Latest F1 news in brief – Friday (update)

UPDATE Updates shown in red below.

03/14/14

  • A little tension between Hamilton and Rosberg?

    Ferrari warns FIA about team 'trickery' in 2014

  • Lotus promote from within for new team boss
  • Signs of strain between Mercedes duo
  • Bottas prefers Massa over ex-teammate Maldonado
  • Pirelli denies new approach to avoid criticism
  • Renault giving teams full power in Melbourne
  • No team orders despite Mercedes dominance
  • Bosses defend F1 sound New
  • One-on-one with Bernie Ecclestone New
  • Relief at Red Bull after giant step in Melbourne New

Ferrari warns FIA about team 'trickery' in 2014
(GMM) Ferrari has warned F1's governing body to be ready to pounce on cheating as the revolutionary V6 era begins in 2014.

In an open letter, team president Luca di Montezemolo said the vastly different rules has opened up "some grey areas" in the subject of "fuel, software" and "consumption".

"In these I am fully expecting the FIA to be vigilant – as I'm sure they will be – to avoid any trickery, which has also taken place in the recent past but must not happen anymore for the good of this sport," he wrote.

Interestingly, Ferrari has been at the centre of one of the first technical controversies of the season.

Engine rivals Mercedes and Renault are unhappy that the Maranello marque entered 2014 without a safety shield to cover its new turbo unit in the event of a dangerous failure.

Germany's Auto Motor und Sport reports that Ferrari successfully argued to the FIA that its turbo is safe enough to be used without a heavy cover, but Mercedes and Renault continued to resist.

So "Ferrari is apparently voluntarily designing a protective casing," the magazine reported from Melbourne, "but there will be a few races delay before it is ready."

Lotus promote from within for new team boss
(GMM) Lotus' new team boss is Federico Gastaldi.

It had been reported that Citroen rally chief Olivier Quesnel, or perhaps even ousted McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh, would be drafted in to fill the hole left by Eric Boullier's departure.

But the Enstone team announced on Friday that Argentinean Gastaldi has in fact secured the job, with his role officially 'deputy team principal'.

Team owner Genii's Gerard Lopez is still the chairman and, at least nominally, the team principal.

Gastaldi has been promoted from within, having served until now as director of business development, but his history dates all the way back to the Benetton days.

"Federico was instrumental in nurturing our relationship with PDVSA and he continues to be a vital link for us with Venezuela," said Lopez.

"As a figurehead, no one better embodies the Lotus team spirit."

Signs of strain between Mercedes duo
(GMM) The relationship between likely title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg may already be showing signs of strain.

The Mercedes duo's friendship and rivalry dates back to their boyhood days in the junior categories, but it could be tested to the limit in 2014 as the Brackley team looks set to dominate the 2014 title battle.

And the strain could already be showing.

"Nico often spends much more time with the engineers than I do," Briton Hamilton is quoted by the German newspaper Bild, "but we come to the same findings in the end."

Hamilton bristled at the suggestion Rosberg has a better chance of taming the highly-complex 2014 rules due to his more "technical" approach to racing.

"It's a strange perception that one driver (Rosberg) is massively technical and another is not," the 2008 world champion said.

"I didn't win the championship in 2008 from sheer luck."

German Rosberg insisted the comments, particularly the ones about wasting time with engineers, will not affect their relationship.

"It's no big deal for me," he said, "as two different approaches is a good thing."

However, it has emerged that even though the pair both live in Monaco, Hamilton has not been invited to Rosberg's forthcoming wedding.

"I don't mind," Hamilton said. "I try to avoid weddings anyway."

Meanwhile, members of the British media have criticized Hamilton for making "strange", "bizarre" and "insensitive" comments about the gravely injured Michael Schumacher.

Referring to the F1 legend's 11-week coma after a skiing fall, the 2008 world champion said in Melbourne: "I feel like all things happen for a reason.

"I think this is an experience that will really show his character and depth even more so than any other experiences he's had."

Bottas prefers Massa over ex-teammate Maldonado
(GMM) Valtteri Bottas says he is enjoying working with his new teammate Felipe Massa.

Last year, the Finn made his debut with Williams alongside the often bad-tempered Pastor Maldonado, who has now switched to Lotus.

Venezuelan Maldonado left Williams with his PDVSA millions in a highly-critical mood, but Williams is now regarded as a 2014 title dark horse while Lotus is struggling merely to run its E22.

"From an aerodynamic point of view," Maldonado said in Melbourne, "the (Williams) car is very similar to what we had last year. It's the (Mercedes) engine making the difference at the moment."

Maldonado insists he has no regrets about joining Lotus just as the respective teams' fortunes switched so dramatically, and continuing Williams driver Bottas indicated he too is happy with the move.

"I believe this season is an opportunity for me to learn from a team guy a little bit more than last year," Bottas, 24, is quoted by the Finnish broadcaster MTV3.

"This year the team has a more experienced guy (Massa) and he is quite different (to Maldonado) — a little more open and more willing to be more of a team player and to provide more information," added Bottas.

He said the sort of openness being shown by Massa is what a team needs.

"I think if you are sharing information in the team meetings and both trying to contribute to the team's performance and providing the best possible feedback — it always helps, of course," said Bottas.

After a particularly bad 2013, Williams is emerging as a surprise force in 2014, with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton even nominating the Grove team as his pick for the title.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, however, said he doesn't believe Red Bull can be written off, despite the perception the reigning world champions are struggling with the new Renault 'power unit'.

"In the past we saw it many times before," he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "Red Bull were behind but in the end their car was usually the fastest of all.

"I think in two races they can be back at the top," Spaniard Alonso added.

Pirelli denies new approach to avoid criticism
(GMM) Pirelli has denied it decided to 'go conservative' for 2014 after the tire-exploding criticism of last season.

After 2013, when the quality and degradation of the tires were regular paddock buzzwords, the Italian marque has had a low-profile start to F1's new era with reportedly a better and more durable product.

Even the compound choice for Melbourne, where usually the very softest tires can be used, has raised some eyebrows, but boss Paul Hembery denied Pirelli has gone conservative simply to quieten the damaging criticism of 2013.

"No," he insisted. "We did not take our decisions out of fear of criticism," the Briton told German-language Spox.

"It was just logical, because even now no one really knows how the cars with the new engines, the higher weight and less fuel will react with the tires."

As for the obviously more conservative tire choice in Melbourne, Hembery explained: "It is true that the choice appears cautious.

"But it is so the teams can focus on their programs rather than having to work so hard on understanding the tires."

Hembery said the criticisms of 2013, particularly those made by world champions Red Bull, have not affected Pirelli's paddock relationships.

"Last year is over," he insisted. "We learned a lot, made changes.

"What was expressed in the media is not always what is said behind closed doors," added Hembery. "So we should let it go and instead look forward to the new season."

Renault giving teams full power in Melbourne
(GMM) Renault is giving its F1 customers full power in Australia.

The French marque is still grappling to solve the serious problems encountered during the winter test sessions, where the new Viry-made turbo V6s were 'turned down'.

"We did not have the necessary experience with well-functioning software," said Renault's Remi Taffin, "so we had to be careful, limiting the engine power.

"But now I'm not worried about it," he is quoted in Melbourne by Russia's f1news.ru.

"We have done a huge amount of work, we feel a lot more confident here and our customers will be able to use the engine to maximum capacity," added Taffin.

"Progress has been made, but we will not rest until we are winning races again."

No team orders despite Mercedes dominance
(GMM) The Mercedes drivers' charge for victory in Melbourne will be unfettered by 'team orders'.

16 years ago, McLaren enraged the spectators at Albert Park, having arrived for the 1998 season opener with its totally dominant car.

Now, the similarly-silver Mercedes cars are the class of the early 2014 field, but Nico Rosberg insists there will be no McLaren-style controversy this time.

"Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard had a deal in place in whichever driver got to the opening corner first would be allowed to win the race," he wrote in a column for the Daily Mail newspaper.

So when Hakkinen ran into mid-race trouble, Coulthard pulled over on the straight to let him back into the lead.

"I wouldn't like that," German Rosberg added, "and I don't think the team would either, so we are going to try and avoid such measures."

Team chairman Niki Lauda agrees that Rosberg and his teammate Lewis Hamilton will be free to race throughout the 2014 championship.

"They can race against each other and collect as many points as possible for the team," he told Germany's Sport1.

There have already been some signs of strain between the silver-clad duo, but Briton Hamilton insists he and Rosberg will cope with a heightened rivalry in 2014.

"Nico and I have known each other since we were 13," he is quoted in Melbourne by the Mirror. "We've raced and won and lost championships together.

"We will remain professional," he insisted.

Bosses defend F1 sound
The new sounds of Formula One have not gone down well with everyone although F1 team bosses insist fans will adjust.

For the first time this season, fans were able to see the new-look Formula One in anger as the drivers took to the Albert Park circuit for Friday's practices.

However, not all the changes were visual.

Noise levels with the 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engines were nowhere near that they used to be in the V8 days, down by an estimated 30 decibels.

Some fans took to social media to voice their displeasure, however, Williams deputy team boss Claire Williams says they just need time to get used to it.

"Personally I like the sound of the engines, but then I love Formula 1 and I love watching cars go round a race track," she said.

"I think people pretty quickly get used to what Formula 1 engines sound like. We've had so many changes over so many decades of motor racing and you very quickly forget what a previous engine sounds like.

"I think people just want to see a good race on Sunday and as long as we can deliver that I think that any issues or contentious conversations around that may fade away."

Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff also had no issues, saying this is the future of motorsport.

"Well if you like the sound of engines let's go back to V10 and V12, let's not do any hybrid [technology]," said the Austrian.

"This is the modern technology, this is where road cars go. Downsizing is the motto and I think we just need to accept the formula has changed.

"These cars are going to go quicker in a couple of races than the old ones, we're going to get used to the sounds and I promise next year round you will not remember any difference anymore."

Meanwhile, Australia's last F1 World Champion Alan Jones said the cars sounded "terrible."

He told broadcaster Ten: "I don't like it. But I'll put up with it if we see a lot more overtaking this season."

One-on-one with Bernie Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone didn’t receive an Oxbridge qualification. Indeed he eschewed formal education as soon as he could. Yet as the supreme ruler o formula one for the past 40 years, Ecclestone has orchestrated the transformation of the sport from a disorganized collective of largely amateurish teams into a worldwide giant valued north of $10 billion. In F1, the sun doesn’t rise in the east unless this octogenarian impresario says it can. He’s “a bit special".

Ecclestone joined Darren Kane from the Sydney Morning Herald this week from London, ahead of what might be the most unpredictable season in years:

Darren Kane: Sir Stirling Moss is quoted as saying that you are the man he most admires. Who is your role model?

Bernie Ecclestone: I always have to say Stirling as well. He’s one of the guys who should have won a world championship, and didn’t, through no fault of his own. He was always on the wrong team. Otherwise, I’ve got a lot of respect for Mr. [Vladimir] Putin in Russia, for his position generally in the world. He’s strong enough to not take a lot of nonsense from people. He does what he thinks is the right thing to do. He gets on with it.

DK: Did you have a role model early in your career?

BE: Mr. [Enzo] Ferrari was a mentor. Didn’t speak any English, so we had somebody helping us in that area. But he was very supportive of the things I would do. Mr. Ferrari and [founder of Lotus Cars] Colin Chapman were mentors. Very special, both those guys.

DK: I’m fascinated by the circus which is professional darts. In formula one, are there too few characters compared to the days of James Hunt, and his mantra of sex being the breakfast of champions?

BE: James is a little bit special. He was quite a different guy. The world has changed. The way sportspeople are expected to behave, as far as the public is concerned, is somewhat different to the way it was. If you look at darts, those guys have absolutely no restriction on anything. This appeals to people. Our guys really shouldn’t take too much notice of their team owners. They should get out there and let their characters come out.

DK: You’re a man who strikes me as having very few fears. Does anything frighten you?

BE: No, no. I treat whatever it is, and whenever it happens, as and when it happens. I don’t do too much worrying about things. If you start worrying about things, and they never happen, you’ve done a lot of worrying unnecessarily.

DK: What essential character trait do you need in order to do what you do?

BE: I’ve had to give away a lot of pleasures, or I haven’t followed them in the first place, to give the effort for what I do. So I think somebody needs to be dedicated. And I’ve been lucky. I’ve had a lot of support from people. I mean, Mr. Ferrari used to support me quite a bit in the old days, even when I had a car running against them.

DK: What part does luck play in F1?

BE: Luck in life is important. People can be extremely talented and not be lucky enough to get exposed. There’s luck in everything. People say you make your own luck in life and I suppose to a point you do, but in formula one it’s being in the right car in the right team. I helped a lot to get Lewis [Hamilton] into Mercedes, so maybe people could say he was lucky. I think there’s a very good chance he’ll win the championship this year.

DK: Red Bull chief Christian Horner has placed great faith in Daniel Ricciardo for 2014. It’s been 34 years since Alan Jones won the championship. Can Australia expect another world champion any time soon?

BE: Well I was hoping for the last few years it was going to be Mark [Webber]. He had everything that would have been good in a world champion. Good looking guy, sporting guy, Australian. He was a good friend. I hope Ricciardo can do the job, but there’s not going to be another Jonesy unfortunately. He was a bit special.

DK: Murray Walker says there are more millionaires per square mile in a formula one paddock than anywhere else. As supremo, you must have to channel Henry Kissinger to keep harmony? How do you prioritize problems?

BE: With great difficulty [laughs]. All our guys know their limits and how far they can go. I’m a firefighter. They’re there to run their businesses and win races. When the fires start I try to put them out.

DK: In 2011 your authorized biography, No Angel, was published. The title comes from the description of yourself you gave to the author, Tom Bower. Would formula one be in the place it is now if it’d been run by an angel?

BE: Bower’s buried a few people in his books. I’m no angel, but hopefully I’ve controlled a lot of formula one [well]. You shouldn’t really be ashamed of anything you’ve done.

DK: Australian sport is hopelessly rusted on to its TV broadcasters. What’s the right balance between producing brilliant media coverage but not alienating spectators?

BE: That’s something we really need to have a good look at. The one thing I’m proud of, which I have done, is that we really pushed TV sport before anyone else. We’ve opened a lot of doors and people have followed through in many ways with television. You can’t make a bad race look good, so you have to do whatever you can to get interest in the race. As far as the public goes, it’s different being at a race, or a big tennis match, than watching on TV. Although on TV you get to see a lot more than being at the event, you don’t get the atmosphere

DK: Australian sport is apparently in crisis, with allegations of widespread doping. Those in charge of the investigation have lurched from one calamity to the next. Formula one is not immune from crisis – think Spygate and the Crashgate scandal of a few years back – yet the sport is remarkably resilient.

BE: We don’t seem to have crises. We certainly don’t have problems with drugs or things like that. In a lot of ways, these crises create an awful lot of interest from newspapers. One has to wonder sometimes whether all these things which are published about football are actually true. If you stick strictly to the facts it’s difficult to fill a newspaper. People like to have a little bit of entertainment when they read.

DK: Australia is moving towards its sports being run by ex-merchant bankers and lawyers, with no history in sport. Your background is the opposite, yet you’ve built F1 into a multi-billion dollar behemoth. Is a feel for the sport imperative?

BE: I’ve always been in racing, from bicycles, motorcycles, cars, owning formula one teams and doing what I do now. My heart and soul is in what I do. I try to do a good job, and a by-product of that is making profits.

DK: 2014 heralds a new era in F1. We’ll never again hear the ear-splitting violence of a V8 at 19,000 RPM.

BE: Stop talking to me about those things; you’ll upset me [laughs].

DK: This year the cars will be running on 1.6 liter V6 engines with less than half the power of the F1 cars of 25 years ago. Is all this evolution necessary?

BE: No. In my opinion, no. I think honestly what we did was unnecessary. Like lots and lots of things it seemed like a good idea at the time.

DK: Do you think it is driven by a need to be seen as “green"?

BE: I don't know. I think at the beginning when all this started we thought this would attract a lot of manufacturers who manufacture the size of engine that we are using in 2014. We’d have been much better off using those engines in the touring car championship. There’s always things going on in F1 and we don’t need to highlight the technology. And as for the fact we’re getting more power for less fuel, we could have demonstrated that in touring cars. Formula one is entertainment. We’re in show business. The trouble is that sometimes we forget that. These are the people who buy the tickets, turn on the TV and produce the money so that the sport can grow.

DK: Do you think the 2014 regulations will make for better racing?

BE: No, no. I say no, then I stop for a bit because I don’t know. The good thing is that this year all the races will be what I call “wet races". You won’t quite know what’s going to happen, who’s going to finish; it’ll be a bit of a mystery. If you said to me today who’s going to be on pole in Melbourne, I’d have to say one of the Mercedes cars, but you just don’t know. Not like last year.

DK: The sport has not seen a woman driver since the 1970s. Can you see another on the horizon anytime soon?

BE: The big problem with a woman, even if she’s good enough, is having the opportunity to show that. Because a team won’t take a woman driver unless they bring them massive sponsorship. So you could have a very, very good woman driver and she would not get what she deserves. [Williams F1 development driver] Susie Wolff is good, but will she ever be in a position to show how good she is? I doubt it.

DK: In May it will be 20 years since Ayrton Senna was killed at Imola. Many, such as Niki Lauda, say Senna was the best ever. What is his legacy?

BE: Well, you’ve just spoken about him, probably not because he got killed, but because you remember him as he was. Ayrton was a real racer, and apart from that he was a really nice guy. What’s strange about Ayrton is how popular he was in Japan – probably more popular in Japan than Brazil. Quite extraordinary, they just adopted him. He was loved everywhere. He was just a little bit special.

DK: The IOC was widely criticized for taking the Winter Olympics to Russia. In 2014 F1 will follow the Olympics into Sochi, for the first time. Should sports be attentive to political issues when deciding where to take their sport?

BE: Personally, no. We are a worldwide sport and we should not get involved in any politics or religion. We should just do what we do and the country deals with itself. We shouldn’t start saying “we’re not going to there because of …". It’s not up to us to say how a country should be run. If people have a good look at the world and all the different countries, there’s not too many countries that could come out with their heads held high.

DK: Murray Walker once said that if he were invisible for a day, he’d follow you around to see what you’re really like. Would he have had an interesting day?

BE: I don't know. I don’t know what he was looking for. Probably he knew [laughs]. I’m firefighting all the time. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next ten minutes.

DK: Do you ever get a day off?

BE: No. I always say I’m going to take it easy for whatever reason, but I don’t know why I need to.

DK: You’re an ex-majority owner of Queens Park Rangers. Did you ever fancy trying your hand at running a sport outside of F1?

BE: I nearly got involved in tennis. I got quite close, but I wasn’t looking for a fight. I was looking for something that would be interesting.

DK: You turn 84 this year. You’ve been at the helm of formula one for four decades. That’s longer than any current driver has been on the planet.

BE: I’ve got no idea when I’m going to stop.

DK: That wasn’t my question. What I do want to know is, do you think you’ll ever lose the passion?

BE: No, no. Whether it would happen I’ve got no idea, but at the moment I don’t see anything that would make me lose the passion.

DK: If you were down to your last £20, how would you spend it?

BE: [Laughs] I suppose it depends on whether I was hungry.

DK: Is F1 a sport of the future?

BE: If you’d have asked me that 30 years ago, I’d say what I’m saying now – I don’t know. What makes sport powerful is television. It’s how it attracts people. We’re in show business, and we need to be still able to entertain people. They want to see the mysteries which will happen and may happen. They don’t want it to be cast-iron. Last year was a little bit boring with Sebastian.

DK: You’ve come a long way from selling second-hand motorcycle parts around Warren Street in 1950s London. Are you a beer man, or are you swigging the Veuve Clicquot these days?

BE: Beer.

Relief at Red Bull after giant step in Melbourne
(GMM) '7 tenths'.

That term must have been music to the ears inside the Red Bull garage late on Friday, after a disastrous winter for the reigning world champions.

As the scale of the crisis became clear, Red Bull threw its vast resources behind struggling engine supplier Renault in the two weeks between the Bahrain test and now.

Friday in Melbourne showed that the RB10 has made a giant step from the back of the grid towards the front, as both Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were just 7 tenths off the leading pace in the two 90 minute sessions, and also surprisingly reliable.

"That's extremely encouraging for our team," said team boss Christian Horner.

"In many respects this is where we would have ideally liked to have been at our first test. Now we have some ground to make up."

World champion Vettel, having reportedly thrown a 'hissy fit' at one point during the winter, was wiping the figurative sweat from his brow in Australia.

"In a way it's a relief," agreed the German in a masterstroke of understatement.

"It was a huge step forward compared to two weeks ago in Bahrain.

"I have no doubts we will eventually be at the top — the only question is how long it takes," Vettel added.

Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko raised hopes even higher when he said the RB10 is not even being run at its full potential in Melbourne.

"We are not yet at the point where we can use the full performance of the power unit," he said.

Renault chief Rob White told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport: "We are not yet where we want to be, but we've made a good step."

Marko said Red Bull has been helping Renault to improve the troublesome engine software. "We have been working in shifts and are now reaping the first fruits," he revealed.

Horner said: "I think we are faster than Mercedes in the corners."

Vettel explained: "I can now use full power when accelerating. There is still a power dip, but not nearly as bad as at the tests."

Daniel Ricciardo agreed that the team can be "very, very happy with what we did" on the opening day at Albert Park.

"We were probably expecting to be a bit further off the pace — there's not too many guys in front of us for now," he grinned.

Ricciardo's predecessor Mark Webber is trackside this weekend, but he has been warning consistently throughout the winter that his highly successful former team will ultimately get back on track.

AAP news agency quoted him saying on Friday: "It would be a very brave man to underestimate Red Bull."