, and here you're walking through and you've got so many apples you don't know which one to pick."

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Lopez - Lotus making significant progress

Lotus owner Gerard Lopez is of the opinion that the Enstone team have improved by about two seconds per lap thanks to the progress Renault have made with their power units of late.

Lotus received a significant upgrade from the French engine manufacturer before last week's Chinese Grand Prix, which are believed to be similar to what Red Bull have been running of late.

The engine upgrades had an immediate effect on Lotus' performance, with Romain Grosjean reaching Q3 for the first time this year and seemed like he would score some valuable Constructors' Championship points before a gearbox problem forced him into retirement.

"We saw a clear step up from Renault's side in China," Lopez told Autosport after the Chinese Grand Prix.

"The guys are almost talking about two seconds, which is huge.

"The stopwatch doesn't lie - we moved two seconds forward in terms of performance.

"The car is good. Romain had some diffuser issues on Saturday, but based on lap times and derivatives of that, we probably should have gone for P6 [in qualifying] if we hadn't have had any issues.

"That is really where we believe the car belongs, despite knowing the Mercedes engine cars don't even need DRS to go around us.

"At the same time what is positive is the pace seems to be there."

Despite their recent improvements, Lopez admitted that the start of the season has been far more difficult for Lotus than they imagined.

"We didn't expect to have the engine issues we've been having," he told Autosport.

"We came out of the windtunnel essentially knowing we had a really good car.

"But the problem is when you start putting things down on the track, unless you can actually lap you can't do any set-up work.

"So we've had huge, huge issues and delays because of lack of lapping essentially.

"We really reached a peak of negativity after the race in Bahrain where two engines blew [in testing] and there was nothing we could do.

"That was really a point where, in a positive way, we put a stop to certain things we were doing and said 'we just can't afford to do this any more'.

"Renault is promising a fairly interesting step up for Barcelona.

"We're pretty hopeful we start coming into the top 10, and from then on it's fighting it out with whoever is there.

"Ever since I saw the issues we were having with the power unit, I've essentially said our first race is going to be Barcelona, and I stick to that."

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Honda taking orders in 2016 for customer engines

Honda will be returning to F1 with a power unit supply for McLaren in 2015-16. The deal is exclusive with McLaren for the first two years as Honda motorsport boss, Yasuhisa Arai, points out to Sky Sport F1:

“McLaren is our only customer. I don’t think about the future, because we want to concentrate on next season,” Arai said.

However, that could change in 2016:

“If teams want to use our engine or power unit, we can deliver after year 2016 but right now there are no plans.”

The company says that the engines will be maintained in a facility in Milton Keynes but the design is all Japan. I will be very intrigued to see if Honda push the envelope with the Mercedes-styled split turbo design now that the cat is out of the bag and with a Merc in the rear of a McLaren in 2014, Honda has 100% access to the tech in question in which to study and imitate.

That additional year, 2014, in the McLaren/Mercedes contract had to sting didn’t it? I am sure Mercedes would rather have not had their engine crawled over, measured and fondled by a main competitor for 2015.

MIKA: What did I say earlier this year... Honda will eventually supply other teams.

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Felipe…stay cool

There are certainly a few ways to look at Felipe Massa’s recent rant on AUTOSPORT and I’ll choose to take the positive approach. Felipe is not happy with the bad luck he feels he’s having of late and that’s good. We haven’t seen that kind of fire from him in quite a while so it is a positive sign to see the Brazilian fired up over his season. Massa told AUTOSPORT:

“I’m frustrated for what has happened [in China] and I’m frustrated for what has happened in many races,” said Massa.

“The first race, somebody [Kamui Kobayashi] pushed me out and I lost massive points then [in Bahrain] I was fighting for third or fourth and then after the safety car I finished seventh, so I have lost points.

“This race is another problem that has cost me points. I feel I have started well in terms of pace but I have not been lucky.”

The other side of the coin is that he could still be at Ferrari and fumbling around mid-field like Kimi Raikkonen (his replacement) currently is and like he had been for the past couple of years. I tend to think the glass is half full for Felipe because I think many felt his career was winding down and had no contextual reference of Williams F1 soaring back up the grid in a relatively competitive car for 2014.

It’s great to see Felipe get a second look at F1 with the Williams F1 ride and the Mercedes power unit. He’s most likely having a better chance to score than he would have at Ferrari and that’s a good thing right? It is as long as you’re not having bad luck I suppose. While I applaud Felipe’s tough love for his team and prodding to get decent results, I found this statement the most insightful:

“It’s something we need to work on and try to have more consistent races and score more consistent points.”

This is the very thing that has eluded Felipe while at Ferrari and while I cannot say it is why they replaced him, I can say that as a fan, it is the reason I was ready to see him move on in favor of Kimi Raikkonen. Being consistent means staying out of trouble and in Felipe’s defense, the pit bumble in China and the safety car were beyond his control. There were several occasions, while at Ferrari, that were clearly in his control and not a mechanical or safety car issue. I think of the season he and Lewis Hamilton couldn’t stay away from each other or the altercations with Maldonado.

I suspect that Felipe has a chance to be the most consistent part of Williams F1′s race strategy and as long as he is stays out of trouble and isn’t creating his own bad luck.

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1966 BRABHAM-REPCO BT20 FORMULA 1 CAR

The 1966 Brabham-Repco BT20 Formula 1 car is a testament to old fashioned Aussie ingenuity, the Australians (and New Zealanders) have always been so far away from the large manufacturing industries of Europe and North America that they’ve had to learn to adapt, repurpose and invent things rather than just walk down the road and buy them. Great examples of this inventiveness are men like New Zealander John Britten and Australian Jack Brabham – the man who’s name adorns this race winning Formula 1 car.

In 1965 it was announced that the engine size in Formula 1 would be limited to 3 litres – this left the teams scrambling to find engines that could hold their own on the race track and form the rear load-bearing structure of an F1 car. Most of the teams opted for the Coventry Climax inline 4-cylinder engine but Jack Brabham and his partner Ron Tauranac decided to go down a different path and instead chose to work with Australian parts supplier Repco on developing the Oldsmobile F85 V8 into a 3000cc F1 engine.

It was a risky move but the real benefit came from the fact that the engine had been engineered to tolerate an original capacity of 5.4 litres, this meant that once the block had been downsized to 3 litres the internal components could be tuned for performance without fear of catastrophic failure.

The decision paid dividends almost immediately, the Brabham-Repco BT20 was introduced for the 1966 season and the chassis you see here saw its first race at French Grand Prix on 3 July 1966. It was piloted by New Zealander Danny Hulme to a strong 3rd place finish, followed by a 2nd place finish at the British Grand Prix shortly thereafter, Hulme then took another 3rd at Monza on 4 September. Two more podium places were taken by the car before the end of the season, landing the 1966 constructors trophy for Brabham-Repco and validating their gamble on the reworked American V8.

The car had been so successful during the ’66 season that it was rebuilt and raced again throughout 1967, winning the hotly contested 1967 Monaco Grand Prix and once again landing the Constructors Championship for Brabham-Repco. The chassis passed on to a series of privateer owners throughout the ’60s and ’70s where it was raced in hill climb events and local club races, by 2010 it had fallen into disrepair and a full €200,000 nut and bolt restoration was undertaken by Peter Rosenmayer of Stuttgart.

The Brabham-Repco BT20 is now in race ready condition and will be offered at the Monaco Auction held by RM Auctions on the 10th of May 2014 – within meters of the circuit that it took its 1967 race win.

Click here to visit the official listing.

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1989 FERRARI F1-89 FORMULA 1 CAR

Car guys all have their own vehicle preferences and aspirations. One of the few aspirations shared by almost all car guys is to own a balls-to-the-wall racing car that would (wife-permitting) be parked in the livingroom during the week, then trailered to the local race track for a little white-knuckle entertainment on weekends.

When it comes to racing cars, it just does’t get any better than Formula 1 (some may try to argue this fact with me, but these people are imbeciles ). When it comes to Formula 1, many longtime fans will tell you that nothing has ever been (or sounded) as good as the late-80s Ferrari V12 car – the Ferrari F1-89.

The F1-89 was revolutionary and would go onto have a major influence on the entire sport, as well as on sports cars the world over made by every major (and minor) manufacturer – it used an “electro-hydraulic” semi-automatic gearbox that had paddle shifters mounted behind the steering wheel. A first for Formula 1 that would go onto become the unofficial standard arrangement on all F1 cars by the mid-90s and almost all high-end performance cars by the mid-2000s.

The car was the brainchild of legendary British designer John Barnard – formerly of Chaparral 2K and McLaren, both of whom he took the the front of their respective grids. Work began on the 1989 car in 1987, it had originally been intended that Barnard’s first Ferrari would be used in the 1988 season however the new transmission was proving exceedingly troublesome. It would later be discovered that much of the unreliability of the new box was down to it not getting adequate power from the battery - Magneti Marelli would work with Ferrari throughout the 1989 season to locate and fix this issue, which resulted in the car’s reliability instantly improving.

Despite these issues the F1-89′s first outing was a wild success, Nigel Mansell won the first race of the season in the car – it was also his first ever race for Ferrari, making him and instant favourite with the oftentimes fickle Tifosi. The transmission problems lead to the car retiring from a slew of races however when it did finish, it always landed its driver on the podium – an indicator of the car’s remarkable potential.

The chassis you see here was driven by Gerhard Berger during the 1989 season, it took him to the podium a number of times and at the end of the season when Alain Prost joined Ferrari, this was the first car he tested. With an estimated value of €600.000 to €900.000 the F1-89 actually represents quite good value, especially when you consider that the car has been fully sorted by Ferrari F1 Clienti and has been shaken down for 150 kilometres at Mugello, it’s also been Ferrari Classiche certified – meaning it’s eligible for just about any vintage racing event anywhere in the world.

Click here to visit the car’s listing, or click here to visit the Ferrari F1-89′s well-documented Wikipedia page.

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Montezemolo orders immediate overhaul at Ferrari to end bureaucracy

The first part of the season, with races a long way from Europe, was not easy for Scuderia Ferrari. The week following the Bahrain Grand Prix brought various changes, including Marco Mattiacci being appointed to run the Gestione Sportiva, following Stefano Domenicali’s resignation.

There was also the first podium of the year in China, which provided a further boost for the whole team, while it keeps pushing on with the development of the car, aiming to improve its performance.

Today, more than ever before, with under three weeks to go to the Spanish Grand Prix work is in full swing behind the quiet exterior of the Maranello factory.

President Luca di Montezemolo has been very clear in his words to Mattiacci and his staff, recognising the need to “step up a gear in the work of the Gestione Sportiva.”

These words have been transformed into actions, which have made the decision making process even more immediate, with the aim of optimising the work and the direction of development taken by the engineers in Maranello in real time.

President Montezemolo is involved at first hand in the daily work and is always in close touch with the team. He has asked for an immediate overhaul and streamlining of internal processes, eliminating intermediate stages and bureaucracy in order to be more flexible and efficient when it comes to the decision making process.

At the same time, in order to simplify the organisation, there have been cut backs in the number of consultants and admissions aimed at strengthening some key areas to find more performance from the F14T.

Apart from this, suppliers have been asked to provide greater support by reducing the turnaround on parts following requests from Maranello, thus reducing the waiting time for every single component, both in the case of prototypes and of proven elements.

The aim of all these changes is for Ferrari to be able to react more quickly, ready to gather and make the most of information both drivers provide during race simulations, but above all, whenever they take to the track.

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Red Bull investigating possible chassis fault with Vettel’s RB10

Red Bull is investigating whether a chassis fault has been the cause of Sebastian Vettel’s dip in form since the start of the 2014 Formula 1 season.

Team boss Christian Horner says the reigning quadruple world champion is lacking the “feel” for the RB10, while others think the German is simply being outclassed by his new teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Helmut Marko, the champion of Vettel’s career since his boyhood, has some other theories.

“When downshifting, Sebastian needs a stable rear for his special style of driving. With all the new systems, he doesn’t have that yet,” the Red Bull director said.

Austrian Marko tipped Vettel to eventually get it right.

“In 2012 it was the same, and by the time he was happy with the rear, he was unbeatable,” he is quoted by Sport Bild.

However, there could be more to the story.

“We don’t understand why Vettel’s tyre wear was so much higher than Ricciardo’s,” Marko said, referring to the Chinese Grand Prix.

“We are now investigating whether [Vettel's] chassis has a fault.”

Marko said Red Bull’s target is to eliminate a chassis flaw as the potential origin of the problem by giving the 26-year-old a brand new ‘Suzie’.

“When a new one is ready, Vettel will get it,” he confirmed.

If a chassis flaw is not the problem, however, Marko is not guaranteeing a quick fix to Vettel’s troubles.

“This year is so complex that even the engineers don’t understand everything,” he said. “That makes it even harder for Seb to tune the car to his needs.

“But Sebastian is a perfectionist. He will tinker with it until he gets it right.”

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Domenicali is a scapegoat says former Ferrari team manager

Stefano Domenicali is just Ferrari’s latest scapegoat, according to Cesare Fiorio, a former Ferrari team manager .

Fiorio, who led the Maranello team before the ultra-successful Jean Todt era, likened Domenicali’s departure to that of Aldo Costa, who left Ferrari three years ago.

Designer Costa was responsible for the ultra-dominant 2014 Mercedes project.

“It is a shame that Stefano Domenicali is portrayed in the same manner as the scapegoat before him, Aldo Costa,” Fiorio told the German-language Speed Week.

“It is a simplistic point of view, without analysing the true reasons for success and failure,” he added.

However, Fiorio thinks that Domenicali’s successor, the Formula 1-unknown Marco Mattiacci, needs to be given a chance to perform.

And he thinks Mattiacci’s lack of experience is not necessarily a fatal flaw.

“80 per cent of all management decisions are similar, regardless of the industry,” said Fiorio.

“Only 20 per cent require the knowledge and experience of the specialist area, but this experience cannot be gained in a month or even a year,” he warned.

But Fiorio thinks Mattiacci has time on his side.

“The bottom line is that we can already say that 2014 belongs to Mercedes,” he said.

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No Marussia name change after ownership split

Marussia is not planning to change its name, despite the Formula 1 team no longer being owned by the Russian supercar maker.

It emerged two weeks ago that the British-based team has split with Murussia Motors, who according to Russian reports is shedding staff and no longer making supercars.

A team spokeswoman had explained that the team is now owned by another company within the Marussia group, Marussia Communications Limited.

But Marussia Formula 1 Team’s sporting boss Graeme Lowdon insists the ownership split will have little impact.

“Contrary to some reports we’ve never been owned by the car company,” he told Press Association.

“We’ve a common shareholder in Andrey Cheglakov, a shareholder in the car company and a major shareholder in the Formula 1 team.

“Although there is obviously a marketing link, beyond that there is no direct impact on us at all,” Lowdon said.

“Financially we’re fine, or as much as a Formula 1 team can be!” he added.

Lowdon also said that Marussia are not planning to change their name.

“The whole Marussia concept goes beyond a car business, and we’ve not had any approach from Andrey to suggest otherwise at present,” he said.

“So it’s business as usual.”

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McLaren - Fallows replacement lined up

McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier has confirmed that a replacement for aerodynamics expert Dan Fallows has already identified.

McLaren announced at the beginning of the year that Fallows would join the team from Red Bull, but he recently revealed that he would stay at the Milton Keynes outfit instead.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis has threatened Red Bull with legal action as a result, but on Tuesday, Boullier confirmed that a contingency plan was in place and that they have another candidate in mind.

"We have to deal without him today so we have to consider all of the scenarios," Boullier told crash.net.

"But also we have to consider the scenario that he will never be back or he will never join us, so we are implementing what we have to do and we have already."

Boullier confirmed that an appointment would be made from outside McLaren, but joked when asked about when the announcement would be made public: "When they join us and when we are sure that they come in in the morning!"

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Horner full of praise for Ricciardo

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner is waxing lyrical over Daniel Ricciardo, saying the Australian has been "outstanding" in his short career with the reigning Constructors' Champions.

Ricciardo finished ahead of four-time World Champion and team-mate Sebastian Vettel in China for the second time this year, and although Horner believes this is largely due to issues with the German's car, he was nevertheless full of praise for his new recruit.

"A massive performance by Dan; [he was] hugely impressive all weekend," Horner told crash.net

"He's really been outstanding this season. In all four grands prix so far this year I think he's done a tremendous job.

"His confidence is growing, he seems so calm in the car. His feedback is exceptional; when he talks on the radio it's like he's having a coffee in a coffee shop up the road, especially with the lack of noise now you can hear it perfectly!

"He's enjoying what he's doing, he's enjoying being a grand prix driver and he's enjoying driving for the team."

Horner added that Vettel is more than willing to play second fiddle to Ricciardo and is eager to learn from his new team-mate.

"For any driver they don't like that call, but he's absolutely abided by it. He's a team player at the end of the day and the one thing you can be assured of is that he will be looking extremely hard at this weekend and this race to understand where the differences are, what he's struggling with and where we can improve," Horner continued.

[MIKA27]

McLaren confident of race victories

McLaren believe they can "fight for a win" are some stage of the 2014 season, Racing Director Eric Boullier revealed on Wednesday.

After claiming two podiums at the season-opener in Australia, McLaren pair Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen have only scored 10 points between them in the next three races.

Boullier, though, remain confident that the factory updates that are due to receive will allow them to compete at the front end of the grid once again.

"A lack of downforce is obviously hurting us when we have very hot track conditions, or very cold like we had in China and there is a technical reason for that," said Boullier.

"What is happening in the team is [making us] very confident and we will be able to keep pushing on a very aggressive and strong development [path] through the whole season.

"We will put ourselves in a position, maybe not in the first part of the season, but maybe later, to fight for a win.

"We have to believe we will win a race.

The former Lotus boss added that the return of Honda as engine supplier next year won't be use as an excuse for a poor season in 2014.

"You cannot afford to let yourself think that way in motor racing," he added.

"We have this extra challenge to work very efficiently with our partner Mercedes, but later in the year to start to implement the Honda arrival."

[MIKA27]

Then and Now – Telemetry in F1

In the Chinese Grand Prix Nico Rosberg had to drive with the handicap of his cars telemetry having failed. I thought I would examine a bit about the history of telemetry in F1 to explore this a little further and see if I can shed some light on just what difficulty it would have presented Rosberg and Mercedes.

When the Formula 1 World Championship started in 1950 there was no such thing as telemetry. Information about what the car was doing had to be described by the driver to his engineers, and together they made adjustments hoping to make the car go faster. There was a significant advantage for drivers who were also good engineers, as they not only felt what the car was doing, they also knew what changes needed to be made to the car to improve the lap-time. Sir Jack Brabham won the world drivers title three times because he was not only a good driver but also a brilliant engineer. He is the only person to have won the title in a car of his own manufacture. It could also work the other way, the Mercedes chief engineer in the 1930’s and 1950’s, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, was also a very good driver. Although he never raced, he was able to test the grand prix cars setting times as fast as Moss and Fangio.

This situation continued until the mid 1980’s, when technology enabled some data to be transmitted from the car to the pits in bursts as the car passed along the pit straight. In the 1988 season there are contemporary reports from the French Grand Prix that the fuel readouts in the McLarens were showing that the cars were using less fuel than the Honda telemetry was telling them. Ron Dennis was prepared to allow his drivers to race flat out, even if it meant they ran out of fuel if it taught them to be more conservative in the future. It seems Ayrton did have issues with telemetry just as Rosberg has today.

By the early 1990’s things had developed to the stage where continuous transmission was possible around most tracks. Certain places like Monaco still presented a problem, but this was overcome by storing the data on the car and retransmitting it again when communications resumed. Not only were cars transmitting data to the pits, but increasingly engineers in the pits were making adjustments to the cars remotely while the cars were running, changing engine maps, diff settings etc. all to enable the driver to concentrate just on driving the car as fast as possible.

This did have some other side effects for the driver, everything he did on the track was known before he returned to the pits, and also how and where he was quicker was available to his team mate to study and learn from. No doubt this increased the difficulties in some teams when the relationship between the drivers broke down so that this data was no longer shared inside the team. There were also instances when a driver’s complaints about issues with the car turned out to be not quite as severe as expressed just after getting out of the cockpit.

I recall Nigel Mansell commenting that he had to bravely fight against a failing gearbox for the second half of one particular race, but through his skill and determination he managed to get the car to the chequered flag. Patrick Head when asked about the incident stated that while there was one occasion when the gear didn’t select first time, it went in the next time costing a tenth or two, the rest of the race the gearbox behaved perfectly. It goes to show how sensitive drivers are to even the slightest change in performance, and how their recollection of facts may not be entirely reliable which is one of the benefits of the telemetry.

Into the early 2000’s, and the FIA was increasingly concerned about the amount of control those in the pits (and also back in the factory) had over the car. So for the 2003 season two way telemetry was banned, the only information that could be transmitted from pits to the car was the radio. Data could still be transmitted from the car to the pits, and onward back to the factory. So with tens of engineers now studying the performance of the car from the hundreds of sensors recording data every few milliseconds, all adjustments have to be made by the driver, which is why the steering wheels have gone from a wheel with maybe two buttons on it (for the radio and additional boost), to a control panel with multiple dials buttons and displays which co-incidentally also controls the direction of the front wheels.

Of course there are occasions when a team’s telemetry is exposed to the whole paddock through foolish action of an individual. Lewis Hamilton’s tweeting of the telemetry comparing his qualifying lap to Jenson Button’s gave away rather more information than he was expecting.

So how much will Rosberg have suffered through not having the telemetry working during the Chinese Grand Prix? Arguably the start was not as good as it would have been because the clutch settings are adjusted by each team following the getaway on the formation lap, and during the race he was being asked to give the fuel read-out as he was going through turn 1, when perhaps he may have preferred to give the readings when going down the long back straight. However it may not have fundamentally changed the result, as unlike in Bahrain, Hamilton looked the faster of the two Mercedes drivers all weekend.

There is a tendency today with so much data recorded for teams to spend all their time studying the data, hoping to find the extra time within the traces shown on the graphs. Gary Anderson has commented several times in recent months how few team members he sees actually watching the cars go around the circuit, they are all in the garage looking at computer monitors. His comment is that your data can tell you part of the story about how your car is behaving, but nothing at all about how your competitors are performing. Sometimes there is no substitute for going out and having a look at how the cars are taking a particular corner. Or perhaps it is time for the engineers to once again get behind the wheel and take their creations for a test drive to fully understand the problem?

[ptrthgr8]

1989 FERRARI F1-89 FORMULA 1 CAR

MUCH WANT!!!!!!!!!!

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

[MIKA27]

Hakkinen slams Vettel for ignoring team orders

Fellow Formula 1 world champion Mika Hakkinen has criticised Sebastian Vettel for ignoring team orders.

Although Red Bull and the German driver have claimed Vettel ultimately decided to let teammate Daniel Ricciardo past in China, initially he answered “tough luck” when the radio call came.

Finn Hakkinen, the now-retired 1998 and 1999 title winner, is unimpressed.

“For Vettel it’s an unpleasant surprise that Ricciardo is beating him,” he said, “but instructions from the team have to be followed.

“Even last year I was surprised by Vettel’s behaviour towards his team, and now it goes on,” Hakkinen, obviously referring to the ‘Multi-21′ scandal involving Mark Webber in 2013, told Hermes in an interview.

“Behaving like that will, sooner or later, hurt him. Maybe he (Vettel) is planning to change teams, but right now he’s not behaving in the right way,” he added.

Hakkinen also commented on Ferrari’s shock management switch, after Stefano Domenicali was suddenly replaced as team boss by the mainly unknown Marco Mattiacci.

“Stefano is a friend,” Hakkinen said, “but sometimes change is necessary.

“It’s difficult to say whether Ferrari has made the right decision, but when large companies are not getting results, heads can roll.”

When asked about Mattiacci, the former McLaren driver said: “Only time will tell how he will go, but if you don’t have much experience in Formula 1, it will be difficult to get straight down to work.”

[MIKA27]

Boullier: What’s going on at Woking is very positive and we have to believe we’ll win a race

Eric Boullier is adamant that McLaren can win races this season despite a below par start to the season where Australia has been their only high point thus far.

Speaking on a wide range of issues during a phone-in Boullier said, “We have to believe we’ll win a race. If you look at the details, it looks like we’re stepping back since the beginning of the season.”

“It’s true that Australia was a bit optimistic but we also prepared ourselves to pick up points and podiums from the others.”

“I’ve made clear that a lack of downforce is hurting us, when you have very hot conditions or very cool like we had in China and there is a technical reason for that.”

“I think what’s going on here in Woking is very positive and I think we’ll be able to keep pushing and bring a very aggressive and strong development for the season.

“I think we’ll put ourselves in a position, maybe not in the first part of the season, but later, to fight for a win.”

Meanwhile McLaren is planning ahead without the services of Dan Fallows, after they threatened to take the matter to court, when it emerged Fallows signed to switch to McLaren only to change his mind and return to Red Bull with a promotion.

McLaren supremo Ron Dennis is furious, but team boss Eric Boullier admitted this week that the Woking based outfit needs to plan ahead for a future without the highly-rated aerodynamicist.

“We have to deal without him today so we have to consider all of the scenarios,” the Frenchman told reporters.

“We also have to consider the scenario that he will never be back or he will never join us, so we are implementing what we have to do and we have already,” Boullier added.

He hinted that the appointment would be made from outside the team, but when asked when an announcement is due, Boullier joked: “When we are sure that they have arrived in the morning!”

Boullier also insisted that, after four races of sponsor-swapping on the 2014 car’s sidepods so far this season, negotiations are on track for a full-time title sponsor.

“The plan Ron discussed is happening,” he said.

“But until we have signed the final contract, nothing will be announced or changed. As long as we are in that position we will keep going with what we are doing now,” added Boullier.

Early in 2014, McLaren looked to have put its competitive crisis of last year in the past, but the team was notably off the pace last time out in China.

Boullier denied that the team is prepared to simply tread water in 2014 before the highly-anticipated arrival of works engine partner Honda.

“2014 should be a benchmark year for us,” he insisted. “It should be seen as a year of rebuilding a winning team.”

[MIKA27]

Lost in translation cause of China chequered flag debacle

A single word, which triggered a misunderstanding, is what caused the early waving of the chequered flag at the end of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Article 43.2 of the sporting rules dictates that if the chequered flag is waved early, even in error, the race is over.

That is precisely what happened towards the end of the Chinese Grand Prix, meaning that a last-lap pass by Kamui Kobayashi did not officially count.

Explaining the mishap, Auto Motor und Sport said that with a couple of laps left to run, the local race director Zhuang Tao asked Charlie Whiting if a white flag should be shown to mark the penultimate lap.

By radio, Zhuang relayed Whiting’s answer to the flag man with the words “No flag now”, but the Chinese official reportedly did not hear – or misunderstood – the “no”.