Magnussen one step away from race seat

Kevin Magnussen, son of former F1 driver Jan Magnussen, is now just one step away from becoming the next Dane in F1.

McLaren has promoted the 20 year old from their Young Driver Programme to reserve driver for Jenson Button and Sergio Perez at this weekends Chinese GP, if anything should happen to one of the drivers. He will also be a reserve driver for the drivers during the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“I am to follow all practice sessions, as well as the race from the pit, and attend all the meetings between drivers and engineers. That way I am able to jump to the task with short notice, and I will no doubt learn a lot as the weekend unfolds,” said Magnussen.

“Both here(China), and Bahrain next week, I amthe official reserve driver. Therewill be more races during the season, but those are not planned yet.”

McLaren-Honda returns in 2015, Whitmarsh says

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh is not promising anything in regards to whether the team will stick to Mercedes engines in the future or switch to a different supplier. However, though Whitmarsh is refusing to confirm claims that McLaren will continue using Mercedes engines beyond 2014, he is not confirming their replacement, though everyone strongly believes that the team will use Honda engines.

Talks have been made and Honda has indeed confirmed that they have made plans to return to the sport as engine supplier for McLaren, but for 2015. McLaren has a contract in place for 2014, but for 2015 the situation is different. McLaren only has an option to use Mercedes engines and asked if Mercedes would still be engine supplier beyond 2014, Whitmarsh said:

“I can definitely say that we are with them for some time, we have a contract and we have been talking about it for some time. There is nothing to announce at the moment. I can’t elaborate any further. We have a contract that covers the next three seasons at the moment and we will certainly go into next year with Mercedes-Benz. We have a long and successful partnership with them.”

So did Whitmarsh say that McLaren will use Honda engines? Not specifically, but Honda has been doing this for some time. They don´t let the cat out of the bag, unless they are serious. So Whitmarsh might not technically say that Honda will supply engines for McLaren from 2015, but then again, he just did, didn´t he?

The last time McLaren partnered with Honda, the results were staggering. Four drivers titles in as many years, one for Alain Prost, three for Ayrton Senna.

The Official 2013 Formula One Update F1 Season Preview 2/3

The second piece of the 2013 preview is here and once again I dive headfirst into all kinds of speculation about the season ahead. But for now it´s all about the nest three teams and how they will shape the upcoming season.

Today I´ll be talking about Mercedes, Sauber, Lotus and Force India, four mid-field teams with great potential, some truly awesome drivers and they could give us some nice surprises.

Mercedes

Mercedes is one of those teams where you never really know what you get. From the formation, and I am not thinking about the classic Silver Arrowsteam from the 1930´s, but the modern version, the team has had a rather low-key status about them. First it was called Tyrrell and they have three titles to their name. Then British American Tobacco got involved in the late 1990´s, then it was a pure Honda team until they pulled out, leaving Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in doubt. Ross Brawn bought the team for a penny, turned it around and won the 2009 title, then sold the team to Mercedes. Phew.

The team hired Nico Rosberg and seven time world champion Michael Schumacher, but the return of the most winning driver did nothing for the image of Mercedes. 2010 was so-so, Nico Rosberg secured most of the points, and 2011 was a repeat of the previous year, 4th place in the constructor´s championship. 2012 kicked off with AMG as title sponsor, the high performance division of Mercedes, but the performance of the car and driver left much to be improved. Rosberg finished 9th, with Schumacher in 13th and he retired after the season ended.

So how will they do?

Lewis Hamilton, who was looking for some greener grass and after he had spend his teens with McLaren, he decided to sign with Mercedes, to replace Schumacher. Some say it´s a wise decision, because Hamilton is a driver who needs to push himself further and always prove to himself and others that he can adjust to a new team and that his 2008 title isn´t a fluke. Others think that he has made career suicide, but building a team is no easy feat. Lewis will be partnered by Rosberg, who is staying put, and the two of them know each other very well from junior series. I think that Mercedes might be able to push the front runners from time to time, but still need some work.

Prediction

Mercedes only had one win in 2012, in a year where 8 different drivers won a race. Not good enough. But a great driver in a new team takes some adjustment, but Lewis is a quick learner, and bloody fast too, so 4th for Mercedes.

Lotus

The team formerly known as Renault caused the biggest upset of 2012. They managed to sign Kimi Raikkonen, the one-syllable guy who likes to nap a few minutes before a race. In the second race he had the fastest lap time, and he won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The entire season was a truly awesome thing to watch, from the way he can keep the car so tantalisingly close to his rivals, insisting he has the right of way and then gently persuading them to give up. Raikkonen´s style might be one of a tight-lipped, kinda arrogant guy who dorsn´t care about anything, but he is a true racer who cares only about winning.

Lotus also had some issues that wwasn´t all rosy. Romain Grosjean also returned in 2012 for Lotus, after he drove for the previous installment of the team, Renault some years back. Comparing the two drivers may not be entirely fair, since Kimi Raikkonen was the only driver never to retire during a race, while Grosjean did so seven times, most notably during the Belgian GP, where he tried to squeeze Hamilton up against the pitwall, but both lost control. Grosjean was fined €50.000 and received a one-race ban. Oops.

So how will they do?

Grosjean will have spend some time during the winterbreak, to find himself. A driver is only as good as his last race and he almost jumped back onto the F1 scene, making a lot of noise and speculations. 2013 will probbaly be a bit more stress-free for Grosjean and I expect we will see a more mature and easy-going Frenchman. Raikkonen, on the other hand, will do what he is best at. Win. Surprise us. And sleep a little.

Prediction

Lotus finished 4th last year, and I think that the drivers will score more consistently, but on fewer occasions. I predict a few more retirements for Kimi, less for Grosjean, but more scoring in the lower parts of the board, simply due to the increased competition at this level. 5th for Lotus.

Sauber

The Swiss Sauber team has always been a black sheep in a way, but one that was always welcome. The team reminds me of my uncle, who is always able to see the lighter side of things and make a humorous comment about it. Sauber is a very good team, but they have had to say goodbye to their best driver, Sergio Perez, who will be driving for McLaren this year, replacing Hamilton. Monisha Kaltenborn has taken over the day-to-day running after Peter Sauber stepped down last year, and with Force India ousted Nico Hulkenberg and newcomer Esteban Gutierrez, who previously was the team´s test driver.

So how will they do?

Kamui Kobayashi was not signed for 2013, a tough decision for many fans. Gutierrez is a talented driver and will need to get his hands on some real race time before we can asess his performance. Hulkenberg has several seasons behind him and will add valuable knowledge to the team, but I don´t expect the leap forward many others do. I expect the team to finish roughly in the same place they did in 2012, mainly because they will not have the same amount of retirements they did last year. Remember, it´s a prediction…2013 will be a transitional year for the team, and it will be very interesting to see if the team´s own predictions about their driver choices will be on the mark.

Prediction

Perez was definitely the best driver the team has had for many years, and it looked as though Kobayashi might be able to finally develop into a brilliant racer. But with new guys on board and a new team manager, I think we should be happy with 6th for Sauber.

Force India

Rumours about Kingfisher´s imminent death, the absence of Vijay Mallya, the future collapse of title sponsor Sahara and a goodbye to Hulkenberg means, that Force India is a joker. They are yet to announce their second driver next to Paul di Resta, but in these very hours, Adrian Sutil´s agent has confirmed that Force India has stated that they want Sutil to race and not, as expected, Jules Bianchi.

So how will they do?

Because of the previous experience of Sutil, the team could collect a lot of points, but everything is up in the air. I honestly have no idea what to believe regarding the rumours we hear, and will not take address them in this article. I will, on the other hand, be carefully optimistic and sprinkle some light points in their general direction, with the odd retirement here and there.

Prediction

No idea. But to be a little more specific, I think they will stay in exactly the same place as last year, like Sauber. 7th place.

VIDEO: McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28 is alive

McLaren-Mercedes MP4-28 revealed-gallery

Petrov or Kobayashi?

There are several new drivers on the 2013 grid and that of course means that there are some other drivers who now doesn´t have a seat anymore.

One is Kamui Kobayashi, the former Sauber driver. The Swiss based team have said their goodbyes to both Sergio Perez and Kamui kobayashi and employed the services of Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Gutierrez, the latter promoted from his role as test and reserve driver.

There are not many race seats left on the grid and HRT is no longer an option, as the hapless team folded shortly after the 2012 season finished. No buyer has shown interest in the scraps and that also means two seats less to fill.

Caterham is taking an awful long time to announce their driver line up. Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov are no longer part of the team, instead Charles Pic signed a multi-year deal with the team, but his team mate is yet to be announced. Petrov would be a good choice, but despite reports from germany that the management behind Petrov had secured new large sponsors, Petrov´s manager Oksana kosachenko is no longer that optimistic about a race seat for 2013.

“So far, we haven’t managed to find new sponsors,” said Kosachenko.

“At the moment there are a lot of unanswered questions. There are too many nuances that need to be sorted out. We’re at the waiting stage, which is linked to the team’s restructuring. We completely depend on them and can’t speed anything up.”

And Kamui Kobayashi is also a driver with no seat, despite having secured in the area of £6m, raised by sponsors and fans. Such is the support behind Japan´s most succesful F1 driver in history, but perhaps he has a future at Caterham?

Everything is speculations at this moment, but time is running out. The first pre-season test is on February 5 at Jerez, and it would suit the teams with vacant seats to finalize their driver line-ups and start getting to work. Kobayashi is perhaps not the obvious choice for Caterham, but I personally think that he could be the driver who can move the team forward, not Petrov.

 

A bit of everything

Catching up a little is always a good thing, and now that I have re-booted the blog, slowly but surely, I have decided to make the format a little different than before. Formula One Update originalle started as a gateway to all the relevenat news stories related to F1, I made huge attempts to cover as much as possible and tried to be the first with the story. But I ran out of energy, I didn´t feel I got enough out of the work I did, so for some months the blog has been disabled. Until now.

The idea is that now I try to find some relevant stories whenever I feel like it, and they might not be brand spanking new, but at least you get my weird sense of humour to go along with it, so hey. I will not be covering every angle or every story out there, I just don´t have the time for it. So for now, this is a cozy little project and I hope you feel that you still get something out of it. Enjoy.

Red Bull has become the next team in line to reveal their launch date of their 2013 car, the RB9. The team has admitted that their development on the new car has been somewhat delayed, since they concentrated on getting everything out of the 2012 season, eventually finishing with Sebastian Vettel taking his third consecutive championship. The new car will be revealed on february 3, at the Red Bull factory in Milton Keyes, just two days before the first pre-season test at Jerez, Spain.

Over at Williams, Valtteri Bottas, who has been promoted from test and reserve driver for this season, after Bruno Senna was dropped, says that the un-popular stepped-nose design of the FW34 from last year, will not be on the new car. The frton nose of the FW35, which is the brilliant new name for the 2013 car, will instead be covered by a laminate panel, so the design will look more like a 2011 model, Bottas says.

“In terms of looks, the car is pretty much the same as last year,” Bottas said. “With the new rules, the stepped nose has been straightened. It is the biggest difference in its appearance.

“The new car is a development of last year’s car. There are certain improvements in aerodynamics, we have tried to gain more traction in the corners.”

Williams enjoyed a boost in their confidence in 2012, as the team managed to score points on 15 occasions, 5 for Maldonado and 10 for Senna, leading to 8th in the championship with 76 points. For 2013 Bruno Senna is no longer part of the driver line-up.

New McLaren-Mercedes driver Sergio Perez, who will partner Jenson Button, has said that a mentality change is necessary in order to be competitive at this new level in his career.

“It definitely changes,” Pérez said of his overall approach to racing. “At McLaren, you are not here to just fight for the points. You are here to fight for victories at every single race.

“Your race preparation has to be 100 percent. It has to be 100 percent for all 20 races because at every race you have the opportunity to win. Then you can fight for the championship.”

Perez had a strong season at Sauber, scoring three podium places and finishing his season in 10th place. Throughout 2012 he was rumoured to be replacing Felipe Massa at Ferrari, but the Maranello-based team said that though they really would like to sign the Mexican, he needed a little more time in order to mature as a driver. McLaren snapped up the talented driver, as Lewis Hamilton found a vacant race seat at Mercedes, after Michael Schumacher finally retired his career.

Perez is adamant that he will learn a lot from Button, even though he eventually would like to beat the 2009 champion at some point.

“I have got a lot to learn from him,” Pérez said of Button. “His experience, his knowledge, it will all be useful for me. I am really looking forward to working with a World Champion, a great guy. The whole team has so much respect for him.

“I am looking forward to building my relationship with him, to help the team become the best and to have the best car possible. I think we’ll have a good relationship.”

Perez´ former team mate, Kamui Kobayashi, is without a race seat for 2013, as Sauber opted for a all-new line-up with Esteban Gutierrez and Nico Hulkenberg, but thinks that the japanese driver can find a seat for 2014.

“He’s a great driver and a great guy and someone who can do a very good job for a team,” Perez said. “I feel a bit sorry for him but I’m sure he’ll be back next year because with his speed he should be able to find a good seat and hopefully we’ll have him back.”

German Grand Prix – The Day After

At the halfway mark of the season, all the jokers were up in the air, once again without any clear indication of who would be the winner in this very unpredictable season.

I am sure I don´t need to repeat what I and many others have already been telling you, that this season is unpredictable, exciting as ever and full of surprises. After a while, it gets boring. NOT!

The German Grand Prix is a lot of things, but rarely this thrilling. The new modern layout has never been favoured by myself, but I appreciate the need to revise it, from the older, much longer Hockenheimring. But it doesn´t change the fact that it´s not that amazing. Luckily there was a lot of drivers and performances that were, and they put on a show for us, once again.

Driver of the Day: Fernando Alonso

A little recap from the first 5 races tells us that Ferrari didn´t built the car they needed for the job. This is old news now, but the base line was too far away from what they needed. Or was it? Alonso took 5th in the opening race, then took a surprise victory in Malaysia, only finish 9th and 7th in the next 2 races before taking 2nd place in home race in Spain. At this point in time, Alonso and Webber had the same points tally, but then things started to change. The car looks much more driveable now, much more calm and not so twitchy as before, and Alonso is also a lot more finely tuned, it seems. But his performance in the race on Sunday, was controlled, it was calculated, Ferrari had the best strategy for him and it would be a bigger surprise if he didn´t win. Still Alonso thoroughly deserves this award.

Best Charge of the Day: Jenson Button

After a series of rather sad performances from Button, picking up points in just 6 races so far and 2 retirements, the Frome Flyer showed that he is fast and he is not a driver to count out. One can on,y imagine the extra hard work the team and he have been doing in preparations for the race, because whatever they did, it worked. Button was exceptionally fast, he knew when to charge, he knew when to hold back. He conserved the tyres at the right time, and when he got the green light, he could push them a little further. A flawless pit stop, according to McLaren a record of 2.31 seconds, also helped him along.

Best Climber of the Day: Sergio Perez

Perez started 17th and ended in 6th place, a very satisfying result for the Sauber team and Peter Sauber was of course as delighted as if they just won a championship. Sure there are lots of hard work and lots of time spent reading telemetry and adjusting things, but make no mistake. Sauber is not a mid-field team anymore, they are definitely among the top teams, along with Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Lotus. I could include Mercedes, but I think their performance curve is too unstable.

Not only did Perez once again prove that he is a massive talent, he is also the lead candidate for at least a couple of seats here and there. I hope that he will do the right thing and stay with Sauber for next year, they need each other.

Overtaking Master of the Day: Kimi Raikkonen

If you tought that the return of Kimi Raikkonen would see a dusty and rather anonymous Finn fiddling around in the back of the grid after a two-year hiatus, you´d be very wrong. From the start, he and Lotus has impressed the hell out all of us, not that we were surprised he would, but the performance and reliability of the cars, are better than I expected. That said, the overtaking manoeuvre he made on Paul di Resta was champion stuff. Side by side, through three turns and eventually he just persevered to take the position back he lost in the start. Kimi has given us many great moments already this season, and the hard ass has more up his sleeve.

Worst Driver of the Day: Romain Grosjean

Oh dear, it really is hard to have a good day these days, isn´t it? Ups and downs for Grosjean, who started 19th after a penalty carried over from Silverstone, post-race gearbox change, only to leave the track a number of times, lose the plot entirely, drive a completely anonymous and uninteresting race, only to improve one place to 18th and one lap down. To compare another fast driver, Lewis Hamilton had a puncture at the beginning of the race, pitted and then asked to retire. Was denied and fought hard, without any chance of points, but unlapped himself, much t the dismay of Sebastian Vettel, and unfortunately ended his day with retirement, but could have been finishing 13th.

Grosjean may be a really fast and good driver, but he has only taken points in half of the races and are trailing his team mate by 37 points.

Cry Baby of the Day: Sebastian Vettel, Christian Horner, Red Bull as a whole.

Red Bull has a remarkable tendency to not know when to shut up at the right time. Four hours before the race, FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer examined the RB8 and found irregularities in the torque mapping, reported it but the stewards decided to let the cars race without sanction. During the dying moments of the race on Sunday, Sebastian Vettel made an overtaking move on Button, which was outside the track, then first argued that he didn´t know Button was there, right…, then Red Bull argued that Vettel was ahead of Button when the overtaking move happened, which he clearly was not. All Vettel had to do was to look to his right and he would have easily seen Button right there, acknowledge that he made a mistake, give the position back to Button and fight him for the remaining two laps. This would be a walk in the park for Vettel, as Button´s tyres were cooked, and he could have ended up in 3rd. Instead Vettel was whining, again, that he did nothing wrong, and was rightfully penalised by 20 seconds.

More Unremarkable Performances: FIA, Felipe Massa, Pastor Maldonado.

I´m gonna keep this short. Fact: Lewis Hamilton punctured because of the debris left on track after Felipe Massa smashed into the rear tyre of Daniel Ricciardo´s Toro Rosso. Both were lucky not to cause more damage, but the FIA, notably Charlie Whiting should have deployed a safety car at this time, since the debris was lying around for several laps to come. A dangerous and unnecessary decision from the FIA. Massa had a damaged car, yes, but he still needs to find his A-game. He did it at Silverstone two weeks ago. And Pastor Maldonado? I am getting less and less impressed with him. The season has shown that there are many more drivers who can race for victories, and his win in Spain was remarkable, astonishing even. But because of that, his performances ever since has been even more disappointing. ten races and only points from two of them. Michael Schumacher, Paul di Resta and even Felipe Massa should have no problem overtaking Maldonado in the standings.