FORMULA 1 - 2015

[MIKA27]

FORCE INDIA SAYS CAR DELAYS AND MISSED TESTS CAUSED IN PART BY COLLAPSE OF CATERHAM AND MARUSSIA

Force India Deputy Team Principal Bob Fernley has placed some of the blame for the team’s delayed preparations for the 2015 season at the feet of collapsed rivals Caterham and Marussia.

At the weekend Fernley told the BBC that after sitting out 2015′s opening test in Jerez, the Silvestone outfit will also not have its new car ready for the second pre-season outing in Barcelona and that he is merely “hopeful” that the team will be at the final test, which starts three days later at the Circuit de Catalunya on February 26th.

“From the information I have today and knowing what we do, the answer is yes,” he said when asked if the team would race in Melbourne.

“The question for me is only how much of the third test we will participate in,” he added. “We won’t make the second test at all – although we are looking at taking the ’14 car there to do a little bit of driver and tyre work.

“I’m hoping we will make the start of the third test with the ’15 car, but we have to get as much of it as we can.”

And Fernley now says that part of the reason for the delays with the VJM08 can be attributed to the collapse of backmarkers Caterham and Marussia at the end of last season.

“As you know we’ve recently started working with Toyota’s wind tunnel at their facility in Cologne,” Fernley told the Press Association. “However, the Toyota people had agreements with Caterham, and quite rightly until they could resolve their Caterham issues we could not move in with our contract.

“We didn’t get the go-ahead until early December, so we were behind schedule before we had even started.

“On top of that we’ve had a few issues with suppliers because they’ve obviously been hurt very badly by the Marussia and Caterham demises,” he added. “They wanted payments up front, which hurt us cash-flow wise, and for one minute I don’t blame the suppliers at all. I would do exactly the same if my financial position had been hurt very badly. But it hasn’t helped us and has meant we’ve had a few slow downs in different areas.

“Is it perfect? No it isn’t, but will we get through? Yes, we will,” he concluded. “It is only cash flow at the end of the day. It’s not that the budget isn’t there, which is the same thing every year. Normally we can get through by working with the suppliers, but this year we couldn’t do that, so it has slowed us down a little.”

Rumours of the team being in financial difficulties have circulated for some time. As a member of F1’s Strategy Group, Force India were among the teams that last week blocked the return of Marussia to the F1 grid, though Fernley insisted that the prospect of a multi-million pound windfall in the shape of Marussia’s TV revenue was not the motivation behind the move. “£4m to the team is nice but not the driver for the decision,” said the Force India Deputy Team Principal.

[MIKA27]

MARCHIONNE: I DO NOT EXPECT MIRACLES

Ferrari big boss Sergio Marchionne (below) insists he is not getting carried away with the Maranello team’s impressive winter test form.

The fabled Maranello marque struggled in 2014, prompting Fiat Chrysler chief Marchionne to take over from long-time president Luca di Montezemolo amid a radical personnel shakeup.

The Italian-Canadian has warned that Ferrari’s return to winning form will not happen overnight, but then the new SF15-T set the timesheets alight as pre-season testing began last week at Jerez.

“I am encouraged by the performance of the new car,” Marchionne said in New York on Tuesday, “but it is one thing to do a quick lap and another to do them over a whole grand prix.

“I have so much confidence in the team and the work of the guys and they deserve time,” he is quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I am proud of their work but we will see when the championship begins in Australia. There is still some way to go.

“I do not expect miracles,” Marchionne added, “but it is important to see progress. “At the Barcelona test I expect further proof of what we have done so far.”

Ferrari powered cars hogged both slots at the top of the timing sheets on all four days of the test in southern Spain, with newcomer Sebastian Vettel fastest at the end of both days he spent in the cockpit of the SF15-T.

The second of three winter tests begins 19 February at Spain’s Circuit de Catalunya.

[MIKA27]

COSTA: VERY LITTLE OF MERCEDES W06 POTENTIAL HAS BEEN SEEN

Designer Aldo Costa denies that the world champion team has played it too safe with the new title-defending Mercedes W06.

The Brackley team utterly dominated the first season of the new turbo V6 rules in 2014 and is expected to maintain that advantage this year.

But as testing kicked off at Jerez last week, it was Ferrari that set the headline times amid rumours it has found between 40 and 80 horse power over the winter.

Indeed, La Gazzetta dello Sport told Mercedes’ Italian designer Costa that the new W06 does appear at least visibly very similar to the 2014 car.

“The car is an evolution,” he confirmed. “But in reality it is very different in many parts that cannot be seen from the outside.”

As for Jerez, he said the test was “positive in all respects” for the team, even if more work needs to be done on reliability.

“The improvement compared to 2014 was in line with what we expected,” added Costa. “We did not go to Spain to verify performance, but rather reliability and the behaviour of the car.”

Amid suggestions Mercedes was actively sandbagging at Jerez, Costa was asked how much of the 2015 car’s potential has now been seen, and he answered: “Very little. But I think it is the same for us as it is with all the other teams.”

“Only at the first race in Melbourne will we understand the true situation. And maybe not even there; we may need to wait four or five grands prix.”

Costa refused to be drawn on how many unfreeze ‘tokens’ Mercedes has already spent on its 2015 engine, but he did reveal: “I can confirm that we are using our new power unit for 2015, which is different from the last one”.

As for whether Mercedes can keep its level of dominance over its rivals in 2015, Costa answered: “We have set ourselves significantly higher targets compared to last year.”

[MIKA27]

ALONSO: MESSAGE TO THE FANS IS TO SUPPORT US THIS SEASON

Arguably the biggest question mark heading into the 2015 Formula 1 world championship is the form of McLaren-Honda, prompting Fernando Alonso to urging fans to support their efforts and stand by the team this season.

Team management are hailing the tight packaging of their “size-zero” MP4-30, but problems with the returning Honda’s first turbo V6 effort meant McLaren left Jerez with low mileage and uncompetitive laptimes.

Matt Morris, McLaren designer, admits Jerez was “frustrating” for the team’s star recruit Fernando Alonso, who left Ferrari after losing patience with a lack of championship-winning results.

“But he is happy,” Morris is quoted by the Spanish daily Marca, “and will push us on as a team.”

Indeed, Alonso said at a Honda press conference in Tokyo that after five years in red, “I once again feel new motivation and adrenaline to compete at the highest level”.

No one, however, can hide that the kind of success Alonso is seeking will take some time.

“Hopefully soon,” is what Alonso said when asked when that success will come, while team supremo Ron Dennis predicts 80s-style McLaren-Honda form in the “not too distant future”.

“The first challenge is the first victory,” Spanish media reports quote Dennis as saying. “In the short term, we intend to get the best possible result in Australia.”

Alonso added: “The message to the fans is to support us this season.”

Even Honda president Takanobu Ito cannot disguise the teething issues of Jerez, admitting: “We identified several problems but we are now in the final stages of tuning the engine.

“We will try to fix the problems and want to start from a good position on the grid in Melbourne,” he insisted.

“The McLaren-Honda team is very united and we have started to write a new page in our history. Please keep your expectations high,” Ito added.

Flavio Briatore, a guiding hand throughout Alonso’s long F1 career, told insider Leo Turrini’s blog: “Alonso at McLaren is a good thing for everyone. I guess it will take time, but Honda has not returned to create a bad image.”

“Let’s see how they manage to develop their project during the season, and then we’ll talk more,” the Italian added.

[MIKA27]

ARE ECCLESTONE AND BRIATORE PLANNING AN F1 REVOLUTION?

Bernie Ecclestone’s season has clearly started as sound bites abound from the Formula 1 supremo ahead of the new season, with his sights now focused on dwindling grids with a plan which appears that he and his disgraced pal Flavio Briatore have concocted, with little regard to manufacturers currently involved or seeking to become involved in the sport.

Ralf Bach, a correspondent for Sport Bild and TZ Munchen, claims that the 84-year-old Briton’s vision of the future is Formula 1 with customer cars – perhaps even a one make series.

It emerged this week that, to boost dwindling grid numbers, Ecclestone – reportedly backed by Colin Kolles and Flavio Briatore – could be hatching a deal with Red Bull to package its 2013 car with a Mecachrome V8 engine and offer it at low cost to struggling small teams.

Writing on his f1-insider.com blog, Bach claims: “In January, Ecclestone met Dietrich Mateschitz in Salzburg to discuss, inter alia, the topic of customer cars.”

Bach said that while some of the sport’s biggest players like Mercedes might not agree, Ecclestone will not necessary mind even if the German marque pulls out.

Similarly, Ecclestone might also be happy that Volkswagen is staying out of F1 for now, as its patriarch Ferdinand Piech is said to be no fan of the Ecclestone reign.

Leo Turrini, a well-known Italian F1 insider, this week quoted Briatore as apparently sharing his friend and ally Ecclestone’s vision of the sport’s future.

“The tragic mistake was with the choice of this type [turbo V6] of engine,” the former Renault boss said.

“With the noise, they killed the excitement and replaced it with technology that the public does not care about. Add that these power units are expensive and the circle is closed,” added Briatore.

“I remain of the opinion that F1 should be a championship for drivers, not for constructors.

“It’s not that I support the idea of a one-make championship, but if you introduce a technology where someone like Mercedes has a huge advantage, the basic interest in formula one declines.”

[MIKA27]

FORMER BOSS SAYS MERCEDES STILL FAVOURITE FOR 2015

Former Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug doubts that Silver Arrows rivals have been able to close down the German giant’s advantage ahead of the 2015 season.

At the opening pre-season test at Jerez, it was Ferrari who surprisingly set the headline times.

But Haug, the former head of Mercedes motor sport, said: “There are no points for testing.”

“If there was, we would have seen a completely different game,” he is quoted by Germany’s Sky.

“I think Ferrari has taken a step,” Haug agreed, “but I believe that the gap Mercedes had (in 2014) means they are clearly once again the favourite.”

[MIKA27]

DAVID COULTHARD SAYS ALONSO THE BEST BUT ALSO MOST VOLATILE

Former F1 driver turned TV pundit, David Coulthard, this week repeated the paddock perception of Alonso as perhaps the very best driver but with a fiery character.

And now, more fireworks might be expected as the 33-year-old returns to McLaren, where his relationship with Ron Dennis ended in calamity in 2007.

“I agree that he is the best of the best,” Scot Coulthard told Spox this week. “He always manages to collect more points than his teammate and in the race is probably in a class of his own.”

“But his time at McLaren ended badly and in the end it was not working at Ferrari either,” said Coulthard. “One cannot deny it: as good as Fernando is, his integration into a team does carry a risk of explosion.”

[MIKA27]

F1 trio up for Laureus gongs

Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and the Mercedes team are in the running for Laureus World Sports Awards.

Mercedes driver Hamilton is up for the World Sportsman of the Year along with Real Madrid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, world number one golfer Rory McIlroy, tennis No 1 Novak Djokovic, MotoGP champion Marc Marquez and French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie.

The 30-year-old received his nomination after winning 11 of the 19 races last year en route to securing his second Drivers' Championship.

Australian Ricciardo is competing for the World Breakthrough of the Year Award after winning the Canadian, Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix during his debut season with the Red Bull team.

Tennis player Marin Cilic, alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, footballers Mario Gotze and James Rodriguez, and the Switzerland David Cup tennis team are also in the running.

Meanwhile Mercedes are competing with the European Ryder Cup team, German men's football team, Real Madrid football team, San Antonio Spurs basketball team and Switzerland Davis Cup squad for the World Team of the Year Award.

The awards ceremony will take place on April 15 in Shanghai.

[MIKA27]

South Korea facing breach of contract fine

Korean Grand Prix promoters could be forced to fork out millions after the race was dropped from the 2015 Formula 1 calendar.

Having been axed for the 2014 season, the race in Yeongam was included in the finalised calendar for 2015 for the weekend of 3 May only for it to be scrapped in January.

Organisers are now facing a massive bill for breach of contract from Formula 1's commercial rights holders.

According to Agence France-Presse, a senior committee official confirmed that "Formula One Management (FOM) had sent a formal notification that failure to open a banking letter of credit needed to host the 2015 event had constituted a 'grave breach' of contract".

"We plan to visit London for talks with the FOM," the official told AFP.

Some have suggested South Korea could face a fine of $86 million, which is double the annual $43 million licence fee, and the official added: "We cannot reveal the amount of compensation demanded by FOM."

[MIKA27]

Mercedes’ Bahrain battle “too dangerous” – Warwick

Mercedes has risked too much by allowing its drivers to fight each other for the championship, according to former F1 driver Derek Warwick.

The veteran of 146 grands prix served as a driver steward at four races last year including the Bahrain Grand Prix, where Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg fought a hard wheel-to-wheel battle for victory.

The race was celebrated by many as one of the high points of the season. However but Warwick said “in Bahrain the duel between Hamilton and Rosberg was too dangerous” in an interview with author Karoly Mehes for a recently published book about the life of Gilles Villeneuve.

“It showed a sign of stupidity because if both drivers were out of the race it might have looked good for the television audience, but at the end of the day you have to show more responsibility to the team and sponsors.”

“Mercedes was very lucky,” Warwick added. As well as allowing their two drivers to race each other, both drivers’ engineers fed them information from the pit wall on what the other car was doing.

Later in the year Hamilton and Rosberg collided during the Belgian Grand Prix, allowing Daniel Ricciardo to win for Red Bull. As Mercedes are likely to have the most competitive car again this year, how the team treats its drivers is likely to remain under scrutiny.

Villeneuve, who Warwick raced against in his first two seasons of F1, infamously fell out with team mate Didier Pironi in a row over team orders shortly before he was killed at Zolder in 1982. Warwick said there were “always agreements within the teams between drivers” at the time and that sometimes it is necessary to call off a battle between team mates.

“The most important was you can race, but don’t take each other out and end the team’s race,” he added. “There are certain times when you are asked as a driver to hold position. That was in the 1980s, the 1990s and also today.”

[MIKA27]

Williams says it backed Marussia's bid

Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams says her team supported Marussia's return to the Formula One grid with its 2014 cars.

A move to allow the struggling Marussia team to compete with last year's cars was blocked by Force India last week during a Strategy Group meeting.

While Force India claimed Marussia's bid lacked substance, the latter is still planning to come out of administration on February 19 and says its return to racing is still viable.

Williams, whose outfit is one of six teams in the Strategy Group, says the Grove team was always in favour of Marussia's comeback.

"We want a full competitive line-up on the grid next year and we will do anything to support Marussia coming back in," Williams told Sky Sports.

"We made it very clear in the Strategy Group that we would vote for them to be able to use the 2014 chassis this season.

"Unfortunately it hasn't happened, but Williams want a competitive line-up on the grid and we want to help the smaller teams.

"And I think we've demonstrated that and are always pushing cost control in Formula One.

"That's to save the smaller teams that are really struggling, the likes of Marussia and Caterham, but also the middle teams as well at the moment that are facing some serious issues."

[MIKA27]

Toro Rosso is not sharing designs with RBR, says Key

Toro Rosso could not afford to wait for RBR to sign off on 2015 designs.

Toro Rosso technical director James Key says that the STR10 has little in common with the Red Bull RB11, despite the rules allowing teams to work more closely together than in the past.

Teams are now able to share more parts than previously – including items such as suspension and braking systems – but Toro Rosso could not afford to wait for RBR to sign off on 2015 designs. In simple terms the senior team has resources which allow it to push R&D time to the limit, and build parts at the last minute.

“We're working very well with Red Bull on the power unit side and the gearbox side, all the bits you can work on,” Key told Motorsport.com. “The rest is very much an STR car. There are more 'listed parts' but we haven't done that. We did discuss it, but it's too much of a distraction for both sides to try and accommodate different time scales."

"We tend to start quite early compared to Red Bull, who are able to push very late with things. We'd have to have a budget their size to do what they do,” Key added.

Key stresses that Renault's task has been made easier this year as Red Bull and Toro Rosso are now running identical power unit packages, which makes it much easier to cross reference when there are problems.

“We agreed for example on a common Energy Store solution, which wasn't the case last year. There were different solutions, and this time we said let's just make one. So that's definitely helped, it's a very tidy package, and it means if you get one problem it will probably be relevant to both teams, instead of relevant to one of four, as was the case last year. So I think it's helped. Obviously the push has been to improve reliability and performance.”

[MIKA27]

Formula 1 U.S. audience grew by 10.1% in 2014

Formula 1 might be suffering from declining television audiences in almost every territory it's shown, but the United States has bucked that trend according to the latest figures.

The sport's annual media report shows that its American audience grew by 10.1 per cent to 12.6 million viewers during the 2014 season compared to the year before.

That bucks a trend which has seen key audiences such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and China decline over the past couple of years.

That is in part thanks to much of the coverage moving away from free-to-air broadcasts to pay-TV such as Sky. However the US coverage remains free via broadcaster NBC Sports Network.

The report says that NBC has seen "year-on-year increases for every single round shown", whilst the average race has "attracted 85 per cent more viewers this season" when compared to 2013.

Delving deeper into the details and it seems US fans are becoming more loyal to the sport. The number of viewers who watched between four and nine races last year, increased by 128 per cent, while those who watched ten or more doubled.

That's good news for the sport which has stuggled to get a grip on the market in America, with local motorsport series such as NASCAR and IndyCar drawing bigger audiences.

[MIKA27]

Radical rule changes could lure Newey back - Horner

Adrian Newey could be convinced to return to Formula 1 full-time if the planned overhaul of the technical regulations goes ahead in the next two years.

The famed F1 designer recently took a step back from the sport to focus his attention on other projects, including the Americas Cup. He cites the "very restrictive" technical regulations as the primary reason for the change.

However F1 bosses recently green-lighted a proposal to relax rules governing aerodynamics to make the cars faster, harder to drive and better looking.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes that might just be enough to entice Newey back in the future.

"It is some way down the road, but he is still very motivated - you can see that," he is quoted by Autosport.

"So if the regulations change and become a little bit more open, and more enticing, then perhaps that will whet his appetite to get further involved.

"He is at a stage in his career and life where he is enjoying the prospect of a couple of new challenges as well.

"But at heart he is still a racer, very passionate about F1, and still extremely competitive."

[MIKA27]

HORNER: WE HAD PROBLEMS BUT NOTHING LIKE LAST YEAR

Team principal Christian Horner has played down reports Red Bull is entering a second consecutive Formula 1 season plagued with early troubles.

Although ultimately the championship runner-up, the formerly title-dominant team went into 2014 in technical crisis as engine partner Renault struggled at the start of the new turbo V6 era.

Renault subsequently underwent a sweeping restructuring and significantly upgraded its ‘power unit’ for 2015, but new number 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo was just twelfth fastest on aggregate after the first four-day test at Jerez last week.

New teammate Daniil Kvyat fared even worse in the camouflaged RB11, outpaced only by the stuttering McLaren-Hondas, while even the initially-absent Lotus managed more laps than Red Bull in southern Spain.

Team boss Christian Horner, however, is putting a brave face to reports Red Bull might once again be in trouble and told Autosprint, “It [Jerez] was a test that was much more positive than a year ago.”

“We had some problems, it’s true, but they were nothing compared to what we faced in 2014, when either we didn’t run or it went up in flames.”

Most of the problems last week were reportedly connected to Renault’s upgraded turbo V6, and Horner confirmed: “The biggest changes we have are in the power unit.

“Renault has worked hard on this, but there will always be things that can go wrong in testing, that’s normal.”

Autosprint correspondent Roberto Chinchero, however, claims that the story runs deeper behind closed doors at Renault-powered Red Bull.

F1 engine guru and Mercedes title winner Mario Illien has been drafted in at Red Bull’s behest to work on the Renault V6, as has AVL, a renowned Austrian powertrain company.

The report said Illien’s upgrades could be ready to try at the final Barcelona test, when “it will be the time to choose between the Renault Sport power unit or Illien’s”.

Chinchero said bringing in Illien “could be the first step towards the creation of a structure able to produce a complete power unit, putting Red Bull on par with Mercedes and Ferrari as teams producing the entire car”.

[MIKA27]

MASSA: LIFE AT WILLIAMS IS CALMER THAN AT FERRARI

A calmer working environment at Williams may have been the major contributing factor to the return to form of former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa.

In 2008, the Brazilian went wheel-to-wheel with Lewis Hamilton for the world championship, but a year later he was fighting for his life after the qualifying accident in Hungary.

Massa admitted to Spain’s El Confidencial that when he returned in 2010, he entered a period of form that was the worst in his entire racing career.

“A lot of people thought ‘well, ok Felipe, what a shame’,” revealed Pat Symonds, the technical boss at Massa’s new team, Williams.

“What we found at Williams is that we have awakened him,” he told F1’s official website, revealing that the Massa of late last season was “a Felipe that we haven’t seen in years”.

Some believe the reason for Massa’s resurgence is that while he struggled to deal with the pressure of being Fernando Alonso’s teammate, life at Williams is much calmer.

“Life at Williams is calmer, for sure,” the 33-year-old and 11-time grand prix winner admitted. “You have to work as hard as at Ferrari, but it is simpler.”

“Only the racing matters; the other stuff not so much. So you have the mindset only to make the car better, to think about the racing.”

“Ferrari is fantastic, strong, great, beautiful, but with so much pressure and so many things that are not important that all comes together at once. Here [at Williams], the only thing that matters is the work,” he added.

And Massa said he is not the only driver who has been struggling at Ferrari in recent history, “I think the biggest problem was the mental side,” he admitted. “I suffered a lot for a while, but eventually it got better.”

“I improved that side and people have seen that Kimi (Raikkonen) struggles even more than I did. So maybe they (Ferrari) found someone who suffers (with it) even more.”

Massa hopes that, after he and Valtteri Bottas shone in the 2014 Williams, race wins and even a title bid might be possible this year.

“I hope,” he admitted. “It is possible, but the car is still new and we have to see where all the others are — if there is a team that has invented something amazing.

“But with the work and the mentality of our team, who knows if this year I can fight again for wins and, who knows, for the championship,” said Massa.

[MIKA27]

MALAYSIA UNDECIDED OVER F1 CONTRACT EXTENSION

Negotiations to renew Malaysia’s Formula 1 contract are still ongoing, but no deal is done as yet.

Last month, Sepang circuit boss Razlan Razali traveled (above) to London to discuss the expiring deal with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, and declared, “I am very confident this year’s F1 [race] won’t be the last.”

Three weeks on, a deal for 2016 and beyond still has not been struck.

Indeed, Sepang chairman Mokhzani Mahathir said that the talks with Ecclestone are still taking place.

“The talks are centred on an agreeable price for organising the prestigious race for the next three years,” he is quoted by the Bernama news agency.

“We also have to take into consideration the current economic volatility. For now we have not made any decision yet.”

The report said the outcome of the talks will be known by March 29, when Sepang hosts the second round of the 2015 world championship.

Meanwhile, organisers of the former Korean grand prix have received a bill for cancelling its grand prix, with the news agency AFP claiming the penalty might be double the $43 million annual race sanctioning fee.

“We plan to visit London for talks with the FOM,” a Korean official said.

[MIKA27]

Sauber confirm Barcelona schedule

Felipe Nasr will be in action for Sauber on the opening day of the second pre-season test in Barcelona next week.

The Brazilian will drive the C34 on Thursday 19 February at the Circuit de Catalunya before team-mate Marcus Ericsson takes over for the next two days with Nasr wrapping up their work on the Sunday.

Sauber, who endured a nightmare 2014 campaign during which they failed to score any points, will be hoping to continue the good form they showed in the first test at Jerez.

Nasr set the pace with the Ferrari-powered C34 on the third day while they were also second fastest on the other three days.

[MIKA27]

Power unit development creates extra headache for teams

The in-season development is both a blessing and a curse for Formula One teams.

The introduction of in-season power unit development in 2015 will create an extra headache for both the teams and the manufacturers, some of the sport's key players admit.

In 2015 the manufacturers will be allowed to use up engine development tokens during the season, rather than before the season, as had been the FIA's original intention.

The problem they now face is the timing of the introduction of any updated parts, as it has to be done with an eye on how much mileage the previous examples have done.

The difference

Last year, when there was no development other for reliability purposes, teams would not have a problem using elements at the last race that had been in circulation as early as Melbourne, as long as they still had mileage on them.

Now they risk a dip in performance if they are forced to go back to earlier parts. While mileage on older equipment could be used up on Fridays, juggling the elements around still presents a challenge, especially now drivers only have access to four power units before penalties kick in.

Cause and effect

“If you do use tokens up through the year then the introduction of that will mean what you had previously, you won't want to use,” said Mercedes engine head Andy Cowell when asked by Motorsport.com. “Which does complicate it. That's one of the things to consider as you come up with ideas and decide what you want to do.”

Meanwhile McLaren's Eric Boullier said: “Last year was already a little bit of a headache, it's just going to be more complicated. It's true that four engines, with an upgraded package in the middle, we have to be very cautious how we manage our laps, especially on Fridays.”

[MIKA27]

Ferrari: Real progress or another false dawn?

Jerez testing suggested that the new SF15-T is a step in the right direction for Vettel and Raikkonen.

The snow lies deep right now at Maranello. A winter snowfall – half a metre to be precise – turned the surroundings of the Ferrari factory into a picture postcard scene, meaning the engineers had an extra hurdle to conquer as they scurried to work, to crunch all the data from the SF15-T's encouraging first test at Jerez the week before.

Recently-ensconced team principal Maurizio Arrivabene speaks of the Scuderia rediscovering its team spirit, and what we saw – and heard – in Jerez was a much tidier car and more purposeful-sounding V6 turbo engine.

And therein lies Ferrari's recent travails: a chassis department that blamed the engine group for its win-less 2014, and vice versa.

Neither operating to the peak of their abilities, and the sum of the parts fell way short compared to Red Bull and, latterly, Mercedes.

The end of the blame game

But you can only play the blame game for so long, and out of the ashes of a firestorm of high-profile departures (Luca di Montezemolo, Pat Fry, Nicholas Tombazis, Neil Martin, Hirohide Hamashima to name but five) there must be strong direction to keep the new-look staff on track.

Marque chief Sergio Marchionne is renowned as a tough operator, not afraid to take difficult or bold decisions, and should be just the ticket in tandem with Arrivabene, who is a renowned and well-connected innovator.

Technical director James Allison worked wonders to turn Lotus into a winner, to get the most out of Kimi Raikkonen, and in Sebastian Vettel it has an A-lister to replace Fernando Alonso with far less political tendencies than the McLaren-bound Spaniard.

Fixing the weaknesses

Allison admits to a "definite weakness" in the recovery of electrical energy from the car's hybrid system last year, and the engine department has concentrated on changing the architecture of the power unit to better balance its race and qualifying performances.

We're hearing rumours of a "massive power boost" compared to its 2014 internal combustion engine, so if it plays its tokens right, we could be set for a game-changing turnaround in fortunes.

Yet to read too much into the Jerez laptimes is a fool's errand; there is no way yet to truly quantify where Ferrari stacks up to its rivals. The smart money is that Mercedes is still out front, also that the Prancing Horse is considerably closer than the 1.7s off the pace that it ended last season.

The Kimi factor

The fact that Raikkonen was positively bubbly (by his standards, anyway) after his first two days in the car speaks volumes.

It was clear last season that Alonso's input was 'turned off' in favour of Raikkonen, and it looks like Kimi has been listened to – just like he was mid-2007 for THAT amazing world title turnaround.

In its Corse Clienti F1 hangar at nearby Fiorano, also covered in snow right now, Raikkonen's title-winning 2007 car sits as a silent reminder that its glory days weren't so long ago.

It's perhaps unlikely that SF15-T is its next world championship winner, but it has to be a step in the right direction.

[MIKA27]

Formula 1 team title sponsors are history - McLaren's Ron Dennis

McLaren chairman Ron Dennis says he would rather be without a title sponsor than undersell the space on his team's Formula 1 car.

The Woking-based team has been without a title partner since its Vodafone deal ended in 2013, despite having famously declared that one would be revealed on December 2 that year.

Dennis now believes that the costs of competing are so high that handing over title sponsorship rights is no longer possible without selling it off too cheaply.

"Title sponsorship doesn't exist any more as a concept," said Dennis. "If you look at what title sponsorship would normally be, it would be somewhere between 40-50 per cent of your budget.

"Where the budgets are for a competitive team, no company will come in and give you that kind of money.

"Therefore what you do is you cut it up into bite-sized pieces, so you get a range of companies with similar philosophies to join you on the car.

"Do we have room for bigger brands on our cars? Yes we do. But the reality is that we put ourselves in a position where the technology side of our business is providing different dynamics [of revenue]."

When asked if he had then given up on chasing a new title sponsor, Dennis said: "We haven't given up on the idea of attracting larger sums of money to our car, but what we don't want to do is put big brand names on at low levels of money.

"I feel a bit like Manchester United, which has had a run of crappy football games and gone down in the league. I still think we are Man Utd, I still think that we can come along and say 'will you sponsor us? We are still Man Utd'.

"The last thing you should do is suddenly start doing deals that are last place in the league table. That is maybe flawed, but I don't think so. That is the way I think."

[MIKA27]

Red Bull hints at change to Williams-style Formula 1 nose design

Red Bull has dropped a firm hint that it may switch to a short Williams-style nose this season as Formula 1 teams continue to hunt for the best solution.

A change to the nose regulations introduced for 2015 has left teams facing a big headache about how best to recoup lost downforce and maximise airflow around the rest of the car.

There is a growing consensus that the best way forward is the short style of nose pioneered by Williams - but that design causes complications in passing the mandatory crash tests.

Red Bull has evaluated different solutions, and has admitted that it is likely a switch of concept could happen.

"Of the few different noses we tried, it's the one we like best at present," chief engineering officer Rob Marshall said about the long nose used in Jerez testing.

"No doubt there'll be other ones in the future, and I'm sure other teams will be preparing other noses, wings and god knows what else. What you see on the first day of the first test isn't what we'll always roll out later on."

Marshall said that crash testing progress over the winter had impacted what version of the nose appeared at the first F1 test, as Red Bull had elected to start the homologation process so late.

"We had a number of different options, and we started our crash testing programme a while ago," he said. "We hit some problems and we needed to try some easier ones and some harder ones.

"In truth, we got [to Jerez] by the skin of our teeth - not because our crash testing programme didn't go very well, because it did - but because as usual we started on the design of the car very late."

WILLIAMS CRASH TESTS NOT EASY

Williams technical director Pat Symonds believes the fact that his team was able to run a short nose from the off is proof of the quality of the new FW37's design.

"It's the balance of getting a good aerodynamic solution and one that gets through a crash test as well," he said.

"Our feeling was that aerodynamically we were running quite a short nose, but of course for an easy passage through the crash testing, a long nose makes life a lot easier.

"So there was a fair bit of balancing there. I'm very pleased with the solution we've got. It was a good one.

"It wasn't easy to get through the crash test but I think we have one of the shorter noses out there which shows the quality of the design."

[MIKA27]

Williams retains low-drag trait on its FW37 2015 Formula 1 car

Williams says that its 2015 Formula 1 car has maintained the low drag characteristics of its predecessor.

The Grove-based outfit kept the F1 championship-winning Mercedes on its toes last season by regularly topping the speed trap figures with its FW36.

And although Williams did not quite have the qualifying pace to turn that top speed into a win, the team believes that the car trait was the right one to keep on its new FW37.

Technical director Pat Symonds said: "Our target drag levels we think we got pretty right last year.

"It gave us a very good racing car and, by the end of the season, we were also qualifying very well with it.

"We set those sorts of targets through simulation. The simulation is redone not just year-to-year; it's a relatively continuous thing to check where we are.

"We followed that simulation in designing the FW36 and it served us well, so we pretty well kept with those techniques on FW37."

Symonds hopes that keeping the top speed, alongside other car developments, will be enough to put Williams in contention for victories.

"Competitiveness is a relative thing," he said. "We have certainly taken steps that I hope will move us forward, but I don't yet know what our competitors have done.

"I hope that at least we start where we finished and our development rate last year was one of the things I was particularly proud of.

"We really did add a lot of performance to the car relative to our competitors. We are applying all the same philosophies to doing that, so yes we want to get in there and be fighting."

[riazp]

Less testing more racing! Let's get this season underway already!

[MIKA27]

NEWEY: I DO FEEL F1 HAS BECOME OVER-RESTRICTED

Formula 1 design guru Adrian Newey has revealed that he believes that Formula 1 in this era is too restrictive and favours engine builders rather than innovative chassis design.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the highly-rated Newey made the decision to step back due to his frustration with the ever-tightening chassis rules.

“This [RB11] is the first car in my Formula 1 career that hasn’t had my sole attention, time-wise,” he admitted at the recent Jerez test.

“But all of the major packaging I have been heavily involved in, and some of the details as well,” Newey revealed.

He hinted that his interest in F1 design waned due to the technical rules, where modern cars all resemble one another and the biggest performance differentiator in the new turbo V6 era is the ‘power unit’.

“Very much so,” said Newey. “In truth it’s a very difficult compromise in terms of having relatively open regulations that can cause excessive spending, but I don’t really buy that because we have wind tunnel and CFD restrictions.”

“But I think there’s been a fear that with overly open regulations, one team might get a big advantage over the others. I think that’s gone the other way now.”

“The blend, in my opinion, should be driver, chassis and engine, and at the moment I think it’s very much skewed towards the engine.”

“The chassis regulations have become over-restricted, and the problem for us is that the cars all look the same, and it’s difficult to differentiate from my point of view as designer. (It’s) difficult to find new avenues. I do feel we have become over-restricted,” Newey admitted.

Meanwhile, a big topic of conversation behind closed doors at present is a potential radical change in regulations for 2017, involving not only the move to 1,000 horse power engines but also vastly different-looking cars.

If that does happen, Horner thinks Newey might be tempted to return to F1 full-time.

“If the regulations change and become a little more open and attractive,” the Red Bull chief is quoted by Brazil’s Totalrace, “it might sharpen his appetite.”