Amateur footage of Lewis Hamiltons crash at the Jerez test
Latest
-
Video: The Sound of the 2014 Formula 1 Cars in Action
Not the high pitched scream of the V10’s or the throaty growl of the V8’s. But a rather pleasant V6 with a rather pleasant turbo whistle
-
Jerez Testing: Day 1
The first day winter testing for the 2014 season has kicked off at Jerez.
The highly anticipated pre-season test at the Jerez circuit in Southern Spain didn’t quite reach the heights many would’ve expected. After four hours of testing only Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne had set flying laps.
Kimi Raikkonen’s first trip out of the pitlane ended in the Ferrari hitching a ride back to the pitlane in a safety car as the F14T grounded to halt. The team later said that they stop was “pre-cautionary.” Only Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez and the Force India of Sergio Perez additionally completed installation laps.
A five lap run for Hamilton looked encouraging for Mercedes as the Brit was able to continually improve his laptime. The 2008 champion set a time of 1:27.820 before a front-wing failure sent him head-on in the barriers of turn 1.
Raikkonen resumed the action after the track was cleared of the Hamilton crash and set a 1:31:131 on a three lap stint. At this point neither Red Bull had taken to the track – not even for an installation lap. It was the same story at McLaren as neither Jenson Button nor Kevin Magnussen had left the garages at any stage for obvious reasons if Ted Kravitz tweeting is anything to go on.
The Caterham and Marussia teams had missed the majority of the first day as their cars experienced some last-minute issues. However, Marrusia later tweeted that they were on their way to Jerez. Max Chilton joined the party by tweeting a picture of himself on the way to the airport to catch a flight to Jerez.
The lack of running could be put down to the various problems encountered by the teams according to Autosport’s technical analyst Gary Anderson. “I was expecting people to have problems but I am a bit surprised there are quite so many!
“We still haven’t seen Red Bull, McLaren, Williams, Caterham or Marussia – which we already knew was delayed – and Ferrari has only done one lap.
“It’s the complications under the engine cover that is the issue and every time they open the garage doors they find a problem. But at approaching lunchtime on the first day you would expect at least to be doing installation laps. The pressure is building.”
Both the Caterham and Williams teams left it quite late but eventually got their respective cars fired up and ready for a few installations laps. New signing Marcus Ericcson was tasked with taking the Caterham out on circuit. The radical nose design of the Caterham garnered much attention perhaps more for its appearance than innovation. However, the full potential of the cars have not yet been seen and we reserve judgment on the peculiar design for now.
The Williams FW36 broke cover a while after the unveiling of the Caterham with car that is far from hideous. The nose of the Williams looks the more subdued than many others up and down the pitlane as it was put through its paces by Valterri Bottas. The ever-present Senna ‘S’ maintained its poignant presence on the car. However, the team did reveal that they are running a test livery and would reveal its final colours ahead of the first race of the season.
Less than twenty minutes before the conclusion of the first day of testing was the first time that Sebastian Vettel was able to take the Red Bull RB10 out on track. The team did not reveal was kept them from running throughout the day. This meant that McLaren was the only team at the circuit who was unable to fire up their car.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen ended the day quickest overall and also recorded the most laps, 31 in total.
Today’s Timing Sheet:
1. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:27:104 31 Laps
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:27:820 18 Laps
3. Valterri Bottas (Williams) 1:30:082 7 Laps
4. Sergio Perez (Force India) 1:33:161 11 Laps
5. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1:36:530 15 Laps
6. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) 1:41:257 7 Laps
7. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) no time 3 Laps
8. Marcus Ericcson (Caterham) no time 1 Lap
-
Ferrari unveils the F14-T
Ferrari has unveiled their 2014 challenger, the F14 T.
The F14-T which was named by a fan vote and will be raced by what is arguably the strongest driver line-up on the 2014 grid – Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, and features a far wider nose tip than we’ve seen in the cars launched so far.
The F14-T will be debuted by Raikkonen at Jerez on Tuesday and Wednesday, before he hands over testing duties to Fernando Alonso for the remaining two days.
The rear of the car seems very tightly packaged around the new turbo engine but due to the ‘anteater’, ‘bull’ and ‘tusk’ noses that have preceded the launch of the F14-T, all eyes are on the nose of the new Ferrari which features a far flatter design than those preceding it.Ferrari said in a statement that the new regulations presented designers with a real challenge to repackage the front suspension into a much lower monocoque.
“The front wing is regulated to be 75mm narrower per side in order to make it less vulnerable to collisions with other cars and with the barriers,” their launch statement said. “This change, perhaps one of the less noticeable visual differences to the 2013 cars, has a profound effect on the aerodynamics of the vehicle.
“The front wings used since 2009 have all featured elaborate measures to encourage the wake of the front wing endplates to pass around the outside of the front tyres in order to maximize the downforce on the car. An innocent change of just 75mm to the position of the wing tip has required us to reinvent completely the front wing aerodynamics for 2014.”Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said that the new additions to the technical team and the upgrades to the wind tunnel – which is now operational at Maranello – have been crucial for Ferrari to make a step forward.
“In the last couple of years the changes and investment we have made in Formula One has been very important and significant,” Domenicali said. “Some have been spectacular in terms of names that were in the Formula One world and some others less, but nevertheless the changes were very important.
“Not only the organisation of the people, but also investment in the new windtunnel and tools of the simulation that are really important to make sure all the group of engineers can make the difference.”
The F14-T retains Ferrari’s pullrod front suspension concept in the new design and the new car is the first that will have been influenced by Ferrari’s new technical chief James Allison, who arrived late last season after switching from Lotus.
Ferrari is clearly hoping that the F14-T will have what it takes to finally bring home the championship that has been snatched away by Red Bull for the last few years. The 2013 season saw Fernando Alonso coming super close to clinching the title but just not having the car to make it happen. He compared his experience of not winning the title in his first four seasons with Ferrari to that of Michael Schumacher, who finally won his first championship with the Scuderia in his fifth season with the team.
Alonso said, “I think Schumacher won in the fifth year with Ferrari. I’m in the fifth year now so hopefully I can repeat some of the success that he had. Obviously in the last four years we had some opportunities, especially in 2010, 2012, we were very, very close to winning the championship. So this year we’ll try again and hopefully this time will be the good one.”Alonso also believes that his partnership with incoming Kimi Raikkonen will be formidable saying, “I think [with] Kimi and me as a team we should be quite strong because we’ve had some success in the past in our Formula 1 career.”
Coincidentally, Raikkonen is the last driver to have won a title for Ferrari, in 2007 but he was sent packing to make way for Alonso.
Raikkonen is very positive about the F14-T and his return to Ferrari. “It is nice to come back to Ferrari, the place I won my championship,” he said. “The aim is the same. We want to do the best I can, try to win races and championships.”
-
Lotus reveals sneak pic of the E22
Lotus today released an image of their 2014 challenger – the E22 just as the launch of McLaren’s MP4-29 got underway.
While all eyes were on Woking, the Enstone based team decided to steal a little of the limelight in the wake of the announcement of team boss Eric Boullier’s departure. The team announced earlier today that Boullier will be replaced by Gerard Lopez and the Frenchman is expected to be headed for McLaren.
Lotus’ image of the E22 reveals a two-pronged, tusk-like solution to the front nose tip height regulations where other teams so far have revealed anteater-like / finger solutions.
Despite the surprise rendered E22 image from Lotus, it has already been confirmed that they will not be present at the first pre-season test at Jerez and will instead make its debut in Bahrain next month.
-
McLaren unveil the MP4-29 – Full details
McLaren today unveiled their the MP4-29 ahead of the first pre-season test at Jerez, via an online launch today on their website and Twitter feed.
The launch felt slightly overshadowed by Lotus’ announcement of Eric Boullier’s departure and the rumours that he’ll be announced as the new McLaren team principal amidst Ron Dennis’ efforts to turn the team’s recent bad performance around.
The MP4-29 will be the last McLaren to be powered by Mercedes ahead of the team switching to Honda power from 2015 onward.
The car was revealed with a clean, menacing silver livery with MP4-29 branding and little else. Two vodafone swooshes are seen on top ends of the sidepods, but the rocket red look is out the window as the team launched with no title sponsor.Twitter fans went wild as images started appearing and the overall reaction has been a good one. Most were worried about the nose following the Williams team’s reveal of a rendering of their 2014 car but it seems feel that McLaren has done a far better job of working with the new nose tip height regulations.
“We’ve never had such significant new regulations before; reacting to them, and managing those changes, while still pushing the performance limits, has been an extremely tough job,” said managing director Jonathan Neale.
“We’ve been relatively pragmatic about it. We know that the need for consistency initially outweighs the need for performance – the winter tests won’t be about chasing set-up or refining the car; the envelope of performance is likely to be so wide, and so relatively unknown, that the winter – and to some extent the opening races – will be about understanding the operational boundaries of the car as best we can.”“To achieve this, we need a consistent platform – one that responds positively to changes. Moreover, the work of the engineers and designers to understand and interpret trackside data will be more important than before.”
“That’s because this year, more than ever, will come down to a development race: I don’t necessarily think you can expect the car that wins the opening race to be the car that leads the championship charge, something we’ve often seen in the past.”
Jenson Button has said that the regulation changes make for an exciting time for drivers as he looked ahead at the 2014 season.“I’ve spent my whole career jumping from different specification cars – I’ve driven V10s, V8s, I’ve raced on grooved tyres, on slicks, with KERS, with DRS, with traction control, without it, with refueling, without it. I’m still here!”
“Obviously, there’s a period of adaption, but the way I drive – working upwards to find the grip level, rather than working downwards – has always made it quite a seamless transition.”
“As a driver, it’s just an exciting time. I’m really looking forward to it – I love the mental challenge of tackling such a complex task; there’s so much to get your teeth into, and the prospect of problem-solving, and pulling apart difficult concepts and drilling down to find the best solution – that really motivates me.”
Team-mate Kevin Magnussen is also excited about his debut and is hoping that the regulation changes will aid his transition into the sport.“In a way, the regulation changes makes things a little easier: at that first test in Jerez, everybody will be easing themselves into something new, rather than just getting in the car and driving away, so I’ll really be no different from any other driver,” he said.
“It’ll be how we react during the season that will define how successful we are. I know the engineers are working on new things all the time, but I think there’s still plenty of scope to move forward.”
The new MP4-29 will have its first outing at Jerez on Tuesday piloted by Jenson Button.
Photo Credits: All photos courtesy of McLaren.com
-
Video: Kevin Magnussen: It’ll Be Old Skool Sideways Driving
Kevin Magnussen, new McLaren Mercedes driver for 2014, talks about his first season in Formula 1, the MP4-29, driving for McLaren, and his development under the McLaren Young Driver Programme.
-
Video: Jenson Button: How I’ll Tackle 2014
McLaren mercedes driver Jenson Button shares his thoughts on the MP4-29, changes in the race regulations and how he plans to tackle the 2014 F1 season.
-
Video: Technical Lowdown: McLaren Mercedes MP4-29
McLaren Mercedes Sporting Director, Sam Michael, gives some in-depth insight into the 2014 McLaren Mercedes MP4-29 including an intriguing closer look at the technical specifications of the 2014 Formula 1 season.
