Latest F1 news in brief – Wednesday (Update)
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| Ferrari plans to wipe that smile off Wollf's and Hamilton's face in 2016 |
Updates shown in red below.
11/18/15
- Austin yet to pay F1 fee for 2015
- Magnussen eyes F1 race return for 2017
- Rosberg revels in 'spoiling' Hamilton's party
- Sides being chosen in F1 engine war
- Hakkinen doubts Raikkonen can recover in 2016
- Leaving Sauber 'best decision of career' – Gutierrez
- Massa defends Williams' appeal decision
- Honda will judge progress in Abu Dhabi
- Arrivabene: Lauda right to fear Ferrari New
- Mercedes ‘desperate’ in attempts to limit 2017 rules New
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| The Austin race likely has a very short future |
Austin yet to pay F1 fee for 2015
(GMM) Bernie Ecclestone hopes Austin can get the future of its US grand prix back on track.
It emerged recently that the popular race at the Circuit of the Americas is endangered because the Texas government has wound back state funding.
Writing for the local American Statesman newspaper, F1 business journalist Christian Sylt revealed that organizers have not even paid the estimated $33 million fee for the 2015 race.
"We said they can pay late this year," F1 supremo Ecclestone confirmed. "They get money from the state, and the money from the state is late, so that's why they are late."
Circuit chief Bobby Epstein has dramatically declared that the funding dispute means the US grand prix is "screwed", and has not ruled out legal action.
He is still pessimistic.
"It's ok paying after the race, but if they don't give you enough to pay the sanction fee, you still can't do it," Epstein said.
Ecclestone, however, is more confident about the future, even though he has admitted to already looking into an alternative US race venue in California.
"The person (in Texas) who dealt with this in the first place is no longer there. The governor is no longer there. So they have got new people, but they should pay what was agreed.
"I think we will get the funding back on track again," Ecclestone added.
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| Magnussen (L) can eye an F1 return all he wants, he had better bring a big check or it’s not going to happen |
Magnussen eyes F1 race return for 2017
(GMM) Kevin Magnussen is eyeing 2017 as an opportunity to get his F1 racing career back on track.
The 23-year-old Dane, who has been ousted by McLaren, is thought to be looking into an alternative reserve driver role for 2016 in combination with a race seat elsewhere, potentially with Porsche at Le Mans.
Magnussen says he was recently misquoted when reports suggested he had ruled out staying in F1 next year as a reserve driver.
"We could well consider it," he told the Danish newspaper BT. "At least I don't exclude it. But there is nothing in place and I am still considering my options."
Magnussen, who was shifted into the reserve role by McLaren this year after a single racing season in 2014, thinks keeping a toe in the F1 water might be a good idea as 2017 is shaping up as a potential opportunity.
"There will probably be a reshuffle of drivers soon," he said. "Maybe in 2017 or within a couple of years, when quite a lot of seats should open up."
He is referring to the fact that, while the grid is staying largely the same next year, many experienced drivers – Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso – are now into their mid 30s.
"So it would be good," Magnussen explained, "to remain associated with formula one as much as possible."
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| Rosberg thinks he has Hamilton where he wants him |
Rosberg revels in 'spoiling' Hamilton's party
(GMM) With a spring in his step, Nico Rosberg insists the verbal taunts of his teammate Lewis Hamilton are bouncing right off him.
Although he has lost a second consecutive drivers' title to the Briton, German Rosberg is on a run of form at present that he hopes will carry into 2016.
One theory is that Pirelli's recent clampdown on tire usage in formula one, or a technical tweak made by Mercedes in late September, has swung the pendulum in Rosberg's favor.
"The rules aren't changing next year so that's good for me," Rosberg declared.
But after losing to Rosberg in Brazil last Sunday, Hamilton insisted he actually "had the pace" to win the race.
Rosberg disagrees: "He just completely exaggerated with his tires. I was clearly faster in the race. With his wild driving behind me he overused the tires so much that we both had to make three stops.
"But I always had him under control."
He also thinks Hamilton's constant verbal sniping in recent days and weeks is a sign that the triple world champion is ruffled.
"He is having a certain difficulty with the fact that I have spoiled his world championship party a bit, which I think is why certain statements and arguments are coming from him in the heat of the moment," Rosberg said in his latest column for Bild newspaper.
But another theory is that Hamilton has simply gone off the boil, perhaps due to his excessive partying, and will return to full speed in time for 2016.
"How much is this success (by Rosberg) worth when the world championship is decided already?" wondered Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff agrees: "You could say that Lewis has won everything, he's met his objectives and maybe the adrenaline is not as high as before.
"But I'm sure neither of them know the exact reasons," he added.
Whichever of them has the upper hand next year, Ferrari's Maurizio Arrivabene is hoping his red-clad drivers can also be well in the mix.
"My honest expectation," he is quoted as saying by Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, "is not just to be closer, but to be in front of them."
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| Horner is on Bernie's side |
Sides being chosen in F1 engine war
(GMM) A war is brewing in formula one.
The FIA and Bernie Ecclestone say they intend to introduce a new engine specification, built by an independent supplier, to run parallel to the expensive and controversial 'power units' in 2017.
Sides are being chosen.
Mercedes and Ferrari are clearly opposed, while Red Bull has admitted the new 2.5 liter, non-carmaker option was "a condition" of it deciding to stay in F1 beyond this year.
Small teams struggling to pay their current engine bills are also likely to be on the FIA engine side, although their allegiances at present are to their current carmaker partners.
"Honda wanted to charge us more than $30 million per year for an engine, which is completely absurd," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner reveals.
Honda has said it wants to keep the engine rules as they are, but the collaboration with McLaren has been abysmal so far.
Mercedes has suggested the 2017 chassis rules might now also be in doubt due to safety concerns over the tires, but McLaren-Honda does not agree with that.
"That's pretty desperate by Mercedes," said team boss Eric Boullier.
"I think it's the usual game — if for whatever reason you want to prevent change, you start arguing about safety," he added.
Undoubtedly, however, the 'parallel' engine plan has put the cat amongst the pigeons, and some suggest the real intention is simply to force compromise.
"There are legitimate questions that need to be asked," agreed Mercedes' Toto Wolff.
"Are the engine prices right for the smaller teams? Is this engine concept right for formula one? We are ready to discuss those.
"Like everything it boils down to a compromise," he added. "The difficulty is to reconcile everyone's interests under one roof.
"There is also the political element, as a team might think this is a way to break the dominance of Mercedes. Then we have Jean Todt who wants engine prices down, and Bernie who thinks that the manufacturers have too much power.
"But is it really so? I don't know. All I know is that there are a lot of people all pursuing their own goals," Wolff said.
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| Kimi Raikkonen |
Hakkinen doubts Raikkonen can recover in 2016
(GMM) Former F1 driver and double world champion Mika Hakkinen is not confident his countryman Kimi Raikkonen can bounce back in 2016.
Although closer to his new teammate this year than he was to Fernando Alonso in 2014, Finn Raikkonen has still only managed to score half the points amassed by Sebastian Vettel in 2015.
Asked what the 36-year-old needs to do to get back into the kind of form that won him the 2007 title for Ferrari, Hakkinen said: "It's a very good question.
"It is worth asking Kimi himself," the 1998 and 1999 title winner told Ilta Sanomat newspaper, "but there is definitely no easy answer.
"I think if Kimi knew it already, he would be faster already," Hakkinen added.
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| Former Sauber driver Esteban Gutierrez |
Leaving Sauber 'best decision of career' – Gutierrez
(GMM) Esteban Gutierrez says losing his Sauber race seat last year was the "best decision of my career".
The 24-year-old Mexican and his backers signed up instead at Ferrari, where the reserve driver role this year led straight to a Haas race seat for 2016.
"It was difficult," Gutierrez said. Not an easy year. I had to be very patient," he told Brazil's Globo.
But it appears he always suspected the Ferrari door to lead to Haas, the new American outfit that is regarded by many as effectively a Ferrari 'B team'.
"It was a great year in many ways," Gutierrez admitted, "always with the strategy and vision for the future. It was a big risk but leaving the (Sauber) race seat to be third driver was the best decision of my career.
"Last year, I knew that Haas would enter formula one and I saw a great opportunity. It is an important team in the United States already (in Nascar), achieving great results and now they are entering F1 in a serious way.
"And we have a great relationship with Ferrari," Gutierrez said.
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| Felipe Massa |
Massa defends Williams' appeal decision
(GMM) Felipe Massa has defended Williams' decision to appeal his disqualification from the Brazilian grand prix.
The FIA said Massa was excluded from the results because a tire on his car on the grid was found to be a massive 27 degrees above Pirelli's heat limit.
F1 teams rarely challenge stewards' rulings, but the Brazilian driver said it is justified in this case.
"Williams will not be quiet, because what happened was very strange," he told Globo Esporte.
Williams' chief engineer Rob Smedley has said three separate sensors operating independently showed that Massa's tire was in fact well beneath the 110 degree limit.
Massa continued: "If we put a tire to a temperature of 137 degrees it catches fire. There's no reason to do so.
"The team is trying to understand what happened, because at the moment nobody does."
Even with Massa's disqualification, Williams secured third place in the constructors' world championship last weekend in Brazil.
Honda will judge progress in Abu Dhabi
Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai says the engine manufacturer will judge its progress over the last 12 months at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
With McLaren switching to Honda power this season, the first time the team ran a version of the power unit was during a two-day test following the last race of 2014 at the Yas Marina Circuit. Stoffel Vandoorne ran an updated MP4-29 carrying the Honda unit, though running was very limited for the team.
One year on, Honda has endured a difficult season but Arai says the focus needs to be on how far the power unit has come since its first track running in Abu Dhabi.
"Using the same power unit as [Brazil] and we want to know how the progress has been during the season," Arai said when asked for the targets at the final race. "Abu Dhabi was our first time on the track last year as McLaren-Honda. We are still far away from the top or middle teams but we want to confirm how much progress has been made over that year."
And Arai predicts a more productive winter this season having already spent a year working with McLaren and identifying where improvements are required.
"Already the team knows where are the strong points and where are the weak points. So we will improve the weak points and catch up with the other teams. Maybe after that we get stronger and more competitive. The concept is already one we have shared, discussed and confirmed."
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| Arrivabene says Ferrari looking to overtake Mercedes in 2016 |
Arrivabene: Lauda right to fear Ferrari
Maurizio Arrivabene agrees with Niki Lauda's view that his Ferrari Formula 1 team's latest specification of engine has matched its Mercedes rival for power and efficiency.
Mercedes non-executive chairman Lauda said in an interview with Italian magazine Autosprint that the 20bhp advantage his team enjoyed had now gone following the upgrade Ferrari introduced at Monza.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who has won three races this season, believed Lauda was overplaying the Scuderia's gains.
But following the team's strong performance in Brazil, where Vettel was buoyed by the 14-second gap to race winner Nico Rosberg, Ferrari chief Arrivabene believes Lauda has a point.
"If Niki said so, I'm quite suspicious, to be honest but looking at the data, yeah, we are there, because our engine department has done a great job," he said.
"I want to take this occasion to thank all of them, because for us the engine is the core of the car.
"I know we have other parts of the car where we have to work and this year it was not possible to make some huge changes, but we look forward for next year."
Ferrari was fourth in the 2014 constructors' championship after a difficult season but made huge gains over the winter and now has the second quickest car.
When asked if he felt Ferrari could fight Mercedes on pure pace and challenge for the world title, Arrivabene said: "If you want my honest expectation, it's not to be closer to them, but to be in front of them.
"I tell you with humility, but being closer [can't be the target].
"We are closer again now, we must be in front next year." Eurosport
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| Wolff crying wolf |
Mercedes ‘desperate’ in attempts to limit 2017 rules
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier says Mercedes has been “pretty desperate" in its attempts to prevent rule changes being introduced for 2017.
New regulations were outlined in July which would result in F1 cars becoming “faster and more aggressive looking" from 2017 onwards, with a projected improvement in lap time of up to five seconds. Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery has already said up to half of that gain could be found from the tires alone, with wider tires set to be introduced as a result of the changes.
However, while publicly backing any changes Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has voiced concerns over the new regulations, saying there could be safety worries if Pirelli is unable to produce tires which will allow cornering speeds to increase greatly.
“We believe it needs to be a competitive platform," Wolff said. “We believe it needs more teams to be competitive, more teams to win races, it makes the whole thing more attractive to us. We have a good setup and good organization and we will take on every challenge.
“If it is more aero then we will take the challenge on as long as Pirelli is able to do tires that can cope with that. If it is about changing some of the other regulations we will also be on board, it just needs to be reasonable."
In response to the concerns from Mercedes, Boullier was blunt in his assessment of the motives behind the opposition to the regulations.
Asked if McLaren shares Mercedes’ concerns, Boullier replied: “Not really.
“I guess this is the usual game where you want to stop some changes so you just argue and going the safety way is pretty desperate from Mercedes."