FORMULA 1 - 2015

[MIKA27]

Don't the factory teams always have the advantage with engines? They can start with the same engine they're selling to Williams and Lotus, but surely their engineers are going to have a head start with their own engine.

To to mention their own engine mapping. I'm sure tweaks are made, still within the rules, but yes, Mercedes sell the same engine initially, but for sure they will add to their own to suit their aero, chassis and the like.

[MIKA27]

Honda: 'We know the problem and we're fixing it'

Honda say they're fully aware of what is holding them back and they're taking steps to address the problem, with race-by-race improvements.

It's believed cooling could be part of Honda and McLaren's reliability troubles, particularly around the energy recovery system, which is why the team had to run at reduced power in Australia.

But Honda's engine boss, Yasuhisa Arai, says they have a clear understanding of the issue and step-by-step it will be resolved.

"Already we know what happened [in Australia], so we are going carefully step by step and we have confirmed [the problem]," he told Autosport.

"After the confirming, we apply that [fix] at the next race and the next race, going step by step," he added, though he refused to set a deadline as to when the problem will be completely resolved. " I don't say what is the target date."

Meanwhile racing director Eric Boullier has played down suggestions Honda are completely to blame for McLaren's lacklustre pace as he believes they can do a lot of work on the chassis and aerodynamics to climb the grid.

"I don't believe that we have a winning car and the engine is that bad," he explained.

"The car is a new concept and even if the base is good and the car is drivable and performing, we still have to develop this concept.

"We know that, in terms of simulation, the car is good compared with last year but we also know that the aero development and vehicle dynamics development that we can bring to this car in the next few months is massive."

[ptrthgr8]

To to mention their own engine mapping. I'm sure tweaks are made, still within the rules, but yes, Mercedes sell the same engine initially, but for sure they will add to their own to suit their aero, chassis and the like.

Right. So when it matters, they can no longer say it's the same engine. They offer the most stripped down version they can to their customers, even though they know it's nowhere near the works team's engine in terms of performance.

Nothing wrong with that... but sounds like Merc is implying nothing's different between them.

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[MIKA27]

No German GP in 2015 as Hockenheim withdraws offer

There will be no German Grand Prix this year, that's what Hockenheim circuit boss Georg Seiler has told Bild newspaper.

Seiler has confirmed that the Hockenheim circuit, which offered to fill in for Nurburgring with which it alternates annually, has pulled its offer after failing to agree terms with Bernie Ecclestone.

"We have no hope any more of having a Formula 1 race here," he said, citing the race date of July as too early to begin preparations for the race.

That leaves only the Nurburgring as a potential venue. It was recently bought out after entering bankruptcy and a deal with the new owners looks unlikely.

Ecclestone himself said the German GP would be held in Hockenheim this season, but following Seiler's comments, it therefore looks likely that the race will be taken off the calendar, reducing it to 19 events.

MIKA: I've never been a huge fan of Hokenheim. Shame about Nurburgring

[MIKA27]

Right. So when it matters, they can no longer say it's the same engine. They offer the most stripped down version they can to their customers, even though they know it's nowhere near the works team's engine in terms of performance.

Nothing wrong with that... but sounds like Merc is implying nothing's different between them.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Well of course there is a difference between them. I guess Mercedes provide the hardware in this case the engine, but the buck stops with Williams engineers to suit the engine to their chassis and unique vehicle characteristics which would always be different compared to the next teams vehicle.

BTW, are you sure you're not Christian Horner...?

[MIKA27]

Fernando Alonso will return to McLaren's simulator on Wednesday

Fernando Alonso will move a step closer to his Formula 1 return on Wednesday when he drives the McLaren simulator for the first time since his testing crash.

The Spaniard has been out of action after suffering concussion in a crash during the second test at Barcelona in February.

Although doctors could not find any lasting injury from his hit with the wall, concerns about complications that could occur if he had another crash forced him out of the Australian Grand Prix.

Having resumed fitness training last week, and declared himself ready to race, Alonso flew to McLaren's Woking factory on Tuesday to meet team chiefs.

A Tweet issued on McLaren's official feed confirmed that the Spaniard would be back in the simulator on Wednesday.

The Tweet said: "Spotted at #MTC: Fernando's in the house today and will be in the simulator tomorrow."

Should the simulator session go well, Alonso will then undertake final medical tests before travelling to Malaysia with the team.

He will require an official all-clear from the FIA before being allowed to drive again, though.

FIA investigations into the accident and its consequences are ongoing, with the governing body hoping to learn lessons about how a relatively small impact resulted in a driver being forced out of a race.

[MIKA27]

Kimi Raikkonen says Ferrari F1 team closer to Mercedes in race trim

Kimi Raikkonen believes Ferrari has closed the gap to world champions Mercedes in terms of race pace and is now capable of fighting at the front in Formula 1.

The Scuderia was the fourth best team in 2014, trailing Mercedes, Red Bull and Williams, but it showed a step forward in winter testing and converted that form in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel finished third, while Kimi Raikkonen was set to come home at least fifth before a problem caused by damage from a cross-threaded wheel nut sent him into retirement.

In qualifying, Vettel and Raikkonen were fourth and fifth behind Felipe Massa's Williams but both felt the car was capable of third, behind Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

"I believe in the race, we are not far from Mercedes," said Raikkonen. "I'm sure we can be up there and fight at the front.

"Obviously it depends on the race and what they do, but we had too many things not going our way in the race.

"Even with the damage on the floor at the rear and also the end plate got damaged in the second pit stop, the car was still fast.

"I strongly believe we have a good race car, a good car over one lap.

"It is obviously not fast enough yet but I think the gap in the race is much smaller than qualifying.

"We have to improve in qualifying as Mercedes is ahead of us by some margin."

[ptrthgr8]

Man... I wish I were him. I'm sure I'd be livin' la vida loca!

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[MIKA27]

Man... I wish I were him. I'm sure I'd be livin' la vida loca!

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He might not be if Renault and RBR don't get their act together.

Dietrich Mateschitz might start heading in the direction Ferrari did...?

[wabashcr]

Right. So when it matters, they can no longer say it's the same engine. They offer the most stripped down version they can to their customers, even though they know it's nowhere near the works team's engine in terms of performance.

Nothing wrong with that... but sounds like Merc is implying nothing's different between them.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I do wonder how much engineering support Mercedes provide their customers. Obviously it's not their responsibility to optimize their engines for their customers' chassis. They're still competitors. But if Mercedes can get significantly more horsepower and torque from the "same" engines, that's not really right, either. I'm sure it's all spelled out in the rules and contracts, but there's no fully getting around the conflict of interest in selling engines to your competitors.

[MIKA27]

Lewis Hamilton Wants The F1 Helmet Of The Future To Have A HUD

If you’re in a F1 car racing around a track, there’s a lot of information to interpret — whether it’s something you can see on the tarmac in front of you, or raw data coming from dozens of onboard sensors and computers. Having too much information is a genuine problem for F1 drivers, and having it all displayed in one place is only part of the solution. In partnership with championship leader Mercedes AMG, Epson is now a Formula One sponsor, and it might be able to make the first step in fixing that problem.

Epson’s new partnership with the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team — the Japanese company’s first sponsorship of the sport in 20 years — will see the team use both off-the-shelf hardware like the Moverio BT-200 smart glasses and Pulsense heart rate monitors for team mechanics and support staff, as well as bespoke devices and customised software, in between and during future F1 races.

The Moverio smart glasses are basically augmented reality specs, letting users view the world around them while also looking at a display in each lens — for something as basic as watching TV, or for a task as complex as interpreting live telemetry from a racing car. Epson’s constant heart rate monitors will help mechanics, and not just drivers, train at an optimal level and improve their fitness to cut down pit stop times. While they’re technologies that have useful real-world applications, they also point to a potential purpose in the F1 helmets and drivers’ suits of the future.

Any future F1 helmet with a HUD integrated into the lens would necessarily be a very expensive piece of technology — like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter helmet — and would have to pass a massive barrage of safety tests and new legislation from the world’s most technically locked-down racing body. But it’s nice to dream.

In an interview at the Mercedes F1 team’s 2015 season kick-off before last weekend’s Melbourne Grand Prix, we asked Lewis Hamilton how he wanted the technology of Formula One to develop in the next few years. Lewis’ salient point was that sitting in a F1 car and driving it around a track at multiple hundreds of kilometres per hour, all while looking at a steering wheel with dozens of buttons and a multi-segment display, led to one thing: “information overload.”

A helmet with a HUD would bring at least some of the information forwards from the F1 car’s steering wheel to the driver’s helmet: “I can’t tell you why it’s not — it might have been banned — but I’ve asked the question many times. But until we’ve not had Epson on board; we had a meeting a couple of weeks ago and I was saying “hey, how am I going to take the helmet technology further?” It has been the same since I started 22 years ago, and Formula One is about development and moving forward. This is that progression.”

But would a HUD make driving a F1 car easier? “You always want to make it easier for the driver. The less you have to worry about, the better. I can’t tell you if it’s going to be a distraction until we try it, but for now we have a huge display on the steering wheel that tells you so much stuff — and you have to take your eyes off the road for a second to look at it to adjust switches. If you had it on the [HUD] screen and could be looking forwards, and could catch it in the corner of your eye…”

Information overload has always been a problem for drivers in Formula One, but it’s something that drivers have to just deal with. “It’s always been that way — it’s always been overloaded. You have to be selective, and you have to get on with it. The team will want to give you a hundred things, and you have to pick… if you can get by on fifty, then that’s what you need.” A helmet with a HUD is one possible way to address that.

Hamilton still thinks of himself as a natural driver, but knows that reading the data and working with sensors is the way of the future. This is a sport where, one day, a HUD inside the helmet is an almost certain future: “I’ve always been a seat-of-the-pants guy, but this is an era where you have to be able to combine both. You have to study all that data, and I’m always trying to improve.”

Heart-rate monitoring, too, is more important than it sounds. Lewis: “That’s really been a big part for the mechanics. They’re in the pit stop, having to carry those big guns and those tyres — and they need to be faster than ever and have precision. It’s grown over the years, but those guys have to be fitter than ever. There was a period of time when they were big, chunky guys and now it’s not possible. When I’m at the factory I’m working out with these guys, and we have to monitor their performance as well as mine.

That’s the next step — we’re the world champions, but we want to be better.”

For now, here’s a look (Which I've posted in the past) at the massive amount of information that a Formula 1 driver has to interpret, act on and adjust throughout any one segment of any one lap of any one race through the car’s steering wheel:

[MIKA27]

AUSTRALIAN GP FALLOUT: DOES RED BULL STAND BY THREAT TO PULL OUT OF FORMULA 1?

When the new Formula 1 season starts with a disaster, like it did for Red Bull and Renault in Melbourne, it’s understandable that there would be a lot of frustration. But Helmut Marko’s threat that Red Bull may soon decide to withdraw from Formula 1, if the rules are not changed, is worth deeper consideration.

Red Bull props up two teams with a combined workforce of around 1,200 and Renault’s involvement in F1. Its loss would be a body blow to the sport at a time when it does not have many teams that are robust for the long term.

First some context: There has been widespread negativity about the opening Grand Prix of 2015 on many levels; the Sauber courtroom drama in the build up to the weekend reflected badly on the sport and several team principals told me that they were ‘furious’ with Sauber’s Monisha Kalternborn for ‘bringing the sport into disrepute’ by signing three high paying drivers for two seats.

Then Manor Marussia turned up with two drivers and two cars but without the software to make the cars work. The cars sat there motionless for three days and then packed up along with all the other teams to head off for the next event in Malaysia. This left us with 18 cars on the grid, but that became 17 when Valtteri Bottas got an unfortunate disc tear in his back. We lost two more on the way to the grid, leaving 15 cars rushing down the pit straight at the start.

The Melbourne promoter had managed to get over 100,000 fans into the circuit on race day and almost 300,000 across the weekend, in what was a triumph of hard work and fan engagement. The ‘Dan Ricciardo’ effect certainly contributed, with estimates of 15% additional ticket sales down to the Australian’s three wins last season.

But the promoter was as disappointed as anyone by the lack of cars taking part in the race and lack of spectacle. So it is once again a pensive F1 community that flies back to Europe to regroup, while the equipment flies on to Kuala Lumpur for the next instalment.

Formula 1, like every activity these days, is subject to intense scrutiny thanks to social media. And it is human nature for negatives to be shared and spread more widely than positives.

It has to be said that the sport is not standing up to this phenomenon very well at the moment. It’s very easy for a tone of negativity to echo around the world, drowning out any positives, which are rarely expressed online, much to Mercedes’ annoyance, incidentally. Rather than the careful messaging of the Mercedes’ drivers about what an “amazing car” the comment has built for them, Marko has captured the media with the “Red Bull Quit threat”.

Red Bull’s threat – do they mean it?

Into this context comes Marko’s threat, “If we are totally dissatisfied we could contemplate an F1 exit,” he said in the paddock on Sunday night.

“We will evaluate the situation again as every year and look into costs and revenues. Yes, the danger is there that Mr Mateschitz loses his passion for Formula 1.”

Red Bull is angry that when it was winning between 2010 and 2013 the FIA kept banning technologies at which it excelled, such as exhaust blown diffusers, but now that Mercedes is winning, there is no comparable brake on the technologies which contribute to their success. And, even worse, the rules greatly restrict rivals from developing their engines in order to compete.

Mercedes appears to have increased its advantage over the field, although we need to be cautious as Melbourne can give a false reading. Malaysia and Bahrain will give a more accurate picture.

The relationship between Red Bull and Renault, meanwhile, is at an all time low as it appears that the French manufacturer has made things worse rather than better over the winter in its efforts to close the gap to Mercedes. A failure for Daniel Ricciardo on the first day, problems for Daniil Kvyat and a failure for Max Verstappen in the Red Bull B team Toro Rosso when racing in the points, made for a very black mood at Red Bull.

A binding commitment to F1?

Red Bull was one of the first teams to make a bilateral agreement with the commercial rights holder, a deal which it knew would lead to the break up of the ‘union’ of teams known as the F1 Teams Association. This meant the end of the teams’ power to bargain collectively. Ferrari was the other.

Both took an offer from Bernie Ecclestone to sign up until 2020, the rest of the teams reluctantly followed, knowing that they had no bargaining position without F1′s most famous team and its current champions.

In return for Ferrari’s loyalty to the sport since 1950 it received a $100 million annual bonus before prize money is distributed and in return for the vast sums spent on F1 by Red Bull it got a bonus of around $70 million per season, despite only being in the sport for a decade.

These bilateral deals are private and the details are not known. It has often been speculated as to whether there is a clause in Red Bull’s agreement, for example, that it is free to leave the sport if Ecclestone leaves.

On the face of it, the team is committed until 2020 and the team management justified its bonus payment to the media by pointing to this long term commitment which, they said, the smaller teams were not able to make as they don’t know whether they will survive that long.

When Marko talks of the ‘evaluation’ process he is talking about a detailed audit that Red Bull carries out regularly, where it looks at all the key indicators, like TV audience, costs, reach in the target audiences for the Red Bull brand via social media and other channels, return on investment, and ‘share of voice’, which is the amount of minutes of exposure the team gets on the world TV feed.

Sources close to Red Bull tell us that recent audits have made Mateschitz feel increasingly negative about F1 and the problems that the team is having on the technical front with Renault hybrid engines and lack of competitiveness are only adding to the disenchantment.

Red Bull takes part in a number of sports, but crucially it owns most of them as a self-standing roadshow, like X Fighters motocross and air races. It likes to make the rules and be in control and it is hugely frustrated by its inability to affect the rules sufficiently in F1.

Marko made some comments in his post race tirade on Sunday that illustrate that well,

“These rules will kill the sport. The technical rules are not understandable, much too complicated, and too expensive. These power units are the wrong solution for F1, and we would say this even if Renault were in the lead,” he added.

“We are governed by an engineers’ formula.”

Ferrari has made threats to quit the sport at various times, but has always stayed loyal, somehow feeing that its destiny is linked with Formula 1 and that it has a responsibility to it as the spine of the sport’s history.

Mateschitz’ commitment is based on a marketing return, which is waning and his long held passion for the sport, which is also waning.

[rckymtn22]

Final Fantasy XV's Summon Will Blow Your Damn Mind

There are a lot of cool moments in Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae, the much-anticipated demo that’s finally out today for PS4 and Xbox One (alongside FF Type-0 HD).

You can explore the world, take on sidequests, get to know Noctis and his merry band of bros, and spend a whole lot of time playing around with the high-octane combat system. The demo is rough, but it’s full of promising ideas and definitely worth your time if you care about Final Fantasy at all.

You can also get a… certain summon, which you can activate once Noctis runs out of HP and use against just about any outdoor enemy in the game. In Final Fantasy, summons are a Pretty Big Deal, and FFXV appears to be no exception. I shouldn’t say anything else. Just watch this.

(Make sure you set the video to HD.)

F1 of the future? lol

[MIKA27]

Button says Mercedes doing nothing wrong

McLaren driver Jenson Button says Mercedes is not doing anything wrong by dominating Formula One, despite Red Bull' calls for change.

Red Bull has led calls to the FIA to act on Mercedes' superiority, claiming it fears fans will be turned off by the ease with which the German squad is dominating the sport.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has sided with Red Bull, saying the FIA has a mechanism in place to stop a team from dominating if it feels it has an unfair advantage.

Button, however, insists there is nothing wrong with what Mercedes is doing, and that it is up to the opposition to raise its game.

And the Briton reckons Red Bull would not be complaining if it was the one doing all the winning.

"There's nothing really to ban, because it doesn't look like Mercedes are doing anything other teams aren't doing," said Button.

"They're told they're damaging the sport. So it's a difficult situation. It stops people from wanting to be the best.

"It obviously would be better for the sport if there were different people fighting at the front but it's not Mercedes fault.

"Would Red Bull be upset about it if they were the team out front by one second? No."

[MIKA27]

VAN DER GARDE: SAUBER’S FINANCIAL DECISION-MAKING IS BIZARRE

Giedo van der Garde won himself many admirers when he took Sauber to court, demanding he be instated as race driver with the team as he had paid for to drive this season (back in 2014) when he was a reserve for the Swiss team, but was denied his place in the cockpit as the team had signed two other drivers.

Sauber reneged on the deal, and instead sold the race seats (again) to Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, thus they were taken to court in Melbourne by the Dutchman, who in the end triumphed. Thereafter along with his minders, van der Garde negotiated a settlement fee believed to be €15 million.

Here is van der Garde’s statement: “We have reached a settlement with Sauber and my driver contract with the team has been ended by mutual consent. As a passionate race driver, I feel sad and am very disappointed.

I have worked very hard my entire career, ever since starting with go-karts at the age of eight, to live my dream and become a successful Formula One driver.

I had hoped at last to be able to show what I am capable of, driving a car for a respected midfield team in the 2015 season. This dream has been taken away from me and I know that my future in Formula One is probably over.

I had a valid driver contract for the entire 2015 season and enforceable rights to it. I pushed very hard until last Saturday in Melbourne to get the drive that I was entitled to. This legal process started in 2014 and has taken a great deal of effort.

It was never a last minute thing, but it only became public in the last week when we tried to force the team to accept the rulings of a succession of legal authorities and courts.

I am a race driver and all I want is to race. However, the team principal was adamant not to let me drive, notwithstanding my legal rights to do so and a series of rulings and court orders in my favour and despite my race driving abilities. I will never understand this.

I could have persisted, but the team principal had taken a decision contrary to my contract that she would not work with me and this became painfully clear in the paddock in Melbourne.

To push on against this determination might have brought down the team, it would most certainly have wrecked the opening Grand Prix in Melbourne because the team´s cars would have been seized by the court, it may have ruined the careers of two young drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.

Possibly the team´s directors would even be taken into custody. I decided I did not want to live with that idea, even though it was only the team’s management that was responsible for the bizarre situation I found myself in.

I am very grateful to my fans and many friends in Formula One who have given me a lot of support during the last couple of months.

This period has been very difficult for me especially since I could not talk to anybody about the pending proceedings. Last week, many drivers on the grid gave me their support and several of them did so openly in the media as well. The same goes for several leading figures in the paddock who include team bosses and reputable former Formula One drivers.

I thank them as well. My future in motorsport has not finished: on the contrary, I see this as a new beginning. I will sit down with my management in the coming weeks to discuss my future plans. I would love to take part in the WEC and the Le Mans 24 Hours in an LMP1 car. Former Formula One drivers do very well in this series. We also have our eye on other series such as the DTM in 2016 and beyond.

There has been a lot of speculation in the media over the past week, so I want to set out clearly that my sponsors paid the sponsorship fee related to the 2015 season in its entirety to Sauber in the first half of 2014.

This was simply in good faith and to help the team deal with its cash problems at the time. Effectively, it was my sponsor’s advanced payments that helped the team survive in 2014.

Sauber’s financial decision-making in this case is bizarre and makes no sense to me. I am not at liberty to discuss details, but Sauber paid significant compensation to avoid honouring the contract they had with me. Only in that respect can I be satisfied that my rights have finally been recognised and that at least some justice has been done.

I want to thank McGregor for sponsoring me from the time I won the Formula Renault 3.5 Ltr. Series in 2008. I hope we can continue to build on this as my motorsport career goes forward in other series.

I want to thank my family, my father Gerrit and my wife Denise in particular, for their tireless support throughout the years that I have been chasing my Formula One dream. The last couple of months have been especially hard for me but they have always stood by me.

Of course, I also want to thank my father-in-law, Marcel Boekhoorn, who has been a great supporter during my entire career through the motorsport ranks. Without him, I would not have got this far.

I also thank Jeroen Schothorst and Jan Paul ten Hoopen for managing my career and business affairs since 2008 and in particular for their unconditional support during these last four and a half months.

I also extend thanks to my legal advisor Gijs Rooijens and the law firms, Druces, Blackstone Chambers and King & Wood Mallesons (Australia), that worked very hard and enthusiastically – sometimes literally day and night and during weekends – to fight for my rights.

Finally, I would like to direct a few words to the teams, drivers, future drivers, their managers and the Formula One governing bodies. I sincerely hope that what has happened to me will start a movement aimed at setting new standards and bringing about new regulations to help protect the rights of drivers.

I would like to think that the values and business ethics that apply in any other business should be equally applicable in Formula One. I am lucky to have had Marcel and Jeroen on my side. Both of them have extensive backgrounds in business and bring a lot of expertise to the table when it comes to resolving complicated business affairs.

Without them, I would have remained empty-handed in the wake of this extraordinary affair. There are numerous examples of talented drivers with good intentions but without the sort of professional support that I have had, who have been broken by Formula One and who have seen their careers destroyed.

I therefore hope that my unprecedented case which was heard last week by the Supreme Court of Victoria at Melbourne will serve as an example to illustrate what should change, and that new regulations will be implemented to help protect driver rights.”

[MIKA27]

SAUBER: WE ARE SURPRISED BY GIEDO’S STATEMENT

The Giedo van der Garde versus Sauber saga continued as both parties released statements (on Facebook) pertaining to the settlement reached, with the driver putting his long account (As posted above) out first and several hours later the team reacting to it in apparent surprise.

The Sauber statement: “Many of you read today’s statement on Giedo van der Garde’s Facebook page. So have we and we were, indeed, rather surprised. We don’t know about Giedo’s intentions.

“He may try to present himself as a winner, while we had actually hoped to come to rest after our agreement. Giedo decided to take a different approach – the reasoning behind we cannot understand.”

“We’d have very good answers to the many statements and accusations in Giedo’s post. But to expand on this wouldn’t help our race team nor our fans and partners. It would only encourage a mud fight via the media and we will not lend ourselves to that.”

“The next race in Malaysia is where our focus is and that’s where we will build up on last weekend’s success together with our drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. All our efforts are drawn to this objective.

“With this in mind we’d like to encourage you to form your own opinion about what happened, however critical it may be. From our side we herewith close the matter and look already forward to celebrating future achievements at the race track together with you.”

[MIKA27]

MCLAREN: WE HAVE A PROGRAMME TO HELP FERNANDO BACK TO RACING

Fernando Alonso has stepped up his preparations to return to action in Malaysia next weekend, as McLaren-Honda confirmed reports the Spaniard is at Woking, and on Wednesday he will be at the wheel of the team’s sophisticated driver simulator.

“We have a programme to help Fernando back to racing,” a spokesman said.

On Twitter, posted with a photo of Alonso and Eric Boullier, the team wrote: “Spotted at #MTC: Fernando’s in the house today and will be in the simulator tomorrow.”

There have been rumours the 33-year-old is nervous about returning to the cockpit of the MP4-30 while his Barcelona testing crash remains unexplained.

Team boss Eric Boullier told El Pais he has been in contact with Alonso “every day”.

“He is perfect,” said the Frenchman when asked about Alonso’s medical condition. Boullier smiled: “In fact, he is starting to get worried about going crazy if he is not back soon.”

He said Alonso will have the FIA’s medical tests later this week and is expecting the “green light”.

Boullier also denied the mysterious testing crash had already driven a wedge between Alonso and McLaren, with the pairing having fallen out so badly in 2007.

“No. A thousand times, no,” he said. “It was a dramatic and very unfortunate event, but I can assure you that there is no problem between us.”

“I was with him in the hospital every day,” he said, “talking to doctors, and was completely transparent with the people around Fernando.”

“I myself coordinated the investigation launched in Woking and everything was done in full transparency with the FIA. We, just as them, want to know what happened.”

[MIKA27]

WOLFF: ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE FERRARI REACH US

Mercedes F1 team boss Toto Wolff has tipped Ferrari to challenge his team’s dominance in 2015, and is impressed with progress made by the Maranello outfit since last year.

Having struggled in 2014, the fabled Italian team proved in Melbourne that it has leapfrogged Red Bull and Williams to be ‘best of the rest’ so far this year.

“Compared to where we were last year,” Kimi Raikkonen told reporters, “for sure as a team we did the best job over the winter.”

Many experts are nonetheless predicting a lonely season of easy one-twos for Mercedes, but Wolff is refusing to write off Ferrari.

“We won in Melbourne by about 30 seconds to Ferrari,” he is quoted by Universo. “If you consider where they were last year, that is quite impressive.

“We can see from GPS that their engine is very powerful and the car is very good. I think it’s only a matter of time before they reach us, because Ferrari as a team has everything you need to do that,” added Wolff.

Given Mercedes’ utter dominance in Australia, some might smirk at Wolff’s comments, but F1 veteran David Coulthard agrees it is far too soon to predict the outcome of an entire world championship.

“You can see from what Ferrari has done that it is possible to move forwards,” the former Red Bull driver told Austria’s Servus TV.

“Red Bull is having problems and the same is obviously true of McLaren and Honda, but they are working on solutions.

“You can’t look at just one race, you also have to see the big picture,” added Coulthard.

[MIKA27]

BOULLIER: YES IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US TO WIN RACES THIS YEAR

Team boss Eric Boullier thinks it is quite possible that McLaren-Honda might be in a position to win grands prix later in the 2015 season.

His comments follow reports elsewhere the team boss warned it might be “years” before the new British-Japanese collaboration is fully up to speed.

Indeed, in an interview with El Pais, Boullier admitted Honda is in fact already years behind its rivals Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault.

“When Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes decided to introduce this engine,” he said, “they began to develop their proposals three years before testing them.

“Honda decided to come back in May 2013, so that’s only a year and half. Meanwhile, McLaren has undergone a revolution where we had to build everything together and while that is positive, we need some time.

“It has been too ambitious to try to be ready so quickly,” Boullier added.

Indeed, Australia showed the reality of Honda’s situation in all its starkness, as the silver and black cars lined up dead last on the grid.

Rumours suggest the gap to Mercedes is as much as 200 horse power or more, and that simply to get through the weekend, Honda had to ‘turn off’ its energy-recovery systems altogether.

But when asked if the MP4-30 can be a winner in 2015, Boullier answered: “Yes, it is still possible, although not in three, four or five races. But I do believe that we will be competitive.”

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RADIO CLAMPDOWN RULES REMAIN THE SAME FOR 2015

Formula 1’s pit gantry to driver radio clampdown will not be ramped up in 2015, and will remain largely the same as it was last season.

Last year, the FIA introduced a ban on so-called ‘driver coaching’ instructions, but intended to ramp it up even further for 2015 to also make the relaying of technical instructions from the pitwall to the drivers illegal.

Anticipating the ban, many teams upgraded their steering wheels for 2015 to include the new McLaren-supplied large display, so that drivers have access to more real-time technical data.

However, the intended ‘second phase’ of the radio clampdown has in fact been postponed, the Italian publication Autosprint reports.

The report said the powerful ‘Strategy Group’ made the call on the basis that not giving the drivers adequate information over the radio about how to manage their complex machinery could result in damage to the power units.

“The rules will be as they were in 2014,” confirmed F1 race director Charlie Whiting. “Driver coaching will continue to be prohibited.”

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KOBAYASHI IN TALKS WITH MANOR FOR RACE SEAT

Just one race into 2015 Formula 1 season and already the first driver moves are already shaping up.

Spotted in the Melbourne paddock last weekend was Chikara Funada, who is the popular driver Kamui Kobayashi’s manager.

Kobayashi, 28, lost his Caterham seat at the end of last season and for this year has signed up with Toyota in the top Japanese series Super Formula. But Autosprint claims he is now in talks with Manor.

Manor, the resurrected Marussia team, travelled to Australia last weekend with Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi, but only Briton Stevens is signed up for the whole season.

Spaniard Merhi is hoping to stay with the team next weekend in Malaysia and told EFE, “The team is relying heavily on me and they tell me that they prefer me over someone with ten million euros.”

Nonetheless, Merhi has declined to break his existing contract with the Formula Renault 3.5 series team Pons, even though there are some calendar clashes with F1 this year.

Finally, Williams is thinking hard about its options in the wake of Valtteri Bottas’ back injury, having ruled out promoting female test driver Susie Wolff in Malaysia.

“Susie Wolff is our test driver,” said deputy boss Claire Williams, “not our reserve driver.

“I don’t want to think about what we will do (for Malaysia) if he (Bottas) is not fit. But clearly we’d have reserve drivers,” she told the BBC.

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SINGAPORE AIRLINES BECOMES OFFICIAL AIRLINE FOR SAUBER

The Sauber F1 Team is pleased to announce Singapore Airlines as Official Airline Partner. Singapore Airlines is the most awarded airline worldwide, and was the first carrier worldwide to fly the Airbus A380 in 2007.

With this partnership Singapore Airlines will provide flights to the overseas races mainly in Asian and Australian territories.

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “We are excited to embark on a long-term and sustainable partnership with Singapore Airlines, the world’s most renowned Airline and a highly respected company with a true global presence. Its unparalleled ambition to deliver the best in industry service perfectly matches with our striving for leading edge racing in F1.”

Ranjan Jha, General Manager Switzerland Singapore Airlines: “We are very pleased to be the Official Airline Partner of the Sauber F1 Team. We share the same fascination and passion for engineering and consistent ambition for innovation, highest quality and precision. Sauber stands for a strong brand with a long-time, impressive tradition. We are excited about the new season and looking forward to embarking on this journey together.”

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Nico: 1-0 Lewis, but I'll bounce back

Nico Rosberg is confident he will "turn the tables" on Lewis Hamilton in Malaysia after going "1-0" down to his Mercedes team-mate in Australia.

Many believe the 2015 Drivers' Championship will be a straight fight between the two Merc drivers and defending Champion Hamilton put down the marker with a dominant display in Melbourne as he claimed the hat-trick of pole position, race win and fastest lap.

Rosberg finished just 1.3s behind in second place, but the Brit insisted he always had things under control and had another gear in the locker.

Looking back at his weekend at Albert Park, Rosberg felt he lost the race on the Saturday.

"My bad qualifying time cost me the win. I had the speed to claim the victory, but there was just no getting past [Hamilton] in the race with the same machinery," he wrote in Bild.

"Lewis delivered a World Championship performance with zero errors. Congratulations! My bad luck was that he has taken my setup on Friday and therefore we had the same race pace. Too bad, but it is completely normal. It happens sometimes that I also look at what he does."

The Championship moves to Malaysia next week and Rosberg is confident he can bounce back.

"Okay, it's 1-0 for Lewis now. In Kuala Lumpur I will turn the tables. Please keep your fingers crossed!"

The German has also clarified his "invitation" to Sebastian Vettel to attend a Mercedes debrief.

Rosberg claimed after the Australian GP that it "would be awesome" if Ferrari can close the gap to Merc as it would be good for Formula 1.

Vettel replied: "Be honest. Do you really hope so? Seriously? You finished 30 seconds ahead of us and you hope it’s going to be closer? So you hope you slow down? Is that what you’re saying?"

He jokingly suggested that his compatriot invite him to the Merc "engineers' room" and his rival obliged.

Rosberg even tweeted an official invitation on Tuesday and he says Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has cleared it.

"Sebastian had assumed that I would not tell the truth when I said that I would be glad if Ferrari could close the gap on us," Rosberg wrote.

"I then invited him to come and see us. I'm looking at the big picture, a strong Ferrari helps Formula 1. I clarified this with team boss Toto Wolff. Sebastian can come.

"So Seb, I hope you're reading this: I hereby officially invite you on Friday in Malaysia to our engineer meeting at 16:00. We look forward to seeing you!"

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Mercedes deserves its success - Coulthard

Mercedes deserves to reap the rewards of its efforts even if it means its dominance of Formula One is a turn-off for the fans.

That is the view of former Formula One driver David Coulthard, who reckons the sport should be rewarding the best.

The Scot fears, however, that with Mercedes dominating from so early on in the season, the rest of the championship will not have the same interest for the fans.

"Formula One, at any given point, was always about the best engineers, mechanics, budgets, drivers coming together," Coulthard told Motorsport.com.

"Williams had it many years ago, and Ferrari, and McLaren for a period of time, and Red Bull. Right now it's Mercedes.

"They deserve to reap the benefits of their work.

"But what we know from 1988 or from Michael [schumacher]'s period is that there has to be an element of feeling like someone else is in the race.

"In recent years with Red Bull at least Alonso could have won the championship, Mark [Webber] could have won the championship, so it was more than one team that was in the battle for the championship, except for one of the years.

"From very early on last year you knew a Mercedes driver would win, and I think it's the same this year.

"We all need competition to really feel that we are being entertained. If people don't find interesting, they won't watch," Coulthard added.

Formula 1 should not try to save the planet

Coulthard reckons the sport has taken a turn for the worse with the introduction of the current engine technology, as he feels it is not up to Formula One to be a 'green' sport.

He believes the regulations should be aimed at having a full and competitive grid.

"I think maybe the sport is trying too hard to save the planet," he said.

"One grand prix season burns less fuel that one transatlantic flight, so the fuel usage in Formula One is not really going to save the planet.

"Developing technology in Formula One will accelerate those technologies, but at the expense of having a full grid, because from five million engines to 20 million engines... 15 million is a lot of money in anybody's book.

"So I think we have to be a little bit careful that Formula One doesn't try to save the world through rules and regulations and what it does do is be more relevant, be the pinnacle of motorsport and be as competitive as possible in any elite sport."

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Valtteri Bottas working on Malaysian GP return after back problem

The Williams Formula 1 team is making every effort to ensure Valtteri Bottas can return to the cockpit for the Malaysian Grand Prix, according to deputy team principal Claire Williams.

The Finn was forced to pull out of the Australian GP after being evaluated by FIA medical delegate Jean-Charles Piette on the day of the race, having suffered back pain during qualifying.

He will need to be granted permission to race by the FIA and will be assessed at Sepang next Thursday, the day before practice starts.

"We are fully supportive of Valtteri and his determination to return to the cockpit in Malaysia," Williams told AUTOSPORT.

"He is receiving the best possible care and is doing everything he can to be fully fit again.

"We are committed to doing what we can to help the process, as of course we really want to see him back racing again.

"As he was deemed unfit to race by the FIA in Australia he will need to receive final approval by the FIA medical team in Malaysia on Thursday."

Bottas is spending the period between races in Indonesia.

"Valtteri flew on to Indonesia where he had always planned to be ahead of the Malaysian GP to help acclimatise to the hot and humid conditions whilst also adjusting to the timezone ahead of the race," said Williams.

"He has a leading physiotherapist with him who is working with Valtteri and his trainer to make sure he gets the best treatment possible."

Should Bottas not be able to race in Malaysia, the team has yet to decide who would fill in for him - though at this stage a stand-in is a worst-case scenario.

It has both Susie Wolff, who tested the team's 2015 car at Barcelona in February, and GP3 champion Alex Lynn on its books, although it could also look outside of its roster.

"There are a variety of options available to us, which we are evaluating should we need a reserve driver," said Williams.

"However, at this point we are committed to seeing Valtteri back in the car and therefore we would not want to speculate or comment on any alternative."

Williams admitted that it was frustrating to only have one car on the grid in Melbourne, but wanted to ensure Bottas's health was not compromised.

Felipe Massa finished fourth in the race, meaning that Williams only lost three points to Ferrari, which looks set to be its main rival for second in the constructors' championship.

"It is frustrating to have only had one car in the fight, however Valtteri's health was the most important thing in Australia," said Williams.

"In terms of damage limitation, to come away only a few points behind Ferrari was a good result for our championship battle.

"From what we saw in Melbourne it is going to be a competitive year but we are up for the challenge."