Latest

FIA bans F1 radio instructions to drivers with immediate effect

Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, has banned F1 radio communication between drivers and their race engineers that relates to the performance of the car.

As part of their effort to improve F1, the FIA has decided to ban any F1 radio communications that may appear to make driving in Formula One seem too easy as a result of drivers getting instructions on how to drive their cars.

The fight for the 2014 Formula One Drivers’s World Championiship title between Mercedes team mates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, in particular, has seen a number of examples of both drivers being coached with information from the pit wall about how they are performing against their team mate and where and how they can improve.

F1 radio messages are also often seen to advise drivers on where they can make changes in order to aid the performace of their cars but F1 race director Charlie Whiting has issued a statement to all teams informing them that these messages are banned with immediate effect.

Article 20.1 of the FIA’s F1 Sporting Regulations is being cited. The article states, “The driver must drive the car alone and unaided”.

Whiting’s message to teams regarding the ban on F1 radio communications read, “”In order to ensure that the requirements of Article 20.1 of the F1 sporting regulations are respected at all times FIA intends to rigorously enforce this regulation with immediate effect. Therefore, no radio conversation from pit to driver may include any information that is related to the performance of the car or driver.”

The ban on F1 radio communications has been prompted by fears that the amount of communication between drivers and their race engineers during races has increased to the point where drivers now seem like “puppets” steering the wheel.

The radio ban will include information about tyres, the condition of the brakes, fuel consumption, engine maps, ERS modes, fuel mix and differential settings. Formation lap instructions such as burnouts, gearbox sync, clutch bit point and brake and tyre temps are also banned. It seems like the only thing the race engineers will be able to relay to the drivers over the radio are messages about traffic, pit stop timing and, if the need arises, team orders. It seems that drivers will be looking at their pit boards more often now.

A recent example of such F1 radio communication which gained a lot of media and social media attention was when Nico Rosberg asked his race engineer for “driving advice” during the German Grand Prix.

Following the ban on F1 radio communications, teams still have the freedom to advise drivers on pit stop strategies and also on safety issues.

The ban will be discussed further in Singapore, ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, in order to clarify exactly what is and is not permitted.

September 11, 2014
Di Montezemolo to Step Down From His Role as Ferrari Chairman

Luca Di Montezemolo announced on Wednesday morning that he will be stepping down from his position as Ferrari Chairman ending days of speculation about his future.

We reported a few weeks ago that there were plans for Di Montezemolo to leave Ferrari and take up a position at Alitalia. But this was rejected outright by the Italian. Speculation intensified at the Italian Grand Prix about his future but he insisted that he was not going anywhere. Doubts about his future were again put into focus when Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne deemed the Ferrari Formula 1 teams’ performance as “unacceptable”.

His announcement was made the day before a Ferrari board meeting on Thursday.

“Ferrari will have an important role to play within the FCA Group in the upcoming flotation on Wall Street. This will open up a new and different phase which I feel should be spearheaded by the CEO of the Group,” said Di Montezemolo

“This is the end of an era and so I have decided to leave my position as Chairman after almost 23 marvellous and unforgettable years in addition to those spent at Enzo Ferrari’s side in the 1970s, he added”

“My thanks, first and foremost, to the exceptional Ferrari women and men from the factory, the offices, the race tracks and the markets across the world. They were the real architects of the company’s spectacular growth, its many unforgettable victories and its transformation into one of the world’s strongest brands.

A warm farewell and my thanks also to all of our technical and commercial partners, our dealers across the globe and, most particularly, the clients and collectors whose passion I so wholeheartedly share.

But my thoughts go also to our fans who have always supported us with great enthusiasm especially through the Scuderia’s most difficult moments.

Ferrari is the most wonderful company in the world. It has been a great privilege and honour to have been its leader. I devoted all of my enthusiasm and commitment to it over the years. Together with my family, it was, and continues to be, the most important thing in my life.

I wish the shareholders, particularly Piero Ferrari who has always been by my side, and everyone in the Company the many more years of success that Ferrari deserves.”

Marchionne will take up the role as Ferrari Chairman. In the mean time, Di Montezemolo will stay on as chairman until the new Fiat Chrysler Automobiles company floatation on the New York Stock exchange which takes place on 13 October 2014.

September 10, 2014
Schumacher Continues Recovery At Home

Michael Schumacher will return home to continue his recovery and rehabilitation process at home following his skiing accident last December.

Schumacher spent 6 months in a medically induced coma at a hospital in Grenoble after sustaining severe brain injuries. He was later transferred to Lausanne’s University Hospital in June to continue his recovery.

A statement released by Schumacher’s manager read as follows:

“Henceforth, Michael’s rehabilitation will take place at his home.

Considering the severe injuries he suffered, progress has been made in the past weeks and months.

There is still, however, a long and difficult road ahead.

We would like extend our gratitude to the entire team at CHUV Lausanne for their thorough and competent work.

We ask that the privacy of Michael’s family continue to be respected, and that speculations about his state of health are avoided.”

There were no further details regarding the 7-time world champions condition

September 9, 2014
F1 2014: Italian GP Review- Hamilton Rises To The Challenge

After all is said and done it is still on track where the real talking is done. Two weeks on from enormous disappointment Lewis Hamilton turned up in Italy ready to do the talking. A comfortable pole position started the ball rolling.

It wasn’t all picture perfect though as a poor start dropped Hamilton down to fourth at the start of the race. But there wasn’t very much that was going to douse the fiery determination of the Brit. He fought back first with an overtake on Kevin Magnussen and later a fearless move around the outside of Felipe Massa into the first chicane. Rosberg tried to maintain the four second gap he’d built up but a mistake caused him to straight-line the first chicane which halved the gap over Hamilton.

In the first laps after the one round of pit stops Hamilton unleashed his superior pace and reduced the gap to Rosberg to 1.2 seconds. A bit of pressure to the mix and Rosberg soon out-braked himself and missed the first chicane. This mistake was enough to hand Hamilton the lead of the race who went on to win his sixth race of the season.

The storm of controversy wouldn’t be nearly as juicy if someone wasn’t there continually stirring the pot. Some suggest that Rosberg’s mistake at turn one was actually not a mishap at all. The conspiracy theorists reckon that Rosberg was serving his punishment from the goings on at Spa. Since sanity does tend to dominate our consciousness for most of the day this theory is easily dismissed as utter rubbish. Ask yourself how weak a driver, a person for that matter, Rosberg would have to be to agree to something so blatantly spineless.

Elsewhere, newly re-signed Williams driver Felipe Massa recorded his first podium for the British team ahead of his recovering teammate Valtteri Bottas. The Finn had to fight his way back from tenth after a dreadful start to the race. He was able overtake several drivers, via slipstreaming, with the help of his super-slippery-in-a-straight-line Williams. Daniel Ricciardo yet again put on display his staggering race craft with several extravagant overtakes which ultimately netted him a fifth place finish ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel.

McLaren carried over their improved pace from Belgium to Italy which enabled Kevin Magnussen to finish seventh on the road. However, the rookie was demoted to tenth after he’d been given a five second penalty for forcing Bottas off the track earlier in the race. Force India’s Sergio Perez inherited seventh as he held off former teammate Jenson Button in a tantalizing wheel-to-wheel battle.

Ferrari fans turned up in droves to cheer on their beloved team but the two prancing horses could never muster much more than a simple trot across the line. To add insult to a serious lack of pace Fernando Alonso suffered an ERS (Energy Recovery System) failure on his car. The Spaniard succumbed to his first mechanical retirement since 2009. Elsewhere, Kimi Raikkonen dragged the lacklustre Ferrari around the Monza circuit and eventually finished ninth overall.

The short cool down before the podium was rather telling of the relationship between the Merc drivers. There was no congratulatory handshake and in fact for most of the time Lewis Hamilton had his back to his teammate chatting away to Felipe Massa. The podium interview, conducted by Jean Alesi, was as awkward. The former Ferrari driver wanted to know if Hamilton and Rosberg were still friends to which the Brit reflexively answered: “yes, we’re teammates.” So that’s a no then.

Lewis Hamilton may only have pulled back seven points on the championship lead but the psychological victory was far greater. For one, Hamilton will be delighted with the knowledge that he could pressure Rosberg into a mistake. What’s more, Hamilton will savour the realization that he has exposed some cracks in the Rosberg armour.

September 8, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix: Sunday Press Conference

DRIVERS

1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

2nd Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

3rd Felipe MASSA (Williams)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by Jean Alesi)

Lewis, so we would like to know, do you like to complicate your life?

Lewis HAMILTON: What a great crowd we have here. This is amazing to see. The whole finish line straight is completely filled with fans. You guys make this race, so thank you so much for the support.

Nico, I spoke with our friends from Monza, they said: “maybe for Nico we change Turn One.” Can you tell us what happened in Turn One?

Nico ROSBERG: It was a pity. It didn’t work out today but Lewis drove a great race and he deserves it. So it’s OK.

Lewis and Nico, I have to speak but I cannot speak very loud because it’s a secret. Are you friends again?

LH: Of course, we are team-mates and we always will be so…

That’s the best picture we can see is when you are friends, because all your life you race together and we like the way you drive, we like the way you fight, so we are happy to hear that.

Felipe, you have made you first podium [this season] but it’s a place you know very well, Monza, so you have to say something in English as well.

FM: Yeah, sure. I’m quite happy for the first podium of the season. I was not very lucky in some of the races, but the luck is on our side I’m sure now, from now to the last race we’re going to be there fighting, so I’m so happy to be on the podium here and there’s a lot more to come. So thank you very much and you are the best. Beautiful, you are the best.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Lewis, many congratulations, another victory here in Italy; the first time in your Formula One career, I believe, that you’ve won six races in a single season, so a positively good omen there for you I’m sure. In the second stint… obviously the start wasn’t great and I’m sure you’ll touch on that, but also at the beginning of the second stint your engineer suggested to you that you might like to drop back 2-2.5s behind Nico and maybe attack him at the end, but you didn’t do that. You put the pressure on him and obviously ultimately he went straight on at Turn One and you took the lead. Give us your mindset at winning the race, the start, and that phase there.

LH: Well, first of all, a big congratulations to the team. They said that they would want a one-two and they got it today. It was a difficult race. For whatever reason… at the start there’s a button that you press which engages the launch sequence and for the formation lap it didn’t work. I thought “no problem, I’ll just put it on for the race” and then when I got to the grid I put it on and again it didn’t work. It’s very, very strange, I’ve never really had that happen before. There was a different sequence of lights that were on, that were unusually… that weren’t on ever before. Anyway, I tried to pull away as fast as possible. The RPM was all over the place and fortunately I managed to not lose too many places. We never practice a start like that where you don’t have the launch sequence in; we always practice in a launch sequence to optimise it. So I had no idea really what I was supposed to do, so I just floored it and hoped for the best. Then after that I had a good battle with Felipe, obviously. That was very fair through the corner. Then the engineer said that I should stay back, but knowing from experiences and also particularly this year I knew that that wasn’t the way forward, so I chose another route.

Can you say a bit more about that?

LH: The car felt good and it was the closest I had been at that point and just really during the previous stint I knew when I was behind others, when I was behind Nico, when I got closer to him on the older tyres it was very hard to stay with him. So I knew that the only chance would be at the start and so I took it.

Nico, you got a perfect getaway, you were leading in the first stint, but obviously the talking point regarding you is the two straight on moments into Turn One. One I think on lap nine and then obviously the decisive one, which led to Lewis taking the lead. Was it your mistake? What can you tell us about it?

NR: No, it wasn’t my mistake, it was the other guys’ fault… I’m just kidding! It was just Lewis was quick, coming from behind. I needed to up my pace and then as a result just went into the mistake. That was very bad and that lost me the lead in the end. Definitely very disappointing from that point of view. But then at the end of the day, also, first of all it’s a great day for the team, because after the recent difficulties it’s the first one-two for the team in a long time, I believe, if I’m not mistaken. And so that’s back to where we need to be, so that’s awesome. And then for me: of course I’m disappointed now right afterwards but in the end of it, still second place, still a lot of points, so it’s not a complete disaster.

I think it’s the first one-two since Austria.

NR: Yeah, so that’s great. And the team deserves that, to put all the recent things behind us now and move forward.

Very well done. Felipe, congratulations on another podium here in Italy and an important one – your first one for Williams and more importantly it takes you ahead of Ferrari now. Williams are third in the Constructors’ Championship.

FM: Yeah, definitely. It’s a great day for us. It was a great race, a great start. Also the pace, I think, was very good. So, not enough to fight with Mercedes but I think we had a very good pace, a very good car. The team did a perfect job. I’m really, really happy to be on the podium today. We missed a little bit during the season to be on the podium but so it’s special to be on the podium here in front of these amazing people. Also, a very positive result for us that we passed Ferrari here as well, which is very important for us, very good for us, so I think it’s amazing to see how Williams were last year and we are fighting with big teams. Definitely it’s really good for the whole team and we will keep fighting until the last race and I hope really we can get this third place in the Constructors’ Championship. It would be fantastic for the whole team. I’m so happy to be on the podium here in this amazing place that I really love.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question for Lewis and Nico. When you put Nico under pressure, were you expecting a mistake of Nico? Where you trying to get close and overtake him? Question to Nico, can you tell us more about the difficulty of braking at the first chicane?

LH: I was pushing to overtake him. That meant it opens up doors for everything. So, I mean… I don’t really know what to say.

Nico?

NR: Monza, yeah, it’s one of the most difficult tracks for braking because of low downforce and the highest speed of the year. That isn’t any excuse or anything, that’s just the way it is. It is one of the challenges, y’know, of this weekend here. Unfortunately I got it wrong. Two times in the race.

Q: (Péter Farkas – Autó-Motor) Nico, it’s maybe a bit surprising that you don’t look particularly downbeat despite coming second to Lewis. It’s almost as if you have expected that second place to him. Is it fair to say that you have not completely regained your balance from Spa? Or do you think it has nothing to do with it?

NR: Spa is behind me. I put it behind me before the weekend. No. In today’s race, just came to the mistake because Lewis was fast from behind. That’s it. There’s nothing unusual or anything. And me not being downbeat, I am very, very disappointed inside. But there’s no point now to go hanging mouth down and things like that. It’s still a one-two for the team and that’s a great day. And it’s not a disaster, that is a fact. I need to quickly look at the reality: second place, it’s OK. There’s a lot worse than that. I lost seven points to Lewis, so, y’know, that’s the frame of mind that I’m trying to take.

Q: (Ian Parkes – PA) Lewis, first of all, congratulations. When you had that incident at the start there, given the many incidents you’ve gone through in recent races, was there a thought in your mind of ‘oh no, not again’? And to Nico, unfortunately for you there were some more boos on the podium. Was that disappointing again to hear? And how do you try to move on from that?

LH: I think when you’re preparing for the race you generally do everything near enough the same but you have to be prepared for the unexpected. I’m quite grateful today that I didn’t lose it, I didn’t end up crashing in the first corner, I didn’t end up touching anyone, I didn’t end up locking or anything like that. So, managed to keep my composure even though this thing… what it is, is a button that engages a system which controls the RPM, helps you control the RPM, and when that doesn’t engage, the RPM just goes all over the place, so you’re not able to get normal starts, so a correct launch. I don’t know what the problem was, I guess the guys will investigate it and we’ll try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’m just grateful that I was able to not lose too many places and the also recover from that.

Nico?

NR: It’s obviously not nice but what can I say? I hope that with time they forgive and forget. That would be great. I have apologised, I can’t really do anything more than that. Yep, that’s it.

Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – Sb Belarus Segondnya) Felipe, 2007 you was second driver in Ferrari with Kimi champion. Last year you was second driver in Ferrari with Fernando, double champion. Today you are on the podium Monza, Italia, without Ferrari, without Kimi, without Alonso. Is it your message to Ferrari, first question? And second question: what do you feel in the podium here without Ferrari?

FM: First of all I think is not a message to anyone, I think it’s just… y’now… you saying that I was second driver, I was trying everything to be the first driver all the time in my career. So, whatever team I was, had difficult times but it is part of our lives. Sometimes you have times that are a little bit more difficult than you expected but you need to fight against it, you need to go forwards. I always fight. It’s not a message. We are fighting with Ferrari as well, that’s not a message. We need to do everything we can to be in front of them. I’m not driving to Ferrari any more. I have an incredibly heart for Ferrari, they are really inside my heart and they will always be because I had an incredible time there, a great time there. But now I am in another team and we need to fight with everybody, not just Ferrari but Red Bull, Mercedes, everybody. We need to try to be in front of everybody and, y’know, today we did a fantastic job so we were in the podium. I think it’s a message that we’re competitive. It’s a message that we are there, that we are fighting. It’s not something that I need to… I have nothing against anybody. I just want to be in front of these people, which they really like me. I had an incredibly time with them for many years. It’s not that I’m not in red anymore that I don’t have the same pleasure and happiness to be there in front of these incredible people.

Q: (Andrea Cremonese, La Gazzetta dello Sport) A question for Lewis and one for Nico. For Lewis, do you think recovering seven points is a bigger relief after what’s happened in the last few races, and if you feel yourself have plenty of confidence for the Championship? For Nico, if after the second mistake, if you was a little bit affected in the instruction that you received from the team because you lost in two laps two seconds from him, from 4.6 to 2.6 seconds in two laps.

LH: Well, I’ve generally felt like I’ve always been in good shape. But I came here with a positive attitude. Hoping just for no issues. I guess the cool thing about today is that I had another serious one and I managed to pull through it. Again, all those experiences I’ve had kind of have prepared me for it today and I’m still looking for one of those weekends where we don’t have any troubles. Clearly today I had the pace on everyone and on Nico and I felt that way all weekend. So, I’m going to make sure that’s the case moving forwards.

Nico?

NR: I don’t remember what happened. I think it was… traffic? Lapping somebody or something like that. That was the biggest problem but I’m not quite sure. But either way, Lewis in that phase was quick, so it didn’t really change that much but yes, maybe that shortened the process a little bit. But nothing in particular.

Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN) Lewis, we talked about Monza being about mental toughness as well as about what you can do on the track, and today we saw you fight your way through the field.You ignored the team’s advice about holding back a bit and then you had to listen to all the Italian in the weighing room, the podium and no one was speaking English to you. Do you feel like you showed today that you’re mentally tough enough to win the title? Is that important?

LH: Firstly, I didn’t ignore the team’s orders. I have a great relationship with my engineer and he’s constantly in touch with me throughout the race and really guiding me. If I’m losing a bit of time here or there, he’s telling me so that I know how to correct it. They want to win just as much as me so they’re just trying to guide me to what they think but at the end of the day, I was the one out there and they had to really decide: OK, I can back off here and keep the tyres but the calculation might be better the other way. I knew that if I applied the pressure, an opportunity would eventually come. I didn’t get the chance to say it really out there but the fans have been amazing here. Even I’ve gone through difficult times here – 2007 probably, when I was racing against Fernando and obviously we were racing with Kimi and the Ferraris but I’ve really felt a real growth of the support that I’ve had here over the years. It’s such a beautiful nation. When you come here, the weather’s always good, the track’s incredible and there’s nowhere you go and you see the whole straight, which is one of the longest straights in the whole season, completely full of fans, mostly with red caps and flags but they really create the atmosphere. In terms of me, I came here to do a job and I did it so I’m happy with that.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Nico, there are six races to go and you lead by 22 points. When do you think that it’s time to start to consider only the championship instead of winning races?

NR: I don’t know. For me the approach that works best at the moment is just trying to win the race that I’m at, that’s the way I feel most comfortable at the moment. We will see. Maybe I will tell you when I change my thinking.

Q: (Ted Kravitz – Sky Sports) Nico, the team told us at the end of the race that you were managing brake temperatures. Was that the problem at the first corner as well? Were the brakes the problem throughout the race?

NR: No, the brakes were no problem at all, up towards the end when you first heard it on the radio, that’s when it started to become… and it wasn’t a massive problem, just something that you have to manage a little bit. That’s always going to happen, because opening up the front brake ducts you lose quite a lot of aerodynamic performance. You always try to bring that to a certain limit and that may then put you slightly over in the race so it’s not the first time and last time that something like that is going to happen and I think it was just pretty much optimised for here.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Auto-Motor) To all three of you: all three of you had reasonably long first stints on the mediums. How marginal were the tyres to do a one-stop? Did any of you have any problems? Lewis mentioned that it was hard to follow Nico on used tyres at the end of the first stint.

FM: Well, I think a one stop was the strategy for everybody before the race. I think the tyres worked pretty well, maybe a little bit more degradation on the medium which I was suffering a little bit more at the end of the stint on the medium but no problem at all with the hard tyres. I think it was really pretty much OK to one-stop, at least for us.

Q: Lewis, we heard a message to Nico from his engineers saying that you’d reported that the tyres were beginning to go off before lap ten, I think it was. Did you have any issues? Did it clear itself?

LH: No, basically I was in traffic, I was behind a couple of cars. The grip didn’t feel good at the time. To be honest, the tyres have been really good this weekend. It was generally really easy in terms of doing a one-stop. There was only one risk and that’s really if you lock up, that’s generally why you’ll see drivers going (straight) on at the first corner, because they don’t want to try and make the corner, lock up because then they have to convert to a two-stop which is much slower, so the thought is that if you get a lock, you let off the brake and go straight and that’s what Nico would have done twice and that’s what other people would potentially have done today. But I think it’s such a cool track – I don’t know if it was fun to watch the race – but to give more racing, more pit stops would have been good here, bit of a softer tyre which was a bit more of a challenge because the tyre was really easy to generally look after. I didn’t have any problems really…. I was behind Nico, losing downforce through the high speed but then as soon as he pitted the car was quick again, so I think the tyre could have gone even further.

Q: Was it any way marginal for a one-stop for you, Nico?

NR: Not really, no. Of course there was quite a lot of degradation on the soft one but no, it was fine. And I agree, it would be better to have two stops for more exciting racing, but then again, for the fans and you watching on TV for sure the one-stop is much easier to understand because it’s very straightforward and simple, whereas as soon as you get into two-stop, it becomes different tyre strategies and this and that and it becomes near impossible to understand often in front of the TV, but also has some advantages.

Q: (Ottavio Davide – Tuttosport) Felipe, do you think that on a completely different track such as Singapore it’s possible to beat both Mercedes?

FM: Mercedes? Very difficult. In Singapore, especially, I think it will be very very difficult, but Singapore is a race at which many things happen so we need to believe that we can do a good job there as well so I would say maybe from now to the last race, Singapore is maybe the track that is going to be more negative than the others for us. But at Singapore, you never know, many things happen there so I hope we can do a good job there as well. If we can beat Mercedes it will be a surprise but we will try everything we can.

Q: (Leigh O’Gorman – Walker Watson) For all three: concerning how Monza is such a fast circuit, so much of it is full throttle, were there any issues with regards to fuel usage during the race?

LH: It’s not an issue. This track was very easy to…

NR: No problem.

FM: No.

NR: Mercedes engine, I suppose.

September 7, 2014
Hamilton takes comfortable pole for Italian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton comfortably secured pole position for the Italian Grand Prix during qualifying on Saturday at Monza.

Hamilton took the pole grid spot by two tenths of a second over warring Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. Rosberg went into qualifying without being able to take part in the full final practice session – completing only three laps in FP3 due to a gearbox issue. However, the Mercedes team were able to sort out the problem without having to break any of the FIA seals on the gearbox and as such will not receive a grid penalty for Sunday’s race at Monza.

The Williams duo of Valterri Bottas and Felipe Massa will lock out the second row of the grid.McLaren suprised everyone with Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button lining up fifth and sixth, while Fernando Alonso could only manage seventh for Ferrari’s home Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel finished in eighth place ahead of his Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo and Force India’s Sergio Perez to round out the top 10.

Daniil Kvyat only just missed out on making it through to Q3 but will drop to 21^st on the grid due to a 10 place grid penalty for using a sixth engine this season.

Kimi Raikkonen was the biggest casualty during qualifying, managing only 12th after a pretty scruffy lap.

Your full timesheets and results are below. Please join us tomorrow for live commentary and chat on @F1_Madness on Twitter as we bring you blow-by-blow action of the Italian Grand Prix.

September 6, 2014
Rosberg Tops Second Practice at Monza

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg finished on top of the time sheets after the second practice session this afternoon for the Italian Grand Prix.

Rosberg finished the session with the fastest time of 1:26.225, his team mate Lewis Hamilton an electronics problem with his car, which meant that he was only able to get out on track with about 30mins left in the session. Nevertheless, Hamilton ended his session in P2 with a time of 1:26.286, just 0.061s slower than Rosberg.

The Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen(1:26.331) and Fernando Alonso(1:26.565) finished the session in P3 and P4 respectively, much to the delight of the Tifosi. This seems like encouraging pace from Ferrari who were expecting to be off the pace here in Monza.

Valtteri Bottas in the Williams ended his session in P5 with McLaren’s Jenson Button, showing some encouraging pace, finishing in P6.

The top 12 drivers are covered in just a little over a second, with the two Force India’s in the pack.

Below is the full timing sheet from the session

September 5, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix: Thursday Press Conference

Drivers:

Kevin Magnussen (McLaren)

Max Chilton (Marussia)

Valtteri Bottas (Williams)

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

Q: Fernando, can we start with you? Twice a winner here obviously, on the podium here in Monza for the past four years, but the podium count is down a little bit this year, just the two so far. Do you see signs, though, of encouragement from the performance in Spa?
Fernando Alonso: Well, definitely I think it’s one of the most important races for us in the year, here in front of our tifosi, and we would like to give them some good results on Sunday. I’ve been extremely lucky to have been on the podium in the last four years and hopefully I can repeat that good feeling. It’s going to be difficult. On paper it should be one of the toughest for us. But as you said, I think we saw some signs of being a little bit more competitive in Hungary and we were nearly on the podium in Spa as well with Kimi, so hopefully we can have that opportunity and as I said, being on this podium is something special.

Q: You had quite a battle with Kevin (at Spa) and obviously he was penalised afterwards and we’ll hear from him in a moment, but can you describe the battle from your perspective?
FA: Obviously, you know, we try always to fight and overtake. More than 30 laps behind Kevin in Spa and it was not easy to overtake. I had one chance with some cars in front of us and I took that opportunity and at the end I went a little bit on the grass. The race direction decided to penalise him at the end. We gained that position; we lost a couple more because of that fight but when you are fighting for sixth or seventh at the end of the race it’s not a big deal.

Q: Kevin, obviously you were hit with a penalty after that. Give us your perspective in the battle with Fernando.
Kevin Magnussen: Well, obviously I did my best to fight for sixth position. For us that was a really good result or would have been – sixth. In the end I went over the line and got a penalty. I guess that’s just something you learn from as well, it’s all good experience and I can always say I did my best. I enjoyed it as well. Hopefully, we can have another good strong race here.

Q: Without that penalty you would have had a sixth points finish in seven races. Are you getting any signs of encouragement from the team that this is the kind of form that will keep you in this seat next year?
KM: We’re fighting very closely with Force India. Williams is a step forward compared to us, but we’re fighting for position in the Constructors’ Championship and every point is very important at the moment, so keeping consistency up is very important at the moment.

Q: Well, obviously another duel that had everyone talking in Spa was the Mercedes battle at the start of the race. Nico, we’ve all seen the statement from the team and other things you’ve said since, but what persuaded you that you had something to apologise for because when we spoke after the race in Spa you weren’t sure?
Nico Rosberg: Just with time. I took the week to think about it and had a look at it and discussed with the team on Friday and I just in the end decided that it was me who should take responsibility for it.

Q: So, Lewis, in your mind, is it a racing incident? Is that how would put it in your mind now?
Lewis Hamilton: There was nothing in my mind. I think this is the first time that we’ve been in the room for a long time that there have been so many people here. For me, I’m really excited about moving forward, I feel energetic, I had a good couple of days break last week, so excited to be here, this is one of my favourite circuits so I hope that we can have a good weekend.

Q: And how do you move forward? Have you found a baseline, if you like, of trust and understanding to encourage you to believe that you guys can work together from here?
LH: I knew you were going to say that! I think I already said everything in the press release. Trust is a big word and it’s not something I would particularly apply to racing on the track. Naturally, me and Nico have been racing for a long time and I think we have set a good foundation a long, long time ago so that’s what we work from.

Q: Nico, coming back to you, this duel is often compared to great duels from the past history of our sport. Are you becoming aware that the two of you are making history this year and do you feel the responsibility of that?
NR: Yes, definitely, yes. And in Spa, definitely I was not proud of the way it went because in general I really want to contribute to ‘my sport’ in inverted commas, you know, because I want it to be the most entertaining sport in the world and if I’m able to contribute to that in many ways throughout the season then I’m very happy about that and I’m sure in many we have and that’s great.

Q: And Lewis, just a word from you on that: do you feel the hand of history on your shoulder? Are you aware of the responsibility?
LH: I don’t think I have a responsibility towards history. I mean, history is created every day. I just love racing and I’m proud to be amongst all the drivers here and I’m just trying to enjoy every single day as it comes, you know. Everything becomes history eventually and I personally don’t put us in the same ranking as the greats back in the day.

Q: Thanks for that. Valtteri, coming to you. Another podium in Spa, the fourth for you now this year. You’ve generally been the fastest man throughout this season through the speed traps at a lot of places we’ve visited, so is Monza a potential fifth podium for you?
Valtteri Bottas: Well that should be the target. We don’t see any reason why it would be not possible, so we’re aiming for that. We know it’s a good place for us, one of the good ones. We do have good straight-line speed and a special package for here, as I’m sure everyone does. I’m really looking forward to this one and I really think Sunday will be good fun.

Q: Williams wasn’t too far off a win in Austria or Canada. What will it take to get that final push to get you over the line?
VB: I think by pure pace, it is going to be really, really difficult. Mercedes is… any track they are going to be the strongest at the moment. Even Red Bull was surprisingly quick in Spa, so it’s never going to be easy but we are aiming for that and we still need to work on all areas of the car. We already have a good straight-line speed but all areas including, especially the corners, getting more grip into the car is the main thing really. We’re working on that. It’s still a long season to go, so let’s see.

Q: Max, you were obviously on pole here in your GP2 days. Is this one of your favourite tracks?
Max Chilton: Yeah, I think it’s everyone’s favourite or one the favourites of the year. I was on pole here in Formula 3 and GP2. I’m not saying I’m going to be doing that this weekend but I will give it my best shot and will try to extract the most from the car and I just enjoy being here. You only have to do the track walk this morning to see the old banking and it just gives you a good feeling for the weekend.

Q: Can you shed some light on where you and your backers are now with Marussia after what took place in Spa? You said at the time that it was not what everyone thinks it was. So, is it resolved for you now for the rest of this year and what about 2015?
MC: Yeah well there was never really an issue in the first place. It was a busy weekend, I’m not going to lie, but it was a commercial decision that was overturned by senior management over the course of Thursday evening. So, my weekend didn’t really change. I was always out of the car for practice one for Alex, our reserve driver, and so it was nice to be back in the car for free practice two, because Spa is my favourite circuit so we ended up having a good race and a good weekend.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Ian Parkes – Press Association) To Lewis and Nico. In a TV interview earlier this week that Fernando did, he remarked that both sides of the garage would now be divided – engineers, mechanics, people that know you well would favour one or the other. Do you sense that within the team that you are now a garage divided?
LH: I don’t know if that’s the case. We have a very professional team and yeah I mean they just want to win. So they’ll be working as hard as they can. Also the guys working in the garage work collectively for the pit stops. That thought doesn’t even cross my mind. I think the guys will be working flat out this weekend. They know we have the chance to have one-twos and to win the championship for both the Drivers and the Constructors and I think they will giving it their all.

NR: I general, there has been throughout the whole season a healthy rivalry, within the team also. That is why we are where we are, you know. We have the best car out there, we have the best team at the moment. That’s because we work well together as a team and if you don’t work well together as a team you can’t dominate the sport as we are at the moment so I think that’s the best proof of that.

Q: Fernando you were mentioned there as being quoted. Do you want to qualify your comments or add anything?
FA: No, whatever I say I will always be misinterpreted and always any comment you say after two or three days will be a big thing. I didn’t say exactly that but I cannot change the world.

Q: You don’t want to clarify what you meant?
FA: It’s OK.

Q: (Frederic Ferret – L’Equipe) Question to Fernando, could you speak about your early days with Minardi and how difficult was it to begin your Formula One career at the back of the grid and not scoring points and not being visible.
FA: It was tough but it was worse at the end of the year, first year in Renault as test driver. As far as… you are driving, you are on the grid. OK, you are not able to deliver the result that you would like and to fight for the top positions but at least you are racing – which is what you have done for many years in go-karts and different categories. And then, OK, this is Formula One – but you are racing. When you are watching races on the television in the garage, that was very tough.

Q: (Peter Farkas – Autó-Motor) Lewis, do you now accept that it was simply a racing incident from Nico’s part, and Nico, do you think that, in fact now you will be at a small disadvantage because you will have to be extra careful not to have an accident in close combat?
LH: Well, again, I know it’s something you all want to talk about but after the race it was important to really try and move forwards and that’s really what I’m focussing on. What’s happened in the past is in the past and it is what it is. I’m excited to get back in the car. I have seven races, there’s still a lot of points available and so that’s my focus.

Q: Nico?
NR: It’s been very clear from the beginning that we must not have contact between us team-mates. And so from that point of view the approach doesn’t change now for the future. It’s been the same.

Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Nico, as the tension in the Championship battle is getting bigger and bigger, have you prepared yourself psychologically for a very vicious media attack? What we saw in the past two weeks was basically some kind of witch-hunting already against you from certain journalists.
NR: I respect the opinions and then for me I really try and focus on driving my race car fast, working together with the team, getting the best out of the situation and also, importantly, enjoying the moment. I’m very, very lucky to have such a car. It’s very seldom in F1. I go to every race now and know that I can get pole and I can win the race with the car that I have. The team is doing an unbelievable job, also with the development. Keeping it up, y’know? Pushing further and further and further. The other guys are not getting closer really, y’know? So, that’s great and I want… my focus is on that: in the moment; make the most of it.

Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport-Bild) Lewis, a question for you, we learnt from last Friday that Nico gets punished by the team for the incident in Spa. What I want to know is: did you get punished by the team for not accepting the team order in Hungary as well or not?
LH: Um…well, I don’t know really. We all get punished for all the incidents that we… we have meetings always. We always get a big slap on the wrist. But as I said I’m moving forward. In actual fact in the first… in Hungary I didn’t say ‘no’ to the situation. I said that “if he gets close then I’ll let him by,” so I wouldn’t hold him up. And afterwards I sat with Toto and Paddy and they said “you made the right choice”. As human beings, we have the right to question things that are said to us – orders – just to make sure that it is the right one. And it turns out that that one wasn’t the right one and the team said that to me in the meeting.

Q: But it was a team order during the race…
LH: It was, but Nico didn’t get close enough to go by…

Q: (Vladimir Rogovets – SB Belarus Segodnya) My question for Fernando. You had already seven years ago the negative experience in partnership with Lewis but today I see you are friends – it’s very good. I think the same between Nico and Lewis. My question: can you be the ambassador for peace between Lewis and Nico?
FA: Good! Ah, no I’m definitely not an ambassador for peace but yeah, I think 2007, I think it didn’t work as we wanted. But, as I’ve said many times, it never was a problem with Lewis. We had a very professional relationship, very competitive people inside the team and that was quite normal. It didn’t work because the team… I was not happy with some of the philosophies, and some of the team management at that point and I had more possibilities to go in different teams the year after and we decided to move forward from there. But I never had a problem with Lewis and it’s not a surprise today that we still have a good relationship and I’m sure these guys will move forward. As Nico said, they have a clear target, which is winning the world championship, both of them. They are in a privileged position, which is to fight for that goal. From the outside we will try to enjoy as maximum this beautiful battle. The sport is made of these kind of things. They have a good problem: fight for the world championship.

Q: (Andrea Cremonese, La Gazzetta dello Sport) Question for Nico and one for Lewis. For Nico, how has the booing on the podium affected you in Spa? If you think about that and are you afraid it can happen again? And for Lewis, what does it mean that you freeze the discussion for the future contract with Mercedes? Are you thinking something like Fernando’s strategy in 2007?
NR: It was definitely not a nice feeling to hear boos towards me. And I understand, because they travel a long way, some of them, to watch a great, exciting race; a big battle between Lewis and I, and they didn’t get that. I understand that and I accept that.

Q: Lewis?
LH: Well, I haven’t said that I was freezing anything. We’re constantly talking with the team – but I think at the moment the priority is to win the championship. I still have a contract for a whole ‘nother year on top of this one, so there is no rush. But I do want to say that I see my future with Mercedes. I’m really happy there, so…

Q: (Luis Fernando Ramos – Racing Magazine) A question to Lewis. You fought for the 2007 title with Fernando as an opponent in the team, and now with Nico in the team. Which of the two offered you a fairer fight on and off the track?
LH: That’s not really a particularly good question. When you’re fighting with your team-mate, as Fernando said, you’re fierce competitors but outside it’s really important to remain respectful and, I think I’ve had the pleasure of working with quite a few different drivers and every single one of them has been hard to race against, in a different way, a different manner. I think generally, the majority of the time, we’ve not really had many problems. And that’s what I hope for moving forwards.

Q: (Byron Young – Daily Mirror) Nico, could I just ask why you apologised? Was it because your team bosses made you or was it a heartfelt thing?
NR: They can’t make me apologise. It definitely was a decision that came from me after hearing people’s opinions and after having looked at it myself again. I felt that it was my responsibility.

Q: What changed?
NR: Time. And hearing other people’s opinions.

Q: (Rosie Bailey – F1 Plus) Question to all of you: what do you think about the changes to the run-off area at Parabolica and how will it affect the way you approach that corner now? Will you take more risks because there’s tarmac instead of gravel?
KM: I do think we will take more risk… well, you’re not really taking more risk because it’s more safe and you can just go off the track and come back again and generally I’m not a big fan of that. I think it adds to the experience of driving at circuits if there is a little bit of a bigger consequence of going off the circuit. I’m not saying we should compromise safety but in my opinion, I don’t think we’re making the track more unsafe by having gravel there, but it’s still an awesome circuit – I’m sure – and I’m still going to really enjoying driving here, I know that for sure. But yeah, I haven’t driven it yet so we will see how it is.

VB: Yeah, I agree quite a lot with Kevin. I really think last year it was maybe a bit more challenging in a way because on the exit we were always going with the outside wheels just on the white line and you knew that if you went a couple of centimetres too wide that that would be it, you would go off, but now it doesn’t matter if you go a bit over the white line, you just need to keep at least two wheels on the track and that’s it. It’s still a good track. It’s just that one corner is less exciting.

MC: Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of it. I think it’s maybe allowed us to go for slightly more risky overtakes but I don’t see why they needed to extend it so far around. As Valtteri said, it was a bit of spice, the old circuit, where we used to run up against the white line and if you went slightly too far you would hit the gravel and you knew it was over. Now, to me, it looks like we can get away with it so I’m not a big fan of it but that’s the way it is.

LH: They’ve pretty much said everything. I think the FIA are very very conscious of safety and I think that’s nothing to shy away from, I think that’s a very very important issue but I’m old school, so I like the old circuits, back in the nineties when there was no tarmac run-off areas, where it was grass, because even last year, here, when you went round that corner, you didn’t, as I said, you know… and I experienced it last year, I went wide through a mistake and you pay for the mistake. But what is really important is that of course if you do have an incident the tarmac does slow the car down better, so that is a good move but you can’t win, both sides.

FA: I think they’ve said everything. Nothing to add.

NR: It was one of the more risky corners that we still had in our calendar so it definitely makes things a lot safer and that is the right direction to go in.

Q: (Livio Oricchio – Universo On-line) Nico, in a battle for the world title between two drivers, how important is the psychological war?
NR: Of course in sport it plays a part of it. Your performance is linked to many things and your mental state of mind is always important in sport.

Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Fernando, back to the Parabolica again; the FIA said it was the drivers that wanted to see a safer corner so how many drivers were consulted and who were the drivers who actually wanted that tarmac run-off area put there because the back row, I think, would have left it as it is? Lewis you spoke very well about the safety, but Fernando, who were the drivers who said we want this changed?
FA: I don’t know, I don’t know.

Q: (David Croft – Sky Sports F1) Did the GPDA not discuss this?
FA: As far as I know, I don’t think so. There have been some discussions in the past for the entry, probably in case you have a brake failure or something to have the possibility to not go straight, just into the gravel and hit the tyres but probably from mid- to exit of the corner, that was probably a surprise for us also. Which it still is I think. Artificial grass on mid- to exit which before probably we said that we can put two wheels out of the track and two inside and don’t pay a big price but I don’t agree. I think if you put two wheels now, you will go on that artificial grass and you have to back off because you have a snap on the car and you need to back off, so you still need to be a few centimetres from that artificial grass now to do a perfect corner.

Q: (Sarah Holt – CNN) Just one more question on Spa, if I could ask Fernando and the two Mercedes drivers as well: in a situation that we saw happen last time out in Belgium, when there’s a mistake by one driver and it effectively puts another driver out of the race and then the first driver makes an 18 point gain over the second driver in a hotly contested title race, should the FIA investigate the incident a bit more closely than they did in Spa?
FA: I don’t know why I need to answer so many questions on Spa! No, I would like to answer, you know, to be honest, because I have no clear input on that. It’s FIA rules and they get us to race in a fair way and to respect the rules and they always try to do that and if in Spa they didn’t decide to go any further, they thought that it was OK like this but as I said, I was not in that incident, I was not involved. I saw it the week after but I have no clear opinion.

Q: Nico, were you asked to clarify your comments or anything?
NR: No. Just we need to trust the FIA to make the right calls, that’s our position as drivers.

LH: I think the FIA have a really tough job, particularly over the last couple of years they’ve done an exceptional job, I think, on the majority of the calls. I think their problem is always that the rules… the scenario is always different, so the same rule doesn’t always apply exactly. Sometimes perhaps it’s difficult to say which rule applies to what situation but I think there’s a very good question, to be honest, because how do we move forward from that? Does that mean that we can all now say OK, we can race a lot closer and if the guy in front comes off and is out of the race, nothing’s going to happen so then we will be more relaxed towards it or does that mean if it happens again there will be a penalty? I think we’re always asking to be able to race. It’s very hard out there to manoeuvre a car at those high speeds without sometimes having contact but there’s a fine line. But I think it’s a really good question, I don’t know the full answer to it really.

Q: (Ralf Bach – Sport Bild) Nico, is it right that Niki Lauda talked to you in the week after the Spa race and apologised for the interviews he gave directly after the race at Spa?
NR: Yes, it’s true, yes, and that was a nice gesture of his which I have accepted, fully accepted of course, and also there, it’s a thing of the past.

September 4, 2014
Weather Report for the Formula 1 Gran Premio D’Italia 2014 (Italian Grand Prix)

Round 13 of the Formula 1 World Championship brings us to the Autodromo Nazionale Monza which plays host to the Italian Grand Prix. The Temple of Speed.

Monza is the fastest track on the F1 Calendar. Cars will reach speeds in excess of 320 km/h. With all that speed comes enormous amounts of energy that goes through the tyres under cornering and braking. Pirelli have brought the white medium compound and the hard orange compound tyre to Monza. Because the track is so fast, the cars will be running very little downforce on the front and the rear. This means that the tyres will be relied upon to provide the mechanical grip needed in the corners and at the exit of the corners.

It’s going to be typical Italian summer weather this weekend at Monza. The forecast looks sunny and dry for the entire race weekend with a few thundervshowers expected in the afternoon on Saturday. Temperatures will hover in the high 20’s which means track temps will be high as well. Below is a snapshot of the weekend’s weather.

September 3, 2014
Haas F1 Team and Ferrari Agree on Multi-Year Engine Deal

Ferrari announced that it has reached a multi-year technical agreement with Haas F1.

The deal will mean that Ferrari will supply the power unit, transmission and technical support to the American based Haas F1 team.

Ferrari Team Principal Marco Mattiacci made the announcement earlier today.

“We’re delighted to announce this important strategic partnership with Haas F1 Team and to welcome an American player as a new entrant in Formula 1”, said Mattiacci.

““A few months ago we joined forces with Gene Haas on a commercial level and this is the natural next step of our growing relationship.”

Mattiacci added that the deal could extend to beyond a supply arrangement, given Ferrari’s commercial interests in the United States.

‘While our objective is to reinforce our power unit development programme for all our customer teams , we believe this new partnership has the potential to evolve beyond the traditional role of supplying our power unit and all related technical services. United States continues to be one of the most important markets for Ferrari and it offers many interesting opportunities. We look forward to supporting Haas F1 Team in its efforts to become a competitive player on the Formula 1 grid.”

Gene Haas, the owner of Haas F1 hailed the agreement and hopes that the agreement will bring them to the front of the F1 grid.

“There is no team in Formula One more accomplished than Scuderia Ferrari, and no team with more history,” said Haas

“They’ve been a part of Formula One from the beginning, and now they’ll be a part of Haas F1 Team’s beginning. Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsports. It showcases the latest technology and is the most competitive form of racing in the world. Aligning Haas F1 Team with such a tenured and successful company in Scuderia Ferrari provides our team with the greatest opportunity for success in 2016 and beyond.”

Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1

September 3, 2014