Bit of this, bit of that

Williams became the last team to launch their 2013 car, the FW35. Adrian Sutil had had a seat fitting made at Force India, and are testing the new car in Barcelona, while the Kingfisher Airline owned by team owner Vijay Mallya is in deep financial trouble. Mercedes rejects the claims that they are about to pull out of F1 all together, and Lewis Hamilton has beaten Sebastian Vettel´s time on TopGear.

According to two shareholders of Mercedes, Michael Muders form the fund manager Union and henning Gebhardty, of DWS, the foray into F1 has been to expensive for the Daimler group and the yield is not big enough to continue, they say.

“Mercedes has been behind for years, without consequence,” said Muders. “But Formula One is expensive and brings nothing to the (Daimler) group.”

Gebhardt added: “Formula One no longer enhances the image (of Mercedes), especially if we are in countries criticized of human rights violations.”

Truly some good and valid points and they need to be discussed. But is it a carmakers job to deal with human rights issues? Who draws the line between hat is right and what is wrong? Personally, I think the Bahrain story of 2011 and 2012 was a very good example of how a completely different event drew attention to F1, even though the demand for reforms and basic human right has nothing to do with 24 cars screaming around the desert. Of course the carmakers could and should be concerned about what is going on in the world, and yes I do tink that the event in bahrain was controversial. But a carmakers finest task is to build cars and if they wish, to race them. Don´t race cars and then say it costs too much. You´re in or you´re out.

Mercedes´ new chairman Niki Lauda, rejected the claims from the two shareholders, saying that there are more TV viewers today and there is a lot of growth to be seen, as more and more countries are added to the calendar.

Over at Force India, Adrian Sutil is back. Or is he? The German, who has spent his entire F1 career at the team, when it was known as Midland and Spyker, and knows his way around the team. Sutil was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, when he was incolved in a nihgt club incident with Genii´s Eric Lux. Sutil was charged with assault, received a suspended 18 month prison sentence and a fine of €200.000. His career looked to be over. But then, as the teams managed to fill their seats, Force India was the only one left with a vacant seat. The call came and Sutil had a seat fitting last week, and he is today testing the brand new car. But there is still no contract for him to race this year.

So, a team in financial distress, a team owner who has not shown up and taken the bull by the horns, not even trying to explain what is going on in his own team, and a experienced driver who is testing their car. For free, it seems. If Force India does not sign Sutil, they are shooting themselves in the foot. Rumour has it that Sutil has secured a sponsorship package worth €8 million, so the money is clearly there. Just sign it, Vijay…

Lewis Hamilton appeared on TopGear recently, and was eager to beat his own previous time in the reasonably priced car. And not only did he do that, he also smashed Sebastian Vettel´s time, who at the time was the fastest time of F1 drivers past and present, with more than a second. Kudos to you, sir.

Finally, Williams launched their FW35 car. it is blue and white. Four wheels. A steering wheel. Ok, so it looks enormously dull, but Mike Coughlan, you remember, the guy with the spy shit some years back, said that the team had made a great deal of dyno testing to ensure reliability. The work also includes a new gearbox new rear suspension, new radiators, a new floor, new exhausts, new bodywork, a new nose and a significant amount of weight-saving.

It will be interesting to see how well Williams will fair this season, considering their improved form last year.

Schumacher not overly positive for Spain

Michael Schumacher said that although the Mercedes W03 has a better performance than last year´s racer, developing the car for future races is the focal point.

Nico Rosberg is so far sitting nicely in fifth place in the championship standings, after winning his first race of the career in Malaysia. Those 25 points were crucial for the team in terms of understanding the progress of the car since winter testing, but also to determine how close the Mercedes W03 is to it´s rivals. No doubt that Michael Schumacher could have put some more points on the board for the team, had he not retired twice in just four races, but with two tenth places to his name so far this season, Schumacher is maintaining a somewhat neutral stance when it comes to performance in Spain.

“After completing our testing programme in Mugello, we are now heading to the start of the European season in Barcelona next week,” Schumacher said. “The positive thing about the test was that we could really concentrate on the developments we were aiming to work on. This should give us a good basis for further developments, even if maybe not for the next race to come.

“Barcelona is a track we have driven extensively on and this is why we know that its characteristics do not exactly play fully into our hands. But then, we will definitely go there and try our best and at the same time keep on working for the things to come.”

It seems then, that the updates are not meant to be revolutionary for the next race, hoping to get podiums in Spain, but rather a beginning of the development race we´ll see from the teams over the next four-five races. The updates from Mugello, could play a decisive role in the near future.

Schumacher was very frustrated with the performance of the Pirelli tyres after Bahrain, saying that the drivers were not able to drive to their, or the car´s full capacity, saying the tyres should perhaps not play such a big role. And the tyre issue could be a deciding factor for the performance in the first four races.

“I question whether the tyres should play such a big role…or whether they should last longer. Then we would be able to drive at normal racing speeds and not cruise around as if we had a Safety Car,” Schumacher said after finishing tenth in Bahrain.

No team orders at Lotus

Close, but no cigar. Kimi Raikkonen looked like he was ready to kick himself for not winning the Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend, after he finished second in the race, three seconds behind Sebastian Vettel, who took his first win of the season.

Analysing the race, things do tend to look a bit clearer a few days later. And if Lotus had employed team orders a bit earlier in the race, at a time when Romain Grosjean could have been ordered aside to let Kimi pass more easily, the Finn might have won the race. But even though team orders are legal from 2012, Lotus team principal Eric Boullier said that they do not use team orders at all.

“We don’t want to play team orders, so we let them race normally and what happened, happened,” said Boullier.

Kimi Raikkonen said after the race that he was disappointed no to be winning, but the race showed that Lotus has the speed.

“Yeah,” said Raikkonen, “but there are no team orders and we know the rules. “I tried to get past as quickly as I can but it’s not easy with two similar cars.

“It’s always easy to say afterwards ‘if we had done that’ but in the end we were not fast enough to win and we have to take the second,” he added.

 

Did Force India refuse to remove alcohol advertisement?

One of the stories that circulated during the weekend of the Bahrani Grand Prix, was that Force India had chosen to withdraw from the second free practice session, in order to get back to the hotel safely. A reasonable decision, considering four team members were involved in an incident on Wednesday, when leaving the Sakhir International Circuit.

Then during Saturday´s qualifying round, not a single image appeared showing the Force India cars, promptly starting rumours that Bernie Ecclestone had somehow blocked the team from exposure on the TV feed, since he is controlling FOM and thus controlling what goes out to the viewers. But there were a few issues tat kept bothering me. One was that Force India left the circuit on Friday, a full two hours after the second practice session was over, which then made no sense as to why they should not participate in the event in the first place.

One more thing that kept picking at my brain, was that of Bernie Ecclestone actually told the TV crews that not a single image of Force India was allowed to be filmed, then why wasn´t the sponsors reacting? Why didn´t we hear Vijay Mallya respond to this? Well, there might be a very simple explanation.

Bahraini law says that it is not allowed to show advertising for alcohol, and as we know the Force India cars have prominent ads from Whyte & Mackay, Kingfisher beer and Vladivar vodka on their side, all easy to spot. But looking at the others cars, and driver overalls, McLaren had no Johnny Walker ads on their cars, the embroidered patch on the overalls were covered, so now the rumour is, that Force India simply refused to remove the advertisements from the cars, causing Bernie Ecclestone, rightfully, to refuse TV exposure. Not only is it a bad idea to refuse this sort of thing, it is breaking the law.

These rumours are yet to be confirmed, and contacting the team is as useful as having building a sauna in the Gobi desert. However, I still maintain that Bernie Ecclestone would have known some part of this, and therefore his excuses, that he did not know why and no one wants to see some cars drive around in 10th anyway, are still rubbish.

Bahrain – The Day After

Bahrain 2012 delivered one of the most thrilling races I have seen in many years, and I have a feeling that I will be saying this a lot over the season.

This season has shown to me that we should never count a driver out, just because it´s been a few years since they last been in F1. Three drivers are perfect examples, and two of them will receive honourable mentions a bit further down this article.

Michael Schumacher returned in 2010 and didn´t do a fantastic job. Some people thought he came up with one excuse after the other, some said he was burned out and some said they´d rather go watch Nascar. Whatever that is. But the fact is that after three years away from the sport, Schumacher did what any driver does. He started from scratch. He had to learn how to work around a car that wasn´t built for him, he had to work with new rules, yes I know, so did the other drivers as well, but Schumacher has always had this approach. He is a very patient man and knows that it takes some time to get back to winning races. Fast-forward to 2012 and it looks as though Mercedesmight be close to cracking the code. The performance is there, but the tyres are too important, says Schumacher. I still think that once Mercedes can fgure out a way to get the tyres working for them, not the other way around, we´ll start seeing Schuey back on the podium.

This season is also showing us that no one can predict a winner, at least not on account of the first four races. There are still 16 to go, and four different drivers have so far won a race. It´s brilliant for us, but also for the drivers, because it means they get an extra dose of motivation when they see that it is in fact possible to win this year, you can battle for the big points. When Fernando Alonso won in Malaysia, I think everyone was flabbergasted. The car is a finisher, but around 7th place I reckon. To win in a car that is struggling to finsih in the points, is fantastic.

Ok, back to the honourable mentions, because hthere are two more left. And both from the same team. Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. Yes, I know that the main reason Grosjean is driving this year after been away for two years, is because he is in Eric Boullier´s driver development programme. Renault, sorry, Lotus had a food selection of drivers who were ready and fast enough to drive for them, and they basically gave Grosjean the keys to the pearly gates, because that kid can drive! He never got the chance when the team was run by Flavio, he was only acting as someone filling a seat, unfortunately, but he has the speed and the maturity needed. He is 8th in the standings, has 23 points and got his first podium in Bahrain. If he didn´t retie in the first two races, he could be in the top 4 now.

Kimi Raikkonen is a strange fellow, isn´t he? he left F1, seemingly because he couldn´t be bothered. At least that´s how it looked at the time. He was fed up with Ferrari, they were tired of him as well, I think, and he went on to other things. Kimi never looked to be interested in a comeback, and if you held a gun to his head asking him about it, he would say “it´s ok to drive in F1…”

Now he is back and boy, is he back! Two years away and he just jumps into a car that he has hardly had any test time in. And he is battling for wins! This is once again a perfect example of why we should never underestimate a driver, just because we haven´t seen him around for some time. Kimi is back? You bet ya!

So, to the awards.

Driver of the Day – Sebastian Vettel:

I am sorry if you thought that I was going to award this one to Kimi Raikkonen. It was very close, but in the end Vettel showed his class again. He made the best start and went to get a nice advantage. His position was only ever compromised when Kimi started to shake things up a bit. It was close, very close. At one point Kimi made a move on Vettel, and they were wheel to wheel, but Kimi had to let him go. It went on like this lap after lap, Kimi falling behind a bit, then suddenly he was right behind Vettel again. It was great racing, and great to see Vettel winning again.

Biggest Oh My Moment – Lotus:

Raikkonen and Grosjean seems to me to be a perfect match. They race each other, respect each other and had brilliant internal battles themselves at one point. Lotus is coming out of nowhere this year, well ok, they are coming from Renault, but that car is seriously fast. Two very fast drivers and I see them winning in the next couple of races.

The Who´s A Good Aussie Award – Mark Webber:

Now Mark webber has been criticised a lot for not being as fast as Vettel, but the Aussie driver thrives when things get tough. He also seems perfectly at ease with the fact, that he will probably not be driving for Red Bull next year. But Webber is taking some very good points this season. Four fourth places in four races, he should have 444 written on his car, if you ask me. It means he is third in the championship, which is completely open, and only fiev points away from Vettel in the lead.

Good Effort Award – Paul di Resta:

Paul di Resta is doing a good job, picking up where he left in 2011. Last year he scored 27 points, impressed a lot of people when he drove to sixth in Singapore, but has already amassed 15 points in just four races and is out-performing Nico Hulkenberg.

Worst Performance – McLaren:

Not the place you want to be, I can tell you that. Three third places for Lewis Hamilton and once again a botched pit stop, earning him a disappointing eighth place in Bahrain. Ok, he is still 2nd, four points up to Vettel, but Jenson Button finished 18th yesterday and 14th in Malaysia. Button could have been leading by now, if things worked perfectly. A sticky wheelnut for Button in China, and yesterday Lewis Hamilton encountered issues with the left rear wheelnut twice. As a result, Hamilton has asked the team to investigate the issues and find a solution. Team principal Martin Whitmarsh explained the problems for Hamilton:

“The first [pit stop] one we had what we call pegging, which is when the drive pegs and the drive holes don’t align which is pretty unfortunate,” said Whitmarsh. “The second one we had a cross-thread which we have seen once before. So pretty disappointing, we lost a lot of time and places for Lewis.”

 

Schuey: The tyres are too important now

Michael Schumacher has said that the tyres are now playing a much to large role in a race, claiming that drivers are not able to drive to their abilities, because they have to consider the tyres first.

It was a test for Pirelli on Sunday, as the Italian tyre manufacturer delivered the tyres for the Bahrain GP for the first time. Pirelli entered F1 in 2011, after Bridgestone pulled out, but the race ni Bahrain last year was cancelled due to the civil uprising taking place. Pirelli brought the soft and the medium tyre to the race, and the majority of the drivers had to pit three times.

“The main thing I feel unhappy about is everyone has to drive well below a driver’s, and in particular, the car’s limits to maintain the tyres,” said Schumacher.

“I just question whether the tyres should play such a big importance, or whether they should last a bit longer, and that you can drive at normal racing car speed and not cruise around like we have a safety car.

“I’m not happy about the situation, let’s see what happens in future. If it was a one-off car issue, you could say it’s up to us to deal with it.

“But basically it is everybody, with maybe one or two exceptions, and if it is 80% of the field that has this problem, then maybe the tyre supplier should think about that.”

Paul Hembery, the director of motorsport for Pirelli, said he was very surprised by the comments from Schumacher, and disappointed even.

“I’m disappointed to hear those comments from someone of Michael’s experience. Others were getting on with the job and getting their tyres to work. His comments during winter testing were that he was very happy with the tyres, and now he seems to have changed his tune.”

 

Alonso angry with Rosberg decision

Fernando Alonso said after the Grand Prix in Bahrain, that he was very angry with the way Mercedes´ Nico Rosberg behaved on the track during the race on Sunday.

Rosberg drew attention to his driving style, not once, but twice during the race. TRack stewards investigated both incidents after the race, which took several hours of deliberating and watching TV footage of the incidents, which saw Rosbrg move to the right of the track on the approach to Rrn 4, as he defended his position.

In both cases, Rosberg was deemed not to have swerved or blocked either Hamilton or Alonso, the ruling for the second incident is:

“1. The driver of car eight commenced his move to the right after the exit from turn three and moved to the right in a constant and continuous straight line manner, not making any sudden movements (as evidenced by telemetry and video evidence) and;
2. At the time he commenced his move, car five was behind him and no part of his car was alongside car eight and;
3. The driver of car eight made the move to the right prior to the driver of car five making the same move and;
4. For more than half of the distance travelled by car eight in moving in a straight line towards the right hand edge of the track, car five remained behind car eight and;
5. Because the delta speed between the two cars was quite significant it was difficult for car eight to detect the exact position of car five in relation to his own car;
6. No part of car five was alongside that of car eight.”

But Fernando Alonso is not at all happy with that decision, and speaking to Associated Press after the race, Alonso said:

“Instead of such a wide run -off area (if) there had been a wall, I’m not sure I’d be here now to talk about it.”

He later went on his official Twitter to write the following:

“I think you are going to have fun in future races!” Alonso wrote. “You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy!”

 

Bernie: There´s no such thing as bad publicity

After a fantastic race at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain, in which Sebastian Vettel secured his first win of the season, Bernie Ecclestone has reiterated that the race will stay on the calendar indefinitely.

Bernie Ecclestone was upbeat and happy about the race, saying that there is a solid future for the race and that it´s good because people are talking about it. Last year´s race was cancelled after a bloody and violent crackdown from the government on protesters demanding democratic reforms in the country. And today the fact that the race was held, drew criticism and condemnation form many human rights organisations. As a build up for the race,a mass demonstration with thousands of protesters was held during the weekend, in which at least one protester was killed.

When asked if the events in Bahrain this year would have any impact on the future decision to host the race or the growth of motorsport in the region, Berie Ecclestone said:

“I think it’s good because people talk about things, you know. You know what they say – there is no such thing as bad publicity,” he said. “It’s growing all the time, and other places are interested. I think it will grow here for sure.”

Ecclestone also believes that the race will be on the calendar indefinitely.

“Absolutely. Forever. No problem.”