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  • Williams Announce Paddy Lowe as Chief Technical Officer

    Williams Announce Paddy Lowe as Chief Technical Officer

    The Williams Formula One Team announced that former Mercedes Executive Director Paddy Lowe will join the Team as Chief Technical Officer with immediate effect.

    Lowe will also take a seat on the board of directors of Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC and will also have a shareholding in the company.

    Lowe has a wealth of experience in F1 with his career beginning at Williams in 1987 as a control systems engineer. He joined McLaren in 1993. During his tenure at McLaren he took up various roles from Head of Research and Development, to Chief Engineer, to Engineering Director and finally Technical Director.

    “I‘ve always had a deep respect for Williams – my first team in Formula One,” said Paddy Lowe on his appointment at Wiliams.

    “It is a huge honour to return in this leadership position and to have the opportunity to become a shareholder. I am extremely motivated to play my part in bringing success back to the team.

    “The vision for the future set out by the Williams Board is powerful and has compelled me to join an organisation committed to building on its unique legacy and to reaching the pinnacle of Formula One once again.

    “I’m looking forward to this exciting new phase to my career working with Claire, Mike and Nick and with the rest of this great team – especially Frank himself, who is one of the most committed “racers” I know!”

    Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal, added; “I am delighted that the team is welcoming Paddy back to Williams in the role of Chief Technical Officer.

    “Having someone of Paddy’s calibre and engineering competence is not only a morale boost for everyone at Williams, but I know it will also significantly support our efforts to return this team back to the front of the grid.

    “Our ambitions at Williams are unwavering, we want to win races and championships, but to do that you need the best talent in the business.

    “In Paddy we believe we have just that as well as a leader who will drive change. This is a game changer for us and once again makes us extremely excited about this team’s future.”

  • Kimi Raikkonen Closes Out Pre-Season Testing Fastest of All

    Kimi Raikkonen Closes Out Pre-Season Testing Fastest of All

    Ferrari had left us wanting more after day 3 of the second pre-season test by teasing us with Sebastian Vettel’s fastest lap of 1:19.024. On the final day, however, Kimi Raikkonen bolted on a set of super softs and lit up the timing screens by setting the fastest lap of pre-season testing for 2017 and was the only driver to break the 1:18’s with a fastest time of 1:18.634.

    “There’s a good feeling with this car and that’s the most important thing,” said Raikkonen.

    “We have been reliable for almost all of these days of testing and that is another good sign of the great work the team has done over the winter.

    “We are starting from a stronger base than last year: but it’s really too early to say how fast the car is compared to the others.”

    Max Verstappen had some turbo issues but still got the 2nd fastest time completing 71 laps. Topping the joint lap count on day 4 was Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso with 132 laps to his name and the 3rd fastest time for the day.

    Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton finished the day 4th and 5th fastest completing 107 laps between them.

    Both drivers were out for Renault today with Nico Hulkenberg piloting the R.S.17 in the morning session before Jolyon Palmer in the afternoon. Hulkenberg lauded the performance of the Renault describing his morning as a “quality morning”. Hulkenberg placed 6th while Palmer ended his day in 8th.

    Finishing 7th fastest between the two Renault’s was Force India’s Sergio Perez. He clocked up 128 laps in the VJM10 and concluded a solid day for Force India.

    Lance Stroll was back in the Williams for the final day of running and like Sainz, racked up 132 laps before the chequered flag at the end of the day. Stroll who is still finding his footing with Williams was 9th fastest.

    Romain Grosjean rounded out the top 10 for the Haas team. He had to cut his running short after suffering from a water leak 20mins from the end of the afternoon session.

    Fernando Alonso had another day in the McLaren which he would want to forget. The MCL32 suffered from electrical issues which caused the Spaniard to stop twice out on track. The team managed to complete some running and he was able to complete 43 laps.

    Rounding off the running was the Sauber drivers with Marcus Ericsson piloting the C36 in the morning with Pascal Wehrlein in the afternoon. Between the two drivers they completed 101 laps.

    Teams now begin the pack up and head back to their respective factories to run the data they’ve collected over the past two weeks. The cars will be much more improved by the time they turn a wheel in Melbourne in two weeks time and we’ll finally get an idea of the running order.

     

  • Vettel Ends His Pre-Season Testing Top of the Time Sheets

    Vettel Ends His Pre-Season Testing Top of the Time Sheets

    Sebastian Vettel topped the timing sheets for Ferrari on the penultimate day of testing before the start of the 2017 season.

    The session before lunch was topped by Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel who set a time of 1:19:024 on a set of the purple marked ultra softy tyres. However, what was eye-catching about the German’s time was the manner in which he set it. Twice on his approach to the start/finish line he deliberately lifted off the throttle making his time significantly slower than it would’ve been. There could be several reasons for this approach but most point to Ferrari wanting to disguise their true pace ahead of the season-opener in Australia.

    Mercedes had another good day with 147 laps between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton was 2nd fastest just a little over three tenths down on Vettel’s time. Hamilton also setting his time on the ultra soft tyres. Taking over in the afternoon was Bottas who completed 95 laps before calling it a day.

    It was not a smooth start to the day for Toro Rosso who suffered with technical issues in the morning session. But things looked much more encouraging in the afternoon session and Daniil Kvyat was able to put in some good times and his fastest time of 1:20.416 earned him 4th fastest.

    Quietly going about their business was the Haas team with Kevin Magnussen at the wheel of the VF-17. Magnussen set the 5th fastest time of the day and completed a very respectable 119 laps. Finishing behind Haas on the day was Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull who seemed somewhat off the pace today. Red Bull have put the pace down to setup. Despite the slow pace Ricciardo completed 128 laps in the RB13.

    There were yet more woes for McLaren as Stoffel Vandoorne ground to halt and brought out the red flag. The Belgian’s stoppage wasn’t crash related but it was an electrical issue. This comes merely a day after Alonso fingered Honda as the villain in McLaren’s 2017 story. Vandoorne manage to complete 48 laps before the chequered flag and finished 7th fastest.

    Both Sauber drivers were out in the car once again today with Pascal Wehrlein 9th fastest and Marcus Ericsson 11th fastest. Between the the Sauber drivers was Renault’s Jolyon Palmer in 10th.

    The two Williams drivers finished 11th and 12th with Felipe Massa ahead of rookie Lance Stroll. Williams concentrated on race simulations and long run tyre evaluation. They had a very good day of running and between the two drivers completed 165 laps.

     

  • Bottas Reclaims Top Spot for Mercedes on Day 2 of Second Test

    Bottas Reclaims Top Spot for Mercedes on Day 2 of Second Test

    Mercedes Valtteri Bottas narrowly edged out Williams’ Felipe Massa to claim the top spot of the timing sheets for the 2nd day of the second test.

    While it was a good day for Williams and Mercedes, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen ran into a bit of trouble when he spun and hit the barriers at Turn 3. Max Verstappen kept Red Bull in the running with the 4th fastest time of the day and just 0.026s off Raikkonen’s time. This despite bringing out the red flag 20mins from the end of the session at Turn 12.

    Lance Stroll took over from Felipe Massa in the afternoon session. The young Canadian was 5th fastest and kept it tidy out on track today. Lewis Hamilton climbed into the W08 in the afternoon session and finished his day 6th fastest for Mercedes. Hamilton’s program consisted mainly of long runs.

    It was a straight forward day for the Renault team with Nico Hulkenberg finishing 7th fastest and Jolyon Palmer finishing 14th fastest. Finishing behind the Renault of Hulkenberg was Sergio Perez for Force India in 8th, Carlos Sainz for Torro Rosso in 9th and Haas’ Romain Grosjean in 10th.

    Both Sauber drivers were on track today with Pascal Wehrlein finishing 11th fastest and team mate Marcus Ericsson finishing 13th.

    Ending his day in 12th was McLaren’s Fernando Alonso who had some strong opinions about Honda’s 2017 power unit.

    “We have only one problem: that is the power unit.,” said Alonso talking to Motorsport.com

    “There is no reliability and there is no power. We are 30km/h down on the straight, every straight.

    “So when you are 30km/h down on every straight it is difficult to have a feeling on the car. Everything feels good, but when you arrive to normal speed you don’t know what is going to happen.”

    The Spaniard feels that the McLaren is still good on the chassis side and it’s just the power unit that’s hindering the teams fight for wins.

    There are two more days of testing to go until the first Grand Prix of the season. The teams should have a very good idea of how their cars stack up against the opposition and they should be fine tuning the setup in the next two days.

     

  • Massa Makes His Mark on Day 1 of 2nd Test

    Massa Makes His Mark on Day 1 of 2nd Test

    Felipe Massa stamped his authority on day 1 of the second pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

    The Brazilian, who not more that three months ago was enjoying retirement from the sport, set the fastest time of the day of 1:19.726 on the red-marked super soft compound tyres. Massa also put in the highest number of laps together with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Both completed 168 laps on the day which is just a little over two race distances.

    Vettel was 3rd fastest on the day behind Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull. Ricciardo’s fastest time of 1:19.900 came courtesy of a set of ultra soft tyres which put him 0.174s off the pace of Massa’s fastest time.

    But we all know that the times in testing don’t mean much.

    The Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished the day 4th and 5th fastest respectively. An issue with the floor on the W08 meant that Hamilton had limited running in the morning session. Bottas was able to get some decent running in the afternoon session and between the two totaled 135 laps of running.

    Esteban Ocon clocked up 142 laps for Force India with a 6th fastest time while former Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg was 7th fastest for Renault in the RS17. Hulkenberg was able to complete 58 laps for the day.

    Kevin Magnussen in the Haas was 8th fastest with a solid day of running for the Kanapolis based team. After a rocky first week in testing Daniil Kvyat got some solid running for Toro Rosso and completed 83 laps finishing 9th fastest.

    It was once again another slow start for McLaren. Honda had to change the engine due to an electrical issue. Despite the delay, Stoffel Vandoorne was out about and clocked up 80 laps. The delay is a major cause for concern to McLaren where they’re suffering with reliability so early in the season. Team Principal Eric Boullier had rather strong opinions on McLaren’s predicament.

    “The pressure is obviously huge,” said Boullier.

    “We put the maximum pressure on all of our relationship with Honda, and the same for them. We can’t put a step wrong – we need to be able to deliver the best car as well, so this is both sides.”

    “Obviously we would like more laps, but the correlation is good so we can take decisions. So not concerned yet. For the rest we need to make sure Honda investigate properly, address it properly – we have to rely on our partner.

    “The one thing is we are running the same spec as last week so obviously that doesn’t mean there are any changes in this block or any modifications done.

    “I think, the next spec will have addressed part of this problem, or most of this problem.”

    Back from sitting out a back injury after his crash at the Race of Champions, Pascal Wehrlein got his first chance at the wheel of the Sauber on Monday. The German finished the session 11th fastest ahead of his team mate Marcus Ericsson. Together the Sauber pair put 100 laps on the board.

    Renault were forced to change their power unit in the morning session which limited running for Jolyon Palmer who could only complete 15 laps on the day. The Briton finished 13th fastest.

     

  • 2017 Pre-Season Testing: Raikkonen Ends Week On Top for Ferrari

    2017 Pre-Season Testing: Raikkonen Ends Week On Top for Ferrari

    Kimi Raikkonen ended his week on top of the time sheets for Ferrari at the conclusion for the first pre-season test of 2017.

    The day was off to a wet start after the track was artificially dampened in the early hours of the morning to allow the teams to test the intermediate and wet weather tyres. But things didn’t really go according to plan. Although teams did complete some running with the wet and intermediate tyres non of the teams were particularly quick to start running. As soon as the track started drying out there was a flurry of activity on the track and teams were able to continue with their normal test program.

    Mercedes sat out almost the entire morning session after an electrical problem confined the W08 to the garage. The team were able to get the issue resolved and back out for an installation lap just before the lunch break.

     


    It wasnt smooth sailing for all the teams though. The Williams team did not run at all today because of damage sustained to the car after Lance Strolls crash on Day 3.

    Toro Rosso had a horrid final day of testing after they were forced to change the engine in the STR12. Daniil Kvyat was only able to complete an installation lap after the team discovered an issue with the engine. Toro Rosso were hoping to get the car fixed by the end of the lunch break but the STR12 not seen for the rest of the day.

    Max Verstappen, who held the top spot for a while, ended his day 2nd fastest ahead of Renault’s Jolyon Palmer.

    Romain Grosjean ended another good day for Haas completing 118-laps for the day. Team Principal Gunther Steiner praised Ferrari for the reliable power unit and credited their ability to their long runs to their engine supplier.

     

    Antonio Giovinazzi was in the cockpit of the Sauber C32 today. The Ferrari test driver completed 84-laps for the day and was 5th fastest for the day.

    Sergio Perez was at the wheel of the Force India and closed off a positive week for the Silverstone based team. He felt that he learnt quite a bit about the car in the week with his confidence growing in the car.

    Stoffel Vandoorne capped off a difficult week for McLaren finishing 7th fastest with his fastest time coming courtesy of a set of ultra soft tyres. McLaren have fallen behind after engine issues limited the team for the first two days of testing.

    Valtteri Bottas put a few laps on the board for Mercedes after the lunch break. They had to cut their session short after the team found data in the telemetry that they didn’t like.

    Nico Hulkenberg ended the day in 9th place after taking over driving duties after the lunch break.

     

  • 2017 Pre-Season Test Day 3: Mercedes On Top While Ferrari Impresses

    2017 Pre-Season Test Day 3: Mercedes On Top While Ferrari Impresses

    It was another good day for the Mercedes Formula One team on day three of the first pre-season test of 2017.

    Valtteri Bottas, for the Silver Arrows, set the fastest time of the day of 1:19.705 on Pirelli’s Ultra Soft Tyres. The time seemed impressive until Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari put in the second fastest time of the day crossing the line in 1:19.952 just 0.247s slower than Bottas on the yellow-marked soft compound tyres which are two shades harder than the ultra soft.

    “Braking is better, cornering is better, you’ve got more grip,” said Vettel at the end of the day.

    “Then in low-speed corners when arguably the downforce effect is less big, you have more grip from the tyres.”

    Vettel said that the 2017 cars fix everything. He wouldn’t make any predictions regarding the running order saying that it’s too early to tell at this stage. Although Ferrari were able to get some solid running during the past three days he does feel that they could have done more and says that Ferrari have a lot of work ahead of them.

     

    “It feels better than last year but I think everyone is saying that,” added Vettel summing up his feelings on the 2017 cars.

    “When you can go faster as a driver it’s always nice to be able to push harder.

    “I didn’t pay much attention to what the others are doing.

    “Everybody is looking at one lap time but it’s much more important what happens throughout the day and that’s difficult to read.”

    Daniel Ricciardo was able to get the 3rd fastest time of the day and added 70 laps to his name for the day. 4th Fastest for the day was Renault’s Jolyon Palmer who set his time in the morning session which stood for the rest of the day. His team mate, Nico Hulkenberg, took over in the afternoon session and finished 5th fastest a few tenths off Palmer’s time.

    Sauber had another good day of running clocking up 130 laps with Marcus Ericsson at the wheel of the C36. He managed to finish 6th fastest ahead of Lewis Hamilton who took over from Bottas in the afternoon session. Hamilton’s program mostly consisted of long runs racking up and impressive 95-laps for just the afternoon session.

    On his first taste of 2017 machinery Romain Grosjean was at the seat of the Haas VF-17 for the day. His fastest time on the day of 1:22.118 earned him 8th fastest on the day. The Frenchman had a reasonable day of running and had a total lap tally of 56-laps by the close of the day.

    After crashing in the second day of testing, Canadian rookie Lance Stroll was at the wheel of the Williams Fw40 again today. Stroll enjoyed some good running adding 95-laps to his count but a crash at the exit of Turn 5 ended his day before lunch. The front end of the Williams was badly damaged and the team had no choice but to end the day early once again. This is two crashes for the rookie in as many days.

     

    Fernando Alonso had a good day for McLaren in the MCL32 putting in a decent number of laps for the day after two days of engine troubles.

    Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat were at the wheel of the STR12 for Toro Rosso. The finished the day 11th and 13 fastest with a total lap tally of 63 laps.

    Force India’s development driver Alfonso Celis ended his day 12th fastest with 71 laps to his name.

     

    “It was a busy day in which we managed to complete nearly everything in our plan,” said Celis.

    “These cars are completely different and I enjoyed my first experience of the new regulations – you can really feel the step up in performance. It took me a bit of time to get used to the car and the conditions, and the track had very low grip early on.

    “I did a lot of aero passes in the morning and then we focussed on understanding the tyres in the afternoon. The most important objective of the day was to give the team as much data as possible so these 71 laps will hopefully be very useful for better understanding this car.”

     

  • F1 2017: Official Testing Day 2 Wrap-Up

    F1 2017: Official Testing Day 2 Wrap-Up

    Official testing entered its second day ahead of the start of the 2017 Formula 1 season.

    Three time champion Lewis Hamilton set the early morning pace with a quickest time of 1:20:983 on the red-walled Supersoft Pirelli compound tyres. It was a another difficult day for McLaren as this time Stoffel Vandoorne saw his running curtailed by engine/power unit issues. The McLaren team was forced to change the engine which cost several hours. Vandoorne managed to get back out and completed 40 laps before calling it a day.

    Meanwhile, Canadian rookie Lance Stroll stepped into the cockpit of the Williams for his first official day of testing but binned the FW40 shortly afterwards. While the driver walked away unscathed from the relatively minor crash the team announced an early end to their day’s running as they had no spare parts for the car. Stroll completed a total of twelve laps.

     

    “It is still early days and I have only done a handful of laps,” said Stroll.

    “I am just getting to grips with the FW40, and there is still a lot of time ahead of us. It was good to finally get behind the wheel to just get a feel for it.

    “Like I said, it is still early days, so I need to do a lot more running before I know exactly where I am and where the car is at. I will have a much better picture once we have more laps under our belts, but it was good to break the ice and I am looking forward to some more running.”

    Elsewhere, Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen racked up a century of laps and a solid day of run for the American team. The dane ended the days running in fourth with a total of 118 laps under the belt. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen completed his running in third with 89 laps on the board.

    It was a slow start for Ferrari reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi on his first outing for Sauber. He sat out most of the morning session with a power unit issue. The Sauber team were able to replace the engine and get him out for an installation lap just before the lunch break. He was back out after lunch and completed 67 laps in the Sauber C36.

     

    “It was a positive day for me, despite the issues we had in the morning,” said Giovinazzi.

    “In the afternoon I was able to get up to speed running a good amount of laps. I want to thank the Sauber F1 Team again for this opportunity. Now I am looking forward to being back in the car tomorrow.”

    Later in the afternoon Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen set the quickest lap of the day. His lap of 1:20:960 was set on the yellow-walled soft tyre. Reports were that Raikkonen was not feeling entirely healthy but the Finn nevertheless completed 108 laps for the day.

    Valtteri Bottas took over from teammate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon and ran several race simulation stints in the W08. The Finnish driver clocked 102 laps by the end of the afternoon.

     

  • F1 2017: Russia Extends F1 Deal to 2025

    F1 2017: Russia Extends F1 Deal to 2025

    The organizers for the Russian grand prix have announced that a deal has been signed which will keep the circuit on the F1 calendar until 2025.

    The extension to the deal comes on the back of securing a title sponsor for the grand prix, VTB Group. This means that the Russian government will no longer be footing the bill for the promoters fees. Russian GP promoter Sergey Vorobyov said it was “a complex deal, which combines the promoter contract.

    “The important part is the title sponsorship contract for us, and there are a few other things that we are working on now with Chase [Carey, F1 chairman] and his team that I’m not ready to announce yet. Everything started with Bernie and is being concluded with Chase and his team.”

    The Sochi International circuit is still weighing the option of transforming the grand prix into a night race. The organizers are currently in the process of plotting the time and money that would be required for such an endeavour.

    The 2017 Russian grand is scheduled for the 30th of April.

  • F1 2017: Official Testing Day 1 Wrap-Up

    F1 2017: Official Testing Day 1 Wrap-Up

    The first official day of testing commenced at Spain’s Circuit de Catalunya on Monday.

    The eagerly awaited first day of testing got off to an expected slow start as the new cars trickled out of their respective garages to set the first installations laps. First out on circuit was Renault’s RS17 but the rest quickly followed suit.

    The first red flag of the testing session was brought out by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who parked his brand-new RB13 at turn 3. Nevertheless, before the stoppage Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas had set a quickest time in the 1:24s with a set of Pirelli’s new medium compound tyre.

    This time was soon eclipsed by Sebastian Vettel who put the Ferrari on top of the timing sheets with a 1:23:560. The Ferrari and Mercedes teams easily set the most number of laps in the opening morning of testing. Meanwhile, gremlins struck in the McLaren garage as Fernando Alonso’s car developed an oil system problem. The team estimated a four to five hour period to get to the bottom of the issue.

    McLaren’s problems with their engine seem like a repeat of last years testing and was summed up by AutoSport’s Gary Anderson rather eloquently.

    “It’s not good news for McLaren-Honda to be sat in the garage chasing some kind of oil system problem. The engines coming to this test should all be test-bench run and where the engine connects up to the system of the car should be bulletproof. Using the excuse that this is testing and things will go wrong is rubbish because you only have eight days and you need to hit the ground running. Losing a big part of a day is time you will never recover, and by the time the McLaren runs again, most of its rivals will have built up a lot of mileage. We’ve seen a lot of finger problems for McLaren and Honda during the past few years, and maybe this is the same again. Not a good start to testing.”

     

    The second half of the day was more productive for the teams that were off to a slow start in the mornings.

    McLaren changed the engine in the MCL32 and sent Alonso out on track for a few laps and to catch on on some running he missed during the morning. Alonso ended his day with 14 laps on the board with a fastest time of 1:24.852.

     

    Ricciardo was the first one to emerge from the pits after the lunch break and Red Bull were able to get going with their testing program and managed to complete 50-laps before the end of the day. Ricciardo’s fastest lap put him 5th fastest on the day with a time of 1:22.926.

    Mercedes topped the time sheets at the end of the day and had the highest tally of completed laps on the day. Lewis Hamilton jumped into the car after lunch and set the fastest time of the day of 1:21.765. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the second fastest with a 1:21.878. Vettel completed 128 laps and will welcome a day’s rest when Kimi Raikkonen takes over testing duties on Tuesday.

     

    After a brief retirement, Felipe Massa completed 103 laps on his return. He set the 3rd fastest time of the day with a time of 1:22.706.

    With limited running, Sergio Perez completed 39 laps for Force India and finished the day 7th fastest ahead of Carlos Sainz who was 8th fastest on the day. ON his first outing for Renault, Nico Hulkenberg set the 9th fastest time of the day completing 57 laps around the Circuit de Catalunya.

    Compared to last year the times are already much quicker and are set to become faster as testing goes on. The times have almost no meaning at this point. The objective for the teams is to get as much mileage on the cars during these few days as possible and learn as much about the car as they can. Engineers will be pouring over the data and will be ready with new setup parameters tomorrow