FORMULA 1 - 2016

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NO BAKU NIGHT GRAND PRIX PLANS YET

Formula 1’s newest street venue has no immediate plans to step up to night race status.

Although all eyes are on Montreal ahead of this weekend’s Canadian round, the sport will quickly move on to the Azerbaijan capital of Baku early next week for the second instalment of a hectic ‘flyaway’ double-header.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting is currently in Baku, giving the spectacular street circuit the final green light.

“You can see the quality of all the installations wherever you look,” said the Briton.

Indeed, the closest look was enjoyed by local 19-year-old driver Gulheseyn Abdullayev over a four-lap test of the circuit in a GP3 car.

“Baku does not fall behind other street circuits, I would say it even exceeds other street tracks,” he said afterwards.

In fact, Baku is different to most street circuits in that it is lined by historic buildings and includes a particularly narrow section defined by an old town wall.

But it will also be remarkably fast, with the authoritative Auto Motor und Sport predicting that engines will be stressed even more than at Spa or Monza.

Whiting said: “If I had to compare one circuit to this one, it would be Singapore, but the speed here will be much higher.”

What will be conspicuously different to Singapore, however, is that Baku will take place under natural rather than artificial flood lighting.

But race promoter Arif Rahimov admitted that the topic of a night race has at least been discussed.

“A night race brings with it additional costs and added complexity in the construction of the circuit,” he told Russia’s Championat.

“I think in the first year we have enough problems without lighting, so there is no clear plan for that. Maybe one day.

“Baku is very beautiful at night, but our city is also beautiful in the afternoon,” Rahimov added.

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Azerbaijan Grand Prix and The Case for Human Rights:

The adventures of Formula 1 in Bahrain have taught us to be very careful of human rights organisations and the credibility of their reports. Sport is sport and it is best to avoid putting a sport into a position where it becomes a political issue. One can argue that giving Russian President Vladimir Putin special privileges at the Grand Prix in Sochi was not perhaps the best way to give F1 a better image. It is clear that the creed in F1 circles is dictated by money, but it is also true that if human rights is brought up, there is scarcely a nation on earth which does not have someone somewhere arguing that the country abuses human rights. There are certainly plenty of claims about the ruling family of Azerbaijan, but this seems to have made no great impression on the Formula One group, which now has a policy that commits it to respect human rights.

“The Formula One Group is committed to respecting internationally recognised human rights in its operations globally,” the statement says. “Whilst respecting human rights in all of our activities, we focus our efforts in relation to those areas which are within our own direct influence. We do so by taking proportionate steps to understand and monitor through our due diligence processes the potential human rights impacts of our activities; identify and assess, by conducting due diligence where appropriate, any actual or potential adverse human rights impacts with which we may be involved either through our own activities or as a result of our business relationships, including but not limited to our suppliers and promoters; consider practical responses to any issues raised as a result of our due diligence, within the relevant context; engage in meaningful consultation with relevant stakeholders in relation to any issues raised as a result of our due diligence, where appropriate; and respect the human rights of our employees, in particular the prohibitions against forced and child labour, the freedom to associate and organise, the right to engage in collective bargaining, and the elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation.”

In other words, F1 commits itself to doing “due diligence” and deciding whether human rights are a problem. Hmmm…

The Sports for Rights campaign, a self-styled “coalition of international organisations working together to draw attention to the unprecedented human rights crackdown taking place in Azerbaijan” held a media briefing and called on the sport “to improve Formula One’s image…rather than just profiting and helping some very corrupt people improve their image a bit.”

Rebecca Vincent, the coordinator of the campaign. said that campaigners want singers Pharrell Williams, Chris Brown and Enrique Iglesias to cancel performances scheduled for the race weekend.

It is claimed that Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev and his government silence critics in order to stay in power. Who does one believe?

Human Rights Watch says that “Azerbaijan’s government has escalated repression against its critics, marking a dramatic deterioration in an already poor rights record. In recent years , dozens of human rights defenders, political and civil activists, journalists, and bloggers have been arrested or imprisoned on politically motivated charges, prompting others to flee the country or go into hiding.”

Amnesty International ‘s Azerbaijan 2015/2016 report makes grim reading, claiming that “the crackdown on civil society and persecution of political dissent continued. Human rights organizations remained unable to resume their work. At least 18 prisoners of conscience remained in detention at the end of the year. Reprisals against independent journalists and activists persisted both in the country and abroad, while their family members also faced harassment and arrests. International human rights monitors were barred and expelled from the country. Reports of torture and other ill-treatment persisted.”

The Central Intelligence Agency keeps an eye on all these things are its observations are interesting.

“Corruption in the country is widespread,” it says, “and the government, which eliminated presidential term limits in a 2009 referendum, has been accused of authoritarianism.”

Critics will say that the Americans would say that, but generally I find the CIA assessments to be fairly sensible.

The British Foreign Office warns only about muggings which occur “from time to time after dark in the centre of town around the western bars and clubs”.

The French Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, on the other hand, warns travellers to leave their passports in a safe place and always keep copies, just in case. It also warns visitors to make sure that they watch credit card transactions to make sure that the card stays in full view all the time.

The best answer in all these matters is to go and see what it is like. Hopefully, President Aliyev will not turn up in the cool down room after the race.

 

 

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Pirelli defends increased F1 tyre pressure monitoring

Pirelli says ramping up tyre pressure investigations in Formula 1 has led to a much more transparent situation, despite unhappiness from the teams.

Amid suspicions that some teams had been using tricks to get around restrictions on tyre pressures, the FIA asked them to log all their tyre pressure data, starting with the Monaco Grand Prix.

The data is sent to the FIA's Standard Data Recorder over standard CAN (Control Area Network) cable system for analysis.

Several teams have voices their unhappiness about the high tyre pressure limits imposed for this year.

"It is disappointing that we are having to do this," Renault's technical director Bob Bell told Motorsport.com last month about the situation.

"I am sure we would all rather be back as we were before with much more relaxed tyre pressures that were more in line with getting maximum performance from the tyres and not having to go through all this."

But Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera insists the expanded monitoring is beneficial for the sport.

"We give limits. If the limits are respected, it's up to the teams to play their own game the way they want," said Provera.

"What we have achieved lately is to add transparency on pressure and camber also during the race, because the situation is changing continuously, which makes everybody safer.

"We provide a range. Within this range everybody can fix his car as he wants. That's our duty, but to deliver we need the proper information."

Provera said the Italian manufacturer was now happy with the way the pressures were being monitored.

"I think it has improved a lot. We can always do better. Wed need to continue to analyse what can be done together, but I think there is the right cooperation with the FIA and FOM, so now we are comfortable."

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F1 "no longer a fair competition" - Sauber

Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn says Formula 1's current financial and governance structure has led to a sport that is "no longer fair competition".

Sauber and rival Force India lodged an official complaint on anti-competition grounds last year, leading to the European Union investigating the sport's governance structure and prize money system.

Kaltenborn admits it is frustrating to see that nothing has been done about what she thinks is an unfair revenue distribution scheme, as teams like hers struggle for survival.

"That is indeed a bit disappointing, because we have such a fantastic sport," Kaltenborn told Motorsport.com.

"We have a fantastic product, and controversies are part of our product that also makes it exciting. Otherwise it would actually be quite boring.

"It doesn't take much to change it in our sport, so it was of course frustrating because we really tried - Force India and ourselves - to talk to the stakeholders and try to get them to change something."

Kaltenborn reckons that the fact that leading teams not only get a bigger share of the revenues, but are also involved in the rule-making process makes the competition unjust.

"Everyone knows how this deals were done and the worse part about it is not that you want to change something just because you don't like it anymore, it is having a massive impact on our competition, and that's the thing we are saying," she said.

"It's leading to a competition which is no longer a fair competition.

"It has to do with these privileges certain teams get in terms of rule-making and in terms of the commercial distribution.

"And if that reaches a point where it has an effect on the competition, that is something we are fighting against."

The Sauber boss believes that, under the current structure, even if her team was among the frontrunners, it would not be benefit from the same financial conditions as other squads.

"All we want is a level playing field. Then it's up to you," Kaltenborn added.

"You are good, you are bad, that's your doing, but today even a team like Force India or ourselves, and a couple of others actually, were to let's say, be in the top three, we could never get that kind of income.

"We could never have certain rule-making powers that other teams have irrespective of where they are, and that cannot be right."

The Swiss team has been surrounded by speculation about its future this year amid reports of financial problems, but Kaltenborn insists that the situation will be sorted, even if it takes time.

"We have been focused on a way to overcome our situation, and these things take time," she said.

"Unfortunately nothing happens overnight. Some ways go quicker, some ways take longer, so we are pursuing our way. Nothing has changed on that.

"You might have some other issues in a certain period of the year which you have to sort out immediately, but I don't think you can say it's become worse or whatever. I think it's more a media thing rather than what's going on."

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Kimi Raikkonen: Ferrari's strongest circuits yet to come

Kimi Raikkonen believes the order of this season's calendar has worked against Ferrari so far and its strongest circuits will come towards the end of the year.

After showing promising pace in testing, Ferrari's championship threat has failed to materialise at the opening six races and it is already 67 points behind championship leaders Mercedes. At the last two rounds in Spain and Monaco, Ferrari was outpaced by both Mercedes and Red Bull, but Raikkonen says the shift of the Malaysian Grand Prix to the second half of the year means the SF16-H has yet to race on a track that plays to its strengths.

"Certain races that we're pretty certain will suit us better have been moved and they have been moved from the beginning to later on in the season and all the races that we knew that were difficult for us have been moved to the front," he said. "Just looking at the results doesn't always tell you the full story.

"Obviously we're not happy with where we are, we want to improve and we'll try to work on the areas we know we have to improve. But it's not easy to improve, otherwise everyone would be up there.

"We keep working and even after a difficult weekend we know we can certainly do a lot better in the next race. Until we're 1-2 in every weekend we cannot be happy, but that's our goal and hopefully we'll get there some time soon."

Ferrari won the Malaysian, Hungarian and Singapore Grands Prix last year, and although the team has yet to score a victory this season, Raikkonen is confident the car has improved significantly.

"People are saying we're not doing as well as last year but if you look just at wins, then we're not, but that doesn't really tell you the big picture. I'm sure we have a lot of a better package than last year, but other teams have improved and we're not where we want to be.

"But that's part of Formula One, we always want to improve, we want to be in a position to challenge for first place in every race. When you say it's worse than last year, that's only if you look at certain results, but I'm sure we have a lot a better package."

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Nico Rosberg hopes Monaco 'bad luck' is behind him

Nico Rosberg is hoping his performance at the Monaco Grand Prix was just a blip in his 2016 title campaign.

After scoring 100 points with four consecutive victories at the start season, Rosberg has scored just six points from the last two races. In Monaco he struggled for brake and tyre temperature in the opening stint of the race and at one stage his pace was so slow he was asked to let team-mate Lewis Hamilton overtake.

Rosberg was unable to explain his lack of performance following the race, but hopes he has used up all his "bad luck" on his seventh place finish in Monaco.

"I expected and prepared myself for some difficult races after the awesome start to the season. This is where experience helps me," he said. "In the last grand prix I hopefully got all of my bad luck out of the way in one race, so onwards and upwards again from now!"

Red Bull has emerged as a threat to Mercedes at the last two races and Rosberg is keen to find out if it can sustain its challenge at Canada's high-speed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this weekend.

"It's an awesome track and I'm sure our car will be great there too. It will be interesting to see where Red Bull are this time. We are hoping to get a little bit ahead of them again, so let's see."

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McLaren ‘cannot be satisfied’ with Monaco results

McLaren-Honda racing director Eric Boullier has shut down the idea of the team being pleased with a double points finish last time out at Monaco and says he expected better results at a circuit which would play to his team's strengths. 

For the second time this season McLaren notched up a double points finish at the Monaco Grand Prix as Fernando Alonso grabbed an impressive fifth with his team-mate Jenson Button ninth. 

After the Woking-based team's disastrous 2015 upon its comeback with Honda as engine supplier, this season has seen both drivers enjoy stronger starts compared to 12 months ago, albeit punctuated by Alonso's massive shunt in Australia which ruled him out of Bahrain. 

However, Boullier says the double points in Monaco produced less than he expected from the race weekend in terms of results, partly down to a strategy gaff which put Button in traffic, and feels the team can't be satisfied with results until it is challenging for wins and championships. 

“Monaco for us was a bag of mixed fortunes,” Boullier said. “A double-points finish was an encouraging boost for the team and a reward in some way for all the hard work going on behind the scenes in Woking, Milton Keynes and Sakura – but it's no secret that until we are back at the front, we cannot be satisfied. 

“We had anticipated a stronger performance on the twisty, slower-speed, tricky streets of Monaco, but nevertheless we've learned a lot about our car and cannot be too unhappy given the incredibly difficult conditions on race day, which our two world champions coped with so well.” 

Despite admitting Canada's track layout of high speeds and fast straights will not suit the McLaren-Honda, Boullier feels the strides of improvements enjoyed over recent races leaves both drivers in a position to battle for points once again. 

“On paper, this power-hungry, demanding circuit is not among those that would play to the strengths of our car,” he said. “But such is our rate of development that we are aiming to continue the momentum we've built over the last couple of races, and firmly push for more valuable points. 

“It won't be easy, and reliability will be key, first and foremost, but our objective is to put on the best show we can.”

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Formula 1 tipped to be 'amazing' with 2017 rule changes

Formula 1 stands on the brink of becoming "amazing", according to Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera.

The Italian tyre manufacturer unveiled a protoype of its rubber for 2017 over the course of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, with the tyres increasing in width to 305mm at the front and 405mm at the rear.

Asked by Autosport about the task ahead of Pirelli in terms of getting the tyres ready in time for next year, Provera said: "It's a major change, but technologically speaking it is very attractive for us.

"People are very much involved and willing to deliver the best possible performance, and these tyres can provide an amazing result.

"To improve by just tenths of a second you have to do a lot of things on a car and the engine.

"With these tyres we can improve by seconds, which shows you the importance of the tyres, and to all viewers.

"So we have to fix what is on top of us [the car] because we have the only piece [the tyres] that touches the ground.

"But next year's tyres look powerful, they give a sense of power, and after the first test in the windtunnel they are proving the outcome can be amazing, and with lots of fun I hope."

Pirelli at least now has a test plan in place after finally reaching an agreement with the FIA and FOM earlier this year that should help its cause.

Provera added: "There is a more transparent flow of information, which makes life easier for everybody.

"Before it was difficult to have, let's say, full visibility on all the details on how the tyres were used.

"But the agreement we've made with the FIA and FOM is now giving us what we need, mostly with the tests. Now we can deliver.

"We were the only customer in Formula 1 who were impeded to test.

"Just to give you an idea, for a new set of tyres for a road car we work with our clients for two to three years, testing 20 to 25 times the tyres.

"That is for a normal car that goes on the streets.

"In Formula 1 we had maximum performance, but with no testing. Now we are back to normal.

"With this proper flow of information we know we can deliver."

DRIVER RELATIONSHIPS IMPROVING

Provera claims regular meetings with the drivers, such as the one that took place at Pirelli's headquarters in Milan earlier this year, have also played their part.

"It was helpful for us and for them. We had a proper flow of information with the drivers," said Provera.

"In the past we couldn't talk directly with them, but in an agreement with all the teams we now meet them regularly and we explain to them what's going on.

"There has been an improvement, and the meeting was very positive."

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STRATEGY MORE IMPORTANT THAN POLE: F1 SET FOR A WILD WEEKEND RIDE IN MONTREAL

This weekend is the Canadian Grand Prix, one of the most popular and unpredictable races on the F1 calendar.

The key stat about Montreal is that it’s the least important pole position of the season. This means that, more often than not, things do not got according to plan in Montreal.

Since 2000 the pole sitter has enjoyed a conversion rate to race victory of just 35%. And add in the fact that this year there are three tyre compounds to choose from and the softest one is not capable of giving you a one-stop strategy and you have what looks to be an entertaining weekend ahead.

Because of the nature of the track, high-speed and lined with walls, there is a 60% chance of a Safety Car and with very fast pit stops here of 18 secs due to a short pit lane, this is one of the races where strategy has the highest importance.

Overtaking is easy because of the long straights and tight bends, so teams have to plan their fastest strategy from lights to flag, using the tyre compounds available, but also to be flexible in case a Safety Car is deployed.

We have seen a lot of Virtual Safety car use this season already and we can expect to see more of that this weekend. There are some situations, such as two car collisions at the first chicane, where a full Safety car is required, however. We also had a high speed accident at the end of the 2014 race with Massa and Perez, which meant that the race finished under a Safety Car, with Daniel Ricciardo winning the race for Red Bull. In 11 of the last 18 Canadian Grands Prix we have seen a Safety Car.

A pit stop under a Safety Car in Montreal costs around 10 seconds of net race time, compared to around 18 seconds at racing speeds, so if the timing is right and you are in your pit window, it’s very tempting and we will probably see quite a few switches of strategy if it’s a race of incident.

This could be a race where we see a wide variety of different strategies, like China were 13 finishers used all three Pirelli tyre compounds.

The Ultra soft will be the qualifying tyre, but there’s probably an argument for trying to do what Ricciardo did in Monaco and try to get through Q2 on a set of super softs to start the race on. The performance of the ultra and supersoft in race conditions was not that significant in Monaco, while the soft performed very well in comparison.

Canada is quite a low degradation track, but it still stresses a tyre more than Monaco. We saw the Ultra softs do around 150km in the race in Monaco, which equates to 37 laps of Montreal, but I think the limit will be much lower than that due to the nature of the track.

The race is 70 laps and last year the supersoft maxed out at 33 laps and the Soft at 53 laps.

So for some runners with good tyre life, one stop might be possible in various guises. But equally, an aggressive strategy with two stops and softer compounds could also be competitive. Judging from the tyres that have been selected, with Renault and Haas F1 both deciding not to take any supersofts, the race is likely to be about the Ultra Softs and Softs for many runners.

But Montreal is a strange track and the temperature fluctuations in any given day are as big as any venue on the calendar. This can often catch people out. There is some rain forecast for Sunday, with Friday and Saturday likely to escape the rain, but the prevailing temperatures are low. This could lead some teams to have issues with tyre warm up, especially in qualifying and at the start of a race stint after a pit stop.

Last year the tyres were durable enough for most to do a one-stop. This year is likely to be more like 2014 where there was little to choose between one and two stops in race time although a two stop was clearly preferable if you could run in clear air at the front.

Canadian Grand Prix in numbers

Montreal is a race that tends to feature close finishes, according to F1 statistician Virtual Statman. In the last 13 runnings of the Canadian GP, eight of them have been won by a margin of less than three seconds.

Lewis Hamilton made another piece of history in Monaco as he moves closer to some all time great records. His win meant that he has now won at least one race in each of the last 10 consecutive seasons. Only Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher have achieved that. He has also now led 87 different Grands Prix, more than Ayrton Senna and second only to Michael Schumacher who led 142 races. Hamilton is closing in on Senna’s tally of 65 pole positions, he is now on 52.

Hamilton is the form man at Montreal with four wins there. He is also chasing a front row start there for the fifth season in a row. Red Bull and Mercedes are now tied on 58 pole positions each, so the battle on Saturday should be intense.

Although Montreal is a power circuit, there is a big emphasis on mechanical grip out of low speed corners, which is where the Red Bull excels. With the new Renault power unit having made a successful debut in Monaco, it should give the team a boost of around 0.4s a lap compared to the old unit. This won’t be enough to put the engine on a par with the Mercedes, but the combination of factors should put Red Bull into a position to challenge Mercedes there.

Ferrari has fallen back a little of late, with tyre management issues and a deficit on mechanical grip being a couple of areas of concern. However traditionally they bring a big update to Canada, so we will see how they perform this weekend. The last update in Russia, did not move them closer to Mercedes, which was demoralising. They cannot afford to have another update that is matched by Mercedes and which keeps them at arms length.

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CANADIAN GRAND PRIX FACTS & STATISTICS

Reuters compiled facts and statistics ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend in Montreal, the seventh race of the 21-round season

• Lap distance: 4.361 km. Total distance: 305.270 km (70 laps)
• Race lap record: One minute 13.622 seconds. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil), Ferrari, 2004.
• 2015 pole: Lewis Hamilton (Britain), Mercedes 1:14.393
• 2015 winner: Hamilton
• Start time: 1800 GMT (1400 local)
• Champions Mercedes have won 37 of the last 44 races and five of this season’s six.
• Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton now has 44 career victories, the same as the racing number on his car, after his win in Monaco.
• The Briton is third in the all-time lists and two wins ahead of Ferrari’s four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel.
• Seven-times champion Michael Schumacher holds the record of 91, with Alain Prost on 51.
• McLaren’s Fernando Alonso has 32 wins, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen 20, Nico Rosberg 18 and McLaren’s Jenson Button 15.
• Rosberg, winner of the first four races of the season, has more victories than any other non-champion in the history of the sport.
• Ferrari have won 224 races in total, McLaren 182, Williams 114, Red Bull 51 and Mercedes 50. McLaren last won in 2012 (Brazil).
• Mercedes have been on pole in 41 of the last 44 races.
• Daniel Ricciardo’s pole for Red Bull in Monaco was the first of his F1 career and his team’s first since November 2013 (Vettel in Brazil).
• Hamilton has 52 career poles, Vettel 46.
• Brazilian Felipe Massa, at Williams, is now the only driver to have scored points in every race this season.
• Sauber and Manor have yet to score in 2016.
• Hamilton has won the Canadian Grand Prix four times (in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2015)
• Hamilton v Rosberg v Ricciardo in Canada:
• Hamilton Rosberg Ricciardo
• Wins 4 0 1
• Podiums 5 2 1
• Poles 4 1 0
• Front row starts 7 2 0
• Starts 8 9 4
• Alonso, Button, Raikkonen and Vettel are also previous winners in Canada.
• Ferrari last won in Montreal, a circuit named after their late great Gilles Villeneuve, in 2004 with Michael Schumacher. The German won a record seven times in Canada.
• McLaren have won 13 times in Canada to Ferrari’s 11.
• Since 2000, the race has been won from pole six times.
• The rain-hit Canadian Grand Prix of 2011 was Formula One’s longest, lasting four hours, four minutes and 39.537 seconds. That same race also saw the safety car deployed six times, another record.
• Hamilton has now led 87 grands prix, putting him second on the all-time lists behind Schumacher (142).
• Sergio Perez’s third place in Monaco was the sixth podium finish of his career. The Mexican has scored more podiums (three) than McLaren since that team dropped him in 2013.

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RICCIARDO TO TAKE THE FIGHT TO MERCEDES IN CANADA

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo has put Monaco misery behind him and is hoping for another epic battle with Lewis Hamilton in Montreal this weekend.

Two weeks after taking a first Formula One pole position, only to lose out on victory for the second race running due to no fault of his own, the smiling Australian returns to the scene of his first grand prix victory in feisty mood.

Triple world champion Hamilton, aiming for a fifth Canadian Grand Prix win after also taking his first career triumph at the Circuit Gilles Villenueve, and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg will be favourites again.

But Ricciardo reckons he can be a contender, particularly at a track where the weather can act as a leveller. Temperatures are forecast to be cool with some rain.

“Now that I’ve sort of got over Monaco I just want to get back in the car and basically smash it and get among it,” Ricciardo said on social media.

“You’re going to see the same intensity that you saw in Monaco. I plan on keeping that up and not letting anything else get in the way,” added the Australian, whose 18-year-old Dutch teammate Max Verstappen won in Barcelona.

Renault’s latest specification engine, which Red Bull use with TAG Heuer branding, has provided a good boost in horsepower to help close the gap.

Canada has been a rollercoaster for Ricciardo in the past, his breakthrough win in 2014 followed by 13th last year when Hamilton won from pole position. He was 15th in 2013.

Hamilton has the momentum from Monaco and is a renowned master of Montreal while Rosberg, 24 points clear at the top, will want to hit back after two races without points.

Another win for either would take Mercedes level with Red Bull in the all-time lists, on 51 each, but the champions know the pressure is on.

“The main thing we took away (from Monaco) was the very real threat from Red Bull,” said team boss Toto Wolff. “It took a bold strategy, a big push from Lewis and an even bigger slice of luck with Daniel’s slow pitstop to get us that win. We have no breathing space in this championship.”

Ferrari hope to add to the pressure, after their early promise fell off. Monaco, with Kimi Raikkonen retiring and Sebastian Vettel fourth, was their worst result of the season.

Both drivers can expect to see the benefit of a power unit upgrade at a circuit named after one of the Ferrari greats but where the Italian team have not won for 12 years, and Raikkonen reckons the results so far have been deceptive.

“Certain races that we’re pretty certain will suit us better have been moved from the beginning to later on in the season and all the races that we knew were difficult for us have been moved to the front,” said the 2007 world champion. “Just looking at the results doesn’t always tell you the full story.”

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FERRARI HAS NEW ENGINE AND AERO PACKAGE FOR CANADA

Ferrari has spent three of its remaining six engine performance tokens and will be bolting on an extensively revised aero package update on to the SF16-H ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.

There have been reports claiming that the Italian team, having struggled for results in the last couple of races, was working on an engine upgrade for Montreal.

Reports suggest it will be in the form of a redesigned turbo, following problems earlier this season. Sources in the Italian press say it will leave Ferrari with just three remaining upgrade tokens for the last 14 races after Montreal.

Ferrari has not confirmed the reports, but in a team preview, engine boss Mattia Binotto said Montreal is a track “where the engine power is quite important”.

And Auto Motor und Sport report that Ferrari are also set to roll out an all new aerodynamic package for Montreal, possibly involving a shorter nose that recently passed an FIA crash test.

1996 world champion Damon Hill said it would be good not only for F1 but also for championship leader Nico Rosberg if Ferrari joins the fight between Mercedes and Red Bull.

“If there is more competition for points, then it is going to be harder for Lewis (Hamilton) to bag a load of them,” he told the Sun.

“And if Ferrari ever get their act together, then you have a big battle on and the points are going to be going all over the place,” Hill added.

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ALONSO: IF THE CARS ARE NOT FUN NEXT YEAR I WILL LEAVE F1

Fernando Alonso has admitted he is waiting to drive Formula 1’s next-generation cars of 2017 before deciding if he wants to stay in the category.

The Spaniard has made no secret that, after winning his titles in 2005 and 2006 with V10 and V8 power respectively, he enjoys the current ‘power unit’ and Pirelli-shod era less.

Alonso is therefore looking forward to 2017, when wider and bigger tyres and significantly more downforce are slated to slash between 5 and 6 seconds off laptimes.

2017 is also the last year of Alonso’s current McLaren-Honda contract.

“At the moment I still enjoy driving,” he told Sport Bild. “It’s my life and the only thing I can do really well.”

“If the cars are not fun next year then I will change category,” Alonso announced. “It is a goal for me to one day win the 24 hours of Le Mans.”

The 34-year-old also said he does not regret leaving Ferrari at the end of 2014, insisting “It would have been too painful to finish behind Red Bull or Mercedes for a sixth and seven years”.

“And I wanted to keep good memories of Ferrari, not painful ones,” Alonso added.

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ZETSCHE: PASCAL WEHRLEIN IS OUR FUTURE

As Nico Rosberg’s expiring contract comes under the spotlight, Daimler chief Dieter Zetsche has revealed his vision for Mercedes and their future in Formula 1.

“Pascal (Wehrlein) is our future,” Zetsche is quoted by the Swiss newspaper Blick.

He is referring to the Mercedes-backed Manor rookie, just a week after Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff agreed that the 21-ytear-old German and reigning DTM champion is on track for a future in silver.

Zetsche and Wolff’s comments come as negotiations between championship leader Rosberg and the German marque about a contract beyond 2016 spill into the public.

The Rosbergs, including Nico’s father and former world champion Keke, have appointed Gerhard Berger to spearhead the public image of those talks.

“The negotiations are not to make great tactical moves,” Berger said, “as Nico appreciates having the Mercedes family around him and knows that it is the best car.

“On the other hand,” the former Ferrari and McLaren driver added, “Mercedes knows what it has with Nico, who is leading the championship.”

Berger told the German broadcaster Sky that he is sure the current talks are on “a good path”, explaining that Rosberg will only start to look around at the alternatives if that changes.

“But it’s still quite a way until then,” he added.

Berger therefore said suggestions of talks with Ferrari and McLaren are just “speculation”.

Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda, who knows Berger well, said it is good that Rosberg has brought in the 56-year-old Austrian to head the contract talks.

“Gerhard knows what he’s doing,” he said. “He was a racing driver, he negotiated for himself and is not an external manager who has no idea.

“I am sure that he has already agreed with Toto that they should conclude things relatively quickly, so that Nico can calmly get on with winning races,” added Lauda.

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ARRIVABENE SAYS RAIKKONEN AND VETTEL IDEAL FOR 2017

Ferrari team chief Maurizio Arrivabene has indicated that he intends to keep Kimi Raikkonen at the Maranello squad beyond 2016.

The 36-year-old Finn’s contract is expiring, and names including Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo have been linked with the seat. Sebastian Vettel, however, publicly wants Raikkonen to stay.

When asked to name the ideal teammate for Vettel in 2017, boss Arrivabene answered: “I’ll tell you next year.

“We have the ideal pairing, with both of them pushing forward. What more do we want?” he told the Swiss newspaper Blick.

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How Mobil 1 and Esso are aiding McLaren's F1 revival

"Both McLaren-Hondas finished in the points here in Monaco today – and, although that isn’t much to write home about when you reflect that McLaren has won the Monaco Grand Prix a record 15 times in its illustrious 50-year Formula 1 history, it’s encouraging nonetheless."

That was the summation offered by McLaren racing director Eric Boullier after seeing drivers Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button finish fifth and ninth respectively in Monaco.

While it was hardly the kind of result that McLaren has built its reputation and legacy on, it was still a big achievement in a period of significant rebuilding and reconstruction at Woking.

"Although we arrived in the Principality with hopes of being slightly more competitive here than in the end we were, we’re pleased that today we saw more evidence of the solid developmental progress we’re making, the result of the massive amount of hard work that’s taking place in both the UK and Japan at the moment," Boullier added.

The challenge to get McLaren back to the front of the grid after rekindling its partnership with Honda at the beginning of 2015 is an enormous one. While frustration has been evident at times - particularly courtesy of the passionate Alonso - there is a definite feeling of optimism around the team.

Perhaps one of the less-told stories is that of McLaren's technology partner, Exxon Mobil, who supplies the team with its fuel (under the Esso brand) and lubricants (Mobil 1) that are key to not only keeping the MP4-31 car ticking over, but maximising its performance.

"We know where we are and where have to go, and it’s very difficult for the fans to understand, but you cannot build a car like this from one day to the other," Boullier explains.

"It’s a cycle. You need to go through different stages, and I keep saying that we need the best of the best to be winning. We speak about the best drivers, the best cars, the best engine, but also the best fuel and the best lubricants and the best partners technically involved in the performance of the car. We need everything to be the best of the best."

And to ensure that the team can perform to the best of its ability, Boullier has worked to ensure that all of the different partners are on the same page since joining McLaren at the beginning of 2014.

"If I take the example of the engine: the combustion model designed by Honda needs to fit with a fuel that is developed by Esso," Boullier says.

"We have talked to Mobil 1 to say we need now to run the gearbox at this temperature, because that means they have to design a special oil which is capable of keeping the same quality for friction at higher levels. Everywhere you have to speak to all the partners and make sure they reach and achieve the targets you impose on yourself.

"Racing is all about being efficient. Any company, any business, anything in the world does tend to slow down. So sometimes you just have to bring it back to where you want it. So by doing this with McLaren, it helped the relationship and the co-ordination between Honda and obviously Mobil 1 and Esso. This fuel - it was a new record in six months from laboratory to track. So that means in some ways there is an effect on all the system."

The speed at which Mobil 1 and Esso are making new breakthroughs not only gives a boost to McLaren on-track, but also helps the companies themselves to continue to strive, much to the delight of Exxon Mobil global motorsport technology manager Bruce Crawley.

"A lot of hard work goes into this so when you do make a breakthrough which we have done and make a significant step forward, it’s really exciting," Crawley explains.

"For me, to bring a new product to the track it doesn’t get better than that and to know the performance benefit you’ve delivered. So yes, it’s an exciting time. The results, the car performance wasn’t up to it last year. However, we were working away really hard. We brought quite a few improvements in last year, and we’ve got more to come this year as well. It's great to be involved at the front end of a new engineering challenge shall we say. That gets me out of bed in the morning."

Even away from designing the actual car and bringing new upgrades to races, there is a fierce fight to innovate and bring newly updated products to each race - but even they can be outdated by the time a grand prix comes along.

"We have several development fuels which we took to the track which were superseded before we ran them," Crawley explains. "We’ve got six components in this car of several thousands, so if you just look at our prototyping, it’s a moving target. That’s what’s so exciting about it as well, it never stands still. You’re always thinking 'this has changed, now what can I do?'

"Somebody was asking about the influence of the super-soft tyres. You’re always looking to see what influence that has. Is that going to put more load through the gearbox? What will happen? It keeps you thinking all the time, have I missed something? It never stops."

The battle for McLaren now comes in preparing for the new set of technical regulations in Formula 1 due next season. Naturally, Mobil 1 and Esso are also keeping one eye on the upcoming campaign, with plans already well underway.

"We’ve already got the plan for the 2017 engine under discussion, so that’s kicking off fairly soon and we’re doing our pre-planning for that," Crawley says. "We’re already doing our modelling for 2017 engine. The collaboration actually that we have got going with Honda is at a level in terms of combustion development that I think is really going to push us through into a new era actually.

"From a fuel and from an oil point of view, so Esso synergy and Mobil 1, I think in 2017 we’re going to have a stand-out engine. I think we’ve got a pretty good engine this year as well, but 2017 there’s more to come.

"I think at the early stage of any new regulation change, there’s more low-hanging fruit generally than there is as you progress through. So we actually quite like regulation changes because it gives us more opportunity to find performance gains and it’s a race, it’s a development race to find those quicker than other people are doing it. It’s quite exciting from that point of view."

Besides racing, Mobil 1 and Esso also has to consider its products for road cars - but there is a surprising amount of crossover. Of the six products supplied to McLaren, three are near-identical to what you can pick up from the shelf at the petrol station, while the others enjoy commonalities with road-spec products.

"That’s very important for us as well, to maintain that linkage between what we’re doing in consumer products and in racing," Crawley explains.

"Same with the fuel as well. The fuel is not something that you’re going to get when you fill up at your local petrol station at the pump. The compounds that we’re using in that fuel are the same compounds and molecules that you’ll find in that fuel. We’re tailoring the composition of the fuel to get more performance out of it. That then also gives us understanding in terms of ‘if we can change the composition of the fuel in this way, we can get a performance gain’.

"So that’s very interesting in terms of looking at what we should be doing for a consumer product in the future, how can we improve a consumer product from the understanding, the learning that we’ve got from racing."

The race-to-road crossover is something that Crawley believes can be pushed more by F1 and even encouraged in the technical regulations.

"I think what I would like to see with fuel regulations is to allow some space to allow that development to occur that a will allow us to make some discovery that will take us into a consumer product, into the fuel that you put into your car at the gas station," he says.

"That would be the ideal from my point of view. If we make that technology transfer, I will feel that Formula 1 and racing has done a job to contribute to the wider society. That would be a nice thing to happen and that’s something we’ve definitely got our sights."

Between focusing on technology transfer from an F1 car to a road car and enhancing its products for each grand prix weekend, you can see the hugely important role that Mobil 1 and Esso are playing.

As McLaren's revival and fightback to the front of the grid continues, expect the hunger of its key partners to grow with that of the team. Their role cannot be understated.

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Vettel excited to get going in Montreal

Sebastian Vettel is eager to get going again at the Canadian Grand Prix, saying that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is one of his most enjoyable tracks.

Yet to win a race in 2016, the four-time World Champion is desperate to show Red Bull and Mercedes that Scuderia are not out of the title race.

On the characteristics of the track, the German is expecting a real spectacle as history shows that some of the most exciting F1 races were held at the Canadian GP.

“Montreal is a fantastic place,” said the Ferrari man.

“I think it is great that we are racing in Canada. I think it’s a race that all the Formula One fans and all the drivers enjoy. It is a great circuit.

“It is incredibly important to get the timing right under braking.

“It is quite a hard challenge for the driver, but also for the car, for the brakes and the tyres, because you stop the car with a very low speed to accelerate again. So, traction is very important too.

“Montreal is one of the old style circuits, with the walls being close, hard braking, and quick changes of direction in the chicanes.”

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Prost: Red Bull can topple Mercedes

According to F1 legend Alain Prost, Red Bull has the capability of ending Mercedes' dominance with their new B-spec Renault engine.

During mid-season testing, Renault supplied Daniel Ricciardo and their own team's Kevin Magnussen with new engines, which proved successful as they fast tracked them to be ready for Monaco GP, where they impressed.

Prost, who is a Renault Ambassador, explained that although he doesn't see another major leap in performance like the one prior to Monte Carlo, he is expecting gradual growth with closing the gap between Red Bull and the Silver Arrows.

He also added that despite the French manufacturer having their own team, they are satisfied with Red Bull being ahead of them as they are not as competitive as the top-end of the grid yet.

"They could be a challenger, maybe a big challenger, for Mercedes, definitely," the four-time World Champion explained.

"But I don't think Renault can do much more for the engine, but for sure there will be some more improvement.

"But [Renault] are very happy…unless [the constructor team] are going to become competitive – which is not today – they are very happy to see the engine winning and Red Bull to be a contender. I'm not jealous at all, for sure!

"I think it's a very positive thing, in this situation. It's a constructor team, so you have an engine and chassis together now, so it can be a positive fight or competition. At least you know the engine is working well and it can be very good for the people making the engine, very good for the image, very good for Red Bull.

"It means you can concentrate, and it gives a nice motivation, a nice vision for the future. It is almost like 'this part is working, so we can do even better'."

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Steiner hoping tyre choice for Canada works out

With Ultra soft compound tyres making a second appearance at the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix, Haas team boss Guenther Steiner is hoping that they made the correct choice in going aggressive, taking 20 sets to Montreal.

It is also worth noting that teams made their selections 14 weeks prior to flyaway race like Canada, so they had no knowledge other than testing of how the tyres would react in certain conditions.

Steiner admitted that his US-based team took a chance with their choices but also added that they it could work in their advantage.

“We’re only using the ultrasoft and soft,” said the Italian.

“It’s a challenge to find the perfect working ranges for these tyres. We’ve never had the ultrasoft in Canada. It just debuted in the last race at Monaco. We need to see how that tyre works, specifically, in Canada.

“We only tested the ultrasofts once before making the decision to use them in Canada, and that was in Barcelona [testing]. We will see in Canada if we made the right decision.

“We know more about the ultrasofts now after having used them in Monaco. We just need to do our best to make them work as best as possible.”

Haas has also opted against taking any soft compound tyres to Canada, something that was mirrored by Renault.

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Symonds confident ahead of Canada GP

 With their lack of drive at low-speed tracks, Williams boss Pat Symonds is expecting a much more improved performance from the Monaco Grand prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Symonds believes that their Mercedes-powered car will be impressive on the quick Canadian track and added that they expect to challenge high up on the grid throughout the weekend.

"Being a fast track with long straights, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve certainly favours the characteristics of the Williams car, as shown by our strong performances last year," he explained.

"This should mark a return to form for the team.

"The circuit itself has very low-average speed corners, with one quick corner at Turn 5 being easily flat and therefore not counting for much these days.

"Good top speed, stable braking with the track being hard on brakes, good change of direction for the multiple chicanes and adequate traction are key things required here.

Symonds also revealed that it will be likely that duo Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas will be on a one-stop strategy on Sunday.

"It's also the second race in a row that we see the new Ultra Soft tyre (the softest in Pirelli's range), but even with this we expect most cars to be on a one-stop strategy."

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Sauber says nothing wrong with old Nasr chassis

Sauber expects to re-use Felipe Nasr's old chassis after finding there was nothing wrong with it despite the Brazilian's complaints.

Nasr said earlier this year that he was "100 percent convinced" that his chassis was handling worse than that of teammate Marcus Ericsson after the Swede outqualified him in Australia, Bahrain and China.

The Brazilian got a new chassis for the Russian Grand Prix, but team boss Monisha Kaltenborn says the Swiss team could find nothing wrong with the old one after a thorough analysis.

She said building the third chassis was not a big issue for the team, as it was already planned to be introduced around that time.

"The third chassis was planned already, so it was nothing we had to do because the driver said it," Kaltenborn told Motorsport.com.

"We had actually planned to bring it about that time. We discussed it with the driver. We actually told him where we might see something, and where we don't, but at the end of the day you have to see what your driver is saying because he's sitting in the car.

"We have done an analysis and we have not seen anything."

When asked if the team would use the old chassis again, she said: "It is very much possible because there is nothing on it."

Nasr has been outqualified twice in three races since the new chassis was introduced, although his engine blew up in qualifying in Monaco.

The duo made contact with each other in the previous race in Monaco, a crash that Kaltenborn labelled as "unacceptable".

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Analysis: How Mercedes has one-upped rivals in pitlane data-sharing

Mercedes' F1 dominance is not limited to the hybrid power units that long ago proved themselves to be the cream of the 2014 regulations' crop.

Far from the watchful eye of the public, Mercedes and technical partners Qualcomm are hard at work maximising their high-speed data transfer capabilities, giving the Silver Arrows a unique advantage over the competition.

The Qualcomm-Mercedes 5GHz data-sharing project was first unveiled to the media as a proof-of-concept at last year's US Grand Prix in Austin, although at that point the technology was effectively in active beta testing.

"We were proud when Mercedes came to talk to us a couple of years ago about the gathering of the infrared data of how the tyre was performing," recalled Graeme Davison, Vice President of Technology at Qualcomm.

"At that time [they] were plugging in and pulling data off, same as the other teams are doing now, and they asked if we could come up with a wireless solution to do that. Within a couple of weeks we had dreamt up a completely new way of using WiFi.

"Because we were using our own chips, we could get down to the core of how they actually functioned.

"We ripped them back to core level and built them all back up again to a WiFi that doesn't look anything like you have at home, hence the phenomenal speeds.

"The original vision we had was that when the car was rolled into the garage, we'd get the data while it was stationary. But we discovered that we actually connect and start downloading as the car comes into the pits.

"We can pull up huge amounts of data in a couple of seconds, and it's a great benefit to the team to be able to get that - instantaneous use."

"Through this project, we have learned new ways to use Wi-Fi in the automotive environment," Derek Aberle, president of Qualcomm Incorporated, said of the launch.

"Innovation in motorsport often drives the advancements seen in the consumer auto industry, and we believe this technology, as well as other advanced wireless technologies, has the potential to shape future developments in Dedicated Short Range Communications, Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communications.

"These types of technologies will lead to increased driver safety and provide important data regarding the vehicle's journey."

  

The competitive edge

Where the technology pertains to Mercedes is in the team's currently unique ability to begin pulling session data from their cars while the vehicles are still moving down the pitlane.

On Thursday in Monaco, this allowed the team to get to grips with the ultrasoft tyre compound despite not having run the rubber in pre- or in-season tests.

The amount of tyre data alone generated during a single practice session is equivalent to two full seasons of Game of Thrones, and there are significant advantages to be gained by beginning the process of data analysis while your rivals are still downloading their data.

"The faster you make that process, the faster you find new directions," explained Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe.

"In the past, to get a download you would typically have to delay your car [in the garage] which you don't want to do in a practice session. We may only have five or six unique runs during a practice session and this means we can make every one count.

"One of the nice things about the new tyre rules is that not only have we got a much softer tyre to run, which is the ultrasoft. It actually works around [Monaco], switches on properly," Lowe added.

"We were right on it from the minute we started P1, as you saw. We were able to immediately think of laps and start gathering the data, start learning about where we were.

"We started that process of gathering the data to analyse how [the ultrasoft] worked, and how it compared to the supersoft."

Speaking to the media on Thursday evening in Monaco, Nico Rosberg had high praise for the strategic advantage Qualcomm's wireless communications technology was giving the team. "All our focus is on that one qualy lap because that's all that counts around here," he said.

"It's all building up to that one qualifying lap in Q3. It's an exciting challenge to see if we can extract a bit more from these tyres. We have so much information on the tyres with sensors here, there and everywhere so that we can capture an accurate picture of what the tyres are actually doing. We have a huge data gathering and that is where Qualcomm come in.

"They send the information from the car to the garage before we actually get to the garage - as I'm coming down the pitlane, all the engineers have everything already. Whereas other teams… for sure we're ahead of the game on that.

"We have everything when we get to the garage, while other teams have to wait till they download information [over] cable. They've provided us with some superfast data transfer systems, and that's been helping us for sure."

  

Progress

While the speed of data transfer has been impressive since initial testing got underway, in the six months since Austin, significant progress has been made.

What was once the size of a takeaway pizza box and cobbled together with off-the-shelf components has been refined with customized parts and is now the size of a matchbox - far better suited to integration into the narrow confines of a Formula 1 car.

"In Austin the proof of concept we ran was actually an off-the-shelf development board - we just needed to see if we could get the thing working," Davison explained.

"The gave us humongous nightmares over where we were going to put it in the car - there's not a lot of spare space inside a Formula 1 car!

"Once we proved the process worked, we started thinking of the architecture of the radio, made a whole bunch of changes to that.

"Then we looked at changing the board and developing our own. [The current version] is made out of automotive-grade components, while the [proof of concept] was made from consumer-grade, as we just wanted to get it in and working.

"We've made it smaller, we've made it much more robust both mechanically and physically, and we've increased the speed at least three to four times."

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Pirelli says 2017 tyres will be "amazing" for F1

Pirelli says the introduction of its wider 2017 tyres will produce an "amazing" outcome for Formula 1.

The new rear tyres are 80mm wider than the current ones, with the front ones 60mm wider than the rubber that has been used in the sport in recent times.

Next year's tyres will also be heavier, and are expected to provide a significant improvement in laptimes.

Although the tyres have not yet been tested on track, Pirelli chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera they will be great for F1.

"They look powerful. They give the sense of power. The first test made in the wind tunnel they are proving that the outcome can be amazing," said Provera.

Provera says the new tyres are a "very attractive" challenge for the Italian manufacturer, which has supplied F1 teams with tyres since the 2011 season.

"It's a major change. Technologically speaking it's very attractive for us," Provera added.

"People are very much involved and willing to deliver the best possible performance and I think these tyres can provide an amazing result, because to improve some tenths of a second you have to do a lot of things on the car and the engine.

"These tyres, we can improve by seconds, which shows you the importance of the tyres. We are the only piece that touches the ground."

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F1 race preparation with Nico Rosberg

 

Better preparation, better rhythm, better race. Nico Rosberg loses the wires, eliminates noise and focuses on what matters with the Bose QC35s.

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Red Bull F1 Show Run, Beirut - Carlos in action

 

Carlos does alot better than Max Verstappen back in 2014 as seen below!!  (Look at 1:34min mark)