Tag: red bull

Bahrain Test: Day 1

Day one of the Bahrain test concluded with Red Bull in a spot of bother and with Mercedes looking very strong.

The first day of testing got off to a bad start for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull racing in Bahrain. Their car was not seen until they were 5 hours into the session due to issues during the building of the car this morning. Once Vettel was on the track he only managed 14 laps after stopping on track with an hour left in the session. According to the BBC, when the car arrived back in the pits there was a burning smell emanating from the cockpit.

“Obviously we’re not happy with where we are now and we have a long way ahead of us. The first gut feeling from the car is OK, but we need more running,” he said.

“It’s not easy to find a quick fix, but i think we understand the problems. We sorted out the issues from Jerez adn we were able to do some laps today. However, very often you fix one problem and another pops up, which is what happened. That’s testing. We all knew this year was a massive challenge and we knew it would be difficult. We obviously didn’t want this, but it is what it is and we are working flat out to solve the problems

Mercedes on the other had had more laps around the track. A brake issue ended the session slightly earlier for them today. Lewis Hamilton clocked 74 laps around the Bahrain International Circuit in the W05 with a best time of 1:37.908.

“It’s been impressive to see us start the Bahrain test with good mileage, reliability, especially when you see how difficult it is for everyone with the new regulations,” said Hamilton. “The team can be very proud of this after so much of hard work.”

“We’re not aiming to be top of the timesheets at the moment, it’s more about ticking the reliability boxes, but we can be happy with where we are before the halfway point of the pre-season tests,” he added.

Nico Hulkenberg in his Force India set the fastest time for the day with a 1:36.880. Force India who use Mercedes engines also enjoyed some long runs out on track and clocked up a total of 79 laps on track. These are very encouraging signs early on in the test for the Silverstone based team.

Hulkenberg: “A very positive and satisfying day. We had a busy programme and we learned a lot. Time in the car is very valuable at the moment and so it feels good to cover so many laps and even complete two long runs at the end of the day. That gave me a chance to see how the car behaves and to start getting a feel for it, which was not something I was able to do in Jerez. It’s great that we’ve already done some set-up work and started to improve the drivability of the car. But it’s still very early stages; we are learning with every lap and we face a very steep learning curve in the coming days.”

The Lotus E22 made its public debut in Bahrain today with Frenchman Romain Grosjean at the wheel. With little issues in their filming day at Jerez last week, it was a very different story today. The E22 only managed to do 8 laps.

“To be honest, there are so many things going on at the rear of the car that I can’t understand everything, but it was related to the engine or batteries or things like that. Nothing too crazy,” said Grosjean.

“Hopefully we can understand it and get better solutions for tomorrow and the day after.”

Grosjean went on to say that he is not even going to attempt set ups with the car because the main focus on the testing at the moment is the reliability.

Ferrari had a rather straight forward test day without any unexpected difficulties. Fernando Alonso was at the wheel of the F14T today with the second fastest time of the day of 1:37.879. Alonso will be pilot the F14T tomorrow before Kimi Raikkonen takes over for the final two days.

“It’s nice to be driving again, especially when you have more reference points compared to the previous time, which means you get a better feeling for the car,” said Alonso. “We are also at a track that is more representative, with normal temperatures, where it’s been easier to understand tyre behaviour. We are in a phase where we are discovering things and with every lap, we learn something new. For everyone, there is still a lot to do to be well prepared for Melbourne, so it will be important to make the most of every day we have available to us.”

Toro Rosso also suffered engine issues and together with Red Bull and Lotus, they managed 27 laps between them. Robin Frijns in the Caterham CT05, which is also powered by the Renault engine, managed to clock up 68 laps.

Williams had a bad day today. The Mercedes powered FW36-02 never got to see much of the track today. According to their Chief Test engineer, Rob Nelson, they had a fuel system problem. However, they were able to change some of the components and do some running towards the end of the day.

“It was a difficult day. It was frustrating for me but also for the whole team as we all wanted to get lots of laps on the board today. We had a few issues with the car which we are investigating and aim to solve for tomorrow and the following days,” said Felipe Massa

Kevin Magnussen in his McLaren finished the day 4th fastest with the second highest lap count. The most mileage done today was by Adrian Sutil in the Sauber. Both teams had relatively normal testing days and were quite happy with the progress that was made so far.

Renault powered teams look to be on the back foot at the moment and with Red Bull and Lotus having all these issues it’s going to be very tough to catch up to the other teams.

The unofficial timing sheet is included below

Photo Credits

Title Photo: Scuderia Ferrari F1

Article Photo: Sahara Force India Formula One Team

Article Photo: Scuderia Ferrari F1

February 19, 2014
Bahrain Pre Season Test Preview

The second of three pre-season tests and the first one in Bahrain. The teams are swapping the cold conditions of the Spanish winter for some warm desert air at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Some say the serious testing starts now with just two more tests left. The first test in Jerez was like a shakedown for the teams and drivers to come to grips with the new engines and the new rules. The real work starts this week. Teams will be testing all sorts of components on the cars, engine settings, and aerodynamic and balance setups. They will try to learn as much as they can about their cars in the next three days.

The Mercedes and Ferrari powered teams enjoyed the bulk of the laps at the Jerez test with a combined 875 laps for the Mercedes powered teams and 444 laps for the Ferrari powered teams. Compare this to the Renault powered teams who could only manage 151 laps over the four days.

There’s no doubt that the Renault powered teams are playing catch up at Bahrain. With Red Bull admitting packaging issues with the car and with Renault behind with the fixes to the issues on their power units, Red Bull do have their work cut out for them. But that’s not to say that the other teams will have it easy.

We will finally get to see the Lotus E22 in Bahrain. After running it for a filming day at Jerez with reportedly no problems, the team will no doubt be itching to get the car on track to see what it has to offer.

Pirelli will bring their 2014 specification tyres to Bahrain with three new slick compounds, the hard, medium and soft compounds and also a special “winter” hard compound. Pirelli say that the “winter” hard compound was created to ensure rapid warm up of the tyre even during low temperatures. This compound was initially designed for Jerez, but Pirelli had asked the teams to test it in Bahrain for them to asses how the tyre performs in higher temperatures. In anticipation for the 2015 rules, Pirelli have also brought along am extra set of medium compound tyres, which are 2014 specification but are considered prototypes. These tyres will be tested without using tyre warmers which will be banned from 2015.

The weather in Bahrain will be sunny and mild for the week with temperatures hovering in the mid-to-low 20s. Not as warm as it usually is when the Bahrain Grand Prix takes place, but considerably warmer than Jerez which should give the teams a good indication of the performance of the tyres.

February 18, 2014
Mercedes snatch two top Red Bull engineers

In a bid to boost their technical staff, the Mercedes F1 team have signed two key Red Bull figures Mark Ellis and Giles Wood.

Mercedes have created two new roles for the poached Red Bull engineers. Mark Ellis will join as Mercedes’ Performance Director, while Giles Wood will take up the position of Chief Engineer, Simulation and Development.

A Mercedes statement said the recruitment of Ellis and Wood would “further strengthen the team’s technical organisation, particularly in the fields of simulation and vehicle dynamics”.

The two engineers are the first two key appointments made by Mercedes’ new leadership team of Paddy Lowe and Toto Wolff who were appointed as co-team bosses of Mercedes in 2014 following the resignation of team principal Ross Brawn.

Both men are set to join the Mercedes Formula 1 team in June 2014, once their current contracts with Red Bull Racing have finished.

The announcement will come as a major blow to the Milton Keynes team as it comes just months after it emerged that chief aerodynamicist Peter Prodromou will be moving to McLaren in 2015.

Photo Credit: Mercedes F1

December 19, 2013
Full driver line-up for Bahrain tyre test confirmed

The full driver line-up for this week’s Pirelli tyre test in Bahrain has been confirmed.

The three day tyre test is set to get underway on Tuesday and end on Thursday and will see teams testing using their 2013 cars. All 11 teams were invited to the tyre test but only six agreed to participate. McLaren and Force India however later decided to withdraw. Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and Toro Rosso will be on track to put Pirelli’s 2014 tyres through their paces. The running plans however, will be dictated by Pirelli as they gather data for next season.

World champions Red Bull, will be making use of test driver Sebastien Buemi while Toro Rosso will give Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat one and a half days of running each.

Ferrari confirmed that they will be using their development driver Pedro De la Rosa for two days and that Marussia driver Jules Bianchi will take part in one day of the tyre test.

Mercedes were last to confirm their driver line-up and will be using only Nico Rosberg for the tyre test.

December 17, 2013
‘Pole Trophy’ For 2014

In addition to the DHL Fastest Lap trophy F1 will award a trophy for the most poles of the year, starting in 2014.

The driver who racks up the most pole positions during the season will be awarded with a special Pole Position Trophy after its addition to the sporting regulations.

In the event of a tie a countback to the most second places will be done in order to determine a winner. Should this final to identify a clear winner this new regulation states that “the FIA will nominate the winner according to such criteria as it thinks fit”.

Sebastian Vettel, with 45 pole positions to his name, would have been the recipient of the trophy for four of last five years.

December 13, 2013
Pirelli confirm four teams for Bahrain tyre test

Pirelli have confirmed that four teams will take part in the Bahrain tyre test next week.

Following confirmation that both McLaren and Force India have withdrawn from the test because of the short timeframe between the test and the FIA’s confirmation that it may go ahead.

The FIA gave the tyre test the go ahead on Monday night, when they also announced major rule changes for 2014 and 2015.

A McLaren spokesperson said simply, “We are not testing in Bahrain next week.”

A Force India spokesperson added, “Given the short notice of this test taking place and the time frames involved, the team will not be attending the test.”

The teams who will now take place in the Bahrain tyre test for Pirelli are Red Bull Racing, Mercedes, Ferrari and Toro Rosso.

The test will run from 17-19 December.

December 12, 2013
Vettel slams double points rule as “absurd”

Four time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel has criticised FIA plans to award double points for the final race of the season from 2014.

Under the new double points rule, the winning driver of the final race in Abu Dhabi next season, will score 50 points instead of 25 under the proposed rule change.

The FIA has set out a number of rule changes for next season and beyond, including a global cost cap in 2015, changes to penalties for minor infringements and permanent driver numbers. The new double points rule however, is the one that will raise the most eyebrows.

The decision to award double points, towards the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, at the final race of the season was made “to maximise focus on the championship until the end of the campaign”, according to a statement released by the FIA.

Vettel would still have won this year’s title in India but would have lost the 2012 title to Fernando Alonso if the double points rule had been in place at the time and the German driver is far from happy.

“This is absurd and punishes those who have worked hard for a whole season,” said the Vettel, who won the final nine races of the 2013 season.

“Drivers, fans and experts are horrified,” he told German newspaper, Sports Bild.

“I value the old traditions in Formula 1 and do not understand this new rule,” he continued. “Imagine, in the last Bundesliga match of the season there was suddenly double points.”

His new Red Bull team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, also appeared to be against the proposed double points rule change.

“Seems to be pretty bizarre. Not sure who came up with that one..,” Ricciardo posted on Twitter.

Interestingly, Red Bull is one of the teams who sit on F1′s strategy group, which contributed to the new regulations being passed. The FIA and Formula One Management also vote on the changes.

But Red Bull’s Helmut Marko said that the team was opposed to the changes and revealed that the original plan was for the final four races of the year to carry double points.

“We were against it,” he said. “But our team boss Christian Horner was overruled.”

“At first it was planned to be awarded double points for the last four races,” he continued. “Then the world championship up to that point would have been almost useless.”

December 11, 2013
F1 Personnel Wars: Williams Add Aero Staff

The Williams Formula 1 team has announced the signing of two new employees from Red Bull Racing and the Lotus F1 team.

Shaun Whitehead joins Williams from Red Bull as head of aerodynamic process while Dave Wheater joins the team from Lotus to become the head of aerodynamic performance.

“These two appointments show our commitment to both improving the process of aerodynamic development while focusing on the application of that development to true on-track performance,” added the team’s chief technical officer Pat Symonds.

“Dave and Shaun bring a wealth of experience to our team and I welcome them both to Grove and fully expect them to make significant contributions to the renewed competitiveness that we are all working so hard to achieve.

“With Dave and Shaun on board, and under Jason’s stewardship, we will be well positioned to make gains in this important area and support the continuing task of developing the FW36 in what promises to be an exciting year for the sport in 2014.”

December 10, 2013
FIA announces major changes to 2014 regulations

The FIA has announced some major changes to the regulations of the sport including Double points at the final race of the season; Permanent driver numbers; A 5 second penalty for minor infringements and a cost cap in 2015.

Double Points to be awarded at Final Race

In a rather controversial move, the FIA announced that double drivers’ and constructor’s points will be awarded at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. The change means that 50 points will be allocated to the winner of the final round of 2014, rather than the usual 25.

The FIA have stated that the change was immediately applicable and would “maximise focus on the championship until the end of the campaign”.

There is little doubt that this could most certainly carry the championship through to the final round – if this change had been implemented in previous years, Kimi Raikkonen would have been champion in 2003 instead of Michael Schumacher, and Felipe Massa would have beaten Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Fernando Alonso would have been the 2012 champion instead of Sebastian Vettel.

Permanent Driver Numbers

In a less controversial move, a unanimous agreement was given during a meeting of the F1 Strategy Group and the Formula One Commission in Paris on Monday, to introduce permanent driver numbers.

“Drivers will be asked to choose their race number, between 2 and 99, for the duration of their career in the FIA Formula One World Championship,” said the FIA statement. “Number 1 will be reserved for the current World Champion, should he choose to use it.”

Should more than one driver chose the same number, priority will be given to the driver who finished highest in the previous year’s championship.

Five Second Penalty

The principle of a five-second penalty for minor infringements was also accepted for the 2014 season. Teams will still meet to discuss how it should be applied before the penalty system is implemented at the start of the season.

Global Cost Cap for 2015

The principle of a global cost cap has been adopted and the limit will be applied from January 2015.

A working group will be established within the coming days comprising of the FIA, representatives of the Commercial Rights Holder and Team representatives. The objective of this working group will be to have regulations approved by the end of June 2014.

Pirelli December tyre test

The FIA has also approved the Pirelli tyre test which will be staged next week in Bahrain. Six teams have agreed to take part – Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Force India and Toro Rosso.

Immediate Effect

The FIA stated that these “changes are immediately applicable, given the mandate assigned to the FIA President at the last World Motor Sport Council meeting, held on 4 December in Paris”.

December 10, 2013
Updated F1 2014 driver line-up

Following Lotus’ announcement that Pastor Maldonado will race alongside Romain Grosjean and the news that Nico Hulkenberg will drive for Force India next season, 16 drivers have now been announced for the 2014 season, with six more seats up for grabs.

In terms of the 2014 driver line-up only one team – Mercedes – have confirmed that they will be retaining both of their drivers. Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren, Williams and Toro Rosso have all replaced one of their drivers.

We have two teams – Sauber and Caterham – who still need to announce any drivers, and the sixth and final ‘available’ seat is at Marussia, alongside Jules Bianchi.

We have two rookies included in the 2014 driver line-up so far – Denmark’s Kevin Magnussen who will replace Sergio Perez at McLaren and Russia’s Daniil Kvyat who’ll take over Daniel Ricciardo’s seat at Toro Rosso.

The current 2014 driver line-up stands as follows:

Red Bull Racing
Sebastian Vettel
Daniel Ricciardo

Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton
Nico Rosberg

Ferrari
Fernando Alonso
Kimi Raikkonen

Lotus
Romain Grosjean
Pastor Maldonado

McLaren
Jenson Button
Kevin Magnussen

Force India
Nico Hulkenberg
TBC

Sauber
TBC
TBC

Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne
Daniil Kvyat

Williams
Felipe Massa
Valtteri Bottas

Marussia
Jules Bianchi
TBC

Caterham
TBC
TBC

December 3, 2013