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Refueling set to return to F1 in 2017

The Formula 1 strategy group met yesterday in Biggin Hill to discuss the state of the sport and exchange views on the current challenges F1 faces.

Not only were the teams invited to the meeting, but engine manufacturers were also invited.

The current V6 engines will remain but will be higher reving to increase the noise levels. The suggestion for a 5th engine has been rejected.

“The allowance for a 5^th engine to be used during the 2015 season has been rejected,” read the statement from the FIA.

Some of the changes discussed were:

For 2016 the teams will have a choice of two dry compounds(out of 4) per race. This means that the teams can choose any tyre compound they feel is right for a race.

In 2017 there will be new rules regarding aerodynamics, wider tyres and weight reduction to the cars which will make them 5-6 seconds a lap quicker.

Refueling will be introduced with a maximum race fuel allowance. The introduction of refueling is one that fans have been calling on for years. It will mean drivers can drive closer to the limit. If tyre rules are tweaked, it could mean more durable tyres that will make racing much more exciting.

These suggestions need to be ratified by the F1 Commission and the World Motor Sport Council who will meet in July.

May 15, 2015

Palmer Ends Barcelona Test Top of The Time Sheets for Lotus

Lotus test driver Jolyon Palmer finished on top of the time sheets for Lotus on the final day of the Barcelona in-season test on Wednesday.

Palmer set his fastest lap of the day with a set of Pirelli’s super soft tyres a few minutes before the day ended. His time of 1:26.080 was 0.417s faster than 2nd fastest man of the day, Mercedes’ Pascal Wehrlein and 1.7s slower than Nico Rosberg’s fastest time from Tuesday. Wehrlein was still feeling under the weather but powered through the day to rack up 137 laps for the day with a best time of 1:26.497.

Pierre Gasly was at the wheel of the Red Bull RB11 on Wednesday after a day with sister team Toro Rosso on Tueday. Gasly clocked 25 laps for the Milton Keynes based team with a best time of 1:26.683 on a set of medium compound tyres.

After complaining about the unstable rear end of the McLaren in Sunday’s race, Jenson Button reported on Wednesday that the setup changes that were undertaken by the team had resolved those issues. Button’s best time of 1:26.927 came courtesy of the super soft tyres. The Briton also managed to clock up 100 laps in the MP4-30.

Alex Lynn made his first appearance in and F1 car for the Williams F1 team on Wednesday. He completed 52 laps with a best time of 1:26.967.

“I didn’t really sleep that well last night as I was so excited about today,” commented Lynn.

“It has been an amazing day and great to get behind the wheel of the FW37.

“We managed to get through a really important schedule and I completed a number of runs in the car. The team were happy with how we got on and with my performance, so all-in-all it has been a really positive day.”

Finishing 6th fastest for the day was 18-year-old Frenchman, Esteban Ocon, who had his first outing in a Formula 1 car with Force India. He completed 94 laps and set his best time of 1:27.520 on a set of super soft tyres.

Making his Ferrari debut was newly signed reserve driver, Esteban Gutierrez. He finished 7th fastest for the day with a grand total of 118 laps to his name. Carlos Sainz Jr. in the Toro Rosso finished 8th fastest.

After spending a day at Ferrari on Tuesday, Ferrari Academy driver Rafaelle Marciello had a go in the Sauber C34. Just as he got going in the Sauber, he slid off the track at Turn 3 and crashed into the barrier damaging the front left. The Sauber mechanics had the car fixed after the lunch break and he was back out on the track and managed to rack up 75 laps for the day.

The teams head back to their respective bases to analyse the mountains of data collected over two days of testing. The next time we’ll see them again is at Monaco on Thursday 21 May 2015.

Below is the unofficial timing sheet from the second day of the in-season Barcelona test.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps	Tyre
1	Jolyon Palmer	Lotus-Mercedes	1:26.080	–	87	SS
2	Pascal Wehrlein	Mercedes	1:26.497	+0.417s	137	M
3	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull-Renault	1:26.683	+0.603s	75	M
4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	1:26.927	+0.847s	100	SS
5	Alex Lynn	Williams-Mercedes	1:26.967	+0.887s	52	S
6	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	1:27.520	+1.440s	94	S
7	Esteban Gutierrez	Ferrari	1:27.930	+1.850s	118	M
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso-Renault	1:27.997	+1.917s	125	M
9	Rafaelle Marciello	Sauber-Ferrari	1:28.829	+2.749s	75	M

Photo credit: Lotus F1 Team, Williams Martini Formula One Team

May 13, 2015

Rosberg Takes Charge of Day 1 of Barcelona In-Season Test

Nico Rosberg picked up right where he left off for Mercedes on Tuesday in testing after victory at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.

Rosberg’s fastest lap of 1:24.374 came in the morning session with an unmarked Pirelli compound was 0.307s quicker than his pole setting time for the Spanish Grand Prix. He also clocked up 146 laps around the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, the most of any driver for the day.

Marcus Ericsson at the wheel of the Sauber was second quickest on the day. His time of 1:26.624 pushed Ferrari Academy driver Raffaele Marciello down to 3rd fastest after he held second spot for most of the day for Ferrari. Both drivers completed 98 and 125 laps for their respective teams. Ericsson will make way for Marciello on Wednesday at Sauber while Esteban Gutierrez will get his first drive in the Ferrari SF15-T.

Despite reliability problems throughout the season so far, the Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat made it around the track 101 times with the 4th fastest time of the day. Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus had a trouble free day to finish his day 5th fastest for Lotus.

Nick Yelloly made his debut for Force India, albeit a day early. He was called up when Pascal Wehrlein fell ill and was forced to pull out of the test. Yelloly enjoyed his day out in the car finishing 6th fastest with a time of 1:27.396 and clocking up 109 laps for the day.

“It felt really good to finally get my chance in a Formula One car. I’ve been working towards this day for a long time and I need to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone at Sahara Force India for giving me this opportunity,” said Yelloly.

“The first few laps felt a bit unusual, but I soon got comfortable in the car.

“I’m feeling really positive about the day and I hope it’s been useful for the team.”

Wehrlien is scheduled to drive for Mercedes on Wednesday. They are hopeful that he’ll be fit to drive for the team.

Another F1 debutant was GP2 driver Pierre Gasly. He was at the wheel of the Toro Rosso and racked up a marathon 131 laps. He ended the day 7th fastest with a 1:27.639. Felipe Massa in the Williams was 8th fastest for the day and completed just 54 laps.

McLaren’s Oliver Turney was 9th fastest on the day with a 1:28.542 and clocked up 68 laps. McLaren were trailing a whole host of new parts at the track today and were trying to make the most of their time by testing as much as they could.

As the test goes on, Formula 1 Tyre supplier Pirelli are, with the help of Mercedes, Ferrari, Toro Rosso and Red Bull, testing out new compounds.

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:24.374	–	146
2	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1:26.624	2.250s	98
3	Raffaele Marciello	Ferrari	1:26.648	2.274s	125
4	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull/Renault	1:26.904	2.530s	101
5	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus/Mercedes	1:27.338	2.964s	60
6	Nick Yelloly	Force India/Mercedes	1:27.396	3.022s	109
7	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso/Renault	1:27.639	3.265s	131
8	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1:27.911	3.537s	54
9	Oliver Turvey	McLaren/Honda	1:28.542	4.168s	68

Testing line up for Wednesday 13 may 2015 available here

Photo credits: Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, Sahara Force India Formula One Team

May 12, 2015

F1 2015: Spanish GP Review – Rosberg Rises To The Occassion

It’s taken a bit of time but Nico Rosberg has struck back and with quite a dominant victory at that.

The circuit de Barcelona Catalunya has always been a good hunting ground for the German/Monegasque but given the way his 2015 season has been going the weekend wouldn’t have started with Rosberg as the favourite. In the Mercedes garage it’s been all Hamilton for the first four races and on the championship log too. But if there’s one thing in sport you can always count on its that there are always ups and downs.

From the Saturday qualifying session onwards Nico Rosberg was most definitely on the up.Perhaps it started even earlier than this as Hamilton appeared off-colour for most of the practice running. The reigning champion was never one hundred percent comfortable with the balance of his car and that was all Rosberg needed to pounce.

The under pressure German snapped up pole by a comfortable two-and-a-half tenths and never looked back. A clean launch off the line and good management skills was all Rosberg needed in Sunday’s 66 lap race. At no stage in the race was he ever under pressure and in fact as the chequered flag beckoned he was far enough ahead that he could ease off and coast to victory.

Lewis Hamilton had to work a bit harder for his eventual second place as he opted for a three-stop strategy. The early phase was highlighted by a fight with Sebastian Vettel during which he easily matched the pace of the Ferrari. However, Hamilton thanks to modern aero regs couldn’t get close enough to overtake on the circuit and opted for the pit-stop undercut which affected the position change.

Many would have been quite keen to see what the Ferrari upgrades would deliver in relation to Mercedes. The conclusion was far less spectacular than our lofty daydreams and the Spanish grand prix was a far from stellar weekend for Ferrari.

It could have gone worse for Vettel and Raikkonen; they could, for example, have been McLaren drivers. While Jenson Button was hauling his McHonda around in 18^th place and complaining about incessant understeer Fernando Alonso was forced into retirement with brake failure who, at the time, was running in 13^th place.

Let’s remind ourselves that this is the mighty McLaren. A team once reserved only for the greats such as John Surtees, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. A team that has amassed 182 racewins now reduced to retirements and also-rans. In the innermost part of your racing heart you know that it’s just wrong and desperately sad. It’s difficult to quantify just how far McLaren are from their once inspiring prominence but Jenson Button and Fernando Alonsoaccount of the “scary to drive” car is illuminating and quite disturbing.

Sebastian Vettel secured his customary third place on the grid but over on the other side of the garage a bit of a freak accident meant Raikkonen’s tyres were overcooked and the Finn was forced to set his Q3 time on a used set which netted him seventh on the starting grid. Things didn’t go spectacularly better in the race either. Vettel had a bit of a fight for second with Hamilton but was ultimately relegated to third. Raikkonen too turned a decent pace with yet another impressive stint on the harder, and slower, compound tyre. Yet, Ferrari conceded the biggest victory margin to Mercedes of the season so far.

The first four races of the 2015 season haven’t painted a pretty picture for Nico Rosberg. He has been so comprehensively whipped by Lewis Hamilton that his psychological well-being came into question. A mini-meltdown after the Chinese grand prix and a lacklustre Bahrain grand prix rendered a rather gloomy outlook for the once championship contender.

And while we were rightly discouraged by Rosberg’s lack of grit deep-down we were hoping for resurgence from the number 6 Mercedes. Now, one race doth not make a consistent Hamilton-beater but it has to start somewhere and he is the most likely contender. Given that thenext round is the Monte Carlo grand prix with which Rosberg has quite the love affair this Spanish Gpwin could turn out to be an important turning point for Nico.

May 12, 2015
Carlos Sainz Jr’s Journey to Formula One

Toro Rosso star Carlos Sainz Jr got his Formula One career off to a fantastic start by scoring points on his debut at the Australian Grand Prix. He then followed that with yet more points in Malaysia. Red Bull presents this short clip looking back on Carlos Sainz Jr’s journey to Formula One and also his triumphant campaign in Formula Renault 3.5.

A full version of the Carlos Sainz Jr documentary is also available for those who want to watch a little more. Be sure to click on the Subtitle/CC option to view in English.

May 11, 2015
Tear-off visor strip to blame for Alonso brake failure

It appears that a tear-off visor strip is to blame for Fernando Alonso’s brake failure at the F1 Spanish Grand Prix. The brake failure saw Alonso very nearly running over his pit crew and then retiring from the race.

The McLaren team identified the issue during Alonso’s second stint and called him in to the pits for a tyre change and so that they could investigate. On arriving in the pits, Alonso’s brakes failed to stop the car. The front jack man had to leap out of the way in order to avoid injury. Alonso was forced to retire and McLaren mechanics later found a tear-off visor strip covering the right-rear brake duct – most likely leading to the brakes overheating and ultimately failing.

“It was scary for the guys but luckily we didn’t hurt anyone and the team were very fast with their reaction so next time hopefully everything works fine, ” Alonso said. “We had no brakes for the whole in-lap but then on the pit stop, even less, so it was deteriorating but everything was fine.”

Alonso went on to say that the brake failure issue was completely separate to the problems he faced in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix and said that now McLaren will now need to make “double steps” in order to keep up.

“Today was a new problem. Yesterday it was one disc – it was not getting temperature – and today I had no brakes – so it’s different, definitely. It was the rear disc – it stopped working – so I only had front brakes, which meant I had to retire the car. I couldn’t brake in the corners and I couldn’t even brake in the pit. It was a disappointment but there’s nothing we can do now just prepare and do an investigation in what happened to the brakes and in Monaco come back stronger.”

Photo Credit: McLaren F1

May 11, 2015
Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes won’t tell me to stop racing again

Mercedes driver and current F1 World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was not happy with the radio message from his team telling him to back off during the final stint of the Spanish Grand Prix.

A slow start from second on the grid and a slow first pit stop compromised Hamilton’s race and meant that he had to switch to a three-stop strategy in order to retake second place from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Following his last pit stop, Hamilton was comfortably ahead of Vettel and had fresh tyres on which he could attack the 18-second gap to race leader team mate Rosberg.

Hamilton asked his pit wall about the possibility of catching Rosberg and his engineer, Peter Bonnington, responded that it was “impossible”, telling him to back off and consolidate the second place. Hamilton was not happy with this at all.

“It’s not nice for a driver to hear that,” Hamilton said. “I’m here to race, not to finish second so actually I ignored that. Then I was really putting the car on the edge and when I realised that I had seven laps to go and there was still 13 seconds and I was only 0.7s per lap faster, I had to take the smart approach and bring the car home. Still, it’s not something you want to hear so I will definitely be making sure that is not said again.”

Hamilton did concede though, that by pushing, Rosberg would also be forced to push which could put both cars at risk. He’s now looking forward to Monaco though and says he’ll be fighting back. “I know that I can rectify things at the next race and that’s what I plan to do. I’ve not won that race for a long, long time and this is going to be my third chance with this great team and with a great car. Hopefully third time lucky.”

Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG F1

May 11, 2015
2015 In-Season Barcelona Test Line Up

The first in season test for 2015 will be held at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona from the 12th – 13th May 2015.

Most of the teams have already confirmed their driver line up for the test apart from Manor, who will not be participating in the test.

Below is the line up for both days for the Barcelona test

Mercedes
Tuesday: Nico Rosberg
Wednesday: Pascal Wehrlein

Ferrari
Tuesday: Raffaele Marciello
Wednesday: Esteban Gutierrez

Red Bull
Tuesday: Daniil Kvyat
Wednesday: Pierre Gasly

Williams
Tuesday: Felipe Massa
Wednesday: Alex Lynn

McLaren
Tuesday: Oliver Turvey
Wednesday: Jenson Button

Lotus
Tuesday: Pastor Maldonado
Wednesday: Jolyon Palmer

Force India
Tuesday: ~~Pascal Wehrlein~~ Nick Yelloly
Wednesday: Esteban Ocon

Toro Rosso
Tuesday: Pierre Gasly
Wednesday: Carlos Sainz Jr

Sauber
Tuesday: Marcus Ericsson
Wednesday: Raffaele Marciello

May 11, 2015
Arrivabene:”We Need To Work Harder”

Ferrari was one of the teams that brought a whole raft of updates for the SF15-T to the Spanish Grand Prix and were expecting a big improvement. They did, however, see an improvement, but it seems like Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene was expecting more.

Sebastian Vettel, who qualified in 3rd and finished the race in 3rd, had the bulk of the new parts on the car. Kimi Raikkonen on the other hand reverted back to some of the older parts on Saturday before qualifying. Raikkonen qualified in 7th but worked his way up in the race to finish 5th.

Speaking after the race Arrivabene said that more needs to be done to close the gap to Mercedes.

“The comparison of the two aerodynamic configurations in the race clearly shows that Sebastian’s car was going very well versus Kimi’s,” commented Arrivabene

“But we need to improve. The gap to Mercedes is there and we need to analyze our data to understand the reasons.

“We’re not blind to the fact that we were losing about half a second in T3 only, which puts a premium on traction, and we must find out whether this depends on the nature of the track or on our faults.

Arrivabene felt that they chose the right strategy for the race and feels that a three stop strategy would’ve left them worse off.

“Strategy-wise, we took an aggressive approach by having Seb stop only twice for tyres. If we had gone for a three-stopper, things wouldn’t have changed or would have been even worse.

Although he is encouraged about the step forward from Ferrari, he feels that they should be closer to Mercedes and says that they need to work harder.

“The numbers tell us that the new solutions are good, the reality shows that they are not good enough. We did make a step forward, but it was supposed to be a jump. I am not blaming anyone in particular, I am taking my own responsibilities. We need to work harder”.

Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1

May 10, 2015
No Penalty for Sainz and Kvyat For Turn 1 Incident

The stewards have decided not to penalize Toro Roso driver Carlos Sainz and Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat for their incident on the final lap of the race.

The two were fighting for 9th place and on the final lap of the Spanish Grand Prix the pair made contact into Turn 1. Kvyat, on the inside line after making three moves, locked up under braking and went straight on as Sainz attempted a pass around the outside. The contact between the two forced Sainz off the track into the run off area. Sainz then continued over the sleeping policemen and rejoined the track ahead of Kvyat before Turn2.

A statement by the FIA read: “Stewards accept the statement of the driver of Car 26(Kvyat), the concurrence of the driver of Car 55(Sainz) and confirmation from the video evidence, that the first two moves were not defensive and that only the third move was defensive,” read the statement from the stewards.

“The stewards agree with the assertions of the drivers and team representatives that this was a racing incident.

“The Stewards consider that Car 55(Sainz) was in front at the time it entered the corner and accept the evidence of the driver that he slowed in re-joining the track at Turn 2 and gave room at Turn 3 for Car 26(Kvyat), in order to avoid gaining a lasting advantage. The driver of Car 26(Kvyat) also admitted that he slowed at Turn 2 and gave room for Car 55(Sainz) to re-join the track.

Photo Credit: Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula 1

May 10, 2015