Tag: mercedes

Formula 1 2013: Mercedes in secret tyre test row

The Formula 1 paddock is deeply unhappy after it was revealed that rivals Mercedes had conducted a three-day 1000 kilometer tyre test after the Spanish GP.

There has been nowhere for Mercedes to hide on raceday as the team faded badly due to excessive tyre wear throughout the last few grand prix. However, a secret testing session has undoubtedly boosted not only Mercedes’ ability to understand their problems but also given them an advantage over their rivals.

It has come to light that Pirelli had requested the Brackley based team’s help to work through issues the tyre manufacturer had been suffering in the last several races. Despite the ban on in-season testing Pirelli are allowed to call on one team, for a private test, to assist them with their product. Nevertheless, the other teams are less than happy about Mercedes, a team with clear tyre issues, recieving what they consider an unfair advantage. The matter has now been taken up with the FIA.

Team principal Ross Brawn said that his team had been working tirelessly on their issues with the Pirelli tyres since Barcelona – 1000 secret kilometers of tireless work it seems Ross.

May 26, 2013
Nico Rosberg makes it an F1 qualifying hatrick in Monaco

Nico Rosberg took his third pole position in a row today as Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix in a rain hit qualifying session.

The Red Bull drivers will be occupying the second row of the grid tomorrow, followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.

Q1 started just after rain hit Monaco – following three days of sunshine in the principality. The track was damp at the start of the session, making it necessary for everyone to come out on track on the intermediate Pirelli tyres.

Everyone headed out to get an early banker lap in, except for the three drivers who crashed during FP3, Felipe Massa, Romain Grosjean and Adrian Sutil.

Jules Bianchi was struck out of the session early with an airbox fire, ending his session before it had really even started.

The Lotus F1 team got Grosjean out onto track in the final minutes of the session and repayed them by setting the fastest time after the session.

Ferrari were not able to get Felipe Massa’s car ready in time to get it out and he will start from the pit lane.

Giedo van der Garde was the greatest surprise of the first session, getting his Caterham into Q2. Paul di Resta, Charles Pic, Esteban Gutierrez, Max Chilton, Jules Bianchi and Felipe Massa were eliminated after Q1.

The second part of qualifying made it difficult for drivers to decide which tyres to be on as the track continued to dry. In the end they all opted for slicks. Van der Garde was the first driver to switch to the dry supersoft tyres and managed to out-qualify Pastor Maldonado and qualify an amazing P15 for the Caterham team.

Jean-Eric Vergne surprised all by securing his place in Q3 for the first time this year.
Grosjean, unfortunately was not able to make it through and blamed one of the Toro Rossos for holding him up.

Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Grosjean, Bottas, van der Garde and Maldonado were all eliminated after Q2.

The track was dry enough for everyone to head out on supersoft dry tyres for the third session. Lap times were falling like crazy as the track kept improving.

Alonso was one of the first drivers to change tyres and head out for his final run, giving him two chances to have a go at a time. But he only managed P6 with his final effort.

Despite how it after FP3, Ferrari and Lotus were nowhere near the battle for pole in qualifying and it was between the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers.

It was Nico Rosberg who went fastest with a 1.13.876 by the end of the session with Lewis Hamilton one tenth behind him.

Below are the full results for F1 Qualifying in Monaco.

May 25, 2013
Monaco Grand Prix Free Practice 2: Rosberg Makes it Two for Two

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg made it two from two this afternoon after topping the time sheets in Friday’s second practice session.

Lewis Hamilton finished in 2nd while the Ferrari’s of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa finished off 3rd and 4th respectively. The session wasn’t without incident this time round as Romain Grosjean had a little meeting with the barrier at the exit of Sainte Devote (Turn 1). Grosjean out braked himself into T1, locked up and went straight on towards the barrier. He ripped off his front left suspension and that was the end of his session. Shortly after the Grosjean incident the session was red flagged to allow the marshals to repair the kerbs at the swimming pool section (T13-T14).

There’s lot of talk of two stop strategies. Some even speculating that some teams might gamble with a one stop. And we all know how well the Lotus cars take care of their tyres. But for the moment Mercedes and Ferrari look very strong with Red Bull and Lotus not very far off the pace.

May 23, 2013
Monaco Grand Prix Free Practice 1: Rosberg Fastest in FP1

Nico Rosberg topped the timing sheets in Free Practice 1 of the Monaco Grand Prix.

On a sunny and warm Thursday in Monaco Merdeces’ Nico Rosberg was the fastest with a 1:16.195. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was second only 0.087s off the pace with a 1:16.282. Felipe Massa put his Ferrari in 4th with a 1:16.394. Lewis Hamilton could only manage 5th. The surprise was Williams’ Pastor Maldonado in 6th. The two Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber were 9th and 7th respectively. Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen could only manage 13th. His team mate, in the other Lotus, Romain Grosjean, finished in 3rd.

As we all know from Free Practice, these times are not representative of the absolute pace of the cars. We only get to know that during qualifying and to some extent in FP3.

We’ll be back again for Free Practice 2 at 14:00. As always you can follow us on Twitter at @F1_Madness for live updates.

May 23, 2013
F1 2013: Lowe blow for McLaren

McLaren’s techincal director Paddy Lowe is join the Mercedes team in June after recieving an early release from McLaren.

Lowe will start work at Mercedes on 3 June but was originally expected to see out his contract with McLaren until the end of the year. Lowe will join the Mercedes team as executive technical director and will work closely with team principal Ross Brawn.

“I am excited to become part of a highly talented and capable technical organisation, ” said Lowe about his move.

“The team has already produced probably the fastest car of the 2013 season while the technical challenges of the new regulations for 2014 will give us the opportunity to maximise the synergies available to a works manufacturer.

“That is a challenge I am relishing. I have worked closely with Mercedes-Benz for almost 20 years and deeply admire the company’s phenomenal commitment to Formula 1. I look forward to much success together in the years ahead.”

No wonder Lewis feels so at home!

May 22, 2013
F1 2013: Pirelli tyre plans reigned in by FIA

Pirelli’s planned ‘tweaks’ to the 2013 tyres from the Canadian GP onwards has been reigned in by the FIA.

A ruling made by the sport’s governing body has stipulated that it will only allow changes to be made to the tyres on the grounds of safety. As a result the expected changes will be less significant that intially planned.

The FIA has clearly stated that it will not accept changes aimed at cutting down on the number of pitstops much less to reduce tyre degradation. Instead of reverting back to 2012 specification tyres Pirelli have been instructed to make adjustment to the current specification of tyres.

Article 12.6.3 of the technical regulations have been cited by the FIA with regard to their decision. The rule states:

“Tyre specifications will be determined by the FIA no later than 1 September of the previous season. Once determined in this way, the specification of the tyres will not be changed during the championship season without the agreement of all competing teams.”

There is however a different clause within the regulations which states that changes could be introduced “if the tyres are deemed by the tyre supplier and technical delegate as technically unsuitable.” But the FIA is adamant that the current ‘issues’ with the 2013 tyres falls within the purview of this rule.

Pirelli motosport director Paul Hembery admitted that the changes to the tyres would now be of a more modest nature. “Let’s wait and see exactly what changes we will be making, but we are doing everything we can to minimise what will be different,” he said.

The prospective changes were expected to benefit teams such as Mercedes and Red Bull who have been struggling to get on top of the tyres. In contrast, Ferrari and Lotus will breathe a sigh of relief as they look to maintain their tyre advantage.

May 19, 2013
Mercedes F1: Silver Arrows in the grey

There’s been plenty of talk amongst Formula One fans lately about the terrible form of the Mercedes F1 team. They’re performing really well over one lap for qualifying, but when it comes to race pace they’re just falling flat on their faces. Reynard Gelderblom wrote in to share his thoughts on the problems over at the Mercedes F1 team.

Silver Arrows in the grey

Three consecutive pole positions, front row domination and statistics favouring the front row starters at the Circuit de Catalunya. Still, Petronas Mercedes AMG F1 fell away like the American economy on Black Thursday.

In the Chinese Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton managed to salvage a podium. Not that this is much to write home about considering he started from pole. A week later in Bahrain Nico Rosberg again had the statistics in his advantage, but yet again he could only secure ninth with Hamilton at least salvaging some honour with a fifth place. After the three week break, the F1 circus moved to the traditional gateway to the European part of the season – Barcelona.

With all teams utilizing the opportunity to improve the cars closer to home and race at the only pre-season test venue slotted into the calendar, Mercedes was looking forward to converting pre-season pace into race winning performance. Back in February during their launch, the team promised that the 2013 season will be the start of the next phase in their evolution – the return of the championship contending Silver Arrows. To back that up, they arrived in Spain with a car that included a little bit more silver than grey. Performance, however, still proved to be a grey area that outshone that silver lining. Despite their dominant showing in qualifying, Rosberg had to settle for sixth with Hamilton finishing a lowly twelfth – managing to pass a Williams as one of his highlights of the day.

Where do the problems lie? Both Rosberg and Hamilton are more than competent drivers. For three years Rosberg has been faster than Michael Schumacher – granted this wasn’t the Schumi of old, but still. Hamilton is a former World champion with McLaren and except for choosing the wrong pit box, he’s really started to look like the driver who burst onto the scene back in 2007.

Tyres have been a great concern for Mercedes, but this isn’t a problem that just affects them. To some degree everyone has struggled with the tyres. Sebastian Vettel may have been very critical about them after Barcelona, but then again, Vettel and Red Bull have been competitive on days when Mercedes have just faded away.

There certainly is no shortage of funding and knowledge in this team. All this brings me to one question: Are we seeing yet another Toyota here? They used to have a bigger budget than Ferrari and certainly enough resources to build the next shuttle, yet none of that materialised into anything worth writing home about on the circuit.

I have been looking forward to a Silver Arrows revival ever since Sauber took to Kyalami in Free practice in 1993 with the “Concept by Mercedes-Benz” writing on the side. This was echoed by the McLaren livery change in 1997.

In 2010 I was smiling when Mercedes purchased the Brawn team. Mercedes is indeed on the platform to regain the glory years. All the components are there, they just need to present the complete package. I hope that day comes sooner, rather than later.

Reynard Gelderblom is the motorsport editor for Street Motion.

Keep up to date with the latest local motorsport news by following Street Motion on Twitter.

May 17, 2013
2013 Spanish Grand Prix – F1 Technical Round Up – Part 1

Formula 1’s return to Europe this past weekend signaled the first round of major updates for most teams. Since most teams are based in Europe it makes bringing more substantial updates to the cars much more easier. Not that teams don’t update their cars at the fly-away races, but returning to Europe just makes things a little more easier. Here is a Part 1 of our F1 technical round up of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Some of the updates were major changes as in the case with McLaren and Toro Rosso. McLaren were somewhat relying on their Barcelona updates to bring them up to pace with Red Bull and Ferrari. Did it work for them? Not so much. Button struggled to make it into Q3 while Perez did slightly better and qualified P9. Their race performance, however, was much better and they finished P9 and P10.

Lets take a look at some of the teams.

Ferrari: They had little tweaks here and there with their body work. They brought a new engine cover which features a longer fin at the back and thats slightly lower than the one they’re currently using. The rain in FP1 put a spanner in the works for them to test it. They will bring the same engine cover to Montreal. Together with the new engine cover they tested a new longer exhaust outlet with a more shallower angled exhaust. They also tried new sidepod airflow conditioners, similar to Red Bull’s “D” wing airflow conditioner, except the top section extends over the sidepod and attaches to the cockpit. They’ve somewhat kept the original design of the split airflow conditioner, only with this variation, the front section curves over the top of the sidepod and the rear section remains vertical. The purpose of the curved section is to bring the airflow around the outside of the sidepod, over the exhaust and eventually out the diffuser at the back. Both Ferrari drivers ran an additional horizontal cockpit fin ahead of the wing mirrors in addition to the two horizontal airflow conditioners behind the wing mirrors.

Lotus: Lotus came to Catalunya with a new front and rear wing. There were two changes on the front wing. They had a curved vane on the outer part of the end plate. The main deflector vane in the front wing is not slotted. The rear wing features tiny separated vanes on the endplate.

McLaren:McLaren brought along a new front wing. This new wing had one vertical slot on the endplate and a new upper flap.

They still stuck to the old three element front wing, whereas other teams are using 5-6 element wings. The sidepods have been given a make over. The vertical air flow conditioners are now attached to the edge of the sidepod making it similar to the “D” wing of Red Bull. They have ditched the horizontal airflow conditioner above the sidepods and went with twin vortex generators, similar to what they ran in 2012

Mercedes: Mercedes have dropped their three horizontal vortex generators on the side of the cockpit and have replaced it with one larger

wing. The rest of the car remained largely unchanged with most of the changes unseen.

Part 2 to follow soon.

May 16, 2013
Formula 1 Breaking News: McLaren and Honda together again

Japanese manufacturer Honda has announced its return to Formula 1.

Honda has not competed in Formula 1 since shutting down its works team at the end of 2008. However, as a result of Formula 1’s planned change to 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engines it has announced a ‘joint project’ with McLaren starting in 2015.

Rumours about a reunion between McLaren and Honda have been making the rounds for quite some time and the manufacturer is believed to be well advanced in the development of their an all-new 1.6 litre V6 turbo Formula 1 engine.

Honda is no stranger to Formula 1 or McLaren and have won both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles four times. The Japanese manufacturer’s previous partnership with McLaren stretched from 1988 to 1992. This alliance brought back fond memories for McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh. “Together Honda and McLaren have a great legacy; we formed a uniquely successful partnership that took on and beat the world,” he said. “Together, we created some of the greatest, most iconic Formula 1 moments of all time which are still being talked about today all around the world.”

Jenson Button, a former works Honda driver, was equally chuffed about the announcement.

“I’m so thrilled and excited about what is not only a fantastic opportunity for the team but also a great development for Formula 1 fans and the sport as a whole,” said the former champion. “I grew up watching McLaren-Honda Formula 1 cars racing and winning around the world – they wrote their own glorious chapter of F1 history.”

This brings to an end McLaren’s long-standing relationship with German engine maker Mercedes. The Woking based team have been using the Mercedes powerplant since 1995. Gone will be the familiar McLaren Mercedes to replaced, and re-named, McLaren Honda.

Hopefully, the gleaming silver livery of McLaren will still feature prominently as Honda doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to the design of livery – the 2007 ‘earth dreams’ paint scheme being the perfect example.

Could this be the dynamic step that McLaren so desperately need to get back on track?

May 16, 2013
Video: Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Top 3

The post qualifying press conference for the Spanish Grand Prix

May 11, 2013