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Red Bull appeal verdict to be announced on Tuesday

The General Secretary of the FIA’s International Court of Appeal has said that a verdict on Red Bull’s appeal against the disqualification of Daniel Riccardo at the Australian Grand Prix, will only be given on Tuesday.

“We will announce the decision tomorrow morning at the latest,” said Jean-Christophe Breillat following a six-hour long hearing at the FIA’s headquarters in Paris today.

He has also confirmed that only the verdict will be given and then a full explanation around the reasoning behind the decision will be made available “by the end of the week”.

Red Bull argued that the technical directive (16:14) relating to fuel flow sensors is not regulatory. As such, they believe that the team cannot be punished for ignoring the FIA’s request to reduce its fuel flow, since the directives are generally regarded as advice. The team also tried to prove that the team had not exceeded the maximum fuel flow at any point during the Australian Grand Prix.

Both Chief Engineer of Car Engineering, Paul Monaghan and Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey were called as Red Bull witnesses and subjected to questioning. For the FIA, Head of Powertrain Fabrice Lom was called.

Observers from McLaren, Lotus, Williams and Force India were also present at the hearing.

Mercedes team representative Paul Harris – who previously represented the team at the Pirelli Tyregate hearing – was most vocal at today’s hearing, accusing the Red Bull team of “knowingly and repeatedly” ignoring the FIA’s instructions to turn down the fuel flow on Ricciardo’s engine.

He desribed Red Bull’s approach as a “flagrant breach” of the FIA’s direction and called for the court to impose a suspended further sanction on top of the original exclusion due to fears that the Austrian team will repeat the alleged offence in future.

“We are, frankly, and with great respect, concerned that Red Bull have shown such a flagrant and deliberate disregard for these rules that there is a real risk that they will do it again,” he said. “We are here to seek to ensure that does not happen. We must have a level playing field going forward for the remainder of the season.”

“We respectively submit that the most effective way of ensuring that Red Bull do not flout further written and oral instructions from the FIA – at least for the remainder of this season – is for this court to recognise the severity of their infringement and to impose a further sanction upon them, which is to be suspended for the remainder of the season so that they are acutely alert for the remainder of the season that there is no possibility of them transgressing the boundaries again.”

He dismissed Red Bull’s claims that the FIA’s approved sensors were unreliable and argued that their alternative system used to measured the flow was also not “100 per cent” accurate. He also backed the FIA’s official sensors saying that they are “rigorously tested and rigorously calibrated.”

April 14, 2014
Mercedes Announce the Departure of Bob Bell

The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team announced today that Bob Bell will step down from his position as Technical Director.

Bell resigned from his position in December 2013 and he will leave the team at the end of November 2014 with the intention of pursuing new challenges outside the company.

His position as technical director will not be replaced. Executive Director Paddy Lowe will assume the responsibilities previously held by Bell.

April 14, 2014
Domenicali Shoulders Responsibility for Ferrari’s Poor Performance

After resigning as Ferrari Team Principal, Stefano Domenicali has said that he takes full responsibility for the poor performance of the team.

“There are special moments that come along in everyone’s professional life, when one needs courage to take difficult and very agonising decisions,” said Domenicali.

“It is time for a significant change. As the boss, I take responsibility, as I have always done, for our current situation. This decision has been taken with the aim of doing something to shake things up and for the good of this group of people that I feel very close to.”

With all my heart, I thank all the men and women in the team, the drivers and the partners for the wonderful relationship we have enjoyed over all these years. I hope that very soon, Ferrari will be back where it deserves to be.”

“My final words of thanks go to our President, for having always supported me and to all our fans. I only regret that we have been unable to harvest what we worked so hard to sow in recent years.”

Photo by courtesy Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1

April 14, 2014
Luca di Montezemolo thanks Domenicali for his work at Ferrari

Luca di Montezemolo has accepted the resignation of Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali. In this short statement, he thanked the outgoing team boss for his work with the team and wished his successor, Ferrari North America CEO, Marco Mattiaci well.

“I thank Stefano Domenicali, not only for his constant dedication and effort, but also for the great sense of responsibility he has shown, even today, in always putting the interests of Ferrari above all else.

I hold Domenicali in esteem and I have watched him grow professionally over the twenty three years we have worked together, I now wish him every success for the future.

I also want to wish all the best to Marco Mattiacci, whom I know to be a highly regarded manager and who knows the company well. He has accepted this challenge with enthusiasm.”

Photo credit: Ferrari F1

April 14, 2014
CONFIRMED: Stefano Domenicali Steps Down as Ferrari Team Principal

In a shock announcement that first did its rounds as a rumour on Twitter, Ferrari have announced that Stefano Domenicali has stepped down from his role as team principal at the Maranello based team..

Domenicali who has been the team principal for Ferrari since 2008, handed in his resignation today. Ferrari Americas CEO and President, Marco Mattiacci, will take up the role as the new team principal for Ferrari’s F1 team. Mattiacci will take over with immediate effect.

Although some would argue that Domenicali had it coming, the resignation comes as somewhat of a surprise. Back in September last year, Ferrari President Luca Di Montezemolo was quoted as saying that Domenicali’s job was not on the line and that should he leave, he would be missed. He also indicated that narrowly losing the last two Drivers’ World Titles was no fault of Domenicali’s. “Over the past three years, we have lost two drivers’ world titles at the last race and it was not his fault,” di Montezemolo said at the time.

This lead us to think that Domenicali was safe in his position. But it seems that things have been getting increasingly frustrating at the Scuderia with di Montezemolo’s patience wearing thin.

One cannot help but wonder whether Domenicali may have been pushed to resign by Ferrari President Luca Di Montezemolo. Since taking over as team principal for Ferrari, he has not had much success. He’s had a string of second place finishes in the Constructors’ Championship but no World Championship titles to boast about.

Domenicali’s replacement, Marco Matiacci does not have much Formula 1 experience at all and seems a strange choice.

Before his appointment as team principal, he was the President and CEO at Ferrari North America. It does seem a bit of a curious appointment as Matiacci’s field of expertise is business development, rather than technical F1 management.

This could point toward the start of a bigger reshuffle at the Maranello based team, and all eyes will be on the Prancing Horse for future announcements.

April 14, 2014
Q & A: Lotus’ Nick Chester says the E22 has “great potential”

Lotus’s Nick Chester talks about the E22’s potential, the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix, qualifying, and car development.

Q: Where does the E22 stand heading to China?
Nick Chester: The E22 has tremendous potential even if we are only gradually unlocking it. in the Bahrain grand Prix we  were closer to Mercedes, Williams and McLaren than we have been previously. Our race-pace gap to the Williams and McLaren is now half a second and it was over a second in Sepang, so we’ve made a decent incremental improvement. although we were still not quick enough in Bahrain, we actually don’t need to find much more performance before we can be regularly in the points, which when you consider where we started from, is encouraging. We are about level with Toro Rosso for pace at the moment. Were it not for the safety car incident in Bahrain, Pastor would have been fighting for our first point. That’s not where we want to be, but we’re on the edge of the points during what are still very early days for the E22.

Q: We seem to struggle in qualifying at present?
Nick Chester: Our qualifying pace hasn’t been on the same level to our race pace. We made quite a bit of progress during Bahrain, getting quicker during each session. in Q2 a further 1.2 seconds would have put us fourth, rather than 16th. We know we are still at a very early stage with the E22 – more so than our rivals – and there are clear areas where we know the performance can be extracted.

Q: Just how much more is there to come from the car?
Nick Chester: I think we’ve got a lot more to learn about the E22 than the other teams. We learn something every time the car takes to the track, with every lap. We’ve also got some aerodynamic developments that should be interesting to evaluate for China, when we are hoping for a bit more out of the power unit as well, both reliability and pace wise.

Q: Why was track time so limited at the Bahrain test?
Nick Chester: It was all power unit issues unfortunately. We’re working very closely with Renault Sport F1 to understand why we have faced so many challenges in this regard. Clearly we all want to put reliability concerns behind us so we can focus on performance and showing our true pace.

Q: How has the relative lack of track time affected the development programme?
Nick Chester: It means you have to prioritise what parts to evaluate, so we’ve had to adapt our programme for China because of this. We’re going to attempt to get as much as we can out of FP1 and FP2 in Shanghai to test new parts, but ultimately we’ve delayed the introduction of some key developments until Barcelona now.

Q: What areas are you focusing on with the new parts?
Nick Chester: We have a lot of aero parts we want to evaluate throughout the E22, including an evolution to our nose. Expect to see some bodywork upgrades in China and then a bigger upgrade in Barcelona.

Q: What is the outlook for China?
Nick Chester: It should be better than Bahrain. Bahrain was an obvious power circuit, as you could see from the way the cars lined up on the grid. China’s got a long back straight, however there are more slow and medium speed corners than Bahrain, so that gives us the chance to try and get closer to the front.

Q: Where will the biggest performance gains come from with the E22?
Nick Chester: There are quite a few areas. Partly because of how immature the car is we haven’t managed to evaluate all the performance capabilities we want to yet. The big areas i would say are braking, aero and the power unit.

Q: Pastor was attempting to try a different tyre strategy in Bahrain. Has the E22 inherited the gentle tyre-wear characteristics of its predecessors?
Nick Chester: It’s possibly a bit early in the season to say, but it did look like Pastor was going to be quite good on his tyres in Bahrain. The 2014 generation of Pirelli is certainly different from last year’s, but there are always strategy gains to be made from prolonging the tyre performance longer than our rivals.

Source: Lotus F1 Team

April 14, 2014
FIA to hear Red Bull Ricciardo appeal today

Red Bull have appealed Daniel Ricciardo’s second place Australian Grand Prix disqualification and the appeal will be heard by the FIA at a hearing in Paris today.

According to team boss, Christian Horner, Red Bull are confident that they have a “very strong case.”

Ricciardo, who raced his way to second place at the seasoning opening home grand prix for the Aussie but was stripped of the position, and the 18 accompanying points, after his RB10 was found to have “consistently exceed” the maximum allowed fuel flow rate of 100 kgs per hour.

Red Bull have argued that there was a problem with the sensors provided by the FIA which is why they chose to rely on their own. In essence, the team chose to ignore a technical directive from the FIA which explains what to do in the event of a fuel flow sensor ‘drifting’ or failing completely.

According to the team, Ricciardo’s sensor did drift, and they therefore chose to use a back-up system which had not been pre-approved by the FIA. The disqualification was as a direct result of Red Bull ignoring the FIA’s advice before and during the race. The governing body insists that Red Bull were warned several times during the race.

Horner claims that the team had every right to ignore the FIA’s advice – because it was exactly that, advice, and not legally binding rules as per the technical regulations.

Should the team win their appeal, they will move up to second place in the Constructors’ Championship, and Ricciardo would move up to third place in the Drivers’ Championship.

“Those points are vital, every point is vital,” Horner said. “We believe we’ve a very strong case. As more races have progressed issues have become more evident, new evidence has come to light, new understandings have come to light. Hopefully we can present our case fairly and get the second place Daniel deserves from Melbourne.”

Ricciardo has confirmed that he will not attend the hearing in Paris today.

April 14, 2014
Pirelli Announces Tyre Choices for Spain, Monaco and Canada

Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli announced the tyre choices for the Spanish, Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix.

Due to the high temperatures and high lateral loads on the Montmelo circuit, Pirelli will bring the Pirelli P Zero Orange hard and P Zero White medium.

For the Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix, the Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero Red Supersoft will be used. This will be the first time we will see the Red Supersoft compound this season. Because of the smooth tarmac, twisty nature of the Monaco street circuit the cars rely heavily on the mechanical grip from the tyres.

The Canadian circuit is also reliant on high mechanical grip and Pirelli feel that the soft and supersoft is once again the ideal choice.

April 13, 2014
F1 2014: In Season Test,Bahrain – Rosberg Continues Mercedes Dominance

Mercedes driver Nico Roberg set the fastest time on the first day of testing in Bahrain.

In-season testing returned to Formula 1 in 2014 with two days of running at the Sakhir International Circuit. Six further days, or three additional tests, are scheduled throughout the rest of the season. All eleven teams were present during the first of day of testing which was headed by Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg.

The German driver completed a total 121 laps with a time of 1:35:697 nearly four tenths clear of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was third on the timing sheets but remained a second adrift of Rosberg’s Mercedes. However, the Spaniard believes that the Ferrari’s performance around the Bahrain track may be a once-off. “We are missing some of the characteristics that this track has so in China I expect [we will be] more competitive, Barcelona, Monaco, there are some circuits coming that we need to get some podiums at, hopefully,” said Alonso. “It’s not good. We would like to have extra speed and be able to battle with anyone but at the moment we miss on that aspect.”

McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen finished fourth at the end of day one with a time of 1:36:634 and was the only other driver to complete more than 100 laps. The difficult start to the season continued for the Lotus team as new signing Pastor Maldonado completed only sixteen laps.

Lewis Hamilton will take over testing for the Mercedes team on day two.

April 9, 2014
F1 2014: Bahrain GP – Mighty Hamilton Victorious

It would be ridiculous to deem the impressive Mercedes team as anything but imperious in Formula 1 2014. Normally, domination by one team in a sport leads to a bit of monotony.   But the Mercedes pair ensured that the tenth anniversary of the Bahrain GP was one of the most exhilarating races in recent memory.

The Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton proved to be in a class of their own as they obliterated the field with searing pace. A front-row lock out of the grid pitted the two Silver Arrows against each other. As soon as the red lights extinguished Hamilton scythed into the lead and produced the most memorable victory on his career.

An astounding and unforgettable wheel-to-wheel battle ensued between the two for nearly all of the 57 laps. At times the Mercedes pitwall would’ve been watching the duel between its drivers from behind a pillow, praying that it wouldn’t end in a shower of carbon-fibre. It didn’t. Instead it gave rise to spectacle worthy of being called a definitive Formula 1 race; terrifyingly passionate and shockingly spectacular.

The rest of the field lapped some two second a lap slower but still managed to deliver an outstanding race. After a difficult year as a McLaren driver Sergio Perez joined the Force India with the hope of rebuilding his stock in Formula1. It has taken the Mexican only three races to show that he has something special to offer.

The Force India driver delivered a stellar drive to secure the final step on the podium. Perez outpaced his highly regarded teammate Nico Hulkenberg and resisted both Williams’ of Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas for the majority of the race. The job wasn’t done however as Daniel Ricciardo made a late charge for the podium. Checo, as he is known in the paddock, resisted an almighty onslaught from the Australian and crossed the line four tenths ahead of the Red Bull.

The second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg nearly fell victim to Sebastian Vettel but held off the German in the closing stages for a fifth place finish. Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas finished line astern in seventh and eighth. Given the dreadful 2013 season experienced this team the Bahrain result will be accepted with both hands. But before long Williams will have to find a way to unlock the potential which seems to be looming just out of reach.

In ninth and tenth Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen would have been relieved to finally see the chequered flag. A dismal showing by the Ferrari team did little to paint the Italian squad as potential championship contenders. Far from prancing horses Alonso and Raikkonen looked more like sitting ducks as several Mercedes powered cars breezed past the Scarlet cars with embarrassing ease.

Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado assured the deployment of a safety car by ploughing into the side of Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez on exiting the pitlane. The Sauber driver was spectacularly flipped over but escaped without injury. Maldonado, known for his dicey reputation, was given a ten second stop/go penalty for causing a collision and will serve a five-place grid penalty for the Chinese GP.

Kudos to Mercedes for letting their drivers’ race each other to the final lap of the race. Lewis Hamilton had no right to win the 2014 Bahrain GP. He didn’t start from pole position, he was on the slower tyre in the final stint of the race and vulnerable in the DRS zone. But the way he barged Nico Rosberg out of the way to seize the lead of the race said a lot. It revealed a passion, skill and determination so staggering it is difficult to foresee it being matched.

AMG Petronas Mercedes F1 team images courtesy of Mercedes Benz

April 7, 2014