FORMULA 1

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MERCEDES LAUNCH THE W09 IN QUEST FOR TENTH TITLE IN A ROW

On Thursday Mercedes launched the W09 – the car to be raced in the 2018 Formula 1 World championship by Lewis Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas – with most of the new bits and pieces more under the skin than clearly visible to the naked eye.

The car got a shakedown early on during the team’s promotional filming day at Silverstone with Bottas at the wheel. Afterwards, the team revealed the car online with Mercedes F1 chief Toto Wolff present along with the drivers.

Sentiment from F1 fans across the social media platforms was positive, many praising the car’s good looks, with Bastian C. Atzger writing on Facebook: “If the car’s performance meets its looks, the championship will stay in the hands of Mercedes-Benz.”

Mercedes start the season as favourites thanks to their remarkable four-year run in which they have won eight F1 world titles. The W09 is the weapon they are counting on to bag ten titles in five season come the end of this year.

Superficial inspection reveals that the W09 has the following new aspects:

• Revised front suspension.
• Reinforced wishbones has strengthened the rear suspension
• The airbox now splits into four instead of three channels while the cooling holes on the side boxes have become narrower and slit-shaped.
• The rear wing is supported by a central stilt with a winglet attached.

The livery remains very similar to last year’s edition and first impressions are that the car is an evolution of it’s predecessor the W09 hence very similar in appearance.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, said ahead of the launch, “It is always a very exciting time because what has been designed is coming together and coming alive. It’s never going completely seamlessly or smoothly when you’re trying to push the boundaries. We’ve had a good winter, I would say, no real drama. But it was a lot of hard work for everyone in the team.”

“The winter is intense,” continued Technical Director James Allison. “The planners have got thousands of lines of plans to deliver on, the design group have got to deliver several hundred new designs per day in order that they can be made.”

“The test and development group and the team running the dynos have to stand ready as the pieces come in hot from the machines, to assemble them and put them on all the in-house testing kit. This allows us to be reasonably sure that everything is strong enough and has the right shape and will perform reliably.”

 

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HAMILTON: NO REASON TO RUSH ANYTHING THERE’S NO PANIC

Four times Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team hope to have a new long-term deal signed and sealed before the season starts in Australia next month, both parties said as much at the launch of the champions’ new W09 car at a damp and cold Silverstone circuit.

Hamilton indicated the signing could come in a matter of weeks, “Hopefully we’ll have something done before the beginning of the season, before the start of the first race.”

The 33-year-old Briton, whose current contract expires at the end of the year, added, “But again, we’re just in no rush. There’s no reason to rush anything, there’s no panic. I’m not feeling under any pressure of any other drivers being there and (team boss) Toto (Wolff) and Mercedes have no reason to feel that I’m talking to anybody else.”

Wolff told reporters separately that he had spoken to Hamilton regularly by phone and through messaging and hoped to have the deal done within “a few weeks” and “the sooner the better”.

“[Hamilton] has been with the team six years so we are talking about extending that to a very long time with the same driver in the same team,” affirmed the Silver Arrows team chief.

Hamilton has been conducting his own negotiations with the team and said last November, after winning his fourth championship in Mexico, that he expected the talks to be straightforward.

He explained on Thursday that he had not been away over the winter and preferred to discuss the detail in person.

But he said there was no doubt about his commitment and that of the team, “In the whole six years that I’ve been here, I’ve not spoken to another team once.”

“I know the team have been contacted by other drivers in the past, and probably still do today, and that’s inevitable. But we always made it clear at the beginning if that I was to engage and look at my options, I would inform them. I’ve not needed to,” he added.

Hamilton has won three of his titles with Mercedes, missing out narrowly to now-retired teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016.

He is now the most successful British driver of all time and favourite to become only the third five times champion after seven times title holder Michael Schumacher and the late Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio.

The new season starts with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 25 March.

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WOLFF: GIVE ME A CHAINSAW I WOULD TAKE IT OFF

Formula 1 champions Mercedes launched their 2018 car on Thursday with team chief Toto Wolff hoping it proved less temperamental than the last one and admitting he would like to attack the mandatory halo device with a chainsaw.

The Austrian, whose team have won the last four championships and are favourites for a fifth with Lewis Hamilton, is no fan of the mandatory new halo head protection system.

“I’m not impressed with the whole (halo) thing,” Wolff told reporters at a chilly Silverstone circuit after Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas had given the silver W09 its track debut. And if you give me a chainsaw, I would take it off.”

Wolff, whose team were early supporters of the halo concept, said driver safety was always a key consideration but there needed to be a better solution than what was currently available.

“What we have implemented is aesthetically not appealing and we need to really tackle that and come up with a solution that simply looks better,” he added. “It’s a massive weight on top of the car, you screw up the centre of gravity massively with that thing.”

Four-times world champion Hamilton was less fussed, telling reporters he expected everyone to get used to it after a few races, “Honestly, I think the team have done a great job to integrate it and make it look as nice as it can look.”

“This is in the world right now and I’m sure it’s only the first step in the evolution of this safety level. But it is heavy. The cars are getting heavier. It’s a big car but streamlined as much as it can be.”

He hoped also that Mercedes had “ironed out some of the creases” from last year with a narrower and more tightly packaged car, whose official F1 W09 EQ Power+ name is already quite a mouthful.

Last year’s car won 12 of the 20 races, with Ferrari triumphant five times and Red Bull three, but was swiftly declared to be a ‘diva’ because of its nature.

Wolf added, “We hope that we keep the good character traits of the diva, we all like divas, but sometimes she was a bit difficult to understand and this is the area where we worked the most, trying to understand and preserve what we have in terms of speed in the car and equally find more driveability.

“We have tried like in the past years to stay true to our design philosophy, continue to develop what was already a solid base,” concluded Wolff.

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BOTTAS GETS FIRST RUN IN NEW MERCEDES W09

On Thursday shortly before the Mercedes launched the W09 online, the team posted a video of Valtteri Bottas leaving the pit garage during the team’s promotional filming day at Silverstone.

The world champion team’s new car sported the mandatory Halo, but on the surface, the livery looks very similar to last year’s skin.

Mercedes start the season as favourites thanks to their remarkable four-year run in which they have won eight F1 world titles. The W09 is the weapon they are counting on to bag ten titles in five years come the end of this season.

 

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FERRARI REVEAL THE SF71H WITH RETURN TO RETRO RED

Ferrari launched the SF71H during a slick online reveal presentation showing to the world the new car which they hope will return them to title-winning ways in the 2018 Formula 1 World Championship.

Watched by Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne among the dignitaries and media, team principal Maurizio Arrivabene, technical chief Mattia Binotto as well as their drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen spoke on stage with the deep red SF71H as the centrepiece.

The car is a darker red than previous years, returning to the slightly lighter red of the Ferrari F1 cars of the mid-sixties. There is also far less white on the car than in recent years.

Ferrari said of their new car:

The SF71H (the code name for the 669 project) is the sixty fourth single-seater car designed and produced by Ferrari to compete in the Formula 1 World Championship. Rule changes introduced last season led to the introduction of significant aerodynamic modifications and wider tyres, all aimed at increasing performance.

Therefore the new 2018 Ferrari F1 car has been created to make the most of the experience gained last year. Compared to 2017’s SF70H, the wheelbase has been changed slightly, with the side dimensions also revised along with the cooling system.

The suspension follows the tried and tested practice of using push-rods at the front and pull-rods at the rear, however, their design has been updated based on experience gained during the first season running the wider tyres.

Cockpit protection: The most obvious element to catch the eye is the Halo, designed to protect the cockpit area. After two years of on-track testing, it has now entered the rule book. It weighs around 7 Kg, plus fittings and this has only been partly compensated for with an increase of 5 Kg – from 728 to 733 – to the minimum car weight set in the 2018 regulations.

Power Unit: The number of V6 engines that can be used over the course of the season, without incurring a penalty, continues to decrease, this year from 4 to 3. The same number applies to the turbo-compressor and MGU-H – the energy recovery system attached to the turbo – while only 2 MGU-K -the device that generates kinetic energy linked to the transmission – are allowed over the year, a figure which also applies to the electronic control unit and the batteries. Therefore those in the engine department have also based their work on these new parameters.

The programme: After it’s launch on Thursday 22 February, the SF71H will be transported to Barcelona’s Catalunya Circuit, for a filming day on Sunday 25th, followed by the start of testing proper on Monday 26th. The first session runs to the end of Thursday 1 March, while the second test takes place at the same circuit from 6 to 9 March. Both Scuderia Ferrari race drivers, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel will be driving.

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VETTEL: THIS YEAR’S CAR IS A BIG STEP FROM LAST YEAR’S

Four times world champion Sebastian Vettel said that Ferrari’s new SF71H Formula 1 car already looks a big step up from last year’s before it has turned a wheel in anger, the German was speaking on the occasion of the online launch of the team’s 2018 challenger.

The sport’s oldest and most successful team are hoping the car, with more red and less white in the livery following the departure of sponsor Santander, will take them to a first championship in a decade.

Vettel won five races last season but finished runner-up to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who is now also a four times world champion.

“Now is the time when you see the car, it’s all ready and you want to get in and go out on the track and have a go,” Vettel told guests at the Italian team’s Maranello headquarters.

“To stand here now is very special for all of us. I think they are all waiting for us to say how it feels. So we can’t wait to get out on track to see how the car performs, how it behaves.”

“I think that’s the answer that we all want to hear and we go from there. For sure, the amount of effort that has gone in and the attention to detail in so many areas is impressive.”

The presentation, online and through social media channels, came on the same day that Mercedes were showing off their new F1 W09 car.

In an act of sportsmanship, the British-based team made sure reporters attending their event at Silverstone could watch the Ferrari unveiling on television screens during a break for lunch.

Ferrari technical head Mattia Binotto said the car, narrower and with a slightly longer wheelbase as well as more aggressive sidepods, was an evolution of the 2017 one which performed well on slower speed circuits but lacked reliability.

“Every little detail matters, every part can make a difference and I think this year’s car is a big step from last year’s,” declared Vettel, who won his four titles with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013.

Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who is now 38 and out of contract at the end of the season, said it looked good despite the addition of the now mandatory halo head-protection device.

“When it looks nice, the speed is also there. But obviously we will see that next week,” said the 2007 world champion who will be testing the car with Vettel at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya next week.

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Jolyon Palmer to join BBC Radio F1 coverage for 2018

Former Renault driver, Jolyon Palmer, will join the BBC for 2018 where he will be part of the broadcaster's Formula 1 radio coverage.

Palmer, 27, will be part of BBC Radio 5 Live's commentary team and will work alongside Jennie Gow and Jack Nicholls while the former F1 driver will also appear on the BBC Sport website. 

The British driver made his name in GP2 - now Formula 2 - with a championship win in 2014 propelling him into F1 for 2015 where he was a test driver for Lotus before being promoted to a full-time race seat for 2016 after Renault took over the Enstone outfit.

After being re-signed by Renault for the 2017 season, Palmer found himself without a drive in the closing stages of the year after being replaced by Carlos Sainz Jr after the Japanese Grand Prix.

"I've worked with Jennie and Jack a lot but am more used to being grilled by them," said Palmer. "It's going to be great joining them in the commentary team and to get to ask the questions myself.

"I'm fascinated to see how the inter-team rivalry plays out and hope I'll be able to bring my own knowledge of the personalities involved to shed further light on the relationships," he added.

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Formula 1 looks set for a return to Argentina in 2019

While much has been made and said in the media over the last year about new countries wanting to stage a Formula 1 race, there has also been talk about previous venues returning to the F1 fold too.

Recently there was speculation about Kyalami in South Africa but today it has emerged that Argentina now looks to be in pole position for a return when it was revealed that Fenix Entertainment is in talks with Liberty Media to stage a grand prix in Buenos Aires in 2019.

Arturo Rubinstein, president of Fenix Entertainment’s parent company, investment firm Blue Capital, confirmed he is in negotiations with Liberty and that Fenix’s plans have the backing of the Argentinean government too.

“We are negotiating with Liberty Media to become the promoter of the GP in Argentina,” Rubinstein told The Independent in London.

He confirmed the grand prix would be run at Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez in Buenos Aires, a circuit that hosted its last F1 race in 1998, and that the city was up to contribute $30m towards redevelopment work to bring the Autódromo up to the standard required by the FIA which should take six months to complete.

“The government of the city of Buenos Aires has committed to fund the required works in order to get a further upgrade of the circuit according to F1 and FIA’s standards. The works to repair and improve the circuit will start as soon as we sign the agreement [with Liberty] to hold the race

“Our preference is to have the race held in 2019, at the beginning of the calendar, back to back with Australia. It is worth noting that there are transpolar flights. Also, historically, the F1 races in Argentina were held at the beginning of the calendar. Another alternative is to have it in November, before or after Brazil.

“We have been discussing the project with both the national and the city of Buenos Aires governments. The current President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, has a sport background, having been president of [leading football club] Boca Juniors for 10 years during the most successful period in its history. It should be borne in mind that he is the former Buenos Aires city mayor and, as such, we have actually been talking with him about this project since the start in late 2013.”

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Force India denies sale rumours and confirms Monday launch for VJM11

The Force India F1 Team has rubbished claims it is in talks with a potential buyer following reports that a British energy drink company had made a bid for the team.

It was reported this week that Rich Energy were in talks to buy the Silverstone-based team for £200 million ($280m) ahead of the 2018 season.

The team issued a statement on Thursday denying the reports: "Following recent media reports speculating on the sale of Force India Formula One Team Limited, the Company’s shareholders wish to clarify that there is no offer from potential investors under consideration."

The statement also confirmed the team's 2018 car, the VJM11, would be launched in the Barcelona pitlane on Monday morning ahead of pre-season testing.

"The Team is focussed on the start of testing next week where the 2018 car will be presented in Barcelona on Monday 26th of February.

"The team’s drivers, Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, will pull the covers off the VJM11 and pose for photos in the pit lane at 8:00am local time."

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Pascal Wehrlein, George Russell to share Mercedes F1 reserve role

Mercedes has confirmed that Pascal Wehrlein and George Russell will share duties as the team’s Formula 1 reserve driver this season.

Wehrlein competed in Formula 1 for Manor and Sauber across 2016 and 2017, but was unable to secure a seat on the 2018 grid, though has retained his Mercedes connection.

Wehrlein will contest this year’s DTM series – Mercedes’ final year in the category – and act as back-up to regular F1 racers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

Wehrlein will be joined as reserve by Russell, who will combine his role with a full-time seat in the Formula 2 championship.

Russell, 20, won last year’s GP3 Series with ART Grand Prix and has stayed with the team upon his graduation to the secondary division.

Russell is therefore in line to carry out mid-season running for Mercedes, as per 2017, with Formula 1 regulations dictating that two of the four days must be allocate to young drivers.

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Renault F1 team partners Spain's top football league

The Renault Formula 1 team has announced a partnership with Spain's premier men's association football division LaLiga.
The logo of the Spanish football competition will be present on Renault's recently-unveiled F1 2018 challenger RS18.

It will also feature on the overalls of the team's two race drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz, the latter a known fan of LaLiga's reigning champion team Real Madrid.

“We are very happy to announce this exciting and unique partnership with LaLiga, one of the world’s best football divisions,” said Antoine Magnan, Renault's Head of Partnerships.

“Renault Sport Formula One Team and LaLiga have many shared goals as we push to expand our reach worldwide.

“Between the Formula 1 and LaLiga seasons we cover the entire year and there are cross-overs in our two fan bases that will be the springboard for exciting activities.”

One of the most popular domestic football competitions in the world, La Liga is sponsored by Spanish financial giant Santander – which had been a regular grand prix racing sponsor before pulling out of F1 at the end of last year.

LaLiga brand director Enrique Moreno said: “We have been looking for innovative ideas that allow us to generate brand presence internationally and support our brand positioning ‘It’s not football. It’s LaLiga.’

“Motorsports and specifically Formula 1 fits perfectly with this strategy. Formula 1 fans are potential football fans.

“This new, year-long relationship is designed to further expand the LaLiga audience and grow awareness for our brand.”

This new deal is not the first between motorsport and football organisations, following in the footsteps of a recent partnership that involved London-based English football team Chelsea and the Swiss Formula 1 outfit Sauber.

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MCLAREN MCL33 MARKS START OF NEW ERA AT WOKING

McLaren revealed its much-anticipated new Formula 1 car: the MCL33 will contest the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship and marks the first time in McLaren’s 52-year history that it has run a car powered by Renault engines.

The car will race in a bright new livery that draws its inspiration directly from the team’s iconic papaya orange and blue colour scheme that McLaren first raced in Formula 1 50 years ago.

Last year they took a shift away from the Ron Dennis era colour schemes for their cars. But what emerges was a Manor-esque and largely forgettable livery.

Although the winds of change are blowing through Woking, the new management are very aware of the team’s heritage and thus the new car pays tribute to McLaren’s iconic orange era.

The MCL33 will be driven by Fernando Alonso, the F1 double world champion entering his fourth consecutive season with McLaren, and his team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, who is starting his second season in Formula 1.

The engineering philosophy of the MCL33 follows the roots established by its predecessor, with data accumulated from the 2017 season feeding a range of improvements. Much of the work on the MCL33 has been around optimising the packaging of the new Renault engine, and the incorporation of the new halo device.

Technically, the McLaren MCL33 is a logical development of last year’s car. But it’s been developed and refined with the benefit of a year’s experience with the current regulations.

“With last year’s car, we had to commit to certain decisions about architecture based on what we knew at the time,” says Tim Goss, McLaren’s Chief Technical Officer – chassis.

“With a year of track learning behind us, we’ve used that understanding to adjust some architectural decisions. That means we’ve been able to revise all the sorts of things you bake into the chassis at the start of the year.”

“We’re definitely continuing along the same trajectory,” continues Goss. “For launch, the car will look evolutionary, and we will continue enhancing the MCL33 through testing and the race season.

In terms of development, the design team has focused on refining the package; making it neater, simpler and more elegant.”

“That’s always been an area of focus for us,” says Goss. “But, this year, we went beyond to get a neat and tidy packaging solution. And that just gives the aerodynamicists more scope to play with the bodywork.”

The MCL33 will conduct a dynamic filming day at a Spanish test track on Friday before beginning eight days of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya next Monday.

 

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MCLAREN: THESE COLOURS RUN DEEP

After a year of an almost garish dark orange, white and black livery in 2017, McLaren have plunged back into their history with regards to the colour scheme of the MCL33 that broke cover today ahead of the forthcoming 2018 Formula 1 World Championship season.

The Manor-esque scheme of last year has been replaced by the historic orange that the team used in Formula 1 Can-Am and Indycars. Another car with a decidedly retro look to it.

Interestingly there are still huge gaps in the bodywork for major sponsors or at least a title sponsor. The recently announced Petrobas deal evident with branding on the engine cover behind the cockpit. While Kimoa has some prominence on the sidepod flap.

The team said in their press release:

McLaren’s distinctive orange livery was successful across Formula 1, the Indy 500 and the CanAm series. For 2018, the MCL33 spectacularly revives the original colours of McLaren – papaya orange and dark blue – in a refreshing new way.

Inspired by the numerous entreaties of our fans, the return to papaya was also driven by McLaren looking to its past to shape its future. The unique papaya livery is an overt statement of the team’s next chapter, and symbolic of McLaren at its simplest, purest form: that of racers.

It reflects the essential qualities that have remained constants for McLaren throughout its history and are intrinsic to its future. In particular, it evokes the bravery of the team; played out through the #BeBrave campaign that has previewed the launch and will remain a feature of the 2018 season.

McLaren first used papaya in 1968, another convention-busting decision of founder Bruce McLaren. At a time when many nations raced under traditional national colours, such as British Racing Green, French Racing Blue and Italian Rosso Corsa, Bruce chose papaya to make his eponymous team stand out on the racetrack.

The MCL33’s eye-catching primary colour, Papaya Spark, and secondary colours, Burton Blue and Cerulean Blue, were each developed in collaboration with McLaren partner AkzoNobel. The innovative coating systems supplied by the company have enabled the team to significantly reduce the total weight of paint and decrease paint processing time by more than 50%.

 

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ALONSO: GOOD TIMES ARE COMING

Double Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso sounded an optimistic note after driving the first Renault-powered McLaren car in Spain on Friday.

The Spaniard, who has endured three hard years with unreliable and under-performing Honda engines, drove the MCL33 as part of a limited mileage pre-season filming day at the Navarra circuit in northern Spain.

“It felt great. It’s always a special moment when you drive the car for the first time. Everything felt good,” he told Sky Sports television. “The car is running, we’re all happy. I think good times are comings”

“We kept the motivation very high, I think the team is stronger now than three years ago. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”

McLaren have not won a grand prix since 2012 and finished last season ninth of the 10 teams.

The new orange and blue car was unveiled online earlier on Friday and will test properly for the first time on Monday in Barcelona.

“It’s an important moment for McLaren. After a couple of years of not fighting for the championship, it’s time to come back to that position,” said Alonso.

“Now in winter testing we need to make sure that we optimise this package but so far I’m very happy and very optimistic, I think the team did an amazing job in the last couple of months,” added the former Renault and Ferrari driver.

Alonso, who will also be racing at Le Mans and in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) this season, said fighting for podiums and race victories could again be the aim.

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said everything had gone well, “The drivers looked happy. Fernando was smiling this morning, which is a good sign.”

“We want to be competitive, we have to be competitive and I hope we are back to at least fight with the top boys. It’s going to take time. We don’t need to build now wrong expectations, we have to be humble as well.”

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ECCLESTONE: SOME PEOPLE HAVE A NEW SERIES IN MIND

Although Bernie Ecclestone was removed from the helm of Formula 1 a year ago, he still has influence and does not hesitate to give his piece of mind when it suits him and his agenda.

Ecclestone continues to weigh in with his opinions and has now suggested that a breakaway series, led by Ferrari, could happen and that most teams would follow the way of the Scuderia should a showdown with Liberty Media transpire.

Ferrari team president Sergio Marchionne has on more than one occasion warned Liberty Media that he would take F1’s most successful and iconic team out of the sport if the future vision is not in line with the sportscar maker’s interests.

Speaking during a gathering of journalists at his offices in London, Ecclestone said, “Some people have a new series in mind. Sergio has spoken to other people about it.

“If Sergio got up in the morning and decided to leave [F1], it is a difficult position he is in. But if the FIA [F1’s governing body] don’t do what he thinks is right, then he would leave.”

Some believe Marchionne’s stance is a bluff to strengthen his hand in negotiations with Liberty, but others are wary that the president is not really a racing man and will do what he perceives is best for the interest of the company and its affiliates.

Ecclestone is in the camp that believes Marchionne’s sentiments must not be discounted, “I don’t think he does things unless he is serious and he is not the sort of guy who doesn’t do what he says he is going to do.”

“The bottom line is simple. Formula 1 is Ferrari and Ferrari is Formula 1. If you go and speak to anyone in the world, they don’t care about Ferrari road cars. I’d hate to see F1 without them.”

“If a new series started [by Ferrari] and it had the same elements as there is now, and it was cheaper for the promoters than F1 then they would immediately say yes. Some of them who are currently upset with the amount of money they have to pay to stage a race would join,” the 87-year-old added.

And finally, Ecclestone lobbed a traditional ‘grenade’ by advising Liberty: “Let’s start a new all-electric Formula 1 — Formula 1 for the future. They just need the balls to do it.”

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PHOTOGRAPHER LAUNCHES VIOLENCE OF SPEED BOOK PROJECT

The Violence of Speed combines unique stories from different eras of Formula 1 and stunning Formula 1 imagery from the 2017-2018 season by award-winning Irish filmmaker and photographer, Ian Thuillier.

Twelve F1 drivers, past and present, share personal stories and insights into the unforeseen difficulties and pressures of driving a Formula 1 car. From Niki Lauda in the 1970’s through to Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve in the 1990’s to present day drivers.

Thuillier explained, “In 2017 I followed the Formula 1 circus around the world as a freelance photographer for my book, The Violence of Speed. Through my lens, I captured the colour, fanfare and excitement of the world of Formula 1. The images in the book document the speed, adrenalin, noise and excitement that make up a Grand Prix weekend.”

“Aside from the imagery, there are unique stories from 12 past and present Formula 1 drivers talking about their experiences in the cockpit of a Formula 1 car.”

“The Violence of Speed will be printed in October 2018. This allows me time to include more imagery of the 2018 season before it goes to print and the finished books will be sent to everyone in November 2018.”

F1 fans interested in becoming involved and even part of the project can support it through Indiegogo fundraising site here>>>

The perks on offer are three x large signed museum quality archival pigment prints, an exclusive five x set postcard pack and the Violence of Speed book at a reduced rate for the first 150 contributors.

And last but not least all contributors will get the chance to partake in an online charity auction for the Number 1 edition of the book signed by the 12 F1 drivers who contributed their stories. This auction is not open to the public, only to the campaign contributors.

The proceeds from the auction of the book will be donated to the ‘Starlight Children’s Foundation’ charity, a nonprofit organization which brightens the lives of seriously ill children and their families, by replacing pain, fear and stress with fun, joy and laughter.

Thuillier added, “By contributing to the creation of this book, you will help me reach my goal of publishing my work and celebrating the wonderful imagery I have captured with a global audience.”

“This crowdfunding campaign is entirely dedicated to producing this beautiful photographic book. The goal is to reach the funds necessary in order to produce an edition of 500 copies.”

“That’s why your help is so important. Thank you!” concluded Thuillier.

 

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ECCLESTONE: YOU’RE GOING TO GET A RACE IN VIETNAM

A Grand Prix race in Vietnam could be on the calendar by 2020, according to the Formula 1’s former commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

“I think you’re going to get a race in Vietnam,” the 87-year-old told reporters invited to his private offices in central London to talk about various issues ahead of the new season starting next month.

The billionaire Briton, who has moved aside into an undefined ‘emeritus’ role in January last year after Liberty Media took over, said a street race in Hanoi looked likely.

Ecclestone, who remains employed by Formula One on a multi-million-pound salary, said the Vietnamese government was willing to pay a significant amount to promote the South-East Asian country by hosting a grand prix.

“They haven’t made a contract yet as far as I know. But if they have, it’s at least two years away isn’t it?,” he said.

The Malaysian Grand Prix dropped off the calendar after last year’s race but Formula 1 bosses have talked about expanding in China.

There have also been talks with Thailand, which came to nothing, but Vietnam is already an important emerging market for some of the sport’s global sponsors such as Dutch brewer Heineken.

Ecclestone told Reuters last year that he had talks with the Vietnamese while he was running Formula 1 but decided, despite the money on offer, against taking the sport there because he felt there were enough races in that part of the world.

He also recalled Liberty’s criticism subsequent to their takeover of his decision to go to Azerbaijan, a country without a racing history but willing to pay handsomely and whose race was rated the most exciting of last season.

The Briton warned, however, that uncertainty over the sport’s future was something any local promoter should consider.

The current agreements between teams and Formula 1 mostly expire at the end of 2020, with glamour team Ferrari already threatening to leave if they do not like the direction things are headed.

There is also plenty of debate about what kind of engine to use after 2020, with the current V6 turbo hybrids criticised as too expensive, complicated and quiet.

While some see Ferrari’s threats as empty ones, with Formula 1 central to their image and history, Ecclestone repeated his view that the president Sergio Marchionne was to be taken seriously.

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VIDEO: F1 DRIVERS’ VIEW USING THE HALO

Mercedes have released a video of Valtteri Bottas using the mandatory safety device on their all-new W09 Formula 1 championship challenger, viewed from the Finn’s point-of-view from within the cockpit.

For the first time, the Halo is now a mandatory safety requirement for current generation Formula 1 cars. After being trialled during the course of last year and is now written into the rules, despite the system dividing opinions among racing fans.

But with no compromise when it comes to safety, the Halo system is now in Formula 1 to stay for the foreseeable future.

Bottas drove wearing a camera fitted into a pair of glasses and said after his run, “It was OK. No halo or halo, you can definitely spot the difference, but when you’re running it all the time and it’s fixed, it is what it is.’

“For me, in those laps I did, it wasn’t causing any issues for me. No problem with visibility.”

Teammate Lewis Hamilton said of the Halo, “Honestly, I think the team have done a great job to integrate it and make it look as nice as it can look.”

But warned, “I hope they don’t get much heavier, but I think next year the seat and driver can be 80 kilos. I can be a bodybuilder next year and get the beach body I want.”

“There are parts of the lighter, more nimble cars I miss. It was easier to overtake. The heavier they are they will always continue to get slower,” added Hamilton.

Meanwhile, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is clearly no fan, “I’m not impressed with the whole thing and if you give me a chainsaw I would take it off.”

MIKA: This is just a dream... I will wake up and this nightmare was just a bad bad bad bad dream.  

[MIKA27]

INSIDE LINE: LET THE REAL GAMES BEGIN!

Formula 1 preseason testing for me, as an ardent fan of the sport since the early seventies, always signalled the ‘start’ of the season and I write this on the eve of what I believe will be an interesting championship with an intriguing curtain-raiser starting on Monday in Barcelona.

Traditionally we have been told that testing does not mean much in terms of what will happen in the season, but I beg to differ because you tend to get a feel of what-is-what by the final days of testing.

Last year, before round one in Melbourne we knew that McLaren would be rubbish, Red Bull were in trouble, Mercedes were mega and Ferrari had something up their sleeve.

Now, a year later, the two four day tests in Spain will inevitably provide insight into who is where in terms of pecking order. Below is my list of what I will be looking out for during these crucial early days of the season:

The big questions around Mercedes are: How good is the W09? Did they blunder by repackaging their dominant engine? Testing will be telling: will those Mercs blow up like fireworks on New Year’s eve? Or are they yet again reliable and rapid pieces of kit which will see Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas disappear into the distance.

As an engine supplier to Force India and Williams, Mercedes are now obliged (more than ever before) to ensure that they provide equal engines, including mapping software which may close the gap between the two works cars and the four customer cars.

Testing should reveal how much of a discrepancy (if any) there was between the different power maps used by Mercedes in the past, without sharing the information with their clients.

How good is the Ferrari SF71-H and how much have they managed to squeeze out of their power unit for this season. Last year they made massive gains and if they can match that again then it will be another mighty effort deserving of an ovation, while Mercedes will be worried. Will this come out in testing? Maybe…

Ferrari this year will supply current generation power units to Haas and Sauber (last year Sauber ran year old engines). Like Mercedes, the Italian engine supplier will have to level the playing field regarding their customer engines and gizmos. With similar engines on board, direct comparisons between the Haas VF18,  the Sauber C37 and their four drivers will start in Barcelona this week.

Renault are optimistic that they have made gains this season with their engine and have worked hard to rectify the woeful reliability the engines suffered last year. How much these gains are relative to the real world of Mercedes and Ferrari, as opposed to computer-generated figures, will become known within a few days of testing. Now with two heavy hitters on their client list – Red Bull and McLaren – this is going to be a battle worth watching from the minute the new cars roll out of the pit lane on Monday.

As for their works team, they really need to be punching up with the big three and not on the wrong end of the midfield. They have the drivers to extract the maximum in Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz, now it will be interesting to see if they have they produced a decent car in the Renault RS18.

Red Bull have made a great amount of noise about how they shifted philosophy of the past – make that Adrian Newey’s philosophy – of completing the construction of their car as late as possible, to this year having the RB14 ready well in time. Will this make a huge difference? We should get a whiff of how good the car is and in the end only how strong they are early in the season will provide the final answer to that.

Probably the most anticipated news out of Circuit de Catalunya during the eight days of testing will be the progress of McLaren now powered by Renault and with it opening a Pandora’s box of questions: How does the MCL33 compare to the RB14? Gauging Fernando Alonso during testing will be a sideshow of note in itself.

While keeping one eye on McLaren and their new Renault adventure, the other eye will be fixated with the back of the Toro Rosso STR13 upon which is bolted the Honda power unit that the Woking outfit ditched. There is needle there and reports from Honda is that they are intent on proving the Woking boys wrong. It will emerge where Honda is early on in testing as well as how good the chassis is too.

Much has been written of Force India remarkable ‘low budget’ achievement last year, now it is time to see if their 2017 season was a flash in the pan or if the team will continue to have the momentum from their stellar season. It will be a tough ask because the midfield just got a lot stronger with the Renault powered McLarens and Saubers with current edition engines sure to be in the mix. Barcelona should provide some indication of where the boys in pink stand in the pre-Australia pecking order.

The Williams FW41 is the first car to have input from the team’s technical chief Paddy Lowe and head of aero Dirk de Beer. Last year’s car was below par and did their drivers no favours. Testing should reveal where they stand relative to where they were last season. It will also be worth keeping tabs on Sergey Sirotkin’s progress relative to his teenage teammate Lance Stroll.

The off-season this year has been one of the quietest in a long time and honestly Formula 1 fans appear to be in extended hibernation which the recent launches appear to have stirred as readers are returning again.

January and February hopefully are ‘the quiet before the storm’ and now as the 2018 engines fire-up in anger once again and new cars get out on track we have all the above to look forward to… and of course always expect the unexpected.

Writing this I can almost smell the Formula 1 paddock, the rubber, the fuel and if I listen carefully I can hear the hum of non-stop paddock chatter, the unmistakable whir of air-guns, clinking of mechanics’ tools…

Let the real games begin!

[MIKA27]

ABITEBOUL: RS18 WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT IT WILL BE

Renault chief Cyril Abiteboul has made it clear that the team’s RS18 launched early last week is more of a platform to show of the team’s 2018 livery rather than a glimpse into the race car which Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz will be driving this year.

Abiteboul told reporters in Paris, “To be extremely clear, the car that we showed in digital was really a presentation for the livery. I have seen people trying to extrapolate things from it. Calm down guys – don’t try to calculate the wheelbase because it will not be representative of anything.”

The real RS18 will emerge between now and the season opener in Melbourne next month, with much of the evolution and tweaks to the team’s new car taking place during the eight days of preseason testing which start at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on Monday.

Abiteboul explained, “Like most teams, we are going to develop until the last moment, so that car is not representative of what will be shown [in testing] and in Melbourne, there will be more to come.”

“And also there a lot of the things that are under the cover. The suspension, gearbox, engine installation, cooling – all of that has made a big, big leap in comparison to last year but that is obviously not visible.”

“We started really early in designing the first concept of the 2018 car and started also fairly early on the engine – which is very much a carryover of last year. Everything had to be better and more robust in terms of reliability, which has been the main focus.”

“The target was to have a very healthy platform from which we could build and bring some extra performance in the season. We feel it is going to be a race for development.

“Every single time we put the car into the windtunnel, we find more gains and there is much more to come. So it was really about making sure that we have the systems in place – particularly suspension and gearbox.”

“We had so much deficit that we needed to make up in one car, so there are many things that are in that one and obviously there is more to come,” added Abiteboul.

[MIKA27]

FIA ACT TO LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR CUSTOMER TEAMS

It has long been suspected that the engine manufacturers who run Formula 1 teams – Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault – have ‘special’ software which they use to boost their power units when required, but now the FIA is clamping down and insisting that customer teams are not disadvantaged.

The sport’s governing body is demanding that customer engines and works engines must be operated in a similar manner, with rules in place to make sure ensure that all power units are identical according to the dossier system that exists which effectively blueprints each engine.

But it has long been suspected in the paddock that the manufacturer teams have access to a little bit extra through software tweaks. In this manner, they simply manage to extract crucial extra horse-power, with Mercedes known to turn up the wick on a need-to basis, especially in the latter stages of qualifying.

The FIA informed teams in January that the dossier system is in place “to ensure that all power units supplied by one manufacturer are identical in all respects, we have good reason to believe that this may not be the case.”

But pointed to flaws they intend to fix, “Whilst the dossiers for each team may be identical it would appear that some are being operated in a different way to others being supplied by the same manufacturer.”

“It is, therefore, our view that all power units supplied by one manufacturer should be identical, not only in terms of the dossier for each team being the same, but we also feel they should be operated in an identical way,” added the FIA communication which would entail the same engine mapping software used by customer teams and works teams.

This the FIA hopes will go a long way to levelling the playing field between works engine teams and the customer outfits.

A couple of years ago, Felipe Massa hinted that there was a marked difference in the performance delivered by the Mercedes power unit bolted onto his Williams, compared to what the Silver Arrows drivers had at their disposal.

A day later, the Brazilian was forced to retract the statement a day later because it appears he broke a non-disclosure agreement between Mercedes and their customers (in this instance Williams) which Massa inadvertently transgressed.

In truth he was just affirming what most people in the paddock believe to be true: engines are all equal, but some are more equal than others!

[MIKA27]

Behind-the-scenes as Ferrari prepares SF71-H

 

[MIKA27]

Barcelona test won't be "representative" for new Pirelli F1 tyres

Formula 1's pre-season testing in Barcelona won't be "super-representative" of how Pirelli's new range of tyres will behave in the upcoming campaign, according to Mercedes technical director James Allison.
Pirelli has taken a more aggressive approach this season, highlighted by the addition of the hypersoft to its range.

Teams were able to sample the new tyres at the Abu Dhabi test in November, and could therefore finalise their 2018 designs to suit. They also had to make their compound choices for the first races of this season as early as last December.

The traditionally aggressive Barcelona track surface was replaced in January, which makes the coming week's test a step into the unknown in which data from past years will be less relevant. Rain is also expected to reduce the amount of dry running at the first test.

Said Allison: "It's never easy in Barcelona winter testing to pick up everything that you would wish to about the tyres, because it's winter, and the tyres don't run in the winter on the whole when we're racing.

"And Barcelona is quite an aggressive track on the tyres, it tears them up in the winter, you get a lot of graining.

"This year is going to be particularly interesting because they just resurfaced Barcelona, and it is a lot, lot smoother, and the sort of rubber that would be torn up last year in Barcelona testing could probably survive this year.

  

"But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be super-representative of the remainder of the year.

"It's going to be a challenge, but our constraints are no different to anybody else's so we just need to operate as efficiently as we can and get the maximum amount of experience in the eight days that we have available to us."

Allison believes teams got enough information from the Abu Dhabi tyre test to put them on an equal footing.

"We would have had as much chance as everyone else to have learned everything that we needed to know," he said.

"But of course it's one track, one test, at the end of season on a circuit that's very kind to tyres, and then having to on the back of that extrapolate what you need for the first bit of the racing season, where you have to choose your tyres blind - well, not blind, informed by the Abu Dhabi test.

"So we would like to have been testing all the time and learning over and over these things.

"It's a level playing field, our team had a good test, we felt we had a programme that allowed us to learn as much as we could in that time.

"We hope that we've made our judgements correctly about tyre selection for the opening races before we learn for real how the thing performs."

[MIKA27]

Renault to start 2018 F1 season in compromised spec for reliability

Renault will not unleash the full potential of its Formula 1 engine for the 2018 season's early grands prix because it wants to take a zero risk approach to reliability.

With Renault well aware that the three-engine limit means any early season niggles could prove costly later in the campaign, it is taking a more conservative approach to its planning for 2018 after last year's reliability problems.

The focus for all its teams will be on ensuring reliability for its Melbourne-spec, before performance upgrades come with the second and third engines on each car.

"We have decided voluntarily to make some compromises for engine number one in order to make sure that we have got the right platform," Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul told Autosport.

"If you come to the first race and you start to have reliability problems, then that is not just that race - it compromises the whole season. You cannot afford to do that.

"It is about setting the right baseline, having the right platform and building a plan for the season - trying in particular to synchronise development at the factory with the introduction of new engines because we are very limited.

"The fewer engines you have the more rigid you need to be in the implementation of performance. So the focus is very much on reliability."

Abiteboul insisted reliability work on the dyno had been encouraging, but warned some components still had to be signed off in pre-season testing.

"We have covered 11 times the mileage on the dyno that we had covered at the same point last year - and we are aiming to have 70000km on the dyno by race one - which is huge," he said. "It is something that we have never done since the introduction of the V6.

"But when we will be on track, we will need to sign off a number of things and this is particularly the plan for T9 [test one] - to make sure that there is no disconnect between track and dyno.

"So don't look at the lap time in T9 because everything will be massively tuned down for obvious reasons, but T10 [test two] we want to run in a more representative mode."

He admitted Renault's strategy meant it would not be any closer to Mercedes and Ferrari at the start of the season than at the end of 2017.

"Our target is more or less to start in Melbourne with the same performance level as we finished in Abu Dhabi - which is actually quite a decent performance baseline," Abiteboul explained.

"And then we want to make it much more reliable, and make it in a way that we can extract the power in a consistent and sustainable manner - and not have to turn down the engine because of reliability or temperature concerns. That is the baseline.

"Clearly power unit number two will be a step and power unit three will be another step."

[skalls]

I know I'm not a professional driver.  In fact I know that giving me more HP and torque then i currently have access too on a daily basis (which one can argue is excessive) would be a hilariously awful decision.  But  when I drive the 2 main pillers are basically in my peripheral vision, there isn't something going straight down the middle.  That just looks so damn weird.

That this years cars look really nice.  Despite that abomination.

Wish I didn't have to work at the end of the week so I could nerd out over these cars at the testing.