FORMULA 1

MIKA27 · January 27, 2020

Gasly felt he had to disprove 'bullshit' claims about driving

Gasly felt he had to disprove 'bullshit' claims about driving

Pierre Gasly says he needed to use the same fighting spirit that had helped him get in to Formula 1 to disprove 'bullshit' claims that he had forgotten how to drive last year.
The Frenchman endured a difficult start to 2019 with Red Bull, when his struggle to get on the pace of teammate Max Verstappen prompted his bosses to swap him with Toro Rosso's Alex Albon.

While some suggested that could be the end of Gasly's F1 career, he responded in brilliant fashion – and famously beat Lewis Hamilton to grab a podium finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Reflecting on how he stayed so strong after the disappointment of losing his Red Bull seat mid-season, Gasly said that the lessons learned in battling his way up the motor racing ladder put him in good stead.

"It is a bit the way I've been educated and also the way I grew up, that I had to fight for everything I wanted in life," he told Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview.

"Nobody ever gave me this and I never took anything for granted, because every time it wasn't sure if I will continue the year after. It wasn't sure if I will get these seats [in the future] , unless I delivered or performed exactly on that day. Otherwise everything will not be happening. I always had this mentality.

"So I needed to just focus on myself because I'm, at the end of the day, the one that will make things happen.

"So there was this swap, and I just felt like okay, this was an unfair situation and now it's up to me to prove basically to everyone that it was just not the right way."

Gasly said he was particularly frustrated that some were so quick to write him off in F1 after a few difficult races with Red Bull, in spite of all he had done before in the sport.

"I thought now I've got these nine races basically to prove my point and prove the speed and prove the skills I have," he said.

"Of course I've been always competitive since I started in single seaters, and then in these six months everybody then questions: "Okay, does he have the talent?" "Does he have the speed?" "Has he forgot how to drive?" "Has he forgot how to brake?" "How well does he turn the wheel right now?"

"[But] it's not something you forget in two-three weeks, you know. For me it was important, and it was people talking shit without having the information, or having partial information or not even knowing.

"So for me it was really important to give 110% of myself, to make sure I was on top of my game for these nine races and just show basically the speed I have to stop the bullshit."

MIKA27 · January 27, 2020

Marko: Verstappen's maturity "far above average"

Marko: Verstappen's maturity "far above average"

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko says he knew Max Verstappen was an extraordinary talent from their first-ever meeting, and believes the Dutchman has a maturity that's "far above average".
Verstappen has just signed a long-term deal that will keep him at the Red Bull Formula 1 outfit until the end of 2023, with his sights firmly set on winning the world championship.

Marko is full of praise for the young Dutchman, who he says has qualities that stretch well beyond his ‘extraordinary driving talent.”

In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Marko reflects how on his first encounter with Verstappen he already knew this was someone special.

"He was about 15 years old at the time,” said Marko. “I usually talk to a driver for about 20 minutes to get a picture of his personality and the whole story, but with Max I sat for an hour and a half.

“He was a young body, but with a mind that was certainly three to five years ahead. Now his development has slowly levelled off and his age and maturity have come together. And it's far above average.”

Marko says that he spent so long with Verstappen because he was immediately thinking about how best to fast track him in to F1.

“If someone is 15 years old and has only one year in a formula [single-seater] category behind him, then that's a bold step and also a not insignificant risk,” added Marko.

“But I saw what maturity he had and how much he had learned in his karting time, and with what commitment he approached his racing."

Red Bull’s push to get Verstappen in to F1 aged just 17 prompted the sport’s governing body to introduce new limits on what young drivers needed to do to get into grand prix racing.

And the resulting superlicence points structure is something that Marko believes needs overhauling.

"I hope that this will be revised, because there are many drivers who have 40 points but not the potential to succeed in Formula 1,” he said. “And then there are many youngsters who would have the speed but not the necessary points."

He added: “Max triggered incredible emotions and reactions, but in retrospect I'd do it again.”

MIKA27 · January 27, 2020

New Mosley film includes segments he "would've cut"

New Mosley film includes segments he "would've cut"

Former FIA president and March Engineering co-founder Max Mosley says an upcoming documentary about his life tells the full “warts and all" story and includes material that he admits he would left out had it been his choice.
A newly released trailer has provided the first look at Mosley, which will have its world premiere at the Manchester Film Festival, with a showing on the afternoon of March 8th.

The film does not shy away from controversy, covering Mosley’s relationship with his father Oswald – leader of the British Union of Fascists in the years before World War 2 – as well as the fallout from the News of the World revelations about him in 2008, and his subsequent campaigning for media privacy.

Mosley has been produced and directed by Michael Shevloff, who was previously responsible for 2013’s 1: Life at the Limit, which focussed on F1 safety and the role of Professor Sid Watkins.

The executive producer is Paul Crowder, who was also involved in the earlier film, as well as acclaimed documentaries on The Beatles, The Who, Luciano Pavarotti and the New York Cosmos soccer team. Writer/producer Alexandra Orton’s credits include the BBC family history series, Who Do You Think You Are?

Along with Mosley himself, those also appearing in the film include Bernie Ecclestone, Jean Todt, Flavio Briatore, Gerhard Berger and Mosley’s late partner at March, Robin Herd.

“It was going to be about how the Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger accidents in 1994 led to Euro NCAP [European New Car Assessment Programme] and the whole revolution in car safety,” Mosley told Motorsport.com. “That’s quite an interesting story that a lot of people don’t know. And then it gradually expanded and morphed into something more about me.

“It’s got everything in it, including the News of the World and what’s happened since. Bernie’s interview is interesting, because they go into the whole thing of whose side was he on when the story came out?

“Someone asked does it include Hitler being a guest as his parents’ wedding? The answer is yes it does. It is a warts and all thing, and that probably makes it more interesting to third parties.

“There are one or two elements in it that if I were in charge, I would cut out. But then it would take away the whole point of it – it needs to be independent.”

Mosley says that, aside from the personal stories, there is much in the doc to appeal to racing enthusiasts.

“For a motorsport person it is interesting, because it’s got so much old footage. Some of the stuff about March I’d either forgotten, or never seen.

“It’s an awful lot to cram into something that’s even as long as an hour and a half. It’s a little like my book – I wrote the book and then chopped 20,000 words put of it, because it was just too long.”

MIKA27 · January 27, 2020

The remarkable story of F1’s most unlikely test driver

Chanoch Nissany, Minardi

For any Formula 1 driver, you would think that ending a session nearly 13 seconds off the pace would be something to quickly forget and move on from.
But for Israeli Chanoch Nissany, his now infamous outing in a Friday free practice session for Minardi at the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix is something he remains immensely proud of.

Some may scoff at his pace that day and suggest Nissany was never good enough to deserve a seat in F1. But to do so would be to not understand the remarkable story of determination that got him there in the first place.

For that, you have to rewind to four years beforehand, when Nissany, then a successful real estate businessman working in Budapest, attended the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix as a spectator.

"I started when I was 38," he tells Motorsport.com. "I was a businessman, working in an office, and I remember sitting in the grandstand at Budapest.

"I saw the race and I said to my friend: 'I want to be an F1 driver'. I had never before sat in a go-kart or a racing car, anything. And I said to them: 'I want to be a driver'.

"My friends replied: 'No problem. When we get back home you take your medicine and everything will be fine'. But I went back and I started [my career] from zero."

Nissany's business success meant he had the financial means to get the ball rolling in motorsport – with him eventually picking up a personal sponsor in Israeli cosmetics company UPEX that would take him all the way to F1.

He entered the 2002 Formula 2000 Hungarian National Championship, finishing runner-up that season, and then won the title the following year.

By 2003 he began competing in international series, including the World Series Lights, and 2004 saw him compete in Formula 3000. He wasn't setting the world on fire with his results, but he was still on target to achieve his dream, which moved closer when he secured a test driver role at Jordan.

Chanoch Nissany, Jordan Ford EJ14

He made his F1 test debut in a run at Silverstone in July - nine seconds slower than teammate Nick Heidfeld after an engine failure cut short his running.

"I worked day by day, for 24 hours on it," he said about his push. "I was eating, sleeping, dreaming about car racing."

In July 2005, Nissany's ambition of taking part in an official F1 weekend was all but achieved, though, when at the Hilton Hotel in Tel-Aviv, Minardi boss Paul Stoddart announced that the Israeli would become an official tester for his team – with the plan for him to run in some FP1 sessions.

With F1's superlicence rules very different to now, all Nissany needed to do to get the paperwork to drive in a free practice session was to complete enough mileage in private testing.

And with F1's testing equally a world away from the restrictions now, getting those miles was not a problem.

Nissany, who had done two tests for Minardi the previous winter, completed five full days for the team at Misano, Mugello and Vallelunga before it was decided he would get the Friday outing he had dreamed of in Hungary – which coincidentally came on his 42nd birthday.

The news of Nissany's F1 outing was massive in Israel, and local journalists and television crews descended on the Hungaroring to witness the event.

One especially eager reporter asked Michael Schumacher what he thought of Nissany's test. The slightly baffled-looking German responded: "I have to apologise, I don't know."

Chanoch Nissany, Minardi

Nissany's outing did not go amiss though, as the official F1 feed followed him like a hawk. His slightly cautious approach, amid the increased pressure of being at a proper weekend, meant no big push for sensational laptimes as he built his confidence up.

But with 17 minutes to go, Nissany got it wrong at Turn 4 – spinning off in to the gravel and his session was over. As the mobile crane arrived to tow his car, he was still there in the cockpit. His day was done.

In the end, the record book shows that Nissany ended the free practice session with alap time of 1m34.319 seconds. This was nearly 13 seconds slower than pace setting Alex Wurz in the McLaren who did a 1m21.411s. As a comparison, Minardi's Christijan Albers put in a 1m27.540s.

As he looks back now on what happened that day, there is no embarrassment that he was not in the league of Schumacher, Fernando Alonso or Kimi Raikkonen that day. Just being out there on track was the realisation of an unlikely dream, and he knows in private testing he had been much more on the pace than he showed that day.

"Look, don't forget it's now 15 years since then," he says. "I was proud to be at the Hungaroring, no question. It was a great experience.

"My target was very clear: to be an official Formula 1 driver and to drive the Formula 1 car. And this I did and I achieved.

"I'm just a special story for regular people, everybody who is is a businessman, worker and has some aim or a dream. So don't say it is not possible.

"I wanted to show to everybody that even at 38, if you decide to do something, you can do it. This is just by the mental side."

Chanoch Nissany, Minardi

Nissany would never appear in an F1 session again, but he did take part in four further test days for Minardi. He continued his racing career too, winning more championships in Hungary before properly hanging up his helmet a few years ago.

More recently, his focus has been on helping his son Roy make progress up the motor racing ladder. He has played a big role in helping put together the recently announced test driver deal with Williams.

While there is plenty of banter between father and son over their racing exploits, both are aware that their Formula 1 opportunities are at completely different ends of the spectrum.

Roy said: "I find myself very different from my father. If you look back at his career record, it was very unique, odd, and special, starting at the age of 38.

"So his objectives were very different to mine. Starting from such a late age and making into F1, to get the Israeli flag there, I think it's an amazing achievement and stands on its own.

"But it's not what I'm trying to do, starting from six years old, and going further up the motor racing categories. So it's nice to have this heritage. But again, I have my individual way."

It's fair to say though that Nissany Sr. is probably prouder of what his son is doing in pushing up the motor racing ladder, than of what he managed in his own career.

"I am happy to achieve what I achieved," admitted Nissany Sr. "But I think Roy can do much more, because I never had the talent. I am not in his category. I just had, let's say, the mental power to do it.

"But this generation, the young generation, they are in another world."

Chanoch Nissany

Chanoch Nissany

MIKA27 · January 27, 2020

Vettel: Why 2020 will be a defining year for Ferrari’s ‘man of the people’

When we spoke during pre-season testing last year, Sebastian Vettel was in tremendous form. There was a glint in his eye, a cheekiness to his smile. The 2019 campaign was to be his fifth with Ferrari and, having driven his new car, which had initially appeared to be the one to beat, he was understandably excited about the season ahead, in a team that had charged him with bringing the world championship back to Maranello.

“I knew the role would be different,” said Vettel at that test, as we spoke in the room where he had just diligently fulfilled his pre-season photoshoot duties, of the task he had taken on with Ferrari starting in 2015. “Of course, driving would be the same; I always try to drive as fast as possible, but the role would be different – [I had] a clear mission to bring Ferrari back to the top.”

The German, a four-time world champion with Red Bull, has so far failed to complete that mission. Worse still, 12 months on, he’s no longer obviously the main man at Ferrari…

Vettel’s young team mate Charles Leclerc was highly-rated when he joined the Prancing Horse alongside the now 32-year-old last year, but few – including Vettel himself – expected him to have such a breakthrough season. Leclerc won two races to Vettel’s one. He scored more points than his more decorated team mate and took a stunning seven poles to Vettel’s haul of two.

Vettel hasn’t lost his speed. His superb pole position in Japan and ruthless drive to victory in Singapore are proof of that. He’s just struggled to deliver consistently, and increasingly cracks have shown with the smallest sign of pressure on track. Leclerc’s huge talent has applied that pressure more consistently than Kimi Raikkonen ever managed during Vettel’s time at Ferrari. As a result, the mistakes have kept on coming.

From his crash when leading at a wet Hockenheim in 2018 to his collision with Leclerc at the penultimate race of 2019 in Brazil, which put both drivers out, you could argue that Vettel – after the tumult of the last 18 months – needed this recent winter break the most.

Of course, people have been quick to retire him. But the man himself doesn’t care.

“I heard before I’m stopping,” he said with a smile at his final press conference of the year in Abu Dhabi. “I don’t who was the one [who said it], they seem to know more than me!”

No, he isn’t interested in throwing the towel in just yet. But then again, it might not be up to him. His contract expires at the end of the year and without a reversal of form, Ferrari might find it tough to keep him on. And if there’s no opening at Ferrari, Vettel doesn’t strike you as someone likely to do a Raikkonen and take up a seat lower down the field; he seems more like a big fish that isn’t up for swimming in a small pond. He wants to add more titles to his impressive resume – and if that isn’t possible, you get the impression he’d likely happily leave.

Vettel didn't expect such consistently tough competition from Leclerc in 2019

Ferrari is where he wants to be. It’s unfinished business. But what do Ferrari want? Their chief Mattia Binotto said last month Vettel is “central to our project” and a “key driver of us”.

But he also said: “We need to see [his] performance and how he fits with the car and his motivation for the future. It’s not about his mistakes or not. It’s really a matter of how he does see himself as far as his future and how we… see our line-up.”

The 2020 season – particularly the opening half of the campaign, as it’s not Ferrari’s style to announce their complete line-up late in the year – is huge. It would be no understatement to say he’s fighting for his career.

Vettel is well-liked within the team. You often see him hanging out with team personnel in the Ferrari’s hospitality or the garage during a Grand Prix weekend, long after everyone else has left the track. The delight in their faces when he won in Singapore was clear, as he pulled a monkey that had dug its nails in off his back. They wanted him to succeed, wanted his miserable run to end.

Vettel's mechanics loved his Singapore win

He’s one of the guys when he’s at the factory, too. “I head to the canteen with everyone else [for lunch],” says Vettel. “It’s the quickest and the food is good. It’s usually really busy, as all the guys are there – including from GT. There’s a couple of queues to get served.”

Does he jump to the front? “No, I don’t like that. All I want is to be part of the team. It would be wrong if I was looking for special treatment as I would be differentiating myself from the rest of the group. I’m part of the team. My role is obviously different, I understand that. The job I have, there are only two [drivers], but for me that doesn’t make any difference. I’m actually very happy to queue.”

At the end of last year, he sorted a photobook for every member of the team, documenting their campaign. He takes being part of a team seriously.

Vettel likes commuting into the circuit by bike

Famously private and not on social media, we know less about Vettel away from the track than many of his rivals. But according to the man himself, he lives a (fairly) normal life when he’s back home. He cooks – though admits he’s not so good – mows the lawn, does the school run and takes the bus. He’s also a keen cyclist; you’ll often see him cycling around a Grand Prix city on a weekend, or in the case of venues like Montreal, between the track and the hotel.

He’s loved riding since he was a kid, the freedom a bicycle gave him allowing him to ride into town, see his friends, head to the local outdoor pool. But it was a motorised two-wheel vehicle which he spent his first bit of real money on – a Cagiva Mito – and he’s had an affinity with classic motorbikes ever since.

In his shed at home – yes, he has a shed – you’ll find his first moped, which is still largely in bits. Vettel stripped it completely some years ago and then started rebuilding it. The frame, suspension and front fork are in, and he got the seat reupholstered, too. But progress is slow.

Vintage motorbikes are Vettel's other weakness

“I pass by it often and think – ‘if only I had more time!’” he says. “Every now and then it’s nice to get some time to get in there. The problem I have is the times I get to spend on the bike are so far apart that it takes me half a day to get back into what I had done last time!”

This last winter offered an opportunity to have another tinker – and in the process give himself some time to reboot, recharge and ready himself for another fight. This has the feeling of a make-or-break year for Vettel. Get it wrong and he might end up spending more time in his shed…

MIKA27 · January 27, 2020

Why pre-season is as much about shaping drivers as shaping cars

For a sport built on speed, change in Formula 1, it is often said, occurs at glacial pace. Turning the ship is, well, like turning a ship. Look back at any political argument in the sport’s history, any rewriting of the constitution that binds its members together or the regulations under which they race. Look at how long bosses are given to pull once-mighty squads back to competitiveness. Teams are built, cars evolve. This game is not, and has never been, the making of a moment.

With a month until pre-season testing begins for Formula 1’s 70th anniversary year, we find ourselves in one of my favourite parts of any season. The story arc of the championship recently passed has finally settled, and before we have any inkling of whose car looks like what, there exists a rare moment of relative calm. For us, at least. Deep inside the Formula 1 factories of the world, not a minute is wasted in the complex schedule of the creation of the new cars which will start to break cover in a fortnight.

What’s of equal, if not slightly greater interest to me at this time of year, however, is how the drivers themselves are shaping up for this new year. For while the benefit of race experience and limitless data has helped form the soon-to-be unveiled cars for the 2020 season, so all that 2019 threw at the squishy bit between the engine and the pedals will have affected how they turn out for the start of the new year.

Each one has their own particular means of approaching the winter. No two are the same. And no one method is absolutely correct. What works for one human being will not work for another.

But can a driver, like a car, be completely reborn from one year to the next?

Refilling the tank

Valtteri Bottas is, perhaps, a good starting point. Much was made of Valtteri 2.0 in 2019 and the winter training he had put in not only rallying back at home in Finland, but taking himself away to the brutal and punishing climes of Lapland for an intensive reset. It worked, too. The beard was the physical representation of the change in the man, but we witnessed it first-hand on track, too. A win straight out of the box and heavily against expectation, even Lewis Hamilton admitted he’d had to re-up his game to contend with the new version of the Valtteri he’d known.

But then came the tail-off, and a slump of sorts. At the point at which Hamilton stepped it up, could Bottas find the extra in reserve to match that challenge? Ultimately one could argue not, and yet the fact the championship was only decided with a few races remaining and that Bottas ended the year on a brace of form would suggest he had found his footing and got back to the driver he was in Melbourne.

And all this, we must make clear, whilst undergoing a seismic rupture in his personal life. If Valtteri 2.0 could contend with all of that, one wonders who will emerge from the ice and snow in 2020.

Evolution not revolution

The human condition sees us all constantly developing. Rare is the occasion on which anyone will change in a sudden and wholesale manner. Change is gradual. We are all evolving, learning, growing. The turning of the ship is as true for a racer as it is for his race car. And what we see manifest in the man likely has a far longer backstory than the occasion on which we notice the change.

Take Max Verstappen. Sure, Monaco 2018 might now appear to be the Eureka moment that finally rammed home the lessons that shifted him from fast but wild into the team leader we know today, but that one singular moment would have done little to impact the youngster had his litany of earlier missteps not been made. The change was already underway, even if that final wake-up call finally cemented the need to adapt.

A driver manager who looked after one of the sport’s more crash-prone drivers once told me he’d much rather have a fast but wild driver on his books. The excesses, he argued, could be tamed and you’d just make do with the occasions on which the propensity towards the idiotic dared to raise its head again. That, you could cope with. That, you could work with. But you couldn’t make a slow driver any faster.

It’s the relapse of course, the moments where the old version threatens to creep back, that are the worry. And it’s in these windows that we see whether the change was real, long term and well founded, or merely surface.

Finding the reset button

Pierre Gasly trained like hell for his challenge as Verstappen’s team mate in 2019, yet before we’d even got to Melbourne the chinks were starting to show. The testing crashes knocked his confidence, and for the first time having the Dutchman as his sole barometer, the reality of the task and of Verstappen’s absolute quality came to bear. The constant hits and the underlying questions only served to knock him continually back to the floor. Only on returning to the fold of Toro Rosso could he find the space to rebuild himself, inarguably finishing the season far stronger mentally than at any time in his career to date.

Dany Kvyat knows that path only too well, and the first time around suffered terribly under the pressure of the situation. There is no small irony in how little time Red Bull’s drivers are given to prove themselves when we take it as an accepted part of the game that everything in this sport takes time. Indeed, Christian Horner and Franz Tost are the longest serving team bosses in the paddock. Management and race drivers, it seems, have very different levels of expectation.

Gasly celebrates his first F1 podium, Brazil 2019

A winning approach

Yet how a racer changes himself depends ultimately on who the racer is. Lewis Hamilton recently commented he would return as “a machine in 2020,” an ominous warning to his rivals from a sportsman who many would argue is already operating at a level that is simply unattainable for the majority of his peers. He seems to have so much in reserve that for anyone to consistently outperform him, they will need not only to have evolved and grown over the year before and the winter leading up to this new year, but to have the ability to continually develop within the season.

Just as anyone who wants to take the fight to Mercedes will have to out-develop them, so any racer who wants to beat Lewis will have to hold the ability to not only get up from the canvas, but to do so stronger and better than when they hit the mat.

The world champion appears to have spent his winter surrounded by family and fresh snow. Here is a racer who with each passing weekend seems able to consistently raise the bar and to produce a previously unseen level of excellence. A lot of that has come with age, and acceptance of self, but also the openness to consistently adapt, grow and learn. Perhaps most of all, though, it has come in his finding his feet away from the sport.

While many decried his travel to fashion shows and parties as being unbecoming of a professional sportsman, to my mind it makes him the most potent he’s ever been. The sport for him nowadays is fun. It may even be his way of relaxing away from the business arm of his global brand. Just imagine how strong a force that makes him. That he’s turning up and winning championships… for fun.

How on earth do you beat that?

New season, new unknowns

Who returns strong? Who returns evolved and refreshed, a new version of the racer we knew? Who returns so apparently changed only to be knocked off their feet at the first sign of trouble, and thus not changed at all?

As with the cars themselves, those that stand the best chance of success and genuine change will be the ones who have been working on it the longest. In this game, nothing is the making of a moment.

MIKA27 · January 28, 2020

Mercedes fires up its W11 for the first time

Mercedes has fired up its Mercedes-AMG W11 for the first time ahead of the new season. The W11, its challenger for the 2020 Formula 1 season, will be unveiled on February 14 during a shakedown at the Silverstone Circuit.

Mercedes is aiming for a record-breaking seventh successive Constructors’ title in 2020, having been unbeaten throughout Formula 1’s hybrid era.

It has retained both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, marking the fourth year that the duo have formed Mercedes driver line-up.

Hamilton swept to 11 victories en route to a sixth world title in 2019 while four-time winner Bottas finished runner-up in the standings, marking his best season in Formula 1.

Mercedes is the latest team to confirm its 2020 launch plans, following on from Ferrari (February 11), Renault (February 12) and McLaren (February 13).

Alpha Tauri will unveil its 2020 programme later on February 14 at an event in Salzburg.

MIKA27 · January 28, 2020

Williams to add David Worner, Jonathan Carter to technical team

Williams F1 Team

Williams has recruited two experienced Formula 1 personnel to senior technical positions, as it bids to arrest its decline in the championship.

Williams slumped to last in the 2018 standings and replicated that position in 2019, scoring just one point all year, and failed to make it out of Q1.

On Tuesday Williams revealed that David Worner will take up the role of Chief Designer while Jonathan Carter will act as Deputy Chief Designer and Head of Design.

Williams confirmed that the pair will start their new positions “in the near future.”

Worner currently oversees the synergies initiative between Red Bull and Alpha Tauri, and has worked in Formula 1 since 1997, initially at Arrows, before moving to Jaguar, which became Red Bull.

Carter has worked with Reynard and McLaren, and has been with Renault as Head of Composite Design since 2015.

In a further move Williams has appointed Adam Carter to the position of Chief Engineer.

Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams commented: “Dave and Jonathan bring enormous experience, knowledge and skills to the Williams team, and we are delighted that they are joining us in the near future.

“They will strengthen our design capabilities and work closely with Adam Carter, our Chief Engineer, and the other senior members of the Engineering team on the design and development of the next generation of Williams F1 cars.”

MIKA27 · January 28, 2020

Norris opens up on McLaren: “The team's confidence is back”

Lando Norris is the latest guest on The Autosport Podcast, joining Stuart Codling to talk about the challenges he faced during the 2019 Formula 1 season.
Speaking at Autosport International, Norris opens up about how hard he works and addresses whether people have the wrong impression of him being too relaxed over a race weekend. He also mentions the nervous moments and excitement he had in the run up to his first race.

Norris talks at length about his friendship with team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr and how hard they push each other and work together, which resulted in McLaren sealing fourth in the constructors’ championship in 2019. Will he and Sainz be able to match that again in 2020?

MIKA27 · January 28, 2020

The unseen side of F1 life that must not be ignored

The unseen side of F1 life that must not be ignored

FIA president Jean Todt's recent alternative views about the stresses and strains being put on Formula 1 personnel by a rapidly expanding calendar certainly raised some eyebrows from those working in the sport.
For while he is right that many in F1 enjoy a life that is the envy of millions of people who do not have access to food, water or medical facilities, equally it ignored some of the serious issues that those working hard at races go through.

Criss-crossing the world by plane - often in cramped economy seats - weeks away from home and family, incredibly long hours, lack of sleep and intense levels of stress amid a fear of failure are not the stuff of dreams.

In fact, add them all together and they are actually a perfect tinderbox for mental burnout.

It's been no secret in F1 that the turnaround of staff now is higher than it has been in the past. Where once young engineers and mechanics would have to get on their knees and beg, steal or borrow to get a job in F1, nowadays, the churn of staff who decide quite quickly the life is not for them is so high that teams are on a constant rotation.

For those new to F1, the strains that the sport puts people through quickly come to light. For every cheering team member that gets to experience their driver winning, there are a bunch of other team members further down the pitlane who are facing up to defeat.

Or worse still, there can be individuals who are shouldering the burden for being the person who cost their team a valuable result: be it through a botched pitstop, a broken part or a wrong call on the pit wall.

Add to that mix the fact that F1 is quite a macho sport, where owning up to weakness or exposing any trouble you are having is not always the easiest thing to do, especially when you are surrounded by a big bunch of men who all appear to be (on the outside at least) solid themselves.

It is one of the reasons that the attention of global men's health charity Movember has shifted towards the world of F1, where it feels the assistance it can offer on the mental health front can benefit those feeling the strain.

A barbers' stand in the paddock

Few have owned up in public to facing some dark times when working in a sport that many believe is simple a dream job.

But one of the most moving accounts of how far the stresses can push someone towards complete breaking point recently came from former Williams press officer Aaron Rook, who says he even contemplated suicide at one race because he simply could not cope any more.

"F1 is a business with a bit of sport slapped on the side like a customary salad clinging on to a greasy doner kebab," he wrote recently on a blog post. "That probably explains the constant, unnecessary 24/7 pressure it places on its staff.

"Not even something like, I don't know, a complete mental meltdown coupled with suicidal thoughts, could grant you a moments rest."

He added: "While the masses were slithering off to their fancy Amber Lounge parties to see who could attach themselves to the most famous person, yours truly was sat in a hotel room eating fast food and watching foreign TV.

"I was often content with that in all honesty. And, in fairness, I was always invited along to the swanky parties. But why would I want to spend the night dressed up like the Monopoly man, complete with a false grin, just to be ditched among the crowd before sloping off to the hotel after 20 minutes?

"So, it was always a safer bet to stay put and hang out with people I genuinely cared about. However, the more time you spend alone in a world like Formula 1, the further you're pushed aside. Especially in a clique-centric environment. Keeping myself to myself did just that. I often felt like the only person in the paddock.

"Not a second passed by without me thinking of my family and my friends back home and how much I missed them and needed them. In F1 I was a ghost. In fact, I almost became one."

Business and major sports are fast waking up to the need to ensure that the mental health of employees is better looked after these days – and they understand that they cannot expect their staff to simply put up and shut up with all that F1 throws at them.

But the job isn't done fully yet and Movember is aware that top level sport – especially one that involves more than 20 foreign trips a year – puts pressure on those involved that many in a more normal life never experience.

Dan Cooper, who is Movember's spokesperson for their F1 activity, said: "Traditionally, men are bought up to be strong and not show any signs of weakness, being told that to get to the top in any industry you have to keep your emotions to yourself. That perception is heightened in the world of sport'.

"F1 is a team sport and there's a lot of people that are under a lot of pressure and sacrificing a lot from a personal point of view. Yes, they're in a job that is probably what they always dreamed of doing, but some of those pressures sometimes can have a negative impact."

Mercedes mechanics prepare some tyres

Movember sees its relationship with F1 as a two-pronged thing: offering help to those who need it on one side, but also using the visibility the sport brings to help raise awareness of issues to the wider world.

The charity has barbershops in the paddock and Paddock Club (after all, where better for men to discuss problems). It has had help from teams and drivers in its charity efforts; and the F1 pitlane in November (Movember!) is often full of some big moustaches.

It wants those who feel that the strains to make sure they speak up and also to check in on how their friends or colleagues are doing too.

"Movember is about trying to speak to men in a language they understand, and trying to go to where men are," added Cooper. "And in order to do that you have to be authentic in our brand and what we do. We know that men are not always going to walk to a GP surgery and ask for information on things.

"We know it's not working because men are dying six years younger than they should do for many preventable reasons. We know that if men can talk and open up and actually have conversations in a comfortable space with people, either in their networks or with people they trust, then we can actually really help change, save lives and change those stats."

Teams are certainly becoming more aware of what needs to be done to help and protect their staff. Haas team manager Peter Crolla says he is optimistic that the new generation of staff coming through F1 are more open to asking for help and not bottling things up.

"It is tough, and no matter what job you fulfil on a race team, being away from your friends, your family, your home and the conflicts that go with that is not easy," explains Crolla. "I think no matter how well a team looks after you, that's still a hard thing to, to have to take on a new life.

"But I think as a generation I think we are slowly starting to understand that we can talk about stuff and there are support networks. Be that through your employer, through friends through colleagues.

"A very male dominated and macho industry is starting to look inside itself a little bit more and realise that you don't have to be this tough guy 100% of the time, because if you do, I think you'll soon expire.

"It's probably something that the generations before us never really had to explore. And probably have been quite resistant to. But I think guys nowadays, the majority, when they think they are in need, they know when and who and where they can turn to."

That teams and organisations like Movember are aware and listening is a much-welcome step for everyone in F1 who may face challenges, stresses and difficulties that not everyone knows about.

Sergio Perez, Racing Point Force India F1 Team at Movember Foundation

MIKA27 · January 28, 2020

Albon "shares many of the same virtues" as Verstappen - Horner

Albon "shares many of the same virtues" as Verstappen - Horner

Red Bull Formula 1 driver Alexander Albon "shares many of the same virtues" as his teammate Max Verstappen when it comes to coping with pressure, team principal Christian Horner says.

Albon, who will partner eight-time grand prix winner Verstappen at the main Red Bull outfit in 2020, had endured a topsy-turvy pre-F1 junior career that included a difficult three-year stint in two-litre Formula Renault and an exit from Red Bull's junior programme.

He had begun 2018 without the budget for a full season in Formula 2, but ended it with a Nissan Formula E deal, which he then swapped for a late Toro Rosso call-up that yielded a subsequent mid-season promotion to Red Bull.

Asked about the expectations for Albon's 2020 campaign on the heels of what is a rare straightforward off-season for the Anglo-Thai racer, Horner said: "It's probably the first time since his karting career that he's had that.

"He'll only benefit from that. He's had a lot of adversity to deal with during his career.

"And I think, you see people's make-up in adversity and I think he's shown that determination, that character, and I've got no doubt he'll benefit from stability now.

"And he shares many of the same virtues that Max has with that ability to cope with pressure, that determination."

Though Albon has so far not run Verstappen that much closer than his Red Bull predecessor Pierre Gasly, he proved a more consistent points-scorer and more adept in race trim, and was only denied a maiden podium in Brazil by a penultimate-lap clash with Lewis Hamilton.

"There's no specific goals [for 2020], he's just got to continue his development," Horner said of Albon.

"You've seen every race he's done with us, he's just got better and better. And I mean, he was unlucky in Brazil, but I think he's driven brilliantly well - first year, two [different] teams plus the pressure of coming here and having Max Verstappen as your teammate.

"He's handled that really well. I think he's impressed the whole team with his approach and his attitude, with his feedback, with his pace that continues to grow."

MIKA27 · January 28, 2020

Tight midfield fight demands 'discipline', says Renault's Ricciardo

Last year’s midfield battle was the closest in the hybrid era, and Daniel Ricciardo of Renault certainly felt the effects. The 2019 season was a formative experience for the man who left Red Bull for Renault, who were in the core of a captivating contest, and taught him a valuable lesson for 2020.

Just 18 points separated fifth-place constructors Renault and seventh-place team Racing Point in 2019 – compared to a difference of 42 between Haas and Force India in 2018 – the smallest difference between P5 and P7 since the turbo-hybrid era began in 2014.

After the season finale in Abu Dhabi where just 7.119s separated him (11th) and Perez in P7, Ricciardo said: “It has taught me a bit of discipline over anything else because the long and short is that you are always trying to drive as hard and fast as you can. But picking your moment [is] probably the best way to put it; a bit of discipline and experience.”

Part of that crucial need for “discipline” came from the Renault R.S.19’s sensitivity to overdriving – pushing the car too hard.

“It is so easy to overdrive and to try to get that extra tenth and you end up losing a tenth. Just trying to remain composed,” he said.

“It is kind of no different to the past, you are always trying to get the most out of the car. Just being more conscious of what a bit of overdriving does. Especially with the midfield, the car is not as good as the front guys so if you do have a slide you lose more time and overheat the tyres.

“You seem to pay a bigger price.”

Renault and Ricciardo didn't seem content with fifth in the championship, 54 points behind McLaren, and boss Cyril Abiteboul has aspirations beyond the top of the midfield while Ricciardo is adamant to improve his relationship with the team in preparation for 2020.

Their season launch is on February 12 – with new driver Esteban Ocon appearing alongside Ricciardo in yellow overalls for the first time – before testing begins on Febrauary 19.

MIKA27 · January 29, 2020

Lewis Hamilton hits out at 'false reports' over Formula 1 future

World Champion Lewis Hamilton

Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton has hit out at reports surrounding his Formula 1 future, insisting that he and Mercedes have yet to discuss 2021 plans.

Hamilton has been with Mercedes since 2013 and his current two-year deal expires at the end of the 2020 season.

He has previously indicated that he wants to stay at Mercedes – having been affiliated with the marque throughout his racing career – though did not dismiss the notion of a future position at Ferrari.

At last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff suggested that there was a 25 per cent chance that Hamilton would depart after the 2020 campaign.

During the winter break both Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc signed contract extensions with their respective teams, Red Bull and Ferrari, through until 2023 and 2024.

A report published in the Italian press earlier this week suggested that wage demands were proving a stumbling block in negotiations between Hamilton and Mercedes for 2021.

Hamilton took to Instagram on Wednesday to comment that “FYI Toto [Wolff] and I have not even spoken about [the] contract yet.

“Nothing is being negotiated currently, papers [are] making up stories.”

Hamilton has won five world titles and 63 grands prix since joining Mercedes from McLaren for the 2013 season.

He will again team up with Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes this year, with the duo's first appearance set for February 14, when the squad's W11 will be launched at Silverstone.

MIKA27 · January 29, 2020

McLaren fires up its MCL35 for the first time

Hear the MCL35 roar. Watch the team in action as McLaren and Renault fire up the engine of the MCL35 for the first time in 2020.

The team is due to unveil its 2020 challenger on February 13th and will field an unchanged driver line-up of Norris and Carlos Sainz following an improved 2019 campaign in which the Woking-based outfit finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship.

MIKA27 · January 29, 2020

FIA monitoring China situation as virus continues

The start of Formula 1's Chinese Grand Prix

Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, says it is monitoring the situation in China, amid the ongoing outbreak of a coronavirus.

The virus, thought to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, broke out in December 2019, and has gained greater prominence this month.

As of Tuesday the World Health Organisation and China’s National Health Commission confirmed that 132 deaths have been attributed to the virus.

There have been almost 6,000 cases of the virus, which has now spread beyond mainland China, with other nations reporting cases.

In the United Kingdom the Foreign Office issued an update on Tuesday to warn against all but essential travel to mainland China.

The WHO expressed its “deep concern” over the number of cases and that a “better understanding of the virus is urgently required to guide countries on appropriate measures.”

The FIA confirmed that it is monitoring the situation in association with Formula 1 and its ASN (local sporting authority) and will be tracking the evolving situation over the coming weeks, in order to consider its options.

Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix, which takes place at the Shanghai International Circuit, is currently scheduled as the fourth round of the season, from April 17 to 19, two weeks after the inaugural Vietnam Grand Prix.

Formula E’s Sanya E-Prix, which is held on the Chinese island of Hainan, is scheduled for March 21.

Chinese authorities have moved in recent days to impose travel restrictions on more than a dozen cities in a bid to contain the spread of the virus, while other countries have stepped up the screening of passengers at airports.

Several other sporting events or qualification matches have already been postponed or cancelled due to the outbreak of the virus.

Cycling’s Tour of Hainan, scheduled for February 23 to March 1, has been indefinitely postponed, as has the Chinese Supercup match between Guangzhou Evergrande and Shanghai Shenhua, which was set for February 5 in Suzhou. China’s football season is currently still due to start on February 22.

Events in boxing, basketball, tennis, skiing and swimming have all either been postponed, moved elsewhere, or cancelled.

China is currently in the midst of its New Year holiday period but this has been extended from January 30 until at least February 2, while enterprises in Shanghai will shut until February 9, while universities and schools in the city have suspended re-opening until at least February 17.

MIKA27 · January 29, 2020

Japanese GP start time shifted earlier for 2020

Start of the Japanese Grand Prix

Formula 1 has confirmed the schedule for October’s Japanese Grand Prix, with the race start shifted one hour earlier.

The championship revealed its session times for the bulk of the season earlier this month though the format for the round at Suzuka remained unconfirmed.

On Wednesday Formula 1 officials announced that the Japanese Grand Prix this year will begin at 13:10 local time (04:10 GMT/05:10 BST/06:10 CET), one hour earlier than last year’s race.

Conversely Friday’s practice sessions have been moved one hour later, and will run from 11:00 to 12:30 and from 15:00 to 16:30 local time.

Saturday’s schedule remains unchanged from the planned 2019 format – with FP3 at 12:00 and qualifying at 15:00 – which was ultimately cancelled due to Typhoon Hagibis.

It is the third event to have its race start time altered for 2020, with grands prix in Britain and the USA set to begin one hour later compared to 2019.

MIKA27 · January 29, 2020

Alonso: Rivals aren't exploiting Hamilton's "weakness"

Fernando Alonso feels Lewis Hamilton has "weak points" in Formula 1 "that have not been stressed yet", as the double world champion eyes a grand prix racing return in 2021.

In an exclusive interview with F1 Racing magazine, Alonso – Hamilton's teammate at McLaren in 2007 – was asked to assess his former rival's recent achievements.

Alonso, now a double Le Mans 24 Hours winner and World Endurance champion, has been out of F1 since the end of the 2018 season, and last won an F1 world title in '06.

Hamilton has won six championships in that time – including five in the last six years – which Alonso says shows the Mercedes driver has "raised [his] level in the last couple of years".

"Especially in 2019 when the car has not been as dominant as other seasons," added Alonso, who has expressed interest in returning to F1 in '21 if the new rules intended to improve the racing and spread out success across the grid succeed.

"If he cannot win, he's a very close second - not 20 seconds further back, which is what happens a little bit with Valtteri [Bottas, Hamilton's current teammate].

"A weekend when the car is not as competitive, Bottas is fifth or sixth or a minute behind - but Lewis is not. He's made a step forward, he is more competitive, more prepared.

"He still has some weak points that have not been stressed yet - no one is pressing that button, that weakness."

Alonso: Rivals aren't exploiting Hamilton's "weakness"

When asked to elaborate on Hamilton's suspected weakness, Alonso said: "If you study Lewis's season there is always a common trend.

"He starts the year slowly and no one takes the benefit of that. We all get excited that it will be the year of Bottas, but it's not.

"It would be nice to compete against him [Lewis] in a proper fight. Maybe his weak points are not real and everything is calculated but it would be nice to discover."

Alonso, who's formal relationship with McLaren ended at the end of last season, explained that taking advantage of a possible early season weakness would expose Hamilton to pressure he feels has not been under in recent years.

"When you have a good package and the other guys crash and you extend your championship lead, everything seems calm," said Alonso.

"If you are only one point ahead or ten points behind, the stress is different.

"The mistakes are different and your radio communications are different. We need to see [Hamilton] when the pressure is on."

MIKA27 · January 31, 2020

Aston Martin poised for decision over £200m Stroll bid

Aston Martin poised for decision over £200m Stroll bid

Racing Point Formula 1 team owner Lawrence Stroll could be announced as a major investor in Aston Martin as early as Friday, if his bid to buy a stake in the troubled sportscar marque is successful, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The billionaire Canadian businessman faces strong competition from Chinese motor manufacturer Geely, however, which is also keen to acquire a shareholding in the iconic British sportscar brand.

According to the FT the two rival bids are to be considered at board meeting on Thursday evening. Both interested parties are said to be willing to pay £200m for a 20% stake in the company, and would be able to pump some money in immediately while the details are finalised.

Aston Martin is in urgent need of extra funding. Its share price has fallen and profits have been squeezed since an initial public offering in October 2018, which was described by one analyst as “an abject failure”. It recently issued a profits warning, stating that its final 2019 numbers would be worse than had been anticipated.

The company confirmed that it “remains in discussions with potential strategic investors, which may or may not involve an equity investment into the company.”

The FT says that the decision on which investor to go with could be swayed by what else they can bring to the table.

Geely already owns or has significant stakes in car brands Lotus, Proton and Volvo, has an obvious interest in technical partnerships across its brands. Stroll has very strong motorsport and fashion business connections, with an Aston Martin link to his Racing Point team having been mooted some weeks ago.

Aston Martin is also currently title sponsor of the Red Bull Racing F1 team.

MIKA: Lance Stroll wants daddy to get him a new racing seat at RBR

Always remind me of this...

MIKA27 · January 31, 2020

Vettel/Leclerc rivalry an "advantage" for Ferrari - Binotto

Vettel/Leclerc rivalry an "advantage" for Ferrari - Binotto

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto insists that the rivalry between Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc inside the team is an "advantage", despite a few controversial moments last season.

Leclerc hit the ground running during his first season at Maranello, taking seven pole positions and two victories in a campaign that left Vettel under pressure to up his game.

And although their battle for supremacy boiled over at times, including a collision in Brazil and some outspoken radio remarks over team orders, Binotto is comfortable with how the situation is between the pair.

In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com reflecting on last season, Binotto said that it was only right that they were so determined to beat each other.

"If I look at the two drivers at the moment and how they are behaving together, it works very well," he said.

"There is a good spirit, a good benchmark and in qualifying, when Charles is disappointed that he is behind Seb, it is good and positive.

"But between the two, after all the polemics that we may have read in the newspaper about the radio communication, that is one point that is not a concern at all. In fact it is opposite.

"It is a good line-up, as well quite different in terms of experience, driving. For us, that is an advantage."

Binotto suggests that while there were controversial moments between the pair last year, he thinks matters were never so out of control that things cannot work this season.

Asked if such friction was an inevitable part of having two top line drivers racing against each other, Binotto said: "You have to accept them because that is obvious. They are top drivers and they are there to do their best and to win.

"So what's important for me is that they understand what is the overall objective and understand more about the overall situation [in the race].

"Arguing on the radio is never the best because when you are in the car you do not have the full picture, so then it is a matter of trust: trusting the team, even if you make mistakes, as the drivers may make them.

"I think it is only about clarity and transparency before the race, clarity and transparency also during the season, and then we should face whatever is the situation in the race together before we eventually discuss it."

MIKA27 · January 31, 2020

Can Williams escape the back of the grid in 2020?

Painful. That’s one way to describe Williams’ 2019 campaign, the second most successful constructor in the history of Formula 1 suffering the ignominy of trudging around at the back of the field with a car that was simply not quick enough to join the party. Does 2020 offer any hope?

You could argue their plight couldn’t get any worse. Last year yielded just one point. They parted ways with Technical Director Paddy Lowe, who’d arrived full of promise from world champions Mercedes. They missed the first two days of pre-season testing – and never recovered.

But there were shoots of hope. A restructure and cultural change was under way, the technical team reshuffled, relying on the strength and depth within. That helped get the development plan back on track, and the updates brought to the car from mid-season – and consistently after that – did what they were supposed to.

Make no mistake, Williams are still at the bottom of the pile – and a turnaround will not be quick. But it was these small steps that give Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams strength to believe the good days will return.

“It’s difficult for the naked eye to see, but we know what we are putting in and we are seeing the rewards of it,” she says, as we chat over breakfast. “It was a really difficult year, but probably not as difficult as 2018. I say that because we’ve done so much work to transform the business – and the hard work isn’t paying off yet.”

With the team locked to the back of the grid, you could understand why some staff may have wanted to hand their notice in and look for pastures new. But that hasn’t really happened at Williams. Sure, there have been a few moves – like every company – but the vast majority of the outfit, both race team and factory staff, have stuck around.

“They understand the journey we are on, and they are rolling up their sleeves and doing their part to get us back to what we want to get to,” says Williams. “They are fighting like they are going for P1. It’s great to see.”

Earlier this week, Williams announced two new signings to strengthen the design office with David Worner joining from Red Bull and Jonathan Carter from Renault. But they remain without a Chief Technical Officer. While Williams is full of praise for the work her senior technical team – Doug McKiernan, Adam Carter and Dave Robson – are doing, she concedes CTO is still a role they would ideally like to fill.

“I do think the CTO role probably needs to be filled at some point, but it has to be the right person,” she says. “We’re not going to rush into it. We have some clear criteria for that person. They have got to add a huge amount over and above the senior technical management team. We haven’t found them yet.”

Arriving carless at pre-season testing last year really hurt Williams. The pain still lingers. It’s why they are so keen to avoid that happening again, putting in contingencies to deal with problems that inevitably crop up when a new car comes together. The early signs are good, the car passing all the crash tests at the first time of asking. The focus now is to keep to their production deadlines – but so far, so good.

Williams are a fiercely independent team, proud of their status as a constructor, but their desire to make as much of the car themselves as they can – rather than take non-listed parts like Haas do from Ferrari – has been to their detriment in recent years as rivals’ resources swelled. So ahead of this season, they have made some concessions on this stance.

“We have to be realistic, based on the technical regulations – and the complexity of those – and the budget we have got as well,” says Williams. “We have been looking at what we should be outsourcing rather than making everything ourselves as there are some things which are nonsensical to make yourself when there are people out there who are dedicated to doing that one part.

“We have gone through that process and we will be outsourcing a handful, a small proportion of parts, but keep the bulk within the manufacturing team we have in house. One thing we don’t want to do is lose the capability, particularly around certain parts like gearboxes. That needs to remain in house. We won’t be suddenly switching to a Haas model, but there are certain things that it makes sense financially and from a time efficiency perspective to outsource.”

Two successive 10th place finishes in the constructors’ championship means a reduced share of the revenue received from the commercial rights holder. They have lost sponsors over the winter, including Rexona. But they have softened the blow with a bigger financial injection from title sponsor Rokit, including a wider partnership with their drinks brand Bogarts, extended sponsors like Sofina and signed new brands such as Royal Bank of Canada and Lavazza, the latter trio of companies all having links to their new driver Nicholas Latifi. “I believe we will have a similar budget to what we had last year,” says Williams.

There’s some stability in the driver line-up, with George Russell staying for his second season. Latifi has been promoted from reserve to a race seat replacing Robert Kubica. Williams rate Russell very highly, the Briton a shining light in a difficult 2019 campaign, and while his debut was tough, it’s clear his motivation remains high and he’s getting better all the time – traits Williams desperately need as they look to rebuild.

“George is one of those drivers who gets into his car and just gives it everything he has got,” says Williams. “We saw that weekend in and weekend out, in qualifying and the race. I’m sure it’s been incredibly frustrating for him but I do believe that when a driver is put in a position – particularly someone like George who probably has a long career in F1 – it will only be character building for them. I think he learned a lot last year. Sometimes it’s better not to have such an easy ride in your first year.”

In Latifi, they have the Formula 2 runner-up who has impressed the team with his work ethic when taking the wheel in six Friday practice sessions last year. “Nicholas is cut from the same cloth as George in some ways," says Williams. "He has a great family around him, has been through challenging times, has racing experience and the maturity to deal with what comes his way.”

Another trying year is likely, given the stability in the regulations and the team’s modest budget will hamper them making big gains. But they’ve been here before, suffering a similarly fallow period between 2011-2013 (excluding the 2012 Spanish GP win) as they finished ninth, eighth and ninth in the constructors' championship respectively, before rebounding to two successive third-place finishes, followed by two fifth places.

Admittedly, they are in worse shape now than back in 2011. But this is a team with an illustrious history that has Sir Frank Williams’ tenacious, never-say-die approach burning through its core. “I believe we can get back to where we want to get back to as long as we put the effort in, and we’ve got resilience to do so,” says Williams.

It may take some time, and it might not work out – but it won’t be for want of trying….

MIKA27 · February 3, 2020

Feature: Alonso’s Formula 1 return – is it all that unlikely?

Feature: Alonso’s Formula 1 return – is it all that unlikely?

Many things have been said about Fernando Alonso. And, with at least a couple of them, there is something like unanimity. That news follows him, and he cannot always be accused of being subtle.

And in recent days Alonso has indeed made quite the splash, by reminding one journal that, at least from his perspective, he is Formula 1’s king over the water. His F1 departure at the end of 2018 was not he reckons a permanent one.

“I’m not done with F1,” he said. “2021 [the year of F1’s much-vaunted car changes] is a good opportunity and I feel fresh and ready now.

“Formula 1 is unfinished business because people think that we deserved more than we achieved.”

And with this the two-time champion would not come back to make up the numbers. “There is no hope,” said Alonso of driving a car away from the top. With nice timing it’s just been confirmed that his partnership with McLaren is officially over, meaning he is free to look for a new abode. For good measure he added his take on how the recently-dominant Lewis Hamilton can be toppled.

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton raced together in the same team during the 2007 F1 season

As with most Alonso matters, the play has been met with some hope, a bit of amusement and no little disdain. And, on the last point, there’s justification as there are lots of reasons to think an Alonso comeback improbable. I stumbled across one tweeter promising to eat cat excrement if it comes to pass…

Improbable, but is it impossible? Alonso is 38 years old, but the man himself insisted this is no barrier. He would say that of course, yet come the opening race of 2021 he’ll still be near enough a year younger than Kimi Raikkonen is right now, and Kimi still is performing admirably. Alonso added that the modern F1 car, with no fuel stops, is driven well within its limits, plus 18-inch wheels coming in well mean a driving reset for everyone.

F1’s history lessons on comebacks however are mixed. Raikkonen’s and Niki Lauda’s were successful, Michael Schumacher’s much less so.

Alonso is a fair bit older than Raikkonen and Lauda were when they returned – both were 32. Yet he’s younger than the 41-year-old Schumacher was for his comeback and he will with a 2021 return have been out of F1 for two years, just like Raikkonen and Lauda, rather than Schumi’s three. Plus Alonso has continued to compete regularly between times – again somewhat unlike Schumi. And if Alonso’s anything he’s adaptable.

It’s reckoned that after a time away finding the final smidgeon of pace for a qualifying lap is the hardest thing to re-establish, and indeed neither Raikkonen nor Lauda were demon qualifiers in their second F1 spells. But if the 2021 cars are as good for overtaking as advertised then that will be less of a problem.

And in this debate there is a point that should be obvious but seems to have escaped some. That considered purely in of itself, recruiting Fernando Alonso would improve any F1 team’s driver line-up. Even his detractors would have him somewhere within the top five current F1 drivers.

But of course, crucially, there’s the context. And a major part is the F1 aphorism, coined by ex-Ferrari head honcho Luca di Montezemolo, that one should not put two roosters in the same henhouse.

Fernando Alonso narrowly missed out on the title whilst racing for Ferrari

F1 wisdom has it that for your driver pairing you instead need a number-one-and-a-half to go with your number one. One who merely likes to win to go alongside the one who needs to win. One who’ll be near enough to the pace of the lead driver to be useful, but not rock the boat in or out of the car.

And, on that premise, combined with that for Alonso a third title is the thing, it’s not clear where he can go.

In recent years winning in F1 has meant Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull. And even parking the other reasons we might fathom as to why a move to each of that trio might be unlikely, there is that they all already have a rooster in situ. Charles Leclerc has just committed himself to Ferrari until 2024 and Max Verstappen to Red Bull until 2023.

Hamilton’s Mercedes contract is up this year but Leclerc and Verstappen’s deals make him less likely to move. Even if Renault at last makes good on its promise and gets among the frontrunners, Alonso there would likely have to pair with Daniel Ricciardo.

It is understandable that in F1 we’re wary of ‘two roosters…’. The examples of it all going wrong roll from the tongue. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, quintessentially. Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet. Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann. One involving the man himself Alonso alongside Hamilton in 2007. Hamilton and Nico Rosberg was pretty incendiary. We had the latest stark case just last year with Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, them even right on cue driving into each other in Brazil.

The present and the future: Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen

But there are plenty of benefits from two roosters. There also can be no room for complacency or comfort zones. Senna and Prost in their two years together at McLaren were pushed to greater and greater heights from their rivalry.

And for all that we associate their time together with implosion, it also resulted in winning 25 of the 32 races, two crushing championship doubles and completing the most dominant season F1 has ever known.

With two roosters constructors’ points are maximised. Two lots of representative data are provided as well. It all seems a fair swap for a bit of internal aggro.

And is it really inevitable that two top-line drivers in the same team will fall out? The 20/20 vision of hindsight tends to lend a sense of inevitability to such things, but say Berger hadn’t had his big accident at Imola in 1989, meaning the race was never red flagged and in turn Senna never had the opportunity to ‘renege’ on his agreement with Prost?

We may conclude that it’s likely that the pair would have found another reason to fall out, after all terms between them started to strain when Senna squeezed Prost into the pitwall at Estoril the previous year.

But Senna and Prost weren’t always at war. Both the Senna film and the official 1988 F1 season review show the pair getting along famously, which given what came next seems like something from a parallel universe.

And there are examples from history where two roosters has been made to work. Jim Clark and Graham Hill at Lotus are the classic case, there’s also Prost and Lauda when McLaren dominated the mid-1980s, as well as Hamilton and Jenson Button at the same team more recently. It’s another age of course, but we can add Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss at Mercedes in 1955 too.

Then there are other high-level motorsport categories where the impression is of not shying away from two roosters nearly as readily. In MotoGP Marc Marquez last year was joined at Honda by fellow multiple champion Jorge Lorenzo (though as it transpired Lorenzo didn’t come close to challenging him); in the recent past Lorenzo has paired with Valentino Rossi at Yamaha in another all-star line-up.