F1 Madness

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  • F1 2015: Season Finale Review – Abu Dhabi, that’s a wrap

    F1 2015: Season Finale Review – Abu Dhabi, that’s a wrap

    As far as thrillers go the Abu Dhabi grand prix isn’t quite going to make the list of most memorable races. Though visually spectacular the Yas Marina circuit has brought the 2015 season to a close in fairly mundane manner but still provided several talking points.

    In only the second time in its seven year history the Abu Dhabi grand prix was won from pole position. First place on the starting grid belonged to Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg which he easily translated into the race lead as the sun began to set over the Yas Marina circuit. On the track it didn’t turn out to be a wheel-to-wheel battle between Rosberg and teammate Hamilton but rather a tactical fight through pit stop strategy.

    In the first round of pitstops Hamilton followed his race leading teammate into the pitlane only a lap later, effectively mirroring his strategy. However, with the constructor’s and driver’s title in the bag the Mercedes team allowed its drivers some leeway in strategy calls and racing up to the chequered flag. Lewis Hamilton took advantage of the rare freedom to extend his second stint on the yellow side-walled soft tyres. At one point Hamilton even considered running a one stop strategy and going to the end on his tyres. This strategy was quickly dismissed as impossible by his race engineer and Hamilton pitted to fit a set of the soft Pirelli tyres.

    Abu Dhabi 2015_StartThis strategy left Hamilton nearly twelve seconds behind race leader Rosberg. Although the three time champion was able to run with the fresher tyres in the closing stint of the race, he was only able to halve the pace to the leading car. The race concluded with Rosberg leading Hamilton home with a comfortable gap of just over eight seconds. This latest one-two finish Rosberg and Hamilton makes it the twelfth of the year for Mercedes.

    Not too far behind the Mercedes pair Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen delivered a strong drive to finish third. The Finn turned a good pace but never enough to challenge for victory.  While some will make a note that he finished the season in fourth place on the driver’s standings Raikkonen couldn’t care less of his ultimate position in the championship unless it’s position number one. Never one to sugar-coat reality Raikkonen, by his own admission, has labelled his season as distinctly “average.”

    After a strategic error in qualifying Sebastian Vettel was forced to start in fifteenth. The German was able to recover to take fourth place for Ferrari. Sergio Perez, who started on the second row of the grid in fourth, brought his Force India home in fifth ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Nico Hulkenberg was seventh in the other Force India while Felipe Massa struggled to an eighth place finish for the Williams team. In his final race with Lotus before heading off the American Haas team was Romain Grosjean who made the best of his supersoft tyres in the closing stages. Daniil Kvyat secured tenth and the final point on offer for the Red Bull Racing team.

    Nico Rosberg_Abu Dhabi 2015_Podium2It wasn’t a race blighted by too many incidents however Fernando Alonso incurred a drive-through penalty for hitting the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado into turn one as the race got underway. In the pitlane Valtteri Bottas clipped the back of Jenson Button’s McLaren after an unsafe release by the Williams pitcrew. It resulted in a damaged front-wing for Bottas and five second penalty. The Finn eventually finished a lap down in thirteenth.

    Dutchman and rookie driver Max Verstappen showed up to the race as his ever-aggressive self and set about overtaking as many drivers as possible. However, his spirited overtaking proved a bit too much as race stewards penalised him with gaining an advantage after going off the circuit in a pass on Jenson Button. As the penalty was imposed after the race it dropped the teenage sensation to sixteenth place.

    In Brazil Hamilton was the quicker of the two Mercedes in the race but couldn’t find a way to overtake Rosberg. But here in Abu Dhabi Hamilton has been shaded, in terms of pace, for the entire weekend. For Nico Rosberg the season couldn’t have ended any better. Six pole positions and a hat trick of victories is an incredible run of form. It begs the question as to where this prodigious form has been the entire season. Is it as a result of a release of pressure or has Rosberg at long last found something that Hamilton has no answer for?

    (Images courtesy of Mercedes AMG F1 Team & Pirelli Motorsport).

  • FIA Makes Ruling on Wind Tunnel “Ambiguities”

    FIA Makes Ruling on Wind Tunnel “Ambiguities”

    On Saturday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the FIA received a request from Mercedes regarding clarification on wind tunnel regulations and the limits on wind tunnel work.

    The FIA have ruled on the matter and have told teams that teams are not allowed to collude on aerodynamic testing, more specifically, customer teams with technical partnerships with manufacturer teams.

    This comes after Mercedes pointed out a few ambiguities in the rules and after corresponding with the FIA on the matter, were referred to the race stewards. The stewards on Sunday made a recommendation to the FIA in an 8-page document.

    The controversy started when concerns were raised that Ferrari had benefited from additional wind tunnel testing which was performed with the Haas F1 team, who will be using various Ferrari components in their cars when they make their debut in F1 next year. Haas F1 were not bound by the current regulations which limits wind tunnel testing. Until Sunday’s ruling by the FIA.

    Ferrari and Haas were cleared by the FIA after examining the logs provided to them by Haas F1 and Ferrari. “Having examined the reports (including audit reports team facilities) provided to us, the Stewards confirm that there is no evidence that competitors have not complied with the requirements of Appendices 6 and 8 as they were interpreted prior to today’s date,” said the FIA in their settlement document.

    In the settlement document the FIA state:”The Stewards recommend to the FIA that in future once a potential competitor (as opposed to Official Entry) applies to be a competitor in the FIA Formula One World Championship and this application is accepted, that competitor should be bound by Appendices 6 and 8 (and for that matter any other appropriate sections of the Formula One Sporting and Technical Regulations).”

    It was also noted by the FIA that the ruling will apply going forward and not retrospectively.

    The FIA also issued a list of activities that will be deemed attempts to circumvent the regulations with regards to wind tunnel testing.

    • No employee or consultant of a competitor who is involved in aerodynamic development may pass any information obtained under their own ATR quota to an employee or consultant of another competitor.
    • No employee of a competitor who is involved in aerodynamic development, who leaves that company and takes up a similar position with another competitor, may do so without a suitable (or normal) period of “gardening leave” or “isolation”.
    • No employee of a competitor who is involved in aerodynamic development, and who leaves that company and takes up a similar position with another competitor, may then return to the original competitor without a suitable (or normal) period of “gardening leave” or “isolation”.
    • No employee of a competitor who is involved in aerodynamic development, and who then leaves that company, may pass information obtained under their former employer’s ATR quota to an employee or consultant of another competitor before a suitable (or normal) period of “gardening leave” or “isolation” has elapsed.
    • No employee of an external entity who is involved in F1 aerodynamic development may be employed by a competitor, on a permanent or temporary basis, without a suitable (or normal) period of “gardening leave” or “isolation”.
    • No employee of a competitor who is involved in aerodynamic development may be seconded to, or temporarily employed by, another competitor unless such secondment or employment is a genuine long term arrangement for the sole purpose of providing the other competitor with technical expertise. Any seconded employee must not then return to the original competitor without a suitable (or normal) period of “gardening leave” or “isolation”. Three months would be considered as a genuine long term arrangement.
    • No competitor may acquire aerodynamic surfaces from an external entity (even if such entity claims to have designed them for its own purposes), unless any aerodynamic testing resource used to develop the surfaces is counted within the relevant competitor’s ATR quota.
    • Teams sharing a wind tunnel (or any other aerodynamic testing resource as referred to in Appendix 8, including a CFD cluster) must put appropriate procedures in place to avoid any breach of confidentiality or of the general restrictions of Appendix 6 and Appendix 8. This would include (but not be limited to):

      (i) ensuring staff shared by both parties or employed by one party but involved in the operational part of the aerodynamic testing of the other party (such as operating or maintaining the wind tunnel and/or CFD hardware) give contractual covenants not to pass information or to allow information to pass between the parties.

       

       

      (ii) putting the physical infrastructure in place so the two parties operate their support activities (such as wind tunnel model preparation), other than the operational part of the testing mentioned above, in separate environments.

       

       

      (iii) putting the IT infrastructure in place so the two parties operate on separate networks and store their data on separate (at least virtually) storage hardware.

       

  • Post Race Penalty for Verstappen

    Post Race Penalty for Verstappen

    Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen was handed a post race drive through penalty for ignoring blue flags in Sunday’s race for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

    The rookie impeded Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton towards the end of the race and was handed the drive through penalty which was converted to a 20-second time penalty. That meant Verstappen finished lower down the order in 16th position from 12th.

    His drive through penalty also included one penalty point on his super license. This brings a total of 8 points on his super license. Under the current regulations, if a driver collects 12 penalty points he incurs a one-race ban. The penalty points do expire in May 2016 but until then he will have to behave himself on the track next year.

     

  • 2015 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Post Race Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

     

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by David Coulthard)

    Q: Nico, that must taste good?

    Nico ROSBERG: Delicious! The best ever!

    Q: It’s been an incredible end to the season. This was, to me, your most dominant win of the season, so tell us a little bit about the race and the hunger you took into this final race of the season.

    NR: No, I mean, yeah, Austin was sort of the low point of the season. It was a tough weekend and since then I’ve just come back a lot stronger and I’m very happy about that. I’m excited about how the end of the season went. Next year can come any moment. It could start tomorrow if it were for me, no problem, I don’t need any holidays! But, no, it’s great to end the season like this, go on holiday like this and thank you so much, you’ve been awesome again this weekend, for all your support and everything, thanks to my team, absolutely stunning car you’ve all given me again today – just unbelievable. Ecstatic.

    Q: You mentioned Austin there. We could see the disappointment as the realisation the championship had slipped away at that race. Can you tell us a little bit, give the fans at home an insight. You’ve got the enemy within the team, you work together to develop this great product but your success is Lewis’ failure and his success is your failure. Can you give us an insight into how you manage that?  Because you guys have known each other since you were kids.

    NR: Yeah, it’s always tough to race Lewis, he’s doing an awesome job and he’s one of the best out there, so an even better feeling to win, definitely against such opposition. It’s a great battle internally all the time. That’s what I race for, such battles, and I look forwards to more next year.

    Q: Does that mean you guys can go and have dinner together now and reflect on what was an amazing season for the team?

    NR: Let’s skip that part – maybe we’ll catch up in the Amber Lounge later on.

    Q: Lewis, an amazing season for you – your World Champion Ladies and Gentleman – it’s been a great season for you, I couldn’t help but notice it doesn’t seem to have finished quite as strong as it started. We heard you mention that there have been some changed to the car and it hasn’t quite suited you but is it as simple as that or is there something else we need to know now the season’s over?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Well, firstly it’s been an amazing – an amazing – year, and happy 44th UAE National Day. So happy to be here and celebrating it with the UAE, they’ve done an amazing job for this show – and what a great crowd we’ve had today. No man, it’s been a good year. I’m happy. I’m happy it’s over, for sure. So now we can really enjoy. I really have to take my hat off to this team who once again did an amazing job in building this car. The pitstops today, the performance through the whole year, they’ve surpassed their own expectations, our expectations, and so we’ve truly shown that Mercedes-Benz is the best team in the world. I’m proud to be a part of it.

    Q: Just to touch on strategy, we heard you again on the radio, asking the team “can I go the distance on these tyres?” We know the team have to deliver the one-two result. Nico earned the pole, he was leading the race – is that just the inner racer in you? Even though you probably know ahead of time that there’s nothing that can be done, that’s why you’re pushing your engineers, pushing the team.

    LH: No, I think in hindsight once Nico pitted I would probably have backed off a little bit and I would have made those tyres go a lot longer. The tyres were still fine at the end so I honestly felt that I could potentially have taken them to the end. But as that didn’t work out, going too long was probably not the right thing to do – but y’know, we gave it a try and did the best job I could with it.

    Q: I’ll just come around to Kimi Räikkönen. Ladies and Gentlemen, statistically this is the most popular man in Formula One. You probably say less than any of the other drivers, so welcome back to the podium. It’s not been a great season for you but that was a World Champion’s drive today – so why has it taken so long in the season to deliver this great performance?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: I think we started better this season but obviously not been ideal this year. That’s how it goes sometimes. And y’know, the speed has been there but mistakes and problems and stuff like that. So the end result hasn’t been great many times but today, or this weekend, was a bit better. Everything was working well and things were running smoothly, car handling well, so, it was good – but obviously not enough still to beat these two but, y’know we did our best.

    Q: Nico, finally with yourself, the smile says it all. The World Championship is the one thing… this is your 14th victory. You can take pole positions, you can win grands prix – how are you going to attack the winter and come back next year and try and beat this man?

    NR: Well I look forward to it as I’m sure it’s going to be another great season next year. I’m sure the team is going to give us an awesome car again. Of course we’re aware of the threat from the red guys and we don’t them to come too close and we’ll give it everything over the winter. I’ll try to keep it going, the current form, starting next year.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: You knew what Lewis was doing, obviously, in terms of strategy in the final part of the Grand Prix, the offset on the tyres etc, and you responded. Are you pleased with the way you drove today?

    NR: Yeah, for sure, ecstatic with the way it went, because really master-managed… controlled the pace through the race and managed my tyres and used them optimally and pushed all the way through to the end, so had good pace there with tyres that’s for sure and had a lot more laps on them than Lewis’s so very pleased with that, definitely.

    Q: I wonder which of the two of you goes into the winter feeling the happier?

    NR: I’m feeling very happy.

    Q: Lewis, you’re a three time World Champion, it’s been a record-breaking year, which of the two of you goes into the winter feeling the happier?

    LH: I think being World Champion sounds a lot better than winning the race, so that’s good.

    Q: Tell us a little bit about your race because we were let in on quite a lot of radio, partly, as David Coulthard just referred to there, your question whether or not there was an argument for staying out, but also in the final stages there to do with the engine modes and some quite firm instructions from your engineer, what they wanted you to do. Maybe you could just let us into that a little bit and also from a strategy point of view, you pitted after Vettel who went onto supersofts and you put softs on, so maybe you could just explain that?

    LH: Well, I just did what I was told pretty much, most of the time and then yeah, I tried as hard as I could in the first stint, I tried to keep a relatively decent gap to Nico, looking after my tyres and then my right front… or both fronts went off quite early and Nico was able to… in the clean air, was able to look after them. In the second stint I was quicker and getting close and then… I could make the tyres last longer, yeah, of course, but after that it was really down to the team, whether or not we went to the option or the other tyre. I’m not sure which one was better but the prime tyre was quite good. I’m not sure whether or not I could have taken it to the end but some part of me just wishes I’d just given it a go. But no, the engine modes were going up and down throughout the race, not really sure they were like that because they had lots of life left in my engine but I’ll ask when I get back to the debrief.

    Q: Kimi, your third podium of this championship, you finished eleven seconds behind Lewis which is about 0.2s per lap over the Grand Prix distance here. Do you take encouragement from the way that Ferrari’s finished the last couple of races going into the winter and next year?

    KR: I think the whole year, as a team, has been quite good comparing last year and obviously not so good for myself but the speed has been there and it’s just not been able to produce the results and having some issues and mistakes but this weekend has been pretty OK, the car’s been handling well. I think in the race we could have been quite a bit closer but we had some issues at both pit stops so we lost some time and then I slowed down a bit. But I think we had a reasonably good speed, they didn’t really pull away a lot from us. At certain points, I think we were catching them and then they were pulling out but not an awful lot in it. It’s never nice to finish third but I’ll take it after previous races. I guess it always could have been a better finish but OK, I think it was more or less what we expected to get.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Lennart Bernke – Bild) Nico, Lewis, will you get each other a Christmas present?

    NR: Hmm, maybe a Christmas card.

    LH:  I don’t think we’ve ever done either so there’s no reason to change.

    Q: (Rami Akhawi – Car on Web) Nico, about next year, are we going to see you as a World Champion, because already you entered the season with great victories, so is it the same way to start 2016?

    NR: Well, unfortunately 2016 is so far away. At the moment I’m just enjoying now, enjoying the wins. I’m going to party tonight, I’m enjoying the fun, enjoying that I progressed also a lot in the end of the season, too late for the championship of course, but so great now to have it and that’s it. I can’t tell you about next year unfortunately, but I’ll give it everything

    Q: (Fadi Kallassina – Arab Shift) Lewis, what’s your feeling for not getting the first position with the 44 celebration national day?

    LH: I’m really grateful to have been associated with the UAE with the 44th national day. Yeah, I’m still going for that 44th win. I’m quite happy with the amount of wins I’ve had in my career. Of course, I always want more but I have to be grateful for the ones I do have. Hopefully we’ve got another three years with this team so I’m looking forward to next year, to come back fit and healthy and let’s see what we can do next year.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, does it now, afterwards, feel any better to finish the season fourth (in the Drivers’ championship)  instead of being fifth and especially after being 12th last season?

    KR: Not really. You guys have been asking between me and Valtteri for a long time and still it doesn’t make much difference to me. It’s not what you think, a Finnish championship, it’s a World Championship and there are winners it goes from there. If you don’t win, it doesn’t make an awful lot of difference if you’re second, wherever you finish. I’m happy to have had a kind of OK race in the last one but it doesn’t change anything really of how our season went, what to expect for next year. One of the better weekends but we’ll take it and go from here.

  • 2015 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix; Post Qualifying Press Conference

    2015 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix; Post Qualifying Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1 – Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    3 – Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN (Ferrari)

     

    TV UNILATERAL

    Nico, six poles in a row at the end of the season – how have you done it?

    Nico ROSBERG: Well, before it was close in the other direction and now its close in this direction. I’m quicker in the moment. I’m very pleased about that and enjoying the moment and happy to be in pole again.

    Lewis, coming to you, obviously very string all weekend, strong in Q1, strong in Q2 but then in Q3 it sort of slipped away. Was there a reason for that in particular?

    Lewis HAMILTON: Not really, I’ve generally been struggling with the car a bit all weekend. But we’ve been working really hard to make some changes; we’ve had to take something off the car but no, Nico was just really quick today and he did a great job in Q3.

    OK, coming to you Kimi, close battle obviously with the Force India of Sergio Perez for the third place on the grid. You’ll start alongside him in the grand prix tomorrow. Your final lap, though, was the one that did it. You’ve been quick all weekend but did you feel the pressure from Perez and what was the secret in the end, particularly with your team-mate down in 16th?

    Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: No real secret. Obviously the car has been handling pretty well all weekend. The laps haven’t been ideal many times. Even the first run, it was OK the lap, but nothing like… I knew there was quite a lot of room to improve so I just tried to make one a bit better lap and it was enough. Obviously still a bit of a way off from what these guys can do but we did our best today.

    Coming back to you Nico, a disappointing race last here in Abu Dhabi. The race tomorrow, though, a chance to end the season with a hat-trick of victories. How important is it to carry that kind of momentum into the winter.

    NR: Primarily I would just like to win the race, because it’s a great feeling to win and it would also give my whole crew and the team a great end to the season and a good reason to party then tomorrow night. That would be awesome, to all have a good time together. So that’s primarily on my mind. Of course, though, whatever we learn this year as well helps going into next year, so it would be great finishing on a high.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Nico, once again strategy starting to come into play during Saturday afternoon, noticeably that you saved new soft tyres for the race tomorrow, going out on supersofts in Q1. We’ve seen that a few times from your team, so fairly clear what you’re thinking about, but how important do you think strategy will be tomorrow in terms of the outcome of the grand prix?

    NR: Strategy is always important. I think we’ve done our homework really well here, practicing well on Friday for the race, so we pretty much know exactly what to expect and the soft tyre will definitely be the better race tyre, so that’s why we saved one of those for the race.

    Lewis, coming to you, obviously you’ve been fairly relaxed about the situation at the end of this season in terms of qualifying and the pendulum as it has swung. Over the balance of the year then it’s 12-7 to you in qualifying in the battle with Nico. Maybe you could just give us your thoughts on the Saturday, how the year has gone for you and your thoughts on that over the course of the season?

    LH: It’s been good. It doesn’t really matter what that number is at the end of the day, what matters is the wins and obviously the championship, but you know, I’m happy because it has obviously been more in my favour. I’ve enjoyed it and in the last six Nico has done a great job. Areas to improve with the car, for me, on my side, but I’m sure we’ll get there.

    Q: And for you Kimi, this is your fourth top three qualifying of the season. Do you feel going into 2016, with all you’ve said this weekend about hopes and aspirations for next year, that qualifying in particular is an area to work on?

    KR: I don’t think it’s going to be as simple as that and if you qualify well you’re going to have a good finish. We have had good speed but many times a problem or mistakes here and there. Obviously it makes qualifying more difficult and hurts your end result easily but today, this weekend, everything’s been running smoothly and obviously it’s a bit better starting grid tomorrow but we have to still make a good race out of it. It doesn’t change what we do this year for next year anything. We start from zero in January and try to do a good year next.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Samomat) Nico, how tempting is it to try to get your seventh successive pole in the beginning of next season as Lewis did this year and to charge yourself for the whole winter.

    NR: With all the respect, that’s not really a target of mine. Of course it’s great to finish the season on a high now and then yeah, I’ll be motivated to start next year in a way that this year has finished. That would be great. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as that but, as always, I’ll push and try and begin strongly next year.

    Q: (Agris Lauzinieks – Kapitals Latvia) The question is what is the secret of your revival this season Nico? I mean two last races. Perhaps Mercedes is experimenting with new parts meant for 2016 and they are more suitable for your driving style. I mean new parts of the car.

    NR: It’s not a revival, I haven’t reinvented anything. It’s just progress and that’s it. Before it was always very, very close but Lewis had that one-tenth edge and at the moment it’s me that has the one-tenth edge. Today a bit more but it was very close lately in the last two races. That’s it. At the moment I’m just quicker.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Honorary) Lewis, you said you’ve been struggling with the car all weekend. What has been the problem and will it be worse in the race?

    LH: Generally it gets a little bit better in the race but it’s been for a while now. Generally just struggling on the edge with the car. It was a lot more comfortable at the beginning of the year for me and as I said, coming into this weekend I tried to make some changes. It disadvantaged myself a little bit maybe with one of the things I took off the car which was of benefit. I tried to get around it but at the end of the day it wasn’t good enough.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Samomat) Kimi, you seem to be quicker with the soft tyre in the practice. Does that mean the race is easier for you compared to qualifying.

    KR: I don’t think it’s going to be any easier. I mean, in qualifying the supersofts were working well and obviously yesterday and this morning wasn’t ideal. Couldn’t get the lap with those. Couldn’t get the lap with those but again in qualifying they were fine. Obviously conditions changed from daytime to this evening but no, both tyres seem to be working pretty well for me and we’ll see what we’re going to do tomorrow – which one we’re going to run and how it’s going to plan out in the first few laps.

  • F1 2015: Abu Dhabi Qualifying Report – Rosberg Storms To Pole

    F1 2015: Abu Dhabi Qualifying Report – Rosberg Storms To Pole

    Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has secured his sixth straight pole position ahead of the 2015 Abu Dhabi grand prix.

    The first session of the qualifying hour was highlighted by miscalculation of Sebastian Vettel’s side of the Ferrari garage. It meant that the German missed out on advancing to the next stage of the session and will, as it stands, start Sunday’s race in sixteenth position.

    There were problems too for Romain Grosjean who parked his Lotus on the side of the track. The Frenchman will start in fifteenth. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso potential to advance beyond the top sixteen was scuppered by a puncture which leaves the Spaniard in seventeenth on the grid.

    In the battle for qualifying honours between the Toro Rosso drivers Carlos Sainz has bested his highly-rated teammate Max Verstappen. Sainz will line up tenth while Verstappen will be in eleventh.

    The final session of the qualifying hour was an expected duel between the Mercedes drivers upon which Rosberg’s stunning lap was enough to secure pole position by nearly four tenths of a second over Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen salvaged the day for Ferrari and will start Sunday’s race in third. The stand-out performance of the session was unquestionably the Force India driver Sergio Perez. The Mexican threatened third place on the grid but ultimately had to settle for starting a still impressive fourth.

    Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo will start fifth and share the third of the grid with Williams’ Valtteri Bottas (6th). Nico Hulkenberg is seventh in the other Force India while Felipe Massa is eighth in the second Williams. Russian driver Daniil Kvyat is ninth with Carlos Sainz completing the top ten in his Toro Rosso.

  • Mercedes Seeks Clarity On Wind Tunnel Regulations

    Mercedes Seeks Clarity On Wind Tunnel Regulations

    As the final Free Practice session for the the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix got underway, it emerged that the Mercedes Formula 1 Team have written to the FIA requesting clarity on wind tunnel regulations regarding technical partnerships with other teams.

    With the Haas F1 team set to enter the Formula 1 circus next year and with Haas using mostly Ferrari components in its cars, there are concerns that Ferrari are benefiting from the wind tunnel testing that the Haas F1 team are performing at the Ferrari wind tunnel in Maranello.

    The current regulations limit wind tunnel use for teams that are competing in a season. For new teams entering F1, there are no such regulations. It was believed that Ferrari were using this to perform wind tunnel testing of their own with the Haas F1 team. This prompted a FIA investigation and Ferrari was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing.

    In the document sent to the FIA by Mercedes say that “there are a number of ambiguities within Appendices 6 and 8 to the Sporting Regulations,” and that they request the stewards to settle the matter.

    Mercedes is seeking clarity on development on “listed parts” in the wind tunnel. “Listed parts” include the monocoque, survival cell, front impact structures, roll over structures, wings, floor, bodywork and the diffuser.

    According to Motorsport.com, there has been a constant dialog between Mercedes and the FIA regarding the matter for most of the season. The FIA advised Mercedes to take up the matter with race stewards.

    Mercedes’ Toto Wolff insists that this is not a protest against Ferrari, but merely a clarification on the matter.

    “We have been seeking some answers which were not given in complete clarity from the FIA before, and I think this is for everyone to know what the situation is,” he told Motorsport.com.

  • 2015 Abu Dhabi GP: Rosberg Fastest in Third Practice

    2015 Abu Dhabi GP: Rosberg Fastest in Third Practice

    Nico Rosberg finished fastest in the 3rd Free Practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

    Despite saying that he will be down on power this weekend. Rosberg set a time of 1:41.856 on the super soft tyres to go 0.281s faster than Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton struggled to get in a clean lap on the options after running wide at Turn 6. He managed to get close but seemed to be loosing time in the middle sectors.

    Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel managed 3rd fastest with Force India’s Sergio Perez finishing in 4th ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Perez, who finished well in FP2, seems to have a good feel for the track and could pull a surprise in Qualifying.

    Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo ended the session in 6th place. Team-mate Daniil Kvyat did not set a time in the session after an electrical problem was discovered on his car. The Red Bull mechanics managed to get him back out on track, but the problem persisted. He was then told that they will not be able to fix the problem.

    Nico Hulkenberg was 7th in the other Force India ahead of the Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas in P9 and P10 respectively.

    Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso had a good session and was up to 6th place after all the runs on the soft tyre were completed. He set his best time of 1:43.429 on the super soft tyres which earned him 10th. Jenson Button in the Mclaren was 11th.

    Pastor Maldonado ended the session in 12th ahead of Sauber’s Felipe Nasr in 13th, Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen in 14th and team-mate Romain Grosjean in 15th who complained that the car was undrivable for most of the session.

    Fernando Alonso was down in 16th place with Marcus Ericsson in 17th. The two Manor cars of Stevens and Merhi in 18th and 19th respectively.

    Pos. Driver Team Best Time Gap
    1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:41.856 –
    2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:42.137 0.281
    3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:42.185 0.329
    4 Sergio Perez Force India 1:42.448 0.592
    5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:42.627 0.771
    6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:42.726 0.870
    7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:42.859 1.003
    8 Felipe Massa Williams 1:43.173 1.317
    9 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:43.429 1.383
    10 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:43.429 1.573
    11 Jenson Button McLaren 1:43.508 1.652
    12 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:43.680 1.824
    13 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1:43.718 1.862
    14 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:43.826 1.970
    15 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:43.928 2.072
    16 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:44.014 2.158
    17 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:47.283 2.469
    18 Will Stevens Manor 1:47.283 5.427
    19 Roberto Merhi Manor 1:47.520 5.664
    20 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull No Time –
  • F1 2015: Rosberg Down On Power

    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.

  • F1 2015: Abu Dhabi Friday Practice Round-up

    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.

    Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Practice Day - Abu Dhabi, UAEUltimately, 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.