Tag: abu dhabi

F1 2015: Rosberg Down On Power

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg says he is at a disadvantage this weekend by having to use an “extremely old” engine.

When the German team introduced its upgraded power unit at the Italian grand prix Nico Rosberg was forced to abandon the unit in the back of his car. The engine was believed to have been contaminated by a coolant leak and forced the ‘scrapping’ on the unit.

It means that the current power unit fitted to the number 6 Mercedes has done a lot of mileage. As a result Rosberg may not be able to push the power unit as hard as Hamilton may be able to on his car. It lends itself to a disadvantage for the in-form Rosberg but he hasn’t given up on getting that elusive third consecutive win.

“We know it’s going to be difficult because I have an extremely old engine as a result of having lost my fourth engine for the year, so I have a lot of miles on it and that’s definitely costing me straightline speed,” said Rosberg.”It’s going to be a difficult weekend as a result. But I just have to go quicker in the corners. “The engine is very, very high mileage, very old, and this track is an engine track.

November 27, 2015
F1 2015: Abu Dhabi Friday Practice Round-up

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg topped the timing sheets for Mercedes in the first and second free practice sessions for the Abu Dhabi grand prix.

The first of the one-and-a-half hour sessions started under bright sunlight and was topped by the number 44 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. The reigning champion set a quickest time of 1:43:754 which was roughly one-and-a-half tenths quicker than teammate Nico Rosberg. The Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen followed in third albeit a further six tenths back. Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat was fourth fastest ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari.

Jolyon Palmer, who has secured a race seat for 2016, was out for the Lotus team but experienced a water leak and missed most of the session. Alexander Rossi has vacated the Manor Marussia seat to focus on the GP2 finale. Roberto Merhi has rejoined the team for the final race weekend of the season. In the inter-team battle at McLaren Jenson Button edged teammate Fernando Alonso for 13th place on the timing sheets.

As the sun set over the Yas Marina circuit the second free practice session got underway with considerably more running by the teams. This session is more representative of conditions that will be experienced in qualifying and the race, hence the increased work rate for the drivers.

Ultimately, Nico Rosberg’s 1:41:983 was the quickest time of the session on the red-walled supersoft tyre. It left the German a tenth-and-a-half clear of teammate Lewis Hamilton. Force India’s Sergio Perez finished the session in a surprising third place but did so twenty minutes early thanks to a brake issue.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was fourth quickest ahead of Sebastian Vettel (5th), Daniil Kvyat (6th) and Kimi Raikkonen (7th). The second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg, the McLaren of Fernando Alonso, and the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado rounded out the top ten.

In the long runs the pace comparison between Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg was especially noteworthy. Although there is no indication of fuel or engine modes run during the session the pace difference between the two drivers was, on average, a tenth of a second. A further interesting point was that Raikkonen was able to maintain a consistent pace for longer on the supersoft tyre than any other driver.

While Ferrari appear to have a competitive, perhaps even equal, race pace to Mercedes its qualifying pace still adrift of the Silver Arrows.

November 27, 2015
F1 2015: Abu Dhabi GP Preview – Abu Dhabi Ready To Dazzle

From Australia to seventeen different cities and circuit Formula 1 makes its final stop of 2015 at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit.

The first race around the visually stunning circuit was held in 2009. It remains unique to the F1 calendar for its twilight start and in its six grand prix has delivered dramatic outcomes and significant duels that are hard to forget.

In its first year on the calendar Jenson Button arrived already crowned as champion after a dominant season in his blindingly quick Brawn. While Sebastian Vettel was up the road and on his way to victory a late race scrap between Button and then Red Bull driver Mark Webber is what truly ignited the first-ever season finale in Abu Dhabi. Not far out from the chequered flag Button pitted for a new set of tyres and proceeded to close down second-placed Webber at a blinding pace. The newly-crowned champion gave it his all to overtake the Aussie and though it wasn’t to be it still produced an exhilarating and memorable wheel-to-wheel battle. “I was giving everything to take second place from Mark,” said Button, “but I couldn’t quite make the moves stick. He’s a very difficult guy to overtake but it was a good clean fight and we were really on the edge.

Since this 2009 duel the Abu Dhabi circuit has crowned Sebastian Vettel champion on two occasions in 2010 and 2013. In between Kimi Raikkonen won a memorable race for the Lotus team which is remembered for the now famous radio message of “leave me alone, I know what I’m doing.” Coincidentally, Raikkonen’s famous victory was the only time a driver has won this grand prix after not starting on the front row of the grid.

Sebastian Vettel isn’t the only world champion that has been crowned at the season-ending race either. In 2014 Lewis Hamilton was crowned with his second driver’s title after a season at the wheel of the absurdly dominant Mercedes. “Last year, this place brought probably the most intense weekend of my life,” recalls Hamilton.

Twelve month on Hamilton arrives in Abu Dhabi a triple world champion but still with something to play for. A 50^th pole position is in the offing if the Brit can recover his qualifying mojo. Recently, teammate Nico Rosberg has well and truly had the beating of Hamilton on Saturday and stands on the cusp of joining quite an elite group. Should the German secure a sixth consecutive pole position he will join a list of only four drivers who has achieved this feat in the sport.

As far as the Yas Marina circuit layout goes it isn’t the most technically challenging on the calendar. Instead, the layout is mostly dominated by medium speed corners and long straights. “The first sector is generally medium speed with a couple of high speed corners and not too technically challenging; a reasonable level of downforce works fine here. The second sector is more power hungry with two good straights and two low speed corners – a low speed hairpin and a low speed chicane so it’s important to manage these well. The final sector is quite technical with a number of low and medium speed corners where the car needs to be well balanced and work well to achieve a good lap time,” explains Lotus technical director Nick Chester. “Putting all that together is key – you need a car that works well in low speed corners and be good in the long straights.”

In 2015 the United Arab Emirates is celebrating its 44^th national day. It is a day which marks the unification of the seven emirates and the founding of the country. It could be just per chance that it matches Lewis Hamilton’s number 44. Or is it a sign that the three-time champ is set to light up the Abu Dhabi grand prix?

November 26, 2015
F1 2015: Marussia Lines Up King and Haryanto For Test

As the Formula 1 season draws to a close focus will shift to the all important winter testing season. The first test will take place after the season-ending Abu Dhabi grand prix.

On this occasion the test around the Yas Marina circuit will be a Pirelli tyre test. The one day test will run for twelve hours and will be used in preparation for the Italian tyre manufacturer’s 2016 compounds.

The Manor Marussia team has announced that, for them, duties on the day will be split by GP2 drivers Rio Haryanto and Jordan King. “For Jordan, this is a planned part of his 2015 role as development driver, following a season spent with the team in an educational capacity. Rio has of course driven two of our cars in previous tests. In 2010, he was considered to be at the very tender age of 17 years old, but we knew he had an exciting future ahead of him,” says Marussia team principal John Booth.

King currently sits in twelfth position in the GP2 standings while Haryanto is fourth ahead of the final race in Abu Dhabi. “Both drivers have extensive experience of running Pirelli tyres in GP2, and specifically the many GP2 tests that have been held in Abu Dhabi, so this leaves them well placed to help us play our part in Pirelli’s evaluation programme next week,” says Booth.

The Pirelli tyre test will take place on December 1st.

November 25, 2015
Pirelli Announces 12-Hour Abu Dhabi Test

Pirelli have confirmed that it will run a 12-hour test in Abu Dhabi after the final race of the season.

The test is scheduled to run on Tuesday 1 December from 9am to 9pm and it will be dedicated to testing out slick tyres for the 2016 season.

Pirelli have asked the teams to run race or reserve drivers. A condition for the test is that teams will not be able to test new parts on the cars. This test will be exclusively for tyre development work. Participation for the test is not mandatory and teams will only need to have one car running for the test.

Pirelli will specify a test program for each car and will test the new Purple Ultra-soft compound that will be introduced in 2016 and it will also test the 2016 tyre construction.

The purple colour for the ultra-soft compound was chosen by fans on Pirelli’s social media channels. 85% of fans voted for purple over silver.

November 4, 2015
Tyre Choices for Rest of the Season Announced by Pirelli

Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli have revealed their tyre nominations till the end of the season for the United States, Mexican, Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.

For the upcoming back-to-back races in Texas and Mexico City Pirelli have nominated the white medium and yellow soft compound tyres. This is the same tyre choice they had for Austin in 2014.

For the race in Mexico City, Pirelli say that their simulation data indicated that the medium and soft compound tyre will be the best choice for the new venue.

With the high temperatures expected again in Brazil this year, Pirelli will bring the white medium compound and yellow soft compound tyres to the Jose Carlos Pace circuit. The tyre choice is the same as it was in 2014.

For Abu Dhabi, like last year, we will see the yellow soft, and red super soft compound at the Yas Marina Circuit. This is a circuit that Pirelli and the teams know very well from testing.

October 13, 2015
F1 2014 Abu Dhabi Test: Day 2

Mercedes ended the second day of testing at Abu Dhabi on top of the timing sheets.

Test driver Pascal Wehrlein brought the Abu Dhabi test to a close with the fastest lap on the timing sheets. The 20-year-old official Mercedes test driver set a fastest time of 1:42:624 roughly half a second ahead of the pack.

McLaren’s newly minted Honda partnership underwent further teething problems today as Stoffel Vandoorne was only able to complete two laps. Vandoorne’s times were not timed and adds to a rather unspectacular first outing for the highly anticipated Honda hybrid power unit. The team discovered an electrical issue which severely compromised the team’s program. As Vandoorne finally emerged from the garage he grinded to a halt on track a few minutes later signalling the end of the testing session for the McLaren team.

Toro Rosso’s 2015 prospect Max Verstappen set the third fastest time of the day as Raffaele Marciello made his debut for Ferrari. Verstappen clocked a total of 78 laps before a power unit issue in the afternoon brought his running to an end.

Alex Lynn put the Lotus through its paces and managed the ninth fastest time of the day. Formula Three Champion Esteban Ocon took over the Lotus seat in the afternoon and set the tenth quickest lap with a total of 34 laps.

Unofficial Wednesday times from Abu Dhabi:

November 26, 2014
2014 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Test: Day 1

The first day of the 2014 Abu Dhabi test ended with Valtteri Bottas on top of the time sheets with a time of 1:43.396.

The headline act for the day was McLaren who were debuting their MP4-29H/1X1 with the Honda power unit. However, due to electrical issues and a fuel/data exchange issue the Woking based team was delayed for most of the morning. Reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne did have some track time for a mere three laps where he broke down on all three laps. The second of which resulted in a red flag as his car had to be recovered.

“We’d hoped to get a few more laps today, but we had a fuel data-logging issue that stopped the car a couple of times,” Vandoorne explained.

“However, the team are already analysing the situation and we’ll hopefully cure it ahead of tomorrow”

Although McLaren suffered a setback today, Vandoorne remained upbeat for the second and final day of the test.

Nevertheless, it’s been a very positive day for us. At this stage of development, any lap we complete has a benefit – and it’s better to be solving these initial teething problems in November rather than in Jerez next February,” he explained.

GP2 Champion Jolyon Palmer in his first outing in an F1 car for Force India was very excited about his experience. After some problems in the morning they were able to get going and the rookie clocked up 37 laps for the day and managed to finish in P4.

“I really enjoyed my first experience at the wheel of a Formula One car,” said Palmer.

“I always had the ambition to drive a Formula One car: it was surreal when I first got out of the pits, but after the first moment I was just focusing on getting the job done for the team and doing my best.”

Nico Rosberg, on the back of loosing the championship to Lewis Hamilton clocked up a mighty 114 laps for Mercedes, the most of any driver on the day. He finished in P3 with a time of 1:44.512

Kimi Riakkonen finished P2 for Ferrari, with a little under half a second down on Bottas’s time. The highlight of the day for Ferrari was their new singing, four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel paying the team a visit in the Ferari pit garage and getting to know the crew.

Red Bull had Formula Renault 3.5 Champion Carlos Sainz Jr at the wheel of the RB10. He clocked up an impressive 100 laps for the team and set the fifth fastest time.

Will Stevens was at the wheel for Caterham today. Fresh after his F1 debut at the race on Sunday he was given another go in the Caterham. He finished in P6 with a lap time of 1:45.436 and posted 102 laps.

Charles Pic ended the day in P7 with 89 laps under his belt for Lotus. Former Caterham driver, Marcus Ericsson drove for Sauber and finished behind Charles Pic in P8.

Max Verstappen had a suspension issue which ended his session in the morning. He ended up in the barriers because of this on only his third lap of the session. The team managed to get the car repaired for the afternoon session and he was back out on track

Below is the unofficial running order of the day

November 25, 2014
McLaren Gets The Go-Ahead to Debut Interim Development Car

The McLaren Formula 1 team have been given the go-ahead to debut their McLaren-Honda MP4-29H/1X1 at the Abu Dhabi test that starts tomorrow.

The team have already run the development car at a filming day at Silvertone last week to check the installation of the power unit together with other systems in the car. The feedback from the team and Honda seems positive and they’re both confident that they will be able to do more runs at the Abu Dhabi test.

Speaking to F1.com, McLaren team principal has this to say: “On Tuesday and Wednesday, here in Abu Dhabi, we’ll be testing our hybrid McLaren-Honda MP4-29H/1X1 for the first time.”

“It’s an exciting time for both McLaren and Honda, and for all who sail and will sail in the good ship McLaren-Honda. Ahead of us are many weeks of hard graft, but you may be well sure we’re up for the task.”

McLaren’s rookie test driver, Stoffel Vanddorne, will be at the wheel of the new car for both the testing days.

Here’s how the other teams will line up for the test:

Mercedes: Nico Rosberg/Pascal Wehrlein

Red Bull: Carlos Saintz Jr/ Daniel Ricciardo

Ferrari: Kimi Raikkonen/Raffaele Marciello

Williams: Valtteri Bottas/Felipe Nasr

McLaren: Stoffel Vandoorne

Lotus: Esteban Ocon/Charles Pic

Force India: Jolyon Palmer/Spike Goddard

Toro Rosso: Max Verstappen

Sauber: Marcus Ericsson

Caterham: Will Stevens

November 24, 2014
It’s advantage Rosberg ahead of Abu Dhabi Qualifying

Nico Rosberg held the advantage over Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton in the final practice session for the 2014 season at the Yas Marina circuit. Rosberg set the fastest time ahead of the qualifying session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with a 1:41.424 – 0.369s faster than his team mate.

Hamilton looked set to take the top spot after setting the fastest two sectors during his final lap but lost too much ground in the final sector.

Williams’ Felipe Massa took the third spot on the time sheets, a full 1.005s down on Rosberg, showing once again the superiority of the Mercedes duo and their lightning fast cars.

We should not, however, forget that the setting sun and subsequent falling track temperatures during qualifying at the Yas Marina circuit will mean that a fast FP3 lap may not translate into the same during qualifying. For this very reason, qualifying simulations were left until pretty late in the practice session to get track conditions as close to qualifying as possible. Mercedes should still nevertheless lock out the front row of the grid in qualifying, with Williams hot on their heels.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso set his time on soft tyres during the early stages of the session, then set a time on the supersofts and never took part in the rest of the session. He ended in fourth place as he and Ferrari attempt to save mileage on his engine.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel finished his last practice session for the Red Bull team in fifth place, ahead of Jenson Button and Daniel Ricciardo.

Valtteri Bottas Bottas made a mistake in the final corner on his super-soft run which saw him only managing eigth place but he will most certainly be targeting the second row, come qualifying.

Daniil Kvyat and Kimi Raikkonen completed the top 10.

McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen posted the 11th best time of the session, ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

Esteban Gutierrez beat the two Lotus drivers Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean to 15th place with Adrian Sutil just behind.

Caterham remained at the bottom of the timesheets on their return to F1 this weekend with Caterham’s rookie Will Stevens getting to within a second of team mate Kamui Kobayashi’s time for the first time.

November 22, 2014