Tag: f1

F1 2016: Chinese GP Preview – Tyre strategy name of the game in China

From the desert circuit of Bahrain the Formula 1 paddock travels to mainland China and the Shanghai International circuit for the third round of the 2016 season.

Good news is abounding before the weekend of racing even gets underway. A unanimous front by the eleven Formula 1 teams has force fed the FIA enough sanity to compel a reversion to the 2015 qualifying format for the remainder of the season. It wasn’t through lack of trying from the FIA though. The governing body, not wanting to accept defeat, tried one last time to impose itself by putting an aggregate-style qualifying on the table. Thankfully this too was unanimously shown the door.

Besides the fact that it restores the much preferred 2015 version of qualifying, this decision sets a precedent for future decisions. Teams have now shown that if they stick together and push hard enough they can affect some change. And though the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone will try to spin this decision into something that makes them look a bit rosier it just isn’t true. The reality is that it wasn’t a decision by the FIA but rather a bending under the pressure from teams and fans.

Because of this you’d hope that it’s significant also where the fans are concerned. Along with the teams’ unanimous front the fans’ disapproval on social media played its part too. The FIA and Ecclestone have been reluctant in the past to grant social media any clout. Hopefully they’re opinion has been informed enough to start moving the sport towards embracing social media more.

The best news is that now the focus can return to the most important thing – racing. In 2015 Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen brilliantly pulled off several overtaking manoeuvres into the extremely tight turn fourteen which follows on the kilometre long back-strait. Besides being one of the most unique first corners on the calendar the fast changes of direction in the middle sector will test just how good a chassis various teams have built for 2016.

F1 first visited China’s Shanghai International circuit back in 2004 and has marked several landmark victories for drivers and teams. It was here in 2012 that Nico Rosberg won his first race and arrives in 2016 on the back of five consecutive victories and a good-looking lead in the driver’s standings. The best thing about Rosberg’s recent form is that it adds a new dimension to the championship. It’s put Lewis Hamilton into a position not known to him in the last two years, the hunter rather than the hunted.

But we’re talking about Merc as if they’re not facing a determined threat from Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen have a good enough car to push Mercedes all the way to the chequered flag. But they don’t have good enough car to out-qualify Rosberg and Hamilton with. Therefore, tyre strategy becomes vital.

Raikkonen and Vettel have chosen an alternative tyre strategy to Merc for the Chinese GP. Both Ferrari drivers have chosen six sets of supersoft tyres while Rosberg and Hamilton have only five sets of the red-walled tyre. Should Mercedes run into rear tyre wear issues in China, as has been the case in the past, they won’t be able to run the supersoft tyre for as long. Whereas Ferrari, who has traditionally been able to get more out of the supersoft tyre, will hold a strategic advantage of being able to run on the quicker tyre for longer.

These permutations are only for the sharp-end of the grid. There is still an all-mighty battle in the mid-field which will undoubtedly rage throughout every one of Sunday’s 56 laps.

April 14, 2016
Alonso Cleared to Race In China

McLaren Driver Fernando Alonso has been cleared to race at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Alonso had to watch the Bahrain Grand Prix from the pit garage after FIA doctors declared him unfit to race due to inconclusive scans. McLaren flew in their reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne to take his place.

During the course of the weekend, however, McLaren tried every avenue they could find to get the FIA doctors to clear the Spaniard to race but they were unsuccessful in their attempts.

After a medical check up at the Shanghai International Circuit’s medical centre on Thursday, the FIA medical delegates gave Alonso the all clear to race. There was however a condition attached to it. He has to undergo further tests after FP1 to determine if he is fit to participate for the rest of the weekend.

Before the FIA reached their conclusion Alonso said that he felt good about participating this weekend.

FIA Statement:

“Since the accident at the Australian Grand Prix, McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team driver Fernando Alonso has been undergoing the process of “Reintegration” in accordance with Chapter II of Appendix L of the International Sporting Code. McLaren Honda have applied for Alonso to participate in the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix.

As the injury to the driver was discovered some days after the Australian Grand Prix, the Reintegration does not strictly fall within the text of the Appendix. Therefore, the Stewards have taken advice from the FIA Medical Delegate, who in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the Chinese Grand Prix and the driver’s doctors advise that he considers the driver provisionally fit to take part in the event. Given the exceptional circumstances, and having heard from the team, the Stewards have decided to exempt the driver from strict compliance with Art. 3(b) of Chapter II of Appendix L, relying instead on Art. 3(a) which has been satisfied.

Therefore driver Fernando Alonso will be allowed to participate, subject to the provision below.

The driver has been given directions by the FIA Medical Delegate and CMO which he is to follow (Art. 12.1.1.i of the International Sporting Code.) Further, in accordance with Art. 22.14 of the Formula One Sporting Regulations, he is instructed by the FIA Medical Delegate and CMO to undergo a further examination immediately following FP1 to determine his further eligibility to take part in the remainder of the Event”

April 14, 2016

Broadcast Times for the 2016 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix

Round three of the Formula 1 World Championship is already upon us and this weekend we are in Shanghai China for the 13th iteration of the Chinese Grand Prix.

With it’s inaugural race in 2004 which saw over 250 000 people fill the grand stands, the Shanghai International Circuit has been a yearly feature on the F1 calendar every since. The track layout was inspired by the Chinese character Shang(上) and was designed by Herman Tilke. It features a classic Tilke trademark of a long straight followed by a hairpin.

Being a front limited circuit it puts emphasis on front end grip and with the super soft, soft and medium compound tyres made available by Pirelli we can expect quite a few different strategies. Some teams have gone quite aggressive in their tyre selection choosing more super soft compound tyres.

Coming off the back of a victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix where he made it five wins in a row, Nico Rosberg will want to keep that going to take 6 wins on the trot and further consolidate his lead in the championship. His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton will be at a slight disadvantage from the start after he was handed a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Ferrari are looking for a good result following their race of mixed feelings after Bahrain. The battle in the midfield is heating up and we’re only three races into the season. The big surprise is Haas F1 who have secured two solid points finishes in two races. A fairy tale start for the team from Kannapolis.

With the race in China we have a mixed set of times this weekend with late nights and early mornings on the cards.

	US Central	GMT+2	GMT	Local
Free Practice 1	21:00 (Thur)	04:00 (Fri)	02:00 (Fri)	10:00 (Fri)
Free Practice 2	01:00 (Fri)	08:00 (Fri)	06:00 (Fri)	14:00 (Fri)
Free Practice 3	23:00 (Fri)	06:00 (Sat)	04:00 (Sat)	12:00 (Sat)
Qualifying	02:00 (Sat)	09:00 (Sat)	07:00 (Sat)	15:00 (Sat)
Race	01:00 (Sun)	08:00 (Sun)	06:00 (Sun)	14:00 (Sun)

April 14, 2016

New Gearbox Drops Hamilton 5-Grid Places

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton will take a 5-place grid drop on Sunday’s race for the Chinese Grand Prix after a gearbox change.

This after Mercedes examined his gearbox after the Bahrain Grand Prix and found it had taken some damage. To be on the safe side Mercedes decided to replace his gearbox to give him the best change at a shot at victory on Sunday.

The team decided that it would be less of a risk to take the penalty early in the season and in China where there are many overtaking opportunities for Hamilton to make up places.

April 14, 2016
F1 2016: Qualifying Officially Returns to 2015 Format

The World Motorsport Council (WMSC) officially approved a change to the 2015 Qualifying for F1 on Monday by e-vote.

This turn around was prompted by teams standing united against a proposed aggregate qualifying solution. The widespread condemnation of the new 2016 format from fans and teams sent F1 management and the FIA scrambling for a change. After a few obstacles where teams were not happy to accept a hybrid approach where the 2015 and 2016 would be used together, the teams stood together and unanimously agreed not to accept the aggregate qualifying format.

The FIA and F1 management finally agreed to return to the 2015 format which was ratified by the FIA and the WMSC. In return, teams will explore new avenues to change up the race weekend format together with a new qualifying format.

Statement from the FIA:

“The World Motor Sport Council today approved, via e-vote, the decision to revert to last season’s qualification format for the remainder of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship.

The format, where the slowest six cars are eliminated at the end of the first two qualifying sessions before a final ten-car shootout for Pole in Q3, will return for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.”

April 11, 2016
F1 Reverting Back to 2015 Format after United Stand From Teams

F1 is set to return to the 2015 qualifying format after Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA agreed to the request from the teams.

Team bosses met earlier on Thursday to decide on the new proposed aggregate qualifying format. In an unusual move, all the teams unanimously agreed in a letter sent to the FIA and Ecclestone not to go ahead with the proposed aggregate format but to revert back to the 2015 format.

With the teams standing united on this matter, the FIA and Ecclestone agreed that the way forward for the sport is to agree to go back to the 2015 format.

“At the unanimous request of the teams in a letter received today, Jean Todt, President of the FIA, and Bernie Ecclestone, commercial rights holder representative, accepted, in the interests of the Championship, to submit a proposal to the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council to revert to the qualifying format in force in 2015,” read a statement by the FIA

“This proposal, if approved by the F1 governing bodies, will take effect as from the Chinese Grand Prix and will apply for the rest of the season,” the statement continued

“Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone welcomed the idea put forward by the teams to have a global assessment of the format of the weekend for 2017. “

April 7, 2016
Vandoorne Shows What he’s Capable of

GP2 Champion and McLaren Reserve Driver Stoffel Vandoorne showed just what he is capable of on his debut F1 weekend.

Vandoorne, who stood in for Fernando Alonso after he was declared unfit to race by the FIA medical delegate on the Thursday ahead of the race, claimed the Woking based teams first points of the 2016 season with a 10th place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix race.

The young Beligian was in Japan when he got the call to fill in for Alonso on Thursday evening. He was immediately on a flight and he was at the Bahrain International Circuit just before Free Practice 1. As F1 debuts go, this was not the ideal situation, but Vandoorne took his challenge head on and went with it.

With not much time to prepare he got in the car and finished 18th fastest in Free Practice 1. In Free Practice 2 he managed 11th fastest and 14th in Free Practice 3. After FP2 he remarked that he was comfortable in the car as soon as he climbed in. His qualifying performance was impressive. He out qualified his team-mate Jenson Button by going 12th fastest.

Come race day he did not have it easy at the start. He almost got caught up in the chaos after Williams’ Valtteri Bottas tangled with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton at the start of the race into Turn 1. A relatively aggressive strategy of soft-soft-super soft together with some good overtaking moves earned him 10th place and a world championship point.

“This result was more or less what I expected – I maximised the opportunity and I’m quite satisfied,” said Vandoorne after the race on Sunday.

“The start was a little bit difficult. There was debris left and right – it was pretty hectic in fact – and there was a lot of fighting throughout that opening lap.

“Since the beginning of the weekend, I’ve felt very confident in the car, and pretty comfortable that I could do a good job.

“I’m pleased that I didn’t make any mistakes operationally – I was really focusing on that side of things – and I came away with a point, which was a nice bonus.

“This weekend was a big opportunity for me: I made the most of it, I showed what I’m capable of, and now I just need to wait and see what happens next.

“That’s not for me to decide – so let’s see what the future brings.”

The young Belgian may not have to wait too long as Button is out of contract at the end of the season.

Photo Credit: McLaren Honda Formula One Team

April 4, 2016
F1 2016: Bahrain GP Race Report – Desert Success for Rosberg

For nine years the Bahrain grand prix was run under the hot desert sun. For nearly a decade it wasn’t a race marked as one to look forward to and it almost always produced the most lacklustre racing of a season. But it would only take pushing back the starting time a few hours and a few thousand floodlight to ignite the Bahrain Gp into a spectacle of note. And in 2016 it delivered once more.

As if to emphasise its transformation the drama started before a lap could be turned in anger. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was forced into retirement on the formation lap. While Ferrari has stopped short of calling it an engine failure the plumes of smoke pouring from the rear of the car say otherwise. In Australia it was Raikkonen who retired with a turbo failure and there too Ferrari went out of its way to assure that there is no reliability concern. But even though its only two races into the season they’re developing a bit of an uncomfortable and undesirable habit of only getting one car to the chequered flag.

Lewis Hamilton was sitting pretty in pole position with teammate Nico Rosberg alongside on the front row of the grid but it wasn’t to last very long for the Brit. Hamilton struggled to get off the line and ended up tangling with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and dropped down to seventh.

From fourth place Raikkonen made a poor start and dropped behind a pair of fast starting Williams’ and the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. However, the Finn followed with some tenacious overtaking got himself into second place. By this stage the leading Mercedes of Rosberg was already eleven seconds up the road. The 2007 champion maintained a comparable pace with the Mercedes and even managed to reduce the gap to three seconds through strategy and occasional superior pace. But the number 7 Ferrari was never close enough to challenge for the lead of the race.

As Hamilton recovered to third with some damage to the right-side barge board Rosberg wrapped up his fifth win in a row. For years we’ve been calling for Rosberg to step up his game and make it a championship battle worth watching and he’s done it now. There is still an incredibly long season ahead but Rosberg has started 2016 in the way that he’s needed to, in a way that will give Hamilton a lot to think about.

With the top three positions established the rest of the points paying positions was an intense fight right to the chequered flag. The availability of three tyre compounds once again added a dynamism to the racing as drivers opted for strategies than ran the gamut of possibilities. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth thanks an early stop and rolling the dice by running the final stint on the medium tyres.

As the race strategy engineer for the Haas F1 team Ruth Buscombe once again worked a brilliant strategy for Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman ran most of the race on the supersoft compound which allowed him to scythe through the field. He ran as high as fourth at one stage and ultimately finished fifth in what is turning out to be a fairytale debut for the American team.

Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen finished sixth ahead of Daniil Kvyat in seventh who recovered from starting fifteenth on the grid. After a difficult tyre strategy Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished eighth and ninth for Williams. Driver of the day belong the final points scorer Stoffel Vandoorne. The 24-year-old Belgian driver stood in for Fernando Alonso who is recovering from fractured ribs sustained in the Australian Gp crash. The difficulty of having to deal with the complexity of a 2016 F1 car, to understand the Pirelli tyres, and to fight with seasoned F1 drivers, must not be underestimated. Vandoorne put all of his talents on display and blitzed his F1 debut.

The 2016 hasn’t begun to hit its stride and already an immense battle is brewing up and down the field. Roll on China.

(All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport)

April 4, 2016
F1 2016: Bahrain Gp Tyre Strategy

The introduction of a third available compound by Pirelli has positively added to the spectacle. Here is a look at the different strategies adopted by drivers during the 2016 Bahrain grand prix.

In Friday’s second free practice session Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen competed a twenty lap run on the medium compound tyres. The stint showed up well in terms of pace and would’ve been considered a good choice for those opting for a two stop race strategy. However, conditions in Sunday’s race were not conducive to competitively running the medium tyre.

Although Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo ran his final stint on the medium tyre his second stint, on the soft tyre, was the decisive factor in his race. The Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas started the race without any new sets of the soft tyre, thereby compromising how innovative they could be on tyre strategy. Massa ran the longest stint on the medium tyre and though he ran as high as second at the start of the race ultimately finished eighth ahead of teammate Bottas in ninth.

Haas’ race strategy engineer Ruth Buscombe calleed the most dynamic and aggressive of the race for Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman ran three stints on the supersoft tyre and his final stint on a new set of yellow-walled soft tyres.

April 4, 2016
2016 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

DRIVERS
1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)
2 – Kimi RAIKKONEN (Ferrari)
3 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

PODIUM INTERVIEWS

(Conducted by David Coulthard)

Congratulations, your 16th victory, your fifth in a row. Any man that has done that has won a world championship, so a good day in the office.

Nico ROSBERG: Oh for sure. It’s been an awesome weekend. The key was really the start. I got a great getaway and from then on I was trying to control the pace. Very, very happy with today; absolutely awesome to get another win.

Q: Fantastic, we’ll come back to you. I’ll move along to Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi, as was mentioned in the introductions, your fifth second place here, you were second here last year. It’s a good circuit for you. Just lacking that last little bit of pace this afternoon but it bodes well for the season?

Kimi RAIKKONEN: Yeah, obviously not too bad. I made a bad start and after a few laps we were one straight behind Nico, so it’s pretty difficult to recover from there, but we did what we could and we had pretty good speed. Not enough to win, but we’ll take second today and try to improve from there.

Q: What is it about this circuit that brings out the best in you? You do seem to have a good run here.
KR: I don’t think there are any special things we do. It seems to be happening here. There’s maybe some circuits that we seem to have all the time bad luck. But I’ll take it, but still we know… it was unfortunate for the team that the other car had an issue. We have some work to be done.

Q: Congratulations on your podium result. Ladies and gentlemen, Lewis Hamilton. Now Lewis, it seemed to me that it all went wrong at the start again. We saw a little hiccup in Melbourne, another little hiccup here, any relation or two separate incidents?
Lewis HAMILTON: I think two separate incidents, but both equally as painful, perhaps this one today more painful. Nonetheless, we still managed to get back up there and at least get some points. So again, damage limitation. Congratulations to Nico, kind of an easy race for him I assume, but I’m glad that it wasn’t more points and obviously I could have not finished the race so…

Q: Just tell us about that last pit stop. It seemed like you stayed out a bit longer. You were give seconds behind Kimi at one point and then you dropped to more than 12 seconds, so what was the thinking behind that?
LH: Well, the team was hoping that was potentially a safety car or something. I had so much damage on the car that I couldn’t keep up with Kimi. I was fighting but the rear end was nowhere. I did what I could with it and at the end I was just keeping the tyres in case I get an opportunity with the safety car, but it didn’t come.

Q: We saw you arriving this morning in traditional dress. You obviously love being here in Bahrain.
LH: I do and as you can see… a big thank you to the fans that came here this weekend. I’ve got some incredible support here. I was trying to enjoy the festivities here and I’ve been so well taken care of, so a big thanks to the Crown Prince and I look forward to coming back next year.

Q: Congratulations. Back to our race winner: what a dream start to this season. Do you want to share a few more thoughts with the race fans out there?
NR: No, just congratulations to Bahrain really, for staging such an awesome race weekend here. Such a great race track here also, in the desert. It’s been, I think, fantastic for all of you, I’m sure you had a lot of fun and we’ll be back again next year of course.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Nico, obviously the start was key – but also were some strategy decisions and changes, particularly favouring the supersoft tyre in the final third of the race. Can you talk us through the start and particularly those decisions and what it was like from the cockpit?
NR: Yeah, we’ve been working a lot on the starts. I’m pleased that it worked out so well, it was a really good getaway on the dirty side of the grid and that really made my race in the end. And from then on the car was feeling great and just controlling the pace and playing it safe. That’s what we were trying to do. Also, in case the Safety Car comes and things like that. So we really went for the safest strategy, not the fastest strategy. Just to cover all eventualities.

Q: So you anticipated maybe running supersofts later in the race?
NR: Anticipated? No. As I say, went for the strategy which was safest, to cover all eventualities like Safety Car or anything else that can happen.

Q: Kimi, just over six seconds behind at the end. If you reflect on where you were coming out of Turn Two on the opening lap, do you think with a cleaner start you might have been able to give Nico a run for his money today?
KR: It’s not possible to say. Obviously this is the end result and we had pretty okay speed in the race. Obviously bad start, I don’t know exactly what happened, if I had some issue or did some mistake. I just got wheelspin in the end. Obviously got surprised, managed to hold quite a good position after such a bad start, so it was a nice thing in the first two corners, didn’t lose too much. Then managed to pass cars, so that was a key point – but once I was second place I was already one full straight behind Nico so, obviously not an awful lot to do after that – but we managed to catch up little-by-little and I think we did the maximum that we could after that start. Not ideal for the team. We had some issue with the other car before the race even started, so yeah, we have quite a bit of work to be done – but the speed is more or less there and we just need to fix certain things.

Q: Lewis, another recovery drive two weeks after Melbourne. Obviously this one a bit more difficult I imagine because you seemed to have quite a bit of damage on the car. How did that feel to you, trying to make your way through the field? Maybe you could give us a little detail on the start and that first corner with Bottas.
LH: Yeah, obviously I just lost a lot of performance with the car and I’m not quite sure what happened at Turn One – whoever was on the inside was in my blindspot so I didn’t see them. It was a racing incident – those kind of things happen. After that just trying to manage the tyres, obviously with a lot less rear end and trying to get as many points as possible. I did the best I could with it.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Khodr Rawi – motorsport.com) Kimi, are you worried that the latest reliability issues could prevent Ferrari from fighting for the championship?
KR: I don’t know what happened to the other car. Obviously something went wrong. We had some issue… I had an issue in the last race. Seb had something here. It’s not ideal but, like I said, we have some work to be done and you never want to have a retirement and it’s going to cost points in the drivers’ plus the teams’. It’s an unfortunate part of the game.

Q: (Christopher Joseph – Chicane) Nico, how important is it now, confidence-wise and momentum-wise for you, having won the first two races of the season?
NR: It’s not something I think about. I’m just taking it race by race and it’s great to win here today, great to win two on the trot and that’s it. Next race – where are we going, China? It is a good moment because we have a good car and I just want to make the most of it.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, you have eight podiums here. If you could, would you like to change it to one victory, and how do you rate your record?
KR: Obviously we always try to do our maximum and this is the end result. There’s no point in wondering if and… We had some second places, some third places, no win but like today I take second place and go from here and see what happens.

Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, had there been a problem at the getaway, at the start, and then when did you realise that Bottas was too late on the brakes and you could be in trouble?
LH: I don’t really know what was at the start. I don’t think there was any particular real issue. I think it was just not a good getaway by myself and nothing technical or anything like that. Yeah, as I said, it was in a blind spot, I didn’t know if anyone was there, I didn’t know what had happened but I’m glad that I didn’t spin. At least I could keep going. At least I managed to continue and still have some performance left in the car that I could get back into the top three.

Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Nico, how does it feel to win five victories in a row?
NR: It’s not something that I think about. I haven’t thought about it right in this moment. I’m just thinking about the season, it’s two wins in a row now, good points, that’s where my focus is and that’s it really. Five wins, three wins in a row, it doesn’t make a difference. Sorry.

Q: (Khodr Rawi – motorsport.com) Lewis, did you have to run a more aggressive mode during the race to compensate for the lack of downforce?
LH: We just run the normal race mode, we don’t have any more… We just did the same as we normally do.

April 3, 2016