F1 Madness

Tag: toto wolff

  • 2019 Canadian Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    2019 Canadian Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Guenther STEINER (Haas), Franz TOST (Toro Rosso), Mario ISOLA (Pirelli), Toyoharu TANABE (Honda)

    Q: Guenther, last time you were in this press conference you talked about the need to unlock the potential of Pirelli’s tyres. What solutions have you found in the last couple of races?

    Guenther STEINER: We haven’t found any! I think sometimes when you get the tyre to work it is working and sometimes it isn’t. I think in Monte Carlo, with the family of the softer tyres, we got them to work, but we don’t have a solution. If you ask me ‘what is your solution for the next race?’ I don’t know. Maybe we haven’t got one. It’s like we fall into it or not. We are working hard and for sure by going on and using the tyres you learn more and more but do we have a proper understanding of it, I would say, no.

     

    Q: What did you learn during FP1 this morning?

    GS: Again, the track is very dirty. It seems like we can get the tyre up to temperature. I said ‘it seems’, I didn’t go conclusive here because FP2 will be a lot more relevant because the track will be cleaner and we can learn more. At the moment everything seems to be OK, so let’s see what in the next hours is coming.

     

    Q: What can you tell us about Ferrari’s upgraded power unit? You had it for the first time in Monaco, but what difference are you expecting it to make here in Montréal?

    GS: I think the difference it should make here, because here the power is much more needed than in Monte Carlo. We had it in Monte Carlo just to see that everything works and for sure it helps there as well. But at the moment we are not running it; we are running it only tomorrow, so I cannot come to a conclusion here.

     

    Q: Tanabe-san, this is the first real power track of the season. How much are Honda looking forward to it?

    Toyoharu TANABE: It is a very good question and a bit difficult to answer for me. But anyway, I frequently told you that we are still in the position of catching up the top PU manufacturers, in terms of power and also the reliability. We are still developing for both. It means we know our position is a little bit down from these top competitors. But in terms of the performance since the first race of this year, our forecasts showed good performance on the track, so I’m looking forward to seeing tomorrow and then the race here,.

     

    Q: What do you think is the gap to Mercedes no?

    TT: I cannot tell you an exact number, but we will see the gap.

     

    Q: When can we expect the next Honda upgrade?

    TT: Our development is ongoing and we are considering when we introduce the next step up. But we are observing the current situation on the PU, mileage and then damage, and we are discussing with the teams when is the best timing to introduce new, updated PU to the trackside. It’s not only a Honda matter; we are closely working with the teams, for both Toro Rosso and Red Bull. At the moment I cannot tell exactly when but we are looking for a new, updated PU.

     

    Q: Thank you Tanabe-san, good luck this weekend. Toto, we’re talking engine upgrades. You’ve got one here this weekend. Where is it better?

    Toto WOLFF: Well, we hope it’s a tiny bit better than what we had before in terms of specification, but the biggest difference is just that it’s a fresh unit. The other one has had quite some high mileage. With mature regulations it becomes more and more difficult to extract pure lap time performance out of the engines. You’re trying to find a bit more reliability, maybe run a bit harder, longer, but you are not finding these kind of big jumps that we used to see in past years.

     

    Q: Where do you the balance of power this weekend, between yourselves and Mercedes in particular?

    TW: If I would know! Guenther surprisingly summarized it well! The track is pretty dirty after FP1 so there is not really clear picture, people have been sliding all over the place. We were very competitive but you need to sceptical as to whether this is really the balance of performance. FP2 is going to give us more guidance.

     

    Q: We’ve got the same tyre compounds this weekend that we had in Monaco. What lessons have been learned from your Monaco strategy with Lewis Hamilton?

    TW: Quite some lessons. We got it wrong in Monaco, in our assessment of how long the tyre would last, so that was an important step for us.

     

    Q: Thank you and good luck this weekend. Mario, talking about that strategy in Monaco, how surprised were you that the mediums lasted 66 laps?

    Mario ISOLA: The problem was not related to the wear life of the tyre, more on the performance life. On a track where it’s so difficult to overtake, like Monaco, Lewis was able to keep everybody else behind him – that’s the point. The hard was working well. The best information for us was that all the three compounds in Monaco, that usually is a track where everybody is using just the two softest of the three chose, all three compounds were working well.

     

    Q: And what can you tell us about tyre wear this weekend?

    MI: We need to wait until FP2 because it is a session where all the teams are collecting relevant data on tyres. We have some estimation. I believe it is not a surprise that everyone is targeting a one-stop race in Montréal because the wear in not high. It is a circuit where the rear degradation can make a difference, so saving the rear tyre is probably a target for everybody here. If we make a comparison to Baku rather than Monaco, because Monaco is a street circuit that is quite unique, we have tyres that are one step softer. The weather conditions expected are good, so they probably struggle a bit less with warm-up. I will talk to Guenther later in the afternoon to understand. But I can tell you, he was coming here with a jacket and outside it’s 28 degrees so probably he has a problem with the temperature in general himself.

     

    Q: It’s been a busy few weeks for Pirelli, looking ahead for 2020. You’ve been testing F1 tyres and F2 tyres. What can you tell us about those tests?

    MI: Yeah, we made a plan with F2 where at the moment we have eight sessions already planned. Obviously we have to concentrate the development this year to be ready latest in December. If necessary we are also planning some back-up sessions in the Middle East at the end of the year. For F1 the plan is confirmed. We have three sessions, one in the middle of September at Paul Ricard with Renault, one at the beginning of November at Paul Ricard as well, with McLaren, and we are trying to find a solution with Mercedes for the last session, that will probably be in December. All dry sessions for the moment. We will start soon to make a plan for 2020, where we have 25 days of testing to distribute to the teams that are willing to test 18-inch tyres.

     

    Q: And how was the F2 18-inch tyre holding up in testing?

    MI: We did just one shakedown in Mugello, but it was really a shakedown to understand the driveability of the car with an 18-inch tyre. Don’t forget that the F2 car is without power steering, so the first target was to understand if they need to adapt the car, and if how to adapt the car with the new tyres. And we are going to test in Aragon in mid-June, so in one week’s time.

     

    Q: Thanks. Franz, a double points finish for the team in Monaco, your first since Spain 2017. Just how pleased are you with progress at Toro Rosso this season?

    Franz TOST: So far Toro Rosso has a competitive package together. We have a car that is fast, a car that works well from the mechanical side as well as the aerodynamic. And with Honda we have a very strong partner on the power unit side. We have two competitive, high-skilled drivers. Both of them are doing a really good job and the team is improving as well. The complete package, I must say, currently is quite good.

     

    Q: Tell us about the team, because Daniil Kvyat said yesterday in this press conference that the team has improved in many areas since he was last with Toro Rosso. What are those areas?

    FT: We reshuffled our aerodynamic department. We changed a lot in the production to increase the quality. Also in the assembling we changed many working methods and processes and I think everything together came up with the result that the car is quite good.

     

    Q: And what about Kvyat himself? How much has he improved since he was last with you?

    FT: Daniil is much more experienced now. He is much more mature. He understands the technical side much better. Last year, as well all know, he was working at Ferrari in the simulator. I think that he learned there also a lot and everything is coming together with him and therefore he is showing a good performance. But also I must say that Alex is coming up with a very good performance and I think he is a surprise and he also this morning was quite fast, because we must not forget that he is here the first time and he has to learn the track. It looks very easy from the outside but also Canada has some tricky corners, as we know, and he is making good progress. As I said before, we have two real competitive drivers. They have high natural speeds; they are quite good, talented.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action / Speed Sport) For Guenther and Franz, Liberty is on record saying they want to increase the number of races. Unlike the big teams, you cannot afford to have extra staff to rotate. How concerned are you about the stress and strain on your staff and their families?

    FT: I don’t care about the families. If we have a lot of races… we have 52 weekends, we can have 26 races. Where’s the problem? If we get the money for all the races, that’s important. Then I don’t have a problem.

     

    Guenther, anything you can add?

    GS: Yeah, I care about the families! That’s what I would like to add. Because then the people working are happy. I think if we reorganised a little bit the weekend, how we run it, we maybe could make some savings there. With days at the track. We cannot save days but we can adjust it a little bit. I agree with Franz, if the new races bring financial benefits, why not do it? But we need to be clever about it and try to find the days somewhere else. Just putting more and more on is maybe not productive. And also, we need to be careful what the spectator wants. There is a saturation factor which I am not entitled… or I have not the knowledge. Maybe Toto has because he knows a lot of things. When the saturation happens. In general, if we can make the weekends a little bit shorter for the people that work here, I think we can do a few more races.

     

    Toto, shall we just open this up to you as well. What are your thoughts?

    GS: He’s the expert!

    TW: We’re a good combination. He knows all about tyres and temperatures and I do about saturation! I think Guenther summarised it very well. I think we… saturation is something that needs to be considered. Formula One is exclusive and adding more races is not adding to the exclusivity factor. On the other hand, we are all asking Liberty to increase revenue and doing more races is obviously the biggest leverage in that respect. In my opinion it’s a fine balance. We need to respect that, at the moment, the travelling population, all the race team, is pretty flat out. I don’t think you can really do much more than 21 races. You need to work with a second shift. We have started to rotate a little bit – but then you can’t really rotate the very senior personnel. So, if we do more races, my opinion is that it needs to be linked with more income and spectacular new tracks or markets that we open up. That would be important.

     

    Q: (Éric Desrosiers – Le Devoir) Sorry, I have to ask, maybe to the three team managers: how do you like the new installations here on the circuit?

    FT: It’s a very nice facility, thank you for this. Generally, I like to come here to Montreal, and especially now, we have much more space. People have – not only teams, also journalists and the marketing side – have much more space for working . A big thank you to Montreal, to the city, to the government that they approved this and authorised the building. I think it’s a big improvement.

     

    Toto, the facilities…?

    TW: It’s a bit cold here, that’s the only one in the new facilities. But like Franz said, it’s fantastic that Montreal has committed to Formula One racing by building such a state-of-the-art facility. They have done it really well, because we have keep the authenticity of the track and the island but equally built a purpose-built facility that’s great.

     

    Guenther?

    GS: There’s nothing to add, just to say thank you for what the city did here. It’s always good to have new facilities, because the old ones were run down – but very good that they came up with the money to do this. Thank you.

     

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) Tanabe-san  and Toto. As engine suppliers, as well as, in your case Toto, the team principal of the race team, the current engine formula was originally devised in 2009. It was given a reprieve and will now run through until 2024. What sort of formula would you like to see from 2025-onwards that would keep your wo companies in Formula One. And then, to the other two team principals: what sort of engine formula would you like to see?

    TW: I think that we are in the middle of a transition of technology, at least on the road car side, and as much as we, most of us, are fans of the loud, traditional engines, it not where the technology goes and where the perception on sustainability goes – so I believe we’ve done the right thing in keeping the regulations almost stable for the next term – because it would have caused a tremendous amount of development to come up with the new formula. Also, it is not quite clear where this next generation of power unit actually should be. Listening to our chairman of Daimler, we expect 50 per cent of our fleet to be either hybrid or electric by 2030, so I think if this is the direction technology goes, we could as well have an engine that will have a higher hybrid component, renewable energies or electricity. Today, it’s maybe around 20 per cent, maybe that ratios going to go to 50 per cent. As long as it’s an exciting engine – the sound is something that we need to address or at least talk about it – but I believe the hybrid component is going to increase after 2025.

     

    Tanabe-san, what’s Honda’s position?

    TT: As Toto said, we think the a kind-of transition phase now and then we just finish discussion over the 2021 PU regulation and then we keep current concept until 2024/25. Then, one of the reasons, we couldn’t find any next step, green, sustainable and then high efficiency PU confirmation now. So, it means we need to discuss again and start again, what should be the pinnacle of Formula One race PU technology. I believe the same thing as Toto. We keep a hybrid and then what we can do is improve the current principle of the current Formula One PU.

     

    Guenther and Franz, your thoughts…

    GS: I think we need to stay current with technology. I don’ t know that the technology will be in 2025. Toto and Tanabe-san know much better what is happening there. It was asked from Dieter, what do you like? We all like a loud, screaming V10 or V12 but that is not, in this time, it is just not acceptable any more. So, I think I would like that Formula One stays current in technology with what is happening. The engine manufacturers know what it needs to be: it needs to be sustainable, adding more electrical element, as Toto said, so, I go with them. For me, the point is, we need to stay up with technology in F1 and not go back to what I like, because I was young then.

     

    Franz?

    FT: I think currently we have a power unit which is on a very, very high technical level and, unfortunately, this has not been communicated in a way the power unit deserved. We have a small engine, two energy recovery systems and all these components together is the technology for the future because with this engine also in a normal street car, maybe you can do 100km with one litre, two litres of fuel, and then you come home with a filled battery. They all are talking about the electric cars, and I’m just asking where from do they get the energy? It’s not like in Formula E when 20 cars are outside on the track and behind there are 50 diesel aggregates spending their energy. This is nothing serious in my opinion – but the great manufacturers go to the Formula E or have built electric cars. I’m just asking where they get the energy from? I think we have, in Formula One, the technology for the future. As Toto said, maybe the hybrid part, electric part will increase to 40 per cent or even more. That’s fine, but from the technology itself, for me, this is the solution for the future.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) – A question to the three team bosses. We’re all quite excited to see what we’re going to get for the 2021 regulations, sooner rather than later. Guenther, in one of your earlier answers you mentioned maybe condensing the schedule down. That might be a way to fit in more races or reduce the load. I believe one of the suggestions for5 2021 has been to move parc fermé to the beginning of Friday, shuffle the Friday practice sessions back later. Where do you stand on parc fermé to before you’ve run on track. I guess that would cause slightly more headaches for the engineers and move the preparations to simulations before the weekend?

    GS: I’m OK with that, because that’s what I said before. We just need to plan it well, how we do it. So that we are prepared for it. We adapt all pretty quick here. There’s enough people working at it. That would be one of the solutions – to start on Friday the event, which now starts on Thursday, because we are all here, but we could do that job also from other places. That would be one of the solutions and that I think is the intent of it.

    TW: I think if you can compress without reducing the show, then that is something we should look at. I believe that for the promoters it is not great. The Friday is an important day when they are able to generate some revenue and attract some audiences. We are not keen on the parc fermé format from Friday to Sunday. There is no motor racing formula out there that doesn’t allow the cars to be touched over the weekend and I don’t think we should start with Formula One, the pinnacle of motor racing. You open up a can of worms with penalties because cars will end up in the wall and they will need to rebuilt and I think from the sheer idea of how we can add more variability, more unpredictability, have more cars braking down, I think we will achieve the contrary. We will spend more time and resource in the virtual world, runs cars harder on dynos to make them last, because we know we can’t take them apart over three days, so I don’t think this is something we should touch. There are many other areas that make sense, but this one, not for us.

    FT: Of course there are a lot of discussions going on and I’m not a big friend of this solution to be honest. As Toto mentioned before, Friday is an important day also for the organisers from the financial side. Whether we are now here one day earlier or later at the track, I don’t think this makes a big difference. We have to increase the show, we have to reduce the costs, we have to distribute the money in a fair way. I think these are the most important points. The parc fermé story is absolutely secondary. OK, it’s being discussed now among the teams but I don’t think these changes are important for the topics I just mentioned before. I think we don’t need to change anything in this way.

     

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Two questions for Toto: one is about the complaining of Lewis yesterday. He said he wanted a different Formula One. He’s the most successful driver in the hybrid era. I would like to know your comment about this. And the second question: it could be ugly at this moment but I would like to know what has happened about Niki’s 10 percent of the team. Are you going to buy it?

    TW: I think, on the first topic, drivers want machines that are difficult to drive and that are challenging and that is clear. I think when we need to look at chassis regulations going forward, that can be a point of discussion. I’m not entirely sure that we can go back in time. I think if you put a car on track it’s going to vibrate, not drive in a straight line and not do what the driver wants; I’m not sure the drivers would be happy about it but I kind of get the point that when you look at the images of Mansell and Senna collapsing after the end of a race that is exciting and they should be gladiators, so I can understand where he’s coming from.

    On the Niki situation, we haven’t discussed that yet. It’s too close to the tragic event. That is going to be a topic we will address with Daimler in the next few weeks and months.

     

    Q: (Maxime Sarasin – 98.5 FM) I want to go back to what Lewis told us yesterday. He told us that it was too easy for pilots to drive, that he was not exhausted at all after a Grand Prix and he could maybe do two or three others in the same day. And he didn’t feel that at that time, he was saying that new pilots were coming in are maybe the best athletes that they should be and he told us that that shouldn’t happen right now. So I really want to know what you think about that, what are your thoughts about that and do you think that going with technology should at least make an obligation to have drivers to be the best athletes possible for Formula One.

    FT: In my opinion, the current level of the drivers from the fitness side is the highest I’ve ever seen in Formula One. You must not forget that we now have drivers who started motor sport when they were six or seven years old. That means that when they come to Formula One, they’ve already done 10 to 15 years of karting first and then the junior categories and I’m not talking about the Red Bull and Toro Rosso drivers. Our drivers have special physical training plans. They have their own coach, they have a nutrition plan. That means they are so well prepared that the driving itself is no longer so exciting for them and of course, you cannot compare this time with – let me say – twenty or thirty years ago when Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell or whoever collapsed after a race. They never saw a fitness centre from the inside and some of them were smoking as well and in former days, I remember that some cars did not finish the race and then they talked about gearbox problems. Hey, they were smoking beforehand and they were not fit enough to finish the race and then they put it in any gear so that the car stopped. They were not fit enough. This is the reality and nowadays we have really really good drivers in Formula One and we have a very high level and therefore you don’t see accidents – which on one side is very good – from the entertaining point of view is boring. Friends of mine say you don’t even see a crash after the start in the first corner because they all manage to do it. It’s because the driving level is very very high, I think the highest we’ve ever seen in Formula One and this we continue. But this is nothing to do only with Formula One; this is in all the other sports as well, in skiing and so on, therefore I think we should be happy to see these drivers.

    MI: This is for the team managers, he said. I agree, it’s a completely different… we cannot compare the era of Senna, Piquet and so on with the current drivers. I believe that the level of the drivers is very good. We are changing the car from 2016 to 2017; it became a lot more physical to drive, I don’t know if it is (difficult) enough or not, for Lewis probably not. But talking about tyres, I would say that we are always trying to supply to Formula One what they want so just ask and we try to do our best. In terms of cars and so on, it’s more Toto that can give you an answer.

    Q: Well, Toto, what about Lewis’s thoughts yesterday?

    TW: You can look at the lap times. I think we have the quickest cars by now. We have changed the aerodynamic formula to take a few seconds off the cars and we are going faster than last year, so the levels of downforce are enormous and like Franz said, it’s very right that the level of perfection has just increased enormously and you don’t see these kind of mistakes any more. You could, artificially, make it much harder: take the power-assisted steering out, then you will have drivers like bodybuilders and they will struggle to finish races because it will be so tiring – that is easy – but it would be a step back in technology but maybe that is something we should consider in the future for the entertainment factor.

    GS: Or we could ban the drivers from going to the fitness studios as Franz said, so they will be tired at the end of the race. It would be a lot cheaper. And to eat fast foods all the time! No, without joking, I think Franz explained it very well: the fitness level is just so high and the cars are so sophisticated so it’s just getting better and it’s evolution. It isn’t that they are easy to drive, we are just so well prepared – they are so well prepared altogether. That is why they now complain about it.

    TT: I just remember 20 or 30 years ago, after the race, drivers got wet and then sometimes they couldn’t get out of the car. But with technology improvement, the current drivers work not only physically but also their heads. I don’t know which is good but Formula One wins, I think.

     

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines, Racefans.net) Toto, continuing what Lewis said yesterday, he actually said that Formula One should be a man’s sport. I was wondering how this sat alongside the women in motorsport initiative and also what your wife (Susie Wolff) thinks about that comment?

    TW: He was on a roll yesterday, I think! I don’t think he meant it in the way that it was seen as discriminatory. On the contrary, he’s someone who is very open to diversity and somebody who raced against Susie in Formula Renault. I think that what he meant was that it needs to be a gladiator’s sport, the toughest machines for the best drivers out there. In terms of the FIA initiatives that have been merged with Dare to be Different, I think this is wonderful to see that there are more girls now looking at go-karting and when in the past there were a hundred boys there were one or two girls now you can see there are five or six and that it’s starting to have an impact. We will see where that is in five years. I would very much hope that in our lifespan in Formula One we will see a girl racing competitively in F1.

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Toto, again referencing something that Lewis said yesterday, hopefully not something that has been taken out of context. It was when he was asked about the engine upgrade here and he said that one of the things that had impressed him was the fact that Mercedes had not had the smoothest ride with developing the engine or working on upgrades at the start of the year. I just wondered if we could get your thoughts on whether there was anything in particular that was troubling with the development of these engine upgrades or has that been par for the course over the last few years when you’re pushing the envelope and trying to push the engines as hard as you can?

    TW: I think we had times at Mercedes where the engine was described as the determining factor in the team’s success and then it has somehow transitioned to the chassis side and people nowadays are talking that the chassis is the leader of the pack but what really needs to be said is that with mature regulations it becomes more and more difficult to extract additional performance and keeping reliability and the guys in Brixworth are doing a fantastic job. Obviously I live in it and I’m seeing the struggles and the boundaries they are trying to push and the targets they set and sometimes they don’t reach them completely but they keep pushing and pushing and pushing and that is very inspiring to see that the group of people have not stopped chasing performance.

     

    Q: (Trago Mendonca – O Dia) Franz, Indycar is testing a new system to protect the drivers, the aeroscreen, a partnership with Red Bull. What do you think about the system comparing to the halo that we have now in Formula One?

    FT: The most important thing is that the safety is guaranteed. If this new system is working from the optical side, from the aesthetic side, I like it more and then we will see because the car looks more sophisticated but together with Red Bull Technology they will test everything and then we will see what the solution will be.

  • F1 2019: Canadian Gp Preview – Ferrari to the Fore?

    F1 2019: Canadian Gp Preview – Ferrari to the Fore?

    Formula 1 travels from Monaco to Montreal for the seventh round of the 2019 championship this weekend. The Canadian grand prix track is a relatively short one with a lap time below seventy seconds highly likely in 2019. But the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, seemingly innocuous, has quirks and nuances that have caught out many drivers. From barriers just beyond the edge of the rumble strips to the famed Wall of Champions together with a number of big braking points combine to produce a fast, low downforce circuit.

    Seven races into the 2019 season and Ferrari’s best result is Seb Vettel’s second place finish at the Monaco grand prix. On merit the Ferrari was the third quickest car at the last race which is a far cry from pre-season expectations. But for several mechanical and driver errors in 2018 the Scuderia could well have won the championship and it seemed as if they were on the path towards maintaining the challenge in 2019. While their engine is currently the class of the field Ferrari’s biggest problem with the SF90 is that it lacks downforce. This means that while they may be the quickest on the straight they fall painfully shy of Mercedes, and even Red Bull, in cornering.

    It stands to reason then that in Canada Ferrari should fare better. In Spain they introduced an upgraded engine but because of the layout of Catalunya and Monaco the gains were masked by the circuit layouts. However, a fresh, upgraded engine will aid them on the power sensitive Canadian circuit. While it may not be outright domination by Ferrari the expectation is that they could be significantly closer to Mercedes but only if they check all the boxes, including a seamless strategic and organizational weekend.

    M193406Mercedes are likely to bring an upgraded engine to Canada as will have to manage their own inter-team battle given the manner in which Bottas 2.0 has stepped up in 2019. While he has never taken victory on this circuit Valtteri Bottas has been somewhat of a Canadian Gp specialist. In 2013, his debut year with Williams, he secured an impressive third on the starting grid before taking his first podium, still as a Williams driver, at the same circuit in 2015 and 2016.

    If Bottas could be classed as somewhat of a specialist around these parts then Lewis Hamilton must be the master. His first career win came here in 2007 and he’s followed it with five more victories for a grand total of six wins in Canada and only one adrift of the great Michael Schumacher. Hamilton has recently been quoted as saying that he hasn’t been driving particularly good this year. If he is to be believed this weekend’s Canadian grand prix, where he has exceled brilliantly in the past, could well spur him into stepping up his game.

    If it is to be battle between Mercedes and Ferrari the expectation is that Red Bull would be the third quickest team. But on a circuit layout like this which rewards engine prowess they too will have to tick all the boxes if they are to have a solid weekend. There is the added element of unpredictability of this grand prix which has turned many races here on its head. And it is this randomness that has made the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and the Canadian grand prix one of the most anticipated races of the year.

  • F1 2019: Monaco Gp Preview – Win or Bust for Ferrari

    F1 2019: Monaco Gp Preview – Win or Bust for Ferrari

    Formula 1 cars have raced through the sun-kissed streets of Monte Carlo every year since 1950. Decade after decade it the Monaco grand prix stood proud as the jewel in F1’s crown. All the legends have won here from Juan-Manuel Fangio to Sir Jackie Stewart to Ayrton Senna to the great Michael Schumacher. And it is unquestionably the grand prix victory that drivers want in their CV.

    More recently it hasn’t done must to endear itself to modern-day F1 fans. And it isn’t because these fans are a lot of whingers either. It isn’t even that in an over-saturated world that they are easily bored, as some would have you believe. Most, if not all, of these fans appreciate and laud the sport’s venerated history and speak in awe of decades gone by.

    The utter precision and bravery that it demands to fling these marvels of design and engineering through the barrier-lined streets is a feat so outrageous it shouldn’t be possible. But it is. And year after year Formula 1 shows up and proves it possible. As gloriously insane a spectacle as that is it simply isn’t conducive anymore to what modern F1 fans yearn for. There is a great hunger for wheel-to-wheel racing, for overtaking, for edge-of-the-seat racing that leaves you, simultaneously, stunned and exhilarated. And this is nothing something that the Monaco grand prix can deliver anymore.

    Monaco F1 Grand Prix - RaceSeveral decades ago the story was different but with modern F1 cars it just isn’t feasible. The width of the cars alone makes overtaking in Monaco, already at a premium, nearly impossible. This means that Saturday qualifying dictates Sunday’s race, barring unreliability. In the recent past, 2016 to be precise, leader Nico Rosberg drove deliberately slowly and still no one was able to overtake the then Mercedes driver. Off the track, for which the action starts on Thursday, it is the place to be seen. Here you can rub shoulders with the rich and famous provided you have the right invite or the ability to cough up an exorbitant amount of money to make it into the paddock or onto one of the luxury yachts.

    The reality is though that most F1 save for months, even years, to make it to a racetrack somewhere in the world and hardly entertain the thought of being able to attend a grand prix on the French Riviera. It seems nearly unthinkable to imagine an F1 calendar with the Monaco grand prix. But what it even more inconceivable is that those who tend to the sport do not take into account what the fans want and can afford.

    Monaco Grand Prix 2014 Safety CarFor the foreseeable future there is a Monaco grand prix and this weekend someone will again loft the famous first place trophy into the air as the winner. In recent years Mercedes have struggled with equal tyre warm-up across both axles of their car. However, recent form in Singapore, also a street-track, suggests that they have begun to get on top of the issue. Valtteri Bottas will be interesting to watch here, as Monaco has never been a strong circuit for the Finn. It’s a good place then to show that new-for-2019 Bottas is not only a force to be reckoned with but also a bonafide championship contender.

    Red Bull won here in 2018 with Daniel Ricciardo despite a loss of power. It could well be Max Verstappen’s chance to shine on the famous streets provided he can keep his Red Bull out of the barrier – a feat he didn’t accomplish in 2018.

    For Ferrari, as in Spain, it’s win or bust. Anything other than the top step of the podium will be devastating to their championship aspirations that are already hanging by a catastrophically thin thread.

  • F1 2019: Baku Gp Review – Bottas 2.0 Wins Again

    F1 2019: Baku Gp Review – Bottas 2.0 Wins Again

    Since joining the Mercedes team at the start of the 2017 season Valtteri Bottas has had impressive races. But there was recognition by all other drivers that if you show him a front wheel he’d, embarrassingly, give way. But the Valtteri Bottas that has been unleashed at the start of the 2019 season is far removed from the driver of the last two seasons.

    Finns are notoriously measured in how much they say and at the start of Sunday’s Baku grand prix Bottas let his peerless driving do all the talking. The manner in which he held his car inches from teammate Hamilton made it clear that he wasn’t going to budge nor was going to simply give up the lead of the race if he could help it. His statement was clear – you’re going to have to go through me. That tenacity kept him the lead of the race off the start line and he backed it up with a faultless drive to secure the fifth win of his F1 career.

    Mercedes, quite literally, could not have started the season in a more perfect manner than scoring a one-two victory in all four of the races so far in 2019. Operationally, there are no teams on the grid that can touch the might of Mercedes. They arrived on Friday genuinely unsure of their pace. It appeared that Ferrari easily had the measure of the circuit and a pace advantage that seemed insurmountable. But if nothing else Mercedes must be respected and lauded for the stunning work they do behind the scenes.

    2019 Azerbaijan GPIf it’s organizational brilliance at Mercedes then at Ferrari it is the calamitous opposite. The dubious decision to put both cars out on the medium compound tyre for the second session of qualifying was the beginning of Ferrari’s unraveling this weekend. Not only was the track temperature not conducive to the medium tyre but also strategically it made little sense for Sunday’s race, more on that later.

    It resulted in both drivers hitting the turn 8 wall with Leclerc coming off worst with a wrecked front suspension. Vettel was able to carry on but only managed third on the grid after failing to cash in on the slipstream benefit. Ferrari had gone from a near guaranteed front-row locked out to third and eighth on grid.

    But still they had a chance; At least until it came time to make their strategy call. Leclerc made decent headway on the more durable medium tyre in the opening stint of the race and looked set for good result, perhaps even a podium. But Ferrari has become rather infamous for mad strategic calls and it was no different in Baku. They left Leclerc out on track despite the fact that he was losing, often, more than a second per lap to the chasing pack of Bottas, Hamilton, Vettel, and Verstappen. Eventually Bottas and Hamilton made their pitstops, closed down Leclerc and passed him on track. Leclerc eventually finished fifth with a strategy only Ferrari would be able to explain. A late pitstop for fresh tyres earned the Ferrari driver the consolation of an extra point for fastest lap.

    2019 Azerbaijan GPAhead Bottas had the race firmly in control despite a late VSC (Virtual Safety Car) deployed for the stricken Red Bull of Pierre Gasly. Elsewhere the other biggest incident of the race was a misjudgment on the brakes from Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo who took out himself and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. To add to his blushes Ricciardo strangely reversed into side of Kvyat when trying to rejoin the track and has been given a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Spain.

    While Bottas and Hamilton secured yet another one-two victory for Mercedes Vettel trundled home third in the Ferrari. Though the German driver was only a handful of second adrift of the Silver Arrows it will be scant comfort on a weekend where Ferrari brought several updates to their car. Max Verstappen finished a solid fourth for Red Bull ahead of Leclerc in fifth.

    Twice a podium finisher in Baku Sergio Perez was sixth for Racing Point ahead of the McLaren duo of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris. Lance Stroll made it a double-points finish for Racing Point in ninth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in tenth who started the race from the pitlane in his Alfa Romeo.

    At the start of the season Valtteri Bottas noted that, during the off season, he’d spent a lot of time hiking in the Finnish woods and eating porridge. Whatever he discovered in those woods and whatever is in that porridge it has transformed Valtteri Bottas into an uncompromising and unapologetic racing machine. Long may it continue.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport 
  • 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Friday Press Conference

    TEAM REPRESENTATIVES – Claire WILLIAMS (Williams), Christian HORNER (Red Bull Racing), Otmar SZAFNAUER (Racing Point), Toto WOLFF (Mercedes), Cyril ABITEBOUL (Renault)

    Q: Claire, if we can start with you and the incident in FP1. What’s your reaction, and what’s the state of the car?

    Claire WILLIAMS: I knew you were going to start with me! My reaction is probably not a surprising one, I’m pretty annoyed. However, we have had it explained to us, the circumstances around the manhole and what’s happened. I don’t necessarily believe it’s probably anybody’s fault, but still it’s pretty disappointing for us. It just seems like it’s one thing after another for our team at the moment. However, it’s happened, we’ve got to repair the damage. Our chassis is cracked so we have got to revert to chassis three, the floor is a write-off, and we’ve got some other small bits of damage around the car. The guys are obviously working pretty hard to make sure that we deploy chassis three; we clearly won’t get out for P2 and George will just have to get all his learnings in tomorrow.

     

    Q: As you touched on, it’s been a difficult season for Williams so far, but you drafted Patrick Head back into the fold on a short-term consultancy basis. What impact has he had so far, and what’s the plan going forwards to turn around your fortunes?

    CW: Ahead of this weekend I was kind of feeling there was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel and then this happens this morning, but I’m not going to worry too much about that. It’s one of those things. So Patrick coming in, obviously for us is a great thing. He’s acting as a guide for our team of engineers at the moment, just making sure that they’re doing everything that they should be doing. We haven’t had the best year, clearly everybody has seen that. It started with not getting our chassis to testing, and we’ve had to really play catch up off the back of that. So we are now in a position where we have all our race quantities, we have the quality on those race quantities that we needed, and now we’re looking to bring the upgrades that have literally been sitting on a shelf as we’ve cleared the backlog out of manufacturing. So there is some light at the end of the tunnel, I think China demonstrated that we’ve brought a little bit of performance to the car, but we’re still far too far behind the ninth-placed team at the moment. We’re doing a lot of work back at Williams. If anyone thinks that we’re just hoping for a miracle or that things will just go our way at some point, that’s not the case — a lot of work has been going on to make sure that we put ourselves in the right position. Obviously Patrick is playing a role in that as well.

     

    Q: Otmar, if we could come to you next. Baku’s been a pretty good hunting ground for you in the past, and you’ve scored points in each of the three races this year. What are your expectations looking ahead to this weekend?

    Otmar SZAFNAUER: Well, we hope that we’re a bit more competitive here than we have been in the first three races, but we’ve managed to score points in every one, which is good. We want to continue that trend and maybe pick up a little bit more than we have in the first three.

     

    Q: The mid-field battle’s once again a closely fought affair. What have you made of that battle and how hard is it going to be for you guys to get on top?

    OS: Well, I believe this year it’s even tighter than years past, and for us to get on top means we have to do everything right. And you know the margins are smaller, so pit stops have to be quick and precise, the drivers have to do a great job in qualifying and the race, you know it’s just all the details you have to get right if the margins are that tight — the little details matter all the more.

     

    Q: And you’ve had fresh investment in the team this year. Can you talk a little bit about the developments that are coming and the updates that we can expect from Racing Point?

    OS: Well, that’s the other thing. You know we had a big regulation change, so the way I view this year and probably next as well is it’s going to be a development race. The fact that we have funding now to bring the developments to the car as quickly as our internal procedures will allow is a big benefit. We won’t be hampered by not having the funds to actually buy the components. So that will be a benefit, but the real issue is bringing developments to the car that make a performance enhancement, a performance difference, and that’s what we’re focusing on doing.

     

    Q: Christian, if we could come to you next. Honda have brought an updated engine to Azerbaijan this weekend. How impressed have you been with their reliability and performance so far, and how encouraged are you about what to expect for the rest of the year?

    Christian HORNER: Well so far, the engine’s run absolutely problem-free throughout testing, throughout all the races to date. This engine’s been introduced based on an issue they saw with the Toro Rosso engine, but it also enables us to run slightly more aggressive modes in the race as as well. It’s been hugely impressive, the effort and quality of stuff that’s been coming through from Honda.

     

    Q: Red Bull took four wins last year. How optimistic are you that you can add to that tally this year?

    CH: Trying to specify an amount of wins is always going to be extremely difficult; our goal is to converge to the where the current benchmark is, which is currently Mercedes. I think we’re doing that. Obviously we grabbed some opportunistic opportunities last year, and by the end of the year we had a car that was genuinely capable of winning on merit of its own and wasn’t circuit-specific. The whole team’s focussed very hard on getting development through on the chassis, obviously engine bits are coming through as well. It’s a long season, we’re at race three, so we’ve done three races and we’re on race four obviously now and we’re confident that hopefully we can continue to close that gap to Mercedes and Ferrari ahead.

     

    Q: Just a quick word on Pierre – it’s obviously been a difficult start to life at Red Bull, but he seems to be getting more comfortable with the car. Where is he struggling in particular, and what can the team do to help him get on top of those issues?

    CH: He had a tough pre-season, two incidents in the pre-season put him on the back foot and also probably confidence wise as well, but each grand prix we’ve been through so far he’s got stronger and stronger. I think China he’ll take a bit of confidence from, getting the fastest lap at the end of the race there as well. And yeah, I think just more seat time is extremely beneficial to him, and as we come back to circuits that he’s more and more familiar with I think we’ll see him make significant further progress.

     

    Q: Cyril, if we could come to you. Renault were really positive ahead of this season; it’s then been a difficult few races for you. How would you assess how the opening three races have gone?

    Cyril ABITEBOUL: I think it’s fair to say that it’s not exactly the start of the season we were willing to have, that we’ve been working for. I think that it’s important also to take a bit of distance of the emotions and of the constant drama we are living for in Formula One. We are already sitting P4 into the championship. It’s a tight championship, but we are already sitting P4 with only two cars finishing out of the six cars that have started the season so far. So if with two cars we are capable of doing P4, that’s already an encouragement. Last year we had to do everything extremely right to be able to secure that position, so I think it does say something about the step that we’ve done. It’s not enough, it’s never enough for sure. As a starting point we clearly need to improve the reliability of the engine; as you know over the winter we have been very vocal about the expectation but also about the ambition in terms of power gain on the engine. I think we’ve accomplished that, but in order to secure that we had to on a number of occasions to fast-track some of the internal processes because it’s a Catch-22. You’re running against time, and sometimes also running against limitations in resources, and clearly every single time we could, we biased our internal processes towards performance. So we are paying a little bit for that, but I hope that it’s short term pain for long term gain. On the chassis side, I’m extremely positive about the rate of development, which is stronger than it’s ever been, which is saying something about also the new Renault that we are starting to see in action.

     

    Q: And just a quick word on Daniel Ricciardo, he had a tough couple of opening races but got on the board. How much of a relief was it to see him score points in China?

    CA: It’s always good to score his first points, you know, and the sooner the better. But I think more important, he now has a car in which he has more confidence. In the first race in Melbourne we finally had the capacity to understand what he wanted. We’ve made changes, we prioritised the changes that he wanted to have, in particular on the systems that are related to drivers, so that he has more confidence in the car. Not exactly yet to the level of competitivity that we want, but so that he can attack and wait for the upgrades to come and hopefully pay some dividends.

     

    Q: Toto, thanks for waiting, and welcome back to the press conference again. I think that probably shows how successful Mercedes have been this year. When you look back on those opening three races, how pleased are you with what’s gone on, and how much confidence does that give you going forward?

    Toto WOLFF: First of all, it’s always nice to be here. It was a great start of the season; we had a difficult Barcelona testing where we started to understand how to set up the car toward the end of the test only, and then we came to Melbourne and we had a very positive surprise. That was met with a little bit more scepticism then in the second race, where clearly the Ferrari package was the quickest on track. Charles, I think it’s clear, would have won the race if it wouldn’t have been for reliability, but reliability is part of the equation and part of performance. We came back in China very strong, and that is very pleasing, but three races out of 21 is very early and we mustn’t be carried away with a great start.

     

    Q: And a word on Lewis Hamilton, who was back to his dominant ways in China. How impressed have you been with him this year and the way that he continually re-motivates himself?

    TW: It’s always impressive to look at sportsmen who have been very successful in the past, been setting benchmarks that they’re always able to start a new season very motivated and very energised. Certainly the Lewis that I have seen is in a great place, he’s eager to perform at the highest level, and that is good for him and good for the team.

     

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

     

    Q: (Scott Mitchell – Autosport) Claire, I know you’ve got more pressing short-term problems at the moment, but last week it was reported that there was interest in serious investment in Williams from Dmitri Mazepin, and I just wondered if you could clarify that from your position and tell us whether or not the team is for sale?

    CW: Yeah, I saw those stories; I paid little attention to them. I haven’t met Mr Mazepin to talk about that. We had a brief conversation in the mid-part of last year, but subsequent to that there have been no conversations. I’d just like to be really categorical about it: Williams is not for sale. I have no intention of putting Williams up for sale. I don’t see why we would. I think certainly in times like this, that the team is going through at the moment, these rumours always come up, but with a business head on, when you’re team isn’t doing well selling at this juncture wouldn’t be the right time to do so. I think you would only investigate that opportunity if you are doing well. That’s the right time to sell. But Williams is in this sport and has been for more than four decades and we’ve never wanted to sell. This is what we do; we don’t have anything else to do. So, it is not on the market. I don’t want to sell it to everybody. I want to go out and prove that we can do what we are in this sport to do – and that’s to get back on the podium and to win races again. That may take us a long time, but it took Frank more than 10 years to do it when he first started in this sport, and I’m sure we’ll have a lot more stuff thrown our way, like we’ve had today, like we’ve had this year, like we had last year. But you don’t give up when times get tough. For me it’s a test of your character that you continue and to prove to everybody that you can do it. That’s certainly the belief everybody has at Williams: that we can do this and we’re not going to just give up because the moments have got a bit hard for us.

     

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines/racefans.net) Claire, sorry to hone in on you again after the first question. However, there’s been a report floating around about gender gaps and Williams didn’t come off particularly well. As the only female leader of a Formula 1 team, this was rather surprising. Could you substantiate some of the comments or where do we stand on this please?

    CW: Yes, another stick with which people are beating us at the moment. For me, certainly, the regulations by which we have to report our gender pay gap, which we have to do now in the UK, are misleading or they can bring about misleading results. Certainly, for me, the means by which you test how well you are doing to ensure gender equality within your business is firstly by the number of women you actually have and year-on-year we have more and more women coming to work at Williams and I’m pleased to say not just in the more female-dominated roles we’ve had in motorsport in the past, of admin and marketing. More women are coming up now in engineering roles; we’ve got more women in our aerodynamics department, in vehicle design, development etc. But it’s about how you support that talent as well. We’ve just recently launched, about four months ago, at the start of this year, a women at Williams network, and I think we are probably the only team to do that. It’s about not only encouraging talent to come into our team but it’s about how you support them when they are there. And secondly, the most important number for me when we are looking at gender equality is how you much you pay your female staff versus your male, and we went through a big analysis on this two years ago, before we even had to report on gender pay, and we made sure that every woman that was doing the same job as a man was paid the same amount as that male employee for doing that same job. For me, those are the three greatest measures of gender equality within a business and so I have absolutely no qualms knowing that the women in our organisation are treated on an equal standing as our men.

     

    Q: (inaudible) A question for Toto and Christian. Toto, you said after the Chinese Grand Prix that managing the two drivers might be quite tricky for Ferrari. Do you guys think that this could be an advantage for you and as team bosses how difficult is it to manage these kind of situations and how difficult is it to explain to the drivers the different circumstances and decisions?

    TW: From my standpoint, we’ve been quoted a lot about the Ferrari situation and I don’t think it’s right. We are not in the right place to comment from the sidelines about what is happening in Ferrari. What I can say is that we have been in a situation with Nico and Lewis that was tricky to manage at times, and equally not easy with Valtteri and Lewis, because two drivers that want to win races and do have the potential to win championships, that can be conflicting interests sometimes, and you just need to talk about it. And it’s not trivial. It’s a situation that certainly has an advantage for the team, because drivers are pushing each other and extracting more performance out of the car, but equally in managing personalities and strong characters is never trivial, whether it’s drivers or engineers or managers in general.

     

    CH: Yeah I think different teams have different philosophies. Arguably having a very clearly defined number one and number two driver is almost easier to work with. That isn’t our philosophy at Red Bull. We allow the drivers to race and sometimes that can be uncomfortable, as we saw 12 months ago here in Azerbaijan. But the philosophy that we’ve always had is to give both guys the same opportunity and let them establish who is the lead driver on track. I think so long as you have clear rules of engagement then we’ve been, I would say, 90 per cent successful with that. I think in the three years that Max and Daniel raced with each other there were only ever two incidents, which considering they were starting next to each other at 90 per cent of the races is a pretty decent ratio. But each team has its own philosophy. It doesn’t make one right or one wrong, it’s just unique to each team, how they choose to racing.

     

    Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport-total.com) Cyril and Christian, maybe we can create a little bit more fun for the Netflix people here. I recently listened to Natalie Pinkham’s podcast with Adrian Newey and Adrian basically admitted that there a bit of strategy in the criticism you did towards Renault in terms of a) making them invest more into the programme or b) making them exit altogether – I assume to get a new engine manufacturer. Christian, do you want to put any more context to that? And Cyril, obviously asking for your comment too.

    CH: Well, I read with interest Adrian’s comments about that and I think what he is referring to is actually back in 2015, where we’d had several conversations, we’d been to Paris, we’d seen Carlos Ghosn, we’d presented what our concerns were and I think by 2015, when the engine was arguably worse than it was in 2014, then frustration boiled over to the point that it was like ‘OK, if we are more open about what our frustrations are, maybe it will force a reaction’. It didn’t! I don’t think you were even involved at that stage were you Cyril?

     

    CA: I was just on my way back. I don’t know if that was a good thing or bad thing!

     

    CH: So Cyril came back into the full brunt of it. You were a customer the year before! So yeah, it was one of things that you try every mechanism that you can to try to generate competiveness and at that time it was felt that maybe Renault couldn’t possibly afford the embarrassment of these engines not being competitive and not being reliable and not delivering, but yeah, unfortunately it didn’t work.

     

    CA: How to respond? It was very good until the last word – it didn’t work. One thing we can give credit to Christian and Red Bull is that they are fantastic at communication strategy and communication is part of this world, it’s part of Formula 1, it’s part of your strategy and your tactics. It’s not the first team and it’s not the last team to use all the weaponry of this world, and frankly you guys, to influence what is going on. I was reading yesterday that Max is happy to take an engine penalty – amazing! You know, that’s part of this world, but I don’t want to lose sight of the fact, and I would concur with Christian in relation to that, our engine was not at the required level in 2014 and 2015. There are mitigating circumstances. You know, we were extremely happy and Renault has contributed to making Red Bull what it is today by winning four championships in a row – from a financial perspective with sponsors, from a technology perspective with talent, recruitment – Red Bull is what it is today thanks also to Renault. Thank your for giving me the opportunity to say that. But then, later on, indeed we lost a little bit the momentum and sight of what needed to be done for 2014 regulations. The rest is history and we;’ll see what the future is holding.

     

    Q: (Julien Billotte – Auto Hebdo) A question to all five please. What’s the latest on the 2021 regulations? There was a big meeting one month and ever since we haven’t heard much more. Do you have any more details and generally how pleased are you with the way F1 is moving forward?

    OS: Well, I think with every meeting we iterate what the regulations are going to look like. I believe there is a deadline of med-year for something to be published and I think we’re getting closer now. The FIA have asked the teams for feedback, which we’ve given. There are still some outstanding issues on some components that will either be supplied or not and when we know more information then I think we’ll get closer to that but mid-year something should be published.

     

    Q: Christian?

    CH: Yeah, it feels like we’re converging. There are still a few elephants in the room but yeah, it feels generally like on all front we are converging in the right direction, so hopefully over the next few months something can get sorted.

     

    Q: Toto, do you have anything to add?

    TW: Yeah, as Christian said, it’s difficult because there are so many important balls in the air, whether it’s prize fund redistribution or the cost cap, technical and sporting regulations and it is progressing slowly. We’d like to have it done sooner rather than later and this is the joint objective of all stakeholders involved – the FIA, Formula 1 and the teams.

     

    Q: Cyril?

    CA: Nothing much to add. Maybe just on timing, we really see the end of June as the deadline. That is a necessary deadline for the sport, for the OEMs and for all teams really, to know what the future is holding and to start to make plans accordingly.

     

    Q: And Claire, anything to add?

    CW: Yeah, I would agree. I think that the versions that FIA and FOM presented to us a few weeks, we were really pretty happy with. I know that there are a few things still being discussed at the moment, to clarify, but we’d be very happy when they come out to sign them.

     

    Q: (Dieter Rencken – Racing Lines / racefans.net) Further to my question to Claire earlier on about the gender pay gap, how comfortable are the other four teams that you’re actually fulfilling the moral obligations in this regard as well – not only the legislative ones. And then Christian, I see you were asked to comment on Adrian’s comments. Would you like to comment on Dr Helmut Marko’s comment that he didn’t think a women driver was up to Formula One?

    CA: I think frankly it was extremely well put by Claire and there is little that I can add. I think those indicators are good, because we live in a world of indicators but there are quantitative and we live in a Formula One world which is much more qualitative. Statistics are, in terms of quantity, pool of resources is much lower. I think really what matters is that, for a given position, there is equality and parity of treatment for a given position. And that’s basically, the hurdle. As far as we are concerned, we are obviously very keen. We go up massively in terms of resources, that’s given us the opportunity to attract with equality – but also our executive committee, our management committee is almost 50:50 between men and women, so I think it’s a clear demonstration that we are serious about that. And I will leave Christian to comment on Dr Marko’s point…

     

    Toto, do you want to give a Mercedes standpoint?

    TW: I think a lot has been said within Daimler. Within the Daimler board there is more female representation and when you look at the motor racing side, Britta Seeger who is on the board for sales & marketing and Bettina Fetzer, vice-president for marketing, they were strongly behind us going into Formula E and they are very engaged, also they are at Formula One very often and they are there on merit. The same in small is within the F1 team. I’m really happy to see that, from the young ones that are going us, it looks like the proportion of young ladies is much higher than it was in the past. Being an engineer, technician or mechanic is more of a career route than it was in the past. As you know, my wife has done a programme that was called ‘Dare to be Different’ and has joined forces with the the FIA now, in order to promote young women into the sport, so I’m the first one to have seen how powerful that can be and I think the proportion of females in our organisation will grow, or is growing as we speak – and that’s good.

     

    Otmar, do you want to answer that question?

    OS: Well, at Racing Point and Force India before, we don’t really differentiate by gender at all. So, we differentiate by the ability to do the job. There are many – well, not many – but a few departments that I can think of now where we have both men and women and they’re led by women and that’s just because they’re better at what they do. I think if that’s the philosophy, the gender pay gap should naturally become zero, so that’s how we go about things. The only other thing I’ve got to say is that, in my household, there are more women than men. You’ve got to try to treat everybody like you would want another boss to treat your daughter. So, if that’s the case, I think you get to the right place.

     

    Christian, thanks for waiting, and to deal with Dr Marko’s comments as well.

    CH: Well, as you all know, I’m all for Girl Power. I think it’s quite obvious that Claire should be paying herself significantly more than she obviously is. But, again, within our team, somebody that performs a role, it’s irrelevant whether they’re male or female. They’re paid the same for the role that they perform. We have some great engineers, some great designers, a growing contingent of more and more females coming into the business, which is great to see. Quite often we have a strategist on the pit wall that’s currently on maternity leave, in key and prominent positions. As far as Helmut’s comments were concerned, I think they were off-the-record comments, I think they weren’t… maybe they’ve been converted slightly. From a Red Bull perspective we’d be delighted to see more girls coming into the sport; we’d be delighted to see a girl get into Formula One and ideally be competitive. I think what he was alluding to is that there is nobody in a position to be competitive in Formula One at the moment and I think what that needs is for more girls to get involved at the grassroots, to get involved, to go karting and there needs to be a bigger pool of them coming through the sport. I think that way more opportunities will present themselves. There’s obviously a Formula W category now that starts shortly but again, where will that lead on to? They need to be able to move on from there. I think from a Red Bull perspective, we’d be totally in favour of seeing girls in motorsport come through – but I think it needs more involvement, and to appeal more as a sport where girls can get involved at a grassroots stage.

     

    Q: (Rebecca Clancy – The Times) To Claire. I appreciate it’s only a couple of hours old but do you have an idea of the scale and the cost of the damage, and will you be seeking compensation as Haas did when Grosjean hit a drain in Malaysia in 2017?

    CW: We obviously know what damage has occurred. To actually quantify that cost, it’s a little premature to do that but we will be doing it and we clearly will be discussing that with the FIA.

     

    Q: (Christian Nimmervoll – motorsport-total.com) Toto and Cyril, the two of you came forward last year with the suggestion of, in terms of the race calendar, probably doing less races rather than more. The idea, I believe, being more exclusive events and probably promoters paying more. Cyril, you also mentioned something about being fresher. Maybe the two of you – also anyone else who wants to comment, can elaborate on whether that has gone any further, and add your opinions to that at the end?

    TW: The balance you need to strike is between understanding that Formula One is a very aspiration and glamorous sport and obviously less can be more. But equally, as a company, we want to grow our revenue and the obvious revenue trigger is doing more races. I think FOM is pretty clear that, if more races are being added to the calendar, they need to be creative and they need to make all the way down to the bottom line or be very attractive races, tapping new markets. I think the mix at the moment and the discussions we are having is right.

     

    Cyril, do you have anything to add?

    CA: No, I think it’s that balance between quantity, quality, being aspirational, being something special but still being capable of existing enough in that world that is full of content and proposition in terms of sports properties. We need to make sure that we are different in the space that exists right now, and the media focus for Formula One. In the current business model the only way to grow the revenue indeed is to add up more races – or at least to keep the current number, so if we really think that it needs to be changed in future, we need to change our business model, so that we don’t need to keep on growing the revenue – and that means reducing the costs, reducing the necessity to spend to be competitive. That’s maybe one of the positives for the budget cap. Maybe not for the next cycle but maybe one cycle from now, have the ability to reduce that cost so that we can think a bit more strategically, rather than being a slave or revenues.

     

    Claire, how would affect an independent team like Williams?

    CW: I agree with what Toto and Cyril have said around striking a balance, and maybe wanting to go to fewer because of the aspirational side of Formula One. I think you add more races and if you don’t get that balance and don’t get the necessary income in for going to four or five extra races, the pressure that it puts on our team… our guys are already going around the world 21 times a year, plus the tests. That’s a long time to expect people to be away from home. Great if you’re a team that can afford to have a support team, or a support structure that you take personnel in and out, or if you’ve got a second race team that you can send around the world – but clearly for smaller, independent teams, that’s a much harder piece of work and just puts far too much pressure on the system. Not just from a personnel perspective but also from how many additional parts we’re going to have to manufacture etc., So there’s a whole series of considerations around it.

     

    Christian, do you have anything to add from Red Bull’s perspective?

    CH: I think it’s been pretty well summed up. I think what you have to appreciate is that a grand prix weekend. Not for us but the people down in the garage, it’s a week-long event and for many other functions that are involved in going to grands prix. 21 is already a big ask. Going beyond that is, I feel we’re a tipping point. You then have to look at the construction of the grand prix weekend. Do we need to do as much testing as we do? The duration of the season. All those factors and what impact it has on cost and budget caps and so on and, is ultimately it going to make a better show? A book can only have so many chapters and we want to make sure as many of those chapters are as entertaining as possible and it crescendo’s to something. What you don’t want to have is saturation. And I think it’s finding that balance of what is the right number and what is the right construction of a race weekend.

     

    And Otmar, Racing Point is obviously a team that’s growing, new factory is coming on. How does it affect your team?

    OS: We are growing and we’re recruiting now – but not at a pace where we’d take a half-step backwards. We’ve got to really be careful that the new factory that’s being planned now as well as our recruitment drive and some other things that are changing  don’ affect the performance at the end of the season. So it’s a fine balance to strike but it’s one we’re conscious of and working hard to make sure we get right.

  • F1 2019: Azerbaijan Gp Preview: Must Win For Ferrari

    F1 2019: Azerbaijan Gp Preview: Must Win For Ferrari

    The Baku circuit, the newest street track on the F1 calendar, was first introduced in 2016 and delivered one of the most stunning races of the year. Amid a melee or crashes and safety cars a year later Daniel Ricciardo emerged to take victory ahead of Valtteri Bottas and a surprised third place finisher in the form of then Williams driver Lance Stroll.

    Against a stunning backdrop of the old town the circuit is characterized by two distinct but opposite sections. The massively long start/finish straight is perfect of slipstreaming but after Turn 1 the layout quickly transforms into a tight and twisty tour through the city’s medieval walls. The close proximity of the walls means that the slightest mistake is more often than not punished severely. The dichotomy of the track layout also prompts a compromise in car set-up, as one half requires downforce and the other less drag to achieve the ultimate top speed.

    It should ostensibly favour Ferrari then as, in China, their advantage in straight-line speed was considerable. But on race day that supposed advantage was nowhere to be found. This could be an indication that Ferrari is not running its power unit to its full potential on race day due to reliability concerns. What adds fuel to this fire is the fact that all Ferrari-powered cars, except Alfa Romeo were forced into changing the control electronics ahead of the Chinese grand prix. Alfa’s reluctance to not change the system ended in regret as it kept Antonio Giovinazzi from competing in the qualifying session.

    GP MESSICO F1/2016If reliability isn’t a genuine concern for the Italian squad that Baku’s enormously long straight should play well into their hands. But already team principal Mattia Binotto has played down any suggestions of a performance advantage. “I don’t think there is much on the straights in between us and the others”. And on top of the standings Mercedes are sitting pretty without having been truly pushed in 2019. Yes, if Leclerc didn’t have a reliability issue in Bahrain he would’ve won the race by the reality is that he didn’t and Ferrari are already playing catch-up in several areas heading into only the fourth races of the season.

    There is no doubt that behind the scenes Mercedes are pushing to the absolute limit to extract everything from its car, engineers, and drivers. But from the outside there is something very comfortable about the situation in which they find themselves. Even psychologically they’re playing the game better than their rivals by continually pushing the message that Ferrari have the quicker car. It’s obvious that Ferrari need desperately to get some momentum going in their 2019 campaign and this weekend’s Azerbaijan grand prix is where it has to start.

     

  • F1 2019: Australian GP Preview – Ready to go

    F1 2019: Australian GP Preview – Ready to go

    It’s been an awfully long wait but the start of the 2019 season is here. Twenty-one races, several countries and continents and a excess of expectation await.

    Everyone is clamouring to understand and predict the pecking order and while there is a rough idea of who sits where, at least at the top, Formula 1 has always been better when it’s been unpredictable. Still, the probability is that Ferrari are a smidge ahead of Mercedes on pace. But given the unique layout of Australia’s circuit this may not count for much.

    The traditional season-opener around the semi-permanent Albert Park circuit is unlike any other on the calendar and thus makes it an outlier in terms of performance. The fiddly track is akin to a street circuit albeit with a bit more run off area should the odd mistake arise.  The layout comprises a mixture of medium speed corners and places an emphasis on stability under the braking. It is highly possible for a car to go well around this circuit and not truly be one in the running come Abu Dhabi in December but there are still 25 points for the one who sees the chequered flag first which makes it as important as any of the races in the line-up.

    New for 2019 are the aero regulations surrounding the front and rear wing area of the car as well as the simplification of the barge boards. In addition, three colours have replaced the rainbow selection of tyre compounds for this season. White, yellow, and red will make up the range of compounds with white being the hardest of the weekend, yellow the medium, and red the softest tyre available.

    Valtteri Bottas_Silverstone 2017_Thursday P1It’s a big year for the teammates. At Mercedes Valtteri Bottas has to impress Toto Wolff and co enough to keep Esteban Ocon out of his seat. Not in the Finn’s favour is the fact that in order to do so he has to beat, or at least match, his teammate and five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. It’s a tall order for the Bottas but his task is crystal clear.

    At Ferrari expectations are high for young Charles Leclerc too. All indications are that the Monegasque driver has all the speed he needs to well at the Italian team but it remains to be seen how he’ll handle the pressure of racing for the most famous mark in motorsport.

    The rivalry between Max Verstappen and his new teammate Pierre Gasly hasn’t been given as much attention as the previous two but is no less intriguing. The French driver arrives from Toro Rosso where he easily had the beating of Brendon Hartley. It will be significantly more difficult to consistently out-perform someone like Verstappen.

    All of this and the incredibly tight battle for mid-field supremacy hasn’t even made into the conversation yet. While Williams, now sans technical director Paddy Lowe, are unfortunately expected to prop up the rear of the grid the battle between the likes of Renault, Haas, and Alfa Romeo appears especially tight. The most important thing that needs to be known, for now, is that Formula 1 2019 is here.

  • F1 2019: Ferrari – Gamble or Guile?

    F1 2019: Ferrari – Gamble or Guile?

    Much has been written about Ferrari’s drafting youngster Charles Leclerc into one of the most coveted seats in Formula 1. While expectations are exceedingly high for the young Monegasque driver there are other quite significant changes that have been made at Ferrari for the 2019 season.

    The sudden death of Sergio Marchionne was a big blow for Ferrari. As the architect and saviour of Ferrari Marchionne was a tremendously important figure for the company and the F1 team. It’s no surprise that, internally, his loss was felt in a big way.  A new CEO was announced in the form of Louis Camilleri, the former boss of Phillip Morris International and Ferrari board member. He immediately walked back Marchionne’s threats of quitting F1 and vowed to work in favour of keeping the iconic team in the world’s premier racing series.

    Camilleri also stated that there was no need for him to intervene or make any changes to the team given its positive performance. However, it wasn’t too long before he began to ring the changes. First, it was Charles Leclerc in for Kimi Raikkonen followed by an announcement that team principal Maurizio Arrivabene would be replaced by technical chief Mattia Binnoto. Rumours swirled throughout the season of unease between Arrivabene and Binnoto, which, at the time, were dismissed as untrue by Ferrari. However, the rumours sustained and grew to include several suspicions that the relationship between Sebastian Vettel and Arrivabene too wasn’t in a good way.

    Binnoto’s new role as team principal will mean that the technical department must be restructured too. After all, Binnoto can hardly be expected to wear both caps of team principal and technical chief at the same time. As team principal of Ferrari he will be tasked with and face an inordinate amount of pressure. First, he’ll be responsible for heading a team with a brand-new driver in the line-up. If, according to many expectations, Leclerc pushes teammate Vettel, ala Hamilton and Alonso in 2007, all the way he’ll have quite a job on his hands to contain such a situation. There is no doubt that as Ferrari team principal he will face relentless and unforgiving pressure to guide the famed team to championship success which has eluded them for a decade.

    It is curious however to know why Ferrari has chosen to restructure in this manner, as it isn’t a recipe followed by other front-running teams. At Mercedes it has been stability that has been one of its major strengths. As team manager Toto Wolff has James Allison, formerly of Ferrari, overseeing the technical side of the team while Christian Horner relies on Adrian Newey to keep his hand over the technical side of Red Bull. Even at Williams Claire Williams has Paddy Lowe at the helm of the technical department.

    The restructuring at Ferrari signals intent from the Italian team. But equally it reveals that they are still playing catch up with the likes of Mercedes and are yet to hit on an efficient method of running a cohesive team that can execute at the highest level week in and week out. The expectation will be that this reorganizing, across several departments, is the catalyst for finally getting the team onto the front foot from day one.

  • Abu Dhabi Gp Review – Hamilton Win Brings Down the Curtain

    Abu Dhabi Gp Review – Hamilton Win Brings Down the Curtain

    Despite the fact that the 2018 Formula 1 season consisted of 21 races it ran through the calendar rather quickly. As the season finale Abu Dhabi grand prix brought down the curtain on a season that will be remembered by many for a variety of reasons.

    One of the biggest and most lasting memories of F1 2018 will be Lewis Hamilton. An unrelenting and near faultless charge has earned him a fifth drivers’ title which he easily capped with victory in Abu Dhabi. The victory marks the eleventh of the season for Hamilton who was never troubled on his way to the chequered flag.

    The race got underway in dramatic fashion as a clash between Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg sent the latter into a barrel roll. Stewards rightly deemed it a racing incident as Hulkenberg was able to walk away from the spectacular crash without injury. The safety car was needed to clear up the debris by which time the fast starting Charles Leclerc had already dispatched Daniel Ricciardo to be running fifth.

    Up ahead Lewis Hamilton’s easily gapped teammate Valtteri Bottas at the restart after the safety car period. The Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen followed in third and fourth. Though he started sixth on the grid Max Verstappen dropped to tenth at the start of the race as his engine engaged a safety mode off the start line. At the restart of the race he found himself in close attendance with none other than Esteban Ocon and his Force India teammate Sergio Perez. He got past the Perez relatively easily but it would take slightly more to get eighth off Ocon. Nevertheless, from quite a long way back he dove for the inside line into the Turn 7 hairpin and with a bit of contact was past the Frenchman. There is no doubt that he would’ve had the Brazil incident well in his mind.

    FORMULA 1 2018 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIXA lap later Kimi Raikkonen pulled off to the side of the start/finish straight as his Ferrari succumbed to an electrical failure. Despite attempting to restart the car there was nothing to be done as the Finn signed off his career at Ferrari with a DNF. Raikkonen’s stricken Ferrari did bring out the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) which allowed race leader Hamilton to score a relatively cheap pitstop.

    While Hamilton pitted early Red Bull attempted the opposite strategy with Daniel Ricciardo by running the Australian driver much longer on his Ultrasoft tyres. Though he led the race for some time it was clear that Hamilton had the pace to negate any advantage Red Bull would get from running longer. Astonishingly and despite being in the desert the camera picked up spots of rain. The few drops though weren’t enough to affect the track surface and Ricciardo dived into the pits on lap 34. He emerged in fifth and seemed to set to make a go of getting on the podium in his final race for Red Bull.

    Further ahead Vettel took advantage of Bottas’ mistake and snatched second place from the Finn. It wasn’t too long before another error allowed Verstappen onto his gearbox and eventually past him. Ricciardo too made short work of the doleful Bottas who eventually finished fifth. There is much for the Finn to contemplate over the winter as he now has the unenviable stat of being the first Mercedes driver since 2012 to not win at least one race in the season.

    While there was little in the way of a close battle at the sharp-end of the race the midfield ensured for several dices with a three-way battle for position between Stoffel Vandoorne, Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez providing the best entertainment.

    2018 Abu Dhabi GPIt was as easy a Sunday drive as Hamilton has likely experienced in 2018 and it demonstrates a shift in his own mentality too. In previous years his motivation would take a determined dip after securing the title but it never materialized in 2018. It is a great testament to Hamilton and his ability that despite a near faultless season he still sees room for improvement.

    While Hamilton upped his tally of wins to 73 Sebastian Vettel secured second with Verstappen in third for Red Bull. Daniel Ricciardo’s late charge fizzled before the chequered flag but in his 100thrace for Red Bull still finished a solid fourth. While Bottas dejectedly trundled home in fifth Carlos Sainz was best of the rest in sixth. 2019 Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was seventh ahead of Sergio Perez in eighth while Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen completed the top ten. Though Nico Hulkenberg was out on lap 1 he maintained his seventh position in the championship standings. Elsewhere, Kimi Raikkonen finished third in the driver’s standings despite not seeing the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.

    There should rightly be a few days of reflection about the 2018 Formula 1 season. After all, it provided extreme highs and created memories that will likely live on for quite some time. But Formula 1 is a sport that relentlessly focuses on the future and with 107 days to go to the Australian grand prix it cant come soon enough.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport
  • F1 2018: Mexican Gp Review – Verstappen Mighty in Mexico

    F1 2018: Mexican Gp Review – Verstappen Mighty in Mexico

    The 2018 Mexican grand prix hasn’t been the most dramatic race of the season but it was certainly an unusual one. For Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari the equation was quite simple as nothing other than victory could stop Lewis Hamilton from clinching the driver’s championship.

    Victory however was nearly always out of the question as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, dominant for most of the weekend, jumped into the lead of the race and never looked back. Though it was Daniel Ricciardo who started from pole the other Verstappen and Hamilton overtook the Red Bull driver before they reached turn one.

    It was fairly easy for Verstappen to clear off in the lead of the race and replicate his performance from 2017. Behind him Hamilton, Ricciardo, and Vettel were engaged in a close scrap for most of the race. Hamilton, with a Merc shredding its tyres, would eventually be out of the equation and off the podium but still in position to win the title. Though Vettel turned a much quicker pace on the Supersoft tyre in the second stint of the race Verstappen was already too far up the road. He was on the verge of taking second place of Ricciardo but the Aussie driver suffered a suspected engine failure on lap 62 bringing his number of retirements for the season to eight.

    0145Further adrift Kimi Raikkonen came home in third for Ferrari while Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were fourth and fifth. It was a peculiar day in terms of performance for Mercedes who struggled significantly with tyre-wear throughout the race. Such was their lack of pace that Hamilton finished nearly eighty-seconds behind Verstappen while Bottas was lapped by the race leader.

    It was a good day for Renault with Nico Hulkenberg in sixth ahead of Sauber’s Charles Leclerc in seventh. While Fernando Alonso retired early on after hitting debris on lap one McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne finished eighth while Marcus Ericsson and Pierre Gasly completed the top ten. Unfortunately, the fervent crowd support for their local driver Sergio Perez wasn’t enough as the Mexican driver failed to reach the chequered flag.

    Other than a few anxious moments towards the end of the race, given Ricciardo’s suspected engine failure, Verstappen delivered a flawless drive to claim the fifth win of his career. The amazing fact is that at age 21 Max Verstappen has not yet reached his full potential. It’s an exciting thought then that even from dominant performances, like in Mexico, Verstappen could and probably will only get better with time.

    0015As much praise as Verstappen deserves for his performance the limelight too belong to Lewis Hamilton. It doesn’t feel all that long ago that a rookie British driver scythed around of Fernando Alonso into turn one at the start of the Australian grand prix in 2007. There would likely have been more than a few who would’ve predicted that Hamilton would become world champion but few would’ve imagined a tally of five world titles.

    The inevitable question is where Hamilton ranks in the list of the all-time greatest Formula 1 drivers. But how do you quantify greatness? Some would cite race wins or number of titles as the determining factor. If this is the most logical way of quantifying and calculating greatness then an astonishing five world titles has pushed Lewis Hamilton into the company of Juan-Manuel Fangio and the great Michael Schumacher. And he’s not done yet.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport