Home / Motorsports / Formula 1 (Page 9)

  • Mercedes GP hoping to continue run at Silverstone

    In Formula 1, International News, Motorsports / By / / 4 comments

    It certainly promises to be an intriguing race this weekend at the British Grand Prix in Silverstone, what with the latest changes to occur. The weather is also looking to play a part in the proceedings, with wet conditions being forecast.

    This is welcome news for Mercedes GP, which is hoping to follow up on the result obtained in Montreal. MGP boss Nick Fry says that chances for the weekend are looking up, though it will depend a little bit on the weather. “We have a situation with the car that it tends to work better in cooler conditions, and it looks like it will be cooler and potentially with showers, so I hope we can do better. Obviously the result in Montreal was a much better one, so with similar conditions I hope we can do the same,” he said during a brief interview at the team’s base in Brackley.

    Red Bull Racing has been far ahead of the pack, but will the latest change mean others will now catch up? “Red Bull have done a fantastic job this year, but Formula 1 can change very quickly, as we all know. It’s clear that they have some bigger benefits that the rest of the teams with the blown exhaust system, as it’s called, so Adrian Newey is saying it will affect them more than others.”

    “I think that things may change for the second half of the year, but Red Bull Racing has gotten so far in the first half of the year, it’s difficult to see them being caught, but you never know. In F1 many unexpected things happen.”

    “Realistically, the people we need to compete with for the moment are Ferrari and McLaren. At the moment Red Bull is a little bit out of reach, though that may change with the changes in the regulations, but we’re slightly behind the other two, so they are our immediate targets,” he said.

    Newey has certainly been vocal about the latest change, and Fry is sympathetic. “In
    many ways I personally have sympathy for Adrian and Red Bull – to change something as significant as this halfway through the season is a little bit tough. We’ve had a history in F1 of changing technology, but usually at the end of the season.

    “If you think of the mass damper which Renault had or the double diffuser that we clearly had, these all finished to the end of the season. I do think that we need to think in the future about how we control the introduction of these things, about the implications about some of these technologies early on, and if we think it’s going to lead F1 into a situation where its undesirable, it would be better to stop it in the first place rather than have everyone spend a lot of money and time pursuing a particular innovation and then have it banned,” he explained.

    Guess we’ll find out how much the latest changes will affect things this coming weekend.

     

  • Newey: Diffuser ban will ‘quite heavily’ affect Red Bull

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 19 comments

    The FIA has imposed a ban on off-throttle diffusers that will come into effect this weekend at Silverstone. While most teams sport a variation of it, Red Bull Racing’s Adrian Newey designed machine has made the most of it so far, and the ace engineer admits that the champs will be “heavily affected”.

    “I think we will be quite heavily affected because our car was designed around the exhaust in as much as it was part of the design right from the outset. Probably with the exception of Renault and ourselves, everybody else has generally speaking copied someone else’s principal, mainly ours, and adapted to the car that they had pre-season. Because our car has been designed around it, it’s going to be more of a hit for us but it’s very difficult to forecast,” Newey told Reuters.

    The RBR chief technical officer is clearly unhappy with the ban, hinting that it’s a move in favour of Ferrari.

    “I’m slightly baffled by it because it’s been declared legal forever until this race. The obvious parallel is when active suspension was banned at the end of ’93, where there was no regulation change. Ferrari couldn’t get their active to work and suddenly it was illegal for the next year,” he pointed out.

    “It’s easy to fall into the Machiavellian conspiracy theories. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know and I can’t comment. My read of it would be that, of our main competitors, which are clearly McLaren and Ferrari, then Ferrari probably haven’t got their exhaust to work that well so they are quite happy to see the back of it.

    “McLaren probably don’t know whether they are going to lose more or less than us. But probably on the basis that they could probably do with a wild card thrown into the pack, they are probably relieved to have something that is different,” Newey added.

    Is FIA trying to level the teams and give a leg up to the chasing pack? Will it work? We’ll find out this weekend.

     

  • Caterham and GE branding on Team Lotus T128 revealed!

    In Caterham, Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 4 comments


    Click to enlarge

    In our post yesterday, Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes revealed that his team’s green/yellow cars will sport two new logos for this weekend’s British GP. They are GE and Caterham.

    The American giant joined Team Lotus as sponsor last month, while British maker of the Seven, Caterham, was bought over by Tan Sri Tony, Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin back in April, before they were allowed by the courts to legally use the “Team Lotus” name. The purchase of Caterham has already seen a rebranding of the Caterham Team AirAsia GP2 team.

    Here are some photos of the T128 with the revised livery. Caterham is prominently plastered on the race car’s sidepod while the famous GE logo is found on the front, middle and tail sections of the car, in various sizes. Do you like the new look?


    Click to enlarge

    “This is a monumental occasion for Caterham Cars. We are a niche low-volume sportscar manufacturer and yet we are now a key partner for a Formula One team with an extremely bright future. The purchase of Caterham signalled an exciting new era for the company in terms of the continued development of the legendary Seven,” Caterham Cars MD Ansar Ali said.

    “But in terms of global visibility for the Caterham brand, you don’t get much better than Formula One. Caterham has a long and distinguished history in grassroots motorsport but this puts the firm in front of a truly global audience to sit alongside major car brands including Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes Benz,” Ali added.

     

  • Virgin partners McLaren, gets access to Woking’s facilities

    In Formula 1, McLaren, Motorsports / By / / 3 comments

    Virgin Racing was one of the three new teams that joined F1 last season, but Richard Branson’s latest plaything has always been in the shadow of Lotus Racing and now Team Lotus. But there’s a shake up happening within, which has already seen technical director Nick Wirth leave. Now, Virgin has announced a technical partnership with front runners McLaren, which will give them access to Woking’s top notch facilities.

    “Under the terms of this technical partnership, Marussia Virgin Racing will be able to access McLaren’s wind tunnel, simulator, rigs, and fitness and well being programmes. These properties are state-of-the-art, and we confidently therefore expect Marussia Virgin Racing to derive significant benefits from them,” revealed McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

    “When we undertook our detailed review of the team in the first half of 2011, it was clear that our bold ambitions for the future would need to be matched with some equally bold steps towards achieving them. Our technical partnership with McLaren is very exciting indeed. McLaren is one of the most prestigious and successful marques in grand prix racing history, with an enviable record of success over many years,” said Andy Webb, CEO of Virgin Racing.

    “We can benefit enormously from McLaren’s far-reaching techniques and capabilities and I have no doubt that this partnership will see us take the technical steps necessary to make a significant leap forwards,” he added.

    All this comes after Virgin hired Pat Symonds as consultant since the start of this season. The former Renault man was implicated in the 2009 Crashgate scandal, and is serving a ban till 2013 that doesn’t allow him to take an official position. He will continue working for Virgin.

     

  • Williams dumps Cosworth for Renault engines from 2012

    In Formula 1, Motorsports, Renault / By / / 14 comments

    Williams and Renault have struck a deal that would see the Formula 1 team use the latter’s engines starting next season. This move revives the “Williams Renault” name that should be no stranger to F1 fans – Renault supplied factory engines to Williams from 1989 to 1997, and that fruitful collaboration (Red Bull’s ace designer Adrian Newey was in the mix, too) won four drivers’ and five constructors’ titles.

    Fans would remember the glory days of the Camel/Canon sponsored car and the famous Rothmans liveried Williams, but the car of today, which uses Cosworth’s V8, is no longer a front runner. Will this reunion power them up the field again?

    “Our previous relationship with Renault was one of the most successful in Williams’ history but we will not allow ourselves to dwell too much on the past. We must look to the future and continue to re-build our on-track reputation, which I am hopeful that today’s announcement will help us to do,” said team principal Frank Williams, who also thanked Cosworth for being “a fair and reliable partner both on and off the track for the past two years”.

    Co-owner Patrick Head shared a bit more. “A lot of these engines are very close in their ultimate performance, some of their characteristics will vary quite a bit. With Team Lotus one can see changing with engine, it didn’t light their performance up. We are never a team that looks for excuses but if someone says how much (of the deficit) is in the car and how much in the engine, the difficulty with the current engine and with the other teams running it,” he said.

    “With the Renault engine in the back of a car from Milton Keynes at the moment, if someone went around saying it is not a decent engine… The Renault engine seems to be very good across the board,” he added, referring to champs Red Bull.

    This deal is for seasons 2012 and 2013, with an option to continue when V6 engines are introduced in 2014. With Williams on board, Renault will be powering four teams on the 2012 grid, including Red Bull, Team Lotus and Lotus Renault GP.

     

  • Team Lotus expecting a good showing at Silverstone

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 14 comments

    After a one week break from the rather dull European GP at Valencia, Formula 1 is back this coming weekend, and the circus moves to Silverstone, UK, which is the home race for many of the teams. For Team Lotus, which is Malaysian owned, but based in Hingham UK, the British GP is described as “our other home race”, the other being the Malaysian GP. The team is expecting a good weekend.

    “I think all the signs are that Silverstone will be a good race for us. It’s one of our two home Grand Prix so it is a chance to race in front of our families and friends and after we slipped a little in Valencia it gives us the opportunity to get back to the level of performance that we know we can extract from this year’s car,” said Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne.

    “I do not think the rule changes we will see at Silverstone will have a great effect on the grid order but we have been making preparations for this weekend both in the wind tunnel and in some of the work we have been doing at the straightline test we are running in the UK on Monday and Tuesday this week, so we know what to expect,” he added.

    His boss Tony Fernandes revealed that their cars will sport two new logos for the British GP. “Back to the UK and our other home race. This is a big race for us, both in terms of track performance where we want to keep bringing down the gap to the midfield, and because we will see the GE and Caterham logos on the cars and across the whole team for the first time.

    “Our partnership with GE is a clear sign that one of the most important members of the global business community shares our vision for the future of our team, and the plans for Caterham will start being revealed very soon. The long-term strategy for the Caterham Group is taking shape and we are all very excited about the direction we are taking, as I am sure our fans and our partners will be too,” added Tan Sri Tony, who is also the new owner of Caterham.

    It will be a great venue to break the duck, will Team Lotus manage to do so?

     

  • Adrian Newey: Audi flirted with four-cylinder F1 future

    In Audi, Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 8 comments

    Earlier today, we posted about FIA ratifying the adoption of 1.6-litre V6 turbo engines, which will be used in F1 from 2014. This overrides the previous direction announced last December, which would have made F1 cars use four-cylinder engines from 2013. Now, Adrian Newey reveals that the party behind this flip flop drama is Audi, which flirted with four-pot F1, only to walk away in the end.

    Red Bull Racing’s chief technology officer said that the FIA World Motor Sport Council decided on the four-cylinder turbo direction after Ingolstadt had hinted that it would consider an entry. But in the end, it turned out to be just a “test the water” move by the four rings. That, coupled with opposition from current teams, forced the U-turn.

    “The initial decision from the engine working group was for a four-cylinder turbo to be introduced for 2013. The big driver behind that was Audi. They said they would come into the sport if there was a four-cylinder turbo, and that’s what everyone agreed in order to get Audi in. They subsequently decided that they won’t bother after all, thank you very much, and we were lumbered with a four-cylinder turbo,” Newey said.

    “Certainly from an engineering point-of-view, a four-cylinder turbo is not a nice engine to install – you’ve basically got to put a space frame around it; you can’t make it properly structural. A racing V6 is a much nicer engine to package. That will now be the 2014 engine,” he added.

     

  • F1 to use V6 turbo engines from 2014 instead of four-pot

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 22 comments

    Late last year, the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) approved new regulations which will see 1.6-litre four-cylinder engines replace the current 2.4L V8s from 2013 in Formula 1. It didn’t really go well with Bernie, the teams and the fans, with some fearing that F1 will be much less of a spectacle with the “green move”. Now it looks like everyone will meet in the middle.

    The WMSC has ratified the adoption of a 1.6-litre V6 turbo engine to be used in F1 from 2014 onwards, in place of the four-cylinder plans. FIA says that “the engine will sound different, but will remain representative of Formula 1″ and the redline has been increased from the initially mooted 12,000 rpm to 15,000 rpm. It will also feature direct fuel injection up to 500 bar, and not more than one turbocharger is allowed.

    Efficiency is still a key target, though. The governing body says that the V6 will be a “dramatic step forward in both fuel efficiency and in energy management”. Kinetic and exhaust energy recovery will feature.

    FIA’s communications department has released a Q&A that explains the move, read it after the jump.
    Read more ›

     

  • Vettel wins European GP, home boy Alonso finishes 2nd

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 28 comments

    Normal service resumes in F1 as defending world champ Sebastian Vettel stormed to a convincing victory at the European GP. The young German started from pole, had an untroubled lights to flag victory, and bagged the Valencia race’s fastest lap with 1:41.852. Home boy Fernando Alonso was a distant second for Ferrari, 10.89 seconds behind Vettel. Red Bull’s other driver Mark Webber completed the podium.

    Behind them were Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Canadian GP winner Jenson Button in fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Mercedes GP Petronas’ Nico Rosberg scored points with seventh, 10 places ahead of teammate Schumacher, who clashed with Petrov to incur an extra stop for a wing.

    The other top ten finishers are Jaime Alguersuari (great drive with just two stops, he started 18th), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Lotus Renault GP’s Nick Heidfeld. Three of them were a lap down.

    Vettel’s chasers never had a look at victory after he stormed away from the get go. Webber held on to second till lap 22, when Alonso, who had been putting great pressure on the Aussie, finally overtook him under DRS. Both were on three-stop plans, and Webber retook second after the second round of stops, when he pitted before Alonso.

    In the third round, Webber again pitted first, this time for the slower medium compound tyres. Alonso stayed out awhile more (three laps) on his worn softs and managed to jump Webber when he came out of the pits for the final time.

    It was a relatively quiet afternoon for Hamilton after the past few races, and he never really found the pace to challenge the front men. It was similarly uneventful for Button, whose KERS went faulty. Most did three, Alguersuari made two work, but Sauber’s Sergio Perez failed to convert his weird one-stop strategy into points – he was 11th.

    Team Lotus finished 19th and 20th with Heikki leading Jarno, the same position they started with. Interestingly, all 24 cars finished, and no one retired.

    Vettel is fast running away with the title. With this latest victory, he is on 186 points, 77 ahead of Button and Webber. His team has an equally comfortable 89 point lead over McLaren in the constructors’ table. Anyone who wants to have a say better rise up fast, otherwise it’s going to be Sebastian Vettel, two time world champion, in no time!

     

  • Vettel on pole again, Webber completes Valencia front row

    In Formula 1, Motorsports / By / / 8 comments

    Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel has been near unbeatable on Saturday this season. Now, he has made it seven poles out of eight races with a time of 1:36.975 in Valencia, Spain. The German will line up alongside his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber, whose best effort was 0.188 slower than the benchmark. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was third, four tenths slower than Vettel.

    Behind the temperamental Brit is the two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Jenson Button, who drove a sensational race to win the previous race in Canada, is in sixth. The other men who got into Q3 were Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher, Nick Heidfeld and Adrian Sutil.

    Q3 wasn’t that action packed as both Mercedes GP Petronas cars made minimal runs, while Heidfeld and Sutil did none. These guys who choose to preserve their faster soft tyres for the race (since they won’t be fighting for pole anyway) may not get to do this for long.

    “At the moment if you don’t set a time, for example in Q3, then you are able to choose the tyres that you start on. It means people could be saving a set of tyres because then they would be better off in the race. I’ve made a suggestion to put to the Sporting Working Group to say that actually in those circumstances, you should be made to use your Q2 tyres in that situation, so there is no advantage from not setting a time,” Pirelli’s director of motorsport Paul Hembery said. Just do it, FIA.

    Team Lotus is in their usual 19th and 20th position, with Heikki leading Jarno, who spun in Q1. Kovalainen was 3.251 behind the fastest time of Q1, a big gap behind the slowest midfield man, Jaime Alguersuari, who was 1.819 behind the same benchmark.

     
 
1 … 7 8 9 10 11 … 54
 
 
 

Archives